For World Water Day last year, Angelenos took part in a March for Water. This year we’re get a World Water Day Los Angeles complete with watery lectures, demos, and a forum — as well as traditional dance, a drum circle, live animal presentations and other kid-friendly activities! (via L.A. Creek Freak)

World Water Day’s actually on March 22, but World Water Day Los Angeles celebrations will happen a few days early to coincide with the Natural History Museum’s Sustainable Sundays series:

When: Sun., March 14 from 9:30 am – 3:30 pm
Where: Natural History Museum, 900 Exposition Blvd., Los Angeles.
Cost: Free

Fittingly, World Water Day L.A.’s a disposable water bottle-free event — so make sure you take your own reusable bottle!

Love water but not too excited about the horde of loud kids sure to be running around the museum? Lucky you — another watery event’s happening in L.A. on Sunday. Tour the L.A. River with Friends of the Los Angeles River! See the waterway up close, find out about its revitalization plans, and get a lesson on L.A. eco-history. I took the tour a few years back –

This carpool tour will go from the San Fernando Valley to Downtown L.A., with stops for tacos and cream puffs. Meet up Sun. March 14, at 9:30 am at the River Center, 570 W Ave. 26, Los Angeles to form carpools and caravan around until 4 pm. Cost: $25, or $20 for FoLAR members. RSVP required to Shelly at mail@folar.org or 323-223-0585.

If you’d like to celebrate World Water Day by giving money to a good cause, consider FoLAR to benefit a great local nonprofit — or Wherever the Need to benefit an international nonprofit currently involved with relief efforts in Haiti by delivering clean water and sanitation.

Images via worldwaterdayla.com

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>> Living near freeways is still not good for you — but many Angelenos have moved into “black lung lofts” unaware of long term health risks (via LAist):

The new study [by USC scientists] showed that alarming numbers of children ages 10 to 18 who live within about a block — 528 feet — of a Southern California freeway suffer reduced lung development, a deficit likely to persist through adulthood, and which may increase the risk of respiratory disease and premature death.

City zoning laws and planning decisions haven’t taken these highway-related pollution studies into account. In fact, the LA Weekly article argues city laws have encouraged more people to live in these polluted areas:

Today, in fact, the Department of City Planning chief Gail Goldberg and the Office of Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa concede to L.A. Weekly that nobody in City Hall is tracking, or can even estimate, the number of children who have moved into housing erected within 500 feet of freeways since scientists documented the chilling health effects. Los Angeles lawmakers are making no effort to measure the human health costs of such housing.

Earlier: Death by Smogging: Ultrafine particles in Los Angeles

>> Power plants create heat pollution in the oceans, and environmentalists are trying to make them pay. Basically, the plants suck in cool ocean water — along with little sea creatures — to cool their plants, the dump the warmed water — with now-dead sea creatures — back into the ocean.

Federal rules have banned new plants from drawing in seawater for so-called “once-through” cooling systems. Now the state water board wants to apply this rule to the 19 existing plants dotting the coast from Eureka to San Diego. The board’s proposal … would require plants to supplant seawater pipes with massive cooling towers that recycle water, or to use air-cooling platforms.

>> Tougher emissions rules could make the ports cleaner. The South Coast Air Quality Management District proposed rules to put regulatory teeth into the current voluntary pollution reduction targets. These “backstop rules,” if passed, would make polluters pay for not reducing pollution.

Each year, pollution from the movement of goods through the region contributes to an estimated 2,100 early deaths, 190,000 sick days for workers, and 360,000 school absences, according to the California Air Resources Board.

Photo by andropolis

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>> Kit, the cute sea otter pup. Watch an adorable 11-week-old sea otter pup swim and play on Monterey Bay Aquarium’s Otter Cam.

>> Sailing against disposable plastic waste’s become a popular eco-activity. The upcycled JUNK boat that sailed from Long Beach to Hawaii in 2008 was apparently the raft that launched a thousand ships — or at least about a half dozen eco-boats. At FilterForGood last week, I wrote about eco initiatives like 5 Gyres, Project Kasei, and banking fortune heir and environmental activist David de Rothschild’s Plastiki — which the L.A. Times also wrote about yesterday.

