Getting Your Mind in the Gutter with Mark Gold: Stormwater as a Resource
Come out and get to know Heal the Bay at this very special presentation by Mark Gold, HTB’s President. Mark will discuss California’s response to water scarcity and the opportunity to sustainablly harvest rainwater for reuse and infiltration. Rainwater harvesting can augment water supplies while providing flood control and minimizing pollution. Efforts to incentivize and encourage small scale and regional rainwater harvesting must expand. Agencies such as MWD can provide economic incentives like the $250 per acre foot subsidy they provide for water recycling and ocean desalination projects. In addition, the State can clarify health requirements for rainwater harvesting. The Los Angeles County Department of Public Health will soon release a rainwater harvesting matrix for new projects. We need to move beyond the concept of “one water” to the reality of integrating policies, regulations and funding for water supply and water quality. With these changes, we can treat urban rivers as a resource rather than structures that simply transport stormwater pollution into our rivers, beaches and bays.
Please pay at the door: $35 members / $40 non-members/ $20 students/retirees.
About Mark
Mark Gold is President of Heal the Bay, an environmental group dedicated to making Southern California coastal waters and watersheds, including Santa Monica Bay, safe, healthy and clean. Mark received his Bachelors and Masters in Biology and his doctorate in Environmental Science and Engineering from UCLA. He has worked extensively over the last 22 years in the field of coastal protection and water pollution; he created Heal the Bay’s Beach Report Card, and has co-authored numerous California coastal protection, water quality and environmental education bills. Mark served on the EPA Urban Stormwater Federal Advisory Committee and was vice chair of the California Ocean Science Trust. Currently, Mark is vice chair of the National Estuary Program’s Santa Monica Bay Restoration Commission and he sits on the Board of UCLA’s Institute of the Environment and Sustainability.
About Heal the Bay
Our rivers, our beaches and our ocean are incredible natural resources that serve as special spiritual sanctuaries. Our coast also serves as a critical source of real economic wealth in southern California, from the bounty of seafood, recreation and tourism it provides. When we protect the watersheds in which we all live we protect our own well being. Since 1985, people like you who care about our rivers, beaches and oceans have been a part of Heal the Bay’s fight to make Southern California coastal waters and watersheds, including Santa Monica Bay, safe, healthy and clean. As far back as our first fight to end the dumping of untreated wastewater from the Hyperion Sewage Treatment Plant, we’ve worked from a base of science to educate you, the media and government agencies about the causes and effects of pollution on our Bay. Today, the greatest threats to our coastal waters and watersheds, and to all of us - both human and animal - come from urban and stormwater runoff, plastic pollution, and the ever-increasing stresses to our marine environment from overfishing and climate change. Working together, we can protect and save one of our most precious, natural resources – with your help, we can heal the bay.
