Brenda Tran

Jaya Dubey
Writing 39C
29 April 2014

Heal the Santa Monica Runoff

According to City-Data, a website known to provide informative profiles on
cities all over the United States, 50,000 people enjoy the Santa Monica beach daily
while more than five million tourists visit it each year. Therefore, in todays world,
when one thinks of Santa Monica and what it as to offer, many easily associate it as a
place that houses prime beaches that offer the best California beach experience.
Tourists and visitors from around the world expect to visit a coastline retreat with
well-maintained environments, gentle ocean breezes, and lots of sunshine. However,
when visiting this world-famous city, many are surprised with quality of this iconic
citys water. According to Heal the Bay, an organization known for its goal to better
this problem, many popular
beaches have been polluted with
urban runoff due to storm drains
and creeks. This phenomenon as
described by the United States
Environmental Protection
Agency (EPA) serves as a
problem during wet seasons as
the rain brings down
contaminants ranging from
sediments to the waste provided from urbanization. Thus, Santa Monica, an urban
city with high rates of urbanization accommodates land space highly occupied by
buildings and pavement, which forbid rain to soak into the ground. The Water
Action Volunteers show the effects of urbanization versus pre urbanization through
their research project for the University of Wisconsin System. Through this picture
we can see why Santa Monica has been victimized to the consequences that urban
runoff brings. Though there has been attempts of initiating progressive measures to
increase the quality of water at the beaches, the yearly beach report card, illustrates
how there is still a percentage of beaches that receive low grades on cleanliness.
Therefore, as time progresses, the problem of urbanization increases in Santa
Monica, which has led to the greater possibility of urban runoff affecting its prized
beaches and near-shore areas close to the Santa Monica Bay. As the number of
people increase in this urban region, the rate at which urban runoff acts upon has
been rising at an uncontrollable speed, which has led to increased levels of
pollution, higher temperatures, and altered watercourses.
Urban runoff has served as a problem to beaches and nearby water
ecosystems ever since the era of urbanization began. Since the period that humans
began to settle and start families in urban locations, there has been a demand for
physical growth. Due to the constant rate of land development, many natural
grounds have been transformed to parking lots, buildings, and industries. They have
turned valuable biological lands into surfaces of hard concrete and asphalt. These
lands act as sources of prevention as they stop rain from having the ability to soak
into the ground. This is one of the major causes that lead to urban runoff. The EPA
informs the public through their annual urban runoff fact sheet, Storm water runoff
carries pollutants such as oil, dirt, chemicals and lawn fertilizers directly to streams
and rivers, where they seriously harm water quality.

