Goldman Environmental Prize to be awarded in San Francisco

SAN FRANCISCO (KGO) -- The winners of what can be called the "Green Nobel Prize" will be honored in San Francisco.

RELATED: Bay Area science fans march on Earth Day

Six people will be the recipients of the Goldman Environmental Prize, which is considered to be the world's most prestigious award for grassroots environmental activism.

One of the winners is from California.

mark! Lopez is being honored for persuading the state to spend $176 million to clean up contamination linked to a shuddered battery plant in East Los Angeles.

"We've been successfully at getting the state to clean up our communities, that's not complete," said Lopez. "But we've had to fight every step of the way, from when they only wanted to clean two homes -- then getting them to clean up 40 to 80, to 209, to now over 10,000 and we're still not done."

The prizes will be awarded in San Francisco Monday night.

Click here for more stories, photos, and video on science.