The Price of a Clean Ocean

Southern California has no recreational resource more important than the water in which locals and tourists from around the world Boogie-board, wade, swim, snorkel and fish. Yet keeping that water clean has been one of the region’s most intractable environmental problems. The challenge: how to keep Whopper wrappers, dog deposits and the motor oil that coats city streets from washing down storm drains to foul beaches and bays.

The bond measure that Gov. Gray Davis signed last weekend should boost efforts to cut the flow of pollutants into the ocean.

AB 1602, sponsored by Assemblyman Fred Keeley (D-Boulder Creek), will go before voters next March. Besides providing $2.6 billion in general obligation bonds to acquire parkland and preserve wildlife habitat and historic resources, the measure would allocate $300 million for programs to clean up beach and ocean pollution. This money is a huge bump up from the $90 million that Proposition 13 provided to begin cleanup along California’s most polluted beaches and the $25 million that Proposition 12 made available to restore Santa Monica Bay. Those measures, which the voters passed in March 2000, made available more than $4.5 billion to create new parks and recreation centers and repair old ones and to fund water-quality and flood protection projects. But that money is now largely spent or committed; AB 1602 would continue this important work.

In recent years, trash and bacterial pollution has caused officials to close some beaches and warn swimmers away from others. Three of the worst spots are Will Rogers State Beach, Mothers Beach in Marina del Rey, and Redondo Beach.

Federal and state environmental laws require that local cities improve ocean water quality. Plans to do that are now before the state Water Resources Control Board for approval. Cleaning up each beach calls for a slightly different solution. At calm, shallow spots like Mothers Beach, enhancing water circulation would prevent bacteria from accumulating. At other sites, diverting polluted rainstorm runoff into new sewer systems should improve water quality. Using landscaping to absorb more water on-site is a good way to reduce storm runoff. It’s also important to keep reminding the public that dumping trash on the street is like dumping it into the ocean.

Doing all this will take money. Keeley’s bill provides it. For now, Southern Californians can continue their good efforts to keep trash and other pollution out of the sea, but their bigger contribution can come in March, when they should vote to pay for the more far-reaching measures.