VC Star
September 15th, 2024
When Coastal Cleanup Day volunteers mass along beaches from 9 a.m. to noon on Sept. 21, they could find less litter than they did in the previous 39 years of the event.
Mechanical devices treating captured water prevent trash from washing down storm drains and through waterways into the ocean.
For example, Caltrans — the California Department of Transportation — in collaboration with the Ventura County Public Works Agency recently installed a “gross solid removal device” to treat runoff from 41 acres in Saticoy, according to Hayley Luna, a manager with Public Works.
Similarly, in recent years, the county agency has installed and maintains mechanical trash capture systems to treat runoff in 136 catch basins along sites including Medea Creek, Lindero Creek, Revolon Slough/Beardsley Wash and the Ventura River estuary, according to Luna.
Local cities have also been doing their part by joining the county in complying with the California Statewide Trash Amendment regulations aimed at reducing trash in state waters. Adopted by the State Water Resources Control Board in 2015, the rules require cities and counties to prevent trash from getting into stormwater systems that drain into rivers, lakes and coastal waters from certain types of land uses.
All stormwater permittees in the county “are installing trash capture devices within catch basins,” according to David Laak, a county Public Works manager who oversees the countywide stormwater program. The deadline for installation of full-capture devices in all applicable catch basins is 2030.
Oddly, implementation of these measures has not decreased Coastal Cleanup results in the past.
This could be because the top 10 categories of items collected from 1988 to 2023 includes mostly items that could be consumed directly at the beach. These are, in descending order of prevalence: cigarettes/filters; food wrappers/containers; caps/lids; bags (paper and plastic); cups, plates, forks, knives and spoons; straws/stirrers; glass bottles; plastic bottles; beverage cans and construction material. Perhaps so much is littered at the beach that the amount of litter collected at the event is more dependent on the number and enthusiasm of volunteers than on the presence of upstream collection devices.
At the website of the Ocean Conservancy, the U.S.-based non-profit organization serving as a primary organizer of International Coastal Cleanup Day, and at the California Coastal Commission website, volunteers can click on a map to read instructions for sites where they would like to participate. Each site has instructions. Some require pre-registration, and a few are organized for dates other than September 21. Also online is a waiver of liability. Volunteers will be asked by site organizers to show a confirmation of this waiver before participating in official gatherings.
Volunteers do not have to go to official sites. They can participate on their own and contribute their data to the collective effort via the Clean Swell app. However, official sites offer T-shirts, stickers, postcards and other rewards, frequently including snacks and water. Official sites also generally supply bags, gloves and data cards for tracking types of litter collected. However, experienced volunteers use the Clean Swell app instead of a data card even at the official events. They also bring reusable garden gloves, rather than using a site’s disposable ones, and bring reusable buckets instead of bags.
In recent years, staff of the Public Works Agency took the lead role in organizing local beach cleanup sites. Following staffing and organizational changes, the county asked for more help this year. The Ventura County Resource Conservation District stepped up, and Heidi Ortloff, the district’s conservation education and outreach coordinator, is the countywide coordinator.
“We at the RCD felt that it aligned with our core values of conserving natural resources and our goal to inspire stewardship in current and future generations of Ventura County residents,” Ortloff explained. The RCD also coordinates two county watershed planning groups, the Ventura River Watershed Council and the Santa Clara River Watershed Committee.
For more information on Ventura County Coastal Cleanup Day events, including a list of local inland and coastal sites along with a map, go to vccoastcleanup.org
David Goldstein is an Environmental Resource Analyst with the Ventura County Public Works Agency and can be reached at (805) 658-4312 or david.goldstein@ventura.org
