Council votes against district dumping

Danette Goulet

Amid a flurry of public support, the City Council unanimously agreed

Monday night to oppose a waiver that allows the Orange County Sanitation

District to pump partially treated sewage 4 1/2 miles off the city’s

shores.

“We need to protect the beaches,” said Mayor Pam Julien Houchen

simply.

It was Julien Houchen who put the resolution to oppose the waiver

before the council Monday night.

The waiver allows the district to dump 236 million gallons of sewage

in the ocean each day. Half of the sewage has only had the solid waste

removed, leaving it rife with bacteria, environmentalists say.

The offshore discharge creates a plume that can be up to six miles

long, two to three miles wide and 100 feet thick.

“There’s a false sense of security that the plume was way out there

and now it’s real close,” said Garry Brown, the executive director of

Orange County CoastKeeper and a Huntington Beach resident.

City officials have joined many in questioning whether the plume of

waste water is responsible for the high levels of bacteria in the water

off Huntington Beach.

Although a sanitation district study done in 1999 suggests the waste

water does not make its way back to shore, a 1996 study shows otherwise.

That study found that the plume may approach the shoreline and

contaminate Huntington and Newport’s beaches under certain wave, tidal

and current conditions.

Although the Federal Clean Water Act requires waste water from most

publicly owned treatment facilities to be treated fully before discharge,

the Orange County Sanitation District was granted a waiver by the

Environmental Protection Agency that allows the dumping.

That waiver will expire at the start of 2003, but already it has been

promised opposition in Seal Beach as well, with Newport Beach planning to

vote on the issue next week.

The sanitation district’s board of directors will meet in November

2002 to decide if they should pursue a renewal of the waiver.

Councilman Peter Green, who also is on the sanitation district’s board

of directors, said the sanitation district will consider any new

information.

“As more data comes in, maybe it might influence the rest of the board

in November,” he said.

In the meantime, Councilman Ralph Bauer revisited the issue of urban

runoff with some ideas for the council to consider to possibly improve

water quality. The council agreed in one swift vote Monday night to look

into his suggestions.

The first would be to ban people from living aboard boats in

Huntington Harbour. While existing ordinances allow people to live aboard

their vessels for 72 hours, it is difficult to find those who may break

that law and live aboard full time, he said.

“In some cases, the boats are not operable, and you know they flush

the head into the channel,” he said.

The installation of grease traps in all restaurants and more frequent

street sweeping were also suggested.

Bauer added that he would like to increase awareness by creating a

helpful “how to prevent urban runoff” brochure and video similar to one

Dana Point produced.

Although the harbor waters are cleaned, it is difficult for workers to

get much of the debris as it floats into the corners of residents’

private docks, Bauer said.

If homeowners groups gave permission for workers to stand on their

docks, it would help that process, he said.

Bauer also wants to see more convenient pump-out stations and severe

fines for anyone caught pumping a bilge or dumping sewage into the

harbor. Finally, he suggested creating an adopt-a-storm-drain program or

implementing a hotline for anyone to report suspicious activities related

to pollution.