Post-storm cleanup collects 880 pounds of trash at Huntington State Beach

Orange County Coastkeeper, a Costa Mesa-based environmental group, hosted 97 volunteers who removed 880 pounds of trash from Huntington State Beach on Saturday, much of it deposited by runoff from last week’s El Niño-fueled storms.

Dyana Pena, Coastkeeper’s education director, said it took the group less than two hours on less than two miles of sand to collect the most trash it has at its monthly Huntington State Beach cleanup other than the 1,000 pounds removed in December 2014, also following heavy rains.

“We were able to stop all of that trash from making its way into the water,” Pena said in an email. “If it had gone out … chances for us to remove it would diminish.”

Coastkeeper conducts cleanups at Huntington State Beach from 9 to 11 a.m. the second Saturday of every month, beginning at lifeguard tower 2.