Pollution

The numbers are eye-popping. Pollution in the water along Huntington and Newport beaches costs people as much as $3.3 million in medical treatments each year -- anywhere from $37 to $77 per illness. That is an expensive dip in the ocean. Right? Well, maybe not. As much as the numbers--which come from a study released this month by a group led by a UC Irvine doctoral student -- seem to be yet more fodder in the battle to increase water-quality standards, they are, sadly, not nearly as shocking as they appear.

Each winter we are reminded of the ugliness of pollution as the rains push the flotsam and jetsam of urban cities onto Surf City beaches. Once pristine stretches of sand become clogged with every conceivable piece of trash. It's an ugly sight to behold. But newly elected Councilman Keith Bohr reminds us of another source of pollution that has gone unchecked in recent times -- political signs that litter the landscape long before and long after elections.

I have asked Public Works Management Analyst Steve Hauerwaas to give us insight into how the city of Fountain Valley addresses the issue of storm-water pollution.Last summer's beach closure due to bacteria contamination is still under investigation, and several scientific studies are focusing on the role of urban-water runoff as one possible source of the pollution. Federal law requires cities to identify and eliminate sources of water and storm-water pollution and to develop systems for their reduction.

"What can they do? They are just kids," are some words I often hear. I always knew there was something I could do. Now I have figured it out. Earth is very delicate, if you think about it. The world is filled with natural beauty, but every hour, tons of pollution is being released into the atmosphere. Pretty soon, that pollution is going to affect the Earth greatly. Before trying to help, you have to understand how beautiful Earth really is. Over the summer, I had an experience that changed my life.

During recent weeks, beaches in two Orange County cities have been closed. Huntington Beach has been under a beach warning. So far this year, Orange County has had 20 beach closures due to pollution. There have been more days that beaches were closed in the first four months of this year than in 1996, 1997 and 1999 combined. This is completely unacceptable. It would be so easy if we could find some big industrial culprit to blame -- an upstream dairy farm perhaps or some nasty developers who dug into an ancient septic system and tried to hide their error.

I have read the numerous recent articles about the AES plant controversy, hoping to read a coherent, intelligent explanation of the situation. I'm still waiting. Guess I'll have a try at it. Something no one has mentioned in the press yet is the inherent life danger caused by emissions from the stacks. Among the many emissions are nitrous oxide, acetone and formaldehyde. It is a scientific fact that nitrous oxide and acetone, for example, are dangerous to the health of people.

Local residents who attended the City Council meeting Dec. 17 left confused and disappointed about the five-year plan adopted for the Southeast Huntington Beach Redevelopment Area. That plan essentially focused on the AES plant and the Ascon/Nesi site. The plan characterized the AES plant as a ?major source of air pollution? and ?a visual impediment? in the area. It saw it as having a negative impact upon property values in the area when those properties are compared to other coastal properties.

John Scott At a recent mayor's breakfast, Rich Barnard, standing in for the mayor who was at a press conference with our local politicians, pointed to dogs and birds as source of the ocean pollution after investigation determined that Orange County Sanitation District's sewer lines at the beach were not the culprit. Perhaps I am a bit cynical, but I interpreted that as a ploy to focus the attention of residents on something other than the decrepit state of Huntington Beach's sewer system.

I cruised Pacific Coast Highway the other day from Newport Beach to home here in Huntington Beach and while going by the Hyatt instinctively ducked while going under the new pedestrian bridge that has risen like the wings of a Phoenix over the highway. At first glance I thought it too low, but after posing this to two of our councilpersons (who answered with lightning quickness, my how times have changed!), I was informed that Caltrans had OKd the height.

Paul Clinton A massive testing effort now underway is expected to give local water-quality regulators an in-depth reading on the pollution in Huntington Harbour and Anaheim Bay. While the effort hit a snag last month when needed rain never materialized, the study should be complete by the end of the year, officials said. The broad study began in August when members of Orange County CoastKeeper, an environmental group based in Newport Beach, began collecting samples of water and sediment in the harbor and bay. Group volunteers have been busy filling plastic laboratory bottles and scooping up sediment on the harbor bottom as part of the study.

