Attendance: Jan Chatten-Brown, environmental attorney, chair of meeting; Peter Moore-Kochlacs, Environmental Ministries; Nancy Pearlman, ECONEWS; Curtis Stanton, ECONEWS; Brent Scott, Sierra Club; Maxine Leichter, LA- Environmental Affairs Dept.; Dorothy Green, POWER; Ricardo J. Gutierrez, Mothers of East LA; representative from LA Public Works; representative from Earth Corps; Marcia Hanscom and Michelle Sypert, Wetlands Action Network; Kathy Knight, Sierra Club; Lisa Weil, Maguire Thomas; Carla l. Jetton, Nature Film Company; Rosemarie White, San Fernando Valley Audubon Society; Joan Jones Holtz, Sierra Club; Ruth Galanter, LA City Council; Israel Feurer, Save Ballona Wetlands; Christopher Westhoff, City Attorney; Sharon Morris, Mayor's Office; Melinda Bartlett, City of LA Environmental Affairs Department; Laura Chick, L.A. City Councilmember; Iylene Weiss, BLMP; Rick Tagawa; Lucy Bailey; Woody Hastings, Deputy to LA City Councilmember Richard AlarcŪn; Saran Kirschbaum, Jewish Community Center; Eleanor Long, Dept. of Health Services; Jennifer Richardson, Americans for a Safe Future; Laurie Walters, TreePeople; Jim Stewart, SCCED; Sandy Brown, Sen. Hayden's Office; Alf Brandt, CALSTART; Kathleen Gildred, SCCED; Adi Liberman, Deputy to LA Councilmember Ruth Galanter.
1. Sierra Club Video, "Kids At Risk -- Getting the Lead Out of Your Home." Brent Scott presented a video financed with a grant from USEPA. It describes how childhood lead poisoning is the worst childhood disease in LA, with over 80,000 children in LA County having dangerous levels of lead in their blood. Lead poisoning causes blindness, mental retardation, liver damage, etc. The primary cause is lead paint in the 1 million homes painted between 1940 and 1978 until lead paint was banned. Children eat paint chips, inhale paint dust, or get it from soil contaminated with lead paint. Every child between 6 months and 6 years old should have regular blood tests, once a year. If lead is found, it can be treated with Chemed, a drug which makes the lead soluble and is excreted. The lead paint must be encapsulated by installing wall paneling or removed completely by an expert. Also, do not give children certain Asian and Latin medicines that contain lead, such as AlarcŪn, Geta, or Pay-loo-ah.
For more information, contact the LA County Dept. of Health Services, 800-LA4-LEAD or the LA City Housing Department, lead abatement program, 800-262-LEAD.
Sierra Club will distribute a pamphlet and the tape free. (Both are available in English or Spanish.)
Jan: There is no law that requires testing homes or apartments for lead, until a child is found with dangerous levels of lead in their blood.
Eleanor Long, Dept. of Health Services: If a child is found to have lead poisoning, then we can bring legal action against a landlord. We are holding seminars October 29 and 30 for contractors and homeowners to learn how to improve their home if it was painted pre-1978 (however, note that some home paint had no lead after the 1950s).
2. Ward Valley, Jennifer Richardson, Americans for a Safe Future (ASF): We are pleased to report we ended another session of Congress without a law transferring Ward Valley to the State, primarily because of aggressive lobbying from ASF, Physicians for Social Responsibility (PSR) and other organizations. We met with the Washington Post Editorial Board and got helpful support in an editorial. We also got an excellent letter sent to every Senator signed by both Senators Feinstein and Boxer. In addition, ASF met with each Senator individually and with the office of Vice President Gore, which resulted in an excellent letter of support. Alaska Senator Murkowski lead the effort on the transfer legislation, but failed.
US Ecology is suffering financially because of the delay, and their stock price is dropping. Since they were part of the original licensing application, it could delay the building of the dump by 6-10 years for a new company to start over.
Tritium testing for radioactive leakage is continuing, and we are overseeing the testing to insure it is fair and unbiased. It will take a year to do the testing. However, there is still pressure to do the transfer to the State, and efforts will continue when Congress resumes in January. The Republicans are trying to transfer authority for Ward Valley to the Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) which could speed transfer to the State. Unfortunately Sen. Feinstein is open to the NRC, so we need pressure on her by sending her letters, see attached sample. We also need to shore up Sen. Boxer's support and we need more OpEd pieces around California.
The election pressure has been helpful, but things could change for the worse after the election, especially since several key administration allies are planning to leave, such as Leon Panetta, who has been very helpful.
Strategy Suggestions: We could put pressure on Senator Feinstein if she is planning a gubernatorial campaign. We need a rebuttal of the Murkowski letter.
3. Playa Vista: Marcia Hanscom, Michelle Sypert: Our objective is to protect the entire Ballona wetlands and open space. Over 60 organizations support these goals. Five organizations, including the Earth Trust Foundation and native groups, filed a law suit and appeal saying that Maguire Thomas added 60 acres to the project without filing an Environmental Impact Report on the additional acres. We are opposing Playa Vista, even though there is some 490 acres to be preserved in the proposed Maguire Thomas plan, because we believe this is a bad development. The water level is only one foot below the surface of the land in some places, so the construction will be very expensive and may not survive an earthquake. The 13,000 residential units, and millions of square feet of commercial space will create massive traffic jams. For example, Lincoln Boulevard will have to be expanded to 10 lanes, to accommodate 20,000 more cars per day, much more traffic than now from LAX. In addition there is a lot of wildlife there now, which will be killed.
