UCLA Identifies a Major Source of Pollution--Itself

It generates 1 to 2 million gallons of sewage each day, as much as a mammoth shopping center or a small town. It uses $4.5 million worth of paper products each year, including thousands of tons of toilet paper and computer printouts. All told annually, it creates an estimated 15,000 tons of solid waste, 800 tons of medical waste and 100 tons of hazardous waste such as asbestos, poisons and explosive chemicals. In addition, as one of the state’s largest licensed research facilities, it is among the largest disposers of radioactive waste.

This is not some sooty factory in the bowels of Los Angeles. It is a reknowned educational institution, located on 411 attractive acres--the University of California at Los Angeles.

According to an unusual study to be released Friday by UCLA’s Graduate School of Architecture and Urban Planning, the bustling campus--six miles from the Pacific Ocean and 12 miles from downtown Los Angeles--may be the source of some of the region’s worst pollution and waste.

The 500-page study, the most comprehensive environmental assessment ever made of a major metropolitan university, has already piqued the interest of a number of California lawmakers, among them Assemblyman Terry B. Friedman (D-Los Angeles), in whose district UCLA is located.

Exempt From Regulations

One of the reasons for the legislative interest is that universities have historically been exempt from many of the environmental regulations and policies that govern private industry.

The study also affords a glimpse of the huge impact that a single institution can have on the surrounding community. But just as UCLA, its employees and its students have been partly responsible for Los Angeles’ environmental problems, so too can they begin to solve some of them, the study argues.

Looking at the lush lawns and gardens and the sparkling smiles of tanned students, it is hard to believe that this university is a major polluter.

But the Westwood campus is the city’s third-largest user of electricity, the eighth-largest consumer of water, the 10th-largest producer of carbon monoxide, the study shows. UCLA runs a fleet of cars so large that it is surpassed only by Chevron and Disneyland in the amount of air pollution it brings to Southern California, the study says.

If the study paints a disturbing picture of a wanton polluter, that is precisely what it was intended to do, said Robert Gottlieb, an adjunct lecturer at UCLA and faculty adviser to the six graduate students who researched and wrote the study.

“We do not mean to imply that UCLA is a worse polluter than other universities and certainly not than some industries. But it certainly plays a role,” Gottlieb said. “The purpose of the study is to show, as graphically as possible, what that role is and . . . how a university like UCLA, with all of its intellectual and scientific resources, is uniquely positioned to start solving some of the nation’s most complex environmental problems.”

Some of the study’s proposed solutions are anything but complex.

One way to cut down on waste, the study says, is to encourage more students and campus employees to purchase permanent coffee mugs instead of buying disposable ones.

Making photocopies on both sides of a sheet of paper can also result in tremendous savings, as can the replacement of campus mail envelopes, designed for one-time use only, with reusable mail folders.

The university’s approach to solid waste management is typical of large institutions: It is considered a “disposal” problem, rather than a matter of conserving or recycling materials, the report says.

No Campuswide Policy

While a few voluntary recycling programs have sprung up over the last decade, the university has never established a campuswide policy on recycling wastes.

The report contains some “very good” and “very interesting” ideas, said Allen Solomon, UCLA’s assistant vice chancellor for facilities management. “I think we (the administration) will take this report . . . very seriously at UCLA.”

In some respects, UCLA has been sensitive to the environment, according to the study. The chemistry department has sought ways to cut down on the use of chemicals and other materials in experiments, but its innovations have yet to be adopted by other departments.

UCLA has won numerous awards for its ride-sharing program, a project established four years ago to cut down on the traffic on campus during the Olympics. At the same time, the study says, the university continues to build parking structures and discourages few employees from bringing their cars.

In some areas, the university has not been progressive enough in its thinking, the study says.

Public universities, like government agencies and the military, are not subject to many of the anti-pollution regulations that affect private industry. UCLA, instead of always pushing for tougher standards, has sometimes worked hard to keep itself as free of as many regulations as possible, the study says.

Difficult Issue

Take sewage, which has become a particularly difficult issue for Los Angeles with its rapidly growing population and outmoded treatment facilities. Instead of trying to help solve the problem, UCLA has tried to remain exempt from recent city ordinances intended to stave off the crisis, the study says.

The federal Environmental Protection Agency estimates that universities generate less than 1% of the nation’s hazardous wastes but the wastes are so varied in nature and found all over campus--chemistry laboratories, art studios, maintenance shops and other facilities--that they should be of particular concern to the university, the study maintains. In other areas, the study says, UCLA has been slow to react to environmental problems simply because its priorities lie elsewhere. This is particularly evident when it comes to campus aesthetics.

The university administration has been so sensitive to preserving and enhancing the look of the grounds that it has not always been willing to make changes that are environmentally sound, the study says. Instead of growing desert vegetation, which would use less water and be more suitable to the climate of Southern California, the campus has been filled with palm trees and magnolias and rolling acres of lush, green grass--all requiring vast amounts of water.

One solution, the report suggests, is for the university to begin recycling some of its own sewage to water its lawns and plants. Similarly, the snack bars and cafeterias on campus might consider using what amounts to millions of pounds of discarded food as composts in place of chemical fertilizers and soil conditioners.

Some May Be Impractical

Although some of the suggestions are worthy of exploration, others are at best controversial and may be impractical, Vice Chancellor Solomon said.

The reuse of sewage for watering plants is an issue that has been hotly debated by experts for years, Solomon said. “Do we want to treat lawns with untreated water or treated sewage when kids lie on the lawns? I think that’s one we have to think about.”

As for composting the wasted food from campus eateries, “that’s a potentially helpful solution to a waste problem, but it may create a new issue of pest control,” Solomon warned.

The students say that they hope there will be annual updates of their study and that eventually the entire university system, including Berkeley and the other campuses of the UC system, will follow UCLA’s lead in studying the environment and trying to improve it.

Titled, “In Our Backyard: Environmental Problems at UCLA, Proposals for Change and the Institution’s Potential as a Model,” the study was written by Tamra Brink, Jennifer Dill, Gretchen Homblad, Bryce Little, Anita Adun and April Smith.