News & Updates: July 2019

July 2019

Save Water, Energy, Money, & the Environment

FREE Eco Gardener Workshops in Torrance

Make your beautiful garden the envy of your neighbors while simultaneously saving water and creating a productive ecosystem in your backyard! WRD's Lillian Kawasaki Eco Gardener Program teaches homeowners about the multiple benefits of planting a sustainable garden through a series of in-person classes. Whether you attend one or all of them, you are certain to walk away with knowledge about sustainable garden design concepts as well as plant and material selections for creating an attractive, water efficient garden. All classes are FREE.

The Eco Gardener program educates residents on four popular topics: sustainable landscape design, drought-tolerant plants, edible gardening, and irrigation basics. Choose from the list of classes below to register for ( all classes are hosted at Madrona Marsh in Torrance except for "Sustainable Landscape Design" ).

Grass Replacement Classes 2019

West Basin will teach you how to remove your grass and convert your landscape to a drought-tolerant, California Friendly garden. The classes will also help you understand rebate requirements. Choose to register from the list of upcoming classes below:

LADWP Delivers Energy Efficiency Directly to Its Residential Customers

LADWP is hitting the pavement once again, to conduct a third door-to-door delivery of free LED bulbs to every one of the 1.4 million residential household in the LADWP service area. The distribution effort kicked off the first week of May. This latest campaign is a repeat of LADWP’s last successful, free LED bulb delivery in June of 2018. Door-to-door delivery will be conducted by neighborhood in a rolling fashion. Each week, several crews will be deployed simultaneously, in different communities to distribute a reusable bag containing two 12-watt LED bulbs to nearly 125,000 homes.

Torrance California Friendly Landscape & Turf Removal Classes in 2019

Remove your turf and successfully convert your landscape into a sustainable drought-tolerant garden. These classes will help you understand and meet rebate program requirements. Register for the upcoming Saturday classes scheduled below:

FREE Joint Water Pollution Control Plant (JWPCP) Tour in Carson: Saturday, August 3rd

You are invited to take a tour of the Sanitation District's JWPCP to see how your wastewater is cleaned or how your solid waste is managed. People from over 100 countries have toured Sanitation Districts' facilities to learn about our state-of-the-art methods for wastewater treatment and solid waste management. You can, too!

SoCalGas Wins $3 Million CEC Grant to Advance New RNG Technology

SoCalGas announced the California Energy Commission (CEC) has awarded the company a $3 million grant to fund the next phase of development of a new technology that doubles the amount of renewable energy created from the decomposition of organic material at wastewater treatment plants. The new process, known as hydrothermal processing (HTP), reduces greenhouse gas emissions by three times that of traditional anaerobic digestion and costs about half. HTP is highly efficient, using heat and pressure to capture 86 percent of the energy in the waste and using only 14 percent to process it. A pilot project, to be located at the Central Contra Costa Sanitary District (Central San) Wastewater Treatment Plant in Martinez, California. The work is being funded in part by the California Energy Commission, SoCalGas and other private participants.

Shocks Should Never Be in the Water

Marco … POLO … Marco … POLO …The long-favorite game remains, along with swimming, splashing around and just plain floating, a staple of swimming pool fun every summer, but there’s another guessing game pool owners never want to play.

It involves electricity, namely the potential hidden electrical hazards in and around pools — and hot tubs and spas — that could lead to serious injuries and should never be ignored for the safety of occupants.

Household Hazardous and Electronic Waste Collection Events

The Household Hazardous Waste and Electronic Waste Collection Program (HHW) gives Los Angeles County residents a legal and cost-free way to dispose of unwanted household chemicals that cannot be disposed of in the regular trash. Click on date(s) below for more information about the next event taking place in the South Bay:

Lawndale - 8/10/19

Metro Green Line Weekend Closures Between Redondo Beach and Crenshaw Set to Begin July 12th

Weekend rail service will be suspended between Crenshaw and Redondo Beach Stations starting Friday, July 12 until fall of 2019 as work continues to connect the Green Line and new Crenshaw/LAX Line. The work will begin every Friday at 9 p.m. with service resuming every Monday morning until the work is complete. During the closure, Hawthorne/Lennox, Aviation/LAX, Mariposa, El Segundo, Douglas and Redondo Beach Stations will be closed.

Also, learn about other Metro programs such as Vanpool and ExpressLanes .

Click Here for July 2019 Calendar of Events & Workshops

South Bay in the News

SBCCOG Leads 21st Century Connectivity Effort with Selection of American Dark Fiber to Build a South Bay Fiber Network

The South Bay Cities will soon become even more closely connected as they join forces to offer faster and less expensive broadband connectivity to their facilities with an investment in a next-generation dedicated fiber network. The South Bay Cities Council of Governments (“SBCCOG”) has awarded a contract to American Dark Fiber (“ADF”), a Southern California broadband company. They will build and provide gigabit, scalable broadband connectivity to the Joint Powers Authority for the 16 cities and County of Los Angeles that comprise the SBCCOG. The announcement was jointly made recently by Councilmember Christian Horvath, SBCCOG Chair, Jacki Bacharach, SBCCOG Executive Director, and American Dark Fiber CEO, David Daigle.

An Interesting Read

Cost of Rooftop Solar Power Set for Another Steep Plunge

Rooftop solar arrays can be a valuable asset for businesses seeking clean power, and new financing tools make it easier than ever to avoid up-front costs. However, the process of buying a rooftop solar array can still be intimidating. It is not unusual for solar customers to lose interest after their project gets bogged down by long processing times for permits, inspections and grid connections. That’s about to change, if the new “SolarApp” program goes according to plan.