Sunday, May 29, 2011
Monday, May 23, 2011
South Bay Chapter hosts Teach and Test program year-end party and presentations
May 15, 2011 - Teach and Test Year End Party
On May 15th at SEA Lab in Redondo Beach, 29 students from 5 South Bay high schools participating in the Surfrider Foundation’s Teach and Test Program presented their results that reflect seven months of water quality testing at 15 South Bay beaches as well as the Ballona Creek Wetlands.
Entering its seventh year, the Teach and Test Program’s primary goal is to foster future environmental stewardship among students, create community awareness about local water quality, and provide realistic solutions to improve conditions. Surfrider Foundation South Bay Chapter volunteers mentor the students and the beach and provide guidance as they collect water samples. Back in the labs, local high school teachers guide the students through the analysis process. Since the inception of the Teach and Test program, six students have been accepted to science programs at their chosen universities and two current students won LA Science Fair awards.
Teach and Test student collects a water sample
South Bay Chapter activists, Alan Walti and Ann Zellers, worked on securing grant funding from the Santa Monica Bay Restoration Foundation and formed a partnership with Algalita Marine Research to include a Waste Characterization Study (WCS) at Redondo Union High School and Mira Costa High School as part of the Teach and Test program. Started in 2009, the WCS helps students identify trash sources. Results to date indicate that a majority of the trash is plastic and food related and that the first and second rain events of the season deposited the most trash. The El Segundo and RUHS science teachers have incorporated this program into their students required curriculum for the year.
BR: Teach and Test students, FR: Program leaders
The Teach and Test Program is co-chaired by South Bay Chapter activists Tiffany Murphy and Dan Ryan. "We had 4 awesome presentations from the participating students/schools. The El Segundo students even did a video; with outtakes. Needless to say they blew us away," said Tiffany, Program Co-Chair.
To learn more about the Teach and Test Program visit: http://www.surfrider-southbay.org/tnt.html
Contact the Program Co-Chairs directly via e-mail:teach-test@surfrider-southbay.org.
##
Long Beach Council OKs plastic bag ban
Large stores must comply by August 1.
Posted: 05/17/2011 08:13:53 PM PDT
LONG BEACH — Supermarkets, pharmacies and similar retail stores will no longer be allowed to distribute certain types of plastic bags under an ordinance approved Tuesday by the City Council.
To the sound of applause from a crowd of residents and environmentalists, the council voted 5-0 to approve the bag ban. Three council members were absent from the meeting -- Gary DeLong, Patrick O'Donnell and Rae Gabelich -- and a fourth member who was the only to voice concerns about the ban Tuesday, Gerrie Schipske, left early because of an illness.
While council members and members of the environmental community said the ban will prevent bags from contaminating waterways, where they harm or are ingested by marine animals, about as many people spoke against the ordinance.
Kirsten James, water quality director for Heal the Bay, told the council that she sees the impact of plastic bags during her organization's 400 annual creek and beach cleanups.
"Plastic bags are continually one of the top items we find time and time again," James said. "Recycling and voluntary programs simply do not work."
Opponents, including Long Beach residents and representatives of industries that would be affected by the ordinance, called the bag ban a product of the "nanny state" or a "de facto regressive tax" because of the 10-cent fee that will be charged for paper bags. They also argued that the ban would hurt jobs, particularly minority jobs, and small businesses, as well as limit consumer choice.
Under the ban, which is based on one that is going into effect this summer in unincorporated parts of Los Angeles County, the distribution of plastic bags would be prohibited at most grocery stores, pharmacies, convenience stores, supermarkets, farmers markets and other retail stores that sell food and similar items. Heavier bags, such as those used by Target, wouldn't be prohibited under the law.
Stores that want to offer recyclable paper bags would be required to charge 10 cents per bag to cover their costs and to discourage shoppers from using the paper bags.
The ordinance would go into effect Aug. 1 for large stores, which is one month after the county's law goes into effect. Smaller stores and farmers markets will have until Jan. 1 to do away with plastic bags.
Cathy Browne of Crown Poly, a Los Angeles plastic bag manufacturer, said that her 300 employees could be put at risk by the growing trend of plastic bag bans, noting that many of the reusable bags that shoppers instead would use are produced overseas.
