Tuesday, June 9, 2015

San Diego - Seawall legal case heats up

Homeowners, state agency at odds over seawall as legal briefs filed in California Supreme Court

By Teri Figueroa5:15 p.m.June 8, 2015

Encinitas resident Gerry Rahill, at right, who supports resident's rights to build seawalls, argues with the Surfrider Foundation's Tom Cook, close left. *— Charlie Neuman / UT San Diego*

ENCINITAS — With a potentially precedent-setting legal battle over an Encinitas seawall in the hands of the state’s highest court, the San Diego County Chapter of the Surfrider Foundation used the sand-colored structure as a backdrop Monday to announce it’s joining the fight.

Two Encinitas families have sued the California Coastal Commission, challenging the agency’s power to institute a 20-year time limit on seawall permits. The outcome of the case could affect sea walls all along the California coast.

The case highlights the clash between property owners, who argue seawalls are necessary to fend off erosion and protect homes, and others — including the commission — who say the structures harm public resources by preventing the wear and tear on bluffs critical to sustaining healthy beaches.

The Surfrider Foundation held a news conference at the Encinitas seawall on Monday as the Coastal Commission filed its opening brief in the lawsuit with the California Supreme Court. Surfrider’s legal director, Angela Howe, said the group will file a friend-of-the-court brief with the high court by the end of July. She said Surfrider backs the commission’s ability to regulate permits and require periodic reviews, such as the 20-year term that is part of the battle in Encinitas.

“We really want to stress that this (sand) is not an infinite resource,” said Tom Cook, who chairs the chapter’s beach preservation committee.

A handful of people, including area homeowners, showed up Monday to challenge the group’s assertions. Many argued that amount of beach sand created by bluff erosion is negligible, and that property owners should have the right to protect their homes. One said he fears he will be handed a 20-year permit should he need to replace or fortify sea walls.

“We need harmony between the homeowners and the Coastal Commission,” said Mark Francois, who bought a home with a sea wall in the 1990s.

The Encinitas fight centers on a seawall and staircase that were destroyed when heavy rains led to a bluff collapse in late 2010. The city gave two Neptune Avenue homeowners — the Frick and Lynch families — permission to rebuild both structures.

But the permit is only good for 20 years. When it expires, the homeowners will have to reapply to keep it in place; if no extension is granted, the wall will have to come down.

With the limited permit in hand, the homeowners elected to rebuild the wall to protect their blufftop homes. But they also sued the state commission over the expiration date.

The families are represented by Pacific Legal Foundation, which promotes property rights and limited government. The nonprofit firm often takes on the California Coastal Commission.

Foundation attorney J. David Breemer said Monday that the Encinitas site had a seawall in place for decades before this battle, and that it should not be “the poster child for seawall activism.”

Tom Frick said Monday he was confident the court will “see the injustice. We have been wrongly treated over these years.”

Sarah Christie, a spokeswoman for the California Coastal Commission, also sounded confident.

“While seawalls protect private property, the evidence is clear that they also lead to the demise of public beaches,” she said.

Given rising sea levels, Christie said, the permit limits make sense because they allow the commission to review the realities of what is happening on the ground and in the water.

In court documents, the commission argued that the 20-year time frame will allow the commission to review the impacts of the seawall, “which may be far different from they are now, particularly given the uncertainties related to sea level rise.”

In April 2013, a San Diego Superior Court trial judge sided with the families, calling the agency’s time limit “a power grab.” In September, a split appeals court in San Diego reversed the trial court, affirming the Coastal Commission’s ability to set time limits. The high court agreed to take the case last year. No date for arguments has been set.

San Diego Surfrider launches Ocean Friendly Restaurants campaign

San Diego Surfrider launches Ocean Friendly Restaurants campaign: The Surfrider Foundation’s San Diego County chapter has launched the Ocean Friendly Restaurants campaign, which aims to reduce beach pollution by working with the San Diego County restaurant commun...

