Plan could help curb urban runoff

Paul Clinton

City and state leaders representing Huntington Beach are pushing a new

program that could help solve the nagging problem of urban runoff that

would divert it for treatment through the Orange County Sanitation

District.

Sanitation district officials have launched an effort to amend the

agency’s charter so it could accept polluted water that now flows down

the watershed into tributaries that lead to the ocean.

Under the plan, the water would be pumped through the district’s

Fountain Valley plant along with the 241-million gallons of sewage

treated each day.

“It is one of many things that has to happen,” district spokeswoman

Lisa Murphy said. “One of the primary things that has to happen is

education of the community because I don’t think people think

over-watering their lawn is urban runoff.”

Assemblyman Tom Harman is readying a bill that would give the agency

the power to treat the runoff. He has until Feb. 22, the deadline for new

legislation, to introduce the bill.

“Currently, they don’t have the legal authority to do it,” Harman

said. “We need to treat urban runoff. We need to give them the authority

to do that. It’s enabling legislation.”

Harman says he will introduce the bill sometime next week. It would be

coauthored by state Sen. Ross Johnson, who also represents Huntington

Beach.

Before the changes take place, there are still many questions that

must be answered, including how much runoff could be treated, how it

would be treated and who would pay potential cost increases.

Right now, the district accepts about 2-million gallons of runoff per

day. The plant could handle up to 4-million gallons at no more than the

current cost of $225,000 per year, Murphy said.

However, coastal cities want more. Huntington Beach officials, in a

Dec. 26 letter, asked the district to accept between 10- and 20-million

gallons per day.

Much of the runoff from upland cities heads into the East Garden Grove

Wintersburg Chanel and the Bolsa Chica Channel, and winds its way into

the water in the surf zone, the city’s environmental engineer said.

“It’s a way to address the urban runoff [problem] today,” Geraldine

Lucas said. “Let’s get this [runoff] into the sanitary sewers and deal

with it.”

The new method of treating car oils, pesticides, lawn water and other

everyday waste, officials said, would help to cut down on the number of

postings at area beaches by the Orange County Health Care Agency.

The district would need to separate those toxic compounds before the

waste water could be pumped out of the district’s outfall pipe and into

the ocean.

Many of the beach postings caused by runoff have angered

environmentalists who want to protect the ocean and city officials who

want to protect businesses damaged by a loss of tourist revenue.

* Paul Clinton covers the environment and John Wayne Airport for the

Independent’s sister paper, the Daily Pilot. He may be reached at

(949)764-4330 or by e-mail at o7 [email protected] .