Mission Statement: Heal the Bay is a non-profit environmental group working to make Santa Monica Bay and Southern California coastal waters safe and healthy again for people and marine life. We use research, education, community action and policy programs to achieve this goal.
2701 Ocean Park Blvd., Suite 150
Santa Monica, CA 90405
Phone: 310-581-4188; 800-HEAL-BAY (in CA)
Fax: 310-581-4195
E-mail: htb@healthebay.org
Web site: www.healthebay.org
Formed: 1985
Membership Cost: from $10/year for students to $500/year for sponsors
Chapters: 1
Executive Director: Mark Gold
From the Beach: 50% of total revenue from membership and contributions
To the Beach: 82% of total expenses used for programs and issues
Roots | Past Victories | Present Battles
Roots
Santa Monica has always tolerated nuts. Back before the town's yuppification, its residents included everything from housewives to scientists to anarchists to long-distance swimmers and surfers. In the early '80s, a group of these bizarro types began to worry about the health of the Santa Monica Bay.
Their concern stemmed from findings by Dr. T.K. Rimphey -- a man who had served on the California Coastal Commission and in other official capacities -- about the causal relationship between the pollution from sewage and storm drains and the cruddy smell of the bay's often coffee-colored water. What's more, Rimphey and others established that a large patch of the bay was essentially lifeless, supporting, according to current Heal the Bay Executive Director Mark Gold, "only a peculiar sort of clam which usually only flourishes near undersea volcanic vents." Other transient visitors to the local waters, like dolphins and a few fish, had tumors.
In the fall of 1995, the informal group coalesced around the idea that the bay didn't have to be a lifeless sewer. Leading the charge was Dorothy Green. "At the time," says Green, "I was the president of the Los Angeles League of Conservation Voters. I was between issues, and from my job, I knew how to organize and work with government."
While "working with government" is anathema to many environmental sects, Green says it's been a part of the group's ethos from its creation. "That has always been our hallmark: saying to government: 'Here's a better way of doing things.'"
By February of 1996, the group achieved nonprofit status and decided to call themselves Heal the Bay. "That first year, our biggest project was to get a speaker's bureau going and recruit people to go out into the community," recalls Green. "All the meetings were held at my house. The first meeting, 50 people showed up. We spent the whole morning asking people to tell us why they cared."
As soon as we organized," continues Green, "we started getting calls from surfers with infected ears and rashes. We found out the lifeguards had an inordinate history of cancer and health problems, but the county didn't recognize the links between water quality and these illnesses."
It also found out the City of Los Angeles had been noncompliant with the Clean Water Act for years, in large part due to the Hyperion Water Treatment Plant dumping sewage sludge directly into the bay.
Heal the Bay began signing up members, holding rallies and pressuring the press to inform the public at large. It also joined an EPA lawsuit against the city, which eventually forced a giant upgrade of Hyperion's facilities, replacement of a major sewer line that was regularly fouling Ballona Creek and an end to the dumping. All told, L.A. was forced to spend $3.5 billion on water quality.
Though the EPA had certainly marshaled impressive legal leverage, it was Heal the Bay that fostered local support and offered a voice to the citizens of the community. So much so that the organization was granted "Friends of the Court" status in the consent decree to clean up Hyperion and congregated quarterly with the city to ensure all deadlines were met.
It was a huge victory for a tiny organization. Two years later, amidst ongoing efforts to bust shady officials on the Water Quality Control Board and develop a State of the Bay Report, the group was at a crossroads. In 1988, Heal the Bay had just held its first fundraiser and had about $5,000 in the bank. Although meager by Sierra Club standards, that amount was significant because it meant the ability to plan beyond next week. And when Green and company began planning, they saw the chance to go big. "I was the first [paid] hire in 1988," says then scientist and current Executive Director Gold. "In the summer of '88, the organization blew up from 500 to 2,500 members." And moving on in 1989, the group attracted 4,000 participants for a children's march and garnered another huge increase in membership.
By then, the organization's staff doubled to 20, and Green's exit via a bout of land-borne hepatitis. Adi Liberman, who was a former chief of staff to enviro-warrior/state Senator Tom Hayden, came on as executive director.
In the intervening years, the organization has had many more victories and even a few controversies. Its sometimes-cooperative stance toward government agencies has generated heat from other green groups, especially those fighting the development of the Ballona Wetlands.
