EPA adds three waterways to impaired list

Paul Clinton

The discovery of a banned pesticide, industrial chemicals and heavy

metals in three Surf City waterways led federal regulators to

spotlight them for cleanup.

The Environmental Protection Agency, on Monday, added Huntington

Harbour, Anaheim Bay and the Bolsa Chica Wetlands to the federal

Impaired Water Bodies List.

Congress created the list, under section 303(d) of the Clean Water

Act of 1972, as a way of mandating cleanup of dirty streams, lakes

watersheds and any other areas that are used for recreational

purposes.

In all, the EPA has 679 waterways in California on the list, which

requires more attention from local agencies directed toward their

cleanup.

“The city is already focusing so much of our attention on the

harbor and Bolsa Chica,” Councilwoman Debbie Cook said. “We need to

elevate the public’s understanding of what we’re dealing with.”

The EPA added the three Surf City waterways, agreeing with a local

water board that they should be listed. The State Water Quality

Control Board had ignored the regional board’s bid to list them. In

all, five new water bodies across the state were added to the list.

“We identified five more water bodies that are polluted and need

to be on that list,” said David Smith, an EPA team leader. “We looked

at the data and concluded that there was enough evidence to merit the

listing. There was a disagreement.”

Smith said the three waterways, which are connected, show

unacceptable levels of copper, nickel, polychlorinated biphenyls and

a substance known as dieldrin, a chlorinated pesticide that is

illegal.

Dieldrin is similar to DDT, a controversial pesticide banned in

1973. It has been found in fish tissue in the waterways, Smith said.

PCBs are mixtures of organic chemicals that were used for many

industrial and commercial applications such as electrical equipment,

paints, plastics and rubber products, according to the agency. More

than 1.5 billion pounds of PCBs were produced in the U.S. before they

were banned in 1977.

The chemical has been found in Anaheim Bay and Huntington Harbour,

Smith said. The two metals were found in Bolsa Chica.

In Newport Beach, a string of creeks made the list for the first

time, lending additional regulatory scrutiny to the area. Buck Gully

Creek and Los Trancos Creek made the list for the first time this

year.

Garry Brown, the executive director of Newport Beach-based Orange

County CoastKeeper, led the charge to get the creeks listed. Brown’s

group has also done extensive water quality monitoring in Huntington

Harbour and Anaheim Bay.

“They concurred with the state’s recommendation, which was our

recommendation,” Brown said. “We wanted to put some of the creeks on

the list so we can start cleaning them up.”

Once listed, the waterways are subject to what is known as a

“total maximum daily load,” a federal standard that limits the amount

of a harmful substance that can be present in the water or sediment.

Local agencies can face substantial fines if they don’t adhere to

these maximum daily loads, as they are known.

“My personal goal is to get fairly far down the road before they

put the [total maximum daily loads] in there,” Cook said. “It will be

far less expensive for the city.”