Billboard targets polluters

June Casagrande

It’s just a drop in the bucket, and a little one at that, but every

drop counts.

The Newport Beach chapter of the Surfrider Foundation has lucked

its way into an opportunity to help spread the word about water

quality. Surfrider enthusiasts who happen to work at the site -- Mike

Boudreaux, partner in Morse-Boudreaux architects, Bill Thomas and Bob

Scott -- donated space on a small billboard next to their office

building at 1931 Newport Blvd. in Costa Mesa.

“We’re very lucky to get it. Billboard space is hideously

expensive otherwise,” Newport chapter chair Nancy Gardner said.

Though it’s a tiny billboard, “more like a big bumper-sticker,”

and dwarfed by the huge Banana Republic billboard above it, Gardner

and other Surfrider members seized the chance to spread the word

about keeping the ocean and bay clean.

“It was a good opportunity for us to use the sign to help out

Surfrider,” Thomas said.

They started by corralling some volunteers last fall to design the

water quality message that’s been on the billboard since September.

The sign shows black, oil-darkened water with the message, “Ocean

blue. As created by those who don’t care. Keep it clean.”

Unfortunately, Gardner said, the billboard is too small to

effectively convey the message of the design.

“At night, it looks OK, but in the daytime, it just looks like a

bunch of brown,” Gardner said.

So foundation volunteers are going back to the drawing board,

looking for better ways to get their message across. Some say the

billboard should preach against littering, but Gardner said she’d

rather see a message telling inland residents that urban runoff from

throughout the region is a significant contributor to water

pollution.

The foundation has a contract to use the billboard for free for

three years, though it’s possible that the property owners could

display other messages there for a few weeks each year.

“The billboard, while small, still gets seen by thousands of

motorists a day,” said Dave Kiff, assistant city manager for Newport

Beach, who heads the city’s water-quality efforts. “We wish there

were dozens more messages like that to help people realize the link

between behaviors at home and water quality at the beach.”