Tri City Green Guide

THE GREEN ISSUE

Earth Day • Monday, April 22

CHECK OFF YOUR WATER CONSERVATION CHECKLIST

Use the Water Calculator tool to estimate your household use and identify potential areas for savings

SCWD.org/WaterCalculator

Check the available rebates for water-saving tools, and apply to those that match your needs to save water and money SCWD.org/Rebates

Visit the Water Smart Gardening website to access resources and find inspiration for creating a water-efficient, California-friendly landscape OCWaterSmartGardens.com

South Coast Water District customers who make tangible contributions to conserving potable water can apply to be Water Saver of the Month.

Winners receive $500. SCWD.org/WaterSaver

South Coast Water District is committed to Making Water Conservation the California Way of Life.

There are lots of simple ways to reduce the amount of water that we use at home, both inside and outside. Use our checklist to get started.

Learn more by visiting SCWD.org/CONSERVE

@southcoastwater

WELCOME TO THE GREEN ISSUE

THE NEED TO REPLACE VARIOUS ASPECTS OF OUR WORLD with better alternatives continues to be at the forefront of the green movement.

Multiple entities in the area are doing what they can to better the environment and local wildlife.

That is the emphasis for our annual Green Issue — to help our readers learn about the variety of ways they can help themselves and South Orange County while taking care of this beautiful place we call home.

In this edition, our focus is on how we can best turn food to fuel, how one young man is trying to make a noteworthy difference for world beaches, and how a couple helped take down a nuclear power plant that just didn’t belong.

The San Clemente Chamber of Commerce has continued to lead the way in educating local restaurants on how to best recycle various items within their establishments.

From teaching the basics of how to best recycle, the organization’s partnership with CR&R helped to launch a multifaceted environmental education program to provide local businesses and the public with resources on how to comply with the state’s newest environmental organic recycling requirements.

Then there is Ryan Hickman, a bright and determined soon-to-be 15-year-old out of San Juan Capistrano who decided, as a youngster, to start picking up trash on the beaches, which has now morphed into Project 3R.

Hickman and his team are planning on its most challenging cleanups to date: to execute five such events in five consecutive weekends beginning in and around Earth Day near the end of April.

We also spotlight the story of Gary and Laurie Headrick. The Headricks, activists concerned with the potential horrors associated with nuclear power plants in our own backyard, created San Clemente Green for Citizens for a Sustainable Future and went to work with many other residents to get the plant in San Onofre to shut down operations in 2013.

That doesn’t mean the work is finished, and a recent documentary made by some determined directors chronicled the fight that continues. Many may think it is a cleaner alternative to fossil fuels or other energy means, but the documentary and what is currently happening suggests otherwise.

Food to Fuel

SC Chamber leads recycle movement

By Alan Dale

TAKING A STEP TOWARD HELPING THE ENVIRONMENT a little bit more is just a benefit of what the San Clemente Chamber of Commerce has set in motion.

That’s because it is doing the little things that can mean so much more in the world of recycling and turning food resources into fuel.

The San Clemente Chamber of Commerce will soon make a presentation to City Council to highlight a project that appears to be making inroads to bettering the environment. The next scheduled council meeting is on April 16, but there is no official word if the Chamber will present that evening.

Susie Lantz, CEO of the San Clemente Chamber of Commerce, will speak on the organization’s partnership with CR&R and the city that led to the launch of a multifaceted environmental education program to provide local businesses and the public with resources on how to comply with the state’s newest environmental organic recycling requirements, included in SB 1383.

The Food to Fuel San Clemente effort kicked off in 2023, when select Chamber-member restaurant owners/operators and community leaders received a visual of how their organics are converted into clean transportation fuel.

Following that, the Chamber hosted a special presentation that outlined how the community can support and implement food waste recycling regulations.

A “Green Team” task force was then formed and produced educational and instructional videos for businesses and the public.

Soon, 200 businesses will receive custom starter packs for their kitchens, including a Sustainable Leader window cling for those who have committed to organic recycling best practices.

