Bacteria

Vic Leipzig and Lou Murray At first blush, it's a horrible thought. Not only is the Orange County Sanitation District pumping 250 million gallons a day of partially treated sewage into our ocean, now they're thinking about adding bleach to the effluent. This doesn't sound like a good idea. Or is it? Sure, if we poured bleach directly onto the starfish and sea urchins that live in the ocean, it would kill them. But bleach isn't like the energizer bunny.

It's funny how a little bacteria at the beach can get your attention. Who'd of ever thought that pumping millions of gallons a day of partially treated sewage off the coast of Huntington Beach might come back to haunt us? Who'd of ever thought that putting a power plant a few blocks away from a sanitation plant and pumping gallons of warm water into the ocean near the sewage might cause the unwanted bacteria to head toward our shores? A potential answer to "Who'd of ever thought" is offered by some of the scientific minds at the Orange County Sanitary District studying the problem.

Eron Ben-Yehuda HUNTINGTON BEACH -- In the ongoing quest to avoid a repeat of last summer's disastrous beach closures, researchers plan to dump more pink dye into the ocean next week. The test scheduled for May 10 will mimic this week's release of 22 gallons of nontoxic coloring, which helped track water currents flowing into Huntington State Beach from the Talbert flood control channel and the Santa Ana River, city spokesman Rich Barnard said. The beach was off limits for one day as a result of the experiment.

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.

Tariq Malik HUNTINGTON BEACH -- The Orange County Sanitation District is preparing for more testing of city beach and ocean waters in the summer to clarify whether its partially treated sewage discharge contributed to high levels of bacteria along the shore. District officials are investigating if an interaction between a discharge pipe that extends more than four miles out to sea and the AES Corp.'s cooling water intake lines provides a means for bacteria and waste water to creep back toward the beach.

In the summer of 1999, the closure of the ocean waters at both Huntington State Beach and Huntington City Beach was front-page news. The water was closed due to elevated bacteria levels that exceeded standards established by the county's health department. The city of Huntington Beach -- in cooperation with the state, the county, the Sanitation District and a number of other agencies -- are working diligently to find the source of the bacteria and to implement lasting management practices to prevent a reoccurrence of the water closures that took place last summer.

Some people just don't get the message. Since last summer, every public agency and elected official who has anything to do with protecting our beaches has been repeating one message over and over: Please don't dump pollutants in the storm drains. Supervisor Jim Silva held a press conference last week, at which he turned on the pump that will pump urban runoff out of the Talbert flood control channel and direct it to the sewer system for treatment. And right there at the spot of the press conference, 10 minutes before show time, someone from the local neighborhood walked up and dumped a few pounds of cutup bread into the channel to feed the ducks!

The Orange County Sanitation District announced Tuesday its plan to conduct extensive testing of the coast of Huntington Beach during the summer season. A multimillion-dollar effort between several agencies will attempt to identify the origin of high bacteria counts that forced beach closures in 1999. The summer research is the first in many steps to critically evaluate the hypothesis presented in mid-November by a group of researchers from the UCI. It is also part of an ongoing effort by the Orange County Sanitation District to track the treated waste-water plume released from the five-mile ocean outfall pipe and continue to enhance the sanitation district's ocean water monitoring program.

Ron Davis If I've told you once, I've told you a thousand times -- never rely on public officials. We all know that a portion of Huntington Beach was closed on July 1. Then in August, the beach was closed all the way to Goldenwest Street. Based on the difficulty of locating the source of the elusive effusive, it looked like a pretty good bet that the beach was going to remain closed all the way through Labor day. I relied on that continued closure.