By Kevin Clerici
Ventura County Star
September 30, 2005
Some
frustrated residents in Ventura's beach area are pressing city
and state officials to remove what they consider a large and
dangerous amount of debris littering the coastline.
They say the beach should be groomed with machinery to
replicate the sanitized sand fields found along much of Los
Angeles County's shore.
But that apparently is not going to happen.
"Like it or not, we are not going to groom the beach
outside the lanes," Rich Rojas, a state park district
superintendent, told a gathering of about 25 residents this
week at Pierpont School.
Grooming is too costly and runs contrary to the state beach
philosophy of protecting the shore's biological diversity and
natural setting.
Rojas, however, sympathized with the homeowners' concerns and
vowed to work with them to possibly define portions of the
beach outside their homes that could be better cleaned.
At one point, Rojas said he likely could get prison crews to
do cleanup work.
The residents, however, say that's not enough.
The sticks, wood chips, unnatural cane and other small bits
and pieces are unsightly and a hazard, they said. One woman
said her son recently punctured his foot while playing on the
sand.
Some residents have started appearing at Ventura City Council
meetings to lash out at the city's cleanup effort, arguing the
debris is driving away tourists and spoiling their
neighborhood of expensive homes.
"It's a disgrace," said Gary Milne, a 30-year
resident of Pittsfield Lane. "The beach is Ventura's
prime attraction, and the city and state are not doing a thing
about it."
City officials say they don't have the money, manpower or
appropriate tools to do what residents desire.
Complicating the matter is that the city and state share
jurisdiction of the beach in the Pierpont area --with the city
responsible for the sand closest to the homes and the state in
control of the shoreline.
Then there is the differing definitions of what is
"clean." Residents such as Sam Povar define clean as
free of all debris, while the state and city say
"rack," or small debris, is OK.
The Federal Emergency Management Agency reimbursed the state
and city for a $122,000 cleanup effort this summer to remove
logs and large debris that floated ashore after January's
heavy storms. FEMA money became available when the state
declared Ventura County a disaster area.
Complaints increased in Ventura after Mayor Brian Brennan
wanted to leave much of the debris to stabilize Ventura's
shrinking, sand-depleted shoreline, while the cities of Oxnard
and Santa Barbara declared their beaches unsafe and awarded
emergency contracts to have them cleared.
The city
of Oxnard has spent --and been reimbursed for --nearly five
times the $122,000 Ventura was able to obtain from FEMA,
records show.
Ventura Parks Manager Mike Montoya, however, said Oxnard's
beaches are no cleaner than Ventura's.
The sticks and rubble are an unpreventable consequence of
having a beach framed by two rivers that carry debris to the
ocean -- the Ventura River and the Santa Clara, he said. It
would be a waste of money to clear the beaches now, only to
have more debris arrive once the rainy season approaches.
"We try to do as much as we can with the limited
resources we have," Montoya said.
Maintenance budget reduced
Rojas
said state budget cuts have shrunk his maintenance budget to a
combined $56,000 annually for McGrath, San Buenaventura and
Emma Wood state beaches, which collectively total more than
three miles of shoreline.
With little money, the state focuses cleanup efforts on
"high-public" areas, such as the volleyball courts
near the Ventura Pier and pockets of sand directly beyond the
Ventura beach parking lot, where junior lifeguards train.
Citizen involvement
Fields of sand outside the Pierpont houses are left
virtually alone, he acknowledged.
"It's tough to find a balance," Rojas said.
The solution, Rojas and city officials said, is fostering a
working group with citizen involvement to develop a beach
maintenance plan all parties can agree on. To groom the sand
with tractors, however, appears off the bargaining table.
That would likely require a permit from the state Coastal
Commission, which regulates the coastal zone and has a history
of being inflexible when it comes to grading sand, Ventura
Public Works Director Ron Calkins said.
"The Coastal Commission has a whole different view of
life than we do," he told the crowd.
"We are going to have to figure this out
ourselves."
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