>> California farm jobs aren’t disappearing due to water restrictions. Last year, farmers facing water restrictions warned of disaster, and this year, Senator Diane Feinstein wants to weaken the Endangered Species Act to up water deliveries to San Joaquin Valley farms to pereerve jobs. However, the L.A. Times reports that “state data show farm jobs declined less than half a percent from 2008 to 2009″:

Though photographs of farmers bulldozing their almond groves for lack of water were a media favorite, California had more acres of bearing almond trees last year than ever before.

Photo via Monterey Bay Aquarium

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So you’ve been BYO-ing your own reusable bag to the grocery store for years. And you’ve heard a lot about how disposable bags could get disposed of real soon, thanks to anti-one-use-bag laws-to-be in California. And you’re wondering if your BYO-ing ways will become every Angeleno’s 2010 New Year’s resolution.

Ha ha!

Okay — The situation’s not THAT bad. We’ve got many allies on our side, and A Day Without a Bag in the works. Plus, the move to ban plastic bags isn’t simply an environmental one in SoCal, considering the fact that our tourist dollars depend on clean-looking, not-too-plasticky beaches. But despite pretty widespread support for a plastic bag ban, these bans are a hard time coming.

Why? The plastic bag industry, which has been killing marine life with its products for years, is marketing itself as an endangered species in need of environmental protection.

That’s right — The plastic industry’s renamed itself the “Save the Plastic Bag” coalition. And it’s arguing that the California Environmental Quality Act — which requires environmental impact reports for projects and plans that may harm the environment — applies to plastic bag bans! The industry’s saying that cities and counties must be required to conduct time-consuiming environmental impact study to see if banning plastic bags could be bad for the environment. Mark Gold, President of environmental nonprofit Heal the Bay, wrote about this crazy irony back in January:

If you were to believe the letter [from the plastic industry] that reads as if it came straight out of Lewis Carroll, banning plastic bags will lead to major climate change and deforestation impacts.

Thank God the plastic industry is trying to save us from global warming….

Surely, this is the definition of insanity. Also, the precedent of being forced to complete an EIR on every ordinance or zoning change is beyond horrifying, and would lead to a perpetual state of inertia in local government.

Sadly, the plastic industry’s been quite successful at using environmental laws to stall plastic bag bans. Remember how Manhattan Beach voted to ban these bags back in July 2008? That city got sued, so the ban’s still not in effect. L.A. County voted in not-even-that-threatening voluntary reductions, to be followed up by a bag ban if agreed-upon reductions don’t happen by July 2010 — and got sued by the plastic bag industry. Santa Monica started working on an ordinance for a ban in Feb. 2008 — then decided in Jan. 2009 to hold off on passing a ban because the plastic bag industry threatened to sue.

The one city that hasn’t gotten sued is Malibu, whose plastic bag ban went into effect Oct. 2008. Why no lawsuit? Who knows? “It’s very bizarre,” said Kirsten James of Heal the Bay earlier this week, “but it’s good news that they slipped through the cracks.”

So what happens now? Kirsten James says that local counties and cities are trying to work together on joint Environmental Impact Reports to cut costs. The hope is that L.A. County will be able to complete its EIR by spring, before the automatic ban trigger kicks in, thereby throwing off the plastic industry’s lawsuit.

And hopefully, the City of L.A. will see a ban soon too. The Los Angeles City Council actually voted to ban plastic bags by Jan. 1, 2010 if a statewide user-fee on plastic or paper bags has not been established by that time. No state law’s been passed, which means a city-wide ban should become reality — except the a ban doesn’t automatically kick in Jan. 1. The City Council now needs to pass an ordinance to adopt a city-wide policy banning plastic bags — which isn’t likely happen before Jan. 1, according to Kirsten James. This means Angelenos need to put pressure on the City Council to pass that ordinance ASAP.

