SAN JUAN CAPISTRANO : Action Promised on Creek Sewage Spills

Surfers and swimmers who use the popular Doheny State Beach were assured by the state Regional Water Quality Control Board on Monday that future sewage problems such as the one that closed the beach in March will be curtailed.

Arthur L. Coe, executive officer for the San Diego region of the seven-member board, told a gathering at San City Hall that rainfall-induced “sewer overflows” into the San Juan Creek appear to be the immediate problem for the beach park. The creek flows through the park into the Pacific Ocean.

Coe said he will contact the various sewage treatment agencies next to the creek “to stress to them the need for continuing to upgrade their systems.”

Coe added that a study of the sources of the creek’s pollutants should be looked at as a long-term solution. Don Martinson, a board member for the San Juan Basin Authority, said his group has begun such a study.

The state board staff report stopped short of placing the blame for sewage discharge on any sewage treatment agency. Nor did it find that waters in the lower portion of San Juan Creek are being contaminated by any ongoing discharge of sewage.

During most of the year, San Juan Creek contamination is similar to that found in other Southern California creeks , the staff report said.

But the downpour last March 25 to 27 that dropped 2.5 inches of rain in the South County area caused a clay sewage pipe in Mission Viejo to break. About 50,000 gallons of raw sewage overflowed into Trabuco Creek and eventually made its way to San Juan Creek and into the Pacific Ocean.

As a result, the popular surfing beach was closed for a month.