I took this photo on Sunday morning at Surfers Beach. This is a health hazard, surely some County department is responsible for keeping this mess cleaned up? It’s also clear that more than one trash can is needed in the high volume Summer months.

I went by the City of HMB City Hall the other morning to ask them about the trash situation at Poplar, and included in our conversation was Surfer’s Beach - apparently they are City maintained, and they are cleaned up - but - two things:

1. the budget allows for only so much maintenance per week,
2. the amount of traffic overwhelms the amount of maintenance.

The nice lady at the front desk suggested that we create a community watchgroup/litter pick-up group.  She also pointed out that a good portion of the trash in dumpsters is household items, not beach traffic trash.

Attached are shots from a Saturday morning at Poplar.  Note that even with three dumpsters, they each overflow, plus the trash on top then blows out of the dumpster and all-around the parking lot.  Note that the fast food trash does not make it to the dumpster, instead, being tossed out the car window suffices to the litterbug.

*Note: There is more trash on the beach, scattered around the firepit locations:  clothes, underwear, flip-flops, quart bottles of malt liquor, beer cans, boxes of firewood, pallets (the worst thing to be burned at beach bonfires as the burners do not remove the nails, so those are left behind in the sand), food, and plastic bags.

Down south, it took the combined efforts of Heal the Bay, Santa Monica Bay Restoration Commission, and the City of Santa Monica to make differences at their beaches, but still, it’s a struggle.  (Santa Monica, San Diego, all the large beach towns deal with this struggle - but they deal with it.  I don’t know if we yet deal with it or leave it up to the City to maintain?)  I don’t know all the community groups who *might* be interested in joining forces to come up with a plan for our beach situation, but, a couple that come to mind are, your Montara Beach Coalitiion, Surfrider San Mateo, and isn’t there a local Save Our Shores group?  To the north are some resources to talk to:  Save the Waves and Surfrider San Francisco (who worked with the National Park Service to install firepits at Ocean Beach - says Surfrider, “After the weekend (when the fire pits are mainly used), there is so much litter scattered around. It does concentrate the litter in one area, making clean-up easier.”)

Anyway, this may have been more of a reply than you’d expected, but hopefully it helps.  If you’re interested in finding how we can improve our beach quality around here, I am too.  We can see where we go from here.  Anyone else who is reading this have solutions?  Please comment!  No ideas are lame. 

:)

Oh - and to keep this positive, look at the attached photo to see how beautiful our local coastline is, and why it’s so important that it be kept free from litter so that we can enjoy!  :)

I’d really like to see the county take some responsibility for this mess.

The whole point of coastal access is that the Coastside is a resource for the community beyond the local residents and the county has to take some responsibility for supporting the folks who are using the beach.

What’s interesting here is that most people clearly want to do the right thing and put their trash where it can be disposed of properly. But they’re not being given the opportunity to do so.

The City or the county, Barry?  I ask because, at City Hall I was told that the City of HMB has responsibility for the parking area and walking areas of these beaches, but the jurisdiction for the beach itself “gets a little hazy.”  I was told that if a crime was committed on the sand, then, of course, the City of HMB PD would respond, but other than that, it’s a little “hazy” as to who is responsible, for what.

When checking with some people who were involved in trying to clean up Ocean Beach’s firepit/trash issue, I was told the same:  “Who has jurisdiction is a little complicated so getting anything done can be a bit difficult.”

I’m not trying to kill your interest in getting the county (or City) to do something here, I’m merely presenting some of the speed bumps that would need to be flattened or negotiated.  :)

In the case of the photo at Surfrider’s, yes, folks are trying their best by placing trash in bags, around the filled trash container.  They’re even tying them tight so as to limit the blow-away factor.  In the case of Poplar, the dumpster that used to be solo, has grown to three dumpsters and now the area seems to have resumed its former status as the City dump.  Household objects are getting tossed into any of the three dumpsters, leaving no room for beach-goer’s garbage.

Definitely we have a problem that needs a solution.  The question is, both Who will solve, and then, How?

You both bring up excellent points.

To Barry’s point first, if we ‘the coast side’ are a family destination and recreational resource for everyone then don’t we have a responsibility as hosts to make sure we have the proper resources to deal with our visitors? Like them not having to wade through festering garbage to get to the beach, and then making sure the beach is clean and litter free by educating people via a public awareness campaign to use the ample litter bins provided by the county? If the country stepped up and took the initiative to strictly enforce the joke litter laws we have the revenue generated would probably fund the program ($1000 for every offender, means tens of thousands of dollars are waiting to be collected by citing the litterbugs). Does Monterey have this problem? No, money talks. As soon as word spreads that $1000 fines are a real and are enforced the problem will greatly diminish. I’ve always maintained that 10% of the people leave 90% of the litter, as Barry rightly points out, most people want to do the right thing and use trash cans. Let’s make sure they have those cans and plenty of them maintained properly by a caring public authority.

