Act Now - Agate Beach Street Vacation at Circle Way

The folks who own the Agate Beach Inn want a road vacation, likely to expand the amount of development they can do in that key neighborhood. But, to us, because of the enormous recreational value of the Agate Beach area, and the trajectory of usage by surfers and others, and, because that right of way could be improved over time to be an important beach access improvement, vacating that street, when, in time, it can be part of an improved facility so people can enjoy this special beach, is a terrible idea. If you're concerned about this street vacation and how this area could be better used in the public's interest, there are several ways you can make your voice heard:
Click Here to Sign The Petition!
Send a succint email to: d.tokos@thecityofnewport.net with the title "I oppose the street vacation of Circle Way". Briefly explain your interest in the area as a recreational user and feel free to use some of the talking points from above. The public hearing for the planning commission is on Monday, April 12th at 7:00pm, and showing up and giving testimony is another great way to get on the public record. Let's save what treasured non-developed areas of the coast we can. Final decision will be made by the Newport City Council and the hearing is scheduled for April 19th.

More than One Way to Mark A Stormdrain

Congrats, Olivia Ponce, Mechell Bailey and Tonie Vinson on completed this year's fabulous Surfrider Foundation and Oregon Coast Aquarium youth volunteer team project! Each year the youth volunteer water quality team works on a community project linking our Blue Water Task Force Program and messaging to the broader community. 
Step 1: Aquarium Youth Volunteer Winter Team identifies a similar project we did in Port Orford and decided they wanted to do it in Newport.
Step 2: Youth team works with mentor from Newport Chapter and Aquarium volunteer coordinator to: develop a plan, research city codes/regulations, photo document possible sites, work with local artist to create a rendering for each site, develop proposal for City of Newport.
Step 3: Youth team presents with Newport Chapter mentor to Newport City Council and recieves overwhelming support with a unanimous motion to partner on the project.
Step 4: Local artist Michael Cole paints beautiful artwork, kids complete signage and develop a press release to encourage other projects!

Now go out and develop some educational art for your community!

Newport Seafood and Wine Big Success

Major props from the entire Barefoot Wine crew and chapter volunteers that made this year's fundraising success and all time high for the chapter (over $6,000 raised over the weekend!). Special thanks goes to Rachel Bertholf of Barefoot and Joe Haxel of the Newport Chapter for all of their organizing efforts before, during and after the event! This year, proceeds will help benefit not only the Newport Chapter's continuing efforts with their Blue Water Task Force Program, but additionally support the Siuslaw Chapter's program and the annual Port Orford water festival. By expanding volunteer participation to other chapters, the Newport Chapter and Barefoot have made this event not only a fundraiser for other chapters, but a great chance to have fun and meet with various chapter members from around the state.

Newport Gets Barefoot Friendly, Seafood and Wine Around the Corner

The 2010 Seafood and Wine Festival is just around the corner...come out and support the Surfrider Foundation and their great partnership with Barefoot Wine making our beaches barefoot friendly. Volunteer!  Contact haxsoul@charter.net.

Youth Volunteer Stormwater Awareness Project Approved by Newport City Council

Last night, with a unanimous motion from Newport City Council, the Oregon Coast Aquarium youth volunteer's and Newport Chapter of Surfrider's winter storm water awareness project was approved. Tonie Vinson, Mechell Bailey and Olivia Ponce joined forces this year marking our third annual Newport Chapter of Surfrider Foundation/Aquarium Youth Volunteer winter water quality project. This year's project: storm drain art. The girls did a fantastic job of putting together a proposal for city council and locating the best available sites, artist renderings and developing a powerpoint to present to Newport mayor and councilors. Pictured at right are youth volunteers Tonie Vinson and Mechell Bailey, who presented the project at the Newport City Council meeting last night. Great job ladies!

Warning; Shoreline Armoring = Loss of Beach = Recreational Hazards

Engineering and Ocean Friendly Garden

The Newport Chapter of Surfrider Foundation, Lincoln Soil and Water Conservation District, the City of Newport and Mid-Coast watershed council embarked this winter on an Ocean Friendly Garden project for Newport City Hall. The project is well under way with planning and long overdue for Newport City Hall beautification and for needed stormwater infrastructure (which the garden will help replace!)


