Newport creek one of O.C.’s dirtiest
Alicia Robinson
Two area water bodies are near the top of a list of Orange County
waters with poor water quality, according to a report released
Tuesday by Orange County CoastKeeper and other coastal monitoring
groups.
The report is based on data collected May 17, a statewide water
monitoring day for various water-quality organizations. Los Trancos
Creek in Newport Beach and Talbert Channel in Huntington Beach showed
high levels of phosphates and nitrates, which can cause explosive
plant growth and kill fish. Los Trancos at Crystal Cove also
contained high levels of e coli bacteria, CoastKeeper project
coordinator Ray Hiemstra said.
The two waterways were among the four worst sites monitored in
Orange County, Hiemstra said, who said the Talbert Channel empties
into the ocean just north of Newport Beach. The other two top
offenders were Aliso Creek in Laguna Beach and Segunda Deshecha in
San Clemente.
Of the 36 sites checked countywide, water at 31 sites exceeded at
least one of the standards measured. Federal Environmental Protection
Agency standards were used in the monitoring, Hiemstra said.
“Pretty much every stream that we monitored had some kind of
problem,” he said. “Some of them were just more serious than others.”
Compared with an EPA-designated “acceptable” level of 0.1
milligrams of phosphates per liter of water, Los Trancos water was
measured at 0.16 milligrams per liter, and Talbert water contained
0.18 milligrams per liter.
The high levels of nitrates and phosphates are “your classic urban
runoff problems” caused by lawn fertilizers, people washing their
cars and the like, Hiemstra said.
The EPA’s acceptable level of e coli is 61 bacteria colonies per
100 milliliters of water. Los Trancos monitoring showed more than
5,000 colonies per 100 milliliters, Hiemstra said. The e coli is
probably coming from biological waste in the water stream, he said.
The Santa Ana River Water Quality Control Board oversees numerous
bodies of water in the Newport-Mesa area, including Los Trancos Creek
and the Talbert Marsh. Water-quality board spokesman Kurt Berchtold
said he had not seen the report yet, but the board has worked with
Orange County CoastKeeper to solve water-quality problems.
Orange County is already familiar with beach closures and
pollution of coastal waters, he said.
“There have been significant problems in the past, and in recent
years, I think, those problems have been improving, but certainly
they’re not completely eliminated,” Berchtold said.
The first step to fixing a water-quality problem is identifying
the source of pollution, he said. If urban runoff is causing
pollution, municipalities bear some responsibility, and the board can
require them to take corrective action.
“We will certainly review the report and look for any problems
that it identifies that we can address using our regulatory
authority,” Berchtold said.
Poor water-quality ratings in the water bodies did not come as a
surprise.
“It has been a source of problems over time,” said Jeannette
Merrilees of Laguna Beach, who led efforts to maintain public access
at Crystal Cove State Park.
New housing developments in the hills above Crystal Cove and the
Pelican Hill golf course have likely increased runoff into the creek
and subsequently the ocean, she said.
“That is alarming to me because [Crystal Cove is] the state park
beach that is affected,” she said. “The public needs to be able to
use that beach without getting ear infections and skin infections.
... It’s a place where people take their children.”
Talbert has likewise been a trouble spot for years.
“We’ve looked at it many, many times,” Huntington Beach
Councilwoman Debbie Cook said of the Talbert Marsh water problem.
“Its been studied to death, and we’ve done everything we can to try
to clean up what’s coming out of there.”
The city diverted flow from Talbert Channel to the Orange County
Sanitation District, but even that hasn’t solved the problem
entirely, she said.
“It continues to be a problem and nobody’s come up with any
alternatives for what to do with it. ... We’re open to suggestions.”
Hiemstra said that about half of the 546 sites monitored statewide
showed some water-quality problems. The report will help establish
benchmark data for water quality along the California coast, he said.
“A lot of these waterways, as far as I know, have never been
tested for this,” he said. “It’s intended specifically to identify
problems that maybe nobody even knew about.”
* ALICIA ROBINSON covers business, politics and the environment.
She can be reached at (949) 764-4330 or by e-mail at
alicia.robinson@latimes.com.
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