San Juan Capistrano to Install Litter Traps to Keep Beaches Clean

San Juan Capistrano has secured $160,025 from the county's transportation agency to install trash-capturing devices designed to help keep local beaches free of pollution.

Nearly $3 million in the Orange County Transportation Authority's first award of M2 water quality funds was granted Tuesday to 34 projects that include providing catch basins to prevent trash from entering drainage systems, screens that capture smaller debris and irrigation system improvements to decrease oily runoff from streets.

According to OCTA, San Juan Capistrano will need to pitch in $155,394 to install the trash removal devices, called "linear radial gross solid removal devices."

"Our ongoing maintenance over 20 years is our match. Nothing was needed to be budgeted for," said Ziad Mazboudi, the city's civil engineer.

According to Caltrans, the devices are typically stainless steel louvers contained within a concrete vault. When water flows into the inside of the well casing and passes through the louvers, the litter becomes trapped inside the casing.

Mazboudi said they are similar to what the city is already using  at Avenida Aeropuerto. "We are proposing to install them at strategic locations where they are easily accessible for visual inspection, maintenance and they collect trash and debris from large tributary areas," he said.

M2 was approved by voters in 2006. Two percent of the half-cent sales tax will be used on a countywide, competitive basis to meet federal Clean Water Act standards for controlling transportation-generated pollution.

In this first round of funding, OCTA received applications for 47 projects.