It’s a river of trash flowing straight into the ocean.

Heaps of debris came gushing down the San Gabriel River on Tuesday, Dec. 13, pushed downstream by the big storm that roared through the region the last few days causing a “first flush” of the season. The rain inland swept the accumulated junk and pollution straight down the riverbed and onto local beaches and into the ocean.

KC Fockler, acting director of the Seal Beach/Huntington Beach Surfrider chapter, said he went to check out the conditions early morning to see how bad this year’s first flush was along the river, which borders Seal Beach and Long Beach.

“It was horrible. The amount of trash that was floating down … it was pretty bad,” he said. “It was just ugliness. It was trash galore.”

The watershed drains into the San Gabriel River from the San Gabriel Mountains, flowing 58 miles south until it meets with the Pacific Ocean. Numerous storm drains enter from the 19 cities the San Gabriel River passes through.

“You hate to say it, but everything drains to the ocean,” Fockler said. “We have to stop a lot of this waste at the source, people have to be more cognizant of where they throw their trash and make sure it goes into the trash. It’s all dirtying our ocean. It’s from negligence upstream that this happens.”

People need to understand how to reuse, reduce and recycle properly, he said.

“That’s the only way we’re going to stop this from occurring in the future. It’s pretty gnarly when you watch things like this floating down into the water. There was a couch there.”

He ticked off a long list of other items: cushions, gallon jugs, shoes and clothing and countless plastic cups and other single-use plastics such as straws and Styrofoam containers.

“A kid’s scooter was there in the water – it was pretty bad,” he said. “Just lots of stuff.”

The first significant rainfall seen in awhile washed out junk stuck in gutters, storm drains and tucked in other areas.

“Whenever you have the first flush, this is what tends to happen,” Fockler said.

And that is why Surfrider argues more should be done upstream not just by individuals, but by decision-makers upstream who  should be more proactive.

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A rain advisory was issued Sunday by the OC Health Care Agency warning of high bacteria levels in oceans and bay, especially near storms drains, creeks and rivers during and after rainstorms.

“The elevated levels of bacteria can continue for a period of at least three days depending upon the intensity of the rain and the volume of the runoff,” officials warned. “Swimmers should avoid coastal waters impacted by discharging storm drains, creeks and rivers, and beach users should avoid contact with any runoff on the beach during dry or wet weather conditions.”