EPA Turns 40, Honors Ports of LA, Long Beach and Hermosa Beach as Environmental Heroes
Prestigious awards presented at Union Station in downtown Los Angeles
For Immediate Release: December 2, 2010, Contact: Francisco Arcaute, Cell (213) 798-1404, arcaute.francisco@epa.gov, LOS ANGELES – Community activists, forward-thinking elected officials, innovative researchers, sustainable businesses, cutting edge green technologies and a young eco-activist are among the honorees to be recognized today at U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s 12th annual Environmental Awards Ceremony held in downtown Los Angeles, Calif.
“From Arizona to California to Samoa, this year's winners’ fight to protect our air, water and land in the face of daily environmental challenges,” said Jared Blumenfeld, EPA’s Regional Administrator for the Pacific Southwest. “These innovative green heroes prove that it is possible to make a difference and improve our environment, regardless of whether they are elected officials, business leaders, or community activists.”
“During the past 40 years, EPA has played an important role in helping to clean up Southern California’s smog,” said Barry R. Wallerstein, executive officer of the South Coast Air Quality Management District. “EPA’s efforts along with those by today’s honorees will help ensure continued environmental improvements in the future.”
The Southern California winners of this year’s EPA Environmental Awards are:
Low-Impact Development for Water Quality
City of Hermosa Beach,CA
Pier Avenue Improvement Project
(contact: Frank Senteno)
The City of Hermosa Beach’s Pier Avenue Improvement Project effectively uses Low Impact Development to protect water quality. Stormwater runoff is the number one cause of coastal water quality impairments here in southern California and across the nation. Hermosa Beach has recognized that by using low-impact development techniques, natural pre-development conditions can be mimicked by directing stormwater flows to permeable, vegetated areas. By taking advantage of tools to naturally filter out bacteria, this project reduces pollutant loads to the Santa Monica Bay beaches' total maximum daily load. Hermosa Beach took on a great logistical challenge by retrofitting the commercial center of its town, where 1,800 feet of Pier Avenue was redesigned to create an attractive, pedestrian-friendly community center. Where businesses were once subject to frequent flooding, there is now state-of-the-art stormwater management, including innovative trash interceptors. Runoff from a 36-acre drainage area is directed to infiltrate beneath new public spaces at intersections and to a center median, all of which have been newly landscaped with drought tolerant vegetation.
Clean Air Technology Award
Technology Advancement Program, San Pedro Bay Ports' Clean Air Action Plan
Port of Los Angeles
Kevin Maggay, Environmental Management Division, San Pedro, CA
Port of Long Beach
Heather Tomley, Long Beach, CA
The Technology Advancement Program is a landmark initiative developed as a component of the San Pedro Bay Ports’ Clean Air Action Plan. The program’s mission is to move toward an emissions-free port by accelerating the verification or commercial availability of new, clean technologies through evaluation and demonstration. While the primary focus of the program is on technologies with potential to reduce diesel particulate matter, nitrogen oxides and sulfur oxides, the technologies also often reduce greenhouse gases and fine particulate matter. A few examples of the projects that were selected last year include the development of the world’s first diesel electric hybrid tug by Foss Maritime, where the hybrid tug performed comparable to a diesel tugboat, but with an anticipated 44 percent reduction in emissions and 20-30 percent reduction in fuel consumption. The program also selected the Balqon Advanced Battery Demonstration, which converted an electric drayage vehicle and an electric yard tractor from lead acid battery to lithium battery technology. Technology behind the Bluefield Holdings/Krystallon Seawater Scrubber was shown to treat and significantly reduce emissions from the boiler and auxiliary engines of a class 11 container ship. It’s estimated that the retrofitted vessel will result in decreases of 80-85 percent in diesel particulate matter, 99.9 percent in sulphur oxides, and more than 90 percent in volatile organic carbons. This innovative program facilitates not only the development of new technologies, but also adoption throughout the port industry.
Additional awardees include: California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger; Mayor Ashley Swearengin, City of Fresno; American Samoa House of Representative Taotasi Soliai; Alex Cabillo , Hualapai Tribe, AZ; Dr. Chip Fletcher, University of Hawaii; Rebecca Quintana, Visalia, CA; Jeanne Rizzo, San Francisco; Dino Giacomazzi, Hanford, CA; Aitan Grossman, Palo Alto, CA; Sierra Nevada Brewing Co., Chico, CA.
The awards, held on the EPA’s 40th anniversary help celebrate "40 Years of Environmentalism." Since 1970, America’s environmental history has stood witness to both dramatic events and remarkable progress. For 40 years, EPA has carried out a mission to protect the air we breathe, to safeguard the water that flows through our communities and into our homes, to ban unsafe chemicals and pesticides, and to care for the land where we build neighborhoods, schools and businesses. In the last four decades, EPA’s work has benefitted every single American.
Today, new cars are 98 percent cleaner than in 1970 in terms of smog-forming pollutants. Back in 1980, American families and businesses recycled about 10 percent of trash. Today, 33 percent recycle – that’s like cutting green house gas emissions from more than 33 million automobiles.
In the Pacific Southwest, the number of hazardous waste landfills has decreased by 90 percent since 1980. In the same year, there were 19 hazardous waste incinerators in the Pacific Southwest, today there are no hazardous waste incinerators operating in the Region.
EPA is joined by co-sponsors South Coast Air Quality Management District, San Joaquin Air Pollution Control District, and the Bay Area Quality Management District. Award recipients from California, Arizona, Hawaii and American Samoa are participating in a panel discussion following the awards ceremony to discuss critical environmental issues facing the Pacific Southwest.
Each year, U.S. EPA's Pacific Southwest office encourages citizens in California, Arizona, Nevada, Hawaii and the Pacific Islands to nominate individuals or organizations for 12 Environmental Awards. This program offers a great opportunity to recognize individuals and groups outside of EPA who are working to protect public health and the environment. Awards are granted to scientists, teachers, journalists, citizen activists, young people, organizations, business representatives, public officials, and others committed to protecting public health and preserving our natural surroundings.
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