Sanitation district to hold off on new discharge method

Eron Ben-Yehuda

HUNTINGTON BEACH -- To avoid tainting research into the causes of last

year’s beach contamination, the Orange County Sanitation District has

delayed releasing treated waste water with a higher level of bacteria

into the ocean off the coast.

The district, which discharges 240 million gallons of waste water daily

from plants in Huntington Beach and Fountain Valley, already received

approval from its board of directors to release more microscopic filth,

spokeswoman Michele Tuchman said. But officials don’t want to alter the

environmental conditions that bred last summer’s mysterious offshore

pollution, she said.

“We are not going to change anything,” she said.

Joining forces with the city and the county, the district is helping to

fund ongoing studies in hopes of pinpointing the source of the problem,

said Bob Ghirelli, the district’s director of technical services.

Scientists are expected to come up with “hard data” by the end of April,

said Robert Beardsley, the city’s director of public works.

“Assuming that everything points to a source and is conclusive, I think

we can [then] start planning our treatment change,” Ghirelli said.

For more than 10 years now, the district’s waste water has been treated

in such a way that half is cleaned to what’s known as a primary level,

which leaves more contaminants such as fecal matter, while the other half

receives more stringent secondary treatment, Tuchman said. But that 50-50

blend was supposed to have changed already to about 70% primary waste

water, she said.

The anticipated change was approved in October as part of the district’s

plan to meet the sewage needs of a growing population.

Beach-goers should not be concerned even though more waste will be

released because the discharge is pumped five miles off the coast, she

said.

Mayor Dave Garofalo isn’t so sure. After what the city suffered through,

releasing more bacteria doesn’t make sense, he said.

“This is a business where less is better,” he said.