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EPA HONORS 22 CALIFORNIA ORGANIZATIONS, INDIVIDUALS

Release Date: 4/22/1999
Contact Information: Leo Kay, U.S. EPA, (415)744-2201

SAN FRANCISCO -- During an Earth Day ceremony in San Francisco today, U.S. Environmental Protection Agency Regional Administrator Felicia Marcus presented plaques to 22 California organizations and individuals in recognition of their efforts to protect and preserve the environment in 1998.

"Today's honorees have applied creativity, teamwork and leadership in addressing many of California's most pressing and complex environmental problems," Marcus said.  "Thanks to the efforts of these individuals, our air, water and land will be cleaner and safer for generations to come.  The winners -- in fact all of the nominees -- set an example for all of us to follow."

The EPA Region 9 Earth Day Celebration acknowledges demonstrated commitment and significant contributions to the environment in California, Arizona, Hawaii, Nevada and tribal lands.  Thirty six groups and individuals were selected from more than 100 nominees received this year from businesses, media, local and state government officials, tribes environmental organizations and citizen activists.

The Calfornia winners and basis for recognition are:

Business, Industry, Trade or Professional Organization

Cole Hardware (San Francisco) For many years, Cole Hardware has created educational materials to help customers become more aware of their environment with customer service bulletins and a store newsletter that reaches 30,000 Californians.  The store works to educate customers on the dangers of lead in water and in their homes, safe removal of lead, paint recycling,  battery recycling, battery reenergizing program, and composting.  The store has also worked with the City of San Francisco to begin a latex paint recycling program, as well as a household battery recycling system.

Pietro Parravano, President of the Pacific Coast Federation of Fisherman's Associations (Half Moon Bay) Parravano recognizes that the long term health of fisheries depends on a healthy natural environment, strict adherence to environmental laws and aggressive programs to recover and restore depleted or endangered species.  As President of the west coast's largest commercial fishing organization since 1992, he has been a leader among the industries dependent upon natural resources to fully embrace an environmental ethic. He also serves as one of two U.S. delegates to the World Forum of Fish Harvesters and Fish Workers, dealing with issues such as overfishing and coastal pollution.

Silicon Valley Manufacturing Group (San Jose) The Group has been actively involved with many environmental issues.  The "Slow the Flow" campaign assisted the Water District and the City of San Jose in meeting their goals for water conservation, and reducing the amount of water discharged into the San Francisco Bay.  These activities helped protect the habitat of two endangered species, the Salt Marsh Harvest Mouse and the California Clapper Rail.   The Group also encourages participation in a transit pass program that local employers can purchase for their employees.
Media

John Krist, Ventura County Star (Ventura) Last December, the Ventura County Star published an eight-part series by Krist about outstanding examples of cooperative environmental problem solving throughout the country.  For the series, "Seeking Common Ground,"  Krist logged more than 33,000 miles in 12 months to interview scores of ranchers, farmers, biologists, government employees and environmental activists.  The case studies he chronicled demonstrate how cooperation, trust and economic self-interest can resolve environmental conflicts without sacrificing either nature or people.
Local, State or Federal Government

City of Los Angeles Board of Public Works (Los Angeles) The City of Los Angeles capped off one of the most ambitious infrastructure revitalization efforts in the country last December when it completed the modernization and expansion of the Hyperion Sewage Treatment Plant, which serves nearly 4 million people in the greater Los Angeles area. The project provides a cleaner Santa Monica Bay for all of the people of Los Angeles. The City has also undertaken ambitious and highly successful sludge management and wastewater reclamation programs.

Suzanne Pearce, Nevada-Tahoe Conservation District (South Lake Tahoe) Pearce has dedicated herself and the district to working to overcome 60 years of past forest fire suppression policy within the basin.  She helped secure a grant that brought together numerous agencies, local groups and citizens to design and implement a new market-based infrastructure to reduce forest fuel loading and reintroduce fire's natural ecological role in maintaining forest health.  Pearce is committed to strategies that seek to demonstrate how environmental protection and economic development can be integrated in a manner that promotes sustainability of each.
                               
Los Angeles County Department of Public Works and Tree People: Generation Earth (Los Angeles) "Generation Earth" was created to take advantage of two compelling concepts: that teens are powerful agents of change in their families and among their friends, and routine choices made by individuals on a daily basis have a collective environmental impact. This nationally acclaimed program uses teachers guides, youth summits, partnerships with teen-oriented radio stations, interschool competitions and a variety of other tools in providing concrete steps that teens can take to positively effect their environment.

Santa Barbara County Air Pollution Control District Innovative Technologies Group (Santa Barbara) Two achievements of 1998 illustrate ways how this program uses innovative approaches to achieve air pollution reductions in two areas   transportation and agriculture   in which the agency has no regulatory authority.  ITG launched a project that put the nation's first duel fuel commuter buses on the road, reducing NOX emissions by 50 percent.  The program also established an "agriculture booster program," which gives farmers incentives to replace older water pump engines with new, low emission engines, reducing NOX emissions by as much as 75 percent.  

Lillian Kawasaki, General Manager, City of Los Angeles Environmental  Affairs Department (Los Angeles) Kawasaki's Department advises the Mayor and City Council on environmental issues, secures resources and develops partnerships between community groups, private businesses, and government agencies to implement environmental projects.  In 1998, the City was designated a national brownfields model to demonstrate innovative approaches to redeveloping contaminated industrial sites.  Kawasaki also served as a leader on several national and local environmental justice panels, and helped with a new children's asthma awareness program.  
Individual

Patricia Mulvey (Palo Alto) Mulvey has devoted herself to resolving environmental issues concerning San Francisco Bay and its upper watersheds.  She has served as an expert on issues ranging from the proposed expansion of SFO runways to the Santa Clara Basin Watershed Management Initiative to the history of wetlands conservation in the Bay.  For more than two decades, Mulvey has volunteered her time and expertise to Bay environmental issues, and she has become even more involved following her retirement from Pacific Bell.