“As a Chamber of Commerce, we are uniquely positioned to be involved in the education because of our existing relationships with the businesses and specifically with restaurants managing a lot of the organics collection,” Lantz said. “We feel confident that we’re able to help educate on this topic.”

Lantz said before the start of the Food for Fuel project, the Chamber had honored businesses that were focused on recycling efforts at the organization’s annual awards luncheon.

When the project started, the Chamber and city environmental department took several restaurant representatives on a field trip to CR&R’s digester and introduced them to some of the possible solutions to deal with the challenges of this mission.

“It was a long day, a whole day field trip with committed restaurant and community leaders,” she said. “The one thing that really stuck with me — and I think with those who went out to the facility — was seeing all of the organics in a pile. There were plastic bags and things that needed to be manually removed from that pile, and we saw the labor involved in sorting it, and then the visual of how it’s converted to clean fuel.

“It was really impressive and impactful to see. If you’re doing a good job of sorting in your kitchen — whether it be in your home or in your restaurant — it can really make a difference. It’s not hard to do, just a matter of changing habits.”

Following the field trip, the Chamber held an educational lunch meeting (with instructional sorting practices and without the use of plastics), bringing the information back to more business and community leaders, to “talk the talk and walk the walk,” Lantz said.

Additionally, fun promotional videos for the public and instructional videos for the businesses were produced. As a member of the Green Team, Zebra House Coffee played an integral role in this process, allowing the filming to take place in their kitchen, with their staff featured as talent.

In addition to the launch of the videos, the final project phase will include starter packs for 200 San Clemente businesses.

“The starter pack includes a 5-gallon bucket that can be utilized in the kitchen of the businesses,” Lantz said. “It will have organic liner bags inside, laminated instructions to hang in the kitchens, and, of course, the link to the instructional video. It’s a sample, so that management can learn how to utilize the videos and the materials at each business.”

The Chamber’s goal is to provide the education needed, while encouraging those who are following the objectives to keep on doing what is being done.

“In addition to the program details and videos, all of the restaurants who came to our field trip are listed on our environmental education web page, because they’ve demonstrated leadership in recycling,” Lantz said.

“Our job is to continue to acknowledge those who are showing that they’re committed to it. The waste company and city are responsible to ensure that the businesses are compliant by having all the resources they need — the green bins, recycle bins, and landfill bins.

Lantz said that with the support of the city’s environmental department and CR&R, she said she believes that close to 100% of the restaurants are compliant. However, it doesn’t mean everybody is using the tools to the best of their ability.

“That’s part of our effort through education,” Lantz said. “It’s a process, and it’s about changing habits. It can be confusing — for example, where do you put your used paper napkins; which (bin) do they go in? — and we just feel like we’re positioned to be able to help in this capacity.”

This will be the first time the Chamber gives a presentation on the Food to Fuel project, and the hope is to give the council the details that have come together over the past couple of years. “We’ll enlighten them on what we’ve done so far and where we’re going to go with it moving forward,” Lantz said. “We’re in the launch of the videos and assembly and delivery of the starter packs process. That’s the project that we have in front of us.”

Lantz added that it is important to continue educating so that the future leadership of the community is on point to maintain practices that are for the better of the people.

“Through the Chamber’s new Young Innovators Network initiative, we’re embracing the future leaders in this community, and this is going to be important to them,” she said. “Whether or not we’re getting resistance now, it doesn’t matter. It’s not about us. It’s about the future. Having a clean environment is important to those of us who live here and to those of us who will ultimately be here for much longer than us.”

SAN CLEMENTE CHAMBER OF COMMERCE scchamber.com/education

San Clemente Chamber of Commerce took several restaurant representatives on a field trip to CR&R’s digester. (San Clemente Chamber of Commerce/Submitted)

Sounding the Alarm

Documentary brings awareness to nuclear waste issue

By Kaila Mellos

SAN CLEMENTE ’ S GARY AND LAURIE HEADRICK wanted to see change in their community.