In their most recent urban runoff fact sheet, published in 2003, they illustrated the
differences between natural grounds and covered grounds. As seen in the images
above, they showcase the process at which water should travel as which is shown in
the natural ground cover picture. Whereas, the impervious cover illustrates the
lands that many urban areas have today. It shows how due to the transformation of
the lands to house buildings, it creates more runoff than it should. By simply looking
at this readers can see how the natural journey of water is altered which leads to
urban runoff. With these alterations, it is affecting all the nearby surroundings, most
importantly, the soils.
The realization of the existence of urban runoff and the need to take
protective measures came about in 1979. The Nationwide Urban runoff program
marks the start of research being dedicated to this national problem. It is known as
a research project that serves as first of many intensive studies of storm water
pollution in this nation. This project provided the public with not only with
information about the project but it provided light to shocking findings. It informed
the public of several conclusions that explained the causes of this preventable
problem, which will be discussed later throughout this paper.
The number one cause that urban runoff brings is increased levels of
pollution which many forget to consider the impending problems it could bring to
future generations. People tend to overlook the future difficulties that pollution can
bring as they often worry about their day-to-day lives. As wet seasons begin in
urban areas, the water running through these lands have the capabilities of picking
up various pollutants found on the grounds ranging from roads to parking lots.
Additionally, with an overwhelming amount of construction sites, many are poorly
taken care of which serves as another resource for the sediments that water likes to
prey on to be able to continue the process of urban runoff.
Plastic, a substance that is important in the daily lives of citizens serves as
the majority of the pollution that brings harm to the ocean. Studies done by Heal the
Bay show that more than sixty percent of the debris in the ocean comes from the
plastic that finds it way into the waters. Additionally, it serves as a persistent
pollutant as it has a long shelf life. According to William Harris, a writer for an online
website called How Stuff Works educates readers of the longevity of plastic when he
shares, Its safe to argue that plastic will never biodegrade as bacteria turn up their
noses at plastic. Therefore, it is a safe bet that when tourists visit the famous Santa
Monica beaches that they are distracted from floating pieces of plastic that disrupt
the beauty that our beaches can offer. However, plastics in the oceans bring more
harm than to the overall looks of our oceans. It greatly affects the lives of organisms
in the marine ecosystems. Many animals can mistakenly eat the plastics, which can
cause great harm to their health.
Aside from various articles of trash that can get transferred through urban
runoff, toxins like metals are also delivered to the nearby bays. One of the metals in
the toxic pollutants of storm water is lead, which can be potentially harmful for
humans. One might ask how metal is found in storm water runoff, and the answer is
transportation. As the more people choose to call Santa Monica their home, more
cars can be found on the road, which leads to more copper, cobalt, iron, lead, and
zinc to enter our valuable beaches. They are given off through exhaust, brake linings,
and from tires. As they accumulate on our streets, they eventually end up in our
beaches during the next rainfall. Not only do metals pollute our waters, but also they
can be one of the reasons why the supply of fish is decreasing. Zinc, one of the
metals in our vehicles is extremely harmful to aquatic organisms. They are
extremely sensitive to that metal.
In addition to creating rises in pollution, urban runoff is a contributor to
higher temperatures, especially in the shores near the Santa Monica Bay. Even
though, Santa Monicas rain seasons occur in the winter where the temperatures of
both the shores and rainfall are cool, urban runoff can still affect the temperatures
one way or another. This can be done to the lands that have been urbanized as these
new areas can greatly lower the amount of rainwater that reaches the groundwater.
Although some people might think that this is good as that means for less pollution
to reach the waters, ground water still needs to get recharged every once in a while.
Without getting recharged, there will be an unexpected change in temperature as
there will be a smaller amount of groundwater to be transported to the near by
shores, streams, and rivers during the warmer months of the year.
Eutrophication, a process known to demonstrate the response that an
ecosystem has towards the adding of pollutants or artificial substances is a result of
Urban Runoff that proves its effect of increasing temperatures. The Guides Network
sponsors a water pollution guide online for UK readers to become more aware of
this problem. On their website, they notify readers that Eutrophication, Can be a
problem in marine habitats such as lakes as it can cause algal blooms. It also
provides readers
with a visual
aspect by
providing them
with the image on
the right. By
looking at this
image, readers can
see how with this
process it leads to
dangerous effects
to the organisms that choose these marine locations as their homes. Their habitats
are destroyed as they are subject to the growth of phytoplankton, which limits the
amount of sunlight that can travel through the water. This affects the overall
temperature of their homes as with fewer amounts of sunlight, they are forced to
either adapt or die since they are not given the opportunity to move like us humans.
Lastly, with the problem of urban runoff occurring, it leads to another
harmful cause, which is the changing of various hydrologic flows, This is the most
evident cause as one would expect with more buildings replacing natural lands, that
the routes that water is able to take has to change in accordance to the new
buildings. In a perfect world, water is supposed to be absorbed by either the ground
or by plants. However, in todays world, water is forced to flow through various
obstacles like sidewalks and buildings. It is then transferred into streams and
beaches by being piped.
By disrupting the natural course of water, we are not only affecting the water
itself but also the environment around it. Water travels at an uncontrollable speed
and route in which no one can predict. It can also pick up and carry anything it
wants including sediments we dont want to see in our oceans. Therefore, to prevent
a greater amount of runoff, many cities like Santa Monica have tried to pipe the
water to the oceans instead. However, this still has environmental harm as there is
pollution being produced when in transit that is being released from the trucks.
Santa Monica residents share their opinion of this action through a Los Angeles
Times article written by Maria La Ganga. In the article, Cleaner but Not Clean:
Tainted Urban Runoff Remains Key Threat to Santa Monica Bay, it describes how even
with progressive measures, Urban Runoff remains to be a prominent problem as they are
not addressing this problem head on. The city council spends a high amount of money to
prevent this problem from being greater, but there are still some environmental
drawbacks with the techniques they are currently using especially the technique that
involves the transport of water using heavy trucks.
All in all, although Urban Runoff has made itself become a greater problem to
the city of Santa Monica due to the alarming rate of urbanization, we can still solve
this if we take action now. We can prevent the continuation of increased pollution,
higher temperatures, and affected hydrologic flows. Santa Monica has done its part
in helping this problem with its development of Santa Monicas Urban Runoff
Recycling Facility (SMURF). This facility is one of the premiere solutions as this
project serves as one of the many solutions to the problem of urban runoff. As a joint
effort with Los Angeles and Santa Monica, this program will help deal with polluted
storm water to its highest potential to make a better future of its coastal waters for
generations to come.










