Santa Monica Bay Restoration Commission Wins Green Leadership Award

The Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors presented the annual Green Leadership Awards Tuesday, recognizing efforts to improve environmental sustainability.

The Santa Monica Bay Restoration Commission, partnering with the City of Culver City, won an award for its Culver City Rainwater Harvesting Program. The pilot program installed 396 rain barrels, which captured between 175,000 and 400,000 gallons of water. That rainwater was then redirected to gardens and lawns, reducing pollution in Santa Monica Bay.

According to an SMBRC the rainwater that normally flows into streets and onto driveways and sidewalks picks up pollutants including lead, copper, nitrate, phosphorous and bacteria before flowing into storm drains and out to rivers and beaches.

The CCRH project helped solve that problem by capturing the rainwater on rooftops before it ever hit the streets.

“We are excited to be selected for this program, the first of its kind in Culver City,” Environmental Programs & Operations Manager for the City of Culver City Damian Skinner said in an official statement.  “Community response has been really positive, and working with the SMBRC made implementing the program extremely easy and provided us the tools to continue the program in the future.”

Ivan Medel, SMBRC field and research coordinator, and CCRH program manager added,  “It was amazing to see how excited residents were to contribute to the protection of our watershed.” 

- City News Service contributed to this report