"Art of the Surf" Benefit, Rancho Palos Verdes - May 10th
Alvin Miles' Helix Gallery, Springboard for LA Artists, presents "Art of the Surf," artwork made by surfers and surf artists capturing the essence of surfing and it's culture - Saturday, May 10, 2008, 7:00pm To 11:00pm (10% of art sales will benefit the Surfrider Foundation - South Bay Chapter).
Live music, surf video screening, lots of great art, silent auction, surfers, artists, the sunset... Download Flyer>> - Download Press Release>>
Artists: Fred Straeter III, Steve Shriver, Betty Ziff, Sorin, Damian Fulton, Jason Baffa, Cinthia Joyce, Ann Turner, Jeff Matsuno, John Brunnick, Jaime Brown, Carol Russell, Sam Harang, Eddie Rodriguez, Mike Killion, Gabi Leblanc. Mykol Rothman, Joan Alsworth Bacon, Mike Thorne, Peggy Cohen, Rikki Alley, Chasen Chiles.
Opening: Saturday, May 10, 2008, 7:00pm To 11:00pm
Showing: May 10 Through June 21, 2008
Hours: Wednesdays and Saturdays, 10:00am to 4:00pm, or by appointment.
For more information, call: Peggy Zask, Director, (310) 429-0973, or email Pszask(at)Cox(dot)net. Alvin Miles' Helix Gallery, 31248 Palos Verdes Drive West, Rancho Palos Verdes, CA 90275 (Map>>) (Located outside the Golden Cove Center, street level on Palos Verxes Drive West, facing the ocean.)
ENVIRONMENT: The facility would test treated water; none would be used for drinking.
By Kristin S. Agostoni, Staff Writer
Article Launched: 02/09/2008 12:07:34 AM PST
Environmental leaders are looking cautiously at plans to turn ocean water into potential drinking water at a test site in Redondo Beach, even as the West Basin Municipal Water District pledges to minimize the effects on sea life.
West Basin, which proposed the demonstration desalination plant more than a year ago, presented its plans Thursday to a small audience at the Los Angeles Conservation Corps' SEA Lab. It marked the start of an environmental review for a project that will require a host of approvals, including permits from the California Coastal Commission, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers and others.
With the cost of imported water expected to rise due to dwindling supplies, district officials stressed the need to find a new source of potable water.
"With costs going up, ocean desalting, it makes sense," West Basin director Ed Little said. "We need to find out how to do it in an economic and environmentally sensitive way, and that's what we're coming at here."
But environmental leaders say desalting should be used as a last resort to conservation and recycling efforts. Also, some worry a temporary plant could pave the way for a full-scale facility that could do significant damage to ocean ecosystems.
West Basin officials, anticipating those concerns and others, have invited environmental groups to a meeting Monday to discuss the plans in greater detail.
"We're going forward in a very slow and measured way,"
Assistant General Manager Paul Shoenberger said.
The district wants to build the desalter in an old pump house next to the SEA Lab on Harbor Drive. Across the street is the former Southern California Edison plant - now AES - which used the structure to supply cooling water to four units that are now decommissioned.
The plant would be West Basin's second desalter; it already operates a smaller pilot facility at the NRG plant in El Segundo.
The agency has said the Redondo project is temporary and that its goal is to operate a permanent facility in El Segundo, once that plant finishes an extensive renovation.
In the meantime, though, the Redondo desalter would operate on a larger scale, filtering 500,000 gallons of seawater daily through the power plant's old intake pipe - up from 40,000 gallons in El Segundo.
( West Basin had initially discussed filtering 1 million gallons a day but later revised the plan, Shoenberger said.)
To minimize the number of organisms getting flushed into a 14-foot underwater tunnel, Shoenberger said the district wants to run an 8-inch pipe inside and cover the opening with a wedgewire screen.
The protective cover and smaller pipe - which draws water at a lower velocity - will keep larger organisms from getting pushed against the screen and reduce the amount being sucked in by 95 percent, he said.
None of the water would be used for drinking; after testing, the salt-free water would be combined with the concentrate and released back to sea. The salinity of the outgoing flow would be nearly identical to the incoming seawater, Shoenberger said.
