A united front against ocean pollution

Paul Clinton

Several maverick Orange County businessmen have formed a nonprofit

environmental advocacy group to help clean up the county’s beaches.

Four of the 11 board members of the group, known as the MiOcean

Foundation, live in Newport Beach.

Craig Atkins and three other fellow surfers, who also work in the

private sector, founded the group about two years ago after a day of

surfing in front of Atkins’ West Newport home.

Atkins remembers heading back to the shoreline, with board in

hand, after riding one last wave. He had an epiphany.

“I just finished surfing and had three plastic bags wrapped around

my foot,” said Atkins, a principal with O’Donnell Atkins,

California’s largest land broker.

That same day, John Moody, who lives in Dana Point, developed a

staph infection that landed him in the hospital. Atkins says the

group has started to clean up the trash from the county’s beaches, as

well as reducing bacteria in the surf zone.

Paul Makarechian, the president and chief executive of Newport

Beach-based real estate firm Makar Properties, also co-founded the

organization. Makar is a diversified commercial real estate firm with

about $700 million in assets under management and nearly $2 billion

in development.

Since its founding, the members have raised more than $300,000.

The group has targeted several Newport Beach locations for

cleanup. Those include a storm drain that runs along Seashore Drive

that has been pinpointed as a potential contributor of bacteria in

the Santa Ana River mouth.

More ambitiously, the group has kicked around the idea of

installing a network of natural wetlands that could filter polluted

runoff heading into Southern California’s largest urban channel.

MiOcean members also have their eye on Upper Newport Bay and the

Greenville Banning Channel, which runs alongside the Santa Ana River

in Costa Mesa.

They have also pledged to contribute $100,000 to the restoration

and diversion of North Creek at Doheny State Beach. They also want to

pitch in for the $3.5-million cleanup of Salt Creek in Dana Point.

What sets MiOcean apart from most environmental activist groups is

their business-minded approach, leaders said.

“We definitely are going to go to other businesses to garner

support,” Atkins said. “Rather than to take an antagonistic approach,

we’ll look for a positive solution.”

After they kick-started MiOcean, group founders recruited seven

other environmentally conscious business leaders. That group includes

Wahoo’s Fish Tacos founder Wing Lam and John Kittleson, an attorney

with Allen Matkins Leck Gamble & Mallory. Kittleson lives in Newport

Beach.

* PAUL CLINTON covers the environment, business and politics. He

may be reached at (949) 764-4330 or by e-mail at

paul.clinton@latimes.com.