Louis Pasoz tests his Marina Trash Skimmer at OC Dana Point Harbor

On a lunch date with his wife in Long Beach, Louis Pasoz watched as marina staff cleaned floating debris from the water. No sooner had the workers finished and left the area than debris began floating into the area cleaned only minutes before. This casual observation was the spark that would ignite Pasoz’s idea for the giant skimmer systems he has introduced to harbors and marinas from Washington to Long Beach to Mexico—and right here in the Dana Point Harbor.

As an avid surfer and a 24-year resident

of San Clemente, water quality had always been a concern for Pasoz, not only in his

personal life but in his career as well. Pasoz began working for the County of Los Angeles in a water treatment plant at the age of 18. During his 16 years with LA County, Pasoz worked his way up from plant attendant to a grade-three water treatment plant operator—

a position that requires extensive education. “I took advantage of the educational programs offered by LA County back in the ‘80s,” said Pasoz. “I was paid to go to school. I would work all night and surf and go to school during the day. They sent me to certificate programs in water treatment, water hydraulics, pumps and motors at colleges like Caltech, Palomar and CSU Sacramento. During that time, water really became something that I enjoyed working with. Then on that day with

my wife in Long Beach, when I got the idea

for these skimmers, I decided to try and make a difference; to do something about water quality myself.”

Pasoz approached the city of Long Beach with his idea and asked for permission to develop a skimmer prototype, install and test it. Initially, Long Beach administrators were reluctant to allow yet another inventor use their marina as a guinea pig. They had heard this pitch before. Seven times before, to be exact. Pasoz was told other companies had previously approached the city trying to implement an automated system for cleaning the marina and had achieved only minimal success. Despite the skepticism Pasoz was met with, he was able to convince Long Beach officials to let him give it a try.

The idea grew quickly from concept to prototype, worked well in Long Beach and spurred the launch of Pasoz’s company Applied Water Technologies (AWT). It has been 12 years since Pasoz patented his Marina Trash Skimmer. Since then Pasoz has teamed up with and licensed the production of the device to Marine Accessories, Inc. (MAI) in Bellingham, Washington. In addition to the skimmer being tested in the Dana Point Harbor, currently there are four in the Port of San Diego, one in the City of Long Beach, one in Cabo San Lucas and one in Bellingham, Washington.

A prototype was installed at Pier 32 in San Diego and two months into testing they began to see fish that they had never seen there before. The fish were attracted to the clean oxygenated water coming out of the skimmer after debris had been removed. “Their observation of new sea life was helpful in acquiring a grant to fund a total of four skimmers in use there now,” said Pasoz. “San Diego is in the process of applying for a grant for an additional six. Long Beach is in the process of looking to fund about 30 more for use in the harbor there.”

According to OC Dana Point Harbor Operations Manager Paul Lawrence, the skimmer on loan to the harbor has been successful. “We’ve seen significant amounts of marine debris removed by the skimmer. We previously had a small work boat and a harbor staff member coming as frequently as twice a day to clean floating debris from just this small corner of the harbor. Now the skimmer has taken over that duty completely. Instead of having staff chase debris around he harbor, the skimmer does the work and all we need to do is empty it.”

With the positive evaluation of the Dana Point skimmer so far, the harbor is looking into obtaining grant funding for the purchase of more, but according to Lawrence, in the absence of grant money, it is possible that the harbor may obtain them by outright purchase. Pasoz also pointed out that Measure M money could be a possible source for grant funds.

At this time skimmers cost $16,000 each, but with Long Beach looking to get 30, an idea to provide a leasing program is in development. In addition, Pasoz has been working with MAI to begin roto-molding the skimmers in order to bring the price down and make production more efficient. It is hoped that the changes in production will bring the price down to around $13,000.

So, how do the skimmers work exactly?

