At first, it seems extremely eco-friendly, the biannual Compost Giveaway Events every fall and spring in San Francisco hosted by the city’s Public Utilities Commission (SFPUC).

Residents are offered free compost to produce soil for community and school gardens and local backyards. It’s the green and organic thing to do.

The problem is the mulch isn’t made of food scraps and manure but a combination of toxic sewage sludge from waste water treatment, green waste, yard waste and wood chips.

What’s in sewage sludge? Stuff that’s foul and harmful to people and other living things.

The True Food Network, which is leading a petition drive against the latest giveaway argues sewage sludge is shown by the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) to contain heavy metals, pathogens, pharmaceuticals, PCB’s, flame retardants and endocrine disruptors. In addition, organic pollutants are present in sludge samples, such as polybrominated diphenal ethers (PMDEs), polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons, DDT degradation products, chlordadanes, synthetic musk products, triclosan and tributytin.

“Residents may be led to believe that the city’s sludge compost is organic,” says the network. “The USDA’s National Organic Program’s (NOP) regulations, however, strictly forbid the use of sewage sludge as a fertilizer or soil amendment, no matter if it is composted or otherwise treated. This compost is by no means organic.”

The Center for Food Safety and the Resource Institute for Low Entropy Systems filed a petition with Gavin Newsom, San Francisco’s Mayor and Ed Harrington, General Manager of SFPUC, asking them to immediately and permanently suspend the sewage sludge compost giveaways for the fall. Residents are asked to join the letter writing campaign to protect the health of its gardeners.

Image: SfLatchkey

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Where would Malibu be without its surfers and where would its surfers be without safe water?

That’s part of the driving energy behind the Legacy Park project. Construction has been launched this week as veteran wave riders joined Malibu City Council to reduce stormwater pollution in Malibu Creek, Malibu Lagoon and world-famous Surfrider Beach.

According to the L.A. Times, the sand breaking drew pioneering surfers Cal Porter and Richard Davis as well as Los Angeles County Supervisor Zev Yaroslavsky, state Sen. Fran Pavley (D-Agoura Hills), Assemblywoman Julia Brownley (D-Santa Monica) and Malibu-ite Victoria Principal.

The cost of the major undertaking: $50 million. The benefits of cleaning polluted ocean waters by October 2010? Priceless!

“Legacy Park is going to act as Malibu’s environmental cleaning machine,” said Mayor Andy Stern. “It will reduce pollution from stormwater, improve the city’s water quality, and allow residents to enjoy the health and recreation benefits of an open space area and a clean ocean.”

The City of Malibu envisioned a central park that functioned like an environmental cleaning machine to reduce pollution impacts and improve water quality in areas used daily by residents and tourists from around the world. This following a lawsuit last year by two environmental groups (The Natural Resources Defense Council, NRDC, and the Santa Monica Baykeeper) to stop allowing urban runoff carrying bacteria and toxins to flow into coastal waters.

The groups argued urban runoff  is the major culprit of coastal water pollution and contact with the pathogens and chemicals, such as cyanide, aluminum and fecal coliform, sickens beachgoers and damages marine life.

The motto of the project: It’s a central park. It’s an oasis. It’s an environmental cleaning machine.

The goal is for Legacy Park to transform 15 acres in the Malibu Civic Center area into a park and stormwater treatment facility, one that captures and cleans more than 2 million gallons a day of stormwater and urban runoff. The water is disinfected and then recycled.

The City says Malibu Legacy Park will be “the only park in California where five coastal natural habitats are linked and accessible: the ocean, lagoon, stream, seasonal wetland and coastal bluffs, and where the development of five habitats on-site will serve as an outdoor educational and living learning center.”

The park will also be a civic attraction with an amphitheater, a Malibu culture commemorative area and educational kiosks.

The City is still seeking donations to support the project. A gift of $500 or more will get you recognition on the park’s permanent honor wall.

Membership in the Legacy Leadership Circle, which is limited to 100 families, begins at $25,000.

Naming opportunities in the park are available for gifts of more than $25,000.

Donations of $5,000 or more are eligible for our three-year pledge program.

Contact the Legacy Park Campaign at (310) 456-2489, ext. 232, or email info@malibulegacy.org.

Main Image: Pnoeric

Image One: City of Malibu

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