On Thursday, December 19, 2024, a crew from Alameda’s Public Works Department was out in force at Alameda Point to clean up debris hurled onshore by recent storms.
Six workers brought plenty of equipment to remove the plastic-and-Styrofoam-laced debris along the Seaplane Lagoon shoreline near the ferry terminal.
A front loader was filled by hand with larger debris before being deposited into a dump truck.
A mini street sweeper went back and forth on the bike trail to vacuum up the blanket of small debris after it was “herded” into the center by a worker using a leaf blower.
Truck-mounted storm drain vacs were used to vacuum up Styrofoam pellets and small bits of plastic packed into one corner of the shoreline. The vacuum hose on the first unit tended to clog with small sticks.
So they brought in a bigger unit.
One worker guided the vacuum attachment, while others moved boulders to get at the debris. “This was the first time our storm drain hydro vacs have been used to clean up Styrofoam pellets,” said Public Works Supervisor Patrick Papalagi.
Between the street sweeper, the vacuum trucks, and hand labor, the crew removed 18.25 cubic yards of debris from the Seaplane Lagoon shoreline, according to Papalagi.
Crews had also been busy cleaning up other shoreline messes from the storms. “Public Works and Parks both did cleanups on Harbor Bay shorelines,” said Papalagi. “The Parks Department addressed from the Bay Farm Bridge to the Ferry Terminal, and Public Works addressed from the Ferry Terminal south through the concrete terraced promenade.”
Public Works also cleared debris from Main Street and on Shoreline Drive that was causing flooding.
Originally published in the Alameda Post.
Alameda Point Environmental Report 