Thursday, June 4, 2015

Tar balls close 4-mile stretch of Long Beach coastline, animals affected

By Andrew Edwards, Press-Telegram

POSTED: 06/04/15, 8:58 AM PDT | UPDATED: 3 DAYS AGO

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Community Emergency Response Team (CERT) volunteers walk the coastline of Long Beach on Thursday morning looking for and flagging tar balls washed ashore. The tar balls were discovered Wednesday afternoon and the beach remains closed from 1st Street to 72nd Place until further notice. Long Beach June 4, 2015. (Photo by Brittany Murray / Daily Breeze)

A roughly 4-mile swath of beach in Long Beach remained closed Thursday after tar balls washed ashore, the second such closure in a week along the Southern California coast.

Although the local shoreline appeared to be clear of the substance as of early afternoon, officials were waiting until the tide receded later in the day to find out if any more of the muck has been deposited on the sand, Long Beach Fire Department spokesman Jake Heflin said.

The tar balls, globules of what officials described as a petroleum substance, first appeared along Long Beach’s shoreline at about 4 p.m. Wednesday from 1st Place to 72nd Place. A similar substance was discovered along 8 miles of South Bay beaches last week, leading authorities to close beaches from Redondo Beach to El Segundo from May 27-29.

In both cases, officials said testing is underway to determine if the tar balls are related to the oil spill north of Santa Barbara on May 19.

The affected stretch in Long Beach will not be reopened until health and environmental concerns can be addressed, Heflin said. Officials said Thursday they did not know whether they were witnessing the beginning or ending stages of the tar ball episode.

“There have been ongoing efforts throughout the evening to make sure we are mitigating and minimizing any potential impact, not only on our beaches and protecting the environment, but also protecting and preserving public health and public safety,” Heflin told reporters at a beachside briefing Thursday.

• VIDEO: Workers canvass the coast

On Thursday, workers for Ocean Blue Environmental Services had collected 55 gallons of the petroleum-based deposits along the shore, Heflin said. Additional amounts of the thick, black substance had washed ashore since those early cleanup efforts.

“We are seeing new product come up. We saw it this morning,” Heflin said in an interview following the briefing.

• PHOTOS: Tar ball cleanup in Long Beach

“It’s heavier than water so it rolls underneath the water and it eventually gets pushed on shore,” he said.

There is concern among officials that wildlife may be harmed by the tar-like substance.

Heflin told reporters a pelican was found saturated with oil and was being treated. A sea lion was seen on a breakwater in the ocean, possibly contaminated by oil, but it swam away.

Long Beach Fire Chief Mike DuRee said Thursday that crews are canvassing the breakwater area, where a fairly large population of brown pelicans congregate. Any animals affected will be cared for by Long Beach Animal Control Services.

• VIDEO: Mike DuRee discusses impacts to wildlife

The U.S. Coast Guard was also on scene collecting samples of the petroleum-based deposits for testing that could provide insight as to the substance’s source, officials said. Fire officials are unsure how long it will take to get the results of the tests.

There is no indication the incident is related to any Long Beach Gas and Oil operations, Heflin said.

DuRee said the substance washing ashore is “considerably different” from the oily substance often seen on area beaches.

Justin Lee, operations director of Ocean Blue, said in a telephone interview that it is possible for tar-like substances to appear at local beaches as a result of natural processes. Plate tectonics activity can result in such substances being released from the earth’s crust, but Lee said observations along Long Beach’s shoreline have not been consistent with what he would expect to have been seen if the tar balls are the result of natural phenomena.

“This does seem to be way more than usual when that happens,” he said.

Long Beach residents are advised to keep off area beaches because of the possibility of unsafe conditions, Heflin said. Beach users are advised to avoid contact with oil tars washed ashore or found in the water. Contact with oil tars may cause skin irritation and long-term health effects.

All reports of oil debris should be made to the National Response Center hotline at 800-424-8802.

