Surfriders give coast mixed report card

By Joel Gallob

Of the News-Times

The Oregon chapter of the Surfriders Foundation held a "paddle-out" and rally at the beach at Cape Kiwanda in Pacific City on Saturday, and gave Oregon a "report card" for how well it protects its coastal beaches.
Oregon received mixed results on the three areas involved - beach access, water quality, and shoreline development pressures.
Co-chairman Ralph Meier announced the results. For "beach access," even with the state's landmark beach bill, he said, the state earned only a "B minus."
"Beach access has declined in the past year, even despite the worthwhile property tax relief given to coastal property owners," Meier said, referring to people who own land traversed by the public on its way to the beach.
"Gated communities are going up around the coast, and that, also, is reducing public access to the public beaches," he added.
For "shoreline development pressures," the Surfriders gave the state a "C."
"We're seeing a lot of development that is not well thought through," Meier said. "We're seeing riprap beneath houses and developments on bluffs and beaches where they shouldn't be. That kind of shoreline armoring just adds to the problem and makes things worse. There are county and state rules on riprap and shoreline development, but they vary and have loopholes."
Actor Gregory Harrison, who played the character Gonzo in "Trapper John, M.D." on television, came north from Gold Beach to support the rally and the official unveiling of the report card. He told the nearly 40 Oregon surfers and others at the event that he was present, as a surfer, to "combat the pressures for indiscriminate development along the coast."
On the third subject - water quality - the organization gave the state of Oregon an "Incomplete."
"That," said Meier, "is because (the Department of Environmental Quality) has put nothing out here for us to be able to know if we have chemicals or other pollutants in the water. We know there are some problem sites, and Surfriders is doing some testing on our own, in sites along the central coast" (Please see related story this edition).
"I believe that we can have smart, responsible, sustainable development that protects the places we love," Harrison added. "We do not have to go the way of California. We do not have to have California's pollution problems, California's hundreds of miles of shoreline that are sea-walled or riprapped.
"But I warn you," Harrison added, "if you do not think it can happen here, in Oregon, you are wrong. It is happening here."