DIY at home

The concepts of ocean friendly gardening are simple. Pollutants "run off" our streets, neighborhoods and landscapes, wastefully and needlessly fouling our coastal waterways and ocean. But you can take simple steps in your own garden to create beautiful landscapes that capture the eye of your neighbors while capturing the polluted runoff that flows to our local beaches. Our ocean friendly garden publication can give you more tips on starting this out at home or also check out Oregon Sea Grant extension's H20NCoast blog for some of their great work and training opportunities on this.

Planning for more complicated projects

Embarking on creating an ocean friendly garden can range from simple projects like rain gardens and barrels for your downspouts, to engineering for larger volumes of runoff from buildings like, Newport City Hall for example. Check out the design at right and tip your hat to Surfrider Volunteer, Allan Schmidt for laying this out. Allan's day job is doing this kind of work in Portland, where this type of run-off treatment is mandatory by code. Building an ocean friendly garden to capture a large roof's runoff on the Oregon coast takes some thought and engineering as you can see from this design (this is probably a bit larger scale than something you might want to implement at home).

Highway Cleanup This Saturday!

Join the Newport Chapter of Surfrider Foundation and the Oregon Hangliders from 10am - noon this Saturday, December 12th for another Hwy Cleanup along 101 on the north side of Newport. We'll be meeting up at the Moolack Beach parking area and setting off from there. Spend a little time helping make this beautiful stretch of 101 (and incidentally our beaches) cleaner and become a better surfer...major surfing karma points for volunteers!

Sewage at Nye Beach, Where do I come in?

The What

Over the course of the past 3 years, the Newport Chapter of Surfrider Foundation has been working with the City of Newport to improve the Nye beach stormwater and sewer issues that have resulted in high bacteria counts at Nye Beach. While the sewage issues still occur (although less frequent...insert happy face), on occassions of intense rain, these issues may be linked to several problems as close as your backyard. And to that extent, the City of Newport issued some sixty letters to homeowners in the City of Newport to make some improvements for improper connections. Now let's break these issues down a little:

The Why

Bottom line, too much rain in the sewer. You see, these sewer overflows occur because the Nye Beach pump station can only take so much sewage at one time. While the pump station is well equipped to handle our sewer demands and multiple upgrades have occurred over the past few years, it can't handle excessive volumes of rainwater that enter the system. Now wait a second you may say, I thought we had separate systems for rain runoff (stormwater) and sewer lines! And yes, you are correct. The problem is there are places where rainwater can get into the sewer lines...some of them may be at your house. That's right, some of the homes here in Newport have their downspouts from their homes connected to the sewer lines sending high volumes of rain to the system. Of course there are other places like manhole covers for sewer lines and old joints where saturated ground water can make it's way into the sewer system.

The You

The Newport Chapter of Surfrider Foundation is working with the City of Newport on strategies for improving infrastructure and sourcing other non-point sources (which will cover in a future post...as this also involves you). To date the City has been doing extensive source water quality testing up the urban watershed and smoke testing for proper sewer line connections. These tests have found sewer lines connected to storm drain lines sending untreated sewage directly to the beach through the stormwater outfall. They've found homes where small animals being raised are polluting Nye creek with there feces. They've found excessive dump spots for animal and human feces (literally bucket fulls!). And, they've found many homes with improper downspout connections to sewer lines sending rainwater into the sewer system. So, here's where you fit in, from simple to complex:





A) Engage with the Newport Chapter - come to a meeting, help with water quality monitoring...lots of opportunity, figure out what's right for you

B) Check your downspouts - make sure they are properly connected to the stormdrain (not the sewer line!) or if feasible, look into a rain barrel or downspout disconnection and rain garden - click here to learn a little more

C) Clean up! - Be sure and properly dispose of your pet waste...every little bit counts and can add up quickly in an urban watershed.

Not Again Newport...we have come so far!

After nearly 2 years of sourcing out sewer misconnections, improving stormwater codes/best management practices, improving notification/postings and cutting down the beach advisories, we're back to a challenging point with sewer overflows at Nye Beach. It seems large volumes of stormwater have been infiltrating the sewer lines (those same lines we thought were inspected and had some pipe-bursting/relining done), resulting in some serious sewage overflows at Nye Beach. The local Blue Water Task Force has been getting readings off the chart, some of the highest we've seen at Nye Beach in our 10 years of testing. What can you do? Demand clean water, join us at the next council meeting (November 23). Note the picture at right and the nebulous "contaminated with...". We can do better!