Creek to Bay Cleanup

Registration Underway for San Diego County's Creek to Bay Cleanup!

March 26, 2008 FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

SAN DIEGO COUNTY, CA – Interested in giving back to your community, and improving the natural environment in San Diego? April is Earth Month and I Love A Clean San Diego is celebrating by hosting the 6th Annual Creek to Bay Cleanup on Saturday, April 26^th from 9am to noon. Registration has begun and hundreds of San Diegans have already made the commitment to clean up San Diego County at this annual event, sponsored by the County Board of Supervisors through the support of Supervisor Greg Cox and Supervisor Pam Slater-Price. I Love A Clean San Diego has announced that this year they are coordinating over sixty cleanup sites throughout San Diego County, with sites ranging from San Ysidro to Oceanside, and Mission Beach to Ramona. Show your support for the environment and register today at www.creektobay.org.

The Creek to Bay Cleanup offers a unique opportunity to bring together friends, families, co-workers, and service organizations to protect our shorelines and inland areas. Coordinators encourage large groups to get involved, making the event part of a team building day, or even a family reunion. Volunteers of all ages are invited to participate in one of San Diego’s largest one day cleanup events.

The mission of the Creek to Bay Cleanup is to engage community members to remove debris from San Diego's waterways and open space areas. Half of the cleanup sites are coastal and half are inland, emphasizing the fact that almost 80% of marine debris originates inland. Human actions such as irrigation runoff and natural forces including wind and rain move trash into creeks and rivers, and manmade waterways like storm drains and flood control channels. Eventually, this debris ends up at our coastline, posing a threat to beachgoers, boaters, and the marine environment. The Creek to Bay Cleanup helps to illustrate a key message: the entire watershed is connected. The solution to ocean pollution is litter prevention and protection of all areas throughout the watershed.

At last years Creek to Bay, over 3,000 dedicated volunteers removed a record-breaking 202,367 pounds of debris from 230 miles of coastline and inland areas. These statistics emphasize the necessity of this cleanup each year, as trash is still a growing problem in the community. “Since we have expanded the cleanup to more inland and canyon sites, we are finding tons of trash at these sites”, says Pauline Martinson, executive director of I Love A Clean San Diego. “We invite volunteers to roll up their sleeves and choose an inland site to cleanup this year as this is where most of the debris is located.” Since it’s inception in 2003, I Love A Clean San Diego has mobilized over 14,000 volunteers who have removed an astounding 318 tons, or 636,000 pounds of trash!

Several exciting plans for this year’s cleanup include event t-shirts for all participants, raffle prizes at all cleanup sites, and an appearance by ILACSD’s Clean Water Ambassador, Captain Wetiquette at this years media site, Los Penasquitos Canyon Preserve. All cleanup supplies are provided, but volunteers are encouraged to check out the Creek to Bay website, www.creektobay.org for specific requirements at some sites.

Sponsors of this year’s event include the aforementioned San Diego County Board of Supervisors, Time Warner Cable, the Barona Band of Mission Indians, San Diego Bay Watershed Group, City of San Diego – Think Blue, Sempra Energy, Sony, Kashi, Stretch Island Fruit Company, Bear Naked, and SeaWorld. KFMB Channel 8’s EARTH 8 campaign will act as this years media sponsor. Site sponsors include the Ellen Browning Scripps Foundation, Wilson Sonsini Goodrich & Rosati Foundation, Cubic Transportation Systems, General Dynamics – NASSCO, Hewlett Packard, City of Poway, City of Escondido, Birch Aquarium, Coca-Cola, McCormick & Schmick’s, Omni San Diego, Chula Vista Nature Center, Dog Beach Dog Wash, BD Biosciences, and San Diego Maritime Museum.

The Creek to Bay Cleanup is part of a national cleanup campaign titled The Great American Cleanup, which is led nationally by Keep America Beautiful. From March 1 – May 31, volunteers across the nation will rally to fight debris by hosting cleanups and other community improvement activities. To learn more about the 6^th Annual Creek to Bay Cleanup, or to register as a volunteer, please visit www.creektobay.org, or call I Love A Clean San Diego at 1-800-237-BLUE.