West Basin also wants to simulate a natural subsurface intake system that would use water first percolated through the ocean floor. The temporary device would be built onshore and used for research.
But even with those safeguards, environmentalists still have questions.
Joe Geever, California policy coordinator for the Surfrider Foundation, said his group has supported desalting research elsewhere along the coast. But large-scale plants should be "an option of last resort," he said, only after water conservation and recycling programs are exhausted.
And while wedgewire screening devices are believed to minimize the effect on aquatic life, Geever said "the jury is still out about whether they work."
Sarah Abramson, a staff scientist with Heal the Bay, said she questions why the agency plans to test screening devices if the subsurface intake method is known to have fewer effects.
Still, even that process would require study, she said: "We don't know the feasibility of certain locations."
Desal plants that use wells and subsurface pipes require less energy and reduce the effect on sea life, said Conner Everts of the Desal Response Group.
But Everts also believes that co-locating desalters with coastal power plants poses problems, as it promotes antiquated systems that last year suffered a blow in court; the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 2nd Circuit ruled that the Environmental Protection Agency had no basis for letting electricity generating systems suck in ocean water even if other measures were taken, such as replacing sea life with fish nurseries.
And Everts said he has concerns not only about how West Basin's process will work, but that the quality of the purified water would be safe to drink. "The Santa Monica Bay is not exactly a safe place to swim (let alone) drink water out of it," he added.
West Basin's proposal is a lucrative one for the Los Angeles Conservation Corps and the tiny SEA Lab.
The agency will pay the corps $5,000 a month in rent and spend $1.5 million renovating the pump house. Once the desal project is done, the lab can reclaim the space.
Yet as environmentalists pose questions, the deal puts the nonprofit aquarium in an awkward position. After all, it was formed in 1996 with money from a legal settlement between Edison and the Earth Island Institute, which alleged the company's new San Onofre station would harm aquatic life.
"We are extremely sensitive of the perception. We wrestled with this, most definitely," said Dan Knapp, the Corps' deputy director. "We're first and foremost a youth development agency, but we're also an environmental agency."
The Corps agreed that West Basin could use the space for research purposes, he explained, yet that doesn't mean the aquarium is a partner.
"The only reason we've gone into this is that it's temporary and pure research," Knapp said.
The benefits to the lab were also considered. Today, the 1940s-era pump house, is "completely unusable to us," Knapp said.
"It can be used to bolster our education. We have plans for wet labs and classroom space. This will help us make it safer and allow us to further our mission."
Joe Geever
Surfrider Foundation
California Policy Coordinator
8117 W Manchester Ave. #297
Playa del Rey, CA 90293
(310) 410-2890
Please help restore and protect the ocean we love by joining Surfrider Foundation at: www.surfrider.org/join
The California Coastal Commission voted 8-2 to oppose a planned toll road that threatens San Onofre State Beach Park and the surfing resources at Trestles...
Panel rejects toll road through San Onofre State Beach
California Coastal Commission votes against the six-lane Foothill South route.
DEL MAR — The California Coastal Commission handed environmentalists a major victory and rejected the pleas of motorists Wednesday, voting down plans to build a six-lane toll road through San Onofre State Beach, a popular preserve in north San Diego County known for its scenery and famous surf spots.
Before a boisterous crowd of more than 3,500 people, commissioners decided 8 to 2 that the proposed Foothill South project violates the California Coastal Act, which is designed to regulate development along the state's 1,100-mile shoreline. They reached the conclusion following hours of sometimes heated public testimony that pitted protecting the environment against the need to relieve traffic congestion in south Orange County.
The decision was a major setback for the Transportation Corridor Agencies, which has spent years and tens of millions of dollars preparing to construct the 16-mile tollway as an alternative to Interstate 5.
"This project looks like something from the 1950s," said Commissioner Sara Wan of Malibu, who voted against the tollway. "Putting a massive project in an environmentally sensitive area, it is inconceivable."
Playa Vista is denied review of ruling that stopped construction
After the state Supreme Court's decision, the developer of the West L.A. project says it will try to resolve the environmental impact issues with the city.
By Martha Groves, Los Angeles Times Staff Writer
December 13, 2007
The California Supreme Court on Wednesday denied a request by Playa Vista to review an appellate court ruling that halted work on the development's final phase. The 2nd District Court of Appeal had found that the project's environmental impact report was flawed.