Instead, their efforts as San Clemente Green for Citizens for a Sustainable Future were instrumental in shuttering the San Onofre Nuclear Generating Station (SONGS) in 2013. The couple isn’t done yet. Nuclear waste is sitting at the property in decaying containers, leaking into the groundwater and ocean.

“The Nuclear Regulatory Commission ignores safety concerns — even punishes employees for reporting safety concerns. We’ve been on it ever since, and I don’t think we can let go of it,” Gary said.

The couple is speaking out in the documentary, “SOS - The San Onofre Syndrome:

Nuclear Power’s Legacy.” Filmed over 12 years, the documentary chronicles not only that plant’s life-threatening issues, but those of the country’s other 55 nuclear reactor sites.

Directed by James Heddle, Mary Beth Brangan and Morgan Peterson, and produced by Brangan, the film features nuclear experts Donna Gilmore, Dan Hirsch and Gordon Edwards. Activists like the Headricks — Karen Hadden, Rose Gardner, Torgen Johnson — and key whistleblowers are featured.

Fearing the worst

Heddle and Brangan, who co-founded Ecological Options Network, are concerned, especially in light of the March 2011 failure of the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant in Okuma, Fukushima, Japan. The proximate cause of the accident was the 2011 Tōhoku earthquake and tsunami, which resulted in electrical grid failure and damaged nearly all of the power plant’s backup energy sources. The facility could not cool reactors, so radioactive contaminants were released into the surrounding environment.

The San Onofre Nuclear Generating Station is operated by Southern California Edison (SCE). The goal was to hold the decaying material in the containers until another location was found to store the waste. That was anticipated to happen in the late ’90s.

“When Edison decided to go their own way with canister designs, compared to the rest of the world, they took the least expensive route, having been promised by the Department of Energy that it would be taken away to Yucca Mountain starting in 1998,” Gary said.

“The main difference between SCE’s thin temporary canisters and the other casks is that the canister walls are just a little over one-half-inch thick, while the world’s standard casks are well over 1-foot thick. Other factors are also considerable. Virtually all other canisters in the USA are of the same temporary nature and will soon go beyond their intended lifespan. If one fails anywhere in the country, it will be panic time for all 76 other nuclear waste sites. We must act quickly to prevent that from happening.”

The 73 canisters that reside in the facility house waste that still has millions of years of radioactivity. They emit radioactive waste from the thin and easily corroded stainless steel containers that can’t be inspected, repaired or maintained, because they were put into the “temporary” canisters.

“We’re dealing with canisters that are reaching their intended lifespan, and there’s no facility or capability on-site to address something going wrong with one of the canisters,” Gary said. “We’ve seen pictures of canisters with big score lines down them and corrosion. The history of everything we know about the power plant is poorly regulated, and it seems like we have to speak louder and ensure the documentary gets seen so people understand this is really a race against time.”

Throughout the 2023 documentary, many questions arose as to where the radioactive material would be placed. There have yet to be studies done into the movement of the material, and it is something that many have been fighting for.

“That is the powerful message captured in the documentary, from many angles, over a 12-year period of David vs Goliath,” Gary said. “In our case, we hope it will show that average citizens can and must make a difference. Time is running out; with sea-level rise happening sooner than expected, the time to move it to higher ground, in the best long-term casks available, is now.

“On our website, there is a link to a petition directed to the Coastal Commission, with over 5,000 signatures asking them to require Edison to move the waste to higher ground. We plan to make this point at the next California Coastal Commission meeting, and we are employing every tactic we can to make this happen. We have the support of Congressman Mike Levin, whose nuclear waste task force I am on, with the former chairman of the Nuclear Regulatory Commission, and Admiral Len Hering, among others. Now, we just need the public to hear about all of this.”

The Headricks’ petition is pushing for studies on how spent nuclear fuel can be moved, by looking at other facilities worldwide that used the correct canisters.

See ALARM on page 19

Learning and spreading awareness

In conjunction with Earth Day, the documentary will be released for free viewing for one week to educate the public. Film stakeholders hope the next generation will take the issue seriously, as they’re the ones left to deal with it.

