Force Change

Santa Monica replaces parking lot with a park (where you can park)

An interesting new take on beach parking opened in Santa Monica last month.  The city, recognizing that parking lots on the beach are a major facilitator of pollution entering the ocean, and realizing that much of the city’s beach parking was at capacity on only a handful of days per year, decided to replace almost an acre of beachfront parking with a grass playing field.  The grass is a hardy breed, designed to survive the six or so days per year when the lawn will be needed for beach parking.  The grass, and adjacent asphalt area (immediately to the east of the lawn) will be closed to cars on all other days of the year. 

According to the city, “as runoff passes through the soil, pollutants are treated through natural chemical and biological processes. By preventing, at the source, runoff pollutants from reaching the ocean water quality in the bay will be improved and marine beneficial uses protected.”  

While we think this project is very forward thinking and should be a guide for other projects on how to efficiently and intelligently make use of our public services and resources, it is surprising that something like this is still such a unique idea.  Taking a rarely used, pollution causing feature, like this beach parking lot and turning it into a nice ball field, while at the same time allowing for parking on high use days, is so incredibly rational that it is surprising that in this day and age, that more projects like this one don’t exist.  Hopefully it will be the catalyst for others like it in the future. 

Posted in Green Design, Los Angeles, Transportation, Water Pollution | 2 Comments »

LA pushes forward on plan to recycle waste water

While the State of California plays with the idea of restricting growth based on adequate water access, Los Angeles continues to move forward on its plan to recycle waste water.  Los Angeles is modeling its plan on a similar project already in use in Orange County.  The Los Angeles Times describes the OC plan as: 

“There, officials use multistage, state-of-the-art reverse osmosis, microfiltration and ultraviolet light exposure with hydrogen peroxide to take sewage effluent to near-distilled water quality. The water is then pumped to spreading grounds, where it filters through purifying substrata to mix with underground supplies serving 2.3 million residents across the county.”

An interesting graphic representing the Los Angeles plan can be found here.

The big question to us seems to be: is Los Angeles taking a responsible step towards the continued health and sustainability of our society, or is it inadvertently exposing the population to a process that is unproven and potentially dangerous? 

While current studies have shown that the process of recycling waste water removes known pollutants and dangers, we wonder about the potential for chemicals that are only recently being found to be present and dangerous in drinking water, such as pharmaceuticals and antibiotics, as well as other unknown dangers that may come to light in the future.  Intuitively, it seems a little scary to think that we (and generations to come) will be drinking the same reused water that has been looped multiple times throughout the system, although scientifically, no heightened risks have yet been identified.  Nonetheless, for something so integral to human health as drinking water, it seems we should be very sure about what we are doing before implementing such a plan.

Photo credit.

Posted in Human Health, Los Angeles, Water | No Comments »

Bush EPA regulation pitting fish against power plants to be heard by High Court.

On Monday, the U.S. Supreme Court decided to hear a case involving utility company efforts to overturn an environmentally friendly holding by the Second Circuit Court of Appeals. The dispute in the case involves an EPA regulation that permitted energy companies to avoid the most costly technologies (closed-cycle cooling systems) that protect aquatic life in rivers and lakes surrounding power plants. The harm at issue stems from the process by which power plants take water from surrounding sources in order to cool the plant’s operations. Unfortunately, without this costly technological feature, this process does substantial damage to the aquatic life.

The Bush Administration put in place a rule that allowed these companies to undertake a case-by-case cost-benefit analysis in determining to what extent the damage to aquatic life should be mitigated by technology. Environmental groups sued, claiming that the Clean Water Act requires the use of the more expensive and effective technology, and the Circuit Court agreed—specifically holding that it was not clear that the costs of this technology could not be reasonably borne by the industry.

Although the Supreme Court will consider overruling this decision when the case comes before it, if the next president disagrees with this Bush Administration pro-business policy, the issue could quickly become moot, as the regulation could be overturned by the EPA.

Photo credit.

