Department of Water Resources
A daily compilation of significant news articles and comment
October 14, 2008
5. Agencies, Programs, People –
Dorothy Green dies at 79; activist founded Heal the Bay
Los Angeles
By Elaine Woo
Interim energy chief: IID has ‘much potential’
Imperial Valley Press
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Dorothy Green dies at 79; activist founded Heal the Bay
Los Angeles
By Elaine Woo
Dorothy Green, a leading environmental activist whose anger over the pollution of
Green became a warrior for clean water in 1985 after hearing how her brother had been splattered with barely treated sewage from an open drain at Ballona Creek in Marina del Rey. The creek runs into
Soon after the incident, Green huddled in her living room with a group of like-minded activists and formed Heal the Bay, which became a leader in the fight to clean up and protect local coastal waters. One of the largest nonprofit environmental groups in
When Green launched Heal the Bay, the challenges were significant.
"We had a 'dead zone' in the middle of
Other groups
Heal the Bay, of which Green was founding president, was only one of the products of her vision. She also founded the
She was a mentor to many of the current leaders on water issues in the state, including Timothy F. Brick, chairman of the board of the Metropolitan Water District of Southern California and a longtime water activist.
"She was quite unique in our generation," said Brick, who knew Green for 35 years. "She not only was personally a very effective advocate but she founded a series of organizations that have been very effective in shaping policy on a variety of different water issues."
Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa, in a statement Monday, called her "a giant of the environmental movement."
Green, the daughter of Polish immigrants, was born in
She took her first step toward activism in 1962, when she joined the Exceptional Children's Foundation to help people like her son, Hershel, who is mentally challenged. For the next 17 years she ran the organization's Christmas card program, which raised $25,000 a year. With another son facing the draft, she also became involved in the antiwar movement.
By the early 1970s she was a full-fledged citizen warrior. She campaigned for Proposition 20, which led to the creation of the California Coastal Commission. Later, she joined the fight against a proposal to build a peripheral canal, which would bring
By 1985 she was a coordinator of Working Alliance to Equalize Rates, a group concerned with statewide water issues. She also was president of the
When the phone call came from her brother about his troubling discovery in Ballona Creek, she was, she recalled in an interview with Surfline magazine, "between issues." She sprang into action, starting with a personal inspection of the spot in the creek where largely untreated waste was spilling out next to a popular bike trail.
"The stench was undeniable," Green recalled in a 1987 interview with The Times.
Due to the efforts of Green and a small group of other activists, a political stink ensued.
Green called a number of leading environmentalists, including then-Assemblyman Tom Hayden, who represented the Westside. With Green leading the charge, they exposed problems in the city of
The city was fined $180,000 by the Los Angeles Regional Water Quality Board for several spills that had dumped nearly 200,000 gallons of waste into the ocean. The next year, 1986, the city agreed to introduce secondary treatment of sewage at its Hyperion plant in El Segundo, a first step in a years-long process of detoxifying the bay.
The group soon began to hear reports of what many people believed to be the health consequences of swimming in polluted waters.
"We started getting calls from surfers with infected ears and rashes," Green said. "We found out the lifeguards had an inordinate history of cancer and health problems, but the county didn't recognize the links between water quality and these illnesses."
1987 victory
When Green's group formally organized as a nonprofit, it chose the name Heal the Bay because "it communicates hope," Green said. "That's the main thing we wanted to sell."
It held beach rallies to sign up members and generate publicity and offered testimony at hearings before regulatory boards. At the center was Green, who colleagues said had a gift for communicating with everyone from sewage treatment engineers to volunteers assigned to pick up beach litter.
"You could not say no to Dorothy," said Paula Daniels, a Los Angeles Board of Public Works commissioner who gave up a law career to join Green's water battles.
By 1987, Heal the Bay counted 900 individuals and 60 organizations as members. They celebrated a major victory that year when a federal judge approved a settlement between the city and the federal Environmental Protection Agency after
Heal the Bay was granted friend-of-the-court status in the EPA lawsuit and assigned the role of monitoring the city's progress. By 1989, the Hyperion plant was nine years ahead of schedule in meeting an important federal pollution standard. In 1992, she participated in the opening of a new sewer line that would help end the dumping of sewage into the bay. Green served seven years as president of Heal the Bay. In 1990 then-Mayor Tom Bradley appointed her to a term on the Board of Water and Power Commissioners, which sets policy for the Department of Water and Power. She remained a member of Heal the Bay's board.
The venerable activist was first diagnosed with melanoma 30 years ago. In 2003, the cancer reappeared and spread to her brain and eventually to other organs, but Green refused to let her illness interfere with the issues that remained at the top of her agenda.
In 2005 she spoke passionately at Heal the Bay's 20th anniversary gala on the beach near the Santa Monica Pier -- 11 days after undergoing a major operation. Earlier this year, she showed up at the group's board meeting a week after having her spleen and kidney removed.
Two weeks ago, while bedridden and in hospice care, she wrote an eloquent plea for sensible water policy, which was published on The Times' opinion page last Wednesday.
"Until her last breath," Gold said, "she was going to try to make this a better place."
In addition to Joshua, of Brentwood, and Hershel, of Diamond Bar, she is survived by her son, Avrom, of
Funeral services will be held at 2 p.m. Thursday at Mount Sinai Hollywood Hills,
http://www.latimes.com/news/obituaries/la-me-green14-2008oct14,0,4864671.story
Interim energy chief: IID has ‘much potential’
By MEGAN BAKKER, Staff Writer
After one week on the job, the new interim energy manager for the Imperial Irrigation District is planning to focus on internal organization.
Edward Aghjayan said he wanted to get a blueprint together to improve the way the IID responds to issues, since, he said, one year from now could bring completely different issues than what the IID is facing today.
“The issues kind of astound me,” Aghjayan said, listing projects like geothermal plants, solar power and transmission lines.
“There can’t be too many places in the country where all that has been going on.”
Aghjayan was brought out of his eight-year retirement for the job after IID General Manager Brian Brady called him. Aghjayan and Brady already knew each other.
Before retirement Aghjayan worked in
He said he was fascinated by the job at the IID and said the district had “so much potential.”
“I know they’ll keep me busy,” Aghjayan said.
http://www.ivpressonline.com/articles/2008/10/14/local_news/news04.txt
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