Sea turtle 'trekkies' to tour San Gabriel River, Los Cerritos Wetlands this Saturday, May 4

Sea turtle fanatics will be on the look out for the ancient, endangered shelled reptiles often seen swimming in the warm waters of the San Gabriel River and will have a chance to explore unnoticed portions of the Los Cerritos Wetlands this Saturday morning, May 4. 

The "Turtle Trek" that starts at 8am will be led by local biologists and environmental educators Taylor Parker and Eric Zahn, founders of environmental consulting group, Tidal Influence. The regular tour is organized by the Los Cerritos Wetlands Land Trust. 

During the tour, visitors will led to the San Gabriel River along the bridge that crosses the river at Pacific Coast Highway (PCH) and then through Zedler Marsh, Calloway Marsh, up to Westminster Boulevard, across the river to the western levee, past the "pumpkin patch" and "land swap" property and then back.  

The tour provides a "view of the scope of the wetlands that most of us have not seen," notes the Land Trust. 

The wetlands are currently rife with plant life and animals, in addition to sea turtles, due to spring weather, according to the Land Trust.  "Spring has brought out all kinds of duck species, killdeer, herons and egrets too," the Land Trust states. 

Sea turtle habitat

The prevalence of sea turtles, however, mostly comes from the fact that the water at the mouth of the San Gabriel River is kept warm all year long "artificially" by the AES and Haynes power plants, a fact that the Land Trust states environmentalists remain concerned about due to its effect on native sea life. 

"It is a little known fact that, due to the warm water discharged by the AES and Haynes power plants, a portion of the river has been attracting green sea turtles," the Land Trust states. "At the same time we are apprehensive about the effect of the artificially warm water on native sea life, we cannot help but be excited that these wonderful sea turtles have decided to take up residence in our local wetlands."

The tour meets at the corner of 1st Street and PCH in Seal Beach (just over the bridge from Long Beach into Seal Beach). Participants are encouraged to wear closed-toe shoes, and children under 16 must be accompanied by an adult.

For more information or to RSVP ejlambe@verizon.net or call (714) 357-8576.

Four ZIP codes in Long Beach ranked in top 5 percent in the state for being worst polluted

Four ZIP codes in Long Beach (west, north and downtown Long Beach) are ranked as being in the top 5 percent in the state with the worst combined "burdens and vulnerabilities" from pollution, other environmental factors and population characteristics, according to a new pollution-tracking tool released by the California Environmental Protection Agency (Cal EPA) 
Cal EPA, which released its CalEnviroScreen 1.0 system on April 23, states that each ZIP code's CalEnviro Screen score has been calculated from data on about 11 types of pollution and environmental factors and seven population characteristics and socioeconomic factors. 
The screening tool, developed by Cal EPA and the Office of Environmental Health Hazard Assessment, identifies California communities that are "disproportionately burdened by multiple sources of pollution and most vulnerable to its effects." CalEnviro Screen scores range from 0 to 100 with the higher the score the worse the pollution.
The map shows that in Long Beach there are four ZIP codes (90813, 90810, 90806 and 90805) with top 5-percent highest scores in the state. The CalEnviro Screen scores for those ZIP codes range from 51 to 57. Signal Hill, which is surrounded by Long Beach and has the ZIP code 90755, has a score of 28.91.
Approximately half of the ZIP codes that ranked in the top 10 percent are in the greater Los Angeles area, including the Inland Empire, according to a statement from Cal EPA. The San Joaquin Valley contains another 29 percent of the most vulnerable communities.
CalEPA states that the tool is expected to "help state decision-makers prioritize resources to target grants, investments, cleanup efforts and enforcement actions to the state’s most disadvantaged communities."

For more info, here's a link: http://www.oehha.ca.gov/ej/ces042313.html

Long Beach to hire consultant team for SEADIP update process

Long Beach planning staff has sent out a request for proposals (RFP) to hire a consultant team to take the lead in a collaborative planning process to update the Southeast Area Development and Improvement Plan (SEADIP).

