Green Is Unclean in Harbor : Environment: In Avalon, dye tells Harbor Patrol that a boat’s septic tank is leaking. Violators banned for a year.

The Harbor Patrol officers who zip around Catalina Island’s Avalon Harbor have a warning for polluters: “Green dye don’t lie.”

No exceptions and limited appeals allowed. All boats that sail into Avalon and tie up at one of the 300 moorings must pass this test, in which officers drop green dye tablets into toilet bowls to make sure they are discharging into the holding tanks--not out into the open ocean.

If the tanks leak or a toilet is flushed directly into the bay, the brilliant chartreuse dye soon marks the waters around the boat. And that’s the end for the boat’s skipper and passengers.

They are immediately kicked out of the harbor, and the boat can’t come back for a year.

If the punishment sounds tough, city officials say it is meant to be. The reason: A major effort is under way to clean up the harbor and keep it clean.

The city’s strict clean water rules date back to 1988, when the harbor was nearly shut down by state environmental officials because of high levels of pollution. Tests showed alarmingly high fecal coliform bacteria counts, a sure sign of unhealthy water.

Unlike Two Harbors in Isthmus Cove or other Catalina Island moorings, officials note that Avalon Harbor is more prone to pollution because the sea currents and tides no longer flush the harbor as they once did, primarily because of the breakwaters that were built a quarter century ago.

Add to that the popularity of the harbor, which boasts 300 mooring buoys catering to hundreds of visiting pleasure boats each week.

There have been other causes of water pollution as well, officials note, including the droppings from hundreds of pigeons that had been nesting under the ferry docks and recreational pier.

To combat that, the city began feeding the pigeons corn laced with a chemical sterilizer, which disrupted the birds’ breeding cycles. It took nearly two years, but now there are only a few old birds still flying around and the problem seems under control.

With the pigeons under control, officials are pressing the attack against leaky holding tanks.

Many a skipper has been fined $500 and kicked out of the picturesque, heavily used harbor for a year after the telltale dye was found in the water around his or her boat.

“We’re real tough on this,” said Harbor Master John Phelps, noting that more than 200 boats have been ordered out of the harbor since 1988, no excuses tolerated. “Our main job is keeping the water clean, and green dye is our key to success.”

Any expulsions can be appealed to the City Council, but boat owners usually don’t find much help there.

“We’ve only reversed two cases,” said City Councilman Ralph Morrow, the council’s liaison to the harbor department. “The circumstances have to be very unusual, almost an act of God, before we’ll overturn one of those citations.”

But the appeals keep coming, with boat skippers pleading their cases by letter or in person.

“It’s not fair,” said retired fire captain David Lamb of Torrance, after his appeal was rejected. He was banned from the harbor late this summer after being cited for an illegal discharge. “I was tried and convicted by my own honesty.”

A frequent sailor to West Coast recreation spots, Lamb had motored his 42-foot trawler “Latitude 20” from King Harbor to Avalon in August, planning to stay for a week’s vacation.

While moored in Avalon, a holding tank valve leaked green dye into the water, and a nearby boat owner saw it and reported it to the Harbor Patrol.

Lamb acknowledged the leak, and told officers he had repaired a faulty valve. He was cited anyway, even though the leak was small and no dye was visible by the time the patrolman arrived, reports show.

The harbor patrolman’s report and Lamb’s letter to the City Council appealing his expulsion differ on what precisely happened. However, the city manager’s report to the council cut through the arguments, stating simply, “What does appear in common is that the dye was emitted from the “Latitude 20.”

Appeal denied.

“We’ve got to be tough if we’re going to keep control of our water quality in the harbor,” Phelps said.

The clean harbor efforts have been so successful, Phelps said, he and his staff have been invited to Newport and other harbors to advise them on how to set up a similar system.