Runoff Takes Aliso Creek’s Water Quality Down the Drain

Water quality along the 20-mile length of Aliso Creek in South County consistently falls below state health standards, according to a new county study aimed at cleaning up the problem.

The report, based on six months of water sampling along the creek, is considered the most comprehensive look at the pollution problem. It found that the water both inland and along the coast is contaminated by runoff from storm drains that wash everything from motor oil and lawn fertilizer to dog waste into the creek.

The study also indicates that all communities along the creek--which runs from the Santa Ana Mountains down through suburban neighborhoods to Aliso Beach--may be contributing to the pollution.

The findings give officials their clearest sense yet as to where the pollution is coming from, which is the first step in correcting the problem.

“This gives us an opportunity for us to now sit down and figure out how we can handle this,” said Karen Ashby, a county environmental specialist who led the study. “We might find out that maybe part of the problem is trash cans being left out, for instance.”

Surfers and swimmers have long complained about skin rashes, infections and other ailments they blame on toxic runoff flowing into the popular beach area around the creek’s mouth. Over the last four years, county health officials have closed Aliso Beach 19 times, said Larry Honeybourne, water quality chief of the Orange County Health Care Agency.

The area where the creek lets out into the ocean is considered permanently off-limits to swimmers because of the water’s toxicity.

While the coastal pollution is well-known, the study also suggests that inland stretches of the creek face pollution problems of their own.

For example, researchers found particularly elevated bacterial indicators at the confluence of Sulfur Creek and Aliso Creek in Laguna Niguel, just next to the opening of a drainage pipe. Officials can now follow the course of the pipe to determine exactly where the waste is coming from and try to stop it.

Elevated pollution indicators along the creek alarm health officials because the water could be carrying human or animal waste, which can spread a range of viruses and diseases.

Officials recently approved a plan that would divert some of the polluted runoff to a pipeline that would dump the water nearly two miles offshore, diluting the toxic fluids and mitigating the health risk to beach-goers.

But critics called the plan only a “band-aid” solution.

Environmental officials have been hard-pressed to come up with anything better because of the difficulty isolating the source of the pollution.

Occasionally, sewage leaks spill waste directly into the creek. These infrequent spills are much more easily identified and fixed than runoff pollution.

“It could come from leaving dog poop in streets, or fertilizing your lawn or hosing down your driveway,” said Wayne Baglin, local chair of the California Regional Water Quality Control Board.

Baglin believes the county needs to be more aggressive in its crackdown on offending cities along the creek. Technically, any city that allows polluted water to flow through storm drains is breaking the law.

The water quality study is being done in conjunction with a U.S. Army Corps of Engineers study of possible solutions to the problem.

County officials will now develop a list of priorities for what to do next.