Contractor faces fine for chlorine spill

Susan McCormack

NEWPORT BEACH -- An Irvine Co. contractor never took a sample of 3,500

gallons of chlorinated water dumped into Crystal Cove State Park on

Monday and will face up to $10,000 in penalties for violating a permit

requirement, a water board official said Friday.

Kurt Berchtold, an assistant executive officer with the Santa Ana

Regional Water Quality Control Board, said his agency will soon decide

what the exact penalty will be for the Irvine Co. Berchtold said his

agency will take into consideration that no environmental damage was done

and that the incident was accidental.

The water board gave the Irvine Co. a permit to discharge 0.1 milliliters

of chlorine per liter of water. The chlorine was used to decontaminate

new water pipes for an 800-home community the Irvine Co. is constructing.

On Monday, environmentalists told authorities the stench of chlorine was

emanating from water flowing through Los Trancos Creek, which leads onto

Crystal Cove beach. The board investigated the incident, saying chlorine

at acceptable limits should not smell.

The key to finding out if the Irvine Co. spilled unacceptable levels of

chlorine into the creek lay in a sample the contractor, Griffith Co., was

supposed to take, according to its permit. Because there was no sample

taken, the Irvine Co. must pay a penalty.

Paul Kranhold, spokesman for the Irvine Co., said the contractor had been

discharging water as the permit allowed for three days before the

accident occurred. Kranhold said sodium bisulfate is added to the

discharge to neutralize the water, but on Monday, unpurified water had

mistakenly been released from a 1,300-foot-long pipe into the creek.

“It wasn’t malicious,” Kranhold said. “It was an unfortunate accident.”

Kranhold said he believes the Irvine Co. will continue to work with

Griffith Co., which he called a “respectable company.”

“The accident ... has given us a heightened sensibility,” Kranhold said,

adding that the Irvine Co. will now work with the sanitation district to

gain permission to capture the discharge and divert it into the sewer

system so it does not enter the creeks.