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County Supervisor Zev Yaroslavsky, Guangyu Wang, Shelley Luce, both of Bay Restoration, Damian Skinner of Culver City, County Supervisor Mark Ridley-Thomas
The Santa Monica Bay Restoration Commission, with partner City of Culver City, yesterday was awarded the County Green Leadership Award for a Public Agency for their Culver City Rainwater Harvesting program.
The annual awards — recognizing innovative energy conservation and environmental efforts by the private and public sectors — were presented by County Supervisor Mark Ridley Thomas, Chairman during the Board of Supervisors meeting.
“We are excited to be selected for this program, the first of its kind in Culver City,” said Damian Skinner, Environmental Programs & Operations Manager for Culver City. “Community response has been really positive. Working with Bay Restoration made implementing the program extremely easy. It provided us the tools to continue the program in the future.”
Culver City Rainwater Harvesting was developed to involve Culver City residents and property owners in local urban water management, through participating in best management practices on their properties. Normally, rainwater flowing over sidewalks, driveways and streets picks up pollutants (lead, copper, nitrate, phosphorous, bacteria) before flowing into storm drains and out to rivers and beaches.
Capturing rainwater from rooftops — before it becomes polluted runoff — protects rivers and Santa Monica Bay. It also helps conserve water resources. Residents can use rainwater on their gardens and cut down on their water bills as well.
Culver City Rainwater Harvesting installed 396 rain barrels and redirected rainwater to gardens and lawns, while providing individualized landscape consultations to residents. It provided direct education to 1,000 residents at public events and through the distribution of literature online and in print. The rain barrels capture between 175,000 and 400,000 gallons of storm water that otherwise would have flowed into the Santa Monica Bay each year. The pilot program was also implemented to evaluate the overall cost and effectiveness of an ongoing rainwater-harvesting program.
“It was amazing to see how excited residents were to contribute to the protection of our watershed,” said Ivan Medel,the program manager.
The Santa Monica Bay Restoration Commission is a state commission established in 2002 by the Legislature. It replaces the Santa Monica Bay Restoration Project, which was established in 1988 by the state and the EPA as a National Estuary Program under the Clean Water Act. (http://www.smbrc.ca.gov/)
The Santa Monica Bay Restoration Foundation site is www.santamonicabay.org.
Ms. Du Brow may be contacted at jdubrow@santamonicabay.org
