Vaughan pushing for Port Blake beach cleanup

By John Miner

South Huron doesn’t own the beach next to Port Blake Day Park, but Coun. Marissa Vaughan would like the municipality to clean it up anyway.

“The fact of the matter is, people are not picking up their garbage and it looks disgusting,” Vaughan told a recent council meeting.

The garbage and litter left on the beach hurts South Huron’s reputation and negatively affects the experience of visitors. People do not distinguish between the Port Blake park owned by South Huron and the adjacent beach area owned by the Lake Huron Primary Water Supply System, she said.

When she has explained to people from the Port Blake area that South Huron doesn’t own the beach and therefore won’t be picking up the garbage, they just roll their eyes, Vaughan said.

The pushback from people is that if the municipality doesn’t want to take care of the litter on the beach, it should close the access to the beach from the park.

“I have to admit from an environmental and stewardship perspective we are aware people go to the beach, we are aware that litter is left there, and I think we ought to do something about it,” Vaughan said.

She pointed out that South Huron currently collects $30 a car for parking at Port Blake park.

Vaughan introduced a motion to direct municipal staff to implement daily litter collection and cleanup at Port Blake beach for the remainder of the 2026 season.

If municipal staff determine that cleanup of the beach area cannot proceed due to legal, insurance, health and safety, or operational constraints, staff should be directed to implement mitigation measures including a one-time cleanup of the beach, signage, receptacles, and public education.

South Huron CAO Rebekah Msuya-Collison said a report will be prepared by staff on the options council can take to deal with the litter. One of the issues that will be looked at is whether municipal staff can legally collect garbage on the beach area owned by the Lake Huron Primary Water Supply System.

Jeremy Becker, South Huron manager of community and emergency services, said more garbage receptacles could be added at the top of the hill in the park for the time being in hopes people will bring their garbage back up from the beach.

“That’s where the challenge I think lies,” Becker said.

On a recent visit to the beach with the CAO, Becker said they observed everything from blankets to garbage, to kids toys that were left behind. Some of that ends up in the water.

South Huron is fortunate, Becker said, that there are some good people that take bags down to the beach and collect garbage.