On the state level, my own state assemblymember Julia Brownley introduced AB68, which, if passed, would put a 25 cent fee on paper and plastic bags, with the revenue going to local governments to help clean up trash and litter. Kirsten James says the bill’s stuck in its first house at the moment, but hope remains: “The budget is an excuse for a lot of things in the last year … but we see this as a potential revenue generator.”

Want the city to pass a bag ban ASAP? Write your councilmembers asking for the ordinance they promised. Want the state to tax the bag? Heal the Bay’s Trashed site has a handy letter supporting AB68 you can send to the California Legislature.

Earlier: Bring your own bag: How to BYOB in easy eco-style

Photo by Envirowoman

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How clean is the tap water in Los Angeles? Compared to other cities, not that clean. The L.A. Department of Water and Power ranks an embarrassing 83 out of 100 city utilities ranked in a drinking water quality analysis conducted by the eco-nonprofit Environmental Working Group. Our water’s contains a rather worrying amount of disinfection byproducts — and a not-insignificant amount of arsenic (2.6 parts per billion)!

Get your water from Metropolitan Water District of Southern California instead? Then your water’s somewhat cleaner, since your utility rank’s 58. The water from NoCal cities Sacramento, San Francisco, and Oakland score way better than Los Angeles, and even Anaheim and Long Beach residents enjoy less chemically polluted water than we do. On the upsdide, L.A. does beat out Riverside and San Diego — both of which made the 10 lowest rated water utilities list!

But before you run off to buy bottled water, remember that bottled water’s less regulated than tap water, and thus not guaranteed to be any safer — which is one of the many reasons eco-minded and health conscious people opt against one-use, disposable water bottles. That said, obviously tap water isn’t perfect, whether the issues are a simple matter of taste or deeper concerns about safety and health.

Those issues are what EWG’s trying to bring to light. While local water suppliers meet the Environmental Protection Agency’s water quality standards 92 percent of the time, these standards are outdated and not stringent enough. EWG analyzed the results of almost 20 million drinking water tests from water utilities conducted since 2004 — to find 316 pollutants, more than half of which aren’t even regulated.

What’s an Angeleno to do? Look into water filters. EWG’s kindly put together a useful tip sheet for selecting a filter that works for you, so you’ll be able to pick based on what you want your filter to do, whether it’s to make better tasting water or to take out a particular contaminant. This guide to safe drinking water (PDF) will also show you at a glance some simple steps you can take to stay hydrated and safe.

The bigger issue, of course, is making our tap water cleaner to begin with, instead of trying to get out the chemicals once it’s already in our homes. While EWG recommends that the EPA tighten regulations and make water quality info more easily accessible, the nonprofit points at the bigger problem of water pollution that’s contaminating our water to begin with:

By failing to clean up rivers and reservoirs that provide drinking water for hundreds of millions of Americans, EPA and the Congress force water utilities to spend heavily to make contaminated water drinkable. According to industry market studies, drinking water utilities spend more than $4 billion a year on water treatment chemicals alone. Less than one-twentieth that amount is invested in source water protection and pollution prevention, an average of $207 million per year (data for 1997-2008).

Since it’s easier and cheaper to not pollute in the first place than to clean up water that’s already been polluted, you can help clean up our tap water by supporting policies concerned with water protection and pollution prevention — like the Low Impact Development ordinance that’s currently under debate.

Earlier:
>> Bring your own cup and mug: An eco-stylish money-making habit
>> Film review: FLOW — Make clean water a human right

Photo by crazzie97

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>> Expect a less trashy L.A. River. Reports the L.A. Times: “Cities along the watershed are required by 2016 to keep all trash out of their storm drains. Those that don’t comply will now be in violation of the federal Clean Water Act,” now that the no-trash requirement’s been incorporated into storm water permits. Earlier: Pictorial Ode to the LA River.

