Sanitation district gathers input on water contamination

Tariq Malik

FOUNTAIN VALLEY -- Oceanographers, environmentalists and

microbiologists packed the control center auditorium at the Orange County

Sanitation District’s waste water plant on Ellis Avenue on Monday to

review ocean water tests for spring and summer.

The meeting brought together about 45 experts to form a technical

advisory committee to help the district test a theory that its waste

water plume from an outfall pipe may interact with an ocean water cooling

system used by the AES Corp. power plant in Huntington Beach. This

correlation may draw sewage shoreward, and therefore be one of reasons

for water contamination and beach closures.

In addition to representatives from environmental groups, regulatory

agencies and other coastal officials, the committee included UC Irvine

scientists who put forth the theory as a possible cause, as well as bird

waste from the Talbert Marsh, and urban runoff.

“We are thrilled that everybody we hoped would attend did,” said Lisa

Lawson, the district’s spokeswoman. “Now we have a set group of experts

that who we’ll be able to reach out to for input and comment on our

study.”

Han Tan, an engineer with AES, said he appreciated the lead taken by

the sanitation district to get to the bottom of this matter.

“I think this was a very productive meeting, and we’ll continue to

work closely with the sanitation district on this matter,” Tan said. “We

want to be able to determine whether the power station is part of the

contamination problem, and if so, do everything we can to solve and

control it.”

But some committee members thought the study may need a broader scope.

Vic Liepzig, a former Huntington Beach mayor and executive director of

the environmental group Orange Coast Watch, said focusing on the

relationship between AES and district as the possible cause to beach

bacteria contamination may be a mistake.

“It doesn’t do the district any good to just address that question,”

he said, adding that a “yes” answer would comfort some members of the

public, putting to rest the doubt on the subject, but a “no” answer would

not.

“Regardless of what the source is, we’re looking to find that,” he

said.

Committee members formed three groups Monday, one to study the

long-term objectives of ocean testing, a second to review how the

county’s watershed could be affected, and a final group to go over the UC

Irvine hypothesis in detail and critique the district’s study plan.

Monday’s meeting was the first of four planned gatherings of the

committee between now and April, with more sessions possible as spring

and summer water tests are conducted.