August Eco-Bulletin
Exciting Updates Ahead...
Otter in Morro Bay, photo by Heath Hooper
Hello and happy August! Summer is wrapping up, and we hope you have been enjoying the sunshine and great outdoors. We are excited to share with you all of the great programs, advocacy updates, and events we have been working on. It is a great time to get involved with your community and us here at ECOSLO, from volunteer opportunities with cleanups and advocacy, to fundraising, and more!
We hope you can get involved and thank you for continuing to support and stay connected with your local environmental center - ECOSLO!
In This Issue:
Summer Fundraisers - updates!
View the Virtual Open House
Familiar Faces Join the ECOSLO Team
Signup for your Creeks to Coast Cleanup Kit
Keep An Eye On Our Urban Trees
Join Us For A Beach Cleanup
Green Business Spotlight: 3C Engineering, Inc
Take Action: Santa Barbara and Exxon Trucking
Learn More: Illegal Drilling in Arroyo Grande Oilfield
Volunteer Opportunity: ECOSLO Board Member
Junior Ranger Camp Recap
No New Plastic Week Idea
Summer Fundraisers
Thank you everyone who came out to support ECOSLO last week in Grover Beach, SLO, Cambria, and Paso Robles as we kicked-off our 50th anniversary celebrations! We had such fun events and we are so grateful for our community's support. We know many of you are eager take part in our online silent auction - we have unfortunately been experiencing technical difficulties but we will send another email once it's live and ready for you to bid on awesome local packages and artwork.
In the meantime, we hope you can join us at Whalebird Kombucha next Saturday, September 4th for their craft fair at the pop-up 'Booch Garden' from Noon to 6pm. A percentage of proceeds will be donated to ECOSLO. Support local artists, a local business (who is also Green Business certified!) and their tasty kombucha, and ECOSLO - all in one day! We hope to see you there.
Did You Miss Our Open House? No Problem!
Last month we held our first virtual Open House where we highlighted our programs and partners! We are so glad we were able to share with you what ECOSLO is currently working on and introduce you to some of our valued partners. Check out the recorded program on our YouTube channel.
Familiar Faces Join the ECOSLO Team
We are excited to share that two former ECOSLO interns are joining the organization in new ways! Jamie has begun her role as Office Manager & Event Coordinator, and Allie is our new AmeriCorps member for the 2021-2022 service term. Both will be a huge help in supporting ECOSLO's efforts and making a wonderful year of change. We are so glad to welcome them and reintroduce you all!
Creeks to Coast Cleanup Kit Signups Are Here!
SLO County Creeks to Coast Cleanup - as part of California Coastal Cleanup Day - will take place throughout the last two weeks of September - Thursday, September 16th through Thursday, September 30th. Cleanup kits are designed for 5 people or less and contain cleanup supplies, educational materials, and goodies from local businesses and organizations.
If there are more than 5 people in your group, you can sign up for 2 kits! You can choose where you would like to do your cleanup at a time that is convenient for you.
Keep An Eye On Our Urban Trees
With Summer upon us and the potential for a smokey time ahead, our trees need more eyes than ever! If you spot an ECOSLO tree around town that looks to need water or support, we would appreciate your help in letting us know. You can always reach us by email at trees@ecoslo.org - including a photo and location of the tree in need is a great help as well! For your own personal trees, we suggest giving them upwards of 10 gallons of water a week while they establish for the first 3 years.
Join Us For A Beach Cleanup!
Looking for a great way to celebrate Labor Day Weekend? Join ECOSLO and the County Park Rangers for a cleanup at Pirates Cove on Tuesday, September 7th! Please sign-up ahead of time, and anyone who attends needs to be 18 years of age or older.
Can't make it September 7th? No problem! We will be holding another cleanup on Monday, September 27th. For more details, please reach out to our Community Engagement Coordinator Emma at emma@ecoslo.org.
