Surfrider Foundation, MAKING WAVES, August 2003

MAKING WAVES, August 2003 issue: Table of Contents

Gulf Coast

Surfrider Foundation’s Texas Chapter is reporting progress in their ongoing Texas Open Beaches Act campaign. Earlier this year, two initiatives HB1457 & SB554 were presented to the state legislature. These bills sought to establish an 8-year moratorium on removing structures which were in violation the state’s Open Beaches Act.

Prior to the vote, Surfrider Foundation Texas Chapter activists, Ellis Pickett and Jamie Mitchell were called upon to provide give committee testimony before state legislators and their staff. Due in part to their testimony, as well as effective grassroots campaigning by other Texas Chapter activists, the original idea of an 8-year moratorium was cut to 2 years. Additionally, legislators worked to have some of the more ambiguous language of the bill amended.

“Many of these structures have been in violation of the Open Beaches Act since 1998. They were purchased after 1986 which means the owners signed documents at closing acknowledging erosion and the possibility that they would some day be required to remove their houses without compensation and at their own cost,” says Picket. “As someone who loves the beach, I can’t stand by and watch a handful of people confiscate public beach. The Open Beaches Act is a good law that protects the public.”

Overall this could have been much worse for the beach going public, but the compromise law should cause the Texas General Land Office to finally get off the fence and begin to protect the public. Ellis Picket said it best; “After all our hard work and the changes we precipitated, we can chalk this one up in the win column”.

Many homes, such as this one,
are situated on public beach land.

East Coast

In a recent interview about the Surfrider Foundation, Ocean City Chapter Chairman Shelly Dawson was asked what single element, as a volunteer and a chapter chairman, he found most rewarding. He stated “there isn’t only one because most efforts are tied to multiple initiatives”, but doing outreach to student’s was the most rewarding for him. In completing the chapter’s spring Respect the Beach Program schedule at their local high school, the instructor presented Shelly with a project her daughter started in her 6th grade class. It seems that after student Lindsey Chetelat gave a report on Surfrider Foundation in her Berlin Intermediate School, her classmates decided to design “bumper stickers” for our environmental goals. As stated by our 52 year-old Ocean City Chairman, “positive reinforcement for the weary 6th grader’s Surfrider Foundation project getting kudos in a high school class just steps it up a notch”.

Jared Hendrix from our Grand Strand Chapter reports that the chapter was busy this summer working to install new trash bag and pet waste dispensers along beaches in North Myrtle Beach, Couth Carolina. Hendrix, along with fellow activists Andrew Wilson, Greg Martin, Bill McCormick, and Meg King, worked to raise money to build and place 20 of these dispensers at beach access points throughout North Myrtle Beach. If the program is successful, the chapter plans to extend the effort at more beaches. The chapter wishes to thank the Palmetto Pride Organization for their generous help in funding the project.

Grand Strand Chapter activists hard at work

Great Lakes

On a partially sunny Saturday morning with warm winds blowing, a dozen volunteers gathered at Riley Beach in Michigan for the first in a series of 5 summer beach clean-ups organized by the Lake Michigan Chapter Organizing Committee of Surfrider Foundation. According to Chapter Chairman Rick Boss, the group decided to clean Riley Beach because surfers come to ride the waves there about a dozen times a year and they hope to increase support for the chapter. In a two-hour period, chapter activists found 153 cigarettes and filters, 70 bags and food wrappings, 60 pieces of glass and 28 chunks of Styrofoam. Rick felt it was a successful first effort and said “volunteers can make a big difference”, and hoped that people who enjoy the beach “will make the next clean-up easier”.

West Coast

The Long Beach Chapter of Surfrider Foundation continues to work toward the reconfiguration of the Long Beach Breakwater, restoration of the Los Cerritos Wetlands and prevention of the eastward expansion of the Port of Long Beach over the beaches of Long Beach. The chapter meets the first Thursday of each month from 7PM-9PM at Borders Bookstore in Long Beach. If you have ever thought about getting actively involved in the Surfrider Foundation, now is the time!

As this postcard illustrates, Long
Beach used to be known for its waves.

Since the 1990’s, Surfrider Foundation Oregon Chapter activists have been testing the water off the Oregon coastlines, looking for, among other things, e-coli bacteria. While most of the samples taken from 38 testing sites between Manzanita and Gold Beach were within acceptable ranges for bacteria, chapter activists have recently found alarming spikes in bacteria levels, which have raised more questions than answers.

According to Surfrider Foundation’s Oregon Field Coordinator, Dave Revell, “we’re finding that the water is not as clean and pristine as everybody thinks it is.” Currently, Oregon is one of the last states to develop a statewide ocean water quality monitoring program, as mandated under the 2000 Federal B.E.A.C.H. Act.

Data collected through the Oregon Chapter’s work with Surfrider Foundation’s Blue Water Task Force program indicates that the water at more than two-thirds of Oregon’s beaches is polluted. At various times, tests have revealed bacterial levels high enough to close beaches in California, which has strict monitoring standards. Oregon however, has no system to force a beach closure due to unsafe bacteria levels in order to protect the beach going public. Chapter advocates want the state to expand its proposed list of testing sites to more popular beaches and to those where pollution is likely to be greater. It also would like to see expanded testing to include heavy metals, dioxins, PCB’s, benzene, pesticides and others.

We don’t know what has gotten into the South Bay Chaptercoffee, Red Bull or maybe they’re still riding the buzz from last year’s big beach access victorybut they’ve suddenly become THE hot, hip chapter on the West Coast. According to Chapter Chair Andrew Passage, the chapter has re-energized its beach clean-up schedule under the direction of Andy Dellenbach, and is now regularly cleaning the beaches from Manhattan Beach, all the way down to San Pedro.

The chapter also recently launched their new newsletter Off the Lip thanks to the efforts of activist Johnna Ehmke. Expect big things from this chapter in the future.

South Bay activist and "Off the Lip"
founder, Johnna Ehmke.

How’s this for a cool event? Surfrider Foundation’s Seattle Chapter is teaming up with the Experience Music Project (EMP) to help Washington ocean sport enthusiasts keep the stoke over the coming winter. Beginning in September, the EMP will be hosting monthly events celebrating surfing and surf culture. Activities include screenings of both classic and current surf movies, slide shows and surf inspired music. Following each event, attendees are invited to reconvene at the Liquid Lounge for drinks and surf stories. Representatives from the Seattle Chapter will be on hand to answer questions and inform people on how to get involved in the preservation of Washington’s oceans, waves and beaches. For more information and a schedule of events, visit the chapter’s website at http://www.surfrider.org/seattle.

Activist Quote of the Month

“You come out here and you realize that this is a good way to get out and enjoy the water. It’s kind of fun actually …especially in this day and age, when it’s so easy to just stay inside and watch TV or play video games”.

Ben Braymer, a local fourth-grade elementary school teacher who came out to assist with the Lake Michigan Chapter Organizing Committee’s beach clean-up

Send your chapter news, with accompanying high resolution digital images to makingwaves@surfrider.org

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