The zoning code, established in 1977, governs coastal development on property near the Alamitos Bay Marina and neighboring the Los Cerritos Wetlands by restricting land use, density and building heights.
 City staff is now expected to bring a consultant team forward to the City Council in the next few months for approval to start the update process.

Now that the City is looking to update the decades-old zoning code, however, environmental lawyers say there’s still nothing preventing any property owners from putting forth projects that conform to the existing code, which would ultimately undermine efforts to revise the law.


Building ban proposed

Michelle Black, attorney for environmental law firm Chatten-Brown & Carstens, said a building moratorium on development in the SEADIP area would help close any loopholes. The attorney presented draft language of a “blanket” building moratorium to the Los Cerritos Wetlands Land Trust at its member meeting on Thursday, March 28 at Kettering Elementary School

“We want any plan that is approved to have a chance to succeed– not be limited by what’s already there by the time it gets implemented, so a building moratorium is one possible knight in shining armor to fix this,” she said.

Although degraded by oil pumping and other utility operations, the Los Cerritos Wetlands, that once spanned 2,400 acres, overlapping Long Beach and Seal Beach along the mouth of the San Gabriel River, is home to threatened and endangered species, including the Belding’s Savannah sparrow, California least tern and the California brown pelican.

Over the years, however, SEADIP restrictions on property near the wetlands have held back numerous building proposals because of its limits on height, density and land use, ever extending costs and time for all parties involved.

In an attempt to resolve long-fought quarrels over projects along the corridor that is already heavily impacted by traffic, environmentalists and property owners have agreed that the city ordinance should be revised with conciliations from all sides of the spectrum.

“It is our opinion that the zoning is so old and so out of date that, basically, it’s like an area without zoning, which is why you see one huge inappropriate development after another,” said Elizabeth Lambe, executive director of the Los Cerritos Wetlands Land Trust, who supports the zoning update even though not all Land Trust members agree.

The most recent failed proposition was a $320-million, mixed-use project to turn the SeaPort Marina Hotel site at 2nd Street and Pacific Coast Highway into a “southeastern gateway” with upscale storefronts, a theater and a 12-story residential and hotel high-rise.

After opponents, including wetlands advocates, vigilantly argued against the project, the Long Beach City Council ultimately rejected the proposal in a divided 5–3 vote in December 2011, voting down an environmental impact report.

The project would have required variances, traffic mitigations, overriding considerations and coastal-development allowances. Most of all, the proposal didn’t conform to SEADIP, which disallows residential use and caps building heights at 35 feet.

Long Beach city officials and the California Coastal Commission, which has ultimate authority over such coastal-development projects, have since called for a full revision to SEADIP. In May of last year, the City was awarded a $929,000 grant from the California Strategic Growth Council to fund the update process.

Forming 'citizens committee'

The revision to the zoning code, which would result in amendments to the City’s General Plan and the Local Coastal Program requiring approval from the Coastal Commission, would involve creating a “citizens committee” made up of local residents, property owners, wetlands advocates and other community members to collaborate on establishing the new law. The revision would also involve a wetlands delineation study of the SEADIP area and an environmental impact report, among other actions.

Just five months after the previous proposal was shot down, however, SeaPort Marina Hotel property owner Taki Sun, Inc., a family-owned property-management firm led by Raymond and Amy Lin, applied for another proposal, only this time without the 12-story, residential building and featuring mostly retail.

Though the new proposal, called “The Shoppes at 2nd and PCH,” conforms to SEADIP, allowing such a project to move forward before the zoning is updated would possibly unravel the update process, creating the same disputes that have occurred for years, Black said.

“It’s likely that we’ll continue to have the same situation where developers propose projects that comply with the existing SEADIP and need to get variances for projects,” she said. “That will continue the controversy, delays and expense, and we’ll be in the same situation we’re in essentially.”

Black presented language of a possible building moratorium that would last for at least one year, with an option to renew until the SEADIP process is complete. The temporary moratorium would prohibit any “building permit, construction permit, conditional-use permit, administrative-use permit, variance, zone change, or other land-use entitlement for the establishment, or relocation of land uses within the SEADIP area.”

