Last weekend Branndon and I participated in the 11th Annual Inner Coastal & Watershed Cleanup Day. Apparently it is held every September, so you know we’re already planning to attend next year. It brought together many volunteers to collect trash and debris. Since we live in Orange we went to Grijalva Park at Santiago Creek. Other cities that participated include Villa Park, Yorba Linda, Irvine, Fullerton, Placentia, Newport Beach, Huntington Beach, and so many more.


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When I was researching the event I found that the State of California has been involved since 1985. To date over 750,000 Californians have removed more than 12 million pounds of debris from California’s shorelines and coast. In 2006, Orange County alone had 6500 volunteers participating. They picked up 91,000 pounds of trash and recyclables. I’m really curious to see how many people helped out this year, and to see how much trash in weight was picked up.

The Coastal Cleanup Day is a partnership between the Coastal Commission, non-profit groups, cities, and counties throughout the state. It is a part of the International Coastal organized by The Ocean Conservancy. The whole idea is to preserve, protect, and enhance our coastal resources and surface waters. They provided disposable gloves, trash bags, water, snacks and t-shirts for volunteering. It was a fun experience.

Branndon and I worked alongside many families with younger children and Boy Scout troops. They did a great job getting plastic soda bottles and plastic bags, but there was a lot of heavy metal there that physically they couldn’t pick up. Branndon and a few of the stronger men pulled up a big rig tire, brake drums, and random metal pieces. There was a lot of rebar. I mean a lot.

I made Branndon dig out a big rig tire. He’s 6′3″. It was a big and heavy tire. And that metal pipe weighed about 40 pounds. We carried them over 250 yards to the dumpster.

 

We spent about 2 ½ hours Saturday morning picking up any trash we saw. I was very surprised to see some of the items down there that were half buried in the dirt or cemented in. We found a shopping cart! Unfortunately we couldn’t remove it because it was in the middle of the water and ¾ buried in concrete blocks. But it was surprising to see what gets washed down there during the rainy season.

Next year it will be taking place on Saturday, September 20, 2008. It’s going to be 9 am to Noon. We hope you can join us.