Waterways guardian gathers grace, honor
Recipient has deep ties to county
Anne Kallas
Ventura County Star
02/17/2011
While Erick Burres of the California Water Board Clean Water team was just doing his job when he helped the Wishtoyo Foundation and its Ventura Coastkeeper program set up a system to monitor the water quality of streams, rivers and other watersheds in the county, he was honored to receive the Sacred Waters 2009-10 award Wednesday at Patagonia headquarters in Ventura.
"It's like in sports, where we get behind people and cheer. I cheer these goals," he said. "The job I have is not just local. I work with hundreds of groups. Some of the protocols we've developed are used globally."
Burres, of Los Angeles, was born in Ventura and raised in Oxnard. He said he pursued a master's degree in public policy and administration to better understand the myriad laws and regulations that govern clean-water issues, a cause close to his heart since he was a boy playing near Bubbling Springs in Port Hueneme and Ormond Bejach in Oxnard.
"I should be giving you an award," he said. "It's so awesome the community is responding to make sure the resources they care about are nurtured. They are sacred waters."
Wishtoyo is a nonprofit, grass-roots organization. More than 700 Ventura County residents are members, including Chumash Indians.
Mati Waiya, founder and executive director of Wishtoyo, said Burres deserved the award because of the extra effort he puts into his job.
"Erick has been so instrumental and generous of his time, training over 1,000 citizen groups. He really helps us use the volunteer stream teams to help us," Waiya said.
Wishtoyo established Ventura Coastkeeper to protect, preserve and restore the ecological integrity and quality of Ventura County's waterways.
The Ventura Coastkeeper Sacred Waters award is given annually to people who have helped protect California's inland and coastal bodies. Burres said the California Water Board Clean Water team has dwindled from a staff of seven to just him, and his job is to teach citizens and volunteers how to monitor their water to enforce the provisions of the federal Clean Water Act.
"The last few decades of exploitation of waterways has harmed our health. A lot can be overcome with help," Burres said.
Ventura Coastkeeper Associate Director and staff attorney Jason Weiner outlined some of the group's current efforts, including lawsuits filed against the city of Ventura to clean up the more than 9 million gallons per day of sewage discharged into the Santa Clara River.
Data collected by the team of volunteers has been used to declare eight sites along Calleguas Creek as impaired waterways in accordance with the provisions of the Clean Water Act. Weiner said there are 29 additional spots that have been identified as impaired to the state's Water Resources Control Board through the group's monitoring efforts. Such volunteer monitoring allows state and federal agencies to enforce the provisions of the Clean Water Act.
