‘We all have an opportunity to make a change for a healthier planet,’ Philippe Cousteau, chief ocean correspondent for Discovery’s Planet Green, told a crowd of reporters at a press conference last Wednesday at Will Rogers State Beach in Pacific Palisades. ’Cigarette butts are the number-one debris on ocean beaches and second is plastic bags,’ said Cousteau, the grandson of legendary explorer Jacques Yves Cousteau. That’s why Planet Green, a 24-hour eco-lifestyle television network, is launching a month-long campaign called Blue August to draw attention to the health of the world’s waters. The network is kicking off a ‘Ban the Bags, Butts and Bottles Challenge!’ to encourage people to stop litter before it pollutes beaches. This weekend, reusable eco-tote bags will be distributed at the Santa Monica Pier. Cousteau and his sister Alexandra are also hosting a month of television and online programming about every aspect of the world’s waters. Online, people cannot only submit photos of ‘Beach Don’ts,’ capturing litter offenders, but also great beach moments. They can also enter a sweepstakes to win a solar backpack made from recycled soda bottles that collect energy throughout the day to power a laptop or other electronic gadget. Cousteau, who founded EarthEcho International with his sister to provide ocean education, thinks it’s important that people become better stewards, especially in light of the dismal findings in the Natural Resources Defense Council (NRDC)’s 19th annual beach report, which looks at water quality at beaches across the nation. Planet Green has partnered with NRDC, and Noah Garrison and Michelle Mehta, attorneys with the NRDC’s water program based in Santa Monica, shared the report’s findings last Wednesday. The report, ‘Testing the Waters: A Guide to Water Quality at Vacation Beaches,’ ranked California 22nd out of 30 coastal states for clean beach water quality and found that nine of the most polluted beaches are in Southern California. To arrive at this conclusion, the NRDC used data submitted to the Environmental Protection Agency and collected by county health agencies in coastal counties, publicly owned sewage treatment plants, other dischargers along the coastal zone, environmental groups and numerous citizen-monitoring groups. The NRDC looked at the percentage of samples that exceeded the state’s daily maximum bacterial standards. Santa Monica Beach at the Pier and Malibu Beach at Paradise Cove are among the worst, exceeding bacterial standards by 43 percent and 42 percent, respectively. The beach at Santa Monica Canyon also rated poorly, exceeding the standards by 31 percent. ’That means that people need to research particular beaches before going [into the water],’ Garrison said, noting they can visit NRDC’s Web site at www.nrdc.org. Pollution can cause serious health problems such as pinkeye, nose and throat problems, stomach flu, hepatitis, respiratory ailments, skin rashes and neurological disorders. ‘Will Rogers State Beach does pretty well over the year; there is not a lot of pollution in the water,’ NRDC Senior Press Secretary Jessica Lass told the Palisadian-Post, noting that it is one of the cleaner beaches. Most of California’s beaches are monitored year-round, but some of the beaches in San Diego, Ventura and Santa Barbara counties were not monitored regularly this past year because of state budget cuts, Garrison said. California had 4,133 beach closures or advisory days in 2008, a 13-percent decrease from 2007 and mostly the result of dry weather, Mehta said. Eighty-one percent of the closures and advisory days were from unknown sources of contamination, 3 percent from stormwater runoff, 9 percent from sewage spills and 6 percent from other sources of contamination. In general, the majority of pollution comes from overflowing sewage plants and septic systems and stormwater carrying trash and animal waste, Garrison said. For the first time, the report examined how climate change affects beach water quality. ‘Climate change will make it more difficult to keep beaches clean,’ said Cara Horowitz, executive director of the Emmett Center on Climate Change and the Environment at UCLA School of Law. Temperature increases, perhaps accompanied by more frequent rainstorms, will lead to more stormwater runoff, sewer pollution and disease-causing pathogens in the waterways, said Horowitz, who encouraged people to support legislation that reduces greenhouse-gas emissions. ’I grew up going to beaches like this one,’ she said, gesturing at Will Rogers. ‘A day at the beach should be carefree today and tomorrow.’ For more information about Blue August, visit planetgreen.discovery.com.
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