Coastal Cleanup Crews Head To Storm-Battered Santa Monica Beaches

SANTA MONICA, CA — Weeks after Hurricane Marie dramatically reshaped portions of Santa Monica's shoreline, hundreds of volunteers will return to the sand Saturday — and some will head beneath the waves — to remove trash before future storms can carry it farther into the ocean.

The 42nd annual California Coastal Cleanup Day runs from 9 a.m. to noon Saturday, Sept. 19, with four cleanup sites along Santa Monica State Beach and an underwater cleanup beneath Santa Monica Pier. The events are part of a Los Angeles County effort spanning more than 60 beaches, rivers, parks, trails, neighborhoods and underwater locations.

The cleanup comes at an unusual moment for Santa Monica's coastline. Hurricane Marie stripped sand from the beach south of the Pier over Labor Day weekend and pushed the high-tide water line 96 feet inland of the planned fire lane for the Ocean Way Festival, helping force the event's cancellation.

City crews began repairing the beach this week, moving and regrading sand and building a protective berm as Santa Monica prepares its shoreline for winter and several major events over the next two years.

But Nancy Shrodes, Heal the Bay's Director of Community Engagement, told Patch that the storm damage did not disrupt planning for Saturday's cleanup. “There's still plenty of beach for us to clean up and get after,” Shrodes said.

Storms Can Send Pollution Toward The Ocean

Heal the Bay has coordinated Coastal Cleanup Day across Los Angeles County for 37 years and Shrodes said the effects of storms illustrate why the organization's work extends far beyond picking up litter from the sand.

Stormwater can carry visible debris such as plastic pieces, cigarette butts and bottle caps through communities and storm drains toward the ocean, she said. It can also carry less visible pollution including motor oil, chemicals, pesticides and bacteria, with the latter posing particular concerns for beach water quality and human health.

“The storms actually just give us an opportunity to get a lot more of that trash before we have more storms that would bring them out further,” Shrodes said.

Santa Monica volunteers have several places to do exactly that Saturday. The four Santa Monica State Beach sites are Bay Street/The Ink Well Monument, led by Alpha Kappa Alpha and Santa Monica College; Ocean Park Boulevard, led by Santa Monica High School's Team Marine and IKAR; the north side of Santa Monica Pier, led by Heal the Bay; and Tower 12, led by La Cañada Engineering Club. A separate cleanup is planned at the Ginger Rogers section of Will Rogers State Beach in Pacific Palisades.

The Bay Street cleanup will take place within a particularly significant stretch of Santa Monica's shoreline. The Bay Street Beach Historic District, sometimes historically referred to as “the Ink Well,” was an important recreation and gathering place for African American Angelenos during the Jim Crow era, where visitors encountered comparatively less racial harassment than at other Southern California beaches. The 53-acre district was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 2019.

Divers Will Head Beneath Santa Monica Pier

Saturday's cleanup won't stop at the waterline. Eco Dive Center, Heal the Bay and LA County Beaches & Harbors are partnering on an underwater cleanup beneath Santa Monica Pier, with divers checking in beginning at 8 a.m. Beach volunteers are also being recruited to assist on shore.

Shrodes said Heal the Bay works with local dive shops and divemasters on underwater cleanups in Santa Monica and Malibu to make sure participants can work safely. “It is really remarkable what they can do when they get down there and really start looking,” she said.

What divers have encountered beneath Santa Monica's waters over the years hasn't always been conventional beach trash. Shrodes recalled that not long after Bird shared scooters arrived in Santa Monica, cleanup divers began finding some of the them discarded in the water. “That was a high volume of what dive teams had found,” she said.

Thousands Of Pounds Removed In A Day

For Shrodes, the recurring nature of beach cleanups can be frustrating, but she said seeing thousands of people working together — and evidence that efforts to reduce particular forms of waste can work — keeps her optimistic.

Heal the Bay says 6,722 volunteers removed 19,139 pounds of trash and another 610 pounds of recycling from 70 LA County sites during last year's Coastal Cleanup Day. Shrodes said staff sometimes joke about eventually “working ourselves out of the beach cleanup business.”

“That would be the dream,” she said, although beaches continue to need help. Shrodes said Heal the Bay has seen evidence in its collected data that policies targeting particular waste streams can make a difference, citing fewer plastic bags following bag restrictions and changes involving polystyrene. The broader challenge, she said, remains reducing dependence on disposable products.

“We can see the effects of our collective work and the need to keep going and keep pushing further,” Shrodes said.

Volunteers should bring sun protection and a reusable water container, Shrodes said. Water will be available at cleanup sites, and participants will receive safety briefings before setting out. “Take your time,” she said. “It's harder to walk around in the sand. It can get really hot.”

The California Coastal Commission's interactive cleanup map lists additional locations and indicates whether individual events require advance registration or allow volunteers to simply show up.

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