The tar balls washing ashore in Long Beach come nearly a week after large globs of tar washed ashore in the South Bay. Additional tar balls washed ashore earlier this week in Redondo Beach and Manhattan Beach, but the Coast Guard said the amount was not cause for concern. The tar patties were in line with what is typically seen on the beach from time to time from natural seepage, a Coast Guard spokesman said.

Staff writer Carley Dryden contributed to this report.

Thursday, May 28, 2015

Surfrider Urges Citizens To Fight Against New Offshore Drilling To Stop Future Incidents Like Santa Barbara Oil Spill; Calls For Federal Moratorium On New Drilling

MAY 28, 2015 --

SAN CLEMENTE, Calif., May 28, 2015 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ --In light of last week's oil spill in Santa Barbara, the Surfrider Foundation, (Surfrider.org), a non-profit environmental organization dedicated to the protection and enjoyment of the world's ocean, waves and beaches, is calling for the U.S. Government to restore a federal moratorium on new offshore drilling sites, including canceling plans for new oil and gas development in the Atlantic and Arctic Ocean. Additionally, Surfrider is imploring citizens across the country to get involved and urge elected officials to pass better legislation to ensure long-term protection of our natural resources.

"The recent oil spill in Santa Barbara is a stark reminder that our ocean is precious and vulnerable, yet government officials and oil companies continue the dirty business of oil drilling. It is time to take a stand and defend the world's ocean," said Dr. Chad Nelsen, CEO Surfrider Foundation. "As we kick-off World Oceans Day on June 1, we are urging all citizens to take action both personally and collectively to help protect the precious waters that give us life and enjoyment."

To date, the ruptured pipeline outside of Santa Barbara has dumped as much as 101 thousand gallons of oil, with 21 thousand gallons reaching the California shoreline. The true ecological damage will not be realized for years, but the spill has killed marine wildlife, closed local beaches and left an oil slick over nine miles wide near the shore and a seven square mile slick approximately 11 miles offshore. This spill is only one example of the damage U.S. drilling operations cause small, unseen pipeline spills happen daily, sending roughly 880 thousand gallons of oil into the ocean each year.

Federal Moratorium on Offshore Drilling

For decades our coasts were protected from new offshore oil drilling. However,in 2008,President Bushand Congressliftedfederalmoratoriaonnewoffshore drillingmaking our nation's coastlines vulnerable to the expansion of oil and gas development.

In April 2010, the risks of offshore drilling were exposed to the world when theDeepwater Horizon oil drilling rigexploded and releasedapproximately 200 million gallons of oil into the Gulf of Mexico. Beaches and coastal wetlands from Louisiana to the Florida panhandle were impacted killing birds, fish, marine mammals and devastating the recreation and fishing-based economies of the Gulf States.

Yet again, the ocean is a target. The Draft 5 Year Offshore Drilling Plan released bytheObama Administration for 2017 - 2022 includes scheduled lease sales in the Mid-and South Atlantic and the Arctic Ocean. Surfrider believes the Obama Administration and Congress need to reestablish the Federal Moratorium on new offshore drilling rather than risking our ocean and all it provides to us from opening offshore oil drilling every 5 years.

Support World Ocean's Month As defenders of the ocean, Surfrider needs help! Here's what you can do:

1)Sign Something: Sign the petition to reject seismic testing and drilling in the Atlantic Ocean.

2)Make a call: Call your state representative and say,"I'm calling to ask that you oppose all new offshore oil and gas development and exploration."

3) Support Alternatives: Drive slowly. If you drive a vehicle getting low MPG, lower speeds cansignificantly save fuel.

4)Use Public Transit: Explore masstransit.If that's not an option, combine errands making several trips can use a lot of gas.

5)Say No to Plastic: Stop using plastic bags and single-use plastics. Around 100 billion petroleum-based plastic checkout bags are used each year in the United States, requiring an estimated 12 million barrels of oil each year. 60-80 percent of pollution in our ocean comes from plastic!

