Natural Perspectives

Vic Leipzig and Lou Murray

The fear of a terrorist attack on America’s infrastructure is

prominent in many people’s minds these days. Naturally, we wondered about

the Huntington Beach water supply. We take it for granted that we can

turn on our taps and get good clean water, but where does our water come

from? Huntington Beach gets 75% from ground water and 25% from imported

sources. Let’s look at the ground water first.

Our homes sit over deep aquifers that are like huge underground lakes.

Water gets there by flowing through sandy mineral deposits under the

Santa Ana River, where it undergoes a natural cleansing process.

The water from the Inland Empire that feeds our aquifers comes from

Northern California Sierra snowmelt via the California aqueduct and from

Rocky Mountain snowmelt via the Colorado River. We get our imported water

from these same sources, so in a sense, all of our water comes from

either the Sierras or the Rockies.

These water supplies are all guarded, patrolled and monitored. If any

one of these sources develops a problem, we can turn to the other

sources. Patrols along the aqueducts have been increased, but even if

there were a contamination breach, imported water passes through a

high-tech filtration plant before it reaches us. More about that later.

Our city stores its water in covered reservoirs. The key word here is

covered. Think concrete with locked steel doors, secure fencing and armed

patrols. That means no one can drive up in a truck and dump a bucket of

cyanide or a dead cow full of anthrax into our water supply.

At the beginning of the Afghan crisis, Public Works Department

officials asked the police to step up patrols of our reservoirs, but

Police Chief Ron Lowenberg had already ordered increased surveillance by

ground and air.

But that’s only part of the security. When we talked with Howard

Johnson, the Water Production Supervisor in Public Works, he said that

our water quality is monitored 24 hours a day, 365 days a year, with

continuous online monitors. If there is a change in the level of

chlorine, or a change in water pressure or level, alarms go off

immediately. This level of surveillance isn’t in response to any threat

of terrorism. This is a level of safety that has always been there,

quietly hidden in the background of our infrastructure.

“Our mission has always been, and continues to be, to provide safe and

reliable water,� said Johnson. “We visit every well, every reservoir and

every imported source every day.�

Our imported water passes through the Metropolitan Water District

Diemer filtration plant, where water also is subjected to continuous

online monitors and analyzers. If there is any disturbance in the flow or

quality of the water, they’ll know about it within four seconds. Johnson

said that the online analyzers are so sensitive that they could detect

the equivalent of four drops of contaminant in a Rose-Bowl-sized vessel

filled with water, and the system would automatically shut down.

At the plant, water is passed through a carbon filter to remove

impurities; then it goes through additional purification processes that

are overseen by a team of scientists. The water is monitored at every

step before distribution to local reservoirs.

We wanted a tour of this fabulous facility, but no dice. Security is

way too tight now.

“I can’t even get up there,� Johnson said. “It’s in an awesome

lock-down.�

Security has been so high since Sept. 11 that even getting the

information for this column was no easy task. We called the city’s water

division, but they said that due to security issues, we had to check with

the city’s public affairs officer Rich Barnard first. Barnard checked

with Lowenberg, then gave us the go ahead for the interview with Johnson.

We still had to get clearance through either Public Works Director Bob

Beardsley or Deputy Director of Public Works Paul Emery. Even then, we

were asked to pass this column back to the water guys to make sure we

weren’t compromising any of their other security measures, which we’re

not even going to talk about. These guys all know us, yet we had to

negotiate a maze of approvals to get information. Think how hard it would

be now for a stranger to obtain sensitive information. Even the public

has been helping. One citizen phoned in a suspicious person report, but

it turned out to be merely a public works employee who was out of

uniform. That’s just a reminder that we’re all soldiers in this new war

and that we need to be alert for any suspicious activity.

Johnson said he believes our tap water is superior to bottled water

because of the rigorous purification and monitoring process our water

undergoes. We agree with him. So go ahead, have a drink. Our water has

never been safer.

* VIC LEIPZIG and LOU MURRAY are Huntington Beach residents and

environmentalists. They can be reached at o7 [email protected] .