Green Business Spotlight: 3C Engineering, Inc
Congratulations 3C Engineering, Inc on becoming a Certified Green Business! 3C Engineering is your professional engineering consultant in San Luis Obispo. They provide energy-efficient HVAC and plumbing design, Title 24 energy compliance reports, and incorporate sustainable building design standards on every design possible. They also have mechanical and plumbing design experience with a variety of building types such as fire stations, hospitals, wineries, education, mixed-use, hospitality, police stations, military, municipalities, cannabis facilities, clean rooms, and restaurants.
3C Engineering's mission to design systems that are functionally innovative, aesthetically pleasing, and that minimize environmental impact made them a perfect addition to our growing Green Business Program. As part of their certification, 3C Engineering replaced all lighting fixtures with LED lights, upgraded their HVAC systems to all-electric heat pumps, replaced original single pane windows with high-performance Low-E windows, and even added a solar PV system to offset the entire building's electrical loads! Thank you 3C Engineering for all your hard work, and welcome to the Green Business Community!
Santa Barbara Exxon Trucking
Six years after the Plains All American Pipeline ruptured in 2015, spilling thousands of gallons of oil along the Central Coast, ExxonMobil has proposed restarting its Santa Barbara offshore platforms and loading the offshore oil onto tanker trucks.
These trucks would transport 470,400 gallons of oil per day up to 140 miles through parts of San Luis Obispo County and bring with them the possibility of substantial and unavoidable environmental impacts. Despite the potentially significant impacts to SLO County, all Exxon needs to put this plan into motion is a permit from Santa Barbara County. The cities of San Luis Obispo & Morro Bay have stated their opposition to this plan, and now you can too. Take action today and tell the Santa Barbara Planning Commission to focus on the adequacy of the Final Environmental Impact Report (EIR) for this plan. Without an EIR, the Commission will be unable to understand the full scope of the impacts of the project and make a decision that is truly best for both the environment and the health of the residents of the Central Coast.
Illegal Drilling in Arroyo Grande Oilfield
On Monday, our friends at the Center for Biological Diversity revealed that Sentinel Peak Resources has been drilling illegal oil wells for years in Arroyo Grande under an expired permit. Records show that over the past three years Sentinel Peak has abandoned and plugged old wells.
They then drilled entirely new wells which are labeled as “replacement” wells. By law, Sentinel Peak should have drilled no new wells since 2015, when its request for a permit extension was appealed by the Center. But new findings from the Center show that, under the radar, the County of San Luis Obispo Department of Planning and Building has signed off on 37 new wells since 2017. On Tuesday, October 19, the County Board of Supervisors will decide whether to let Sentinel Peak drill 31 additional wells. ECOSLO is joining our partners at the Center and calling for the Board to grant the appeal filed by the Center denying Sentinel Peak’s 2015 extension request, cease permitting of "replacement" wells, and revoke any and all unlawful approvals.
ECOSLO Board Members Wanted!
Do you love volunteering with ECOSLO and are looking for a way to get more involved? Apply to be an ECOSLO Board Member! Being a Board Member is a two year commitment that requires about 5-10 hours a month. This is a great way to help support ECOSLO's strategic plan, operations, and really be on the inside of all of our wonderful programs. We'd love to have you apply!
Thank You, Junior Ranger Camp!
We were thrilled to be a part of the Junior Ranger Camp that the City of San Luis Obispo puts on each Summer. Our team members Hannah and Emma had a wonderful time presenting about our local urban forest, the importance of cleanup programs, and how it all relates to our ecosystem, watersheds, and environment! You can always learn more about our Cleanup and Tree Planting programs by visiting our website. Thanks to the students giving their time to our parks and community!
Keep Up With No New Plastic Week!
What better way to celebrate summer than with a No New Plastic beach outing! Living in SLO County, we all have access to some of the most beautiful beaches on the Central Coast.
Opting for reusable food containers, cups, utensils, and coolers can help reduce our plastic consumption at the beach, and in general! Trying to live a zero-waste lifestyle can be challenging. The ECOSLO crew hopes to empower you to find ways to realistically live a more sustainable lifestyle one step at a time. During the last week of each month, we encourage you to use what you have and not buy or receive any new plastic items.
