Balanced Planet Yoga Gives Back – For Our Planet

Marlton, NJ – The studio has selected Clean Ocean Action as its first charity that will fall under our BPY Gives Back Initiative. New Jersey residents have a great affection for our beaches, and we here at Balanced Planet Yoga share that sentiment. Join us for Karma Classes and other events as we try to shine a light on all the good works this organization has done and continues to do. We hope that you will join us in raising efforts and resources that promote the safest and cleanest beaches here on the East Coast. Clean Ocean Action (COA) is a nonprofit organization dedicated to improving the degraded water quality of the marine waters off the coast of New Jersey/New York coast and protecting the ocean from new sources of pollution. You can find out more information about this organization and their mission by visiting www.CleanOceanAction.org  Here are some of the organizations accomplishments:

COA RESULTS*

• All eight ocean dumpsites – Sewage Sludge, Deep Water Sewage Sludge, Toxic Mud, Cellar Dirt, Industrial Waste, Woodburning, Toxic Waste  Incineration, and Acid Waste – have been closed and federal legislation now prohibits dumping these materials.
• The quality of capping material used to heal the ocean at the Historic Area Remediation Site (HARS) or old Mud Dump Site has been improved. Citizen support and demand for a healthy ocean is overwhelming.
• Beach water quality is monitored more closely.
• Over 10,000 students participated in COA Student Summits since the first program 16 years ago.
• Hundreds of thousands of citizens have been educated to help fight future ocean pollution battles.
• The Beach Sweeps are the largest grassroots environmental event in New Jersey. Since 1985, over 101,000 volunteers have collected information on over 5.19 million pieces of trash from the Jersey shore.
• The NJ Beach Sweeps Report shows a trend toward a reduced amount of debris found on our beaches.

COA ACTIONS

Clean Ocean Action…

• stops ocean pollution with a continuous, relentless effort using research, education, and citizen action to convince our public officials to enact and enforce strict laws to protect our marine resources for today’s and future generations;
• tracks down sources of pollution, identifies solutions, and launches campaigns to eliminate them;
• educates citizens about the connection between storm drains and waterways with a statewide storm drain stencil program, “NO DUMPING: DRAINS TO WATERWAYS”;
• motivates communities to implement programs and technologies to stem the tide of coastal pollution;
• ensures that laws are enforced, pollution is reduced, and violators are prosecuted.
• advocates monitoring and repair of underground sewers to ensure that these systems do not contaminate our waterways; and
• identifies environmentally sound alternatives for dredged material management.

This information and more can be found on Clean Ocean Action’s website www.cleanoceanaction.org  Please visit them today to find out more about what they are doing to keep our Jersey beaches and waterways clean and safe and for more opportunities to give back to our local piece of the planet.