Playa Vista said in a statement that it had expected the result because the state's high court accepts only a tiny percentage of cases for review. The company said it would work with Los Angeles officials to address the three issues that the appellate court decided needed further analysis.
In September, the appellate court found that the city's approval of the big, mixed-use development's Phase 2 was based on an environmental review that was "deficient in its analysis of land-use impacts, mitigation of historical archaeological resources and wastewater impacts."
The project's $1.1-billion second and final phase, the Village, calls for 2,600 housing units and 250,000 square feet of office and retail space on 111 acres.
The retail space would include a supermarket and other businesses in the hope of reducing traffic outside the development.
Playa Vista's first phase involved 3,246 housing units and more than 3.2 million square feet of office and retail space. The company is allowed to continue with first-phase construction.
Sabrina Venskus, lead counsel to the environmental groups that challenged Phase 2, said her clients would favor a much scaled-down final phase, with no housing and about 110,000 square feet of retail space. Her clients have recommended that the rest of the property set aside for Phase 2 be converted into a treatment wetland to clean storm runoff before it could reach the Ballona Wetlands and Santa Monica Bay.
Joe Geever of the Surfrider Foundation, one of the organizations that sued the city soon after it approved the second phase in 2004, said the high court's denial would force the city to think about alternatives for the controversial project just south of Marina del Rey. But he acknowledged that "people living in Playa Vista were promised those amenities, and I think they should get them."
Steve Soboroff, Playa Vista president, said the company expected to present further analysis of the three issues to the city "in a couple of months."
"I'm confident it's going to be remedied so we will get done with our ultimate vision," he said.
Frank Mateljan, a spokesman for the city attorney's office, said: "Now it's up to the city and the developer to remedy those [issues]. The EIR conditions are fixable."
Joe Geever
Surfrider Foundation
California Policy Coordinator
8117 W Manchester Ave. #297
Playa del Rey, CA 90293
(310) 410-2890
THE GOOD DAY for Saatchi & Saatchi LA is a Great Day for Our Beaches!
Saatchi & Saatchi Los Angeles makes a clean sweep of the beach on Thursday, November 15, 2007, in support of the Surfrider Foundation - South Bay Chapter. This special beach clean up event, coordinated by Saatchi's Bruce McDermott, was well-executed by our friends at Saatchi LA and sincerely appreciated by the South Bay Chapter and all beach-goers, both human and other!
A special thanks goes out to all... ya done good!
Groups plan suit to force L.A. County, Malibu to clean water
Ventura County Star - 6/6/07
By Noaki Schwartz, Associated Press
LOS ANGELES - A decade after environmental groups settled a federal lawsuit with a plan to control pollution flowing into Southern California coastal waters, they have filed an intent to sue again this time to force local agencies to actually clean up the water.
The Natural Resources Defense Council and the Santa Monica Baykeeper used Los Angeles County's own data to show how the county and the city of Malibu potentially owe millions of dollars in fines for violating the Clean Water Act. The notice, which was sent Thursday, is the first step in filing a federal lawsuit within the next 60 days.
"This lawsuit focuses explicitly on results measured at the beach and in local waters," said David Beckman, senior attorney for the Natural Resources Defense Council. "No longer could the county merely file a paper program to be in compliance with the Clean Water Act. It would have to actually clean up the water to be in compliance."
The federal law required pollution limits to be set by 1979 for all water in the United States considered unsafe for people and aquatic life.
In the mid-1990s, the Natural Resources Defense Council and Baykeeper filed a federal lawsuit claiming that the county violated clean water standards by failing to control storm water polluting Santa Monica Bay. The two sides settled in 1996, with the county promising to develop a program to find the type and source of pollutants flowing into the bay through storm drains and flood control channels.
In 1999, the same groups sued the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency for failing for 20 years to ensure that state waters were clean. In a settlement that year, the EPA agreed to set pollution limits for the 156 water bodies in Los Angeles and Ventura counties.