"You are exporting jobs from L.A. County to China," Browne said. "I don't think that's your intention, but it is what will happen."
Sherri McCarthy of the American Chemistry Council, a trade association representing chemical and plastics manufacturers, said shoppers already pay for the cost of bags in the price of groceries, so charging 10 cents for paper bags would add to this.
"In essence, this ordinance is going to force those consumers to pay twice," McCarthy said.
Vice Mayor Suja Lowenthal, who had proposed the measure last year, responded that the 10-cent fee is based on the county's ordinance and will discourage people from buying paper bags.
To speakers who said that the community had switched years ago from paper to plastic bags in order to save trees, Lowenthal said that society has since discovered the devastating impact of plastic.
"Over the decades, we have learned that plastic and the cost of plastic is much greater than what the benefits are," Lowenthal said.
paul.eakins@presstelegram.com
562-499-1278
Posted: 05/17/2011 08:13:53 PM PDT
Updated: 05/19/2011 12:39:21 PM PDT
To the sound of applause from a crowd of residents and environmentalists, the council voted 5-0 to approve the bag ban. Three council members were absent from the meeting -- Gary DeLong, Patrick O'Donnell and Rae Gabelich -- and a fourth member who was the only to voice concerns about the ban Tuesday, Gerrie Schipske, left early because of an illness.
While council members and members of the environmental community said the ban will prevent bags from contaminating waterways, where they harm or are ingested by marine animals, about as many people spoke against the ordinance.
Kirsten James, water quality director for Heal the Bay, told the council that she sees the impact of plastic bags during her organization's 400 annual creek and beach cleanups.
"Plastic bags are continually one of the top items we find time and time again," James said. "Recycling and voluntary programs simply do not work."
Opponents, including Long Beach residents and representatives of industries that would be affected by the ordinance, called the bag ban a product of the "nanny state" or a "de facto regressive tax" because of the 10-cent fee that will be charged for paper bags. They also argued that the ban would hurt jobs, particularly minority jobs, and small businesses, as well as limit consumer choice.
Under the ban, which is based on one that is going into effect this summer in unincorporated parts of Los Angeles County, the distribution of plastic bags would be prohibited at most grocery stores, pharmacies, convenience stores, supermarkets, farmers markets and other retail stores that sell food and similar items. Heavier bags, such as those used by Target, wouldn't be prohibited under the law.
Stores that want to offer recyclable paper bags would be required to charge 10 cents per bag to cover their costs and to discourage shoppers from using the paper bags.
The ordinance would go into effect Aug. 1 for large stores, which is one month after the county's law goes into effect. Smaller stores and farmers markets will have until Jan. 1 to do away with plastic bags.
Cathy Browne of Crown Poly, a Los Angeles plastic bag manufacturer, said that her 300 employees could be put at risk by the growing trend of plastic bag bans, noting that many of the reusable bags that shoppers instead would use are produced overseas.
"You are exporting jobs from L.A. County to China," Browne said. "I don't think that's your intention, but it is what will happen."
Sherri McCarthy of the American Chemistry Council, a trade association representing chemical and plastics manufacturers, said shoppers already pay for the cost of bags in the price of groceries, so charging 10 cents for paper bags would add to this.
"In essence, this ordinance is going to force those consumers to pay twice," McCarthy said.
Vice Mayor Suja Lowenthal, who had proposed the measure last year, responded that the 10-cent fee is based on the county's ordinance and will discourage people from buying paper bags.
To speakers who said that the community had switched years ago from paper to plastic bags in order to save trees, Lowenthal said that society has since discovered the devastating impact of plastic.
"Over the decades, we have learned that plastic and the cost of plastic is much greater than what the benefits are," Lowenthal said.
paul.eakins@presstelegram.com
562-499-1278
Long Beach paddle-out supports breakwater changes
Reposted from The Press Telegram - http://www.presstelegram.com/rss/ci_18114422?source=rss
More than 75 ride out to support plan to alter or remove seawall.
Posted: 05/21/2011 09:14:37 PM PDT
Updated: 05/22/2011 12:55:00 PM PDT
LONG BEACH — More than 75 people took to the sea Saturday in the latest effort to gain support and awareness of a longtime plan to alter or remove the massive breakwater off the city's coast.
