As fall and winter rolled on and the year’s end approached, major green events left their imprint on Orange County. Anaheim played host to the nation’s largest solar conference, one of the county’s most important environmental figures died, and a state panel recommended that the ocean off Laguna Beach be closed to fishing — one of many such proposed closures up and down the California coast that stirred anger in the fishing community. (See previous posts covering January, February and March, April, May and June, and July, August and September.)

October, November, December

In early October, Placentia residents became the first to receive water in their taps from the Orange County Water District’s Groundwater Replenishment System, which uses powerful filters and other technology to purify what was once sewer water.

Rain barrels, which capture rain for use in the garden, generated green chatter in Orange County.

The nation’s largest solar event, Solar Power International 2009, was held in Anaheim, with robots, high-tech panels and other exhibits filled a cavernous exhibition hall, with 20,000 people from 90 countries signed up to attend.

And in November, a sudden death stunned Orange County’s environmental community.

Jan Vandersloot, 64, had campaigned for years to protect wildlife, wetlands and ocean habitat. He was also a practicing dermatologist whose office was always crowded with patients.

A few days later, a state panel recommended that a six-mile stretch of the Laguna Beach coast become a marine reserve, which would ban fishing there, as part of the Marine Life Protection Act initiative. The recommendation, one of several fishing bans or restrictions proposed between Santa Barbara and the Mexican border, awaits approval from the state Fish and Game Commission.

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