Crews clean debris after storms

Cleanup crews continued to remove debris from the Huntington Beach coastline Wednesday after a series of heavy storms over the last week.

Scott Smith, the city’s beach operations supervisor, said crews planned to keep busy for the next few days. Another rainstorm hit the area Tuesday, but it was much milder than the recent storms.

“Given what’s out there now, and provided we don’t get any more severe storms, we should be cleaned up within a week,” Smith said. “The beaches should be back to their normal state within a week.”

Much of the trash, he said, had landed on the beach via the city’s flood control channels.

“We get everything from garden hoses that people throw over their block walls in the inland areas to Styrofoam cups, plastic bags, trees — the stuff that comes in on the high tide,” Smith said.

He added that a few objects, including a 30-foot palm tree, were more surprising.

“We had a refrigerator come down the Edinger channel and wash up on the bank,” he said. “There’s a lot of kids’ toys that come up on the beach. Things you would think would sink, like stuffed animals, wash up on the beach.”

Marisa O’Neil, a spokeswoman for OC Parks, said county workers had been removing debris from Sunset Beach, which has been put under Huntington Beach’s sphere of influence but is still a county property. She expected the crews to finish the major work today.

Briana Madden, education director for Orange County Coastkeeper, said she planned to lead a group of students from Lathrop Intermediate School in Santa Ana on a beach cleanup in Bolsa Chica on Saturday.