“A whole new generation will be saddled with this program after us white hairs are long gone,” Heddle said. “Millennials and younger are not really up to speed on awareness and concern for this issue, which they’re going to inherit.”

The Headricks encourage community members to speak up and attend council meetings to encourage change. According to them, their petition is also a great way to kick-start the effort without having to get fully involved.

“The petition’s going strong,” Gary said. “It indicates to the Coastal Commission, in particular, how many people are concerned about this, and sometimes that’s what they need. They need some backup to show other commissions how many people there are that want a difference.”

Award-winning filmmakers Mary Beth Brangan, James Heddle and Oscar-nominated Morgan Peterson came together to make the film “SOS-San Onofre Syndrome. (Photo courtesy of SOS)

Project 3R

Recycling, saving the world, this teen’s thing

By Alan Dale

RYAN HICKMAN APPEARS TO BE BORN TO SAVE THE WORLD, or at least try the best he can.

Ryan, a San Juan Capistrano resident, one day decided to pick up garbage on a beach at the age of 3, and for the next approximately dozen years, it has always been his thing.

And now it’s becoming a nice chunk of the world’s as well.

With a half-million followers on Facebook and a growing presence daily, the young man founded Project 3R in 2020, dedicated to recycling and environmental awareness around the world, and it appears to have gotten people’s attention.

That all has led to his newest brainchild – 5 in 5. Project 3R will clean up five beaches in five weeks starting approximately around Earth Day weekend (April 22) in Los Angeles and wrapping up in Ensenada, Mexico, in May.

“We’re expecting thousands of people to participate and look forward to making a difference down the coast,” Ryan’s father, Damion, said. “Normally, when we do beach cleanups, we get about 200 to 500 people, so that’s pretty cool.

“Every year, we’re trying to expand the program and try to do new things. We’re always doing the beach cleanups and in different areas. We’ve gone to Germany and cleaned the Rhine River. Ryan gets a lot of requests to do lots of things and around Earth Day, we’re thinking, ‘You know what, what if we did a multi-beach kind of mini tour?’

“Then Ryan came up with, ‘Why don’t we go to five beaches in five weekends,’ and it expanded from there. There are a lot of logistics that go into it. That’s kind of my job - making it happen, so he can do his thing.”

And Ryan’s thing is trying to make the world a better place.

“I had this idea for a couple of years now, and I kind of thought of it during the (COVID-19) pandemic,” Ryan said. “I just like beach cleanups. I just did one on (April 8), and the next day I was like, ‘I want to do it again.’

“(Five in five) will be pretty spread out. I’ve never been to Mexico. The cleanup part is pretty easy, but I’d say the toughest part is getting a permit – it’s dumb. You have to pay to do someone else’s job? If you are having a birthday party, I can understand you need a permit, but we are having 200 people cleaning a beach; why are we paying $400 to do this?”

The back-and-forth to get permits and the logistics may have been maddening at times, but at least Ryan is confident that he will be able to pull off the actual cleanup without few, if any, hitches.

He also said that they don’t advertise a cleanup until the permit is approved to avoid having to go back on it if there is a snag.

“Then it’s like, ‘Oh, shoot, now we finally have a date,’ and we have to try getting people, and it’s too short notice,” Ryan said.

Project 3R consists of about a dozen working at the nonprofit regularly, and it includes a team of educators and grant writers and also a youth leadership board that helps with setup, cleanup and takedown.

“The majority of people that come to the beach cleanups are just people that just want to come out and make a difference,” Damion said.

Ironically, Damion said he and Ryan’s mother, Andrea, were never really environmentally conscious to this degree until their son got at it.

Ryan is responsible for recycling 2 million cans and bottles to keep pollution out of oceans and landfills.

His modest cleanup efforts as a small boy gained attention in 2016 in that year’s Green Issue, and he went viral soon thereafter.

Ryan leads and organizes weekly beach cleanup events in his community and he travels internationally speaking about recycling and saving Earth from plastic pollution.

