A Note From the EPA
The holidays are right around the corner and we hope you’ve been gearing up for another season of celebration! It’s nearing the end of the year and it’s a good time to reflect on achievements over the past twelve months.
The big news is that the EPA has decided to allocate $50 million to initiate an interim cleanup plan for Palos Verdes Shelf. Contaminated sediment will be covered with a clean material and our monitoring, enforcement and outreach efforts will be strengthened. On the topic of public outreach and education, our Fish Contamination Education Collaborative received two highly visible national awards in 2009. We are making great progress and we look forward to the year ahead.
In this edition of the newsletter you will read about a recent national award we received from EPA. The recognition is significant for us because it shows that we are accomplishing our collective goal of protecting the health of all people, especially the economically and socially disadvantaged communities. EPA is planning an awards event in early 2010 in the Los Angeles area. Stay tuned!
We believe there are multiple reasons for our ongoing success, from our great team members to the communities we are reaching out to, to the experts that are providing us with advice – it all matters. In an attempt to bring members together and share our resources and lessons learned with other regional and national programs, FCEC participated in two recent forums about our strategies for addressing fish contamination, which you’ll read about in this newsletter.
You’ll also learn about one team member’s fascinating trip to Ecuador, where he shared his expertise and experiences with fisheries researchers and university faculty in his home country. The international interest in our program is an honor, and we hope to build more relationships with communities facing similar problems as those that you will read about in Ecuador.
In all, it’s been a busy year and we are looking forward to more great work ahead. I hope that you will check out our site often (www.pvsfish.org), as we are constantly updating it with news about the program. Our site is available in Vietnamese, and we are also in the process of putting real time project progress information on the website.
Also, don’t forget to pass our newsletter along to others who may be interested in the work that we do. The more people on board with FCEC’s program, the better our chances are that we will succeed in the future. Happy Holidays!
Sincerely,
Sharon Lin
EPA Region 9
Remedial Project Manager