Local Topics
Local environmental issues: watersheds, beaches, wetlands and waste
Almost every environmental problem is settled locally. Water quality is regulated in California by the State Water Resources Control Board through nine Regional Water Quality Control Boards, each drawn around a watershed rather than a county line — which is why a pollution problem is usually described by the river or bay it drains into, not by the town it started in.
Beach water is monitored on a fixed schedule. Under California's AB 411 rules, beaches with high visitor numbers are tested weekly for bacterial indicators during the busy season, and postings or closures follow when counts exceed the health standard. Most of those exceedances follow rainfall, because urban stormwater runs off roofs, roads and driveways into storm drains and reaches the ocean untreated — a storm drain is not a sewer, and nothing that enters one is cleaned on the way out.
Wetland restoration is the other long game. The Bolsa Chica wetlands in Orange County are among the largest restored coastal wetlands in Southern California, reconnected to tidal flow in 2006 after decades of oil production and development pressure. Restored wetlands do real work: they filter runoff, buffer storm surge, and provide nursery habitat for fish and nesting sites for shorebirds.
Things that genuinely help locally
- Stay off the sand for 72 hours after heavy rain — that is the standard public-health advisory window for urban beaches, and it exists because of runoff.
- Redeem your CRV containers — California's deposit is 5¢ on beverage containers under 24 oz and 10¢ at 24 oz and above.
- Keep the storm drain clean — fertiliser, motor oil, paint and pet waste on a driveway are all one rainfall away from the ocean.
- Plant for the local climate — native and drought-adapted planting cuts both irrigation demand and the runoff that carries garden chemicals downstream.
Useful and Interesting Links
Each of the links below opens in a new browser window, so The-Environment.net stays open behind it. Several are California agencies and Southern California groups — if you are elsewhere, look for your own state water board and county health agency, which run the same kind of programmes.
Dedicated to inspiring the people of Los Angeles to take personal responsibility for their environment by training and supporting them as they plant and care for trees.
Tips for Hosting your own recycling drive
Organization dedicated to making Santa Monica Bay and Southern California coastal waters safe and healthy again for people and marine life.
is a non-profit, non-political organization whose mission is to advocate the restoration and preservation of the Bolsa Chica Wetlands.
is "A Wild Place to Shop and Eat!® Our unique restaurant and retail concept is an adventure through the most realistic indoor rain forest ever created! Discover amazingly lush surroundings, cascading waterfalls, and beautiful giant aquariums."
The Orange County Health Care Agency (OCHCA) has responsibility for local beach closures and advisories. OCHCA uses monitoring data from its own monitoring program, OCSD, and other wastewater agencies. For information about local beach closures and advisories, call the OCHCA at (714) 667-3752 for a recorded message.
Water quality information and programs for the state of California.
The State of California Integrated Waste Management Board’s recycling programs.
"Welcome to the website of the California Coastal Records Project. Our goal is to create a aerial photographic survey of the California Coast and update it on a periodic basis."
More on The-Environment.net
- Oceans — tide pools, estuaries and what runoff does when it arrives.
- Recycling — what is worth separating and what actually happens to it.
- World Topics — the global picture these local programmes sit inside.