Vic Leipzig and Lou Murray -- The Natural Perspective

The beach is still contaminated.

Who’s guilty? We don’t know. The health agencies are now focusing their

attention on the Santa Ana River. They had originally exonerated the

river because of some testing that they now realize was flawed.

We can also ask, “Who’s innocent?” There is at least one suspect that is

in the clear and can be taken off the list. That suspect is the Talbert

Marsh.

It looks likely that some contamination has been coming down the Talbert

Flood Control Channel, and the Talbert Marsh lies at the end of the

Talbert Channel. This has led many folks, public officials and members of

the press, to describe the marsh as the “source” of the contamination.

But the marsh is clearly NOT where the bacteria originate. The real

source would be upstream at the city’s flood control pump stations or

perhaps at a sewer leak into the channel.

The marsh is not only just a conduit, it is an innocent victim. These

bacteria may not do any particular harm to the marsh ecosystem, but they

don’t it any good, either.

The real victims may be the marsh managers. They were doing one of their

regular clean-up days, wading into the marsh to collect trash, on one of

the days when high bacterial counts were recorded. Did any agencies

notify the Huntington Beach Wetlands Conservancy, owners of the marsh,

about these high bacteria counts? No.

It has been suggested that the wildlife of the marsh is the original

source of the contaminating bacteria. This is extremely unlikely.

It has been calculated by the Sanitation District that the total number

of bacteria that are getting into the ocean is so enormous that it would

take a good-sized sewer leak to raise bacterial counts that high along a

mile or more of the ocean. There are, indeed, bacteria in bird droppings.

But the number of birds in the Talbert Marsh (a few hundred or so)

couldn’t possibly do the job.

No, some more numerous animal species must be responsible. And by far the

most numerous animals in this part of Orange County are people.

While we’ve eliminated a couple of suspects, we’re no closer to knowing

the source of the contamination than we were earlier in the summer.

The two most likely sources of the contamination remain the same: sewage

from a leaking sewer pipe or urban runoff from the storm drains. Or

possibly both at once! One possibility would be an undetected sewer leak

into the Talbert Channel upstream of Talbert Marsh.

The solution to the immediate problem remains elusive. However, we know

we have serious deficiencies in both our storm drains and sewers. We know

that many of the sewers in Downtown are leaking badly. We need to spend

the money to fix them, even if they are not culprits for this summer’s

beach closures.

We know that our storm drains contain bacteria, viruses, and trash. We

need to clean up that flow before it reaches the ocean. During the dry

season, runoff can, and should, be directed to the sewage treatment

plants, even if it raises the cost of operating those plants.

Unfortunately, in the winter, the volume of storm runoff can be so great

that it would swamp our sewage treatment facilities. But we can, and

should, build detention basins and settling ponds to slow, at least

briefly, its flow rate and get some of the trash out before it gets to

the sea.

Who should pay for these improvements? One answer might be that since

this is local infrastructure, let the locals pay for it.

But how local is local? Talbert Channel drains both Huntington Beach and

Fountain Valley. Some sewer lines drain very small geographic areas,

others drain four or five cities. And the sewage treatment plant deals

with the sewage of most of Orange County.

No, it won’t do to dismiss this as just a local problem. The effect is

felt on a resource -- the ocean -- that belongs to everyone. These are

big problems that merit state and federal funding. But if we don’t

receive that funding, we’re just going have to do the job ourselves.

Vic Leipzig and Lou Murray are Huntington Beach residents and

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