We also believe it is bad government process. For example, the area first to be built on for the Dreamworks building is on contaminated land, where the old Hughes Aircraft factory was situated, which was not included in the EIR that was approved in 1993. In addition, it seems unfair to provide $70 million in tax breaks for a company with $2 billion in assets, when there are so many other businesses in the inner city that really need tax breaks to expand and provide jobs for inner city residents.
In addition, the 490 acres that is to be preserved could not be easily built on anyway because it is flooded in heavy rains. We believe the Maguire Thomas plan is similar to the previous development plan that was rejected.
In the 1920s the wetlands were much larger, covering Marina del Rey, over 2000 acres where whales came in to calve, thousands of shore and migratory birds fed, etc. UCLA showed that 515 acres in the 900 acre tract could be restored to a natural state, but the land owners have the control to reduce the sea water flow and keep it barren.
A Land Trust has been started to raise money for purchase, restoration, etc. The land was purchased for only $1 million many years ago; perhaps the land owner could reduce his profit and take a tax write-off. The land is now valued at a little over $100 million, but perhaps we can show the owner that there is a lot of opposition to development, so he can make more money through a donation and finding a development that could work for everyone.
Kathy Knight: The Sierra Club passed a resolution and is working to save everything West of Lincoln Blvd. These wetlands are important for fisheries, since halibut and other fish lay their eggs in these kind of waters. We are also concerned about air pollution from increased traffic, as well as congestion in the area and on the 405. We also oppose subsidies to develop wetland areas. For more information contact the Sierra Club Ballona Task Force at 310-280-3305. We want 100,000 signatures to ask the Army Corps of Engineers to purchase the area north of Ballona creek and west of Lincoln. This could be a wonderful educational area for the children of the inner city.
Comment: Some see Playa Vista as a highly progressive development, with unique technology, to advance our life as a city, but the loss of wildlife habitat and the opportunity for an educational park for everyone is more important.
Marcia: Perhaps we should look at alternative locations for Dreamworks in areas that have already been paved over. Besides, there is a glut of office space now in the LA area, so it is unnecessary to build more.
Question: Has there been any objection or anger from the other areas of LA over giving tax breaks for development in West LA, when other areas need the tax breaks more? We could rebuild the central areas of LA for this kind of money.
Answer: Linda Griego of RLA did oppose the subsidies.
4. LA River: Jan Chatten-Brown: I am pleased to report that this Environmental Roundtable group influenced the course of events. After our discussion at the last meeting, several people from this group got involved and as a result County Supervisor Molina moved to set up a task force to study alternatives to the proposed walls along the river. Although the County Board of Supervisors approved the wall project, they also approved a $1 million agreement for a Feasibility Study for a watershed management plan. There is a 28 person task force to study alternatives to walls, such as upstream detention. The LA River San Gabriel Valley Watershed Council is an advisory group for that study. There is a 9-person steering committee, including representatives from Heal the Bay, Friends of the LA River, and a community group. There is $250,000 for consultants to report back to the Board of Supervisors in a year. However, the walls in Long Beach are due to start construction in 6 months. The media attention has been helpful.
5. Open Forum
Headwaters Forest: So far 1,033 people have been arrested trying to stop the logging. Thousands of others have come to rallies. The Senator Feinstein/President Clinton "compromise" is a sham because it will only save 2 of 6 old groves, only 7,500 out of 60,000 acres. For more information you can contact Earth Trust 310-456-8300 or Earth First at 707-468-1660.
If you take Amtrak up to Headwaters, the train ride is beautiful and for a group of 3 or more, it only costs $50 each round-trip.
Please write to the owner of Headwaters and ask him not to cut down the forest: Charles Hurwitz, Maxxam Court, 5847 San Filippe 2600, Houston, 77257-2887.
ECONEWS, Nancy Pearlman: I have prepared TV and radio tapes on the Headwaters Forest issue; call me for a free copy to get it put on TV in your area. My group, Educational Communications has free 3/4 tapes for you to put your own shows on. Our Ecology Center is giving away boxes of environmental magazines from the 1970s, plus 200 new Environmental Books covering every ecological issues. Call me to request either. Send us photos and stories of your events for our newsletter. We also have a directory of 6,000 environmental organizations, available in hard copy, labels or on disk. Our Environmental Directions Radio series airs on hundreds of stations, reaching 25 million U.S. homes. Our ECONEWS TV series airs weekly on 87 cable and PBS stations in 25 states, available to 30 million homes. We also promote Ecotourism.
Grant Information: The Venice Library and the California Community Foundation Library both have just gotten a new $75 book on Environment Foundation Grants.
The Sixth California Water Policy Conference on Nov. 14-15 at the LA Biltmore Hotel features many outstanding speakers on water issues and watershed management. The conference chair is Dorothy Green. Contact 619-251-6500 to register.
Environmental Ministries, Peter Moore-Kochlacs: Environmental Ministries encourages all religious groups to get involved in environmental issues. We work with all faiths to organize seminars and programs for local congregations. On Nov. 17, at 2:30 pm there is an Environmental Stewardship Seminar at the First United Methodist Church of Reseda (818) 344-7870 with Senator Tom Hayden and others. On January 12, 1997, Howard Clinebell will lead a discussion on "Nurtured by Nature--Nurturing Nature: How be Earth Well and Raise Earth Literate Children and Grandchildren."
Long Beach Heritage, Jan Chatten-Brown: We are filing a lawsuit on behalf of Long Beach Heritage to save the only original remaining area, which is now is slated for demolition.
Vote on November 5: Call David Allgood, at the California League of Conservation Voters (310) 441-1656, to put in a few hours on phone banks to influence the California Assembly and Congress.
Bioregion Conference: TreePeople is organizing a conference on November 9 at the Earth Trust Foundation (call 456-8300 for information) called "Knowing the Land We Live On."