Coastkeeper Honors Slater-Price and Other Coastal Champions

Retiring county Supervisor Pam Slater-Price received a lifetime achievement award from San Diego Coastkeeper in a ceremony Friday at .

Slater-Price, a five-term supervisor, was given the Lighthouse Lifetime Achievement award for exhibiting a commitment to clean water throughout her career, according to the environmental organization.

According to Coastkeeper, Slater-Price secured nearly $10 million in funding for environmental projects in San Diego and allocated a $112,000 grant for open-air classrooms at San Dieguito River Park.

She has also supported stormwater regulation, water quality testing and posting of contamination warnings, restoration of the San Dieguito wetlands, land acquisitions and construction of the San Elijo Lagoon visitors' center, according to the organization.

Also honored were:

• Oscar Romo, of the Tijuana River National Estuarine Research Reserve, for spearheading restoration and preservation projects throughout the Tijuana River watershed to reduce the cross-border flows of sediment, sewage and trash.
• Hike Bike Kayak, for building a tourism business that combines recreational activity with education about San Diego's unique marine ecosystems, and helping to preserve the waters off La Jolla's shoreline.
• The Escondido Creek Conservancy, for identifying and removing abandoned cars in the Escondido Creek.
• Carlos Zamora, of Z Data Solutions, for an application and website to assist community members, organizations and agencies to track and reduce pollution in San Diego County.
• The city of San Diego Public Utilities Department's Residential Outdoor Water Conservation Rebate Program, for helping more than 300 customers conserve 61.8-million gallons of water over 10 years by offering rebates for smart controllers, micro-irrigation, turf replacement and rain barrels.
• Beth and Bruce Hendershot, Coastkeeper's "Volunteers of the Year" for 2012, for donating their time to Coastkeeper's water quality monitoring lab. For several years, the Del Mar couple has dedicated at least one weekend a month to gathering, delivering and analyzing water quality samples in North County.   

The winners were each given a hand-made glass sculpture of a sea creature at the event, which coincided with World Oceans Day.

–City News Service

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