Readers of this column are familiar with the problem of non-point source pollution – trash that gets into the ocean through storm drains, waterways and the wind – gets into the ocean and ways we are combatting the problem. Since 2015 California’s State Water Resources Control Board has worked to increase efforts by local governments to combat it, a project known as “the trash amendments.”

Concern about the problem of ocean trash, especially plastic waste, grew after Charles Moore, sailing from Hawaii to Long Beach in 1997, took a shortcut and encountered scattered and sometimes concentrated amounts of plastic and other waste.

Research done worldwide indicates that plastic is found not only on the ocean surface and water column but also on the sea floor, and even in Mariana Trench, the ocean’s deepest. About 80 percent of this debris comes from land, and much gets trapped in the ocean’s gyres.

For a years, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency has sought to reduce pollutants such as construction debris, plastic bags and cigarette butts heading seaward by requiring states to implement rules that are implemented by cities and counties. These are often referred to as storm water permits. In 2015, the California State Water Resources Control Board approved a series of “trash amendments” that seek to reduce this flow even further and try to capture all waste before it gets to the ocean, and are being implemented now.

To see how one city may comply with the trash amendments, I consulted Santa Cruz City Public Works Department Senior Civil Engineer Steve Wolfman, Associate Planner Suzanne Healy and Environmental Projects Analyst Eric Dhakni. Santa Cruz’ current permit includes municipal operations, stopping illegal discharges, public involvement in waste reduction, public education and outreach, and control of runoff from construction sites, as well as industrial and commercial facilities. The city also keeps an eye on the “total maximum daily loads” of runoff in waterways in the San Lorenzo River watershed, including Branciforte and Carbonera creeks.

To comply with the trash amendments, the city has many ways it can add to its existing efforts such as more cleanups to keep refuse out of waterways, ordinances to reduce single-use products such as polystyrene foam, increased street sweeping, increased storm drain system and catch basin maintenance, and more trash receptacles along waterways.

Increased education and outreach will also help to get individuals involved in the effort. The state wants city staff to conduct visual trash assessments during the dry April-to-September season and in the wet months of October to March.

Local governments must satisfy requirements under California’s trash amendments no later than 2030. Santa Cruz plans to use a phased approach to meet milestones and the final deadline. This will allow the city staff to evaluate pilot projects in the higher trash areas within Santa Cruz.

So, are Santa Cruz’ current pollution control efforts working? For the year ending on June 30, 2018 the city has estimated the weight of waste removed and kept out of waterways, and the ocean: street sweeping 856 tons, public parking lots and garage sweeping 749 tons, street catch basins, river pump stations and cleaning 11 tons, the collection of illegally disposed garbage 201 tons, Downtown Streets Team cleanups 115 tons, Cowell and Main beach cleanups 118 tons, wharf sweeping 36 tons, and beach and river levee volunteer clean‐up events led by Save Our Shores more than 2,500 pounds.

To learn more, go to waterboards.ca.

Ocean activist Dan Haifley can be reached at dan.haifley@gmail.com.