The 2.5-mile seawall, built in wartime 1940s to protect the Navy's Pacific fleet from rough waters and submarine attacks, has become the target in recent years of community groups concerned its presence is devastating tourism and the environment.
Running roughly parallel to the city's coastline two miles offshore, the breakwater blocks natural wave action and is blamed for exacerbating the harbor's pollution problems.
"This (seawall) is bad for the environment and bad for tourism," said Long Beach Councilman Patrick O'Donnell, who helped organize the event with the Surfriders Foundation and area tourism officials.
"By blocking any wave action, it's creating an unnatural environment. People wanting waves to surf on, or to swim in, they see the condition of our (harbor) and they just go to other local beaches.
Meanwhile, we lose unknown thousands of potential visitors."
Saturday's event near Belmont Shore was based on the Hawaiian tradition of paddling into the ocean and forming a prayer circle in memoriam.
But it also served as a call-to-arms for breakwater reconfiguration advocates to redouble their efforts concerning a planned four-year study of the seawall's impact on tourism, water quality and safety.
Breakwater advocates were alarmed by recent news that an $8.3 million agreement between Long Beach and the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers to study the rock wall has been temporarily halted amid cutbacks by the federal government.
In early May, the Army Corps' proposed Fiscal Year 2012 budget was cut by nearly $1 billion. Though Congress has yet to approve the budget, it so far doesn't include the $4 million-plus approved in late 2010 for the federal portion of the study.
"It's just going to make us all work that much harder," O'Donnell said. "We're not paddling away from this issue."
A 2008 study funded in part by the city estimated tourism spending would increase by about $52 million annually if the seawall were removed or altered.
Around the same time, the Army Corps reported that enhanced natural wave action through reconfiguration could improve property values, downtown commercial values, parking revenues and beach visits, all augmenting the local economy.
However, even though federal funding has been apparently pulled through Fiscal Year 2012, local Army Corps officials say they're still pushing for funding.
"We were unable to get the necessary federal funding to move that study forward," Jay Field, a spokesman for the Corps of Engineers in Los Angeles, said May 18. "(But) we're working to get it included in the president's budget for FY12. That project does remain one of our important projects that should be funded and continue to be worked on."
Despite the public show of support Saturday, part of "Breakwater Awareness Month," opponents fear altering the wall could lead to flooding or other impacts at homes in the low-lying Naples area in southeastern Long Beach and potentially at the Port of Long Beach.
More events are scheduled through month's end.
To learn more or to voice your opinion, go to visitwww.lbsurf www.longbeach.gov
/district4 or call 562-590-6920. kristopher.hanson@presstelegram.com, 562-499-1466
Monday, May 16, 2011
Input sought on Broad Beach project
Malibu Times > Archives > News > Input sought on Broad Beach project
Re-printed from Malibu Times
Input sought on Broad Beach project
 |
| Workers install a rock revetment along Broad Beach last year after a storm eroded more sand from the beach. A project to restore the sand would cover the revetment. The DEIR indicates the project would require 600,000 cubic yards of “beach material” for beach fill, dune material and a dune buffer. |
Two public meetings took place this week to gather input on the proposed restoration of Broad Beach, which has eroded significantly
during the past decade.
By Knowles Adkisson / The Malibu Times
Two public scoping meetings were scheduled to take place Tuesday at Malibu City Hall to gather public input on a Draft Environmental Impact Report, for the proposed restoration of Broad Beach. (The meetings took place before The Malibu Times went to print, but will be reported on its Web site. www.malibutimes.com Wednesday this week.)
The project would widen and replenish the heavily eroded beach using sand dredged from offshore and onshore sources, build and restore sand dunes, and bury an existing rock revetment. It will be privately funded by the Trancas Property Owner's Association, a group representing most of the 109 homeowners who live on the beach between Lechuza Point and Trancas Creek.
Ken Ehrlich, legal counsel for the Trancas Property Owner's Association, told The Malibu Times that construction was expected to begin in late 2012, and would last between four and six weeks. Ehrlich said the project would be funded entirely with private money, and is expected to cost approximately $10 million, with the permitting process costing an addition $2 million to $3 million. Ehrlich said that no rock would be added to the existing rock revetment.
