Sanitation district to test ocean water

Malik Tariq

FOUNTAIN VALLEY -- The Orange County Sanitation District hopes to

conduct an extensive series of tests this summer to determine whether

partially treated waste water, dumped more than four miles offshore, is

making its way back to city beaches.

The district’s technical advisory committee, made up of sanitation

officials, microbiologists, oceanographers and environmentalists, drafted

up plans for seven studies of the ocean water surrounding its sewage

outfall pipe, with the first to start in May.

District spokeswoman Lisa Lawson said that copies of the draft survey

plan will be sent out to committee members on April 13, with a meeting

for further discussion set for April 20.

Committee members initially met last month to help test a theory put

forth by UC Irvine scientists stating that bacteria levels found in local

beach waters in 1999 may have been the result of partially treated sewage

creeping back to shore due to the powerhouse AES Huntington Beach LLC’s

cooling water system, which pumps about 88,000 gallons of heated seawater

into the ocean each minute. The district expels about 240-million gallons

of partially treated waste water per day.

“We’re working hand in hand with the sanitation district on this,”

said Han Tan, an engineer with AES who sits on the committee. “Like the

district, we’re deeply entrenched in this study, and will help provide

people, boats and other things needed during testing.”

The draft proposal calls for five surveys, one each month, between May

and September, with additional studies in June and September, committee

officials said.

Each study will be as extensive as the survey conducted on beach water

contamination in 1999. Beach water samples will be taken every hour for

48 hours in each study, with boats collecting sediment and ocean water at

various depths.

“We’ll also have in place a number of buoys to determine the direction

of ocean currents, their speed and temperature, which will be recorded in

small attached computers,” said Bob Ghirelli, committee chair and

director of technical services for the district.

“In essence we’re trying to connect the dots from offshore to the

beach,” Ghirelli said of the bacteria study. “If they connect, then we

have to see what we can do about it.”

District officials have budgeted about $1 million for the summer

surveys, though they expect to spend up to $2.5 million on the project.

Additional state and federal funds are being sought, and the district may

be able to make up any shortfall left over, they added.