I’m a transplanted New Yorker who fell in love with the desert and mountains out west, and moved out here 10 years ago. Living first in Portland, OR, and Santa Barbara, I worked as a geologist studying lava flows in the northern Sierra Nevada Mountains. But coming to appreciate first hand that this area, and many others like it needed protection from growing environmental threats as much as they needed to be studied, I turned to the law instead. I’ve now settled happily into LA’s endless summer beach life, but I’ve managed to hold on to some of my east coast public-transportation roots, and still walk, bike, or take the bus in to work everyday.
Posted February 14, 2012 by Noah Garrison in Curbing Pollution, Living Sustainably
When I boarded my plane Monday morning in Portland, Oregon it was (not surprisingly) raining. When I landed in Los Angeles a few hours later, it was raining. It was raining most places I flew over in between the...continued→
Posted November 22, 2011 by Noah Garrison in Curbing Pollution
This past weekend saw one and one-third inches of rain fall over Los Angeles, just enough to foul the beaches with stormwater pollution, bury the 405 freeway in mud, and send torrents of rainfall runoff down Sepulveda Boulevard to flood...continued→
Posted November 18, 2011 by Noah Garrison in Curbing Pollution
This past week, NRDC released a new report called Rooftops to Rivers II: Green Strategies for Controlling Stormwater and Combined Sewer Overflows. The report discusses the considerable problem that stormwater runoff, which carries pollution to our rivers, lakes, and beaches...continued→
Posted April 12, 2011 by Noah Garrison in Reviving the World's Oceans, Saving Wildlife and Wild Places, Solving Global Warming, The Media and the Environment
When your friends create a hit sitcom, you learn very quickly to be careful how much detail about your life you share with them – let slip something embarrassing and it’s likely to end up on TV. Awkward first date?...continued→
Posted February 9, 2011 by Noah Garrison in Living Sustainably
After a series of heavy storms in November and December dropped record breaking amounts of snow and rain in California, the state’s weather has taken a turn for the drier. California’s Sierra snowpack, the source of water supply for nearly...continued→
Posted December 22, 2010 by Noah Garrison in Curbing Pollution, Living Sustainably
Stormwater runoff from our cities and towns remains a leading cause of pollution in rivers, streams, lakes and beaches across the country, but a West Virginia Circuit Court decision has given that state at least a fighting chance to clean...continued→
Posted October 19, 2010 by Noah Garrison in Curbing Pollution, Health and the Environment, Living Sustainably
As an unexpected series of thunderstorms washed ashore over the past few days, some good news seems to be coming with the rain: some of it is actually getting used. While reports that the water level in Lake Mead has...continued→
Posted July 12, 2010 by Noah Garrison in Curbing Pollution, Living Sustainably
I can think of no better way to describe how broken the Los Angeles Regional Water Quality Control Board’s process of deliberation is than to repeat what a technical consultant said to me after 14 hours of hearings before the...continued→
Posted March 22, 2010 by Noah Garrison in Living Sustainably
People in California have been breathing a seemingly collective sigh of relief at the news that the State’s snowpack, also the State's largest freshwater reservoir, has been slightly above its historical average so far this year. This is certainly good news for a...continued→
Posted January 22, 2010 by Noah Garrison in Curbing Pollution, Health and the Environment, Living Sustainably
When it rains in Los Angeles (which it really hasn’t stopped doing this week, except when it’s hailing instead), billions of gallons of water pour into the City’s storm drains and, carrying bacteria, pathogens, animal waste, metals, oils, and other...continued→
Posted September 24, 2009 by Noah Garrison in Living Sustainably
According to the U.S. Department of the Interior, "California's water crisis is even more troubling than critics contend." That's not exactly comforting news for a state struggling its way through a third straight year of severe drought. And by way...continued→
Posted August 24, 2009 by Noah Garrison in Curbing Pollution, Living Sustainably, Solving Global Warming
"We've been using the atmosphere as a free sewer," says Dr. Stephen Schneider, a panelist at a recent UCLA climate change forum co-sponsored by Representative Henry Waxman. While Dr. Schneider was referring to the continuing tide of global warming pollution...continued→
Switchboard is the staff blog of the Natural Resources Defense Council, the nation’s most effective environmental group. For more about our work, including in-depth policy documents, action alerts and ways you can contribute, visit NRDC.org.
