New EPA Educational Stormwater Video

Reduce Runoff: Slow it down, Spread it out, Soak it in

This new 9-minute video, “Reduce Runoff: Slow It
Down, Spread It Out, Soak It In,” highlights green techniques
such as rain gardens, green roofs, and rain barrels that help
manage stormwater runoff in a more sustainable manner. The
film, produced in partnership with the U.S. Botanic Garden,
showcases green techniques that are being used in urban areas
to minimize the impacts of stormwater runoff on the quality of
downstream receiving waters.

The goal is to mimic the natural way water moves through
an area before development by using design techniques that
infiltrate, evaporate, and reuse runoff close to its source. The
green techniques, including rain gardens, green roofs, rain
barrels and cisterns, are very effective at reducing the volume
of stormwater runoff and capturing harmful pollutants. These
green practices increasingly are being used by communities
across the country to help protect and restore water quality.
Using vegetated areas that capture runoff also improves air
quality, mitigates the effects of urban heat islands, and reduces
a community’s overall carbon footprint.

The video includes green techniques on display in 2008
at the U.S. Botanic Garden’s “One Planet – Ours!” Exhibit. It
also highlights green techniques at U.S. EPA’s Headquarters
in Washington, D.C. including recently completed cisterns. Six
1,000-gallon cisterns installed in the basement at EPA’s West
Building now collect roof runoff from the building. This cistern
water irrigates planting beds and grass in front of EPA’s West
Building along Constitution Avenue, thereby conserving water
and reducing runoff to the Chesapeake Bay.

The video is available online at: www.epa.gov/nps/lid. Also, see
www.epa.gov/owow/nps/lid/stormwater_hq/ for more
information on Stormwater Management at EPA Headquarters.

Surfrider Santa Monica High School Teach & Test

The West Los Angeles/Malibu Surfrider Chapter has brought the Blue Water Task Force to Santa Monica High School. The Chapter, in partnership with Santa Monica High School, was awarded a Whale Tale Grant from the California Coastal Commission to fund the Surfrider Santa Monica High School Teach & Test program, providing students with the opportunity to get hands on science experience while raising awareness of about water quality in their community.

“With this grant, we will be able to provide the students with the technology needed to make this a truly scientific inquiry,” states Benjamin Kay, Marine Biology Teacher and advisor for the Teach & Test program.

“We now have the tools to turn a community-based program into a full-blown educational program whose messages will reach beyond Santa Monica to all of Los Angeles” notes Lindsey Jurca, who oversees the Teach & Test program as Surfrider WLAM’s educational chair.

Learn more about the Surfrider Santa Monica High School Teach & Test program on the Chapter's website.

The high school students have also made the front page of their local newspaper, The Santa Monica Daily Press

Samohi students become young marine biologists

by Melody Hanatani

May 02, 2009

SAMOHI — Every Wednesday morning while his peers are still rolling out of bed and rubbing the crust from their eyes, Raphael Mawrence is at the beach, not hitting the waves, but rather learning about the marine environment.

The 11th grader is among more than a dozen Santa Monica High School students who for the past seven weeks have been collecting and analyzing water samples from the Santa Monica Bay, monitoring bacteria levels and trying to understand the factors that make the local beach one of the most polluted in the state.

The group of approximately 15 teenagers are part of the Surfrider Foundation’s Teach & Test Program, which aims to educate students about urban runoff and other environmental issues, giving them the tools necessary to make a positive impact in the community.

“I get to see what I’m swimming in,” Mawrence said.

Local beaches continually post poor marks in Heal the Bay’s annual Beach Report Card, which grades water quality at more than 500 locations statewide. The most recent report card last May found that L.A. County is home to five of the top 10 lowest-rated beaches. The pier ranked second on the list of the “Top 10 Beach Bummers,” just behind Avalon Harbor Beach at Catalina Island.

Through funding from the Surfrider Foundation West Los Angeles/Malibu Chapter and other grants, including the California Coastal Commission’s Whale Tail Grant, the students test their samples at the new Samohi Surfrider Marine Laboratory — a classroom in the school’s science building that is stacked with roughly $9,000 worth of equipment.

“It’s mostly about empowering the kids, empowering the future generations to impact changes, getting them actively engaged in the community, giving them a voice and having them tackle real environmental issues the world is facing right now and be problem solvers,” Lindsey Jurca, the education chair for the local Surfrider chapter’s executive committee, said.

While the program has been in place in schools across the state for years, including in the South Bay, Samohi is the first participating high school on the Westside.

The students go out every week to collect samples at three locations — Tower 26, the Santa Monica Pier and the Pico-Kenter Storm Drain.

