Wanted:
Waterkeeper Educates
Communities on Oil Spill
Impacts & Response
An LA Waterkeeper Blog
The May 19 spill of more than 100,000 gallons of crude oil
at Refugio Beach near Santa Barbara is a sad but important
reminder that we live in an area with extensive oil industry
and incidents like this one can happen without a warning.
The damage to our precious coastal waters and ecosystems
is both heart-wrenching and extremely infuriating.
Naturally, many Southern Californians want to help in
disasters like this one but few know how. And as we all
learned from prior spills, responding to an oil spill is a
complicated matter involving coordination between various government agencies and requires both knowledge and
skills that cannot be acquired in a matter of hours or days.
So how does any member of the public in Los Angeles get the training
and knowledge to participate in oil spill cleanup efforts? The answer is
easier than you think.
Since February of this year, LA Waterkeeper’s Port Communities Oil
Spill Preparedness Project, led by our Law Fellow Jeffrey Van Name, has
provided free classes and training to Los Angeles area residents about the
impacts of oil spills on natural resources and community preparedness
and participation in efforts to address oil spills. Once again, Waterkeeper