LA Waterkeeper Loses a Longtime Partner
On June 7, LA Waterkeeper lost a longtime friend and ally with the passing of Dr. Bruce Bell. While probably not a household name to most of our supporters, Dr. Bell played a critical role in the health of LA’s waterways and the success of LA Waterkeeper. He was one of LA Waterkeeper’s leading technical experts before retiring from Carpenter Environmental Associates, a firm he founded in the 1980s specifically to support nonprofit advocacy groups. Most importantly for Angelenos, he was the expert in our landmark lawsuit against the City of Los Angeles over chronic sewage spills that resulted in the investment of $4.2 billion dollars in our wastewater system, ultimately reducing spills by 90% over the past two decades (see our Litigation = Impact report).
“As important as attorneys were to our sewage spill suit, equally critical was having an expert like Bruce,” noted Steve Fleischli, who led Santa Monica Baykeeper (as LA Waterkeeper was then known) when the sewage spill lawsuit was filed. “Bruce mastered LA’s wastewater system in a few short years, homed in on why we were having so many spills, and identified what the City could reasonably do to address the chronic problems we were having. And then he could explain that in simple terms to judges and the public alike. It’s safe to say we would not have had the success we had in that case without Dr. Bell.”
“Bruce [Bell] taught and mentored the next generation of engineers to work for the good guys. He told the story of having to make a choice about who he would represent – industry or us. He chose us.”
Of course, that was just a small part of what Dr. Bell did, as he represented Waterkeepers (and other environmental nonprofits) on a wide range of cases across the nation. Included in this list were successful sewage lawsuits against the City of San Diego and Camp Pendleton, brought by San Diego Coastkeeper when it was helmed by current LA Waterkeeper Executive Director Bruce Reznik. Modeled after the LA case, these suits had similarly successful results for the coastal waters of San Diego County, due largely to Dr. Bell’s work.
“Not only do experts play a critical role in our advocacy, but most people don’t appreciate how hard it is to find consultants, as most are wary of representing nonprofits when they will make far more money working for industry and municipalities,” commented Daniel Cooper, an attorney at Sycamore Law who worked on most of the sewage spill cases from San Diego to San Francisco and who regularly worked with Dr. Bell on these types of lawsuits. “Bruce was one of the first to build an entire firm out of representing nonprofit advocates, and nobody did a better job coming into cities across the nation and helping to figure out how to reduce sewage spills, industrial discharges or toxic runoff pollution.”
“Bruce also taught and mentored the next generation of engineers to work for the good guys,” added Cooper. “He told the story of having to make a choice about who he would represent – industry or us. He chose us."
“As amazing he was as an expert, he was more amazing as a person,” added founding director of Santa Monica Baykeeper, Terry Tamminen. “Thoughtful, funny, deeply committed to a healthier planet, it was always fun working on a case with Bruce and hearing him regale us with stories from his most recent adventures. He will be greatly missed.”