Broad Beach has experienced ongoing erosion for many years due to a combination of recurring weather patterns and rising sea levels. It has also been the subject of contention regarding public beach access, when homeowners several years ago hired contractors to bulldoze the beach, creating sand berms in front of the multimillion-dollar homes that line Broad Beach. Later, after a storm struck causing ocean water to flood the yards of some of the beachfront homes, homeowners then had a rock wall revetment built, which some critics say caused further erosion to the beach.
Since then, homeowners have been working to find a way to restore lost sand to the area, and to protect their homes against incoming tidewater.
According to the DEIR, the restoration of the beach would involve several steps. Sand would be dredged from both offshore and onshore sites and deposited on the beach to widen it. Sand would also be added between the dune system and the shoreline. The existing rock revetment built last spring would be covered over with sand. Additionally, a “reservoir of sand” would be built and dune habitat would be restored with native plant species.
The DEIR indicates the project would require 600,000 cubic yards of “beach material” for beach fill, dune material and a dune buffer. The beach would be expanded to a width of 100 feet and the dunes raised.
Gary Griggs, a professor of earth and planetary science at UC Santa Cruz and director of the university's Institute of Marine Sciences, in a previous interview with The Malibu Times explained that beaches tend to lose sand and narrow during warmer phases of weather, which California has been experiencing since 1978. Griggs said Broad Beach started narrowing in the late 1970s, became exceedingly noticeable during the past five to seven years and has worsened significantly during the last two years or so.
The rapid exacerbation of the erosion in 2009 caused the city to issue emergency permits that allowed beachfront residents to place sandbags in front of their homes upward of the mean high tide line. Last year, the homeowners installed an at-grade revetment, or barricade, made of boulders of different sizes, at an estimated cost of $15 million to $20 million.
That project later incited a public uproar when the two gates that grant public beach access to Broad Beach remained closed for months after the revetment was completed in April 2010. While homeowners had access to the beach, local visitors were forced to make a two-mile detour to Zuma Beach.
When asked if the beach would be open to the public during construction, Ehrlich replied, “My understanding is the sand will be laid down in sectors, and that the sectors [of the beach] not being worked on will be open.”
Ehrlich said he anticipated the restoration project to be less intrusive than the installation of the revetment last year, since most of the sand will be shipped in from the ocean. He said it had not been determined whether the Zuma Beach parking lot would be used as a staging area for earth movers and other heavy equipment.
Long known as an enclave of the rich and famous, Broad Beach homeowners have fought several very public battles with the California Coastal Commission over access to the public beach.
In 2005, Broad Beach homeowners hired bulldozers to pile mounds of sand in front their multimillion-dollar homes. The Coastal Commission ordered them to remove “No Trespassing, Private Property” signs and stop using all-terrain vehicles for security patrols.
Written comments regarding the DEIR must be submitted to Crystal Spurr, Staff Environmental Scientist at the California State Lands Commission, by May 16. The address for comments is 100 Howe Avenue, Suite 100-South. Sacramento, CA 95825.
during the past decade.
By Knowles Adkisson / The Malibu Times
Two public scoping meetings were scheduled to take place Tuesday at Malibu City Hall to gather public input on a Draft Environmental Impact Report, for the proposed restoration of Broad Beach. (The meetings took place before The Malibu Times went to print, but will be reported on its Web site. www.malibutimes.com Wednesday this week.)
The project would widen and replenish the heavily eroded beach using sand dredged from offshore and onshore sources, build and restore sand dunes, and bury an existing rock revetment. It will be privately funded by the Trancas Property Owner's Association, a group representing most of the 109 homeowners who live on the beach between Lechuza Point and Trancas Creek.
Ken Ehrlich, legal counsel for the Trancas Property Owner's Association, told The Malibu Times that construction was expected to begin in late 2012, and would last between four and six weeks. Ehrlich said the project would be funded entirely with private money, and is expected to cost approximately $10 million, with the permitting process costing an addition $2 million to $3 million. Ehrlich said that no rock would be added to the existing rock revetment.
Broad Beach has experienced ongoing erosion for many years due to a combination of recurring weather patterns and rising sea levels. It has also been the subject of contention regarding public beach access, when homeowners several years ago hired contractors to bulldoze the beach, creating sand berms in front of the multimillion-dollar homes that line Broad Beach. Later, after a storm struck causing ocean water to flood the yards of some of the beachfront homes, homeowners then had a rock wall revetment built, which some critics say caused further erosion to the beach.
