Looking deeper

Jenny Marder

Scientists braved pouring rain and strong winds to collect more than

100 water and sediment samples from Huntington Harbour and Anaheim

Bay last week, launching the final phase of a two-part testing

process to determine the amount of pollution in the city’s harbor.

The study represents the most extensive water quality testing ever

to be done in Huntington Harbour, said Garry Brown, executive

director of Orange County Coastkeeper, a nonprofit environmental

organization dedicated to protecting the coastal waters in Southern

California.

The study is being directed and funded by the Santa Ana Regional

Water Quality Control Board, with the help of Orange County

Coastkeeper, which is providing the state agency with boats and

manpower.

“The theory is, if we can take that expense out of the equation,

then it will be easier for them to do the study,” Brown said.

To accurately assess contamination levels, data from the dry

weather season must be compared rainy season samples, said Pavlova

Vitale, planning director of the Regional Water Quality Control

Board.

Although the dry season data has been collected, scientists are

not releasing information until they can compare it to rainy season

data being collected now, Vitale said.

But Brown said that the overall water quality of samples taken in

the dry season was typical for harbors that have storm drains coming

in.

“There were no surprises,” he said. “The water had some excess of

water quality standards. There was nothing dire, but it shows we have

a lot of work to do.”

The historic study began in August of 2001, but the wet season

phase was put on hold for a year due to a shortage of rainfall.

The wet season study must be done after a hearty rain, since the

primary source of contaminants is carried in storm water runoff, said

Richard Gossett, laboratory director of CRG Marine Laboratories,

where the data’s chemical analysis is being performed.

“This is going to answer a lot of questions,” Brown said.

Of the several channels that drain into Huntington Harbor, the two

largest are the East Wintersburg Channel and the Bolsa Channel. Water

and sediment carried in the channels often contains contaminants such

as pesticides from lawns, nitrates from fertilizers, trace metals

from brake linings and diesel exhaust.

By the end this second phase of the study, scientists will have

gathered 60 water and 60 sediment samples from the harbor and the

bay. After collecting water samples, scientists began the arduous

process of collecting the sediment.

Using a tool called a Van Veen, the sediment was removed from the

top layer of the harbor floor and deposited into a large bucket

covered with a wooden grate, designed to break up the material to

facilitate the sorting process.

On the boat, the scientists sift through the sediment and extract

small worms, clams, shrimp and other organisms, which are then sorted

into phyla and later tested for toxicity in the lab.

“The sorting is really tedious,” marine biologist Karin Wisenbaker

said. “It involves taking anything alive -- shell hash, animals --

and identifying it.”

The samples will be sent to biology and chemistry labs, where

contaminants will be measured and organisms further identified.

Gossett estimates it will take as long as six months for results.

After determining contaminants, the next step of the process is to

try and pinpoint the source.

“If we’re finding brake lining, then we’ll start looking for a

junkyard,” Gossett cited as an example.

Once the data is complete, the state agency will often place

standards on the water body to enforce the amount of pollution

legally allowed in the water. These are known as “total maximum daily

loads.”

But Brown said that enforcing these standards can cost as much

$500,000 to $750,000. Instead, he hopes to eliminate the need for the

standards by focusing on educating the people and overseeing

different areas of the city to ensure that clean water guidelines are

adhered to.

“If we as a community can do some proactive things on our own, we

can reduce the need for [total maximum daily loads],” he said.

Brown suggested asking restaurant owners to stop hosing their

greasy mats into the water and urging people to quit dumping trash

and animal feces in the harbor.

The city is also devising a large-scale water quality plan. This

could include inserting storm scepters into storm drains to capture

and filter out the fine sediment that pollutants attach themselves

to, as well as installing units that would run alongside the flood

control channel and pull out trash.

Brown, who grew up playing on the beaches and in the waters around

Huntington and Newport harbors, is saddened by the changes he has

witnessed over the years.

“I remember the things I used to do here as a kid,” he said. “I

used to go out and dig clams. I could free dive and I’d come up with

a handful of abalone shells. They used to be very plentiful.”

Clams, barracuda and bonita also used to be abundant in the harbor

area but are no longer found in local waters.

“In 25 to 30 years, we have totally changed the whole ecological

health of our marine habitat,” Brown said, attributing the change to

pollution and population growth, which, he says, go hand in hand.

The Orange County Coastkeeper, founded by Brown in 1999, has grown

rapidly in the past four years. It is funded by grants, private

donations, private foundations and membership fees. It has its own

water lab and does bacteria sampling.

Brown is confident that change can be instilled on a local level.

“If the city becomes proactive, if the citizens become proactive,”

Brown said. “Then we can do a lot of things to improve water quality

and reduce the need to have [total maximum daily loads] imposed upon

us.”

* JENNY MARDER covers City Hall. She can be reached at (714)

965-7173 or by e-mail at jenny.marder@latimes.com.