Moorpark Acorn
September 20, 2024
California celebrates its 40th annual Coastal Cleanup Day on Sat., Sept. 21, and one local city got a head start by cleaning one of its own streams leading to the ocean. The City of Agoura Hills hosted its annual Lindero Creek cleanup on Sept. 14 and, judging by the photos you see on Page 9, the event was a success, if you consider finding trash a good thing.
When volunteers gather at area beaches for the coastal cleanup the morning of the 21st, they could find less litter than they did in the previous 39 years of the event. The installation of new, debris-reducing technology has prevented gobs of trash from washing down the storm drains to begin with.
In recent years, the Ventura County Public Works Agency installed 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, the agency’s Hayley Luna said.
Updated rules from the state Water Resources Control Board require cities and counties to prevent trash from entering the stormwater systems that drain into the streams and ultimately to the ocean.
“All of the stormwater permittees within (Ventura County) are installing trash capture devices within catch basins,” with 2030 set as a deadline, said David Laak, a Ventura County Public Works manager who oversees the countywide stormwater program.
Runoff rules aimed at protecting the Malibu Creek watershed in Los Angeles County, and ultimately the Santa Monica Bay, are equally as aggressive, but help is still needed.
Across both weekends, volunteers put on gloves, sunscreen and waterproof boots, and carry buckets, bags and grabber sticks as they pick up—in descending order of prevalence—cigarettes and filters; food wrappers and containers; caps and lids; paper and plastic bags; cups, plates, forks, knives and spoons; straws and stirrers; glass bottles; plastic bottles; beverage cans; and construction material. There’s not much litter on the beach at the water’s edge, where material gets moved by the tides, but lots of litter lodges in rocks along the shore, so shoes are better than sandals as cleanup footwear if you plan to assist.
People can be slobs, yes, but thankfully there are volunteers to clean up after them. Their service to community couldn’t be more valuable. Clean waterways don’t happen by accident.
We appreciate David Goldstein of the Ventura County Public Works Agency, who assisted with this commentary.
Thank your volunteers for clean streams and beaches (theacorn.com)
