Beach smoking issue moves up to Sacramento

Alicia Robinson

Smokers may have to bring their tape measures when they visit state

beaches if legislators approve a bill that requires them to be within

20 feet of a trash can when puffing or face a $100 fine.

District Assemblyman Leland Yee (D-San Francisco) said he will

introduce the bill in the Senate natural resources committee today.

The assemblyman is not trying to stamp out smoking, he said, just the

litter it causes.

“We spend an extraordinary amount of resources to clean up our

beaches,” Yee said. “I am very respectful of those individuals who

want to smoke.... However, you’ve got to smoke responsibly.”

Several Southern California cities including San Clemente, Los

Angeles, Santa Monica and Malibu have passed city beach smoking bans

in recent months, and several others including Newport Beach and

Huntington Beach are considering bans.

Yee’s bill was initially an outright prohibition of smoking on

state-owned beaches. But he modified the bill Monday after he met

resistance from members of the Senate natural resources committee,

where the bill remained after some members abstained from voting on

it last week.

“All of a sudden, we were faced with Libertarian-type arguments

[such as] why should the state impose its will on people who are

doing something that is not illegal,” Yee said.

Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger and the state parks department haven’t

taken a position on the bill. Parks officials are analyzing it to see

how it might affect their operations and what it might cost, said Roy

Stearns, state parks deputy director.

The state owns 64 beaches that comprise about one-fourth of the

state’s coastline, Stearns said. And park users do periodically

complain about it.

Newport Beach officials could consider banning or containing

smoking on the city’s beaches as soon as next week, when the Parks,

Beaches and Recreation Commission takes up the issue.

Mayor Tod Ridgeway said he expects the city to end up with a

smoking ban, though up until now, he’s advised proceeding with

caution because a ban would be difficult to enforce.

“Our police chief is not supportive of this ban, but I think

there’s a point in time where perhaps if we’re the last beach in the

state of California [that allows smoking], we don’t want to encourage

people to come here just because we’re the last beach,” Ridgeway

said.

Cigarette butts are considered litter, and littering already is

punishable by $100 fines -- if perpetrators are caught.

Park officials have done well with enforcing the limited ban on

alcoholic beverages, which are prohibited in some areas of state

parks and beaches, Stearns said, but bottles and cans are easier to

spot than cigarettes.

State beaches have trash receptacles about every 50 yards along

the sand and more in parking lots and camping areas, but smokers

don’t always use them, Stearns said.

“I don’t think that most [people] in the public think that a

cigarette butt is trash,” he said.

* ALICIA ROBINSON covers business, politics and the environment.

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

alicia.robinson@latimes.com.