In the flooding rain that has engulfed UCLA the last few days, the main concern on most people’s minds is how to get to class.
Yet in the millions of gallons of rain that have been pouring down, far larger problems are hitting the city of Los Angeles.
One such concern is the runoff of pollutants, which travel directly from the storm drains to the bay, and how this runoff affects the cleanliness of beach water.
The 2010 State of the Bay Report, recently released by the Santa Monica Bay Restoration Commission, not only addresses this runoff but illustrates considerable improvements in the bay’s ocean floor habitats and sewage water treatments.
“I think the principal message is that when we do put effort and thought into improving the environmental conditions, it works,” said Lia Protopapadakis, marine science and policy analyst for the commission, who helped write the report.
The report included accomplishments such as a marked improvement in the quality of water at Santa Monica Bay beaches.
While storm drain water used to flow directly to the ocean, the city installed low-flow diversions and on-site treatment plants in order to filter out trash and pollutants.
However, one caveat is that this system only works during dry weather. During rainy seasons, the water overwhelms these low-flow diversions and flows out onto the beach.
UCLA students have been working to alleviate the pollution problems by participating in various environmental projects. Student group E3 ““ Ecology, Economy, Equity ““ did a Santa Monica beach cleanup in September, said Organization Chair Rebecca Miller.
“I believe that we, along with other people in the Los Angeles community who help in cleaning up the pollution, have a great aggregate effect,” said Miller, a fourth-year anthropology and environmental science student.
In addition to the cleaner beach water, the report noted a recovery of the ocean’s floor habitats due to the quality of treated sewage water.
In previous decades, sewage from the county of Los Angeles flowed into the bay and was treated by decomposer bacteria, said the restoration commission’s Executive Director Shelley Luce.
This oxygen-intensive process prevented other organisms from surviving in this newly created “dead zone,” she added.
Eventually, the city plants upgraded to full secondary treatments, successfully turning out sewage that is not biologically active.
However, the effect of the new treatment took years to become apparent.
“It’s taken eight to 10 years to fully see the difference in the biological community around where those pipes discharge (sewage),” Luce said.
Despite these new developments, the report also noted several issues that have yet to be resolved.
“I think the most alarming observation I have each time I do a beach cleanup is the amount of plastic on the beach that makes its way to the bay,” Miller said.
“It ends up having the most adverse effect on water ecosystems.”
Luce urged people not to litter because during rainy days, the garbage rushes with the water into storm drains and goes directly to the ocean.
“We have a really big problem with trash in the bay,” Luce said. “Fish mistake (trash) for tiny creatures they want to eat. They starve to death with bellies full of bottle caps and plastic bag pieces.”
Miller also noted that from the different times she has visited to conduct cleanups, she has not seen a significant improvement in the amount of garbage littering the beach.
In addition, another major problem is urban runoff: industrial, domestic and transportation-related pollution all contribute to the challenges of keeping the bay clean.
“The best visual I have is if you haven’t washed your car in a month,” Protopapadakis said. “It looks dirty, and when it rains or if you wash your car, everything (that’s on your car) runs into the ocean.”
Many pollutant materials, from pesticides to garden fertilizer to metal particles from tires, make their way into the bay, Protopapadakis added.
“Storm water is now known to be the biggest source of pollutants to the bay,” said Keith Stolzenbach, associate director of the UCLA Institute of the Environment and professor of civil and environmental engineering.
While the low-flow diversions help treat this polluted storm water, the bay and its wildlife still face a number of problems, to which UCLA students are quick to lend their help.
“Day to day, if you consider your impact and work to lessen it, then our bays and forests and oceans would be a lot cleaner for it,” Miller said.