Local News in Brief : Bay Pollution Report
California’s scenic bays have been polluted by faulty waste-water treatment plants, ocean dumping and urban and agricultural runoff, a report released Friday by Assemblyman Tom Hayden concluded.
Hayden, chairman of the Assembly Task Force on Toxic Pollution in the Santa Monica Bay, called the problem “the neglected environmental issue of the decade” and said the “bureaucratic maze” that has hamstrung cleanup efforts should be streamlined.
Hayden said he will introduce a bill in the Assembly in January that would place 40 agencies now responsible for ocean management under a new Department of Ocean Resources that would be run by an “ocean czar.”
The czar would be empowered to stop ill-conceived developments, which Hayden said are the chief source of pollution, when sewage facilities are deemed insufficient.
“We are invaded by special interests just as the ocean itself is invaded by pollution,” Hayden said.
The Santa Monica Democrat released the report at a news conference at Mothers Beach in Marina del Rey, which has been closed since October, 1987, because of pollution.
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