Anytime it rains, trash comes flushing through storm drains and gutters, into rivers and downstream straight into the ocean and onto beaches.
The picturesque beaches that Southern California is known for look more like landfills as piles of debris blanket the landscape. Trash fills the Pacific Ocean, threatening marine life and trashing their habitat, their home.
It’s a battle that coastal communities and environmentalists have fought for decades. But a solution — stopping the trash before it leaves the rivers — is on the horizon.
Two new trash interceptor projects, technology created by the nonprofit group The Ocean Cleanup, will be put in the San Gabriel River and the Los Angeles River, officials announced Wednesday at a gathering at the Aquarium of the Pacific in Long Beach. Already, a similar system has been used for years at Ballona Creek near Marina del Rey.
The latest effort is a private-public partnership that crosses county borders, with delegates from Los Angeles and Orange counties working together in recent years to come up with a solution to the ongoing trash troubles off Seal Beach and Long Beach.
The effort started two years ago when Assemblymember Diane Dixon, R-Newport Beach, teamed with Seal Beach Councilmember Joe Kalmick to create the San Gabriel River Working Group, inviting other politicians and interest groups to brainstorm solutions.
“We all knew something needed to be done about the trash that comes down the San Gabriel River from cities upstream to land on the beach and ocean off Seal Beach and Long Beach,” Dixon said.
Dixon had already spearheaded an effort to get a Newport Bay trash interceptor, which in its first year in 2023 took out 400 tons of trash from Newport Beach’s waterways. So she wondered if something similar could be done to tackle the San Gabriel River trash problems.
A study conducted by Silsby Strategic Advisors explored various technologies, costs and environmental impacts.
The trash interceptor system scored high on the list, technology already proven with the Ballona Creek Interceptor 007 near Marina del Rey, collecting 206 tons of trash since it launched in late 2022. That project began in 2019, when community members complained about trash coming down the creek and into the ocean, Los Angeles County Supervisor Janice Hahn said. Then, Los Angeles County connected with The Ocean Cleanup group to launch a pilot project, the first of its kind in North America.
(Photo by contributing photographer Chuck Bennett)
“This project has been a tremendous success,” Hahn said.
Los Angeles will cover the operational cost for the new trash interceptors in the coming years, she said, for both the San Gabriel River and the Los Angeles River, which also dumps onto Long Beach’s shoreline.
“Getting the trash out of our river protects our beaches, our ocean, our communities,” Hahn said. “We have a lot of work ahead, but we’re building on a strong foundation with the first-of-its-kind regional partnership. We are cleaning up our ocean, one river at a time.”
As a resident for 50 years living near Seal Beach’s waterfront, it’s a problem Kalmick has had on his radar for as long as he can remember.
An estimated 500 tons last year had to be removed by the small town’s public works department and volunteers, about 100 tons more than the previous year.
He always wondered: “Why can’t we do anything about this?”
But the task seemed overwhelming, he said, solutions out of reach.
Three years ago, he heard about The Ocean Cleanup’s efforts to eliminate trash and plastics in the ocean around the world. Then, he learned they had a system operating in Los Angeles at Ballona Creek.
“Here’s the solution that I’ve been looking for,” he thought, approaching Dixon to help get the state on board.
It’s important for a beach town to have clean water, healthy habitats and a world-class waterfront, Long Beach Mayor Rex Richardson said, especially as the 2028 Olympics near.
“We want to make sure we present the very best of Los Angeles and Long Beach, and that includes a cleaner, healthier, more beautiful coastline,” Richardson said.
Fixing the problem, he said, requires stronger tools upstream, better coordination across jurisdictions and long-term solutions that stop trash before it reaches the coast.
“The truth is, we can’t do it alone,” he said, noting that cities, counties, state leaders, private parties and nonprofit innovators will work together to tackle the problem.
The technology will “show the world what is possible,” he said.
The two interceptors will help stop hundreds of tons of plastic from reaching the ocean each year, Richardson said.
The two new interceptors are expected to cost between $5 million and $8 million, with some of the project covered through private funding. Los Angeles County officials agreed to fund the operation and maintenance of the project, up to $1 million a year.
It’s not something that will happen overnight, Dixon warned.
“There’s still a lot that needs to be done,” Dixon said.
Boyan Slat, founder and CEO of The Ocean Cleanup, was 16 years old on a diving trip in Greece when he came across more plastic in the ocean than fish.
Plastic in the ocean can destroy coral, suffocate marine life and end up in the food chain, he said, and the amount of plastic in the ocean worldwide is set to double by 2060.
He decided to dedicate his life to finding a solution. Initially, the goal was to clean up the Great Pacific Garbage Patch that sits halfway between California and Hawaii.
But he knew that trash had to be stopped before hitting the ocean in the first place, so he shifted his efforts to rivers.
The first step was to place AI cameras at rivers around the world to measure the flow of plastic in hundreds of rivers around the world.
The group learned that just 1% of the world’s rivers are responsible for about 80% of the plastics flowing into the oceans.
So they created the trash interceptors using solar power to collect the trash, deploying them around the world in areas that included Malaysia, Jamaica, Guatemala, Indonesia and the first in North America in Los Angeles at Ballona Creek.
The systems are deployed in 20 rivers across 10 countries that have, so far, collected over 115 million pounds of trash, stopping 5% of the plastic that would have entered the oceans.
“We’ve proven that we can do this,” he said. “Now it’s time to scale it up.”
The goal is to bring interceptors to 30 cities around the world, which would tackle one-third of all plastics entering the ocean, he said.
Los Angeles is one of those cities, due to 100 million pounds of trash that enters the ocean every year.
The Ballona Creek Interceptor 007 was initially supposed to collect 50,000 pounds of trash each year. Just last year, 147,000 pounds of trash were collected, said James Patterson, operations manager for The Ocean Cleanup.
(Photo by contributing photographer Chuck Bennett)
Since it started, 386,945 pounds of trash — and one electric scooter — have been collected.
On a large screen, he showed how the system works: Booms collect the trash and stop it from moving downriver, and the machine uses a conveyor belt system to move it up to a set of bins that are removed when filled. The debris is hauled away, and the bins are put back in place, ready for the next haul.
Each location has its own unique characteristics and considerations, like the sea turtle habitat that calls the San Gabriel River home.
The team is working with the Aquarium of the Pacific and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration to ensure the species is not affected, he said.
“We care deeply about the wildlife and the sea turtles,” he said. “At every step of the way, these sea turtles are being considered.”
Cassandra Davis, director of volunteer services for the Aquarium of the Pacific, said there was a 200-pound sea turtle found in the San Gabriel River being rehabilitated at the aquarium named “Meatloaf,” who was found trapped in plastic debris, she said.
“So when it comes to caring for our local wildlife, and our global wildlife, I am honored to be in a space where we are working towards our future,” she said.
For more info on the project, go to sgrcleanup.com.