Piles of trash cover SoCal beaches after series of storms

A number of powerful storms that have hit in recent months have led to an unprecedented buildup of trash along the Southern California coastline. 

Mounds of debris could be seen all over Long Beach Wednesday evening, with yet another storm bearing in on the area overnight. Along with the accumulation of branches, seaweed and other naturally occurring refuse, one could also find tennis shoes, bicycle parts, recyclables and even pieces of a bedroom furniture set amongst the junk. 

"I haven't seen anything particularly dangerous, but I'm worried about sharp stuff," said Bill Park, one Long Beach resident who often enjoys the Belmont Shore beach in the early evening with his pet dog, Pumpkin.

Though cleanup efforts are already underway, the city of Long Beach expects even more trash to continue appearing on the shore in the coming weeks — thanks in large part to two huge booms in the Los Angeles and San Gabriel Rivers that are already overwhelmed by the amount of debris flow to date. 

"A lot of things that we see on our beachfront are straws, styrofoam, cups, those sort of things, and you think, 'Oh, it's just this one time,' but if you get enough critical mass of people doing that, that one straw turns into 50,000," said Todd Leland, Superintendent of Long Beach Marine Operations.

Crews have been working to pile up debris to allow it time to dry out, at which point they would bring it to a dump. However, the constant series of storms have created difficulties when it comes to disposing of the trash in a timely manner. 

"We've been operating to remove debris from our beachfronts — daily — for years, it's just at this time we're seeing unprecedented rainfall, which is creating a flush of the LA River system," saidLeland. "Bringing tons, upon tons, upon tons of debris into our footprint."

On average, they estimate picking up anywhere between 50 to 100 tons of trash along the beach, but Leland says it's likely a lot more than that already this year. 

"Right now, we don't have the numbers calculated yet, but I would imagine that's gonna double per month over the last two to three months," he said.