Annaliese thanks for taking the time to approach the county, even if their response to your question was predictable. Clean litter free public byways are the responsibility of the county, it’s a health issue. Litter blowing down the street, sidewalk, beach or any public place attracts pests and disease carrying rodents. Budgets should be carefully looked at and money re-assigned to deal with this, how about not spraying weeds and making a few more trash can pick ups instead? What must visitors think when they see our public places dirty, litter strewn and uncared for? Yes, there are some locals who really care and organize beach clean ups , etc. But without a county supported campaign that has teeth in the form of heavy fines all we are doing is sticking a finger in the leaky dam. I would be interested to see what money is actually allocated to litter control/pick up by the county, does anyone know where to find these numbers?

As anyone who knows me is aware I am passionate about this subject and you will often see my posts (rantings)! on Coastsider. Barry is a supporter as well I know, he has joined me and others many times in local clean up efforts. As you point out Annaliese, we must try to work together to find a solution to this litter plague, maybe its time for some sort of public lobby or petition to pressure the powers that be to take some civil pride and do something about our increasingly embarrassingly litter strewn coast. Next time you drive the Devil’s Slide to our neighbors in Pacifica take a real good close look at the sides of the road, you will see more litter than you probably have noticed before, and it ultimately ends up in the ocean and on our beaches. The coast side is a rare and special place, I want to keep it that way.

I believe the county is the correct authority.  I don’t think the city should have all the responsibility for maintaining beaches that are used by people from all over the Bay Area.  I’m happy to assign responsibility to the city where it makes sense, but I don’t think this one should be on their shoulders.

Meanwhile, I’m happy to participate in beach cleanups, but for local government to put responsibility for cleanup on local volunteers is morally bankrupt as well as kind of stupid.

That container at Surfer’s Beach is within HMB city limits on what is known as the “cherry stem”—a long, thin strip of city land and sand (and water?) that runs along the ocean from Arroyo de en Medio to the northern limits of the parcel on which Sam’s is located. The Beach House and the RV park are also in the city limits; the boundary more or less is the centerline of Highway 1 from Coronado to just north of Sam’s, where there is a city limit sign.

But many of the beachgoers filling the trash container to overflowing are parking on the county side of 1. For decades, any problem in this stretch has been ping-ponged around between the city, county, Caltrans, the CHP, etc., until it dies down.

Ask Leonard Woren about the overflowing receptacle at Surfer’s Beach. I seem to recall the GSD, which has both city and county in its boundaries on this part of the coast, had something to do with any receptacle at all being put there and emptied periodically. It used to be even worse before that!

So, one governmental agency out of many has shown has shown a bit of responsible initiative. Any question why some in that area believe the GSD should morph into a community services district (CSD) with parks and rec authority and a clearly stated sphere of influence of its own?

Carl is correct—the only reason there’s a can there at all is that I, as one director of GSD, requested that GSD ask our contractor Seacoast Disposal to place a can there and collect from it.  I forwarded the link to this topic to staff and requested that they contact Seacoast about it.  I have been holding off posting on this topic pending getting a response from Seacoast.  All I have at this time is a response from staff that (1) there used to be more than one can there, and (2) they have passed this on to Seacoast.  I’ll post more when I have more information.

Seacoast has been pretty good about it, but it would be nice if people stop stealing the cans.  Even chained down they still get stolen.  It’s very discouraging…

I think Carl is wrong about one thing though:  the City/County boundary is not the centerline of SR 1, it’s the center of CalTrans’ 150’ right of way.  The highway is built on the southern edge (west edge if you think the highway runs north/south) of that 150’, so the city/county boundary I’m fairly certain is inland of the existing highway, putting the highway completely in the city limits up to Sam’s.

Leonard,

Thank you for taking action on this, we all look forward to your next post with the latest up date. Seems to me that there is an awful lot of politics behind one simple trash can!

If you where the impedious behind the original installation, I thank you, but it seems to me that we obviously need to keep more than one can there and have it emptied on a regular basis. As my Father used to say, if you are going to do a job properly, do it well.

Back to one of the original points though, if we are to welcome and encourage visitors to the coast, then we need to get a handle on this problem once and for all. No one wants to spend their leisure time wading through garbage at one of the most popular family beaches in the area. I’m sure local businesses like Sams would chip in for maintenance as they directly benefit from coastal traffic.

