Community Conservancy International (CCI) develops innovative new “Green” approach to help solve critical polluted water quality problems Green Solution Projects improve water quality by using soil, plants and natural processes to capture, filter and clean polluted runoff, while creating new parks, natural habitat, recreation and other open space lands. LOS ANGELES, CA – In keeping with the CCI mission of solving complex problems involving people and nature to provide permanent public benefits, CCI has released its report on The Green Solution, which presents practical, green solutions to the serious water quality, public health and environmental problems caused by polluted stormwater and urban runoff. The Green Solution Project Report is the result of two years of research and in-depth analysis, and was developed by CCI in collaboration with a team of skilled experts. The results are exciting: the CCI Team identified up to 20,000 acres of existing public lands in Los Angeles County potentially suitable for creative multiple-benefit Green Solution Projects – changing long-held assumptions about land availability for green approaches to water quality improvement. CCI found that conversion or retrofit of these lands to pervious Green Solution projects could address nearly 40% of Los Angeles County’s polluted runoff problems that can be dealt with by Green Solutions – while also creating badly-needed park, habitat and other green open space amenities for surrounding communities. CCI recognizes polluted runoff as an increasingly serious and pressing need worldwide, and especially in California, where decades of urban growth have resulted in vast areas of paved surfaces that contribute daily high volumes of contaminated runoff. These urbanized areas are also often starved for parks, natural open space and native habitat lands. Serious water pollution from contaminated runoff plagues bays, ocean, beaches, rivers, streams and lakes throughout California. In Los Angeles County, almost all waters - 300 miles of rivers and streams, 160,000 acres of lakes, both Santa Monica and San Pedro Bays and the entire county coastline – violate federal and state public health standards. GREEN SOLUTIONS POTENTIAL IN EVERY COMMUNITY: The Community Conservancy International Team developed a unique analytical methodology to quantify the amount of land necessary for conversion or retrofit to Green Solution projects in order to address polluted runoff, and the availability of existing public lands suitable for these multiple-benefit projects. This approach can be successfully applied in any region suffering from the serious water quality problems caused by polluted runoff. The Green Solution approach is essential to effectively address water pollution produced throughout the nation, and particularly in areas where the natural functions of watersheds, wetlands, rivers and the soil itself have been dramatically altered. CCI’s Green Solution Project provides an exciting and innovative approach to help protect public health, prevent river, bay and ocean pollution, protect marine mammals and other aquatic life, improve water quality and create and restore badly-needed parks, natural lands, habitat and other green open space. CCI thanks the following for their generous financial support of the Green Solution Project:
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