Firm to study pollution from storm drains

Alicia Robinson

A firm hired by the city of Costa Mesa will begin a study of the

city’s 109 storm drain outlets next week to see how much urban runoff

is getting into storm sewers.

The study also will provide information to the state Regional

Water Quality Control Board on a handful of storm drains that could

be contributing to the pollution that has befouled Huntington Beach

waters for several years, most severely in 1999.

“What we’re trying to do is characterize the number of pipes that

have dry weather flow,” said Gary LaForge, associate engineer with

the city of Costa Mesa.

City officials had planned the study before the regional water

board requested data on several specific drains, LaForge said, but it

conveniently fits in with that request. The city contracted with

Costa Mesa firm Geomatrix Consultants to perform the research for

$208,000. A report on the findings is expected by November, LaForge

said.

The Regional Water Quality Control Board is looking at five or six

Costa Mesa drains as possible sources of the bacteria that has been

detected in the mouth of the Santa Ana River and caused numerous

beach closures in Huntington Beach, said water board environmental

scientist Ken Theisen.

Several studies just published by UC Irvine environmental

engineering professor Stanley Grant and other authors named the Santa

Ana River and Talbert Marsh as the biggest sources of fecal pollution

in the Huntington Beach area. Theisen said those studies, and others

in recent years, also determined that pollution is coming at least in

part from runoff from municipal development.

“All of the work so far points to urban runoff as the source of

that pollution,” Theisen said. “Some people will say, ‘Oh, it’s still

a mystery and we still need to study this,’ but it’s urban runoff.”

Some of the water pollution problem was solved when most storm

drains that empty into the Santa Ana River and Talbert Marsh were

diverted to the Orange County Sanitation District so the water could

be treated, but the Costa Mesa drains in question now discharge below

the point of diversion, Theisen said.

LaForge said whether the city makes any changes to its storm

drains depends on the results of the study.

* ALICIA ROBINSON covers business, politics and the environment.

She may be reached at (949) 764-4330 or by e-mail at

alicia.robinson@latimes.com.