Ventura County News Roundup : Countywide : Volunteers Clean Up Shoreline

A typewriter at Sycamore Cove. A string of Christmas lights at Ventura Harbor. A farm plow at Emma Wood State Beach. A wooden turtle masthead at Point Mugu. It was all part of the trash volunteers found along Ventura County beaches Saturday.

A total of 1,327 people helped remove trash from 24 county sites during Coastal Cleanup Day, which is observed nationwide, Kitty Dill, coordinator of the county effort, said.

The volunteers cleaned more than 50 miles of coastline from the Santa Barbara county line to Leo Carrillo State Beach, collecting slightly more than 20 tons of trash, including nine tons of recyclable materials. Last year volunteers collected 8.75 tons of trash.

“The Pacific Missile Test Center, which has seven miles of beach, joined the program this year and there was a lot of heavy scrap metal there which really brought those numbers up,” said Jack Liebster of the California Coastal Commission, statewide coordinator of the event.

About 11,900 pounds of trash was found at Point Mugu, 11,000 pounds of it recyclable scrap metals.

The dirtiest beach was near the oil rigs at the Rincon, Dill said.

And the cleanest was Port Hueneme State Beach.

“It’s nice to be part of a solution to a problem,” said Tracy Susman, who helped clean Faria Beach.

“A lot of people don’t seem to understand that leaving garbage on the beach is different from leaving trash around Disneyland . . . where someone is paid to clean up after you. You have to take care of the beach yourself. It’s God’s E-ticket ride.”