A group of Culver City environmentalists are dismayed that one of their state representatives has taken a position on a bill that they believe will permit an environmental hazard to continue.

       Assemblywoman Holly Mitchell (D-Culver City) voted against Senate Bill 568 in the Assembly Appropriations Committee on Aug. 25. The Legislature is set to vote on the bill at the beginning of September.

       The proposed legislation by state Sen. Alan Lowenthal (D-Long Beach) would prohibit a food vendor, on and after Jan. 1, 2016, from dispensing prepared food to a customer in a polystyrene foam food container and would define related terms.

       SB 568 would mandate that a food vendor that is a school district is not required to comply with the bill’s requirements until July 1, 2017, and would allow a food vendor that is a school district to dispense prepared food to a customer in a polystyrene foam food container after that date if the governing board of the school district elects to adopt a policy to implement a verifiable recycling program for polystyrene foam food containers, which would be renewable, as specified.

       Mitchell, who recently attended the opening of the Ballona Creek Renaissance Bike Path, has been a supporter of most environmental initiatives in Culver City and throughout the 47th Assembly District, which includes Culver City, said Ballona Creek Renaissance President James Lamm.

       “I’m hoping that she’ll change her mind [on SB 586],” said Lamm, who sent the assemblywoman a letter encouraging her to vote in favor of the bill.

       Community activist Meghan Salhi-Wells said she thought Mitchell had been lobbied heavily by business organizations based on a recent conversation that the two recently had. “When I spoke to her at Fiesta La Ballona, she indicated to me that she was concerned for them,” Sahli- Wells said. “Perhaps maybe more of us who are environmentalists should have spoken out as much as some of the small business groups.”

       Mitchell was endorsed by the Los Angeles League of Conservation Voters when she ran for the Assembly last year, which makes her Aug. 25 vote all the more disappointing, says Hillary Gross Moglen, who is a member of the environmental organization.

       “I’m dismayed to hear any elected leader putting business interests before the environment and I’m particularly saddened when it is an elected [official] whom the League of Conservation Voters previously supported,” said Gross Moglen, who lives in Culver City.

       Gross-Moglen’s reference to business interests points out the opposition to SB 568 by a number of regional and statewide commerce organizations. The California Chamber of Commerce, the Black Business Association, the California Restaurant Association and the American Chemistry Council are among the organizations that oppose Lowenthal’s legislation.

       American Chemistry Council also led the opposition to Assembly Bill 1998, an environmental proposal that was defeated last year. The bill would have enacted a statewide prohibition on the sale of plastic bags in grocery and retail stores.

       “SB 568 is a job killer for a very good reason – local bans have already shut down factories,” the president/CEO of the Black Business Association told the California Business Coalition in July.

       The Culver City Chamber of Commerce has not taken a position on SB 568. “We have too many other important issues that we are considering right now – like jobs,” Culver City Chamber President Steven Rose responded when asked why his organization had not taken a stand on the proposed legislation.

       Styrofoam, which contains expanded polystyrene, is a liquid hydrocarbon that is commercially manufactured from petroleum by the chemical industry. Polystyrene is one of the most widely-used types plastics, which environmental groups say are a scourge to the nation’s rivers, streams and oceans.

       Gross-Moglen dismissed the implication that the legislation was a “job-killer.” “Styrofoam containers are unnecessary in an age of biodegradable and are costly both for our oceans and streets,” she asserted.

       Culver City is one of several municipalities advocating for the passage of SB 568.

       Expanded polystyrene “poses significant problems in our waterways, storm drains and the marine environment,” wrote Culver City Mayor Micheál O’ Leary in a letter to Lowenthal on May 2. “Because [the hybocarbon] can breakdown into numerous small particles, is lightweight, easily dispersible and not biodegradable, it contributes to the litter in our storm drains.”

       Refuse like Styrofoam and plastic often winds up in Ballona Creek, which runs through Culver City. Lamm noticed a great deal of the nonbiodegradable waste in the creek while he was being interviewed for a documentary last month.

       “It was just floating there – like jellyfish,” he recalled.

       Sahli-Wells, who is a member of the environmental group Transition Culver City, sees Culver City as a community that is making steady inroads in terms of protecting the environment. A rain garden was recently opened, the city will soon be considering a ban on plastic bags and the city’s use of compressed natural gas in its buses has helped the municipal bus system gain recognition as a leader in green technology.

       But she feels that Mitchell’s nonsupport of SB 568 can harm Culver City’s status as a potential leader in sustainability. “I want to show through our actions and our leaders that we get it,” she said. “I want people to think of Culver City as a green city that understands how important the environment is to us all.”

       Mitchell did not return calls or emails for comment.

       State Sen. Curren Price (D-Culver City) who voted against AB 1998, voted in favor of SB 568.