Request for exemptions

Mike Murchison, a lobbyist for three property owners in the SEADIP area, including Lyon Communities, which owns the “pumpkin patch” site and other property across from the SeaPort hotel on Pacific Coast Highway, said during the Land Trust meeting that expecting the city to conduct the update process in three years is “laughable.”

He said the City hasn’t even selected a consultant or brought the action in front of the City Council for approval to go forward even though it’s already been a year since the City received grant funding to start the process.

“To think that a revision to SEADIP is going to occur in three years, when it requires the EIR and all that, again, on coastal schedule, it’s just not going to happen,” Murchison said. “So when you’re talking about a temporary moratorium, you’re probably talking more along the lines of four to five years, in my opinion.”

He added that proposing a blanket moratorium, meaning it would apply to all property owners, could be problematic since local property owners already have project applications in the pipeline that conform to the existing SEADIP. Murchison questioned whether the City would be able to grant the property owners exemptions, similar to the City’s action in approving a moratorium last year on payday-lending and title-loan companies, which involved “grandfathering” in two out of three applications.

“[Property owners] are attempting to put forth a project that will conform with the current SEADIP, [and] that is going to fly in the face of any moratorium,” he said. “I can see it right now… it’s just going to be a big problem, because that’s what the property owners are banking on, that they can conform, and if it’s a blanket moratorium… I don’t know where it’s going to go. It will probably end up as a legal argument.”

Murchison added that such a building moratorium may also hinder wetlands restoration efforts that may also require conditional-use permits. 

Source: Signal Tribune newspaper

Restoring "illegal grading" of Los Cerritos Wetlands

The owner of property at 6400 Loynes Drive had claimed, according to the Los Cerritos Wetlands Land Trust, that he had been working under the order of “weed abatement,” for a still-to-be-determined development project, and in the process apparently "illegally graded" sensitive habitat areas, home to endangered birds, burrowing owls, and native vegetation.
Plans for the project have frequently changed over the past few years– mainly because of controversy over whether the area or brackish pond is actually considered wetlands, involving SEADIP requirements and amendments to the Local Coastal Program. How much the developer will be fined is also in question.
The Land Trust and its environmental leaders have taken a strong position against the developer's actions, with environmentalists and community members holding rallies out in front of the property, and are now working with the California Coastal Commission and the Long Beach Planning Commission on plans for the developer to recover and restore the destruction that had taken place. Next week, the Land Trust is sharing some of those plans with the public during a presentation with Professor Travis Longcore of the UCLA Institute of the Environment and Sustainability and Associate Research Professor and USC’s Spatial Sciences Institute, who is working as a consultant to prepare a biological report. The staff recommendation so far is to “Import 1,000 cubic yards of soil to re-establish and maintain a cap over an existing landfill” in response to the Coastal Commission’s emergency permit and re-vegetation and weed abatement, which the commission is set to vote during a meeting scheduled for November 19. The Land Trust presentation is being held November 15 at 7 p.m. at the Belmont Shores Mobile Home Estates Clubhouse.

Aquarium's Napoleon Wrasse dies

A beautifully exotic rather unique-looking fish called a Napolean wrasse or "humphead" wrasse has died at the Aquarium of the Pacific, according to aquarium staff. The large colorful wrasse was transported this summer from New Zealand, also found in coral reefs of other regions in the Indo-Pacific Ocean. The neon-colored fish with sheep-like heads are known for switching sexes, from female to male on occasion. They can grow up to six feet long.
Originally the fish was planned to be a part of the Tropical Reef Habitat, but became sick while it was held in a holding tank for more than three months to be treated, but eventually died. Foreign fish often are treated for any contaminants or diseases before entering any tank at the aquarium.