6)Protect Your Waterways: Create an ocean friendly garden (helps conserves water and lessen polluted runoff), pick up trash atyour beach and get involved with your community, whether that's through a local Surfrider chapter or another organization that protects coastal resources.

"We cannot drill our way out of our oil dependence problem. Drilling is simply not the answer we must find alternatives. It's not hard to do our part in conserving resources work to minimize your fossil fuel consumption, support strong regulations and limits on new oil drilling and eliminate daily use of plastic bags and other single-use plastic. While small, if adopted as a whole, these changes can have monumental impact," continued Nelsen.

About Surfrider Foundation
The Surfrider Foundation is a non-profit grassroots organization dedicated to the protection and enjoyment of our world's ocean, waves and beaches through a powerful activist network. Founded in 1984 by a handful of visionary surfers in Malibu, California, the Surfrider Foundation now maintains over 250,000 supporters, activists and members worldwide. For more information on the Surfrider Foundation, visit surfrider.org.

Contact Info:
Monica Rohleder
1-847-606-1973
monica@signalrockcomm.com

SOURCE Surfrider Foundation

Monday, February 2, 2015

Proposed restoration of the Trancas Lagoon in Malibu inches forward - Here in Malibu

Thursday, January 15, 2015

Sewer Site Stays in Place, Project Moves Forward - Malibu Times: News

Wednesday, January 14, 2015

SURFRIDER FOUNDATION CELEBRATES 300 COASTAL VICTORIES

http://www.surfrider.org/press-center/entry/surfrider-foundation-celebrates-300-coastal-victories

JANUARY 13 2015

SAN CLEMENTE, Calif., January 14, 2014—Today, the Surfrider Foundation celebrates achieving 300 coastal victories. Since it was founded more than 30 years ago, Surfrider has evolved into one of the largest non-profit organizations dedicated the protection and enjoyment of the world’s ocean, waves and beaches. Now boasting a powerful network of passionate volunteers and activists in 85 chapters around the country, and a handful of international affiliates, the Foundation is bigger and stronger than ever.

Beginning in 2006, Surfrider started counting its coastal victories; defining a victory as a decision made in favor of the coastal and ocean environment that results in a positive conservation outcome.

“Each coastal victory stands for increased protection of our ocean, waves and beaches,” says Surfrider Foundation’s Chief Executive Officer Dr. Chad Nelsen. “These victories are attributed to the hard work and long hours put in by our passionate and dedicated team of volunteer activists with the support of our staff.”

Surfrider victories are typically produced by campaigns, which begin in coastal communities where our activists witness firsthand the threats and issues affecting their special coastal place. Issues include pollution and water contamination, irresponsible coastal development, coastal erosion, loss of beach access and threats to healthy oceans. While Surfrider is currently involved in more than a hundred active campaigns at the local, state and national level, the size and impact of each varies and can endure for years.

When a campaign yields a victory, it doesn’t mean the campaign is over or the work by Surfrider ends. In fact, constant pressure needs to be endlessly applied. Take, for example, a few of the 36 victories from 2014:

Private property owners, developers and even sea level rise are constantly challenging the right of beach access for the public.

In September (2014), Surfrider won two huge legal battles against billionaire venture capitalist and co-founder of Sun Microsystems, Vinod Khosla. In a landmark litigation decision, the San Mateo Superior Court required Khosla to open the gates on his property to Martin’s Beach until he obtains a coastal permit. Surfrider also championed state legislation to activate the State Lands Commission to negotiate with Vinod Khosla regarding a sustainable access solution to Martin’s Beach. While the gates remain partially closed, and Khosla may challenge this issue for several years, Surfrider will not stop fighting. Surfrider also achieved an access victory at Rose Nulman Park in Rhode Island and is working on other brewing access campaigns in Ditch Plains in New York and Goose Rocks Beach in Maine.

Surfrider is very focused on preserving the coasts by addressing marine pollution, especially that of single-use plastic, expanded polystyrene foam and cigarette butts.

