Four years ago, two outdoor enthusiasts were drawn to La Jolla from Washington, D.C. after being tempted by the ocean’s call. Adrian Kinnane, a surfer and sailor, and Jo Brooks, a rower at local women’s rowing club, found their niche on the California coast, spending much of their free time outdoors and volunteering with San Diego Coastkeeper to protect the “big blue” that beckoned them west. The husband-and-wife team act as stewards of one of the region’s most essential natural resources, fighting hazardous — yet often invisible — chemical enemies in San Diego’s inland and coastal waterways and educating the public on how they, too, can become stewards of clean water and healthy coastal ecosystems. “We had time and inclination to volunteer, and Coastkeeper was a natural fit given our recreational interests and our concern for the health of the bays and the ocean,” Kinnane said. “What Jo and I do is pretty normal stuff, and it’s not tied to the holiday season either. We’re both actively engaged, year round, in the work of San Diego Coastkeeper, a local nonprofit that focuses on ensuring that the region’s waters are fishable, swimmable and drinkable.” Brooks serves on the organization’s board of directors and Kinnane volunteers on the water-quality monitoring team, collecting monthly water samples from nine major watersheds in San Diego and analyzing them back at Coastkeeper’s lab. “Basically, we’re looking for the presence of certain chemicals in the water that could threaten life and for the presence of certain life forms such as E-coli bacteria that also could be hazardous to human health,” Kinnane said. “Certain algal or bacterial life forms thrive in water that’s loaded with chemicals such as fertilizers that run off farmlands or phosphates in soaps and detergents, but that’s not the kind of water we want to be swimming or fishing in, let alone drinking.” The water-quality monitoring team was praised for their instrumental role in identifying and documenting the massive sewage spill following San Diego’s power outage in September, but Kinnane emphasized the daily significance of the nonprofit’s role. “Clean air and water are essential for healthy life, as well as for recreation, not to mention their importance in the overall ecology of the planet,” he said. “No one wants to breathe dirty air, and no one wants to drink, swim or fish in dirty water.” He urged community members to consider what is best for the community at large in the long-term and make thoughtful decisions when it comes to day-to-day actions. “We are all human and so we don’t always decide what’s best for most people in the long run. We’re tempted to do what seems immediately in our own interest at that moment,” he said. “It’s actually a major problem throughout society, trying to decide short-term versus long-term interests, and balancing personal versus larger community interests.” Before tossing out chemically charged materials — including allowing soapy water from a car wash to run into a storm drain — Kinnane urged people to think one step ahead and gauge the consequences of their actions first. “On the simplest level, for example, I might want to get rid of some old paint, but I also know that tossing it into the storm drain means that it ends up in the ocean, which is bad for everyone,” he said. “I have to make a decision about priorities. If my standard is purely my own personal convenience at the moment, then I might toss it in the drain, but if I understand the larger picture — and the law — I will dispose of the paint responsibly.” In addition to protecting future generations of waterways, ecosystems and human health through their work with San Diego Coastkeeper, Kinanne and Brooks pitch in to improve the community in whatever ways they can. On weekends, when he is not doing water monitoring, Kinnane can be seen at the Maritime Museum working as a volunteer on the museum’s sail and maintenance crew or taking part in beach cleanups and other volunteer activities for the Surfrider Foundation. Brooks also commits her time to serve on the International Boundary and Water Commission’s San Diego Citizen’s Forum Board and the San Diego County Regional Airport Authority’s citizen advisory committee.