Out And About: Diving At The Aquarium, Hiking On Catalina

As a weekly endeavor I will be posting some things to do every Saturday or so to highlight some ways to get out and see the surrounding abundance of ecological wonders that Southern California has to offer.
….
So here we go... First, I checked this out from the LA Times blog Outposts, which I might add is a great online version of their Outdoor section that folded years ago, that says that the Aquarium of the Pacific in Long Beach is offering (for the first time ever) a dive program for general certified divers to be able to plunge into the aquarium’s Tropical Reef Habitat. This is definitely a first, and one that I don’t know why wasn’t allowed earlier. The dive might come with a hefty price (nearly $300 a pop), but I would say to be able to dive in the tank at the aquarium would be pretty cool. After all, it’s not everyday you can check out a tropical habitat with “over a thousand colorful fish and beautiful coral, including sea turtles, zebra and blacktip reef sharks, porcupine puffers, and a large blue Napoleon or humphead wrasse,” and not have to fly out to tropical island to do it.
…..
Secondly, the Catalina Island Conservancy notes that the 37-mile Trans-Catalina Trail is becoming pretty popular this summer season. Apparently it’s quite a journey: normally spanning six days and five nights, through the rugged terrain of the island’s interior. This LA Times blogger tried to do it in a weekend, but not quite sure if it can be done. The trail opened last year. The Times notes that Coastwalks offers a package to scale the crossing that some times reaches 2,000 feet above sea level at a price of about $600, or you can opt to take the hike yourself, if you can. I would suggest not doing it alone, but being one with nature certainly sounds inviting. This is something that I definitely have to get out and try...

The Colorado Lagoon and the "junky"est monster

The Colorado Lagoon in Long Beach is one of the murkiest swaths of water I have seen. I should know, I used jog along its shoulders on a regular basis when I lived near there. And for all intents and purposes, I don’t know who would want to swim in it, I mean who knows what type of toxins lie beneath its surface—well apparently DDT, Mercury and other poisonous metals and contaminants, at least according to this LA Times article. The lagoon has made Heal the Bay’s “Beach Bummer” list last year, and was the culprit of many a sewage spill over the years, since mostly when drains get clogged the junk remains stuck in this stagnant water that surrounds, unflatteringly, the rather plush homes of Naples Island.
Anyhow, the city is now moving ahead with its $15 million effort to clean up the gunk and contaminants in phases, which began in March.
The city announced today that it will be holding three public meetings, starting July 8, regarding Phase 2 of a study to clean up the lagoon. The study is available here.
The lagoon itself is a 28.3-acre tidal mere located in east Long Beach providing an estuarine habitat and “retaining and conveying storm flows.” The State of California lists it as an “impaired water body,” due to high levels of water and sediment contamination. In addition, the Lagoon's estuary habitat has deteriorated over time as native plant species have significantly declined due to the encroachment of invasive ornamental landscaping, according to the city’s Website.

Is the West Coast sinking into the ocean?

The National Research Council is currently conducting a study on sea level rise projections for the West Coast and whether the left half of the country is expected to sink into the Pacific Ocean. The states of California, Oregon and Washington are partnering with federal agencies with the council in a contract to conduct a science review of sea level rise for the West Coast states. The contract aims to gather facts from a panel of experts, assembled to assess the rising tides in these regions and to provide estimated values or a range of values for sea level rise for planning purposed for the next 100 years. There are three public meetings held to solicit reference information that could be considered in the study. The last meeting was already held in Long Beach. There are two more to be held on June 16 in San Francisco and June 17 in Eureka.
The study is expected to look into:
• Projections of sea level rise for locations on the West Coast.
• Climate change-related severe weather conditions on the West Coast, including increased storminess (didn’t know that was a word), increased wave heights, storm surges, changes in storm frequency/duration/precipitation intensity and development atmospheric rive events.
• West Coast site-specific climate change-related impacts on erosion and sedimentation characteristics (e.g. rates and processes) in coastal and estuarine environment, including coastal wetlands.
• Efficacy of coastal habitats and coastal restoration in increasing the resilience of communities and ecosystems along the West Coast.
• Observed sea level rise amounts, severe weather data, or erosion/sedimentation impact relevant to operation of coastal infrastructure for future projections.
• Predicted site-specific local sea level rise amounts and climate change-related criteria methodologies for precipitation frequency/duration/intensity relationships for stormwater drainage, including those that quantify expected local responses associated with sea level rise.
Above are some photos I took of the erosion caused near Point Fermin, often referred to as the “Sunken City” in San Pedro next to Palos Verdes. Point Fermin landslides are classic examples of rotational slides, according to the Cal State Long Beach Geology Department. The erosion is caused by wave erosion that breaks down the rocky layers. The cliffs have been breaking off into the ocean since the 1940s and movement was abated in the early 1960's, but damage to homes and streets had already occurred, with evidence of the historical land erosion still shown today at parts of foundations and streets.

