1. Update on Southern California Regional Trash Assessment
Ted von Bitner
AMEC Environment & Infrastructure
Ruth Kolb and Andre Sonksen
City of San Diego
Department of Transportation & Storm Water

2. Study Background
SMC Executive Committee recognized need to address trash
Understood that agencies don’t have coordinated or regionally consistent management approaches
Orange County contributing grant funding for watershed management plan pilot program
Committee needed to understand trash issues at a greater level of detail
Conducted regional surveys 2011, 2012, and 2013

3. SMC Regional Watershed Monitoring Program Study Area

4. Study Questions
What is the regional extent and magnitude of stream trash?
What are common sources and/or pathways into the environment?
Is the monitoring method suitable for providing management feedback?

5. Project Partners Stormwater Monitoring Coalition (SMC) Member Agencies
State of California Surface Water Ambient Monitoring Program (SWAMP)
City of San Diego, Ruth Kolb and Andre Sonksen
Orange County Public Works, Chris Crompton and Robert Rodarte
Regional Water Quality Control Board, San Diego Region, Lillian Busse
Southern California Coastal Waters Research Project, Raphael Mazor
Aquatic Bioassay and Consulting Labs; Scott Johnson and Karin Patrick
California Department of Fish and Game; Sean Mundell and Glenn Sibbald
Cal State Long Beach; Professor Dessie Underwood
Council for Watershed Health; Kristy Morris
Riverside County Flood Control District; David Ortega and Abigail Suter
Weston Solutions; Bill Isham, Damon Owens, and Melissa Mathis

6. Monitoring Approach Stratified probabilistic design
Evaluate land use contributions (urban, open, agricultural)
Estimate prevalence of trash generating events/sources
Estimate % stream miles affected
Modified SWAMP Rapid Trash Assessment (RTA)
RTA site evaluation score 0-120
Collect item tallies
Provide observations
Public Access (Easy, Difficult, Not at all)
Presence of homeless encampments
Adjacent land features

7. Overall Effort to Date Number of sites surveyed = 266
Total trash counted = 7835
Number of days spent in field = 89
Total time spent counting trash = 24 hrs, 51 min.

8. Trash Category Abundances

9. Item Abundances Rank Debris Type Tally % Overall % Cumulative 1
Plastic bags/pieces
1241
16% 2
Plastic wrapper/pieces
1172
15%
31% 3
Styrofoam pieces
855
11%
42% 4
Glass pieces
591 8%
49% 5
Plastic Misc. Pieces (soft/hard)
554 7%
56% 6
Cigarette Butts
467 6%
62% 7
Paper/cardboard
404 5%
67% 8
Plastic bottles
326 4%
71% 9
Sports balls
186 2%
74% 10
Plastic container caps/pieces
180
76%

10. Trash Type and Prevalence
Rank
Item Description
%Sites w/ Items 1
Plastic wrapper/pieces
51% 2
Plastic bags/pieces
49% 3
Plastic bottles
37% 4
Plastic Misc. Pieces (soft/hard)
36% 5
Styrofoam pieces 6
Paper/cardboard
33% 7
Cigarette Butts
26% 8
Aluminum or Steel Cans
24% 9
Plastic container caps/pieces
22% 10
Sports balls
20%

11. Narrative classification of regional sites
Extent and Magnitude
Narrative classification of regional sites

13. Effect of Public Access
Pathways and Sources
Effect of Public Access
 Site Mean Trash Counts
Easy Access
Difficult Access
Not At All
Open (n = 80) 11 2 1
Agricultural (n = 8) 27 23
Urban (n = 93) 25 22 14
Homeless encampments at 6% of sites contributed 10% overall trash

14. Challenges of Current Survey Methods
Monitoring Methods
Challenges of Current Survey Methods
Aesthetic conditions are subjectively perceived
Unequal scores from “Very Good” sites with equal trash

15. Challenges of Current Survey Methods
Monitoring Methods
Challenges of Current Survey Methods
Trash counts don’t address management approaches for different sources
Littered
High Flow Entanglement
Photo courtesy Scott Johnson, ABC Labs
Photo courtesy Stormwater Monitoring Coalition

16. Value of SMC Regional Trash Study
Contributed to Trash Reduction Ordinances
Single Use Plastic Bag Bans
Laguna Beach
Dana Point
Los Angeles
Contributed to improving science of trash monitoring and management

17. Southern California Bight Regional Monitoring Program
Bight program historically a coastal ocean monitoring program
Bight 2013 includes a marine debris study
Type and prevalence of debris
Combines riverine and coastal habitat trash assessments
SMC effort provides riverine component
Evaluate plastic ingestion in demersal fish

18. Southern California Bight Regional Monitoring Program
Bight 2013 Marine Debris compliments SMC regional trash study
Improves characterization of urban streams
Evaluates summer period (non-storm event) accumulation of trash
Provides opportunity to evaluate and improve monitoring methods
Connect SMC efforts with larger audience