Ryan said they average about three to four cleanups a year, and he said he believes he would like to do five more after the upcoming project.

“I know I am ready,” Ryan said. “Maybe, one day, I’ll do 52 in 52? I won’t stop doing this. It’s pretty bad in general (on the beaches). Plastic takes 600 years to break down. I want to cry. I don’t like it. It’s better to just throw it out than litter. There’s no recycle bin nearby, I understand, but it’s better than littering.

“It’s probably going to get worse, but I hope we can make a little bit of an impact at least to make people realize that it helps the planet.”

His social media presence has helped with 200-plus million people viewing various videos and has been recognized with the CNN Young Wonder Award, the Russian Geo-

Ryan Hickman says he wants to cry when he thinks of the amount of plastic thats in the ocean. (Rich Schmitt/Contributor)

PROJECT 3R from page 20

graphical Society’s Crystal Compass Award, and the Wyland Foundation’s Ambassador for the Planet Award. He’s been named one of the top 100 Most Influential People of Orange County and one of the Top 10 Changing the World by MSN.

Ryan’s been listed as one of Reader’s Digest’s Top Kids of the Decade Changing the World, he’s been featured in TIME for KIDS and National Geographic magazines, as well as being a guest on “The Ellen Show,” “Little Big Shots,” “NBC Nightly News” and “Today.” He was also a top finalist for TIME magazine’s 2020 Kid of the Year.

Project3R is supported by Massen Greene Foundation, Rainbow Sandals, The Anaheim Ducks Foundation, SC Johnson Company, Cox Enterprises, Athens Services and Busch Systems, among others. Most of Project 3R monies come from grants, as well as speaking engagements and branded merchandise.

“When he was 3, I took him to the recycling center, and he got about $5 and he thought that was cool,” Damion said. “He went around asking all our neighbors to

start saving their cans and bottles for him. We started going weekly, and he’s picking up from everybody in the street and bringing it home on his little bike.

“They start telling everybody - their friends, neighbors, coworkers - and it just spread. Pretty soon, we got hundreds of people who were picking up from across Orange County. His superpower isn’t recycling or picking up trash, it’s his ability to focus on stuff. I kept thinking he would get kind of over this and want to play baseball or ride his bike more, but he’s almost 15 now, and it’s still the same, He’s as focused as he’s ever been.”

Starting with his first big cleanup at Laguna Beach when he was barely starting grade school, Ryan has evolved into a young man who is focused on doing what he can for the world, and he doesn’t plan to stop any time soon.

“I started and I just liked doing it,” Ryan said of his younger days. “My dad took me to the recycle center, and I loved it. It’s not really about cleaning the beaches; I just knew it was helping. I think I saw an animal with trash on it, and I thought, ‘I need to help it.’ It was about first or second grade when (he started studying the issue) and was old enough to realize. A bunch of people started to reach out to me, and then I just started learning more and more and I just kept doing it.”

RYAN HICKMAN

ryansrecycling.com

Facebook: @ryansrecycling

YouTube: @RyanHickmanRecycling

Ryan Hickman is responsible for recycling 2 million cans and bottles (Rich Schmitt/ Contributor)

Celebrate Earth Day

Check out these events that address sustainability

By John Sanders

FIRST OBSERVED IN APRIL 1970, EARTH DAY has become the signature “holiday” of sustainability. That first year, about 20 million people nationwide attended events at sites like educational facilities and community sites.

San Clemente, San Juan Capistrano and Dana Point stakeholders and residents are doing their part to save our precious natural resources. Here is a list of events that promote sustainability this Earth Day.

GardenFest 2024

APRIL

13

The San Clemente Garden Club celebrates Earth Day with GardenFest 2024. The organization calls it “San Clemente’s biggest, best plant sale and garden household goods flea market.” But more than that, it features gardening advice, child craft activities and free tool sharpening. Patrons can browse the local flea market and learn more about drought tolerance and native Californian plants.

