April 16, 2010

Report Details

When we left Newport on March 15, there was plenty of sand on Mile 221's beach, including the area directly below where we live, Schooner Point. When we returned a month later we found the beach between Schooner Creek and just north of Schooner Point scoured of its sand; fantastically sculpted mudstone channels and formations that we haven't seen since the low-sand winter two years ago, had been uncovered at Schooner Point, and the caves that had been growing there for years had totally collapsed. The resulting tremors had knocked most of the hanging pictures in our house crooked.Mile 221 had five to ten times more litter than we'd ever seen there--all sizes of debris from a small refrigerator (nearby on Mile 220)down to pinhead-sized plastic bits. There were many glass and plastic bottles, a fair number bearing legends in Japanese, Russian, and Spanish. Lots of small floats, lines and ropes of all diameters up to 3", and millions of colored plastic bits. Because trash collection was not an option for us that day, we concentrated on searching for and picking up just two types of items, cigarette lighters (18) and toothbrushes (58!!!). Obviously, trash deposition and the composition of debris won't be identical for each Mile, but we don't understand why there are so many toothbrushes out there. Worrisome, along with the general erosion apparent on the bluffs, was the destruction of the sturdy-looking staircase leading down from the fairly new big-rig RV-pad facility.