In this latest round of legal action, the Natural Resources Defense Council and Baykeeper say Los Angeles County and Malibu have routinely violated clean water standards by discharging contaminated water and urban runoff into coastal waters. County data showed that Malibu Creek and the Los Angeles and San Gabriel rivers repeatedly exceeded safe levels of cyanide, aluminum and fecal coliform.
The groups' notice seeks imposition of penalties for violations of the Clean Water Act ranging from $27,500 to $32,500 per day dating to May 2002.
Some of the area's most famous beaches have been plagued for years by water quality problems, which can make people sick. Los Angeles County had the 2,213 beach closings in 2005, the notice said. #
Investigators say water pollution is contributing to a spate of marine mammal deaths that have scattered carcasses along the California coast.
In the past several weeks, dozens of whales, dolphins and sea lions have washed ashore dead or dying from Los Angeles-Venice area to San Luis Obispo.
The latest discovery occurred Tuesday in Ventura, where an 8-foot juvenile minke whale washed up dead at San Buenaventura State Beach. Lifeguards buried it in the sand.
"It is episodic. Springtime is peak time when this happens," said Michelle Berman, assistant curator and marine mammal specialist for the Santa Barbara Museum of Natural History. "Animals are reproducing, and we have upwelling and nutrients that can lead to red tides. But to have so many in a short time frame is not so common."
In Santa Barbara, a 29-foot sperm whale washed ashore April 9 near Isla Vista. In both instances involving whales, investigators collected tissue samples from the carcasses in an effort to pinpoint the cause of death.
Meanwhile, numerous dolphins and sea lions are washing ashore sick or dead on Southland beaches.
Peter Wallerstein, president and founder of Whale Rescue Team in Los Angeles, said he has conducted 78 marine mammal rescues this year, many of them common dolphins. He rescued a dolphin at Santa Monica beach and another at Venice beach this week. A live harbor porpoise washed up near Oceano Dunes near San Luis Obispo but died later.
Joe Cordaro, wildlife biologist for the National Marine Fisheries Service, said he does not see an ecological disaster under way but is concerned about toxic algae. It can produce domoic acid, which accumulates in shellfish and fish and sickens seabirds, otters, sea lions, dolphins, whales and humans. He said some sea lions show symptoms of domoic acid poisoning, including seizures and paralysis, but he said investigations are under way to determine if other factors contribute to the problem.
"We get spurts like this from time to time," Cordaro said, "but whenever we get one like this, this many (fatalities) at one time, it raises our antennae."
Officials warn beach-goers to keep themselves and children a safe distance from animals that appear distressed, especially sea lions.
October 10, 2004 was the official launch date of the South Bay Chapter's "Teach and Test Program." This is an exciting new initiative to coordinate with local high schools and improve water quality monitoring in the South Bay area. We have organized several high schools to sample local beaches for their science courses. The Chapter will then have the water samples analyzed and publish the results in an on-going database. We're also contributing to a study of plastics accumulation in our beach sand.
More information >>
Save "Toes Beach" Dunes
Surfrider Foundation is tracking a development proposal to build townhouses on the dunes at Toes Beach in Playa del Rey (corner of Culver Blvd/Pacific St). These dunes are important coastal habitat and provide the local community with unique scenic, recreational and educational benefits. Our members and other local organizations are working to find funding to acquire this property for habitat restoration and public access.
More information >>
Report Pollution Local Phone Numbers
Surfrider Foundation frequently get calls from members who notice a sewer spill or other water quality violation and want to know how to report it. A call recently received was from a person at Ecostation in Culver City, who said a mobile car detailing service was pouring a lot of soupy water down into the storm drain system and then to Ballona Creek. To report pollution in the South Bay area...
More information >>
Dear Surfrider Foundation Chapter Activists,
I'm writing to tell you about some special and exciting campaigns and issues that the national office is working on that increase our level of services to you, as well update you on some Surfrider Foundation Headquarters accomplishments. This information can be accessed through our website. More information >>
The Surfrider Foundation is a non-profit environmental organization dedicated to the protection and enjoyment of the world's oceans, waves and beaches for all people, through conservation, activism, research and education. The South Bay Chapter territory includes the California coastline between Cabrillo Beach and Marina del Rey.
Photography: Surfer at Manhattan Beach Pier for Main Visual: Branamir Kvartuc
Website Design: Kelly Sinkinson
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