Back Online....

After a while reprieve of getting things in order and trying, but failing to build my own website, I am back on the Web....and will be reposting stories about the environment. I hope to some time in the future connect with my website but at this time it is still on hold. In the meantime, I will be regularly contributing to this thread about the environment.

Thanks,

Sean

Thank you for the comments, soon to expand...

Hello, thanks for reading my blog. Eye on Ecology is now up and running ... and will soon be expanding. I am working on a new Website, which will be bigger and better, with more of a local angle, more diversity, interactive functions and even advertising. If you have any suggestions for the future of this blog please let me know. And thank you.

Discovery lands at Space Station

The Discovery space shuttle just landed at the International Space Station, according to KFI AM.
The space craft is carrying veteran commander astronaut Rick "C.J." Sturckow, Pilot Kevin Ford and Mission Specialists Patrick Forrester, Jose Hernandez, John "Danny" Olivas and Sweden's Christer Fuglesang, and Nicole Stott, who will be replace Tim Kopra at the International Space Station.
Space shuttle Discovery will carry the Leonardo supply module to the International Space Station during the mission.
Also, the STS-128 mission crew will deliver refrigerator-sized racks full of equipment, including the COLBERT treadmill, an exercise device named after comedian Stephen Colbert.
NASA TV provides a live video feed, for the public to see the liftoff from the comfort of their own computers, via the Kennedy Space Center in Florida. Photo courtesy of NASA.

Birds, animals on the tarmac at LAX

Red-tailed hawks, kestrels and peregrine falcons can be seen all over landscapes of Southern California as magnificent winged-creatures that co-exist with humans, sometimes seen as black shadows hovering over freeway overpasses or peering down rocky mountainsides.
To LAX, they seem to be considered deadly pests that can cause dangerous conditions for airliners, sometimes called "bullets with wings."
The LA Times recently reported how the rare birds are captured or sometimes scared away from the airport by a federal government mandated program since the 1990s. More than 940 animal strikes involving commercial aircraft were reported in the last decade, the Times reports. About 4 percent of the collisions caused substantial damage to engines, wings and fuselages.
Birds were reportedly the cause of the U.S. Airways Flight out of LaGuardia that crashed, but successfully landed into the Hudson River in January.
Above is a picture I took a couple years ago of a Cooper's Hawk in Bolsa Chica.

Cash for blowers this week

Cash for clunkers? Try cash for blowers.
Professional gardeners can start exchanging their old noisy diesel-spewing backpack leaf blowers for newer quieter low-emission units this week through an incentive program.
The South Coast Air Quality Management District began registration Aug. 18 to replace up to 1,500 of the polluting leaf blowers until the program is sold out.
It’s the forth year in a row the SCAQMD has initiated the program with hopes to cut down on smog pollution the backpack blowers produce
The new blowers will be sold for $200 plus tax, representing a $270 discount from the retail price of $470. The old blowers will be scrapped.
The old blowers will be replaced by the STIHL BR 500 models, which is nearly four times cleaner than the California Air Resources Board’s standard for new blowers and it is one the of quietest models available, according to the SCAQMD web site.
The state agency hopes the incentive will protect public health by reducing an additional 21 tons of smog-forming pollution a year.
To qualify for the leaf blower exchange, participants must register by calling (888) 425-6247. The first exchange occurs on Thursday, Aug. 27 at Simon’s Power Equipment at Valley Plaza Park at 12240 Archwood St. in North Hollywood.