They then return to the lab where they grow bacteria in an incubator through which they are able to determine the water quality about 24 hours later, Benjamin Kay, the program adviser and marine biology teacher, said.

The participants are either enrolled in Kay’s classes or are members of several student organizations, including Team Marine and the Heal the Bay Club, both of which focus on oceanic environmental issues.

“They’re very empowered by the fact that they are doing the research from start to finish by themselves,” Kay said. “The results matter to them because they own the results and they’re doing the dirty work.”

Kay hopes to expand the program to all marine biology students at the high school, reaching about 200 teenagers.

A major component of the program involves the students educating the community about their findings through presentations to their peers and city officials and visits to local middle schools.

The results of the first few water samples have been surprising to the students.

“I noticed that the ocean is not as clean as I thought it would be,” Mawrence said.

His peer, fellow junior Valerie Wacker, has a different take on the results.

“It’s a little bit cleaner than I thought because a lot of people are always making fun of the bay and how dirty it is,” she said. “I feel comfortable swimming in the beach knowing that it’s OK.”

Wacker, who got involved with Team Marine through a friend, described the experience collecting samples and running tests as “adult like.”

“It’s interesting because we go at 7:30 in the morning onto the beach and it’s very cold but so beautiful to be taking water samples to show the public how healthy our beach is,” she said. “It’s really important to know what you’re swimming in.”

Sampling Lake Michigan

The Blue Water Task Force is now exploring the Great Lakes. The newly-founded Lake Michigan Chapter has hit the ground running, raising funds through a grant from the Norcross Wildlife Foundation and raffles to perform a water testing program in the ice-free, off-season months of Sept.- Dec. and March- May. Their water testing program is being implemented in partnership with the GVSU’s Annis Water Resource Institute (AWRI). AWRI Biologist and SFLMC member Matt Cooper is leading this ‘first of its kind" study to investigate water quality in Lake Michigan during the months when surfers are most likely to be in the water. Water quality data and more information can be found on the Lake Michigan Chapter's website.

The following Q&A with Matt discusses the highlights of the beach monitoring program.

Q - Tell us about the current water testing program, what is the overall objective?
M - We’re testing the water at the popular surf breaks on both sides of the Grand Haven channel. We’re looking for E. coli and Enterococcus because these bacteria are indicators of other pathogens that can make people sick. The Ottawa County Health Department does a great job of testing the beaches from Memorial Day to Labor Day but we tend to surf a lot more during the Spring, Fall, and Winter so we decided to take matters into our own hands and start our own testing program to make sure we aren’t surfing in contaminated water.

Q - What can you tell us that you have learned so far? (ie does temperature affect ecoli, turbulence, etc).
M - Well, so far, we can say that the water around Grand Haven has had pretty low bacteria counts, especially when the water is really cold. This has been a nice surprise since we really had no idea what we would find in the Fall, after the Health Dept. finishes their sampling for the year.

Q - Does the data collected so far confirm or deny your initial theories on water quality in GH?
M - Since the project focuses on ‘surf days,’ which also tend to be the rainy and nasty days with a lot of muddy runoff in the river, I expected to see more high bacteria counts than what we’ve found. Of course, this is good news for all of us who spend time in the water.

Q - Can we make any conclusions at this time based on the rain events last fall?
M - We’re going to continue testing while we still have funding but so far, we have no reason to think that the water is too polluted to surf. We’re blessed with a beautiful beach, a lot of Spring and Fall surf, and it appears that water quality is pretty good as well.

Q - What does the data mean?
M - To determine whether we are exposing ourselves to nasty ‘bugs’ (bacteria, viruses, etc.) associated with human waste when we’re surfing and kiteboarding at the Grand Haven and Ferrysburg breaks, we are testing for E. coli, and Enterococci. These particular bacteria are found in the digestive tracts of humans and, in fact, they generally don’t cause us any harm (it’s not the same strain of E. coli that makes us sick). However, when we find them in high numbers at the beach, it’s a pretty good indication that other nasty pathogens are present which could make us sick. We will be collecting water samples on most ‘surfable’ or ‘kiteable’ days from now until the ice sets in. We’ll pick it up again after the ice is gone in the spring. Sampling locations include the Grand Haven State Park and north of the pier on the Ferrysburg side.

The numbers that we will report are ‘Colony Forming Units’ (CFU) per 100 milliliters. You can think of this as the number of viable bacteria cells in a 100 milliliter sample. For E. coli, as long as the number stays below 300 CFU per 100 ml for a single day, there’s little cause for concern. For Enterococci, as long as the numbers stay below 104 CFU per 100 ml it’s safe to surf. Of course, these numbers are merely thresholds that the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency has established for recreational waters. This does not mean that at 275 E. coli CFU there’s no chance of getting sick or at 325 CFU you will contract every nasty ailment known to man. The number that we will report are geometric means (a type of average) of at least 3 separate samples collected in approximately 3 to 4 foot of water. We are also collecting additional data including water temperature, wave height, longshore current, weather conditions, and the number of people in the water.

