Check out Heal the Bay’s mockumentary narrated by Jeremy Irons, on the plastic bag’s adventures as it travels to the great garbage patch in the Pacific.
July 27, 2010
By Daniel Strain and Mark Shwartz
Within the sludge of wastewater treatment plants is an invisible world teeming with microbes. Here, diverse species of bacteria convert solid and liquid wastes into gases, some of which contribute to global warming.
Now two Stanford University engineers are developing a new sewage treatment process that would actually increase the production of two greenhouse gases – nitrous oxide (aka, “laughing gas”) and methane – and use the gases to power the treatment plant.
Water, along with plastic bags and other trash, rushes head-on into a metal stormdrain gate that will soon be installed in 16 cities upstream along the Los Angeles River. Credit: Long Beach Post
About 12,000 metal gates will be installed at the opening of stormdrains in sixteen cities that empty into the Los Angeles River, as a measure to reduce pollution that accumulates in the river and ultimately, the Pacific Ocean and the coast of Long Beach.
Come join us for a LABS-SARBS event to help clean up the coast! Hawaiian picnic to follow.
When: Saturday, September 25, 2010
Clean-Up – 9:00 am to 1 pm
Picnic – 1 pm to end
Where: Doheny State Beach
25300 Dana Point Harbor Drive, Dana Point
Cost: Event is free, but State Beach parking fee is $15 per vehicle
Questions? Contact Paul Schmidtbauer at 949-234-5412
See event flyer for more information
Equinox Center Study Shows Treated Wastewater Safe To Drink
SAN DIEGO — When it comes to the prospect of turning wastewater into drinking water, a new report from the non-partisan research group Equinox Center shows it could be safer than most would think.
“Purified, recycled water is safer to drink than what we are drinking today,” said Aaron Contorer of the Equinox Center. “A significant portion of our water today is extracted from wastewater upstream.”
The Equinox Center’s report reveals a map of some 350 sewage plants that discharge wastewater into the waterways the country draws its water from before it is treated locally.
Essentially, the report shows everyone routinely drinks recycled wastewater.
Las Vegas already recycles its wastewater to drink, and that drinking water also ends up in the San Diego water supply.
“All the tests have shown purified, recycled water is safe and clean,” said Contorer. “According to our research, it’s safer, cleaner, more reliable and uses less energy than other water sources.”
The Equinox Center’s report comes days ahead of a critical vote, when the San Diego City Council will vote on a construction contract for an $11.8 million wastewater recycling pilot project.
It is a first step that could lead to recycled water in San Diego faucets if it is deemed successful.
Other areas that have wastewater-to-tap programs included Long Beach, Orange County, Reno and the country of Singapore.
Heather Wylie was a key instigator of what must be the biggest, most important boating expedition ever undertaken on the Los Angeles River.
With two dozen others in kayaks and canoes, she braved the river’s shallow waters, paddling past garbage trucks at the water’s edge, homeless bathers and other unexpected riparian obstacles.
“I’ve never had so much fun on a boating trip,” Wylie told me. “It was a new kind of adventure.”
That adventure cost Wylie, then a 29-year-old government biologist, her job — and $60,000 salary — with the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers. But it helped save the L.A. River.
Here’s an entertaining video describing how bottled water is bad for the environment and promoting switching back to tap water. There’s an interesting comment on how our clean water infrastructure is under-funded as well:
Link to video
Annie Leonard used to spout jargon. She reveled in the sort of geek-speak that glazes your eyeballs.
Externalized costs, paradigm shifts, the precautionary principle, extended producer responsibility.
That was before she discovered cartoons.
During the rainy season, the city of L.A. sends 100 million gallons of untreated runoff into the Pacific Ocean.
Tuesday, the city’s engineering department signed off on six standard plans that can be used to prevent some of the flow coming from parkways, highways, alleyways and cemented curb areas and divert it into the ground where it can recharge groundwater and prevent pollutants from reaching waterways. The plans give specific guidelines for installing swales, vegetation, permeable pavement and other systems to prevent storm water from flowing over nonporous surfaces into storm drains.
“What we’re trying to do here is take storm water or urban runoff and infiltrate it in streets or alleys and make it consistent so that people aren’t frustrated with trying to do something innovative,” said Gary Moore, engineer for the city of L.A. “We’ve developed standard plans, we’ve done the details, we’ve done the engineering to enable the city or a developer to use the plans to implement the desired solution.”
Developed in partnership with the city’s Board of Public Works, Bureau of Sanitation and Bureau of Engineering, the standard plans have been in the works for six months and will be available for free online starting July 9 at http://www.eng.lacity.org.
“There are more than 6,500 miles of streets in Los Angeles,” Moore said of the plans that will be used for street reconstruction, street widening, landscape medians and other projects. “There’s a lot of potential.”
Moving aggressively forward to improve water quality and protect public health at the world-renowned Paradise Cove, the City of Malibu today hosted a beach party and picnic to celebrate the launch of its Clean Ocean Project, an innovative facility to capture, clean and disinfect stormwater and urban runoff before it reaches the Pacific.
Photo: LA Team Effort
The keyword is “We”… the collaboration between the Mar Vista community and LA Stormwater set the bar for what is possible when the community gives up the ‘why don’t they…’ attitude and works with the city towards a greener LA! Read more
