The efforts of this rising coalition of concerned residents prompted Orange County Supervisor Katrina Foley to sponsor a public meeting on the issue on Monday night, from 6 p.m. to 8 p.m. at the OC Sailing and Event Center near the area called Baby Beach in Dana Point Harbor.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cWe set up this town hall so we could address the public on all these things,\u201d Foley told me, noting she\u2019s spent time getting educated on OC waterways because of the resident outreach and will have every relevant agency at Monday\u2019s public meeting.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cI don\u2019t want chemicals more than anyone,\u201d Foley added.\u00a0<\/p>\n
She credited residents for bringing attention to the issue, pushing local officials to act.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s what I love about local government.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
Despite the Monday meeting, Linas said he\u2019s become frustrated with the intransigence of county staff on the issue and his inability to meet directly with Foley \u2013 who says she couldn\u2019t meet with him in recent months amid tending to her father who recently died.\u00a0<\/p>\n
According to public documents forwarded by Linas \u2013 whose coalition earlier this month formed into the OC Creek Team <\/a>\u2013 county officials argue the herbicide usage by the local flood control district is used to control unwanted vegetation, which can impede storm and urban runoff, from growing in the flood control facilities.<\/p>\n Yet Linas, 41, a former Navy special operations officer, who grew up in Orange County and moved back in 2022, contrasts that approach with what he saw in San Diego County where the waterways are allowed to remain in a more natural state.<\/p>\n \u201cSan Diego has done this incredible job of building an ecosystem,\u201d Linas said. \u201cThat\u2019s when I noticed the difference.\u201d<\/p>\n He and a rising coalition of local residents are ringing alarm bells on the use of such herbicides in the local creeks that flow directly into Doheny State Beach in Dana Point.\u00a0<\/p>\n Their yearlong effort has netted a lot of tension in trying to get public bureaucrats to think differently about how to manage Orange County waterways.<\/p>\n What they\u2019ve learned, they say, should be deeply concerning to all OC residents who live near waterways such as the Santa Ana River.\u00a0<\/p>\n I first read about the issue from Jeff Pearlman\u2019s Truth OC<\/a>, where Creek Team organizers laid out their argument.<\/p>\n There, organizers point to an Army Corps of Engineers report that raised questions about the county\u2019s course of action in the San Juan Flood control channel to remove foliage.\u00a0<\/p>\n Linus notes the OC Creek Team has met with OC Public Works to change how the creeks are managed by the local flood control district with no luck.\u00a0<\/p>\n Foley told me the Army Corps of Engineers doesn\u2019t allow vegetation in the creeks, adding that county public works officials are doing a study on how to add vegetation to certain areas of the channel.\u00a0<\/p>\n She also noted publicly this past week at the county supervisor\u2019s regularly scheduled public meeting that there had been some issues last year with contractors using improper herbicides in the channels, which prompted an investigation and action by county officials.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cI did make one change \u2026 we no longer use glyphosate (the active ingredient in the controversial weed killer Round Up) in San Juan and Trabuco Creeks,\u201d Foley said.\u00a0<\/p>\n But Linas said county officials are still using a host of other herbicides that prompt concern.\u00a0<\/p>\n Organizers have launched a petition drive<\/a> on Change.org<\/a> to Stop Toxic Herbicide Spraying in San Juan Creek and Orange County Waterways.<\/p>\n \n\tRelated\n<\/p>\n \t![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/IMG_2441-copy.jpg\")
The point where River View Park meets the concrete structures lining the Santa Ana River on March 14, 2023. The Santa Ana River trail, a walking and bike path, runs alongside it. Credit: ERIKA TAYLOR, Voice of OC.<\/p>\n