San Clemente Community Center, 100 N. Calle Seville, San Clemente, free, 8 a.m. to 2 p.m., sanclementegardenclub.com

Doheny State Beach Cleanup

APRIL 13

Doheny State Beach Foundation hosts a cleanup. Organizers encourage volunteers to bring their own work or gardening gloves. Trash bags, drinking water and snacks will be provided. Complimentary parking passes are available at check-in and are good until 12:30 p.m.

Doheny State Beach, 25300 Dana Point Harbor Drive, Dana Point, free, 9 a.m. to noon, dohenystatebeach.org

New Volunteer Orientation

APRIL 18

The Ecology Center shows potential volunteers how they can engage with the nonprofit. During the orientation, guests will have a short tour, hear about programs, events, initiatives and volunteer opportunities. Those include chicken care and gardening.

The Ecology Center, 32701 Alipaz Street, San Juan Capistrano, free, 5 to 6 p.m., theecologycenter.org/events

Earth Day Stewardship Day

APRIL

20

Learn more about The Nature Reserve and help it clean its grounds. It’s BYOG—bring your own gloves, if available. Participants 8 and older must be registered by 4 p.m. Friday, April 19.

The Nature Reserve at Rancho Mission Viejo Headquarters, 33101 Ortega Highway, San Juan Capistrano, free, 8 to 11 a.m., events.thenaturereserve.org/calendar/

Earth Day 2024

APRIL 20

Join San Clemente environmental and utilities staff and contractors for Earth Day. There

will be eco-friendly activities, giveaways and information. Participants who help clean the beach will receive a free lunch from the Fisherman’s Restaurant. Registration required at clearthepier.org.

San Clemente Pier, 622 Avenida Del Mar, San Clemente, free, 9 to 11 a.m., san-clemente.org

Doheny State Beach Earth Day Planting Project

APRIL 20

Come and plant California greenery. Bring along work or garden gloves and a refillable water dispenser. Complimentary parking passes are available at check-in and are good until 12:30 p.m.

Doheny State Beach, 25300 Dana Point Harbor Drive, Dana Point, free, 9 a.m. to noon, dohenystatebeach.org

Whale Watching w/Ric O’Barry Fundraiser

APRIL 20 AND APRIL 21

Join Ric O’Barry, Dolphin Project’s cove monitors and Capt. Dave’s Dolphin and Whale Watching Safari for a birthday fundraiser expedition. Guests can keep their eyes peeled for Fin whales, gray whales and humpbacks, to name a few. All ticket proceeds will be donated to the Dolphin Project and other ongoing campaigns. This safari will include watching for sealife like Fin whales,

Capt. Dave Whale Watching, 24440 Dana Point Harbor Drive, Dana Point, $140, 9:30 a.m. to noon, dolphinproject.com

Stand Up To Trash Beach Cleanup

APRIL 21

Help clean up Baby Beach. This event starts with yoga in the grass, followed by the beach cleanup and a free lunch and learn at Ocean Institute. Bags and gloves will be provided, and reusable gloves are encouraged.

Baby Beach, 34445 Ensenada Place, Dana Point, free, 8 to 11 a.m., standuptotrash.com

Earth Day Storytime & Craft

APRIL 23

Join the group for Earth Day-themed storytime and craft followed by a presentation by OC Waste & Recycling and a Charlie Cart food demonstration. Registration is not required.

San Juan Capistrano Library, 31495 El Camino Real, San Juan Capistrano, free, 5:30 p.m., ocpl.org

Arbor Day Tree Planting

APRIL 27

Plant trees at Jim Johnson Sports Park. The city will plant 15 to 20 indigenous trees. All tools, gloves and water will be provided.

Jim Johnson Memorial Sports Park, 450 W. Avenida Vista Hermosa, San Clemente, free, 9 a.m. to noon, san-clemente.org

SATURDAY, MAY 4

10 AM to 1 PM

BEHIND THE SCENES TOURS GARDEN DEMONSTRATIONS FAMILY ACTIVITIES

WATER EXPERTS AND EXHIBITORS LIVE MUSIC AND FOOD

SMWD.com/Festival