Since then, homeowners have been working to find a way to restore lost sand to the area, and to protect their homes against incoming tidewater.
According to the DEIR, the restoration of the beach would involve several steps. Sand would be dredged from both offshore and onshore sites and deposited on the beach to widen it. Sand would also be added between the dune system and the shoreline. The existing rock revetment built last spring would be covered over with sand. Additionally, a “reservoir of sand” would be built and dune habitat would be restored with native plant species.
The DEIR indicates the project would require 600,000 cubic yards of “beach material” for beach fill, dune material and a dune buffer. The beach would be expanded to a width of 100 feet and the dunes raised.
Gary Griggs, a professor of earth and planetary science at UC Santa Cruz and director of the university's Institute of Marine Sciences, in a previous interview with The Malibu Times explained that beaches tend to lose sand and narrow during warmer phases of weather, which California has been experiencing since 1978. Griggs said Broad Beach started narrowing in the late 1970s, became exceedingly noticeable during the past five to seven years and has worsened significantly during the last two years or so.
The rapid exacerbation of the erosion in 2009 caused the city to issue emergency permits that allowed beachfront residents to place sandbags in front of their homes upward of the mean high tide line. Last year, the homeowners installed an at-grade revetment, or barricade, made of boulders of different sizes, at an estimated cost of $15 million to $20 million.
That project later incited a public uproar when the two gates that grant public beach access to Broad Beach remained closed for months after the revetment was completed in April 2010. While homeowners had access to the beach, local visitors were forced to make a two-mile detour to Zuma Beach.
When asked if the beach would be open to the public during construction, Ehrlich replied, “My understanding is the sand will be laid down in sectors, and that the sectors [of the beach] not being worked on will be open.”
Ehrlich said he anticipated the restoration project to be less intrusive than the installation of the revetment last year, since most of the sand will be shipped in from the ocean. He said it had not been determined whether the Zuma Beach parking lot would be used as a staging area for earth movers and other heavy equipment.
Long known as an enclave of the rich and famous, Broad Beach homeowners have fought several very public battles with the California Coastal Commission over access to the public beach.
In 2005, Broad Beach homeowners hired bulldozers to pile mounds of sand in front their multimillion-dollar homes. The Coastal Commission ordered them to remove “No Trespassing, Private Property” signs and stop using all-terrain vehicles for security patrols.
Written comments regarding the DEIR must be submitted to Crystal Spurr, Staff Environmental Scientist at the California State Lands Commission, by May 16. The address for comments is 100 Howe Avenue, Suite 100-South. Sacramento, CA 95825.
Copyright © 2011 - Malibu Times
Friday, May 13, 2011
2011 SoCal Chapter Workshop
The 2011 Southern California Chapter Workshop is scheduled for Sunday, May 15 from 9am-4pm at the Muth Interpretive Center. 2301 University Dr, Newport Beach, California 92660.
Get directions here >>>
We're going paperless this year. Below you will find the Workshop Agenda and Regional Brochure for Southern CA for you to view and download. For members who have signed up for access to Surfrider Foundation's ChapterNET, you can find workshop one-pagers and additional resources related to the Workshop online for you to view and download. Presentations and a recap will be posted on ChapterNET after the Workshop.
For more info. or any questions please contact Nancy Hastings
Looking forward to seeing everyone at the Workshop!
This Workshop is open to all Chapter members interested to learn more about key campaigns and programs in the region, share information on best practices, and build relationships with neighboring Chapter activists.
Get directions here >>>
We're going paperless this year. Below you will find the Workshop Agenda and Regional Brochure for Southern CA for you to view and download. For members who have signed up for access to Surfrider Foundation's ChapterNET, you can find workshop one-pagers and additional resources related to the Workshop online for you to view and download. Presentations and a recap will be posted on ChapterNET after the Workshop.
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| Workshop Agenda - pg 1 |
 |
| Workshop Agenda - pg 2 |
 |
| Southern California Brochure - pg 1 |
 |
| Southern CA Brochure - pg 2 |
For more info. or any questions please contact Nancy Hastings
Looking forward to seeing everyone at the Workshop!
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