Surf City beaches make the grade

Dave Brooks

Surf City’s beaches made the honor roll this year in Santa

Monica-based Heal the Bay’s annual summertime report card.

Eight of the nine local beaches tested by the environmental group

received A grades for water-quality during the peak summer tourism

season between Memorial Day and Labor Day.

Magnolia Street was the only beach within city limits to receive

lower than an A, earning a C grade. The grade is an improvement over

the past two years -- in 2002 it was given an F grade and a D in

2003.

The city’s municipal beaches have always faired well, but this

year’s report shows major improvements at three areas of Huntington

State Beach, on the south side of town, that have been struggling

with high bacterial levels for the past five years.

Officials with the Orange County Sanitation District and

Environmental Health agency attribute the high scores to ongoing

efforts to divert untreated urban runoff and educate the public about

what goes into the storm drain system.

“We’re seeing a major improvement in water quality from 1999 when

everyone was trying to figure out what the heck was going on,” said

Heal the Bay researcher James Alamillo, who compiled most of the data

for the report. “There’s been quite a lot of money spent trying to

figure this out.”

The sanitation district has contributed about $22.5 million to the

effort, investigating the cause of bacterial levels in the water,

issuing grants and disinfecting sewage that is discharged from its

ocean outfall pipe located about 4 1/2 miles offshore, General

Manager Blake Anderson said.

Blake attributed the improved quality to the ongoing diversion of

urban runoff into the sewer system for treatment. Prior to 1999, when

high bacteria levels closed much of Huntington’s beaches for the

summer, much of the contaminated water that had run through the

city’s streets and urban areas had flowed straight into the ocean.

“Now we’re able to divert about 2.5 million gallons of urban

runoff a day through our facility for treatment,” he said.

Huntington Beach’s Public Works Department has also been working

on a diversion program, restricting the amount of urban runoff that

flows into the Santa Ana River and the Talbert Marsh.

“In the end, you hope that all the components are contributing in

a way that localizes any one particular outbreak,” Alamillo said. “We

won’t see the extensity like we have seen in the past. If there is

going to be a problem, it’s likely to occur in a targeted area.”

Alamillo said the high bacterial level at Magnolia Street remains

a mystery, with theories ranging from the beaches proximity to the

sanitation district outfall pipe to large high tides that drag in

contaminants from onshore. Some even blame nearby bird populations,

he said.

“That’s really the $20-million question,” said Monica Mazur

spokeswoman for the Orange County’s department of Environmental

Health. “Twenty million in that we’ve spent that much trying to

figure it out.”

While the beaches are improving, Surf City’s image isn’t keeping

pace, said Huntington Beach Conference and Visitors Council President

Doug Traub.

Over Labor Day weekend, a massive sewage spill by the district

closed several beaches in the south side of town. Sanitation district

officials originally estimated the spill resulted in the release of

about 12,500 gallons of sewage, but officials now say the figure is

closer to 1.6 million gallons -- more than 100 times the original

estimate.

Traub said the spill flamed national headlines and created an

inaccurate perception that Huntington Beach is struggling with water

quality issues. He’s asking the sanitation district’s board of

directors to launch a $350,000 research and marketing campaign to

promote Surf City as a clean water tourist destination.

“We need to create a program to show just how good our coastal

waters are,” he said. “That kind of story really needs to be told.

I’m asking the sanitation district to step up to the plate on this

issue and I really think they will.”