Update meeting on Los Cerritos Wetlands

As news continues to shift and turn as much as the tide regarding the controversial future of the Los Cerritos Wetlands, its land trust is holding a “informal wetlands update” on Sept. 2. The meeting will address such issues as the proposed land swap, the proposed 2nd and PCH development project and follow-up on the illegal scraping at Loynes and Studebaker.
“Because of all this activity surrounding the wetlands, it has been suggested, and we agree, that we need to meet more often to share information and to plan and organize to address the issues and challenges that face Los Cerritos Wetlands,” according to the land trust website.
For the latest on the controversy surrounding a proposed land swap deal that was delayed and then eventually approved by the Long Beach City Council on Aug. 4, read the press-telegram here or the district weekly's pre-story here.
Coffee and cookies will be available.
The meeting will be held at 7 p.m. on Wednesday, Sept. 2 at the Belmont Mobile Estates Clubhouse located at 6230 E Marina View Drive in Long Beach.
For more information or to RSVP, contact Elizabeth at ejlambe@verizon.net.

Documentary: no more seafood by 2048

Documentary filmmaker Rupert Murrey was interviewed on Coast-to-Coast tonight, giving a glimpse into his new film "The End of the Line," which focuses on the global effects of overfishing. In his report, he said fisheries are catching fish about 5 times more than scientists are recommending to sustain a healthy habitat, while oddly enough depleting the very fish populations that the industry depends on. In China, investigations have discovered that fish catch reports have been overstated for more than 20 years in order to project bigger numbers than what they actually catch. True numbers show a downward trend. Meanwhile, salmon has been largely scarce and there have been reports that worms from farm raised fish have begun to affect the natural spawns. As far as seafood? Scientists say if the fishing industry continues as the way it is than we can count on not being able to order it by 2048.

Lawsuit to block clean trucks at ports dropped

Here's the latest on the controversial clean trucks initiative in LB and LA Ports:The Federal Maritime Commission announced Tuesday, June 16 that it is withdrawing its lawsuit that had sought to block clean trucks initiatives at the Port of Long Beach and Port of Los Angeles, according to a press release from the Port of Long Beach.
The move eliminates a challenge to the Port of Long Beach’s landmark Clean Trucks Program that already has gone a long way to reduce pollution from area trucks.
“We are pleased that the Federal Maritime Commission has decided to drop its challenge against a key component of our important environmental efforts,” said Port of Long Beach Executive Director Richard D. Steinke. “Today’s decision by the commission helps ensure that the Clean Trucks Program will continue to improve air quality in the Long Beach community.”
In a motion filed Tuesday with the U.S. District Court in Washington D.C., the FMC asked to withdraw the lawsuit.
The FMC sued in October 2008, challenging certain aspects of the ports’ clean trucks concession agreements. In April, the judge in the case denied the FMC’s request for a preliminary injunction.

Study says green jobs in US grew by 9 percent

The number of environment-related, or green, jobs across the nation grew 9 percent from 1998 to 2007, which is more than 2 percent higher than the rate of the overall workforce, according to the Los Angeles Times that reported a study by the Pew Charitable Trusts.
California led the way with the most growth in the country, with the opening of 10,209 green businesses and 125,390 jobs in 2007 alone.

