Beach bacteria nothing new

Eron Ben-Yehuda

As the bacteria continues to play hide-and-seek in the ocean off

Huntington Beach, evidence suggests the contamination is nothing new and

may persist indefinitely.

Similar levels of bacteria were found during the same period last year,

yet health officials neither closed beaches nor posted warnings along the

sand as they have done this time around, Orange County Sanitation

District data shows.

“It doesn’t mean the water is dirtier,” Assemblyman Scott Baugh

(R-Huntington Beach) said. “It means the standards have changed, as far

as I can see.”

The new guidelines kicked in July 26 when AB 411 went into effect. The

state law requires health officials to take immediate action when, for

example, the level of enterococcus bacteria exceeds 104 organisms per 100

milliliters of water. Before the new law, officials had more discretion

to act as they saw fit.

Studies show that swimmers exposed to bacteria counts greater than 104

suffer from stomach and respiratory ailments, said Steve Book, a

toxicologist for the state department of health services.

“If the levels go up, there will be an increase in illnesses,” he said.

Huntington Beach Hospital has not seen any more cases of swimming-related

sickness since health officials detected the contamination in late June,

said Greg Boswell, manager for the hospital’s emergency department. Of

course, that could be related to people heeding warnings to stay out of

the water.

Baugh, though, suspects that the health risks are not as great as the

state law leads people to believe, especially because bacteria levels

have risen and fallen sporadically.

This week’s readings ranged from acceptable to four times higher than

standards allow, sometimes within the same day, said Larry Honeybourne,

program chief for the water-quality section of the Orange County Health

Care Agency.

“All of the sudden it’s popped up in the morning and by the evening it’s

clear,” he said.

Under prior law, such “spikes” would not have caused alarm because health

officials had to average the high and low bacteria counts, said Baugh,

who plans to hold public hearings on AB 411 at City Hall next month.

By Wednesday, warning signs stretched from Huntington State Beach to the

city pier. Health officials have stopped short of closing beaches since

they nearly ruled out sewage as the possible source of contamination and

instead focused on storm drain runoff.

But the mystery deepened last week after water tests taken near Talbert

Marsh, where runoff flows out into the ocean, turned up negative, said

Michele Tuchman, an Orange County Sanitation District spokeswoman.

“We keep coming up against brick walls,” she said.

Next week, the sanitation district plans to recheck sewage pipes five

miles out in the ocean simply to confirm that nothing leaks, she said.

But Dr. Gordon Labedz, who heads the Huntington Beach chapter of the

Surfrider Foundation, argues the real problem isn’t a break in the system

but the whole system itself, which allows runoff and treated waste water

to flow into the Pacific.

“As long as we use the ocean as a dump, this is going to happen, to

happen, to happen,” he said. “If these guys don’t take their heads out of

the sand, we’re going to have this problem every summer and soon we won’t

be able to use the beach.”