Works Cited
Annotated Sources:
Groves , Martha. "Santa Monica, Malibu beaches among state's 10 most polluted."
Los Angeles Times. Los Angeles Times, 21 May 2009. Web. 13 Apr. 2014.
<http://articles.latimes.com/2009/may/21/local/me-beaches21>.
Martha Groves, a writer for the Los Angeles Times argues how Santa Monica is home to
one of the most polluted beaches in the state. She illustrates her point through the use of
an article for a newspaper. To prove depth and support for her argument, she utilizes Heal
the Bays Beach reports which showcase grades for various beaches. The purpose of this
article is to bring awareness of this topic. The audience of this article can range from
daily newspaper readers to people who visit these beaches.

Harris , William . "HowStuffWorks "Cons of Urban Sprawl"." HowStuffWorks.
HowStuff Works , 1 Jan. 2013. Web. 20 Apr. 2014.
<http://geography.howstuffworks.com/terms-and-associations/urban-
sprawl2.htm>.
William Harris, a noted writer for the online website, HowStuffWorks
provides readers an insight on the consequences of Urban Sprawl by making them
realize the long term effects plastic has on marine life. To provide visual aspects to
his readers, he employs the use of graphs showing the process of how Urban Sprawl
works. By reading this article, you can see easily see the purpose of this article
which is to inform readers of this problem that can affect future generations.
Readers of this article can be those who are truly interested in the topic.


La Ganga , Maria. "Cleaner but Not Clean : Tainted Urban Runoff Remains Key Threat
to Santa Monica Bay." Los Angeles Times. (2013): n. page. Web. 11 Apr. 2014.
<http://articles.latimes.com/1993-08-29/local/me-29291_1_santa-monica-bay>.
Maria La Ganga, writer for the Los Angeles Times argues that Urban Runoff remains
to be a problem even with the progressive measures that Santa Monica has taken.
She illustrates her argument through an opinionated article that showcases
research in the medium of journalism. To prove that this is an issue, La Ganga draws
references to The Edge an MTV show that is a reality show that features actual
scenes illustrating urban runoff. Her audience can be anyone ranging from
environmentalists to those who are residents in the City of Santa Monica. I plan to
use this in my project in the section of where I describe what attempts Santa Monica
has done to better the problem.
"Municipal Code of Ordinances." Article 7: Public Works. City of Santa Monica. Web.
14 Apr 2014. <http://www.stormwatercenter.net/Model Ordinances/Post
Construction Stormwater Management/santa_monica_urban_runoff.htm>.
Although this source has no publisher, it is evident that it is a transcript from
Santa Monicas city councils meeting. It outlines the details and progress that the
government has been able to take on the water management project. I believe this
source is reliable because it is from the city. Additionally, it lists out a lot of
information for the reader to understand what the city has done ranging from its
objective to specific data. This source will help me in describing how the
government plans to better the problem while providing a lot of data that I can
include in my research to provide a numerical value to add depth.

"Santa Monica Public Works - S.M.U.R.R.F.." Santa Monica Public Works - S.M.U.R.R.F..
City of Santa Monica, 1 Jan. 2014. Web. 21 Apr. 2014.
<http://www.smgov.net/Departments/PublicWorks/ContentCivEng.aspx?id
=7796>.
This website was created by the City of Santa Monica to inform its residents
of its Urban Runoff Program. They inform readers by providing an intensive step by
step guide on what they do with the runoff and by illustrating several photos of their
location. To give citizens research on the topic, they provide statistics collected over
the years by the city council. The purpose of this website is to showcase their new
program and to hopefully influence other cities to inherit a similar program. The
audience of this article can be anyone from the citys residents to those who want to
jumpstart their own program in their city.


Evaluations:

"CHOMP!." Heal the Bay. Heal the Bay , 1 Jan. 2014. Web. 29 Apr. 2014.
<http://www.healthebay.org/>.