Plastic creates toxic pollution at just about every stage of its existence, from manufacture, to use, to disposal—making it the most prevalent type of marine litter worldwide. In 2014, Surfrider chapters helped pass several single-use plastic bag bans, including the first statewide ban in California. With the ink barely dried on the California bag ban law, the plastic bag industry pledged to drag it onto the state ballot in 2016. Surfrider quickly became part of the CA vs. Big Plastic coalition, and is working to counter this industry effort. Chapters in Hawaii, Texas, Washington D.C., Massachusetts and Maine also achieved bag ban victories, while others are working vigorously on bans in Connecticut, North Carolina and Florida.

Polystyrene comes in various forms, including what is most commonly referred to as Styrofoam (which is expanded polystyrene or EPS foam). EPS does not biodegrade, instead it breaks apart into smaller pieces, littering beaches and mistaken for food by animals and marine life. In 2014, the Washington D.C. Surfrider chapter helped ban expanded polystyrene foam in Washington D.C., while the Hawaii Oahu Surfrider Chapter is continuing work on passing Bill 40 to ban EPS foam food service containers on Oahu.

Considering cigarette butts are the number one littered item in the world, Surfrider focuses on creating smoke-free beaches. Last year alone, chapters in Maui, Oregon and California led the charge to make our state parks, beaches and cities smoke-free or free of butts.

Nelsen looks forward to an exciting new year of growth and opportunity, “Given the increasing seriousness of looming environmental issues such as climate change, offshore oil drilling and sea level rise, in 2015 we will remain focused tackling the many issues affecting our coasts from the local to national scale.”

For a complete list of Surfrider programs, campaigns and victories, please visit surfrider.org/campaigns.

About Surfrider Foundation

The Surfrider Foundation is a non-profit grassroots organization dedicated to the protection and enjoyment of the world’s ocean, waves and beaches through a powerful activist network. Founded in 1984 by a handful of visionary surfers in Malibu, California, the Surfrider Foundation now maintains more than 250,000 supporters, activists and members worldwide. For more information, visit surfrider.org.

For the latest news, happenings, photos and videos, follow @surfrider on Twitter, Facebook, Instagram and YouTube.

Media: Katie Ferguson, 949-212-3335, kferguson@surfrider.org.

Malibu approves sewage treatment plant

http://www.latimes.com/local/westside/la-me-0114-malibu-sewer-20150114-story.html

By MARTHA GROVES JANUARY 13, 2015, 9:03 PM

Taking a long-anticipated step to reduce coastal pollution, the Malibu City Council has voted to approve construction of a wastewater treatment plant in the Civic Center area.

The project's roughly $40-million first phase, which is expected to be operating by June 2017, would provide sewage treatment for nearly 50 property owners, including the city itself. Others include the Los Angeles County public library and fire station, the Malibu Colony Plaza shopping center and the Malibu Country Mart.

"We commend the City Council for taking this important step to improve the water quality in Malibu Lagoon and the Malibu groundwater basin," said Samuel Unger, executive director of the Los Angeles Regional Water Quality Control Board.

Water quality officials have long criticized Malibu for what they perceived to be its slow pace of addressing water pollution in Malibu Creek, Malibu Lagoon and Surfrider Beach. In 2009, the water board approved a prohibition on septic systems in the city's core.

Most commercial and residential properties in Malibu use septic systems. The agency said pollutants leaching from aging, overtaxed systems caused much of the ongoing water quality problems.

City Manager Jim Thorsen said Malibu would seek a low-interest state loan, to be guaranteed by the affected property owners, and form an assessment district to cover the costs of building and operating the plant. If the district is approved, property owners would be assessed amounts ranging from $4,000 a year to as much as $500,000 a year.

The membrane bioreactor plant would be located just north of Pacific Coast Highway along Civic Center Way, according to a map on the city's website. The plant would initially be capable of treating about 190,000 gallons a day to a level that would allow the water to be reused in Legacy Park, the city's highly praised storm water treatment zone, and elsewhere.