Charles Bradshaw, Camp Pendleton Marine Base (Oceanside) Since taking over the Base Recycling Program in 1991, Bradshaw has transformed it from a one-man shop into one of the largest recycling programs in the Department of Defense.   In 1997, he oversaw the coordination, design, testing and inspection of a machine that reuses spent ordnance casings.  On his own time, Bradshaw petitioned the state for a grant of $89,000, which was used to educate children in the five elementary schools on the base, purchase recycling containers to be used in the barracks and construct billboards that will display recycling art and messages.

Judy Lundy (Alameda) Lundy, a devoted naturalist who died in February, was better known to Alameda school kids as "The Butterfly Lady."  The San Francisco Chronicle wrote of the Alameda Unified School District volunteer, "It would be difficult to calculate all the thousands of hours that she volunteered to the school children, and even harder to measure the fascination with nature she instilled in so many young minds over the last 18 years."  Lundy considered herself on 24-hour call for students who made a spectacular discovery or had a "chrysalis in crisis."

RC Ferris, aka "The Dumpster Diva" (Pacheco) Ferris has long exhibited a strong dedication to reducing, recycling and especially reusing materials, largely through creating original pieces of art that are composed of strange and unusual discarded objects.  The Diva has won awards at the East Bay's annual "Trash to Treasures" contest, assisted in the design of a population display for Walnut Creek's Center for the Arts, and helped pull off  "Jammin' for the Planet," a high school bands environmental fundraiser.  Ferris' fun and unique style educates people to relook at what they throw away.
Environmental, Community or Non-Profit Organization

Environmental Law & Justice Clinic (San Francisco) The Clinic has been instrumental in helping the Southeast Alliance for Environmental Justice to clean up the Bayview-Hunters Point area.  The Clinic supports the community in its assessment of the disposal and reuse of the Hunters Point Shipyard, and has provided legal and technical support for the neighbors of the Bay Area Drum State Superfund Site.  The Clinic also continues to press for an accurate accounting of air pollution impacts on local residents.

Local Government Commission (Sacramento) The Commission is a non-profit organization of mayors, city council members and county supervisors who are working to design new tools to help local officials, planners, architects, builders, business leaders and others shape more healthy, environmentally sustainable places to
live.  Successes include: working on a project in the San Joaquin Valley to promote smart growth land use; partnering with local community leaders to encourage alternative transportation; and sponsoring California's "Second Chance Week," which recycled 204,000 pounds of used clothing, office equipment and other goods.

Joe Edmiston, Executive Director of the Santa Monica Mountains Conservancy (Santa Monica) Edmiston's accomplishments with the Sierra Club and the Santa Monica Mountains Conservancy during the last 35 years have revolved around preserving open space for future generations. Under his leadership, over 30,000 acres of critical open space have been preserved in one of the fastest growing and most congested regions of the world.  Last year, Edmiston's group purchased property to be used as a Los Angeles River Center and Gardens, acquired title to two major open space dedications, and completed the design for a natural park in Southeast Los Angeles.

Dorothy Green (Santa Monica) Green formed a small coalition called Heal the Bay in 1985 in order to fight the tons of sewage being discharged into Santa Monica Bay. Today, her "small band" is a non-profit environmental group of more than 10,000 members working to make Southern California coastal waters safe and healthy again for people and marine life.  Heal the Bay's distinctive fishbone logo is recognized for the goodwill it engenders far beyond the borders of the Southern California coastline.

Judith Henderson, Project Director, Community Youth Council for Leadership and Education, CYCLE (Richmond) CYCLE's program has grown since 1996 under Henderson's direction. She created a community garden on the corner of 10th Street and Harbor Way South, which gave young people training in gardening and landscaping. She  also signed a contract with the City of Richmond that employed 30 youths, aged 18-24, to clean vacant lots for the city.  The project gave many youths their first job training.  Currently, through Henderson, CYCLE is involved in a greenway project that will create a 32-acre linear park laced with trails, gardens, a picnic site, and play areas.

LA Shares (Los Angeles) LA Shares has forged a unique partnership among the public, private and non-profit community to create a highly effective materials reuse program.  Since 1984, LA Shares has given away $16 million in goods to more than 2,500 organizations and schools.  The organization is the largest single donor to the Los Angeles Unified School District, and also contributes goods to numerous senior citizen and social service groups.  LA Shares also created a reuse program for the closing Long Beach Naval Shipyard that salvaged over 850 tons of material that would have otherwise been sent to a landfill.

Yuba Watershed Institute (Nevada City) Formed in 1990 by local residents, the Institute has partnered with public land management agencies, professional associations, private landowners and others to focus on the study, maintenance, use and preservation of this watershed region that encompasses thousands of miles drained by the three forks of the Yuba River.  The Institute's major work now involves implementing a cooperative agreement between the U.S. Bureau of Land Management and a timber guild for the joint management of 2,000 acres of publicly owned forest land.

Urban Habitat Program (San Francisco) The Urban Habitat Program builds multicultural, urban environmental leadership for socially just, sustainable communities in the Bay Area.  Major accomplishments include developing a ground-breaking report entitled San Francisco Bay Area Metropolitics:  A Regional Agenda for Community and Sustainability; creating a regional Leadership Institute for Sustainable Communities; and spearheading a Bay Area-wide dialogue for a strategy to promote a metropolitan regional agenda for justice and sustainability.  
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