This source is the main page for a well known organization that helps fight
this problem. This page is very useful as it provides the goals of this organization but
various fact sheets to inform the readers. They are written in an interesting way
which makes it easy for readers to read and to understand. Additionally, it provides
links to other websites for readers to visit if they would like to be further informed.
I used this source to describe the accomplishments that Heal the Bay has
done especially to the beaches of Santa Monica. Santa Monica is one of their target
areas which means that they provide lots of information in regards to Santa Monica.
I also used its Beach report card to inform my readers of the current grades that
beaches receive for their cleanliness. This helped me argue how even though
progressive measures have been taken, this problem is still a dominant issue.




"Impacts of Urban Storm Runoff ." . Oregon Environmental Council , n.d. Web. 29
Apr. 2014. <http://www.oeconline.org/our-
work/water/stormwater/stormwater%20report/impacts>.

This informative guide was written by the Oregon Environmental Council to
inform its citizens the dangers of urban runoff. As an informative guide, they had
various pictures and research to back up their point. They provided insight to the
reader by using logos as they affect their logic thinking. In this article, they divide it
into various sections which helps the reader easily follow the provided information.
It is very informative as they cover the various causes and effects of Urban Runoff.
I believe this source is reliable because since it is sponsored by the state, that
means that they are putting their name out there. Therefore, if anything was false or
wrong, they would ruin their reputation. Additionally, since it was funded by the
state, they have the ability to gain information not known by the public. I plan to use
this as one of main research sources as it provides several pieces of information that
I could use in my report. This will provide fundamental information as it provides
me with an outline of several causes.



Rohit, Parimal. "SANTA MONICA MIRROR." Rain Brings Plastic Pollution To Santa
Monica Beach. N.p., 30 Nov. 2013. Web. 14 Apr. 2014.
<http://www.smmirror.com/articles/News/Rain-Brings-Plastic-Pollution-To-
Santa-Monica-Beach/38973>.

Parimal Rohit is a staff writer for the Santa Monica Mirror, which is a local
newspaper. He has been writing for various newspaper ranging for local
newspapers to college run newspapers for a number of years. He has a specialty in
writing, social media, and editing which shows that he has prior experience in
writing an article. He has received a degree from UCLA. He is a credible source
because of his extensive knowledge on writing articles for local communities.

The information provided in his article illustrates the process of how pollution is
transferred through rainfall. It talks about the amount of toxins in the pollutants.
This will be very helpful in my research project as I am talking about the pollutants
that rainfall brings to the ocean. By citing this source, I will be able to provide a step
to step process of how this journey occurs.


"Urban Nonpoint Source Fact Sheet." Home. Environmental Protection Agency , 1
Jan. 2003. Web. 20 Apr. 2014.
<http://water.epa.gov/polwaste/nps/urban_facts.cfm>.

This page is provided by the Environmental Protection Society, which is a
governmental program dedicated to improve the status of our environment. This
website has several tabs that not only inform the reader of the topic but also
provides them with handouts they can give to family members or friends to get
them educated on the topic. One of the highlights of this website is their fact sheet
which provides an intensive image that describes the flow of water. It tells readers
how the course of water is affected by urbanization.
I would use this as a source for one of my causes as my main argument for
this paper is to state that urbanization is the leading cause of urban runoff. I will use
the images from the data sheet to show my readers how much has changed since the
natural lands started on earth. I believe this source is also reliable due to the fact
that it is sponsored by the government. Since it is sponsored by the government,
they are able to obtain various resources not yet available to the public.


"Urban Run-Off and your Drinking Water." Urban Run-Off and your Drinking Water.
Extoxnet, 1 Jan. 2013. Web. 29 Apr. 2014.
<http://extoxnet.orst.edu/faqs/safedrink/urban.htm>.

This website is an online blog that helps readers draw connections towards
the effects that urban runoff has on their drinking water. Due to the simplicity of this
website, readers can easily access the website and read all of its materials. I thought
this source was valuable as it ended with an edu which means that is a website
intended for educational use.
For my essay, I used this to back up one of my effects, which was how urban
runoff affected the quality of our water. It helped me illustrate the future harms that
this pollution can bring to future generations. I thought this website was very
helpful as it helped me gain background knowledge on my topic as I started off not
knowing anything about my topic.