I just wish someone official would step up and claim ownership of the problem and not leave it to the general public to sort out.

i agree that there needs to be more than one can there, and when that became apparent we got an additional can or cans placed.there.  The question/problem is what happened to them?  If anyone sees someone stealing or vandalizing the cans at Surfer’s Beach and you can get a license plate number of the perpetrator, please report it to Granada Sanitary District at 650-726-7093 or email.  See Granada Sanitary District web site for email addresses.  Note that those email addresses are about to be changed.

If someone wants to contribute a video capture card for a PC I will work on getting a Surfer’s Beach / Highway 1 web cam set up in the GSD office.  (I was given an old HI-8 camera for this which should provide an excellent image.)  I’m not sure if we have a view of the cans from there, but we might.  It could be interesting…

“I think Carl is wrong about one thing though:  the City/County boundary is not the centerline of SR 1, it’s the center of CalTrans’ 150’ right of way.  The highway is built on the southern edge (west edge if you think the highway runs north/south) of that 150’, so the city/county boundary I’m fairly certain is inland of the existing highway, putting the highway completely in the city limits up to Sam’s.”

I’ll certainly concede any EG knowledge to you, Leonard. I was going by some unofficial maps, by long-time buck-passing between jurisdictions, by what we ran into when I was involved with trying to get a route for the coastal trail officially established, and by what has been stated during dust-ups involving the area, such as the debate over the Coronado intersection. Do you know of any surveys or maps that would be definitive?

I can’t help but make an observation (and exercise my sarcastic English sense of humor):

It’s funny isn’t it how when there is a responsibility that involves spending money no one will ‘fess up to owning land, but when there is a situation where money can be made, suddenly multiple land owners step forward to lay claim! Maybe someone should try to build a shopping mall next to the trash cans, I’m sure the real owners will quickly make themselves known. :-)

...or how about 129 homes?  hahahaha.  I like your observation - it’s spot-on.

So where we at with this?  Should I be the annoying bug and call the County to see what can be done?  In regards to Surfer’s Beach, there needs to be a dumpster on the eastside of Highway 1 where everyone parks.  On the beachside, there needs to be a dumpster in the RV parking lot, as the two trash cans (one in the RV parking lot and one on the walkway next to the highway) are inadequate to meet the needs for handling trash.  When Surfrider San Mateo held a beach clean-up there last month, there was nowhere to place the bags of trash as the two trash cans were already full.  In regards to Poplar, I don’t know what to suggest as there are three dumpsters - always full. 

Twice-a-week garbage pick-up?

Drove past surfers on July 5th, now even bigger heap of garbage.

GSD staff is working on the Surfer’s Beach issue.  The Seacoast manager responded that it was emptied Thursday, Friday, Saturday, and today.  We have also requested that the missing second can be replaced.

Nobody ever said this is GSD’s responsibility.  GSD stepped up to the plate because of the unmet need.  It’s still not clear to me whose responsibility this really is, so let’s note that GSD is the only agency not simply ducking the problem.  Personally, I think that since Surfer’s Beach is within the City of Half Moon Bay that HMB should supply the trash cans.  Because it’s within GSD, GSD’s exclusive contractor Seacoast must service them.

The RV lot belongs to the County Harbor District.  http://smharbor.com .  The Harbor District has a very long term lease with KN Properties to manage the RV lot.  I don’t have it handy but I believe that the contract requires KN Properties to maintain various facilities there including trash cans.  Contact the Harbor District regarding any problems at the RV lot.  (While you’re at it, complain that KN Properties has not opened the public rest room as the contract requires.)  The Harbor District also owns some of the Burnham Strip land where the ad-hoc parking area is, so they should be taking care of that area, which they aren’t.  The rest of the area of the ad-hoc parking is on the CalTrans SR 1 RoW and I have no idea what their policies are on things like this.

For future beach cleanups, it would probably be a good idea to arrange in advance for Seacoast to bring a dumpster over for that morning.  GSD might be able to assist in such arrangements—check with staff.  http://granada.ca.gov .  It seems silly to me to arrange a beach cleanup without considering how it’s all going to be disposed of.

I phoned the City of HMB, and a nice lady told me that GSD is responsible, not HMB.  I told her that is not true, but she politely insisted that I call Delia at GSD to confirm.

I phoned Delia, Delia confirmed that Surfer’s Beach is indeed GSD’s responsibility.  She is very aware of the problem.  In addition to all that is mentioned above, GSD also wants people to know that:

1. Dumpsters can not be placed along the westside of Highway 1 as there is no place to place them AND there is no way that a garbage truck could pull up, lock-in, and empty them - all-the-while highway traffic’s whizzing by.  As it is now, those cans (well, one is missing and is soon to be replaced) are a safety issue for the guys from Seacrest Dispoal to have to jump out of their trucks on the busy highway, empty the trash can and jump back in.  SLOW FOR THE GARBAGE MEN PEOPLE.  :)

2. Delia has asked Seacrest to please always replace trash cans if they find either of the two missing.

3. The trash cans on the east side of Highway 1 are on Harbor District land and GSD has also coordinated their placement.  The problem with upgrading from trash cans to dumpsters over there would lead to the same problem we have going on at Poplar Beach:  Residents are using the dumpsters for household trash, filling the dumpsters with large items, thereby leaving the beach-goers with nowhere to place their trash.

