Westport, WA, Chapter
Surfrider Foundation®
Meetings
Nov 10, 2001
Friday, February 15, 2002, 7:00 pm
The Islander, Westport, Washington
March 1, 2002
TO: All Interested Parties
FROM: Kathy Greer, Secretary
Westport Surfrider
SUBJECT:Meeting Minutes
Opening Remarks
Surfrider Chairperson Rob Brown, opened the meeting by welcoming the large turnout of attendees and giving a brief run down of the night’s meeting including discussion of the Army Corps of Engineers Meeting earlier in the day regarding beach erosion, Westport Area Blue Water Task Force update, and organization of Clean Water Classic Surf volunteers and activities.
Army
Corps of Engineers Meeting
George Hart, Army Corps of Engineers (COE) hosted the 2:30 pm public meeting
earlier in the day, which began with a tour of the breach site at Westhaven
State Park and Halfmoon Bay. It then convened at the Islander for a more
formal gathering with questions and answers. Mr. Hart talked about long-term
solutions for prevention of continued erosion and/or another breach of our
Jetty. Currently the COE has begun the task of adding approximately 10 more
feet of height from the area of breach out to about one third the length of
the Jetty. In addition approximately 500,000 cubic yards of sand will be
pumped into the area surrounding the breach on the
halfmoon bay side. Kevin Ranker then gave the group a brief history of why
erosion is taking place here in the first place. Visit the Westport
Surfrider website at www.westportsurfrider.org and learn more about the
history and current situation.
Blue Water Task Force
Rob Brown introduced Dan Terry our NEW Westport Chapter Co-Chair and the
current lead on the Westport Area Blue Water Task Force. The testing will
take place once a week and samples will be taken from Westhaven State Park
(near to the Jetty), Halfmoon Bay (adjacent to Coast Guard tower), and the
Groins (in between the second and third jetty). The water will mainly be
tested for, among other things, fecal coliform and oxygen and nitrogen
levels (usually from pesticides).
Dan will synchronize the weekly testing activities over the next year which
will provide our area with a baseline of information about the health of our
regions waters. Dan explained the importance of a “Quality” monitoring
system with accurate testing being of great importance, and that with
accurate results changes can then begin to take place for the improvement of
our coastal water quality building awareness for what we never new was in
the water to begin with.
The test results will be reported weekly on the local Surfrider website for
Westport and will also be linked to the national Surfrider website. With
this the public as well as state, county, and city entities can have
opinions on what’s going on with our waters and be aware of change needing
to be made and ultimately implementing improvements. In addition a method to
inform the public of high or dangerous levels of any substance will be set
up, such as posting signage at the sites of contamination and/or having area
newspapers report any warnings.
Kevin Ranker announced a meeting in Pacific City, Oregon on March 2nd and
3rd, which will be a workshop to educate the public and volunteers on water
testing techniques and the overall benefits and importance of implementing
water testing programs for our own health and that of the environment. All
those in the Westport area and otherwise who want to be a part of the Blue
Water Task Force Team should contact Rob Brown via email at
westportsurfrider@hotmail.com for more information on how to become
involved.
Clean Water Classic
Rob Brown called on any and all volunteers to convene after the meeting to
be assigned various tasks for the two day contest. Registration for
contestants took place before, during, and after the meeting.
Next Meeting
The next meeting is being planned for late-March/early April and will be
announced very soon.
Special Thanks
Special thanks to George Hart of the Army Corps of Engineers, all the
Chapters of Surfrider and volunteers who were so heavily involved in every
aspect of the contest, and to everyone who turned out to support Surfrider
and finding ways to improve our areas ocean environment. Your support is
greatly appreciated.
Don’t forget you can always check out Surfrider Foundation on the web. Visit
the Westport site at www.westportsurfrider.org or the national site at
www.surfrider.org. We welcome your questions and comments, email us at
westportsurfrider@hotmail.com or contact Rob Brown in Westport at (360)
268-5371.
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