On Tuesday, March 19 the the San Francisco Estuary Institute (SFEI), in concert with and under the direction of the California Ocean Protection Council (OPC) held the first of several meetings to gather stakeholder input for a mandated Statewide Plastics Monitoring Strategy.
The Sierra Club Loma Prieta Chapter Plastic Pollution Prevention Team (PPP) joined the meeting as a stakeholder. The PPP has been active in local cities and school districts, advocating for natural grass or plants in place of artificial turf and, in 2023, the City of Sunnyvale agreed to add a natural grass athletic field to Lakewood Park in lieu of plastic turf. The PPP continues to educate the public, and give presentations online and in person on this topic.
Six years ago, in 2018, two important microplastics bills were passed. The first bill, SB 1422, directed the state to develop a plan and begin to test for microplastics in drinking water, while the second bill, SB 1263, directed OPC to develop and adopt a statewide strategy and report to the Legislature on recommendations for policy changes or additional research.
The strategy developed by OPC calls for a "two-track approach … for both immediate actions and near-term solutions to reduce plastic pollution,” as well as forming a research strategy to "better understand and inform our next iteration of solutions to address microplastic pollution.” They intend to "to establish a baseline of plastic microplastics in the state, identifying trends in that contamination, evaluating the impacts as well as community benefits of successful trash and plastic management efforts.”[1]
In order to do this, OPC and SFEI plan to “bring together multiple sources of data,” from both statewide and local levels. Data may be observational, as in during a beach or creek cleanup, or measured, as by a research organization or through state monitoring at targeted locations. (Earlier they had differentiated between “trash,”e.g., thrown away food containers or discarded paper, and “micro and other plastics.”)[1]
During an earlier undertaking, in 2017-2019, two other reports "showed that <spikes of> microplastics in San Francisco Bay were predominantly from stormwater with concentrations 100 times greater in stormwater than waste water.” Fibers and rubbery fragments later confirmed to be mainly from tires followed by other fragments and plastic foam (polystyrene, including Styrofoam™). These came from “streets and freeways” flowing into creeks and the bay. But gathering consistent, scientific data for this undertaking has been and will continue to be challenging for many reasons. For example, it’s not desirable to place permanent straining devices in waterways that may impede fish or other fauna.
A longer discussion followed, including that the majority of ocean plastics comes from the boating and marine community, especially, one person said, “floating docks,” and he held up a large chunk he’d recovered.
Another member of the public, self-identified as a native tribal member living near the Sierra Nevada Mountains, wanted to know why microplastics were being found in snow that makes up the tribe’s drinking water. While others, including the PPP, stated that regulations for polystyrene, artificial turf and other plastics should be state-wide. Leaving these important regulations up to localities guarantees uneven results across California.
SFEI and OPC thanked everyone for coming.
Other URLs
https://www.sfei.org/plastics-monitoring-plan
https://www.sfei.org/plastics-monitoring-plan/community-engagement
References
[1] 2024, March 19. Transcript from the OPC and SFEI Statewide Plastics Monitoring Strategy meeting.