The Marina Trash Skimmer uses water displacement to move about 300 gallons of water per minute. It has an oil-free motor and costs only about $18 per month for the electricity to operate it. Water enters the skimmer and before it can get pumped out of the skimmer, it goes down through a grid for the removal of debris then gets oxygenated by an aeration pump as it is leaves the skimmer. During the process, the addition of oxygen reacts with pollutants in the water creating a chemical reaction that oxidizes chemicals in the water aiding in their removal. The skimmers are especially successful at removing the “oil slick” often seen on the surface of harbor water with the inclusion of a bilge pad.

A large amount of pelagic plastics—microscopic plastics that have photodegraded into smaller and smaller pieces but, as they are not biodegradeable, will forever remain in the water unless removed by some mechanical means—are also filtered out during the process. Recent surveys suggest that up to one-eighth of our harbors and marinas are covered with these plastics. Pelagic plastics are highly detrimental to the environment, as they are ingested by marine life introducing chemical toxins into the food chain.

Test skimmers are removing an average of 50 to 70 gallons of debris per day each. Harbors testing their operation have the opportunity to log on to the marinatrashskimmer.com website to share data. In the first five months of 2010, a reported average of 2,035 gallons of debris is being removed per month. The total number of gallons of trash removed since data collection for the test units began in January of 2009 is around 20,000 gallons.

In the Dana Point Harbor the numbers average a bit lower, thanks to existing Clean Marina programs that keep it one of the

cleanest harbors in the country, probably

even in the world. Dana West Marina General Manager Kelly Rinderknecht helps pull together data from the skimmer and is so far reporting the Dana Point average is running at about 18 gallons per day, 540 per month. Her data represents collection from January to June.

“Some days we collect as little as one gallon, while other days the total can be around 80,” said Rinderknecht. “May 2010 was the biggest collection month so far with a total of 1,215 gallons of debris collected.”

Test units in Long Beach record the highest numbers, thanks in large part to garbage from the LA River, but Half Moon Bay near Humphrey’s by the Sea in San Diego is also pulling out large amounts of debris.

With the scarcity of grant money and lack

of funds facing many cities in these difficult economic times, Pasoz would like to see big companies stepping up to sponsor the skimmer in the future. “We could put a company’s name and logo on the skimmer in return—

saying something like ‘Coca Cola together with the City of Dana Point and Applied Water Technology are partners in cleaning our environment,’ for example,” said Pasoz. “Also, much of the floating debris we remove with the skimmers happens to come from fast food places, Starbucks, cigarette butts, water bottles, etc. and it would be a good PR move for them to—instead of just adding trash to

the environment—participate in helping

to remove it. I think together we could do a

lot more.”

Lawrence pointed out that Pasoz doesn’t get paid for the many hours he spends at the harbor servicing the skimmer, collecting data and making adjustments to the equipment. “I would do it for free,” said Pasoz. “If I could afford to, I’d install them everywhere at no cost to the marinas. That’s the honest truth.” Lawrence responded, saying that, “It really is the honest truth. That’s just one of the things I really like about Louis. He has a genuine concern for water quality and the environment. We take the issue of water quality very seriously at OC Dana Point Harbor and he shares our concern completely.”

In a few weeks, Pasoz will be visiting the factory in Washington to see the new, less expensive and more efficient model now in development.

“My greatest hope for Louis is that these skimmers become widely used worldwide,” said Lawrence. “From what I’ve seen with our test unit here, I really think they could make a big difference in water quality.”

When asked what his dream for the future of the Marina Trash Skimmer, Pasoz replied by saying that although he would love to see them being used all over the world, that his wish is not all about the money.

“This project is more about what can be done to positively affect the environment. As a surfer for 25 years, I know about what an awful experience it is to paddle out through so much floating debris. I look forward to leaving a legacy of positive change for the environment. That’s the bottom line for me.” said Pasoz. “We would, however, like to be the McDonald’s of the marina skimmer business in that I hope someday we can also say,

‘Millions, or even billions served.’”

For more information about the Marina Trash Skimmer, log on to www.marinatrashskimmer.com.