A Spotlight on Water Quality

Concern over water quality has climbed higher on the radar screen of Orange County coastal communities. One city’s nightmarish experience with aging sewer lines resulted this week in the embarrassment of its mayor pleading guilty in Superior Court to violating state water laws.

With many coastal cities saddled with old and deteriorating infrastructure, the problems of Huntington Beach are instructive. Remedies are complicated and expensive, and residents, in that city at least, probably will have to pay to fix the problem.

After being hauled before a grand jury, Huntington Beach has pleaded guilty in the discharge of pollutants, been placed on probation and agreed to spend $250,000 to comply with a cleanup order. Now there is a dispute over exactly what level of offense the city admitted to. But beyond this wrangling is what happened after it inspected old pipes in an attempt to find the root of a pollution problem. Its mistake was in not adequately reporting the leaks it found to local and state agencies as required by law. Short on money for repairs, it postponed completing them until last year, which resulted in thousands of gallons of raw sewage leaking daily.

The city argues that it has fixed the problem and that the underground leaks never posed a serious health threat. But its problems were complicated by the highly publicized beach closures during the summer of 1999, developments that raised public awareness of ocean water quality.

The city says the leaks weren’t responsible for the 1999 pollution, but the district attorney isn’t convinced yet. In any case, in a number of cities old pipes and storm drains are suspected of contributing to sewage and waste water flowing into storm drains and aquifers. For the public, this fuels concern about water quality at the ocean’s edge and ultimately the viability of a prime attraction. Elsewhere, state water authorities have cracked down on leaks in Laguna Beach, the Orange County Sanitation District and the Moulton Niguel Water District.

The fallout from Huntington Beach’s court date well may have to be addressed by its residents. The city says it is considering a $5-per-home sewer fee to put in a new system.

While individual coastal communities have to take such responsibility, they also are rightly concerned about contamination originating elsewhere in the watershed. Ocean pollution is not simply a problem for the locals. All who visit the shoreline must protect it by working to reduce sources of upstream pollution.