Harbor Is Newport’s Hottest New Pickup Spot

Interested in a free boat ride through Newport Harbor, or a day at the beach, followed by a free hot dog lunch at a waterfront restaurant? Well, all you have to do is become a trash collector for a day.

Boatloads of volunteers are being recruited for Saturday, June 3, to ply the waters of Newport Harbor and fish for debris, while dozens more will roam the city’s beaches lifting litter during the annual Clean Harbor Day.

During last year’s event, sponsored by the Marine Division of the Newport Harbor Area Chamber of Commerce, nearly 9 tons of trash were collected, according to Bill Von Henkle, Clean Harbor Day chairman. “The idea behind Clean Harbor Day is to pick up some of the debris along the waterfront and on the bay,” he says. “We are looking for volunteers to be assigned to the various areas. The event is open to everyone. Most (volunteers) will be working on the beaches.”

The idea for Clean Harbor Day was dreamed up 10 years ago by Bill Hamilton, owner of the Cannery Restaurant and longtime member of the Chamber of Commerce. “The harbor is our most important physical asset, and it is important to all of us to maintain a clean and attractive environment. It is healthier for the people, the fish and the birds,” he says. “I started Clean Harbor Day because I wanted to do something about litter.”

This year Hamilton, also an engineer and inventor, has added something new--his own water-going version of a street sweeper. Called the Hamilton Water Rake, the new vessel, designed by Hamilton, will automatically rake up floating garbage and deposit it in bins aboard the boat. Currently, the city collects trash in the harbor daily using an 18-foot skiff staffed by a worker who uses a pool scoop. Following Clean Harbor Day, Hamilton will lend the water rake to the city, which will see how efficiently the new vessel works on a day-to-day basis.

In addition to the water rake, nearly a dozen other vessels will cruise the 32 miles of waterways with volunteers picking up trash by hand. In the Back Bay area about 25 canoes and a half-dozen inflatables will navigate the shallow waters while volunteers carefully collect trash in the ecological preserve. “In the Back Bay area we have to be very careful this year because of the wildlife--the ducks and other birds--that are nesting there,” Von Henkle says.

Headquarters for Clean Harbor Day are at the Cannery Restaurant, 3010 Lafayette Ave., where cleanup crews will meet at 8 a.m., returning around noon for a free hot dog lunch and an awards ceremony. Von Henkle expects between 250 and 300 volunteers this year. To sign up for a work detail, call the Newport Harbor Area Chamber of Commerce at (714) 644-8211.

City officials involved in the job of trash collecting credit the annual Clean Harbor Day with helping draw attention to a daily problem.

“Clean Harbor Day generates awareness,” says Dave Niederhaus, the city’s general services director. “People get right down there, and they can see the enormity of the problem we face every day. We pick up 10,000 tons of beach litter per year. That’s an enormous amount of trash.”

The city’s Marine Division collects 600 cubic yards of floating trash from the harbor each year. That’s about four dump-truck loads each month, according to Ray Garver, marine safety lieutenant.

“Clean Harbor Day helps by raising the public awareness that we do have debris,” says Tony Melum, Newport Beach’s tidelands administrator. “It sensitizes the residents around the bay and those who do not live on the water but who put things in storm drains that get washed down into the bay from inland areas.”

Portions of the storm drains in Tustin, Irvine, Santa Ana and Costa Mesa, in addition to Newport Beach, flow into the harbor, according to Tom Houston, a member of the Newport Beach Harbor Quality Committee. “So anything in the gutters--animal droppings, grease and oil from automobiles, nonbiodegradable soaps--all find their way into the bay,” he says. “The fact is that people far from the harbor contribute to the problem, too, through the storm drain system. Someone in Turtle Rock, for example. His cigarette butt can end up in the harbor.”

Considering the large amount of trash that finds its way to the beaches and the bay, Tony Melum believes that Newport Harbor “is in pretty good shape. There are areas where we could improve, but based on the amount of use the harbor gets, it is not in that bad a condition. Depending on the tides and winds, some days it looks perfectly clean and other days there is a heavy concentration of debris.”

As for the quality of the water in the harbor, Houston says the Newport Beach Harbor Quality Committee is working “to try to develop methods and legislation to bring back the quality of the bay to the 1950s standards.”

Newport Beach resident Nancy Skinner and her physician husband, Jack, have been working for the past 6 years to help improve the quality of the harbor waters. Since 1984, the Skinners have been keeping tabs on the bacterial counts in Newport Bay. The bay is “relatively clean,” she says. “We hope that the committee (she’s also a member) work will make it even cleaner.

“The Orange County Health Department tests it once a week. When you look at the reports you will see clean water at one site, then another reading at a different testing site. But most of the usual swimming spots are OK.”

If there are problems with contamination in swimming areas, those areas are posted, according to Bob Merryman, director of environmental health for the Orange County Health Department. But, in general, Merryman says: “The water quality of the harbor is safe to swim in.”

The long-term solution to improving the harbor’s water quality lies in education, says Houston. “We need to understand (that) how we live affects the bay,” he says. “We need to understand how animals behave, how plant nurseries operate 10 miles away, how boats are maintained and what waterfront business practices are.”

A brochure, developed by the Newport Beach Harbor Quality Committee offers the following suggestions:

Boaters should remember that Newport Bay is a “no discharge” harbor and boats must have holding tanks or a certified marine sanitation device.

Waterfront homeowners should never wash animal waste, plant clippings, paint, cement or other materials into the gutter in front of their homes and should use only biodegradable detergents when washing their cars.

Inland residents should keep the gutters in front of their homes clean and free of toxic substances because runoff travels through the storm drains directly into the bay.

For further information on helping to improve Newport Harbor’s water quality write the Newport Beach Harbor Quality Committee, 3300 Newport Blvd., Newport Beach, Calif. 92663, or call (714) 644-3044.

Dunes Launch Reopens: Hundreds of boaters are expected to jam the Newport Dunes boat launching ramp, closed since Feb. 15 for reconstruction, when it reopens today.

The ramp, the only public launch ramp in Newport Beach, will be open only on weekends from 7 a.m. to 8 p.m. through the end of June, according to Kris Jamtaas, general manager of the Dunes. Afterwards, the ramp will reopen 7 days a week, 24 hours a day, Jamtaas says. Closure of the ramp was part of a $45-million renovation project that began around the first of the year at the 1950s-style aquatic park.

Launch fees at the Dunes are $7 on weekends and $5 on weekdays. For information call (714) 644-0510.

Shearlean Duke’s On the Waterfront appears each Saturday, covering boating life styles as well as ocean-related activities along the county’s 42-mile coastline. Send information about boating-related events to: On the Waterfront, Orange County Life, The Times, 1375 Sunflower Ave., Costa Mesa, Calif. 92626. Deadline is 2 weeks before publication. Story ideas are also welcome.