About the Polluted Runoff PROBLEM:
Water pollution from contaminated runoff plagues bays, ocean waters, beaches,
lakes, rivers and streams throughout California – and many are in violation of
state and federal water quality laws. Pollutants flow daily directly to these waters
– without treatment of any kind – endangering human health, marine and aquatic
life and ocean waters worldwide. The dangerous impacts of this polluted water on
human health, animals and aquatic life have been well documented.
In Los Angeles County, nearly 100 pollutants impact over 500 miles of rivers and
streams, San Pedro and Santa Monica Bays, and the county’s world-renowned
beaches.
All of the San Francisco Bay-Delta Estuary – which drains 40% of California and is
one of the most ecologically productive water bodies in the world –suffers from
severe pollution due to daily urban runoff, mining, industry, agriculture and
sewage.
Water quality in the entire Bay Delta – over 1,000 square miles – is in violation of
the U.S. Clean Water Act, threatening water supplies for nearly all of California.
Why has Polluted Runoff Become such a Serious
Problem?
More than a century of growth and development has drastically changed the
natural function of rivers and watersheds, and paved thousands of square miles
with concrete and asphalt. These non-porous surfaces can’t absorb or filter water
the way soil and natural lands do. And to make matters worse, our yards,
landscaping, businesses, industry, streets and parking lots create “runoff” –
pollutant-laden water that flows daily, even in dry weather, directly into drainage
systems and to our rivers, beaches, bays and ocean. When it rains, the problem
only gets worse.
Can Green Approaches Help Solve the Problem?
Many water quality experts believe that much of the toxins, bacteria and other
contaminants carried by daily urban and stormwater runoff could be permanently
addressed by directing these polluted waters to a network of new and welldesigned
“green” areas: new and restored natural habitat, parks and recreation
lands that would allow soil and plants to naturally filter and uptake water and
pollutants as well as providing a wide range of open space and other benefits.
BUT, the conventional assumption has been that there is not enough land in
developed areas to effectively use “green” approaches to naturally clean up
polluted runoff.
CCS’S GREEN SOLUTION PROJECT OVERTURNED CONVENTIONAL ASSUMPTIONS.
CCS' Exciting Green Solution Findings
The Green Solution Project is a major paradigm shift, changing conventional
assumptions about the lack of available land for green approaches to the urgent
water quality problems caused by polluted runoff. The Green Solution Project pioneers a creative and practical approach by focusing on existing public lands
and on unpaving impervious areas and retrofitting porous areas on these lands,
so that they can naturally clean polluted runoff while also providing important
park, habitat and other green open space.
Download a copy of the full Green Solution Report.
In Los Angeles County, the CCS team found that up to 20,000 acres of existing
public lands are suitable for conversion and retrofit from paved, non-porous
surfaces to innovative, multiple-benefit Green Solution projects in all watersheds
of the county. Transforming these lands to a network of new, green open
space lands that can naturally capture, filter and clean polluted runoff could
handle nearly 50% of the county’s polluted runoff problem that can be
dealt with by Green Solutions – while also creating badly-needed park, habitat
and other green open space amenities.
The Green Solution’s Potential In Every Community
The Green Solution can be implemented in any area suffering from polluted
runoff problems. This pragmatic approach is essential to effectively address water
pollution in watersheds throughout the nation, and particularly where the natural
functions of watersheds, rivers and soil itself have been dramatically altered.
Many water quality experts believe that much of the toxins, bacteria and other
contaminants carried by daily urban and stormwater runoff could be permanently
addressed by directing these polluted waters to a network of new and well-designed “green” areas. Until CCS’s Green Solution Project approach - focused
on existing public lands - it was widely believed that there just weren’t enough
lands to make this multiple-benefit approach a feasible solution to polluted runoff
problems.
The CCS Green Solution Team
The Community Conservation Solutions team includes state-of-the-art
hydrology engineering and GIS digital mapping technology, provided by Psomas
and GreenInfo Network. This expert team’s unique methodology quantifies the
amount of land necessary for conversion or retrofit to Green Solution projects to
meet water quality improvement goals, determines the opportunity public lands
suitable for Green Solution projects, and integrates hydrology, water quality
improvement, conservation and community needs to determine strategic Green
Solution Project locations.  
CCS thanks the following for their support of the
Green Solution Project:
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