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About Cannon Beach gazette. (Cannon Beach, Or.) 1977-current | View Entire Issue (Oct. 23, 2015)
6A • October 23, 2015 | Cannon Beach Gazette | cannonbeachgazette.com Cleaning up the local beaches requires year-round vigilance Volunteers come together to keep beach clean By Dani Palmer Cannon Beach Gazette Summer’s oYer, Eut gar- Eage on the Eeach is a year- round concern The 3arks and Community SerYices Committee wants people to rememEer the Eeach is not just a playground for residents and Yisi- tors, Eut a natural haEitat Along with the city of Cannon Beach, ChamEer of Commerce and Ore- gon Department of Parks and Recreation, the city is working on a campaign encouraging residents and Yisitors alike to keep the Eeach clean A complaint was ¿rst Erought to the committee this summer “People were tending to stake out spots on the Eeach for their Ya- cation,” Committee Chair- woman BarE .nop said, and some hotels were leaY- ing chairs out oYernight “We decided to tackle the proElem through educa- tion” RepresentatiYes from the Parks Committee at- tended chamEer Eoard meetings where memEers agreed to help The cham- Eer sent out weekly news- letters to hotels and rental homes to remind guests to Ering their items Eack with them, rather than leaYe them oYernight But it continued to hap- pen, so the Parks Com- mittee Erought in Tracy Sund, with the city’s PuE- lic Works Department, and Matt Rippee, from Oregon Parks and Recreation, to discuss education and en- forcement tactics Sund performs Eeach cleanup on Mondays and )ridays oYer the summer, retrieYing Eig and small items, like towels CiYil- ians like Pam Chorlton Chater and .aren 9oyt help out, too Chater and 9oyt picked up “at least a shopping Eag ¿lled with trash each and eYery day,” Chater said She also Eought magnets to drag through the sand and retrieYe as many nails and other sharp items as she could During the March cleanup, 200 feet of ¿shing rope were found in Cannon Beach After the LaEor Day weekend storm, Sund found 0 Eroken chair pieces spread out across the Eeach from Gower Street to Chapman Point .nop said the cham- Eer worked with the ho- tels leaYing out chairs this summer to come up with a plan They haYe cooperat- ed and made some chang- es, she added Sund cleans up 100 cu- Eic yards of marine deEris COURTESY OF TRACY SOUND Hotel chairs were strewn across the beach after a Labor Day weekend storm. a year, and it is not unusu- al to retrieYe four Eushels of trash a week during the tourist season August is the messiest month, he added, as people try to squeeze out the last of summer Sund said he has seen tourists leaYe items on the Eeach intentionally and unintentionally +e can usually tell the difference, pointing out items left next to a chair Those, he said, were likely left Eehind Ee- lieYing a hotel caEana Eoy would retrieYe them Sund donates much of what he ¿nds to Goodwill or recycles it One of the committee memEers is working on a Erochure with a message for Yisitors LeaYe the Eeach as you ¿nd it ,t’s a topic the committee will hit hard again in )eEruary, Eefore the tourist season Eegins The state has the power to enforce penalties when there are Beach Bill Yiolations, Eut .nop said they’re focusing on educa- tion “The Eeach is eYery- thing,” Sund said “The town owes the Eeach eY- erything We’re nothing without it” Which is why he wants Cannon Beach to keep it pristine and “cultiYate a sense of place” SUBMITTED PHOTO/CANNON BEACH GAZETTE Garbage collected by volunteers is a hazard along city beaches. Trash, by the numbers SOLVE is a nonprofit organization that restores natural spaces and facilitates events each year in Oregon. In late September, SOLVE held a beach cleanup state- wide. More than 5,000 volunteers assisted in removing trash. About 60,000 pounds of trash and marine debris were collected from 120 sites. Summer sewage spill draws $1,800 fine By Dani Palmer Cannon Beach Gazette A July sewage spill in Cannon Beach has led to an ¿ne leYied Ey the Oregon Department of En- Yironmental 4uality in late 6eptemEer ³DE4 issued this pen- alty Eecause raw sewage is a signi¿cant pollutant that can harm aquatic life, con- taminate drinking water and impair recreational, com- mercial and agricultural uses of water,” according to an Oregon Department of En- Yironmental 4uality news release ³Discharging sew- age poses a suEstantial threat to Eoth puElic health and the enYironment” On July 20, the city cor- doned off a portion of its Eeach after an equipment failure resulted in 11,000 