While Gold says the organization is "waiting for the rest of the project to be proposed," Surfrider and others have criticized it for not joining the coalition of groups opposing the development of L.A. County's last remaining coastal wetlands (which Heal the Bay's web site acknowledges as "the largest storm drain in the Santa Monica Bay watershed.")
Despite such criticisms, it's undeniable that Heal the Bay has improved water quality off the California coast. With efforts to improve coastal access, limit development and monitor pollution, the organization remains involved in dozens of vital environmental actions throughout Southern California.
Past Victories
(1987) Effectively ended the dumping of sewage sludge (solids removed during sewage treatment) into the bay by joining an EPA lawsuit that forced Los Angeles into compliance with the Clean Water Act
As a result, the city spent $3.5 billion providing full secondary treatment and upgrading the Hyperion Sewage Treatment Plant, the Tillman Sewage Facility in the Sepulveda Basin and a main line that often fouled Ballona Creek. There has been a 90 percent reduction in amount of sewage solids going into the bay.
(1990) Began issuing a weekly Beach Report Card that grades beaches from "A" though "F" based on city and county of Los Angeles data
While the weekly frequency of the reports is a bit weak, the letter grades have proven invaluable for grabbing media attention and raising local awareness about water quality issues.
(1992) Led the way toward implementation of a uniform Beach Closure and Health Warning Protocol
Previously, beach closures were entirely at the discretion of the County Health Department. Heal the Bay negotiated standards of safety for bacteria and mandated closures after those levels were reached.
(1997) Along with Donna Frye, coauthored and sponsored legislation that set, for the first time ever, statewide bathing water standards
Previously, each county had its own ritual, but beginning in April 1999, all popular beaches in California were uniformly monitored for fecal indicator bacteria and the public notified in the event of poor water quality at the beach. These tests were directly responsible for the discovery of monstrous levels of enterococcus bacteria at Huntington Beach in the summer of 1999.
(1998) Pressured the Regional Water Quality Control Board to issue a permit forbidding Malibu's Tapia Water Reclamation Plant from discharging even treated sewage into Malibu Creek from April 15-November 15
(Done in conjunction with a coalition that included BayKeeper and the National Resource Defense Council.) While it doesn't address rainy season overflow, the order does keep poo form Agoura Hills, Westlake and Calabasas from breaching the lagoon during summer.
Present Battles
(1997-) Fighting for the cleanup of 100 tons of DDT dumped over a 12-square-mile area off Palos Verdes in the '40s
As the only environmental organization that sits on the Superfund Advisory Board for the site, Heal the Bay is discouraging dredging -- which would only stir up the contamination -- and encouraging careful tests scheduled for summer to cap the area with clean sediment. Also working with government on a risk-communication program for commercial fishermen and Asian population based on its own study about the dangers of eating DDT-contaminated white croker from the area.
(1999-) Formed a volunteer Stream Team trained to collect baseline data needed by Heal the Bay, the State Coastal Conservancy and other agencies to monitor the current conditions of the 110-square-mile Malibu Creek Watershed
Data collection activities consist of stream-walking and water-chemistry testing aimed at improving the state of both Malibu Lagoon State Park and Surfrider Beach as well as protecting the endangered tidewater goby and steelhead trout.
(2000-) Beach Report Card expanded to include San Diego County
This will mean weekly updates are for all of Southern California.
(2000-) Helping create a new educational program called Key to the Sea
Partnering with L.A, County Department of Education, the Cabrillo Marine Aquarium and other institutions in creating Key to the Sea, an educational program targeting 10,000 kindergarteners to fifth graders to create stewardship and a conservation ethic. Includes everything from teacher training to on-the-beach education projects that can be used during field trips.
(2000-) Keeping a close eye on government spending
Working with State Assemblywoman Sheila Kuehl to put water quality standards into stormwater permits and ensures as much as possible of the $4 billion windfall from propositions 12 (a park bond act) and 13 (a water bond act) goes toward improving water quality and protecting watersheds. As a part of this effort, Executive Director Mark Gold has won the Chair of the Steering Committee for the Santa Monica Bay Restoration Project, which will receive $25 million from Prop 13. --Tom Tapp
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