A war of warnings

Dave Brooks

This always happens when it rains.

First Jeff Sensi develops the sniffles, followed by a persistent

hack and a slight fever. The avid surfer said his immune system has

gotten better at fighting off the bacteria he comes into contact with

after rainy waters bring urban runoff into the ocean, but he never

feels quite right.

Still, Sensi won’t miss a chance to catch some surf, even when it

means he could catch a cold.

“Some of my best days are right after a big storm,” he said. “The

waves have a better form and it’s not very crowded in the water.”

That’s because many surfers still adhere to the 72-hour rule:

Don’t go in the water for three days after a heavy rain. It’s why

Chris Johnston was shocked when the National Scholastic Surfing Assn.

decided to push forward with a Jan. 8 student competition at the

beginning of a four-day storm. Bacteria at the Goldenwest Street

beach, commonly known as the Bluffs, was 111 times higher than normal

that day, according to reports from the Orange County Department of

Environmental Health.

Johnston’s nephew was one of the 400 competitors in the event,

which had parents worried about the decision to push forward knowing

the water was contaminated.

“Everybody knows it’s not a wise thing to do,” he said. “Let’s

just say there were some angry parents that day.”

Event organizer Gayline Clifford said there were no posted signs

warning about bacteria levels, and lifeguards told her beach

conditions were normal. If surfers were worried about water safety,

she said, they shouldn’t have competed.

“We here at the NSSA do not and have never forced anyone to do

anything that they chose not to do,” she wrote in an e-mail

statement. “If they don’t want to surf because the waves are too big

or they don’t trust the water quality then they can either check in

for points or forward their entry to another event.”

Huntington Beach Marine Safety Chief Kyle Lindo said his

department had not received any warnings from county environmental

officials about beach contamination, and that short of a beach

closure, visitors are allowed to surf at will.

“If the organizer wants to have a contest in the rain, that’s

their decision,” he said.

The county didn’t order warning signs to be posted because the

entire coastline experienced bacteria level increases following the

rains, said Monica Mazur from the Orange County Department of

Environmental Health.

Most people who frequent the ocean, she added, should know about

the 72-hour rule.

“It’s pretty safe to say that all of Huntington Beach was not in

compliance with the state’s bacteria standards that day,” she said.

“We put the warning out for the entire coast because we can’t really

track with sampling to say that one area is safe and another area is

dangerous.”

The weekend storm brought three inches of rain to the area,

pushing bacteria levels to 111 times the normal rate at the beginning

of the contest, and more than 1,000 times the normal level at the end

of the storm. Water levels didn’t return to normal until Jan. 17.

High bacteria levels following rain is a common phenomena through

most of the Pacific coastline, Mazur said. Rains pick up elements of

pet and wild animal waste that collects in the streets and gutters

and washes them through the storm drain system into a series of

outfall channels that eventually dump into the ocean, including

several small canals at Goldenwest Street.

The problem is particularly pronounced in heavily paved Orange

County, where a lack of natural surfaces creates few opportunities

for grass and soil to absorb the rain water instead of processing it

through the storm drain system.

“We could look at some of the best management practices to

minimize the impact of bacteria levels at the beach, but when you’re

dealing with a series of storms like we just experienced, many of

those practices wouldn’t really make any difference,” Mazur said.

Event organizer Clifford said she had surfed in the rain many

times before and never had problems.

“A lot of the parents who are complaining about the competition in

the rain are doing so behind my back,” she said. “I wish people would

have come to me to express their concerns first.”

Clifford’s city permit to hold the event was filed on Jan. 5, the

same day news accounts began to surface warning about the coming

storm.

“I’m not a weatherman, I’m not a health official, I’m just an

event director,” she said. “I can name a million spots that people

surf in that are polluted, but I run a contest in the rain and

parents get upset.”

Interscholastic Surfing Federation director Diane Steuer said

Clifford and other event organizers can avoid future controversies by

simply following the 72-hour rule.

“We need to be aware as best as possible of what the conditions

are, stay on top of it, and call it as best as we see appropriate,”

she said. “If there is any question at all about the safety of an

event, cancel it.”

* DAVE BROOKS covers City Hall. He can be reached at (714)

966-4609 or by e-mail at dave.brooks@latimes.com.