Bleaching plan back in the bottle for now

Danette Goulet

The Orange County Sanitation District board put the brakes on a plan

to use bleach to disinfect the waste it sends into the ocean each day.

Although the board approved $200,000 for engineering work, it did not

approve the proposed treatment plan. Members deferred that decision for

30 days until a full analysis of the plan could be prepared by staff

members.

“There was not adequate public notice given, it is going to cost $14

million and we were asked to pass it having only seen a staff power point

presentation,” said City Councilwoman Connie Boardman, who serves as the

alternate executive director of the sanitation district board.

Boardman said she and her fellow board members want studies done and

several questions answered before they consider approving such a plan.

“We tabled it for 30 days. During that time engineering studies will

continue,” she said. “We asked to receive a report on alternatives to

bleaching and what bleaching would entail.”

Boardman added that the decision to postpone the plan received

overwhelming support because of the lack of information given.

The disinfection plan in question was proposed by district general

manager Blake Anderson at a press conference on Feb. 22. The plan would

treat the sewage with bleach three times stronger than ordinary household

bleach.

Anderson came up with the plan after ocean monitoring results found

that the plume of sewage the district discharges four and and half miles

off Huntington Beach has come back “uncomfortably close” to shore.

Every day, the district sends 243-million gallons of treated sewage

into the sea via a pipe on the ocean floor off Huntington Beach.

The sanitation district holds a waiver that allows it to send sewage

treated to a level less than what is required by the Clean Water Act of

1972 out to sea.

“The call for full secondary treatment by some members of the Orange

County Community is a matter that is still under review as part of the

district’s strategic planning process,” Anderson said when outlining the

bleaching plan.

The disinfection method Anderson has proposed has drawn mixed reviews

from environmentalists. The bleach would kill all bacteria in the waste

water, which environmentalists have charged has caused illnesses in

surfers and swimmers and closed a large portion of Huntington Beach’s

sands in the summer of 1999.

But that leaves environmentalist concerned with the effects the bleach

will have on the ocean environment.

The district has begun environmental engineering studies on the

disinfection effort, which is expected to be in place by this summer.

* DANETTE GOULET is the assistant city editor. She can be reached at

(714) 965-7170 or by e-mail at o7 [email protected] .