The Hot List: 8 issues we'll be working on in 2017

The new year is here, and we're ready! Angeles Chapter volunteer and activists will be working on many issues this year, but here are eight that we're putting on the top of the list. Help us as we gear up to make a difference in Southern California in 2017. Come work on these issues with us. Contact Angélica González at (213) 387-4287, Ext. 204 or by email at angelica.gonzalez@ sierraclub.org.

1. Toxic battery recycling

The Quemetco battery recycling plant in the City of Industry is finally being told to clean up its act -- on many levels. Soil, dust and sediment samples more than a decade ago showed lead contamination around the plant. Now the company has been told to cut its arsenic emissions which one report says poses an increased cancer risk to 12,000 people in the area. The facility processes 1.2 million pounds of car batteries each day from the U.S., Canada and foreign countries. Although pollution from this plant has been a major concern for years, anxiety increased in 2015 after the company asked the state for a 10-year extension of its permits to operate 24/7 and continue storage, treatment and disposal of hazardous wastes at its facility. The Chapter wants to see this permit request denied and more soil testing -- currently undertaken by USC and a state agency -- to gauge the potential risk to residents.

2. Air pollution

Really, let's come clean! This is an opportunity to craft a clean-air plan for the next two decades that would significantly improve the health of 17 million people in L.A., Orange, Riverside and San Bernardino counties. The South Coast Air Quality Management District, which is responsible for mitigating the area's pollution levels, has never come close to meeting federal pollution standards for ozone and fine particulate matter. The result? Roughly 15 premature deaths every day and asthma rates as much as three times higher than the national average. Now an air-quality plan for the next 20 years is being finalized. The Chapter favors a long-range plan that uses clean technologies and reduces Southern California's reliance on dangerous fossil fuels. 

Take action: The AQMD needs to hear what you think. Sierra Club urges members to come to the agency's board meeting at  9 a.m. Feb. 3 at 21865 Copley Drive in Diamond Bar. For more information, contact Angelica Gonzalez at  (213) 387-4287, Ext. 204 or by email at angelica.gonzalez@sierraclub.org

3. Zero Waste LA

This is the year Los Angeles makes good on the Zero Waste LA plan to overhaul its dirty and outmoded commercial waste hauling system. By creating exclusive franchises or regions for haulers apartment dwellers and small businesses in Los Angeles for the first time will be able to recycle rather than send their waste to overcrowded and increasingly shrinking landfills. The plan is to divert 1 million tons of waste from landfills every year, eliminating more than 2 million metric tons of greenhouse gas emissions. That is the equivalent of taking 517,000 vehicles off of the road. Additionally, $200 million for infrastructure development means L.A. will have cleaner waste truck fleets and state-of-the-art waste facilities. As part of the Don't Waste LA Coalition, Sierra Club will be working to make sure all Angelenos have access to recycling and clean and green jobs the program creates.

4. Electric buses, please

Say what? L.A. has more public transit projects right now than anywhere else in the country? Yes people, Car Land is turning the corner, and Sierra Club is in the forefront of that change. The Chapter's Transportation Committee worked with a powerful coalition last year to urge Angelenos to pass ballot Measure M. With a 71% mandate (and counting), the measure means more money to expand L.A.'s bus service and rail network. Transit priorities this year include Metro’s next steps on Measure M’s projects, speeding up introduction of electric buses, particularly on the Orange and Silver lines, creating more bike commuting opportunities as well as getting more electric vehicles on the road and charging stations built, especially in multi-family neighborhoods.  

5. Ballona Wetlands

If this sounds like a blast from the past, it is. Decades ago this critical piece of California's remnant wetlands was slated for development by entertainment moguls Steven Spielberg and David Geffen. Now the threat to these wetlands south of Marina del Rey comes from the state which wants to "restore" the fragile habitat area by bulldozing, excavating and clearing and grubbing everything in sight. Sierra Club is concerned about the devastating impacts this plan could have on the biologically diverse wildlife populations at Ballona. Eight endangered species and dozens of "special concern" species rely on Ballona to thrive. Scientists predict many of them would be harmed or killed by extensive industrial habitat alteration planned.  

6. Water works

No other issue in California strikes such a nerve as water. Among its priorities this year, the Chapter's Water Committee will be working to stop a sketchy water plan proposed more than 30 years ago. A company called Cadiz Inc. wants to pump water from aquifers below the Mojave Desert and sell it to Southern California water agencies. What could go wrong? For one thing, there has been scant attention paid the impact of pumping 50,000 to 75,000 acre feet of water out of the desert each year. Another water fight: The Bay Delta Conservation Project, which renamed itself the California Water Fix, a plan only vaguely understood by many urban Californians. Gov. Jerry Brown has stuck to the idea of building two giant, 40-foot-diameter tunnels through the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta. We say no thanks. The better idea is to restore the Delta, drop the tunnels proposal and pay more attention (and money) to make every region’s water system more resilient and self-reliant.

7. Wild thinking 

Who could ignore the biggest, baddest wild lands on L.A.'s northern border. The overlay of the Angeles National Forest with San Gabriels National Monument (thank you President Obama!) gives Sierra Club a rare chance to have a say in the first management plan for this important swath of land. We're advocating for outstanding visitor services and recreational opportunities for Angelenos who need to be closer to nature. New trail plans and improvements, field rangers, youth-based educational programs that underscore nature appreciation, community programs that encourage diverse visitors and accent languages other than English --  all are needed to create a more welcoming experience. One big focus: improving conditions and access along a heavily used 2.5-mile section of the San Gabriel River.

8. Desalinated water plan? No thanks

With the current drought in California stretching on, water districts statewide are looking for new sources of water. Ocean desalination is one of the options to consider, and Orange County is where the future of desalination in California is being decided. Three agencies are making decisions on what's called the Poseidon Huntington Beach Desalination Project this year. It's a bad idea that will damage the environment and saddle residents with higher water costs for decades to come. The problem? Neither Poseidon nor the Orange County Water District has been able to prove or justify the need for this $1 billion plus project. Plus it would use obsolete surface intakes with ineffective screens and unnecessarily discharge millions of gallons a day of hyper-saline brine into the ocean near one of the most popular beaches in California. Got questions? Contact Ray Hiemstra at ray@coastkeper.org or call 714-850-1965.