Wyland Challenges City to Conserve Water, Reduce Waste

With marine artist Wyland at his side, Redondo Beach Mayor Michael Gin announced the city's participation in the Wyland Foundation's Mayor's Challenge on Thursday.

The contest pits Southern California cities against each other in a competition to see how many residents will pledge to save water and reduce waste from April 1-30. The city with the highest percentage of residents who take the pledge wins.

Individual participants also have the chance to win Disneyland "park-hopper" passes, Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim tickets and discounted admission to the Aquarium of the Pacific in Long Beach.

Gin, who was the first city official in Southern California to accept the challenge, offered up some fighting words during his speech at the "Earth Month" kickoff celebration Thursday across the street from the AES power plant.

"We are going to, I know, do better than the City of Torrance," he declared.

Nevertheless, he emphasized the importance of the ideals behind the challenge.

"Water will always be a very, very scarce and precious resource," despite California Gov. Jerry Brown's recent announcement that the drought plaguing California is over, Gin said in an interview. When he found out about the contest, "I jumped right on it."

Redondo Beach may be one of the smaller cities participating, but "we've got a really engaged community," he said.

"(Schoolchildren are) going to be one of our secrets for our success," he said, adding that children taught their parents how to recycle 20 years ago.

Gin's remarks echoed those made by Wyland at the Earth Month celebration. The artist said his foundation's goal was to "mentor kids" and "inspire them to be youth ambassadors for the planet."

He also said he hopes this year's challenge will spark interest in next year's.

"We would like the mayors here to take the lead and challenge all the mayors in all the cities of America to conserve water for next year's Earth Day," Wyland said.

Besides Redondo Beach and Torrance, mayors from the cities of Monrovia, Lynwood, Laguna Niguel, Long Beach, Fullerton, Hermosa, Gardena, Mission Viejo, Huntington Beach, Placentia, Claremont, Los Angeles, Glendale, Santa Ana, Westminster, Newport Beach, Calabasas and Seal Beach are participating.

To sign up for the challenge, visit mywaterpledge.com.