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Make your home S.A.F.E.
If your garage looks even remotely like mine, you need to take a trip to a S.A.F.E. (Solvents/Automotive/Flammables/Electronics) Center.
Operated by the City of Los Angeles Bureau of Sanitation, S.A.F.E. Centers accept all manner of household hazardous waste which they will then dispose of properly. This includes paint, pool and garden chemicals,
printer ink cartridges, motor oil, batteries, fluorescent lightbulbs (including compact fluorescents) and anything else you just know should not go into the regular landfill.
They will also recycle e-waste like old computers, monitors, printers, cables, televisions, microwaves and the like.
Best of all, they are open to the public every Saturday and Sunday, from 9 AM to 3PM. Two S.A.F.E. Centers are located in the Valley. One is in Granada Hills, at 10241 N. Balboa Blvd. (half a block south of Devonshire. The other is in Sun Valley, at 11025 Randall St.
To see a more complete list of items
that are accepted, visit the Bureau of Sanitation website.
Radon in the Valley
I recently wrote an article for the new ChatsworthPatch website about the potential dangers of radon in Chatsworth.
What I learned was astounding. First, that radon is a very commonly-occurring substance throughout the United States. Second, that radon gas is the second leading cause of lung cancer in America. (Smoking is the first). Third, that throughout the San Fernando Valley radon levels considered unsafe by the EPA have been documented in LOTS of residences.
The statistics come from a California Dept. of Public Health database that is available to all. It lists the results of tests done on residences by zip code. There is no information on specific addresses or actual radon levels -- it just shows how many tests have been reported in a zip code and how many were at or above the unsafe level of 4 pCi/L (picocuries per liter.)
I work in Chatsworth (16%) live in Northridge (30%), and have relatives living in Granada Hills (16%) and Woodland Hills (32%), so I immediately ordered test kits for home and office and relatives from the Dr. Home Air website as mentioned in the article. It took about a week for the kits to arrive.
The test kit directions state that your home test should be done with all the doors and windows closed. This is not a condition that is normal for my home most of the year -- but it just happened that 100 degree-plus temperatures conspired to keep the a/c running and all doors and windows closed. (There were no directions about air conditioning.)
The test was easy -- take the little plastic container filled with activated charcoal out of a poly bag and set it on a surface off of the floor in a living space inside the house.
We set the kit out on top of the piano in the living room on Friday and on Monday morning popped it into its little bag and sent it off to the lab for analysis. (The cost of analysis is included in the $5 test kit fee -- a bargain.) Today we received the results by e-mail, which we had requested.
They were NOT good. Our home showed a level of 4.2 pCi/L. While you might say that's just a fraction over the line of safe/unsafe, you might want to know that the World Health Organization recently lowered what it considers a "safe" level to 2.7 percent. Which means our home is definitely in the red zone.
The next step will be to run another test (I got an extra kit just in case) and see what the results from that are. If we get two "bad" tests, then we'll have to call in the pros to decide what our next step is.
Most likely, we'll install a radon mitigation system. In my view, you can't be too careful with a toxin in your home that, if left untreated, means me and my family would have the same chance of dying of lung cancer as we would of dying in a car crash. For more crazy statistics like this, and more info on radon, check out the very informative and easy to navigate EPA Radon website.
If you live in the Valley and you haven't ordered your test kit yet, do it. Or make sure you have really good health insurance.
Native Plant Sale & Free Garden Talks
So I was very excited to learn about the Native Plant Sale this weekend. The extremely knowledgeable volunteers from the California Native Plant Society will be selling seeds, shrubs, irises, mints, sages, berries and more plus books, posters, and other paraphernalia on Saturday and Sunday, October 2 and 3.
The event takes place at the Sepulveda Garden Center at 16633 Magnolia Blvd. in Encino, just west of Hayvenhurst.
On Saturday, at 1pm, noted landscape architect Bob Perry will discuss his latest book, Landscape Plants for California Gardens. Of course copies of the book will be available for purchase and signing.
Then at noon on Sunday, Emily Green, who writes the "Dry Garden" column for the LA Times, will talk about the 10-year evolution of a native garden.
If you haven't visited yet, the Sepulveda Garden Center is made up of community garden plots and touring through that is worth the trip in and of itself.
Later in the month the Theodore Payne Foundation will be hosting its own sale so if you don't find what you're looking for this weekend, there's a fallback!
Chatsworth Solar Manufacturer Pitches the Mayor
Great story in the Daily News about Chatsworth-based International Solar Electric Technology meeting with Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa on Monday.
ISET president Vijay Kapur reportedly asked the mayor for assistance in getting a Dept. of Energy loan guarantee. It certainly seems like a reasonable request, especially considering the company would generate 250 new manufacturing jobs.
Solar Powered Microturbine Test is Successful
Chatsworth-based Capstone Turbine Corporation recently announced that they have been successful in converting sunlight to electricity with a solar receiver driving a microturbine.
They did so with a product developed by HelioFocus, an Israeli company. The two companies are working together to develop a microturbine engine that can use solar power.
The HelioFocus Solar Concentrator focuses enough sunlight energy to provide heat to drive the microturbine.
Company executives maintain that this new system is more efficient and requires less space than traditional photovoltaic systems.
"The commercial Concentrated Solar Power product should compare favorably in cost to photovoltaic," said Mark Gilbreth, Capstone's chief technology officer.
Food Justice with Patt Morrison - Town Hall Event
The event takes place Thursday, July 15, in Pasadena at the Crawford Family Forum and Mohn Broadcast Center. A press release said that Morrison ..."will spend an hour with those on the front lines of food justice to explore L.A.'s food deserts and the efforts to attract more grocery stores, farmers' markets and community gardens into these underserved, and often forgotten, communities."
There's no charge to attend but reservations are required. To learn more about this event, or to RSVP, visit scpr.org/forum.
Photo Credit: David McNew, Getty Images
Environmental Curriculum Approved Statewide
The Cal/EPA announced today that the California Education and the Environment Initiative (EEI) Curriculum was approved for use in K-12 classrooms statewide. The State Board of Education voted for it unanimously.
“Students of all grade levels love learning about the environment around them,” said Linda Adams, Secretary of the California Environmental Protection Agency. “With the approval of the State Board of Education, the EEI Curriculum takes important science and history-social science academic standards that every student needs to understand and uses the environment to teach those standards to mastery. Along the way, the EEI makes learning relevant and fun, and we’re pleased that this new curriculum will be an in-depth resource for California educators statewide.”
Visit www.CaliforniaEEI.org to see all of the 85 EEI Curriculum units. Many are still in their “final draft” version, but final versions are being posted weekly. By Fall of 2010, the entire curriculum will be available for download free of charge.
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