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.