jon010
Registered: February 2007 Posts: 1
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Part One:
My cleanup project took place at San Dieguito Park. We spent the entire day hiking and cleaning. The park is a two level, 125 acre county park located in Del Mar, Ca. The park consists of an upper level and a lower level containing picnic areas, playgrounds ball parks, a small lake and streams. The upper park connects to the lower by canyons filled with hiking trails. The park is known for an abundance of eucalyptus trees. After hiking through a large part of the park we began to notice just how clean this park really was. We decided to alter our original plan to include the outer perimeter of the park near the surrounding roads. That's where we started to find a lot of trash. It was evident that most of this trash had come from people throwing it out of their cars while driving around the park. One very disturbing type of trash was found a lot of empty alcohol containers. They were probably consumed while driving then discarded near the park. I also found a rubber car mat, lots of empty cups and drink containers, 4 golf balls and what seemed like a million cigarette butts. I also found a lot of trash near the storm drains. This trash ends up getting washed down the drain and straight to the beach. It is very harmful in a lot of ways. I ended up collecting over 55 lbs of trash. When I was done San Dieguito park was clean inside and out. After picking up all that trash I feel a lot better knowing I just might have had made the earth that much cleaner and safer. I plan to continue with a second clean-up phase at the beach in a few weeks.
Part Two:
SAN DIEGUITO LAGOON ENVIROMENTAL PROJECT. "The San Dieguito River watershed is a drainage area of approximately 346 square miles in west-central San Diego County. The watershed extends through a diverse array of habitats from its eastern headwaters in the Volcan Mountains to the outlet at the San Dieguito Lagoon and the Pacific Ocean. There are several important natural areas within the watershed that sustain a number of threatened and endangered species. Among these are the 55-mile long, 80,000 acre San Dieguito River Park, the 150 acre San Dieguito Lagoon, and five water storage reservoirs including Lake Hodges, Lake Sutherland, and Lake Poway. The Pacific Ocean at the mouth of the San Dieguito River is listed as a 303(d)-impaired water body for elevated coliform bacteria. The San Dieguito Lagoon is especially sensitive to the effects of pollutants and oxygen depletion due to restricted or intermittent tidal flushing." -from published source-
The San Dieguito lagoon is downstream from San Dieguito Park. The storm drains on the city streets in the beach areas of southern California flow directly to the lagoons or the ocean without passing through filtration plants. So when someone throws something out of their car window, it often ends up in the storm drain. When the rain comes it washes everything down stream to the Lagoons and ocean.
On Sunday February 12th I began phase 2 of my cleanup project. I went to the San Dieguito Lagoon. I concentrated my cleanup efforts around the perimeter of the lagoon and the outlet to the ocean at Cardiff State beach. I saw a lot of a lot of trash floating out in the shallow water very close to a lot of different kinds of birds. The birds were walking in the lagoon hunting for food. I spent the first few hours cleaning as much as I could around the lagoon, but was unable to get to the trash floating in the water. I felt sorry for the animals. Most of the trash around the lagoon consisted of cans, bottles, plastic six pack holders and cigarette butts. Also found a lot of partially empty food containers (probably from the restaurants that border the lagoon). After I cleaned as much of the trash as I could from the lagoon, I followed the lagoon to the outlet onto Cardiff State beach. This is a very narrow strip of beach bordered on one side by a sea wall made of rocks and the Pacific Coast Highway. This area gets a lot of people stopping due to it's proximity to the road and ocean. Many people park their cars along the road here to access the beach. People use this area to have bonfires, view the ocean and sunsets, fishing, picnics and parking for the restaurants on the beach. The amount of trash people left in this area was unbelievable. Way more than was found in the park or the lagoon. I actually saw somebody empty their car ash tray in the street next to their car before leaving. I found every kind of trash you can imagine, cans, bottles, rope, cigarettes, lighters, bottle tops, cups, straws, broken cd's, paper, plastic six pack holders, clothing, even someone's running shoes and the list goes on. One thing the park, lagoon and beach all had in common was, it would seem that the areas with the most trash also had the most access for people in their cars. It appeared that whatever they brought with them to the beach full was just left there when empty. I collected approx. 40 lbs of trash from phase 2 of my environmental project. Total trash from both projects combined was almost 100 lbs.
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