Bryce Alderton The Orange County Sanitation District...

Bryce Alderton

The Orange County Sanitation District will begin capturing and

treating urban runoff coming from flood control channels before it hits

the beach.

Supervisor James W. Silva of the Orange County Board of Supervisors

approved project plans Aug. 28 for the installation of permanent pumps to

divert more than 95% of contaminated dry season runoff from the Talbert

and Lower Santa Ana River watersheds to the Orange County Sanitation

District facilities before being sent into the ocean.

“We’re helping [Orange County] with the runoff being diverted to [the

Orange County Sanitation District] and not being delivered to the beach

raw,” said Lisa Lawson, spokeswoman for the sanitation district. “The

partnership between the county of Orange and the [sanitation district] is

willing to dedicate resources to solve the massive problem of urban

runoff.”

Ken Smith, chief engineer of the Public Facilities Resource Department

for the County of Orange, described the advantages of the new plan.

“Before, we could only capture runoff during the dry season, now we

can capture runoff all year long except for the storm forecast times,”

Smith said. “Now we can capture and divert runoff for a much longer time

and still keep the channel safe for the storm flow.”

The new dam will inflate when no rain is forecasted and deflates when

rain is forecasted, this will allow storm water to pass through, Smith

said.

It will lie across the bottom of Talbert Channel, and inflate to three

or four feet high. The dam will take several hours to inflate.

The contaminated water will be redirected to the sanitation district’s

waste-water treatment facility in Fountain Valley before being discharged

into the ocean.

The proposed construction will place pumps at three locations: Talbert

Channel, where an inflatable rubber dam will be placed, the Huntington

Beach Pump Station in the city of Huntington Beach and the Santa Ana

River Channel in Fountain Valley.

County staff will open the bidding period for the projects on Sept.

26.

Nearly $3 million has been allocated for the project by the State

Water Resources Control Board, the State Department of Parks and

Recreation and included in the state’s fiscal year 2001-02 budget.

The dry season runoff comes from such sources as waste oils,

fertilizers, animal waste and other chemicals that are nutrients for

bacteria.

Smith made the distinction between urban runoff during the dry season,

which he said goes from April 15 to Oct. 15, and wet season runoff, which

goes from Oct. 15 to April 15.

“Urban runoff comes from natural or man-made sources such as residue

from people washing their cars or watering their lawns,” Smith said. “The

‘first flush’ occurs early in the storm season when the rain washes all

the pollutants that have gathered during the summer, so it’s more

pollutant-laden. Storm water runoff later in the wet season is washed

through the system because the streets are cleaner.”

Lawson said the district can only handle dry season runoff, but added

that a Norman Eckenrode, chairman of the sanitation district’s board of

directors suggested the formation of an urban runoff ad hoc committee two

months ago and held its first meeting Aug. 29.

Huntington Beach city councilman Peter Green is one of 15 ad hoc

committee members and is on the Board of Directors of the Orange County

Sanitation District.

“We’re trying to figure out a way to have more diversion through the

sanitation district, and make incentives for cities to conserve water,”

Green said. “The sanitation district is trying to show an expanded

mission to show more of a public responsibility.”

Green said the sanitation district can currently accept 4-million

gallons of urban runoff daily, but said one of the ideas that came out of

the Aug. 29 committee meeting is developing a plan for the sanitation

district to accept 10-million gallons of urban runoff daily.

“The goal of the committee is managing the problem of [urban runoff]

in the future and discussing any facility improvements or expansion plans

to control elements of urban runoff,” Lawson said.