CITY OF HUNTINGTON BEACH
2000 MAIN STREET, HUNTINGTON BEACH, CALIFORNIA 92648-2702
GRACEY VAN DER MARK
MAYOR
Office: 714.536.5553
July 3, 2024
The Honorable Mark McGuire
1021 O Street, Suite 8517
Sacramento, CA 95814
Re: Assembly Concurrent Resolution 182 (Dixon) Great Pacific Garbage Patch Dear Senator McGuire,
The City of Huntington Beach strongly supports ACR 182 (Dixon). Assembly Concurrent Resolution 182 will promote and encourage solutions and resources to keep our oceans and coastlines healthy, to help eliminate the Great Pacific Garbage Patch.
The Great Pacific Garbage Patch contains approximately 1.8 billion plastic pieces, has a total mass of about 100,000 tons, and covers over 617,000 square miles, which is an area twice the size of Texas.
This results in extensive environmental, ecological, and economic impacts for our oceans, coastline and marine life.
Not only does the Patch harm marine life, but 84% of the Patch’s plastics and microplastics contain at least one persistent bio-accumulative toxic chemical that leaches out when certain plastics break down through photodegradation, negatively impacting seawater. PBTs, BPAs, PCBs and other chemicals have entered our food supply through bioaccumulation, where animals feeding on plastic ingest chemicals, and the chemicals are then passed up the food chain, exposing animals and humans. The removal of this trash is essential to the State's environment and economy.
Concerted action must be taken to mitigate the detrimental impacts of plastic pollution on marine ecosystems, emphasizing the urgent need for comprehensive strategies, better technologies and resources to protect and preserve our oceans and coastlines for posterity.
As a city with 8.5 miles of coastline, the City of Huntington Beach believes it is crucial to continue to protect our coastlines, our oceans and marine mammal life for generations to come. With the various beaches in our city, it is important to ensure safety among the residents and 11 million annual visitors who visit Huntington Beach. We offer our support to further encourage solutions and resources to help eliminate the Great Garbage Patch.
We strongly urge your support for Assembly Concurrent Resolution 182 (Dixon)! Sincerely,
Gracey Van Der Mark
Mayor
Cc: Assemblymember Diane Dixon
Senator Janet Nguyen
california legislature—2023–24 regular session
Assembly Concurrent Resolution No. 182
Introduced by Assembly Member Dixon
(Coauthors: Assembly Members Alanis, Chen, Davies, Flora, Lackey, Ortega, Pellerin, and Waldron)
(Coauthor: Senator Newman)
April 22, 2024
Assembly Concurrent Resolution No. 182—Relati ve to ocean pollution.
legislative counsel’s digest
ACR 182, as introduced, Dixon. The Great Pacific Garbage Patch.
This measure would provide for the promotion and encouragement of solutions and resources for keeping the oceans and coastlines healthy and eliminating the Great Pacific Garbage Patch.
Fiscal committee: no.
