Study says county beaches are getting dirtier

Alex Coolman

Orange County beaches are not only dirtier than originally thought, but

are littered with a previously little-noticed form of pollution,

according to a study released Thursday by an environmental group.

The study, prepared by the Southern California Coastal Water Research

Project, details the findings of volunteers who cleaned up sites on

Orange County beaches, including ones in Newport Beach, between August

and September 1998.

The group collected about 12 tons of debris -- more than 46 million items

-- during the test period.

The level of garbage was 50 times higher than what was recorded during a

1998 cleanup in Orange County for California Coastal Cleanup Day,

according to the report.

Moreover, the study found, much of the garbage on the beaches is in the

form of small, plastic pellets, a type of debris that has so far been

mostly overlooked in cleanups.

The group collected more than 105 million pellets during the test period.

The small objects appear to be the raw materials used in manufacturing

plastic products, said Shelly Moore, a marine biologist working on the

project.

“Basically, they come in a variety of sizes and shapes. Depending on

what the producers use them for, they have different additives added to

the resin,” she said. “These pellets are sent to people to make plastic

jugs and toys or whatever.”

Wes Armand, a harbor inspector with Newport Beach’s Fire and Marine

Department, said the pellets can be spotted on Newport’s beaches.

“We do find them,” he said. “Like all plastic things, they don’t break

down that fast.”

Armand said the number of the pellets “hasn’t reached that proportion

yet” where it seemed to be a major concern for the agencies that clean

the beach.

The project probably found so much of the small-scale debris because of

the careful methods used in conducting the study, Moore said.

“We wanted to get a true estimate of what was actually out there and we

wanted to do it in a scientifically rigorous way to give us the true

estimate,” she said.

Rather than simply strolling around the beach in search of garbage, the

group broke down sample areas of sand into grids, which were then

systematically reviewed by volunteers.

In addition to picking up all the material they found, the workers sifted

five-gallon buckets of sand to search for very small objects.

Armand said the data collected by the water research project could

potentially be useful to Newport Beach.

“Things like that are always very interesting,” he said. “The Coastal

Commission and other agencies are always trying to substantiate to the

California legislature the need for funds to do studies and projects.

“The way of hitting home is to give them the statistics like this.”