About EAD

About the Environmental Affairs Department

BACKGROUND:

The Environmental Affairs Department was established by ordinance on June 29, 1989 to establish a capability within the City to address environmental issues in a coordinated and centralized manner. Environmental issues have increasingly become a concern in many of the activities affecting the City, its residents and businesses. These issues include the City's ability to deal with contaminated properties and hazardous wastes, and quality of life and health issues, such as the cleanliness of Santa Monica Bay, siting of solid waste handling facilities and compliance with federal, state and regional efforts to achieve clean air.

FUNCTION:

The City's Environmental Affairs Department seeks to protect and enhance the environmental quality of life for residents, communities, workers, and visitors in the City by: recommending environmental policies and programs to the Mayor and City Council; implementing and coordinating Citywide environmental initiatives; securing and assisting others in securing resources for the implementation of environmental initiatives; facilitating public education; providing assistance to businesses; responding to requests for information on environmental issues; and ensuring that solid waste facilities in the City are operated in a manner that protects the public health, safety, and environment.

PROGRAMS:

In addition to its ongoing work with environmental policy analysis and development, the Environmental Affairs Department oversees a wide array of environmental programs and initiatives including air quality management, which includes assisting in the development of regional air quality plans, developing cost-effective strategies to comply with air pollution reduction requirements, particularly those related to mobile sources, and taking a lead role in the City's efforts to increase the use of alternatively-fueled vehicles; solid and hazardous waste management, which includes inspecting landfills and enforcing state health and safety laws at solid waste facilities in Los Angeles, and coordinating the restoration of potentially contaminated properties to useful economic purposes (brown fields program); water and natural resources management, which includes securing funds for and managing the implementation of large community greening and planting projects, coordinating the restoration of environmentally sensitive habitats, and obtaining grant funds for community environmental mitigation and enhancement projects; business assistance, which includes helping targeted businesses prevent pollution at the source by improving their production processes; and, environmental information, which includes a toll-free hotline, WebPages, several environmental assistance publications, and hosting public forums and outreach events on important issues such as environmental justice.

ENVIRONMENTAL INFORMATION CENTER:

The Environmental Affairs Department maintains an environmental reference service via its Environmental Information Center (EIC) that responds to environmentally-related inquiries. The Center is staffed daily between 8am and 4pm and can be reached at (213) 978-0888.