>> Conserve water by kicking the Coke habit, urged The Yes Men in Copenhagen. “Production of the world’s favorite soft drink uses lots of water, and locating its plants in some of the more water-challenged parts of the world is what got Coke in the Yes Men’s crosshairs.” Earlier: Drink B’eau-Pal: Yes Men ‘help’ Dow Chemical profit from Bhopal disaster.

>> L.A. Mayor Villaraigosa’s going to Copenhagen, and Treepeople founder Andy Lipkis says Villaraigosa should just add water:

I told the mayor that as the elected leader of a massive city that is already experiencing pain and costs of climate change, not just with drought and long term water shortages, but also with deadly fires, and heat storms, he can tell credible stories of the reality and thereby help counteract the denial and belief by some that climate change doesn’t exist.

Further, I said that he can share this in a positive light because the people of Los Angeles are already beginning to respond to these threats to our water supply and our safety…. Despite his staff insisting that it was crazy to announce new drought-based watering restrictions on a rainy day, Mayor Villaraigosa went ahead and did it. And Los Angeles residents have responded to his call, cutting water use this by 18%, to the lowest level of water use in almost twenty years.

Earlier: Copenhagen Climate Talks begin! and Disillusioned in but hopeful after Copenhagen

>> Give BPA-free food donations. As you know, the lining used in cans for most canned food contains sexual dysfunction-linked BPA. Lou Bendrick at Grist has lots of tips on making your holiday food donations as green and healthy as possible.

>> Organic, BPA-free food too pricy? Save money in other areas of your holiday celebrations. Apparently, being frugal is back in fashion. A group of 5 women called Smart Cookies even “formed their own spenders’ support group, urging one another to stay out of the malls and stick to their goals. In two years, the group managed to pay off $50,000 in consumer debt.”

Earlier:
>> Shop less, give more: Get motivated for greener, leaner holidays
>> Inspiration to spend less this season — without feeling deprived

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Less than a month after making fun of a real bottled water company, Dasani, by rebranding it as Deception, The Yes Men are now creating their own bottled water, B’eauPal.

As you may have guessed, B’eauPal’s the faux French name for the chemical tainted water in Bhopal, India, where 25 years ago, a huge industrial accident resulted in a huge chemical spill that killed thousands of people. Believe it or not, that horrendous spill still hasn’t been cleaned up — neither by Union Carbide, which created the accident, nor by Dow Chemical, which bought Union Carbide in 2001.

That means Bhopal residents still have contaminated water. Which is why The Yes Men have now taken Dow Chemical’s “Let them drink B’eauPal” attitude and given it a fresh and attractive packaging, thanks to some help from London design firm Kennedy Monk. The Dow Chemical logo-inspired B’eau Pal logo’s affixed on an elegantly shaped bottle, which lets would-be drinkers know that “The unique qualities of our water come from 25 years of slow-leaching toxins at the site of the world’s largest industrial accident.”

The sad hilarity doesn’t stop there. B’eau-Pal comes with an ingredient list that boasts the bottle contains Dichlormethane, Carbon Tetrachloride, and Chloroform — chemicals that create health problems ranging from optic neuropathy to hepatitis to burns to coma to death.

Watch the hilarious video when the activists hype B’eauPal on the streets on London. The Yes Men actually tried taking B’eau Pal to Dow Chemical offices — to find that the company employees had locked up the office and run away for the day!

This isn’t the first time The Yes Men have gone after Dow Chemical about Bhopal. In fact, one of The Yes Men’s biggest pranks happened 5 years ago, on the 20th anniversary of the Bhopal disaster, when one of The Yes Men managed to successfully impersonate a Dow Chemical spokesperson on the BBC and “announcing” that the company would finally clean up the mess in Bhopal!

That fake news made Dow’s stock dip $2 billion temporarily — but unfortunately, still hasn’t gotten Dow to clean up its act. Find out more about the disaster and how you can help at The Bhopal Medical Appeal.