New source of methylmercury: groundwater

As many people have taken seafood out of their diets, especially fish, because of the mercury poisoning associated with it, scientists believe they have discovered a new source of where highly toxic mercury could be coming from.
For the first time, scientists have detected mercury in groundwater flows at two coastal sites in California according to a press release from the NOAA California Sea Grant program.
What's interesting is that the type of mercury discovered in these submarine groundwater flows, found underneath the ocean floor, appears to be methylmercury, the highly toxic form of mercury that accumulates in the marine food chain. Methylmercury, also often found in dental fillings, poses a public health problem in most regions of the world, according to the Madison Conference Declaration on Mercury Pollution.
The UC Santa Cruz researchers, who led the NOAA project, believe these groundwater flows represent a “significant and previously overlooked source of mercury in the nearshore marine environment.”
In an article to appear in Environmental Science and Technology, scientists report that these groundwater flows at Stinson Beach in Marin County and Elkhorn Slough in Monterey County inject about as much total mercury into coastal waters as that falling out of the sky, locally through atmospheric deposition.
But, for the most part, scientists aren’t sure how the mercury got there and why it is accumulating in high volumes.
There are a few theories though.
Frank Black, a former doctoral student at UC Santa Cruz, now a postdoctoral researcher in biogeochemistry at Princeton University and the paper’s lead author, believes that some of the inorganic mercury is coming from natural processes such as weathering of local mercury-containing rocks.
Mining and other “human activities” are also sources of mercury in soils and sediments.
Methylmercury, Black believes has come from septic tanks in the vicinity of Stinson Beach, because they provide nutrients to methylmercury bacteria, may be contributing to its formation. At Elkhorn Slough, the leading theory is that groundwater is flushing out methylmercury from sediments where it is being produced.
Previous studies documented the presence of methylmercury in terrestrial groundwater. Few have observed methylmercury in coastal waters, however, the press release states.
On a global average, the amount of mercury falling out of the sky has tripled since the Industrial Revolution 200 years ago, due primarily to the burning of fossil fuels. This mercury is converted into methylmercury by sulfur- and iron- reducing bacteria, which reside in wet, low-oxygen soils and sediments.

Above is a picture of a calico bass I caught in Catalina about a year ago.

What "green bubble"?

With the economic downturn sending many jobless, whether they be white collar or blue collar workers, the greening of America could be what businesses are looking for.
At least that was the consensus during a conference about the new "green collar" workforce at the Long Beach Convention Center last week.
The event was hailed as the biggest conference to address such advancements in the business market. Rightly so, since Long Beach is a highly productive heavily-polluted area that suffers from bad air quality because of one of the nation's largest ports. The city also suffers from a large unemployment rate, much like other cities across the nation right now.
The conference spoke about diversity in the workforce as well, as government officials and green business owners talked about how environmental efforts will "bring back the middle class...and help protect Mother Earth" all at the same time.
The problem is though, that the State of California, and the nation, as a whole, are suffering financially right now, keeping manufacturers of these new technologies, i.e., wind, solar and other green energies, on hold until further notice. The other problem is the funding to teach people about how to work in the fields of these new green technologies, whether its building green infrastructure or green tech jobs, is near non-existent.
So the answer from experts in the field was pretty much, "Be patient." And whether the green trend will create another "green bubble" much like the tech bubble in 2000 and then the mortgage bubble we all are so familiar with the answer was, "We will always have the sun and wind."
To read more here is my article in the Press-Telegram.

Avalon Harbor top 'beach bummer' for sixth year

Heal the Bay released its 19th annual Beach Report Card for 2008-09 on May 20, with most California beaches receiving “very good” water quality this past year.
The non-profit water monitoring organization also released its yearly “beach bummer” list of the beaches with the worst water quality.
At the top of the list was Avalon Harbor Beach on Catalina Island, which has been the statewide Bummer for six years running.
Two years ago a $4.5 million swimmer health effects study added Avalon Beach as a research location due to its perpetually poor water quality.
Coming in at No. 2 was Cabrillo Beach harborside and No. 6 was the LA River outlet in Long Beach.
Overall, 276 of 324 (85 percent) locations received very good to excellent (A and B) grades for the year during dry weather.
Heal the Bay analysts assigned A-to-F letter grades to 502 beaches along the California coast, based on levels of weekly bacterial pollution reported from April 2008 through March 2009.
During the high-traffic 2008 summer season, 91 percent of beaches statewide received A or B grades, meaning very good to excellent water quality. That figure marks a slight 2 percent dip from last summer, which earned the best grades ever issued by Heal the Bay.
Overall, only 32 of the beaches (6 percent) monitored statewide received D or F grades last summer.
High bacteria counts at these sites are linked to such potential illnesses as stomach flu, ear infections and major skin rashes.