Horse poop triggering controversy

Convinced that issues relating to the cleanup of horse manure as well as insurance and indemnity provisions in the contract need updating, the council decided not to renew the contract at a meeting Tuesday.

Before the council voted on the resolution, many horse enthusiasts spoke at length about their love for Sea Horse Ranch and horseback riding on the beach and felt the resolution was an attack on both. Those speakers also felt the council acted abruptly and placed the item on the agenda without sufficient notice. Emotions ran high, the Brown Act was invoked — but not violated, according to the city manager — and just about every speaker was met with vigorous applause or boos. The Brown Act is California’s open meeting law which sets standards for noticing and other requirements.

Councilmembers made it clear that the goal is to create a two-year window to negotiate a new contract that better addresses the nuisance and potential health and environmental hazards posed by such large amounts of horse manure on the beach. Erosion of the bluff is also more severe where equestrian access is concentrated, according to a staff report.

“No one wants to put Sea Horse Ranch out of business and I assure you no one wants to stop horses being allowed on the beach, but we do need to deal with the environmental consequences of excessive erosion and excessive horse manure and that’s all that this resolution addresses today,” Vice Mayor Harvey Rarback said. “I’m sure we’ll successfully come up with a good contract.” 

Councilman Adam Eisen offered further detail as to potential environmental impacts of poop buildup on the beach.

“There is an overabundance of nitrogen, which can happen in the poop which does lead to red tides and this reduces dissolved oxygen and causes extinctions of organisms contributing to fish kills and oxygen depletion,” he said. “We have a fishing and crab community at play in Half Moon Bay as well. We have to take all the pieces of the pie and think about them.”

Eisen also stressed that there will be many future conversations based on extensive research on potential solutions moving forward and Rarback apparently proposed an ordinance requiring horses to wear diapers, but the status of that plan is unclear.

Willa Chapman, executive director of Sea Horse Ranch, appeared amenable to working with the city on a solution that works for both parties, but resented the council’s actions and insisted that Sea Horse Ranch shouldn’t solely be blamed for the various issues facing Poplar Beach. She blamed the city for not living up to its end of the contract by not cleaning the beach over the past seven years. The contract obligates Sea Horse Ranch to clean up horse droppings where horse traffic crosses pedestrian and bicycle traffic, but does not specifically address beach cleanup, according to the report.

“There’s not a problem that exists that we can’t together solve,” she said. “But I think the city needs to acknowledge that it dropped the ball, it did not do its job. We’re going to fix that, but I’m not going to allow the ranch or the community at large to be vilified because there’s manure on the beach that the city should have been cleaning up for the last seven years.”

She added that her staff cleans the beach three times a week and then upped it to five times a week after an increase in complaints.  

“In an effort to solve the issue, I made an offer to staff that Sea Horse Ranch would hire a full-time employee to do nothing but clean up caca from the beach and that offer was not included in the staff report and that concerns me,” she said. “We’ve done everything we can do in good faith.”

Last spring, the city funded a program that employs homeless people to clean up Poplar Beach, but the crew appears to be overwhelmed by the amount of horse manure and itself cannot solve the problem.

“I was surprised by how much manure is on the beach when the project started,” said Eric Debode, who heads the coastal cleanup program. “There’s an unbelievable amount of manure and it was shocking and a lot of people have stories of stepping in it and kids playing around it. We should rise to the moment and be reasonable people. We’re just addressing manure and we can figure that out. It’s not rocket science.”

Staff will provide an update on the negotiation process with Sea Horse Ranch within six months.

zachary@smdailyjournal.com

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