Earlier:
>> Film review: Yes Men Fix the World
>> The Yes Men scream, roll down steps, chase Senator Specter
>> The Yes Men pull of prank as U.S. Chamber of Commerce reps

Image via bhopalwater.com

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>> Metro’s ad campaigns are getting people out of their cars, according to The City Fix, which wants other transit agencies following L.A.’s example:

Following Metro’s re-brand, discretionary riders, those people who have the choice to commute by car or transit, have jumped from 24 to 36 percent…. Over time, a sustained investment in marketing increases the number of people who use transit. Increased ridership leads to increased revenue and, ideally, an increase in service to match the new demand.

I think other forces (i.e. higher gas prices) were at work in addition to the ads, but I do like the way this post addresses some people’s unquestioned assumption that money spent on marketing instead of transit itself is money wasted. Metro’s also more recently invested in a blog, The Source.

>> Angelenos are getting adept at water conservation! The L.A. Times reports: “Water use in the city was down 18.4% from June through October, the hottest and thirstiest time of the year. This marks the lowest water consumption in Los Angeles in the last 18 years at a time when the population has grown by an estimated 500,000.”

>> L.A.’s got more bike sharrows than ever — thanks not to actual city government projects. Writes Damien Newton at Streetsblog: “Oddly, [the sharrows] seem to be centered in the area surrounding the Bike Oven in NELA’s bike district.”

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Pretty much every time it rains in L.A., local eco-nonprofit TreePeople sends out a press release — not only about how much good clean rainwater we wasted by dumping into our gutters, but also about how much gross, motor oil-tainted, cigarette butt-infested urban runoff we spewed onto our beaches.

Now, the city of Los Angeles is working on a Low Impact Development Ordinance that’ll put a LID on that wasteful, polluting practice — and the city’s Department of Public Works Bureau of Sanitation wants to hear your two cents on the ordinance at a community meeting:

When: Tues., Dec. 1, 6:30 pm – 8:30 pm
Where: Bureau of Sanitation office at the Media Technical Center, 2714 Media Center Dr., Los Angeles.

According to the city’s press release, the LID ordinance would:

require all new or re-development projects to implement stormwater best management practices (BMPs) to capture, infiltrate and use the runoff from a rain event that creates 0.75 inches or less. Non-compliance will require developers to provide mitigation projects at other sites, or pay a fee to the City to fund other stormwater pollution prevent projects.

You can read the full ordinance here (PDF). The draft ordinance appears to have broad-based support from groups like Green LA Coalition and, of course, TreePeople itself, which hosted a meeting to push for this LID ordinance in September (Joe Linton of L.A. Creek Freak has all the details on that get together).

Keep tabs on the progress of the ordinance on the Bureau of Sanitation’s website or blog.

Earlier: Angelenos: Get your free rain barrel and save on your water bills

Photo by boutmuet

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Fix those dripping faucets — or your eco-conscious cat will glare at you! Okay — I’m not particularly adept at interpreting feline expressions, but check out the way this cat takes a break from lapping up faucet drips to look meaningfully into the camera:

That cat’s called Camembert, and belongs to my sister. And while I don’t think water conservation was the intent of Cammy’s YouTube debut, the short video made me wonder how much dripping faucets are costing us, environmentally speaking.

Luckily, the United States Geological Survey has a handy “drip accumulator” that lets you quickly figure out how much water your dripping faucet’s wasting. Just one faucet dripping a drop a second wastes 5 gallons of water a day!

So fix those faucets! And just so my sis doesn’t get eco-hate mail, here’s what she had to say about Cammy and the faucet:

That faucet isn’t leaky. If she sees me in the bathroom she’ll jump in the tub and look pleadingly at the faucet until I turn it on, but only just a little bit. If I do the stream any stronger she can’t get her lapping-groove on, and leaps out of the tub. She is really starting to delay my morning showers…

Incidentally, while my sis has named her cat after her favorite cheese, I’m horribly allergic to cats and lactose intolerant.

In other feline news, Santa Monica became the second California city to ban cat declawing.

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