CALIFORNIA
Huntington/Long Beach
 

Most of this summer Huntington Beach was forced to close its beaches, at times up to over a four mile stretch, during prime summer months due to unheatlhful bacteria levels. After $1,200,000 worth of studies, city officials working with the Surfrider Foundation's Huntington/Long Beach Chapter and Orange County Sanitation District are still unable to determine the source of pollution, although urban runoff is the prime suspect. Chapter members Don Schulz and Don Slaven have been leading water quality testing to help the city identify the source of this unknown pollution problem.
    Huntington/Long Beach Chapter members are using the disaster to increase public awareness on urban runoff, express the need for improved coastal infrastructure and the development of long term solutions to urban run off problems. The Surfrider Foundation has had the same message since 1984. The ocean is not a dump.
    Unfortunately, some of the powers that be, public agencies and the general

public, don't agree with that motto. For instance, The Orange County Sanitation District received approval for a waiver to the Clean Water Act that allows them to dump up to 80% of their treatment water into our coastal waters with only primary treatment. It's up to us to get involved in our communities too and hold corporations, public officials and public agencies accountable for their actions. Surfrider Foundation's Huntington/Long Beach Chapter hopes that you will join them in their fight for clean water.
 
Isla Vista
The Isla Vista Chapter of Surfrider Foundation wrote and sponsored an initiative to protect and restore the three miles of shoreline associated with the University of California, Santa Barbara. Students at UCSB recently approved this measure and the IV Chapter was able to raise $180,000 a year to kick off the program. The chapter is now fine-tuning the by-laws for the "Shoreline Protection Fund" which will manage the program.
    Chapter activists are also continuing their Marine Debris Monitoring Program. Each month, chapter members and members of the community clean up a 300 yard stretch of Sands Beach and record what they find. This data is then sent to the Center for Marine Debris to be processed and analyzed.
 
Laguna Beach
The Laguna Beach Chapter of Surfrider

Foundation continues to roll along with their Blue Water Task Force water testing.
     Laguna Beach Chapter activists were successful in working with city officials to hold a public meeting on water quality issues affecting Laguna Beach. Coastal water quality has long been a concern for the members of the Chapter, beginning with the pollution at Aliso Creek. This year, chapter members took a public position against the development of the Treasure Island property. The measure did pass, but only by a small margin.
     The chapter will continue monitoring and working with the public and city to improve, protect and preserve the coastlines of Laguna Beach.
 
San Clemente
The San Clemente Chapter of Surfrider Foundation has been active in a host of issues since its inception five years ago. Chapter activists have worked to protect the Trestles area with their fight to stop the housing development at San Mateo Point as well as direct their activism to have the North County Transit District held accountable and repair damages they did at Upper Trestles.
     Surfrider Foundation's San Clemente Chapter has been active in water quality monitoring and education to the point that they now have the San Clemente City Council members asking water quality related questions about proposed projects before they even get up to the podium. The chapter is directly involved in creating the vision for their area beaches by working on the Beach Ad Hoc Commission and the Rail Corridor Safety Education
(San Clemente Chapter article continued on page 5)
 
 
 

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