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POOF TO THE POWER PLANT
PHOTO COURTESTY OF JIM STADLER VIA MICHAEL LEE
The South Bay Parkland Conservancy is advocating to get rid of the Redondo Beach Power Plant by ELISE HAULUND
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hen Redondo Beach residents look out over their coastline, they are met with views of the Applied Energy Service (AES) Corporation power plant. The South Bay Parkland Conservancy (SBPC) is advocating for its removal, leading up to a final decision to be made in October 2021. The California Water Board mandated that power plants with a once-through cooling
system, such as the AES power plant, begin to phase out in 2010. Despite this, the AES power plant, built in 1954, has been continuously extended as an emergency power facility. SBPC President Jacob Varvarigos says SBPC was formed in 2004 with the intention of turning the land under the power plant into a community park. Varvarigos acknowledges that it is a big task to remove it, but ultimately believes it is important.
“What that area could provide our region, as far as recreation space, native habitat and commercial is truly an opportunity that is worth fighting for,” Varvarigos said. Though it is worth it, Varvarigos recognizes why it can be hard to convince people to help. “One challenge is you see this huge monolithic structure, as if it can never go away, as if it was always there, how impossible the task to remove it is and
how daunting the idea is to have it gone,” Varvarigos said. “I think most people think that it is impossible and that it can never happen, so that from the start dissuades them from trying.” Senior Michael Lee is the RUHS Student Ambassador to SBPC and helps raise student engagement in the organization. However, the removal is difficult to push through, as Gov. Gavin Newsom worries that California will go into a complete electricity shutdown due to extreme heat, and thus has called for all power plants to exist as emergency backup. Though present as an emergency power facility, the power plant takes 12 to 24 hours to power up, causing the SBPC to question its necessity and usefulness in an emergency. “Edison [the primary electricity supply company for much of Southern California] can tell this power plant to come online so it can generate electricity, but it takes more than 12–24 hours to come online. On top of that, the electricity it produces doesn’t even go to Redondo Beach. In addition, because all its parts are so old, you can sometimes see that when the smoke comes out, it’s only coming out of one pipe, because half the other ones are just non-operational,” Lee said. To Lee, it is “insane” that the plant is still present over 10 years after its removal being voted on. Lee cites the plant’s pollution, carbon emissions and threat to marine life as reasons for its removal. The removal of the AES power plant is supported by most of the Redondo Beach City Council, as well as many CA government individuals. The barrier, according to Lee, is both the company having the final say and “outspoken individuals.”
“There have been opposition groups to our organization because though we’re nonprofit, we still get grants from the city to do our projects,” Lee said. “As soon as people start seeing money coming into an organization, they start questioning if it’s really necessary.” SBPC has been advocating since 2004, but more recently started a Change.org petition. Lee, who hopes to “leave an environmental impact” in his last year at RUHS, does work to gain publicity. “All throughout registration week, I ran a table with the picture of the smoke spewing out of the power plant on the table and for the people who did walk up, I would tell them what our [SBPC’s] efforts are with the power plant and such. I’ve gone around on websites like Nextdoor and Patch where you can talk with other neighbors, and tried to tell them about what we’re doing with the power plant and gain their support,” Lee said. Although the petition, “Shut Down Redondo Beach AES power plant,” has gained over 1,000 signatures, it still won’t turn the tables if they wait until October to present it, according to Varvarigos. “We shouldn’t delude ourselves into thinking that this isn’t a long term effort. It’s going to take many years and it’s hard to put a time frame on that, so that’s why it’s daunting,” Varvarigos said. Despite the intimidation factor, Varvarigos maintains that “there’s a lot of committed people who are willing to come together.” To students looking to make an impact, SBPC as an organization hopes to be open to these ideas. “Once you start getting curious about your own neighborhood, you start seeing things and seeing opportunities,” Varvarigos said. “It just takes passionate people to come together.”
RUHS is offering free meals to all students this school year by HEATHER LEE
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ewly limited choices of lunch and snack—spicy and regular chicken sandwiches, orange chicken, teriyaki chicken, grilled cheese, mac ‘n’ cheese, turkey croissants, cheeseburgers, pizza, PB&J’s and Cocoa Puffs—have raised concerns that the universal free lunch program at RUHS has reduced the quality of food offered to students.
First introduced last year when the pandemic sent students home and left many parents income-less, the universal free lunch bill was able to continue through the 2021-2022 school year due to an unexpected budget surplus at the California Department of Agriculture. Funding is not a problem for districts all across the state. “I mean it’s free food, but I definitely think that ever since they started the free food program, the food has gotten worse,” senior Michael Farah said. While he often is still hungry after buying, Farah notes that the quality is usually decent and has relied on school lunches since his freshman year. “Before, you had Italian, Mexican, Asian, hamburgers and salad. Now, there only three options: nasty microwave pizza, teriyaki chicken with driedup rice and the only decent thing is a chicken sandwich,” Farah said. “[At snack,] you can’t buy anything now. No more chips, not even a water bottle. But I think the portions stayed the same.” In response to these worries, Jillian Navarro, the director of RBUSD’s Child Nutrition Services, and Rita Johnson, the RUHS Child Nutrition on-site manager, would like to reassure students that the currently limited menu is only temporary. Food is on its way.
“We didn’t know how many students to anticipate,” Navarro said. “Since [the lunches] are free and we’ve never had that before, we tried to limit the selections to keep the lines going. Hopefully, the fewer the choices, the less time to decide.” One of the biggest complaints the district had previously received from students was about the long lunch lines that had kept kids hungry and idle. Another part of why so much about school lunches and snacks have changed for the new school year is actually due to COVID restrictions. In order to avoid “back and forth transactions,” the cafeteria cashiering method has been switched to a new cashless system where students simply swipe their student IDs instead of punching in their four-digit codes. “It makes the line go so much faster,” Johnson said. “Of course we have little kinks, but for the most part, they swipe and they’re gone.” At the snack bars where cups of Cocoa Puffs greet students instead of the beloved cookies, the importance of a faster line surfaces again. As Navarro explains, shorter lines mean more space for students to avoid close contact with one another. Cookies have to be baked and handled by staff before being sold
to students — packaged cereal is mostly contact-free. Limiting the ever-evolving menu also serves to keep things simple, a way to combat another side effect of COVID: a national staffing shortage. “You hear that restaurants are experiencing labor shortages. Well, so are we. We’ve tried to make the menu as easy as possible for the staff, and by making the menu items easier to prepare, they can get into the swing of things at least in the beginning,” Navarro said. Johnson and Navarro have observed that their staff can handle the demand of 800 students and counting at lunch, and Johnson has been slowly preparing to bring back high schooler favorites, like Domino’s pizza or nachos. “We’re definitely sticking to their favorites of what we remember they liked, and we’ll be bringing them back,” Johnson said. Regardless of the menu’s limitations, the quality and nutrition of the food are managed so that they stay the same by the US Department of Agriculture’s strict standards. After all, the priority is making sure students stay healthy and fed. “We’re just trying to serve as many students as we can, as fast as possible, so they still have time to eat, socialize and do what they need to do,” Navarro said.
Students taking advantage of the free lunch option. PHOTOS BY RIDER SULIKOWSKI