A Healing Mentality to Cure the Bay

Last Saturday was a beach day. By 9 a.m., families were carting their coolers and beach chairs across the hot sand to secure a spot by the ocean. Surfers paddling on boards towards the horizon had probably already caught a wave or two. Everyone was soaking up the so-called last days of summer. Another group was gathering in the early morning heat, about five miles inland from the Malibu coastline, at Malibu Creek State Park. They were Heal the Bay volunteers, eager to help restore the Malibu Creek watershed by removing annual grasses and hemlock from a patch of open space where the invasive plants are spreading fast. ‘It’s a battle of the wills,’ says Mark Abramson, manager of Heal the Bay’s Stream Team, a citizen monitoring program that collects data to help determine the environmental health of the watershed. Like many of the battles Heal the Bay has fought in its 20-year history, the Stream Team’s project requires not only the tools but the determination and collaborative spirit of a passionate group of people’dedicated to making Santa Monica Bay and Southern California coastal waters healthy for people and marine life. ‘The core values of the organization are founded in credibility and volunteer involvement,’ says Mark Gold, executive director, who started volunteering with Heal the Bay in 1986 and was hired as staff scientist two years later. ‘We’re as true today as we were in the beginning.’ The nonprofit environmental organization began in 1985 with a handful of people who rallied against the City of Los Angeles for dumping raw sewage into Santa Monica Bay. Founded by Dorothy Green, Heal the Bay mobilized the public and took legal action to help ensure the City’s compliance with the Clean Water Act and improve sewage treatment at Hyperion Sewage Treatment Plant. Thanks to those initial successful efforts, Heal the Bay proved that it could help solve the problems threatening our beaches and coastal waters. And with that mission, it has grown into an organization of more than 10,000 members. ‘If you look at the core strength of the membership and organization, it’s really Santa Monica and Pacific Palisades,’ says Gold, a Santa Monica resident. ‘Who doesn’t live here because of Santa Monica Bay?’ Palisadian Lisa Boyle is a good example. Originally from Nashville, Tennessee, she studied environmental law at Tulane, where she met her husband, David, who grew up in the Palisades. The couple has raised their two young children here, and Lisa says, ‘I don’t want to tell them, ‘Look at the water, it’s pretty but it’s toxic.’ Hope is important when you’re a parent.’ In 1999, Gold hired Boyle to be Heal the Bay’s director of law and policy. She joined the team at a crucial time, when the organization was debating whether to get involved in a case against the proposed Ahmanson Ranch ‘mini city’ development, the impacts of which threatened the Malibu Creek watershed. Until then, the organization had been focused on protecting the beaches, and its decision to act against the Ahmanson development marked its ‘first move upstream,’ according to Boyle, who helped organize the first public hearing on the case. The Ahmanson property was eventually purchased by the state for parkland in 2004. Palisadian enviromental lawyer Jan Chatten-Brown represented Heal the Bay, and the Natural Resources Defense Council and scientists spoke on endangered resources. ‘It was well attended,’ says Boyle, who stopped working as a staff attorney for Heal the Bay after a year to devote more time to her family. But she has remained directly involved as a board member and volunteer, co-chairing the annual Bring Back the Beach fundraising dinner, which this year raised more than $770,000 in net revenue. ‘It was definitely the most successful it’s ever been,’ Boyle says of the event, which also celebrated the group’s 20th anniversary. ‘Sometimes the soul of an organization is totally lost in the fundraisers because they become overshadowed by the stars there. But the heart and soul came through with Dorothy Green up on stage talking about its humble beginnings. And the celebrities involved are really environmentalists and they care.’ Actress Julia Louis-Dreyfus (‘Seinfeld’), a Palisades resident, parent and Heal the Bay board member, was actively involved in promoting Proposition O, the $500-million bond measure passed last November 2. Prop O aims to control pollution by advancing storm drain systems and creating community parks that also act as filters for urban storm water runoff. Whereas sewage discharge was the original culprit polluting the Bay, the larger problem now is runoff, which Boyle says is ‘a lot harder to control than sewage.’ Studies have found that flowing storm drains contaminated with fecal bacteria can be a significant source of pollution to the Bay. Furthermore, Gold explains that local residents need to be aware of and better understand their irrigation systems, which are ‘leading to a lot of nuisance runoff. ‘There’s no way that the amount of water coming out of these drains should be as high as it is,’ he says. ‘People don’t think about over-irrigating, but it’s a huge problem.’ He explains that runoff picks up pollutants as it flows towards the ocean, and though a number of diversion systems have been created along the beach, ‘there’s too much water for the pumps to work properly.’ Figuring out what area the extra runoff is coming from is a priority, according to Gold, who adds, ‘If we reduce the amount of water getting into the system in the summer, our beaches are going to be a lot cleaner.’ Heal the Bay’s immediate goals involve not only improving beach water quality but also making sure the City and County ensure that they’re protective of public health. ‘Next year, starting July 31, there will be a legal requirement for no more poor water quality at Santa Monica beaches,’ Gold says. He’s referring to TMDLs, or Total Maximum Daily Loads, which are ‘site-specific water quality standards to protect aquatic life and human health.’ In other words, new water-quality rules will require that, for example, Santa Monica Bay reduce the bacteria levels that pollute its waters. Other areas, such as Malibu Creek, Ballona Creek and the Los Angeles River, will also have to meet certain pollution limits depending on the excessive nutrients that contaminate the waters. ‘TMDLs is the most complicated yet effective and controversial aspect of the Clean Water Act,’ Gold says. Heal the Bay acts as an advocate and watchdog by looking at the City of L.A.’s and the L.A. County Health Department’s data and monitoring the new water quality standards. The City has until July 31 to comply, according to L.A’s Regional Water Quality Control Board. To provide beachgoers with water-quality information, Heal the Bay posts a weekly Beach Report Card on its Web site (www.healthebay.org). This report grades local beaches on an A-F scale based on daily and weekly water-quality monitoring data collected by various County and City public agencies throughout Southern California. Over the years, the organization has expanded the report to include more than 460 beach locations statewide. Gold says that Heal the Bay plans to be more active in the inland community in the coming years, spreading its message in favor of behavioral change. ‘We’re taking on a pilot program in the City of Compton,’ he says of the group’s goal to clean up Compton Creek through advocacy, education and cleanup activities. ‘Our thought in doing this was to lead by example; if we can clean up a resource so incredibly blighted, then everything can be cleaned up and restored.’ The organization’s education programs are also focusing on Title 1 schools, so that students in disadvantaged neighborhoods can learn about their natural resources and how their behaviors affect the Bay. Currently, 57 percent of the students who attend programs at the Santa Monica Pier Aquarium are Title 1 kids, according to Randi Parent, who’s the community outreach coordinator there. Since Heal the Bay assumed operation of the Aquarium more than two years ago, Parent says it ‘has grown as a field trip venue and community resource.’ Home to close to 100 species, the Aquarium has expanded its hours to be open at least a portion of every day except Monday, and the curriculum has been rewritten and revamped, according to Parent. Some of the most popular programs include the microbiologists class designed for 3- to 5-year-olds, in which they learn about the different animals at the Aquarium, and private, educational birthday parties. ‘We book two to three months in advance,’ Parent says, adding that part of the appeal of the Aquarium is its intimate setting. ‘It’s definitely a family destination, but there are plenty of adults who come in [alone] and are just as interested in what’s going on in the Bay.’ This year, Palisades resident Vicki Wawerchak became the new Aquarium director. Another Palisadian, Tara Crow, has been working at the Aquarium for six years and is currently the public programs coordinator. ‘We [at Heal the Bay] all try and support each other’s programs,’ says Crow, who joined the volunteers at last Saturday’s creek restoration. She earned her bachelor’s degree in biology from USC. Heal the Bay’s largest volunteer event of the year, Coastal Cleanup Day, will be held September 17, from 9 a.m. to noon, when more than 10,000 volunteers are expected to come together at 55 different locations in L.A. County to clean up the beaches and waterways. At last year’s event, volunteers picked up more than 80,000 pounds of trash and recyclables. ‘The number-one judge of any group is where you are in achieving your mission,’ Gold says. ‘Heal the Bay has definitely had a significant role in improving Santa Monica Bay.’ A father of three, he adds, ‘It’s pretty cool being in a job that, when asked what I do for a living, my kids love saying, ‘My Dad heals the bay.”