The second phase, which would begin to incorporate some residential properties, would bring the level to 360,000 gallons. The regional water board has said that phase must be online by late 2022. A third phase would raise the total to 500,000 gallons a day in 2025.

Dozens of people spoke for and against the project at the council meeting Monday night. Many residents have expressed concern that installing sewers would unleash a wave of development. The five council members voted unanimously to approve the environmental impact report just before 11 p.m.

"It was the outcome we hoped for," said Sarah Sikich, vice president of Heal the Bay, an environmental advocacy group.

The project is expected to get other necessary approvals and permits in coming months from the regional water board and the California Coastal Commission.

"This is a landmark step," Sikich said, "to move from local permitting to state permitting and from concept to implementation."

martha.groves@latimes.com
Twitter: @MarthaGroves

Copyright © 2015, Los Angeles Times

Friday, January 9, 2015

Could O.C. get drinking water from the sea? Huntington Beach desalination plant gets a boost

BY AARON ORLOWSKI

2015-01-09 00:09:03

The Orange County Water District, which manages the groundwater basin in north and central county, gave a much-needed boost this week to a proposed desalination plant in Huntington Beach by agreeing to purchase its water.

At nearly $2,000 per acre-foot, desalinated water costs about twice as much as water imported from Northern California. Until this week, the steep price tag for what Poseidon Water calls a drought-proof water supply has failed to attract water agencies.

But Wednesday night, the Orange County Water District, which sells water to local retail agencies, said it was interested in buying all of the 56,000 acre-feet of drinking water the plant would produce.

The negotiations come after 15 years of planning, but before Poseidon has lined up all the permits necessary to actually break ground on the facility. Poseidon needs one more permit from the California Coastal Commission and must complete a multiphase technical study to get it.

Additionally, it’s not certain whether Poseidon will have to re-apply for its other permits once the state releases new rules governing desalination operations statewide in the fall.

“It doesn’t look like the way this thing is designed will comply with those standards,” said Joe Geever, an environmental consultant for Surfrider Foundation and expert on coastal permitting. “You’re talking about a contract for a project that is speculative at best.”

Poseidon, however, heralded the contract negotiations as a critical step in securing a drought-proof water supply for Orange County. The contract may come back for a final vote as soon as March.

“We look forward to these formal discussions with OCWD,” Poseidon Vice President Scott Maloni said.

The contract between OCWD and Poseidon would govern how much OCWD would pay for the desalinated water and who would foot the bill for the likely changes that are projected to cost $892 million.

Poseidon struck a similar deal with the San Diego County Water Authority for the 48,000 acre-feet of water it expects to produce per year at its Carlsbad desalination facility late this year.

A deal with OCWD would be a coup for Poseidon, which has had trouble finding buyers for the desalinated water, according to Irvine Ranch Water District General Manager Paul Cook.

Years of negotiations between Poseidon and the Municipal Water District of Orange County – a water wholesaler – and its member agencies fell through about 18 months ago.

“The Poseidon guys said, ‘This isn’t going to work. We need to find a buyer.’ And then they started working with OCWD,” Cook said.

So far, OCWD has turned out to be friendlier partner. Nine of the 10 OCWD board members voted Wednesday to advance the negotiations for Poseidon’s desalinated water.

Cook said he worries about the uncalculated costs of the Poseidon project, as well as price hikes – costs he expects would be passed on to customers. He said his agency doesn’t need the extra water, and he doesn’t believe his customers should have to pay extra.

Cook also questioned whether the OCWD has legal authority to act as the middleman between Poseidon and the retail water agencies.

“There’s a lot more questions that go along with it, and not least of all: Who really wants this water?” Cook said. “We’re not interested in paying for a project we don’t derive any benefit from.”

The water will shore up the groundwater basin, OCWD General Manager Mike Markus said.

