Can a trash collection wheel in Seal Beach stop garbage from making it into the ocean?

SEAL BEACH, Calif. (KABC) -- A group of local, state and nonprofit leaders are trying to figure out how to clean trash in the San Gabriel River before it makes it to the Pacific Ocean.

Locals say the trash that makes its way to the ocean is a big problem, especially following rain storms.

Laura Birinyi said she walks the trail along the river several times a week.

"All the trash just comes washing up on all the beaches, a lot of like small toys," Birinyi said, adding, "but then there's also like syringes and needles and stuff like that."

After having the same experience over the last 50 years living in Seal Beach, Councilmember Joe Kalmick wanted to do something.

"It's really a complex situation. It involves jurisdictions, it involves funding and for like one person, you know, you're really like Don Quixote," Kalmick said.

A call to District 72 Assemblymember Diane Dixon got the ball rolling.

She has experience dealing with trash going into the Upper Newport Bay from her time on the Newport Beach City Council. A solution is underway on the San Diego Creek, modeled after a wheel to collect trash in Baltimore.

A meeting of several stakeholders Friday was the first step toward putting a trash interceptor system on the San Gabriel River.

The river divides Orange and L.A. counties, the cities of Long Beach and Seal Beach - then there are all the nonprofits and the state.

"This is the very first meeting. I mean, we know generally, Newport Beach cost about $3-5 million. I do not know what L.A. spent... However, it's not impossible," Dixon said.

Assemblymember Dixon said if everything went smoothly at the meeting, there may soon be renderings of that trash collection system.