Posted in Energy, General, Governmental Regulations, Water Pollution | No Comments »

Green pollution.

Our regular readers will not be surprised by theme of today’s post:

The New York Times had an article regarding the damage that many new biodiesel factories are doing on local environments. Biodiesel factories, like all manufacturing processes, tend to create substantial byproduct and waste. The Times’ article notes that many of these factories are allowing that waste to flow directly into the local environment.

The good news is that much of the waste from ethanol, and other biodiesel production, is fairly nontoxic, since that waste is often a type of vegetable oil or glycerin (alcohol). With that said, the release of even nontoxic oils into local water sources can suffocate much of the life in and around the water. According to the article, a vegetable oil spill can be just as deadly for birds as a crude oil spill.

This type of unintended consequence relating to alternative technologies is a common theme for this blog. Of course this problem does not lead to the conclusion that pursuing alternative fuel is a bad idea. Rather, the same problems that face non-green enterprises (such as irresponsible behavior, misspricing of externalities, ineffective regulations, etc.) will face many green enterprises. This will increasingly become the case as green tech becomes more profitable and draws more mainstream businesses. (A much better problem to have than before, when green business was only pursued by nonprofits.)

Photo credit.

Posted in Corporate Behavior, Science and Innovation, Water Pollution | No Comments »

Senators calls for hearings on drugged drinking water.

As was widely reported this week, the Associated Press recently released the results of an investigation indicating that pharmaceutical drugs are at detectable levels in most municipal fresh water supplies. Although the drug levels are well below those used for medical purposes, it was reported that they are high enough to potentially cause health problems in humans. Interestingly, the United States is not the only country to face this problem. Similar studies have shown traces of pharmaceuticals in the water supplies of other developed nations, including Japan, Germany and Canada, among others. (Since the more wealthy a country, the more likely they are to have access to pharmaceuticals.)

The source of these drugs is believed to be human urine. Apparently, when people take pharmaceuticals, there are parts of the drugs that are not completely broken down by the body, which are then removed by the kidneys, released into the toilet and then flushed back into the world. Because municipal water treatment plants fail to remove these traces from their reservoir water, it then is re-introduced into humans via centrally supplied drinking water.

Senators Boxer and Lautenberg, of California and New Jersey (Dems), respectively, have both called for hearings on this matter. The EPA’s spokesman indicated that “we encourage all Americans to be responsible when disposing of prescription drugs.” This response seemed a little odd given the fact that the drugs are apparently released through urine rather than improper garbage disposal. We wonder what exactly the EPA wants individuals to do other than pressure their local water plants to more thoroughly purify the water supply?

Photo credit.

Posted in General, Water Pollution | No Comments »

Making use of all that rain…

The Los Angeles Daily News ran an opinion article today regarding storm runoff in LA. The author, Ruth Galanter, the former president of the city council argued that due to bureaucratic inefficiencies (one agency is in charge of water supply and a different agency is in charge of runoff) and a traditional belief that properties should be designed to naturally remove rainwater as quickly as possible (in order to prevent erosion and stagnant pools of water from forming), most of the recent rains that the region received flowed directly into the ocean (along with all the pollution they could pickup on their way out of town).Galanter suggests that a more efficient system of dealing with rainwater could result in both a decrease in pollution that is washed directly into the ocean, as well as a reduction in our consumption of fresh water. One method of efficient watershed management includes flood-control basins and underground cisterns that store runoff for reuse in activities such as watering lawns and parks. Another form of management includes the use of coastal marshes and wetlands to provide a natural filtration area for runoff water prior to its being released into the ocean. (Galanter sites the marsh in between Marina del Rey and Playa Vista in Los Angeles as an example.)Given the trend towards increasingly volatile and unpredictable winters in California which could leave the region increasingly susceptible to the droughts seen in the last decade, efficient watershed management seems like an exceedingly rational policy. Not to mention it should reduce the amount of garbage you will find on your next post-storm walk on the beach.

Posted in Los Angeles, Science and Innovation | No Comments »