Contact the writer: aorlowski@ocregister.com

Tuesday, December 30, 2014

City of Malibu publishes CCWTF EIR edits

http://www.malibusurfsidenews.com/city/city-publishes-ccwtf-eir-edits

City publishes CCWTF EIR edits

Chris Bashaw, Assistant Editor

3:59 pm PST December 29, 2014

The City of Malibu published last week a list of “minor edits” to the final Environmental Impact Report for the proposed Civic Center Wastewater Treatment Facility (CCWTF) project.

Friday, December 19, 2014

Planning Commission Recommends Sewer Report Approval

http://m.malibutimes.com/news/article_6eb8f0da-862d-11e4-9d75-9fc19fbcf11d.html?mode=jqm

Planning Commission Recommends Sewer Report Approval

Commissioners voted 4-0 to recommend approval of project’s environmental report, with further disclosures over soil samples.

Sunday, December 14, 2014

Enviromentalists Go To Battle Over Facewash

http://time.com/3628392/microbead-ban-states/

Katy Steinmetz @katysteinmetz

Dec. 10, 2014

Environmentalists are hoping a landmark report about how much plastic is in the world's oceans will help get bans on small plastics passed

Civic Center Sewer Project Timeline Granted Extension - News - The Malibu Times

By Emily Sawicki / emily@malibutimes.com | Posted 2 days ago

The city’s petition to grant a 2-year extension on to the Civic Center Wastewater Project was approved unanimously by the L.A. Regional Water Quality Control Board, City Councilmembers said at Monday’s City Council meeting.

Originally scheduled for a 2015 completion, the first phase of sewer construction now has until June 2017 for completion, meaning the city has additional time to gather funds, draw up plans and construct the infrastructure.

This also opens up the possibility for the Serra Canyon neighborhood to eventually opt out of the sewer, since they now have additional years to conduct soil and water tests as a way to prove they should not be obligated to hook up.

Sunday, October 12, 2014

New Surfrider CEO named - The Orange County Register

Coastal Commission Postpones The Edge Development Hearing - News - The Malibu Times

Throwaway Society Creates Massive Islands of Floating Plastic in the World's Oceans

Eco Plus

Throwaway Society Creates Massive Islands of Floating Plastic in the World’s Oceans

15:00 10/10/2014

John Harrison

Tags: ocean, environment, ecology

Captain Charles Moore of the Algalita Marine Research Foundation, a non-profit marine organisation in Long Beach, California explains the islands of rubbish mounting up in our oceans.

Download mp3

We just don’t worry about what happens to the millions of plastic bags, bottles, toothbrushes, plastic things that we throw away, as if it’s not really our business. Some of these plastics ends up being thrown into the sea, and that seems to be the end of the story, except that it isn’t. One man, Captain Charles Moore has very successfully highlighted the massive problem of plastic waste at sea, and analysed the so called Great Pacific Garbage Patch, which is one of the five huge expanses of drifting plastic in the world’s oceans.

What are the garbage patches made up of? How big are they?

Charles Moore: Basically, anything that flows is going to find its way there eventually. A very high percentage of everything entering the Pacific Ocean from the Pacific Rim, whether it’d be Russia, Japan, China, Indonesia on the western Pacific, or whether it’d be Alaska, Canada, the US, Central America on the eastern Pacific – those Pacific Rim countries are scoured by the ocean currents.

And it is phenomenal that these detritus items make their way to a central part of the Pacific, known as the Central Pacific Gyre. The North Pacific Subtropical Gyre is the synonym for that. And this particular current phenomenon has a period of rotation of 6 years around the periphery, but there are a lot of little swirling whirlpools on the inside.

And so it happens: it is off Japan and halfway between Hawaii and the US there are these eastern and western garbage patches where this stuff resides for decades. And that’s the one I had the misfortune or fortune, as it may be, to cross in 1997.

And back then, how big was it? I know you’ve been back recently. Has it grown in size? Give us an idea. The size of a football pitch, or what are we talking about?