"What can they do? They are just kids," are some words I often hear. I always knew there was something I could do. Now I have figured it out. Earth is very delicate, if you think about it. The world is filled with natural beauty, but every hour, tons of pollution is being released into the atmosphere. Pretty soon, that pollution is going to affect the Earth greatly. Before trying to help, you have to understand how beautiful Earth really is. Over the summer, I had an experience that changed my life.

Huntington Beach on Monday greenlighted a $350-million desalination plant that would have the capacity to produce 50 million gallons of fresh water a day. The City Council gave Poseidon Resources its final approvals to build a seawater desalination plant in the southeast section of Huntington Beach. The city approved the project's coastal development permits, owner participation agreement and a pipeline franchise agreement 5-0-2 with Mayor Pro-Tem Jill Hardy and Councilman Gil Coerper absent.

Huntington Beach’s ocean water quality is a hit-and-miss affair for swimmers, with some areas off the coast meeting national health standards year-round while others frequently missed the mark, according to a national nonprofit’s annual report. Water quality off Magnolia Street at Huntington State Beach was worse than national standards a quarter of the year, or 25% of the time, statistics from the Natural Resources Defense Council show. The nonprofit organization uses data from the Environmental Protection Agency for its annual report, released Tuesday.

Local residents who attended the City Council meeting Dec. 17 left confused and disappointed about the five-year plan adopted for the Southeast Huntington Beach Redevelopment Area. That plan essentially focused on the AES plant and the Ascon/Nesi site. The plan characterized the AES plant as a ?major source of air pollution? and ?a visual impediment? in the area. It saw it as having a negative impact upon property values in the area when those properties are compared to other coastal properties.

Tom Jones had been warned. As he paddled down the Northern California coast to raise awareness about plastic pollution in the ocean, several surfers alerted him about increased shark and whale activity in the Lost Coast. But the winds had died and the weary Jones decided to take a shortcut through the deeper shark- and whale-infested waters near Shelter Cove. The surfers were right. He spied a whale stalking him. He watched anxiously as it gained on him, never deviating from its course straight toward him. Then, just as it came right up to his board, the whale apparently decided the Huntington Beach man wouldn?

Surf City's Tom Jones started his stand-up paddleboard trek down the California coastline last Tuesday to raise awareness of the pollution problem of plastic. They say 5.76 million tons of plastic debris is in the ocean right now. And it's sad to see wildlife that have died or injured themselves because of it. Jones started right at the Oregon border, under ideal conditions, with sunny skies, hardly any swell or wind, going the first seven miles heading toward Crescent City. The water wasn't too cold, 56 degrees for that far up north.

hbi-natperspectives07 A couple of months ago, I was asked to give a talk on that topic to staff at the Orange County Conservation Corps. Vic suggested I lead off with pictures of California to show what a beautiful planet we live on. I chose a picture of Bolsa Chica and one of Yosemite.

Tom Jones has dragged himself out of poverty and neglect, been a champion prizefighter and run across the country at the rate of a marathon a day. After all that and more, it's hard to imagine that the Huntington Beach man's fazed by anything. But none of those feats involved sharks. Jones is training to do yet another unprecedented feat: traversing the entire California coast under his own power on a 14-foot paddleboard starting in late August, passing Santa Cruz in the height of shark season.

A local water-quality advocacy group, Orange County Coastkeeper, is suggesting two Huntington Beach waterways be added to a list of those that are considered polluted and in need of cleanup. After a two-year study, Coastkeeper recommended in February that water officials put the Bolsa Chica and Wintersberg channels, as well as two channels in Newport Beach and several others in Orange County, on a list of polluted waterways. The study looked for excessive amounts of nutrients that cause algae blooms and bacteria that could be a threat to people using the waterways.

Newport Beach has hired Orange County Coastkeeper to find out how much copper and other heavy metals may be lingering in the waters near Newport's marinas -- work that could lead to restrictions on the paint most boaters use. "We will definitely start sampling in September," Coastkeeper program director Ray Hiemstra said. Coastkeeper is still designing plans to sample waters and sediments around six to eight local marinas. The city subcontracted the work to Coastkeeper after making a deal with the Santa Ana Regional Water Quality Control Board to look for copper and other heavy metals in the harbor, said assistant city manager Dave Kiff.