Stench is of natural decay

Jenny Marder

County water quality experts say a natural decaying process is

causing the foul odor and dying marine life in the Talbert Channel.

When organic material decays in stagnant water, it can cause

sulfuric odors, a milky white plume and oxygen levels too low for

fish to live, said Mary Anne Skorpanich, watershed planner at the

Public Facilities and Resources Department. The process is known as

eutrophication.

Extra organic material caused by red tide, low tidal variation and

urban runoff diversions upstream could all be contributing to the low

oxygen levels in the water, she said.

“They could all make the conditions worse,” Skorpanich said.

Southeast area residents have been up in arms about the decaying

odor rising from the waterway, which they fear is the cause of

headaches, sore throats and other flu-like symptoms that have plagued

the neighborhood.Residents and scientists have been struggling to

pinpoint the source of the problem.

A similar occurrence in the Newport Bay in 1986 may shed light on

what’s happening in the Talbert Channel.

Environmentalist Jack Skinner, a Newport Beach physician who’s

studied local water quality issues for nearly 20 years, said that

what he witnessed in the lower channel of the Newport Bay in 1986 --

the dying off of fish accompanied by a sharp drop in the water’s

oxygen content -- seems to mirror reports on what’s been happening in

the Talbert Channel over the past month.

Skinner’s account of the Newport Bay on Memorial Day 1986 is

hauntingly similar to what’s happening in the Talbert Channel.

“Fish were actually gasping for air and they were dying just in

front of our eyes,” Skinner recalled. “Crabs were trying to climb out

of the water and up to the seawall, but they kept falling back into

the water. It was clear that the fish and crabs had died from the

lack of oxygen, the way they were gasping at the surface and the way

the fish were trying to get out of the water.”

The water had a putrid odor to it and a dull gray color, with

white foam, Skinner said.

Water samples taken in the bay by state and county health

environmental officials showed a zero dissolved oxygen content, the

lowest ever detected in the bay. County officials concluded that the

fish dying was a result of low oxygen caused by the death of

dinoflagellates, also known as red tide, Skinner said.

The odor, low oxygen levels and the death of scores of fish and

crabs have also been reported over the past month in the Talbert

Channel and also in conjunction with the red tide, which has been

occurring up and down the coast since August. This recent theory

comes at a time of heightened concern as residents continue to

complain of headaches and sore throats that they say intensify and

wane along with the rise and fall of the odor.

Reports of a chemical smell and a white plume have some residents

skeptical that it is a naturally occurring problem. They’re also

wondering why this is happening now.

“The way that this happened all of a sudden, the visible plume

causing symptoms like headaches and nausea ... it sounds to me like a

chemical spill or a dumping phenomenon,” said Jan Vandersloot, one of

the founders of the activist Ocean Outfall Group.

Recent tests showed no indication of illegal dumping or

discharges, Skorpanich said.

Huntington Beach resident John Scott, who’s been closely

monitoring activity in the channel, said that he’s lived in the area

for 26 years and has never seen fish die off like this.

Skinner’s account of the Back Bay incident, however, seemed very

similar to what is going on in the Talbert Channel, Scott said.

“The symptoms which he described -- low oxygen, crabs coming out

of the water, fish dying off -- it all seems very similar to the

situation that we saw here in the channel,” Scott said. “I don’t

think anyone could discount that.”

Skinner said he didn’t know what to make of the headaches or the

chemical smell.

“It doesn’t quite fit,” he said. “But it certainly was suspicious

that if the red tide was present at the same time of all these

things, it seems to be more than coincidental ... but the chemical

smell and the headache, I just don’t know an answer to that.”

The county has installed a 24-hour monitoring system and recent

readings lead Skorpanich to believe that the problem is in the

process of healing itself.

“The oxygen levels we’ve been seeing looks like they’re

improving,” Skorpanich said. “It’s sort of correcting itself.”

Scientists are still waiting on autopsies of dead fish collected

from the channel. They are also looking into options of flushing out

the channel to remove stagnant water.

* JENNY MARDER covers City Hall. She can be reached at (714)

965-7173 or by e-mail at [email protected].