Green Options

Like this post? Subscribe to our RSS feed and stay up to date.

With the Memorial Day holiday weekend fast approaching, Heal the Bay has perfect timing for all of you beach-goers: they have just released their 18th Annual Beach Report Card, which grades the water quality at California’s beaches. And, as expected, there’s good news and bad news.

Do you want the good news first, or the bad news? Good news it is! California achieved its best “dry-weather” beach water quality since recording began. During last year’s summer season, 93% of beaches received an A or B grade, based on daily and weekly bacteria measurements taken from April, 2007 to March, 2008. That figure is up 8% from the prior year.

That is good news, at least until you learn that last year’s drought in SoCal contributed to this improvement. With less rainfall, the amount of urban runoff traveling through our storm drains and out into the ocean was reduced. Urban runoff consists of everything that hits the ground, from cigarette butts to plastic bottles to dog doo. Because of this disgusting stew, “wet-weather” results are not good, with 26% of beaches receiving F grades.

As might be expected, the US finished behind those proven eco-stalwarts like Georgia, Colombia, Slovakia, The Dominican Republic, and of course, Albania.

We used to be really good at this stuff. In fact, we sort of invented environmental policy in the late ’60s and early ’70s.  So that leaves me with one question for you all: WTF happened?

Thanks to Luis Alves at mokkikunta for the heads up on this one

Complete EPI [...]

What might start out as one lick here and another lick there can turn into a full fledged salt addiction for woodland animals. Dear, porcupines, hares, birds, and other animals may all indulge in this habit. There is no shortage of salt to feed this addiction, with13 million tons applied to winter roads each year in the US. Sadly, this addiction can prove to be a [...]

Chicago’s Mayor Daley declared that the city will be the “greenest city in the world.” This is no small feat. One tool towards achieving this goal is a new green permit program, which offers expedited building permits for buildings with environmental features. The building permit process is shortened to 15-30 business days, with preference given to projects with more extensive green features. Some buildings may qualify for [...]

What do mercury, cyanide, lead, ammonia, and benzo(a)pyrene have in common? These make up the 1.7 million pounds of pollutants that were dumped by U.S. Steel into Lake Michigan (via the Grand Calumet River) in 2005. A water discharge permit was recently proposed that may reduce or eliminate limits on heavy metals and toxic chemicals discharged by U.S. Steel into the Grand Calumet River, which flows into Lake Michigan.

The

[...]

Image credit: Tena Engelman/National Park ServiceToday we talk about Environmental Alliance for Senior Involvement (EASI) programs around the country. It all started in Pennsylvania ten years ago; now, EASI senior volunteers are involved in a wide range of projects, including trying to save a lake in Mexico.

Today's podcast is available here.