SURFING SOAPBOX: A personal pledge to action

Summer is all but officially over this Labor Day weekend.

September marks the 1-year anniversary of the appointment of the Laguna Beach Environmental Committee. The committee is made up of seven dedicated people who volunteer their time and who applied to be part of this great cause — salvaging and solving the many environmental issues that plague our town.

Each committee member was appointed by the City Council — Greg O’Loughlin, Tom Girvin, Lisa Marks, Susan Wilson, Steve Erger, Fred Sattler and myself.

Jane Egly is our City Council liaison. Sadly, she has only attended one meeting — not even staying for the duration.

In my mind, this committee is only legitimate if the City Council takes us seriously.

The chosen seven, as I like to call them, meet the second Tuesday of every month for several hours with a detailed agenda that covers the status of our blue and greenbelts, and air and land space issues, among others.

One topic that comes to mind was one we heard during the public comments portion of our meeting. One individual complained that his neighbor had been burning wood on a daily basis and wanted to know if we could put an end to it, which we decided against. I could just see the headlines now — as if banning everything is the solution to all of our problems.

Ironically, we have banned cigarettes from our beaches, yet if you walk downtown in the early morning you will find hundreds of cigarettes discarded all over the sidewalk in front of every bar in this town. Ultimately, all of these cigarette butts end up in the storm drains and on our beaches.

So go figure.

It also mystifies me that our environmentally conscious city provides no funding for the four beach cleanups that are administered each year by the Clean Water Now Coalition — including one this Sept. 16.

On top of that, how is it that the leaders of several multi-million-dollar surfing apparel brands who reside in this town are not involved in the cleanups, let alone the surf shops in town?

This is something I will begin to personally try to accomplish — getting these name brands involved in our beach cleanup efforts as my part of being an environmental committee member.

After all, what good is the beach if we can’t enjoy the ocean?

Peace.