Countywide : Surfriders to Monitor Waters at Seal Beach

The Surfrider Foundation will soon begin testing bacteria levels in often-polluted waters near Seal Beach, a task abandoned by the county Health Care Agency in the wake of the collapsed county investment pool.

The county has indefinitely suspended routine testing of coastal waters because of its bankruptcy, according to Larry Honeybourne, chief of the Health Care Agency’s water quality control program.

A local Surfrider Foundation chapter already monitors water quality in Laguna Beach, and another chapter will begin testing bacteria levels in Seal Beach within a month.

Waters off Huntington Beach and Sunset Beach are tested by the Orange County Sanitation Districts.

The Surfrider Foundation does not plan to take over the entire county water testing program.

“Our resources are far too limited,” said Dr. Gordon Labedz, a Surfrider spokesman and associate professor of medicine at UC Irvine’s California School of Medicine. “I don’t think we could ever take the place of the county.”

Honeybourne said the county will continue to respond to sewage spills, closing beaches when contaminated and monitoring bacteria levels until waters are safe.

The county had monitored water quality at 120 coastal locations from the San Gabriel River in Seal Beach to San Clemente, including bays, harbors and estuaries.

Newport Beach and other coastal communities are considering paying part of the cost of water testing in order to revive the county water quality program.

Seal Beach waters are routinely polluted during rainstorms.

Storm drains throughout Los Angeles and Orange counties empty into the San Gabriel River, which drains into a popular Seal Beach surfing spot.

Labedz recommends that swimmers wait 72 hours after a rainstorm before entering the surf near the San Gabriel River.