Charles Moore: First of all, we are talking about oceanic currents. And they are relatively stable. So, the currents that create this vortex, this kind of toilet that doesn’t flush, these are stable currents that don’t really grow or contract that much. So, we have this stable phenomenon which is about twice the size of the continental US that is prone to accumulate debris.

And in 1997 when I crossed there, that was the occasional item. But you might have to wait for five minutes or so, before you saw another one. It wasn’t like an icebreaker plowing through the stuff, it was just an occasional bit here and bit there.

Now, in 2014 it is like an icebreaker plowing through. There is so much crap out there, that you can’t actually get away from it. It’s got tyres and we’ve even found an actual island you could walk on, made of 70 large buoys from an oyster farm that was dislodged during the Japanese tsunami.
So, it’s grown in the sense of the concentration, the spatial extent however has not grown. However, we did see much closer to the coast of California large spots of the debris, than we’ve seen before. We would see occasional shards of it, but now we are seeing large spots of debris closer to the mainland than we ever had before.

So, the ocean is turning into a big toilet?

Charles Moore: 7 billion people, half of them attempt to live within 50 miles from the coast, because the ocean does provide moderations in climate. Large bodies of water tend to moderate the climate. Human beings like that moderate climate. They live near the coasts. And the world is going to continue to have storms and tsunamis, and this stuff is going to continue to pile up, and go into the ocean, until we begin manufacturing and remanufacturing with an end of life for this material.

How long do the plastic wastes float around for before they degrade?

Charles Moore: First of all, we have to understand why we use so much plastic. It is because it is a moisture barrier and a vapor barrier, and because it resists biodegradation. If we could wrap everything in paper and keep it stored in a pristine condition, we would. It’d be much easier. But we can’t, because the vapors invade the paper, it absorbs moisture and the products wrapped in it won’t survive.

So, we use most of our plastic for packaging. And packaging does a very good job of keeping things in pristine condition. You can have a factory in Timbuktu and send it to the center of consumption, and it arrives in a pristine condition. So, it is what I call a key lubricant of globalization – this plastic packaging.

Now, because of its virtue of being so difficult to penetrate with water and so difficult to degrade, it lasts a long time. The estimates are that if, say, you put plastic in your compost, about 1-2% of it would go away each year. So, even in terrestrial environment where the bacteria, fungus and insects are active, it is a very slow process.

In the ocean the process is much slower. And it is also dependent on the depth. At the bottom of the ocean even paper doesn’t biodegrade. But in the surface waters biodegradation takes place at much slower rate than in a compost pile. It is cooler, the bacteria are spread out and there is very little fungus, and really only one insect – the Halobates – which is actually increasing now, because they lay their eggs on this trash. But it is kind of a water-strider that lives in the deep oceans.

So, we really don’t have the arsenal of degraders in the ocean that would biodegrade this material. So, it is taking a long time to go away. And it breaks into tiny, little, micro-size bits, which then are disappearing. The recent study by a Spanish group has highlighted the issue that I've been talking about for 15 years, which is that the smaller particles of plastic don’t correspond to the amount we think should be there. In other words, if you crumble up a cookie, you get a lot of cookie crumbs. But we are not seeing the crumbs out there, in the smaller size classes, even though we know all these plastics are crumbling up.

What is the effect on us?

Charles Moore: The fitness of the fish in the ocean is decreasing, as they consume plastic or fish and invertebrates, like zooplankton, that have consumed plastic. That’s a nonnutritive substance that accumulates toxicants. So, you are basically feeding them a bunch of poisoned pills that give them no nutritional value, and accumulating those toxins, and sending them up the food web to us.

In addition to changing the nature of the ocean itself, you can’t go back into the historical record and find sediment cores in the ocean bottom, where it reveals how the earth has handled synthetic polymers. These synthetic polymers are modern human invention and they are taking over the ocean, and we have no historical record to rely on, to understand what that means.

So, this is a brand new field of study and we don’t even have the scientists. We've only graduated one or two PhDs remotely associated with this kind of a study. So, we've got a long way to go in understanding what happens.