Please VOTE TO HAVE PRESIDENT OBAMA SPEAK AT THEIR GRADUATION. Voting will only last three days and the date hasn’t been set yet, so add them on Facebook and Twitter for updates.

Environmental Charter High School students founded the first ever Surfrider Rise Above Plastics student speaker group. Last year, these students got 7,000+ people in Los Angeles to Rise Above Plastics by delivering educational and inspiring presentations. This year they have trained another group of students at Westridge High School to do the same. They are rewriting the story of education, and of the planet.

The Cycle of Insanity: The Real Story of Water is a short, animated film made by a collaboration of creative and dedicated volunteers at The Surfrider Foundation. Several local Surfrider Foundation chapters combined their talents and funds to create the film — and then actress Zuleikha Robinson of Lost, generously agreed to narrate it.

The premise of the film is that the water cycle we all learned about in the 4th grade has been dramatically altered over time, leaving us with a broken system that wastes water and energy, pollutes our natural waterways, harms critical marine life, and poorly deals with flooding and other water management problems. The film serves to take a holistic look at water management, highlight controversial problems, and suggest solutions that integrate multiple economic and environmental benefits. The intended audience includes entire communities: from homeowners and the general public, to public agencies and elected government officials.

Broad Beach history:

• Summer 2005, Broad Beach homeowners illegally bulldozed sand from the  public portion of the beach onto their private property.
• June 28, 2005 – Malibu Chapter held a protest at Broad Beach – see attached Media Alert.
• August 12th, 2005 -  the California Coastal Commission issued a cease and desist against the Trancas Property Owner’s Association,  ordering an end to the posting of no trespassing or private property signs and the use of security guards on ATVs who often intimidated  visitors.
• Feb 2009 – Malibu Times article re: public complaints on sand bags at Broad Beach
• June 2, 2009 – Surfrider Foundation reps met with a Trancas Homeowner rep to discuss the situation.   We made it clear at that time that any plans to put in a permanent hard structure, either below or above the sand or even offshore… would not be supported by Surfrider Foundation.

Below is taken directly from Surfrider’s position on Beach Preservation:

In areas where erosion threatens existing coastal development, the Surfrider Foundation advocates appropriate long-term solutions that maximize public benefit. These include:

• Landward retreat of structures from dynamic shorelines

Where landward retreat is not feasible, beach nourishment** projects may be considered, on a case by case basis, as viable alternatives for short-term beach preservation.

Under no circumstances does the Surfrider Foundation support the installation of stabilization or sand retention structures along the coastline. Such structures can protect existing coastline development but have no place in beach preservation.

Additional information:

Broad Beach in the L.A. Times – http://www.latimes.com/news/local/la-me-broad-beach2-2010feb02,0,369064.story?track=rss

(SANTA MONICA) January 25, 2010 – As heavy rain fell in Los Angeles, Santa Monica High School students in the Surfrider Teach & Test program hit the beach to see how the rain is affecting water quality in the Santa Monica Bay.  These environmentally-conscious students have been monitoring enterococcus bacteria levels in the ocean year round and have been seeing moderately normal results, which suggests that our ocean has been relatively safe for swimming and surfing.  Results from this past week, however, have been quite shocking, with bacteria levels weighing in at more than double what the EPA considers safe.

Bacteria levels at the Santa Monica Pier were 223, which is 119 organisms per milliliter higher than the EPA safety threshold of 104. The Pico-Kenter storm drain at the end of Pico Boulevard had bacteria levels that averaged at 120, and Ocean Park sampled at 331. Students also tested water quality at the storm drain underneath the Santa Monia Pier, which the city replaced last year due to leaks that were causing poor water quality grades.  Bacteria levels in the storm drain runoff were a scary 7,915—more than 75 times higher than what the EPA considers safe.

Students advise highly against surfing or swimming during and after these heavy rains—despite the swell the storm may bring.  “It’s best to stay out of the water for at least 72 hours after it rains in LA,” states Zack Gold, a student in the program, “this is when bacteria levels are the highest, increasing your likelihood of getting sick.” Katie Rowbotham, another student in the program adds, “Fecal bacteria is just one of the many harmful things urban runoff carries, which can include trash, cigarette butts, pathogens and even heavy metals.”

Shocked by their findings, these committed students are even more inspired to be involved in doing everything possible to make their ocean a clean and safe place for fun.  For more information about the program, or to find out how you can help prevent urban runoff, visit: http://teachtestsm.blogspot.com/.

By Jonathan Friedman / Special to The Malibu Times

A Los Angeles Regional Water Quality Control Board official last week accused the city of distorting the preliminary findings of studies being conducted on Malibu water pollution. But at least one scientist says city officials are telling the truth, and accused the RWQCB official of interpreting the findings in a way so she can reach the conclusion she wants.

Elizabeth Erickson made the accusation against the city during a workshop at Pepperdine University on the RWQCB’s proposal to ban septic systems in most of eastern Malibu. While RWQCB official say septic systems are to blame for most of the watershed pollution, city officials have cited five studies currently being conducted that have reached a different conclusion in their preliminary findings.

“That’s a distortion as far as I can tell,” Erickson said at the workshop. “It’s not what the researchers are telling me.” … Full Story at Malibu Times

The aspiring fiction writer and former special effects makeup artist is more than 60 days deep in her quest to keep Santa Monica State Beach clean, spending 20 minutes over 365 non-consecutive days picking up cigarette butts, plastic wrappers and even hypodermic needles.

Bayles wants to see how many pounds of trash she can collect, weighing and separating recyclables while posting her findings on her blog, www.thedailyocean.blogspot.com. The experiment began in March. Full Story at Santa Monica Daily Press

The top vote-getter will be awarded $2,500, with second- and third-places receiving $1,500 and $1,000. Votes will be accepted at the store September 24 through October 24. Participants can cast one vote per store per visit. While no purchase is necessary, we encourage you to shop while you vote for OFG.

On Sunday, October 4th & 11th, OFG will be tabling at Patagonia’s Santa Monica Store — 2936 Main St. So, come in and say hello. Winners will be announced at the end of October.

Link to VYC page on Patagonia’s website: http://www.patagonia.com/web/us/patagonia.go?assetid=1957

Google Map for the Patagonia store:

View Larger Map

The ocean is off-limits for a half-mile on either side of the storm drain at the beach. The closure is expected to last until at least noon Friday. Full Story on CBS

http://www.greenobservers.org/urban-runoff.html