On the last comment, yeah, it is silly to not have considered coordinating with the local garbage agencies how and where to place our Surfrider garbage bags after a clean-up.  Noted.  What we have done is to tie our garbage bags and set them neatly alongside the exisitng trashcans.  I talked to Delia about that and she and I will coordinate Surfrider beach clean-up days, and she is going to get back to me on how/where Seacrest Disposal wants Surfrider to place the bags of garbage (if we’d need to order an additional can/temporary dumpster, or if doing as we’ve been doing is okay).

I’ll deal with the Harbor District and their RV lot trash and restroom tomorrow.  Too worn out after this.  hahaha.

I’ve been corrected : “Seacoast Disposal,” not Seacrest.  =|
  ahhhh well…

http://seacoast-disposal.com/

HMB staff stating that it’s GSD’s responsibility may not mean anything beyond “HMB completely ignored it so GSD took responsibility.”  GSD staff (Delia) stating that it’s GSD’s responsibility may not mean anything beyond “HMB was ignoring it and the GSD Board requested that GSD take responsibility so we did.”  Legally, I don’t know who has responsibility.  Ultimately, as one GSD director, I don’t care very much about who legally has responsibility since all other agencies are committed to finger pointing and GSD is committed to solving the problem, and we have the legal authority to do so.

I knew about the dumpster-on-the-west-side-of-the-highway problem but I didn’t think about it when I wrote my earlier reply.

I suggested that we get those trash cans with the small openings to try to keep people from putting household trash there.  I don’t remember why that wasn’t done, maybe not practical due to the difficulties of pickup at that location.

And by the way, when the Coronado/Mirada intersection was being reconfigured, at some public meeting I requested that the County not close it off completely but provide a turnout for the garbage trucks to pull in to get out of the highway traffic flow..  The County, as would be expected, completely ignored that request.  Therefore, the difficulty in pickup there is now the County’s fault.

One possibility for you to consider for beach cleanup days might be to get a dumpster over on the ad-hoc parking lot just for that morning.  I don’t know whether that would be too impractical for the cleanup volunteers though.

Delia told me that Surfer’s Beach is within the GSD zone of responsibility, from mid-airport to Surfer’s Beach, so she said that GSD does claim it’s theirs to handle.  I questioned it, but she remained emphatic.

Personally, I like the idea of dumpsters with lids that can’t be raised all the way to deny household trash dumpers, or, as you said above, cans with small holes, but Delia said that there was discussion over placing receptacles with defined openings, and the assumption is that folks might be less-inclined to dump their trash if they had to funnel it into an opening.

Although I like the idea of a larger receptacle, I must admit though that dumpsters aren’t the answer over providing trash cans:  This morning at Poplar Beach parking lot, a parking lot that offers not one, not two, but three (3) dumpsters, the dumpsters stand empty and waiting, but someone unloaded to the side of a dumpster:  an office chair and one of those mobile/black plastic-base driveway basketball hoops.  Bizarre.  Makes no sense.  Folks are gonna do whatever and it just isn’t going to stop.  I gotta accept this for my sanity.

But I just can’t help make one last effort, and wonder:  Perhaps they did not know of the following (better) option (and hopefully they read this and learn: http://www.alliedwastesmc.com/disposal-sites-residential.php)

Ox Mountain Sanitary Landfill in Half Moon Bay
(Located off Highway 92, 3 miles east of Half Moon Bay on San Mateo Road)

Open Daily 8:00 AM - 4:30 PM except Sundays.
Closed on New Year’s Day, President’s Day, Easter Sunday, Memorial Day, Fourth of July, Labor Day, Thanksgiving, and Christmas; Closed at noon
on Christmas Eve and New Year’s Eve.

Ox Mountain accepts virtually all solid waste except hazardous waste.

Ox also accepts:
Used motor oil (5 gallon limit)
Used motor oil filters
Used antifreeze

PLEASE CONTACT THE COUNTY OF SAN MATEO, DEPARTMENT OF ENVIRONMENTAL HEALTH SERVICES AT (650) 363-4718 FOR PROPER DISPOSAL OF HAZARDOUS WASTE.

Acceptable forms of payment include: Cash, Business Checks, Credit Cards, and Debit Cards with a Visa/Mastercard Logo. No personal checks.