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Local surfer has plans to clean up runoff
by Dan Bialek
After
spending over 30 years in the water off Manhattan Beach, a local surfer hopes
to make it cleaner for everyone.
Manhattan native Paul Polizzotto, along with Carla Contreras, are launching a new program that they hope will reduce the amount of oil, pesticides and other toxins that end up on city streets and eventually get washed into storm drains and the ocean.
Appropriately dubbed Adopt-A-Storm Drain, the program will seek money from private corporations to pay for efforts to reduce the amount of harmful runoff water from local communities. Companies would receive promotional recognition within the city they were supporting.
The money would be used to pay for zero-discharge street and parking lot cleaning, additional catch basins for storm drains, environmental consultants, occupational training and community education programs regarding storm runoff management and pollution prevention.
Polizzotto, who for the last dozens years has owned a company called Property Prep in Lawndale that specializes in environmentally-compliant street cleaning surfaces, outlined his group’s proposal to the city council this week.
He said the city could use minimally obtrusive and aesthetically pleasing signage that would identify the corporate donor, in exchange for corporate dollars for pollution management. By placing plaques on trashcans or atop the mouth of sewer drains, the city could raise hundreds of thousands of dollars a year to pay for the Adopt-A-Storm Drain program, he said.
"I’m confident that there are a significant amount of private corporation dollars available for cities for the cleanup of urban runoff," Polizzotto told city council members.
Polizzotto also provided several other options to the city, saying that he was aware that the city was sensitive to issues involving signs and advertising on public property and streets.
"I believe that there are creative solutions that can be easily resolved to be beneficial for both sides involved," he said.
Adopt-A-Storm Drain’s next step will be to set up an office on Manhattan Avenue sometime in the coming months and to line up sponsors to pay for the program.
Polizzotto said that Chevron was very interested in supporting Manhattan Beach in becoming the first city to implement this program. He also said that he hoped the program would someday spread to all cities in the Los Angeles basin and eventually to cities in all 50 states.
"I can’t tell you how enthusiastic I am about this program. I want to thank the city staff for its support and for being so pro-water quality. It’s a good feeling when your city’s leaders let you know that they are committed to cleaner water," he said.
Polizzotto is an avid surfer and said that he became interested in water quality because of the runoff problems he experienced growing up as a surfer in the South Bay.
"It’s pretty distressing that you’re supposed to stay out of the ocean for 72 hours after it rains, and that’s when the waves are always the best," he said. ER