Huntington Beach : City Approves Panel on Harbor Water Quality

The City Council has voted to create an ad hoc committee to look for ways to improve water quality in Huntington Harbour and the nearby Bolsa Chica area.

Assistant City Manager Richard Barnard said Wednesday that the committee, once appointed, will bring together a wide range of government officials and citizen groups to conduct and solicit funds for studies on how to reduce the community’s water quality problems.

“We have flood-control channels that empty into Huntington Harbour and the Bolsa Chica area and they carry with them pollutants from upstream,” Barnard said. “We need to address how we can better clean up and control those materials that are in those waters.”

According to a city report, “recent studies by the Water Quality Control Board and the county show that waters in Huntington Harbour and Anaheim Bay contain some of the highest levels of contaminants--such as DDT and PCB--in the state. . . . Generally, the cause of this problem appears to be discharges of toxic materials by the U.S. Navy and private oil developers.”

The committee also will develop a public-information program for boat operators and waterfront property owners to teach them how they can reduce water pollution, Barnard said. Lorraine Faber, a past president of the Amigos de Bolsa Chica, a citizens group which has fought for more than a decade to preserve the Bolsa Chica wetlands, called the creation of the committee an encouraging sign.

“I think an ongoing dialogue would be quite helpful to reach some resolution,” Faber said. “The question (will) be where the committee is going to go. I’ve been in so many meetings that go nowhere.”

The size of the committee has not yet been determined, Barnard said. Appointments will be made by City Council members Peter Green, John Erskine and Grace Winchell, all of whom will be members of the committee.