Dirty Water Wasn’t From Treatment Plant
I would like to clear up an unfortunate gross misperception appearing in an article, “Soot, Not Swells, Are Topic of the Day,” on June 6. The reporter, John Weyler, paraphrased surfing contestants who believed the waste water treatment plant located across Pacific Coast Highway might be responsible for the “ugly brown tint” in the seawater.
The “ugly brown tint” appearing in coastal waters on Sunday was in fact due to Saturday’s intense rainstorm and subsequent urban and storm water runoff from the Santa Ana River. The river channel has been under a great deal of flood control construction work that has moved thousands of cubic yards of sand and dirt within the channel.
Highly treated waste water from our Huntington Beach facility is discharged through a large pipeline four miles out at sea at a depth of 200 feet. We spend more than $2 million a year on an extensive ocean monitoring program that assures us that treated waste water is not reaching the shoreline and that the beneficial uses of the ocean are being protected.
J. WAYNE SYLVESTER
General Manager
County Sanitation Districts of Orange County
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