Beach safe for swimming, health officials say

Eron Ben-Yehuda

At least with the current hot, dry weather, Huntington Beach’s ocean

contamination appears well under control.

Water samples looked so good last week that health officials declared the

entire beach safe for swimmers, said Monica Mazur, an environmental

health specialist for the Orange County Health Agency.

Since July, the beaches had remained closed or signs were posted warning

bathers to frolic at their own risk.

The test results suggest that Surf City may no longer have the worst

ocean bacteria problem in the county, Mazur said. “It kind of puts

everything on a level playing field with other cities.”

But as the immediate danger from ocean contamination dies down, health

officials plan for a long-term solution to controlling bacteria levels.

“We’ll look at the Huntington Beach area and then blossom out to the rest

of the county,” Mazur said.

The goal will be to control urban runoff, which officials increasingly

blame for the outbreaks of ocean pollution that peaked last summer, she

said.

Runoff waste water flows untreated from streets to storm drains and out

to sea. Diverting the flow through sewage treatment facilities seems to

work best, she said.

While the Orange County Sanitation District can treat “sewered” runoff

during the current dry weather, once the rains come the problem will be

too much to handle, said Blake Anderson, the district’s assistant general

manager. “It is technically and financially infeasible to take all urban

flow during wet weather.”

Anderson spoke Oct. 7 at a public gathering of city, county and state

officials called to discuss water quality at City Hall.

The district already plans to spend $1.5 billion over the next 20 years

to upgrade its facilities, and that doesn’t take into account the added

demands of urban runoff, he said.

Finding the answer to the ills caused by runoff will prove difficult,

said John Norton, who represents the State Water Quality Resources Board.

“I think we have a heck of a job ahead of us.”