SOAR Salutes Earth Day Award Winners

Recognizing the exceptional work being done to improve the environment throughout the county, the Board of Supervisors presented Earth Day Awards to the following winners who are leading the way to a healthier planet:

The Thacher School for such projects as a new 745 kilowatt solar array generating more than 95%of the school’s electricity; the completion of a horse manure and food waste composting facility, using laundry greywater to irrigate trees, installation of a 5,000 gallon rainwater harvesting system.

Ventura County Watershed Protection District that conducted a Raptor Pilot Study that found using raptor perches and owl boxes to entice raptors to prey on rodents is more effective than using poison. The study was conducted to further efforts of the County to eliminate the use of anti-coagulant rodenticides that are lethal to area wildlife.

Sandy Hedrick and the Friends of the Santa Clara River that stabilized approximately 1,000 linear feet of stream bank, removed invasive plant species, and re-established native riparian vegetation on approximately sixteen acres of land.

Rustic Canyon Golf Course – Water Reclamation Project that installed a recycled water pipeline and booster pump station that delivers over 135 million gallons of recycled water from the reclamation facility to the golf course and other customers along the pipeline route.

Wishtoyo Chumash Foundation’s White Paper, Agritoxins: Ventura County’s Toxic Time Bomb, that documented the inadequate occupational health and safety protections for migrant farm workers and the disparate threats that agritoxins pose to Latino communities and schools in Ventura County. The white paper serves as a foundation to help organize and empower these communities to protect them- selves from environmental contaminants.