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
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