A pair of skimmers do clean sweeps of Oceanside’s harbor

Reporting from Oceanside, Calif. —  A pair of skimmers is making it easier to keep this city’s municipal harbor clean, alleviating one of the most frequent complaints from visitors and boat owners: trash and muck in the water.

The machines each can remove as much as 500 pounds of trash from the water per month, city maintenance workers said. Trash and oil that would collect in the area, pushed there by tides and currents, are trapped by the skimmers, which operate 24 hours a day.

“This area used to be bad,” maintenance worker Jon Perkins said one recent morning as he scooped out one of the machines. “We would try to do what we could, but I can’t believe how good it looks now.”

The machines, about 6 feet wide by 4 feet deep, look like trash containers that float on the water. An electric motor sucks about 300 gallons a minute into the device and filters the water — trapping debris such as paper cups, plastic containers and dead marine plants.

Maintenance workers remove the trash daily because the skimmers, fastened to a commercial dock on the eastern end of the south harbor, shut down automatically if they overfill or clog.

Opened in 1963, the Cape Cod-style harbor village is home to restaurants, hotels and boat rental shops. There are about 1,000 slips in the harbor, which also houses commercial, whale watching and sport fishing operations.

Keeping the area clean has long been a challenge.

Before the skimmers, that task fell to city maintenance crews and H2O Trash Patrol, a nonprofit organization that uses paddle boards to collect debris.

Trash that is difficult to see, such as small pieces of clear plastic, now can by picked up by the skimmers. They also soak up oil and scum using absorbent pads.

The city bought the skimmers for $10,000 apiece, Oceanside harbor manager Paul Lawrence said, and is considering buying one or two more in the next few months.

“We are looking at other natural collection points for marina debris in the harbor, where the skimmers could do the most good,” Lawrence said.

The skimmers also are beneficial to sea life, he said, because by churning the water they add oxygen and attract more marine animals to the area.

edward.sifuentes@sduniontribune

Edward Sifuentes writes for the San Diego Union-Tribune.