As legislative session is gearing up to take off early next month, Surfrider has been working with state agencies on a legislative concept, HB 2463 also known as the Submerged Land Enhancement Fund, to help prevent inland marine debris from reaching our ocean waters and soiling our beaches. The bill would establish a fund to help clean up inland waterways from derelict boats, docks and other marine-bound debris that we are constantly removing from our beaches.
The bill introduced by the Department of State Lands, which you can read in it's entirety here, will set aside a portion of the revenues collected from leases, easments and registrations on state-owned waterways and make those funds available for cleaning up state-owned waterways and the territorial sea as well as doing other enhancement projects. While the bill has made it's way past the concept stage, we're hoping to help shape some additional language within the bill that clearly articulates and helps prioritize inland marine debris sources. Politically, we understand how the fund can quickly become a cookie jar for everyone's pet peeve or eyesore on the rivers, so it's extremely important to our members to identify and help steer some level of the funds towards priority marine debris.
"We know first hand what comes downstream and how it impacts our beaches", says Ian Rodger, Coos Bay Chapter Surfrider chair. Ian and fellow Coos Bay chapter members have been cleaning up after a derelict dock that broke apart spewing foam, concrete and rebar all over one of their local beaches for over a year now. "The evidence of the impacts to our beaches from river-borne debris is beyond apparent from cleanup photos, says Ian. Surfrider chapters in Oregon see a unique opportunity within the fund to address marine debris on inland waterways before it makes its way to our beaches and ocean environment. It's rare that we get the occasion to work on sources of marine debris through legislation and with over 80% of the debris in our oceans coming from land based sources, Surfrider sees this bill and related-fund as great opportunity this session...more to come!
Docks from Charleston harbor that washed ashore Lighthouse beach in Coos Bay early in 2014 caused a serious mess for OPRD and Surfrider volutneers