Bleaching not having desired effects
Paul Clinton
Three weeks after the Orange County Sanitation District began
chlorinating its waste water, bacteria levels along Surf City’s
shoreline have not fallen, an agency spokeswoman says.
“It looks like, unfortunately, the disinfection is not a fix to
the shoreline contamination problems,” District spokeswoman Lisa
Murphy said. “It is proving to be effective in killing bacteria in
the treated waste water ... Truly, the waste water plume is not
impacting those bacteria levels.”
District managers have long maintained that the 243-million
gallons of sewage the district dumps into the ocean from an outfall
pipe 4 1/2 miles out to sea every day is not contaminating the
surfzone.
It’s a contention that city leaders and environmentalists have
questioned equally long as they pushed for better treatment of the
sewage.
Surf City’s leaders renewed their push for full treatment, which
was approved by the district’s board in July.
“I’d prefer getting a higher level of treatment [to
chlorination],” Mayor Debbie Cook said. “It sounds like they’re
talking out of both sides of their mouth. If it’s not effective [in
reducing bacteria on the shoreline], why are they continuing to do
it?”
A string of scientific studies over the past year have pointed to
other possible culprits -- including urban runoff, bird droppings in
the Santa Ana River and an RV park -- for recurring bacterial “hot
spots” at Huntington State Beach.
On Aug. 12, the district started a program to immediately bleach
the waste, dechlorinate it, then release it into the sea.
Getting the new treatment method running has been smooth, Murphy
said. As the waste water moving through the two treatment plants --
Plant No. 1 in Fountain Valley and Plant No. 2 in Huntington Beach --
it goes through several stages of chlorination.
It is treated with a dose of chlorine about three times stronger
than the everyday household variety; the district uses between 18,000
and 20,000 gallons per day.
Agency workers bleach the waste water for about two hours of
“contact time,” then add a dechlorination chemical to remove the
bleach before it enters the ocean.
Local water quality regulators ordered the district to begin the
chlorination process to help ease the worried minds of surfers and
swimmers heading to the beaches. They have been regularly monitoring
bacteria levels along the shoreline.
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