line 1 WHEREAS, The Great P acific Garbage P atch (P atch) is a line 2 collection of marine debris in the North Pacific Ocean and it is the line 3 largest of the fiv e of fshore plastic accumulation zones in the line 4 world’s oceans; and
line 5 WHEREAS, The Patch, also known as the Pacific trash vortex, line 6 consists of two distinct collections of spinning debris bounded by line 7 the North Pacific Subtropical Gyre: the Western Garbage Patch, line 8 located near Japan, and the Eastern Garbage Patch, located between line 9 Hawaii and California; and
line 10 WHEREAS, The P atch contains approximately
line 11 1,800,000,000,000 plastic pieces, has a total mass of about 100,000
Revised 6-3-24—See last page. 99
line 1 tons, and covers over 617,000 square miles, which is an area twice line 2 the size of Texas; and
line 3 WHEREAS, Nonbiodegradable debris accumulates in the Patch, line 4 including, but not limited to, plastics that break down into pieces line 5 called microplastics, which are too small to see without line 6 magnification; and
line 7 WHEREAS, The presence of the P atch is causing e xtensive line 8 environmental, ecological, and economic impacts; and line 9 WHEREAS, Loggerhead sea turtles often eat plastic bags after line 10 mistaking them for jelly fish, and albatross mistak e resin pellets line 11 for fish e ggs and feed them to their chicks, which then die of line 12 starvation or ruptured organs; and
line 13 WHEREAS, Sea turtles caught in fisheries operating within and line 14 around the Patch can have up to 74 percent, by dry weight, of their line 15 diets composed of ocean plastics and Laysan albatross chicks from line 16 Kure Atoll and Oahu Island ha ve around 45 percent of their wet line 17 mass composed of plastics; and
line 18 WHEREAS, Eighty-four percent of the P atch’s plastics and line 19 microplastics contain at least one persistent bioaccumulative toxic line 20 (PBT) chemical, such as bisphenol A (BPA), which leaches out line 21 when certain plastics break do wn through photode gradation, line 22 negatively impacting seawater; and
line 23 WHEREAS, PBTs, BPAs, polychlorinated biphen yls (PCBs), line 24 and other chemicals have entered our food supply through a process line 25 called bioaccumulation, where animals feeding on plastic ingest line 26 chemicals, and the chemicals are then passed up the food chain to line 27 humans, exposing animals and humans to the malef fects of the line 28 chemicals; and
line 29 WHEREAS, Marine plastic is estimated to ha ve an annual line 30 economic cost of $6,000,000,000 to $19,000,000,000, stemming line 31 from impacts on tourism, cleanups, fisheries, and aquaculture, but line 32 not including the costs associated with the impacts on human health line 33 and the marine ecosystem; and
line 34 WHEREAS, The P atch’s microplastic mass concentration is line 35 increasing exponentially, with an estimated 1,150,000 to 2,410,000 line 36 tons of plastic entering the world’s oceans each year from rivers; line 37 and
line 38 WHEREAS, Intercepting plastic in rivers is more cost effective line 39 than removing plastics once they are in the ocean waters; and 99 — 2 — ACR 182
line 1 WHEREAS, Technology and inno vation pro vide the best line 2 solutions to creati vely capture plastic and trash that flo w from line 3 rivers to the ocean; and
line 4 WHEREAS, The Department of Public Works for the County line 5 of Los Angeles has developed a pilot project to test in Marina del line 6 Rey a fully automated, solar po wered trash collection de vice line 7 designed to capture floating plastic, trash, and litter before the y line 8 reach the ocean; and
line 9 WHEREAS, In 2023, the State of California approved funding line 10 for the Newport Bay Pollution Control Project, which will remove line 11 human-made pollutants before they enter the Pacific Ocean; and line 12 WHEREAS, Efforts to eliminate the Patch address the pressing line 13 need to safeguard our oceans and coastlines for future generations; line 14 and
line 15 WHEREAS, Central to these efforts is combating the pervasive line 16 threat posed of millions of tons of plastic pollution that inundates line 17 our oceans annually and that predominantly enter the oceans from line 18 rivers; and
line 19 WHEREAS, At the forefront of this crisis lies the Eastern line 20 Garbage Patch, situated between Hawaii and California; and line 21 WHEREAS, It is imperative that concerted action be tak en to line 22 mitigate the detrimental impacts of plastic pollution on marine line 23 ecosystems, emphasizing the ur gent need for comprehensi ve line 24 strategies, better technologies, and resources to protect and preserve line 25 our oceans and coastlines for posterity; now, therefore, be it line 26 Resolved by the Assembly of the State of California, the Senate line 27 thereof concurring, That the Legislature promote and encourage line 28 solutions and resources for k eeping the oceans and coastlines line 29 healthy and eliminating the Great P acific Garbage Patch; and be line 30 it further
line 31 Resolved, That the Chief Clerk of the Assembly transmit copies line 32 of this resolution to the author for appropriate distribution. line 33
line 34
REVISIONS: line 35
Heading—Line 2. line 36
line 37
O
99 ACR 182 — 3 —