gallons of untreated sew- age spilling onto the sand in front of Wayfarer Restaurant and /ounge 3uElic Works Director Dan Grassick said the in- ternal power supply to the Gower Street pump station’s computer stopped working around 0 am and alarms routed through the unit neY- er went off An emergency oYerÀow pipe, permitted Ey DE4, sent the sewage onto the sand instead of the mid- dle of town One of Cannon Beach’s 3uElic Works’ employees walked along the Eeach around 0 am and noticed the spill The city “immediately responded,” Grassick said, manually restarting the pump and remoYing contaminated sand The area was marked off, signs were put up and DE4, along with the Oregon Emergency Response Sys- tem, were noti¿ed After the incident, Ecola Creek Watershed Council Chair Mike Manzulli said the city should haYe “closed the Eeach until the outfall water tested safe” and in- formed the puElic aEout the spill There weren’t any notic- es posted on the city’s weE- site, Grassick said, Eecause the spill didn’t make it to the surf Thomas Lossen with the Oregon Beach Monitoring 3rogram said a puElic adYi- sory would haYe Eeen issued discouraging water contact had the contaminated water met the ocean OBM3 tests and issues adYisories for marine water only The Ecola Creek Wa- tershed Council has since asked the city “to go aEoYe the state requirements” and Eetter notify the puE- lic when readings are high 8sing the E coli test for freshwater, 3uElic Works re- opened the affected spillage area the following weekend in July after Eacteria num- Eers dropped to a safe leYel The state safety threshold is 406 organisms per 100 milliliters The presence of enterococci and E coli may indicate pathogenic Eacteria that can cause short-term health effects, such as diar- rhea, cramps and nausea if ingested, according to the 8S EnYironmental 3rotec- tion Agency “DE4 appreciates the city’s work to correct the Yiolation Ey immediate- ly placing puElic warning signs around the discharge, cleaning up contaminated Eeach sand and improYing the pump station equipment to preYent a repeat occur- rence,” DE4’s news release said “DE4 considered these efforts when determining the amount of the penalty” ,n Grassick’s OctoEer report to the City Council, he wrote the ¿ne was the minimum “for an oYerÀow and Eased on failure of the alarm’s systems at the sta- tion — an issue that was immediately corrected and is not an issue at any other lift station” The Gower Street pump station’s alarm system is now independent of its com- puter unit to preYent similar incidents in the future T he C ity of C a n n on B ea ch is plea sed to a n n ou n ce tha t a ll ten T su n a m i Eva cu a tion P ed estria n R ou te M a ps ha ve b een u pd a ted b a sed on the la test in form a tion from the Sta te of O regon . Thes e m a ps ca n b e d o w n lo a d ed fro m the city w eb pa ge w w w .ci.ca nnon-b ea ch.or.us /com m unity/eva cua tionm a ps .htm l They ca n a ls o b e pu rcha s ed a t Copies a nd Fa x, 17 1 S uns et B lvd ., Ca nnon B ea ch fo r a n o m in a l co s t. Ro b ert Ca in , LD 45 yea rs of experience FREE C ON SU LTATION • D en tu res for a ll a ges • N ew , pa rtia ls & cu stom d en tu res • D en tu res for im pla n ts • Relin es a n d repa irs D en tu re repa irs don e sa m e da y! Person a l service a n d a tten tion to deta il OPEN W ED N ESD AY & FRID AY 9-4 :3 0 | 5 03 -73 8-7710 TW O LO C ATIO N S • SEASID E & HILLSBO RO 74 0 Ave H • Ste 2 • Sea sid e | 23 2 N E Lin co ln • Ste B • Hillsb o ro :HOFRPH'U:LVEH\0DUWLQ Erin Wisbey Martin, MD Obstetrics/Gynecology Family Medicine Dr. Wisbey Martin specializes in Women’s Health (Obstetrics and Gynecology) and Family Medicine. She is accepting new patients and looking forward to building a practice in North Tillamook County. Please join us in welcoming Dr. Wisbey Martin and her husband to the community. To make an appointment, call: (503) 368-2292 Manzanita Primary & Specialty Care 10445 Neahkahnie Creek Road, Manzanita adventisthealth.org/trmc C ity M a n a ge r B ra n t Ku c e ra h ope s th a t e ve ryon e w ill vie w th e n e w Ts u n a m i Eva c u a tion Pe d e s tria n Rou te M a ps a n d m a ke s c opie s for th e ir h om e or b u s in e s s . B ra n t a ls o a s ks th a t w e re m e m b e r “ th e life you s a ve m a y b e you r ow n , a fa m ily m e m b e r, or n e igh b or.” Em e rge n c y Pre pa re d n e s s C om m itte e (EPREP) C h a ir Ka rolyn Ad a m s on th a n ks a ll th e s ta ff a n d volu n te e rs w h o w orke d on th is proje c t. 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