Coastal Blog
March 2013
March 29 2013
Responding to Sandy
Coastal Preservation Beach Dredge & Fill Shoreline Armoring
Almost five months after Hurricane Sandy slammed into the northeast the region is still in recovery mode. It is a real challenge to balance the competing interests of the urgency and importance of rebuilding with thoughtful planning to make the necessary changes to avoid a similar disaster in the future.…
March 29 2013
Sewage Treatment: Moving Off the Coast?
Know Your H20 Wastewater Water Recycling
A combination of required replacement of outdated sewage treatment facilities, climate change adaptation (sea level rise), and integrated water management strategies may be evolving towards movement of sewage treatment facilities away from the coast, as well as water re-use and improved water quality discharge.
March 28 2013
Top Plastic Pollution Bills in California
Legal Rise Above Plastics Bag Bans
The California legislative session started off in full sprint this year, with Senators and Assembly members tripping over themselves to come up with bills that address coastal plastic pollution. At the end of the first quarter, we have several priority pieces of legislation that Surfrider Foundation supports in our efforts…
March 22 2013
New Malibu OFG Helps to Protect Surfrider Beach
Ocean Friendly Gardens Basic Class
This new, high-profile Ocean Friendly Garden at Bluffs Park is just up the hillside from Surfrider Beach, where Surfrider Foundation got its start. Backed by the City and many others, it's a good model for people to draw from: at home, at work, and elsewhere.
March 20 2013
Farewell Friend – In Memoriam of My Travel Mug
My friend of three and half years passed away this morning. He’d been on life support for quite a while, but I made him hold on. There was no one like him so it was hard to let go. We’d been everywhere together on a daily basis. We’d worked to…
March 20 2013
Protecting ocean recreation and surfing
The Surfrider Foundation takes a multi-pronged approach to protecting ocean recreation and surfing. Here we provide an overview of those approaches and we will dive into each one in more detail in subsequent posts.
March 19 2013
EPA articulates the multiple benefits of green infrastructure
Know Your H20 Low Impact Development
Green infrastructure is a cost-effective and resilient approach to our water infrastructure needs that provides many community benefits. As of 2008, the total reported water infrastructure needs for the United States included $63.6 billion for combined sewer overflow control and $42.3 billion for stormwater management. Since only 22% of regulated…
March 13 2013
Surfrider Foundation Sues to Open Martin’s Beach to the Public
Martin's Beach in Half Moon Bay, California, is a beautiful stretch of sandy beach that has been enjoyed by locals and visitors for generations. However, locked gates and signs were erected at the entrance to the beach road several years ago. After over two years of outreach and advocacy, the…
March 12 2013
Desalination a drop in the bucket?
Surfrider advocates for holistic water supply management through the exhaustion of multi-benefit water supply solutions before implementation of more energy intensive options such as desalination. Many cities in California are beginning to realize desalination is not the answer!
March 11 2013
Can a First Coast City be the First City in Florida to Refuse Plastic Bags?
Florida is a state that limits 'home rule' when it comes to plastic bags - municipalities are not allowed to enact a plastic bag ban or fee-based ordinance per state law. That did not slow down a group of Flagler College students who are working to eliminate plastic bag litter…
March 10 2013
Senator Vitter Wants To Drill Off Your Coast
Senator David Vitter has introduced legislation to expand oil and gas drilling off every U.S. coastline.
March 08 2013
Desalination verses Conservation: Who wins?
In a recent Southern California article, Surfrider's Joe Geever highlights the multiple benefits of increased water conservation verses the multiple negative impacts of ocean desalination.
March 07 2013
Talks and Walks - An Easy On-ramp to OFG
Ocean Friendly Gardens Lawn Patrol
Whether your chapter is just getting going with OFG or has been at it for awhile, giving talks and leading walks are easy on-ramps for volunteers. A talk can be given to any group, and walks can be lead from any garden.
March 07 2013
Plastic Bag Freedom. HUH?
America's Founding Fathers obviously did not have plastic bags in mind when seeking freedom, but in desperate efforts, some plastic bag proponents are trying to associate plastic bags with freedom. "On Tuesday, Rep. Drew Springer (Muenster) filed HB 2416 "The Shopping Bag Freedom Act" to give retailers and consumers the…
March 04 2013
Want to Find Sewer Spills and Leaks? Ask a Dog
Blue Water Task Force Source Identification Water Quality
A frequent problem in coastal watersheds is detection of high bacteria counts at beaches. Tracking the sources of the bacteria back up rivers, creeks and storm drains is difficult, time consuming and costly. But there may be a better way - using a trained, sewage-sniffing dog. We wrote about the…
March 04 2013
Chasing away the birds
Introducing the Goosinator: a new device that has been developed in the Great Lakes to chase away flocks of geese and gulls from public beaches.
March 01 2013
Surfrider Foundation 2013 Federal Legislative Priorities
Surfrider Foundation has a focused, few legislative priorities at the federal level that bubble up from our 84 grassroots Chapters on the ground. For 2013, our priorities at the national level are Clean Water, Ocean Ecosystems, and our Not the Answer campaign. We are also monitoring for Rise Above Plastics…
March 01 2013
Pollution Source Tracking Guide
Blue Water Task Force Source Identification Water Quality
The City of Santa Barbara and UCSB have developed 2 new resources to help track the sources of water pollution in coastal watersheds.
March 01 2013
Friday Inspiration
It's a beautiful day in Southern California and I'm itching to head to the beach. But, some work needs to be done before I sneak out a little early this afternoon. Going through some emails and files quickly provided some inspiration to keep me fired up: some great outreach from…
