Roundup

The environmental group Orange County CoastKeepers has launched a new

program aimed at keeping Huntington Harbour clean.

The “Dockwalker Program” will have volunteers out on docks in

Huntington Beach, among other coastal cities, handing out more than 1,000

tote bags filled with information and environment safe samples.

“Everybody’s got expectations of, and a right to, clean water,” said

Marty Kasules, the Orange County Harbormaster who spoke at the ceremony

at Peters Landing Marina on Thursday that introduced the program.

Dockwalker is a statewide program, which is part of the Boating Clean

and Green Campaign -- a joint effort among the California Coastal

Commission, the San Francisco Bay Conservation and Development Commission

and the California Integrated Waste Management Board.

The purpose is to talk to the boaters face to face, and to give them

information to help make it easier to be environmentally conscious, said

Ray Hiemstra, Dockwalker project manager.

“We give a list of operators who pump out boats to make it easier for

boaters to do the right thing,” Hiemstra said.

Garry Brown, founder and director of CoastKeepers, told a story of a

boater who was given a citation while cleaning a scuff mark off his boat

using Comet cleanser.

The boater could not understand what he had done wrong. How else was

he going to remove the mark?

Dockwalkers will give boaters detailed answers to questions like this

one and brochures on how to clean a boat using no detergent.

“We need to teach boaters better ways to do what they’re already

doing,” Brown said.

Dockwalkers will be an ongoing program.