This program was funded in part (roughly two-thirds) by a grant from the Norcross Wildlife Foundation and by you, the local surfers (roughly one-third). Pathogen monitoring has been contracted to the Annis Water Resources Institute of Grand Valley State University. For additional information, contact Matt Cooper (616-331-8790, coopmat@gvsu.edu).

Filling in Financial Shortfalls

Economic hardship has become a reality in communities across the country and around the world. Governments and NGOs alike are being told to do more with less, or unfortunately sometimes, just to do less. State and county health and environmental agencies are not immune to this trend. Budget restrictions are forcing them to pare down their beach water quality monitoring programs by cutting back on the number of beaches tested and the frequency of sampling. Even in California and Florida, two states where beaches drive huge, tourism-based, economic engines, beach monitoring programs have been threatened with major cuts in funding. While the Surfrider Foundation will continue to submit requests for increased federal funding of the BEACH Act so more money gets to coastal states for water testing, our chapters are already taking action to fill in the gaps left by government-run beach monitoring programs.

In Mendocino County, California, the Department of Environmental Health began water quality testing in 2004 at selected beaches frequented by recreational users. Many of these test sites, however, were mainly dive locations and were seldom used by surfers. Additionally, testing was generally conducted only during the summer when there’s little swell.

With this in mind, the Mendocino Chapter proposed additional test sites to the County, including beaches that are primarily used by surfers and beach goers, and to increase the sampling period into the winter months. Since funding is always a problem for the small county, the Chapter proposed to conduct the additional testing on a volunteer basis by Mendocino Chapter members. Thus the Mendocino Chapter Blue Water Task Force was created.

Since 2006, their stout and intrepid team (Victoria Kraus, Jackie Dooley, and Jack Coulumbe) has collected water samples for bacteria testing on a bi-weekly basis at seven locations throughout Mendocino County. In times of County funding shortfalls they have actually substituted for County employees, all on their own time.

In Oregon, the newly founded Siuslaw Chapter, in partnership with the Siuslaw Watershed Council, has launched their Blue Water Task Force program this past winter season. Chapter members collect monthly water samples in areas around Florence that aren’t currently monitored by the State Beach Monitoring program. Volunteers collect samples at the South jetty, North jetty, the Siuslaw River and, the Heceta beach drainage near Driftwood Shores. Larry Brammer designed and built the device that attaches to a fishing pole to hold the water sample bottles when collecting water from the ocean. The water samples are brought to the Siuslaw Watershed Council laboratory in Mapleton for analysis.

The Mendocino and Siuslaw Chapters’ Blue Water Task Force are a great example of volunteerism in support of the community.

Surfrider Europe's Bathing Waters Program

Surfrider Europe’s Bathing Waters program is a surveillance network complimentary to existing water testing programs that communicates information on coastal water quality throughout the year. As the quality of our bathing water is more and more under threat, Surfrider Foundation Europe is taking action to arm users of the coastline with better information and to ensure that water sports enthusiasts are not forgotten.

So far, Surfrider has set up three independent laboratories to better understand the pollution problems of the coastlines, focusing on beaches that are not considered ‘bathing water’ by the 2006 directive that drives water quality testing in these regions.

Beach water quality data from the Bilboa and Marseilles laboratories are available online. Surfrider has plans to expand their water testing program with three additional labs yet to open.

The Bathing Waters program provides clear, water quality information valuable to those practicing nautical activities. Surfrider Europe is also using this program as a base of dialogue with local authorities to encourage the government to expand their program to protect beaches that are enjoyed by sport enthusiasts (surfing, sailing, kite boarding, windsurfing) as well as traditional ‘bathing beaches’. Learn more about this program and Surfrider Europe's other initiatives on their website.

Laguna Beach High School BWTF

The Laguna Beach High School has just released a video documenting their Blue Water Task Force program. Check out the video to learn about their sampling program and local water quality concerns.

Astoria High School BWTF Training

Thanks to all the students and science teacher Tim Roth at Astoria High for a great training last week! The Blue Water Task Force school year sampling program kicks off for the second year in a row, sponsored by the Portland Chapter of Surfrider Foundation. With the help of some stellar volunteers on the north coast, water quality samples from the Short Sands to Astoria area are collected weekly and brought to Astoria High School where the students process the samples.

Check out the slide show of the training.