Flynn Asks Who Should Post Beaches if Polluted : Health: Supervisor tells top administrator to find out who is responsible for testing seawater and warning swimmers of risks.

Concerned about alerting the public to the health risks of polluted ocean waters, Supervisor John K. Flynn on Tuesday directed the county’s top administrator to determine whether the county should post warnings on contaminated beaches.

Flynn asked Chief Administrative Officer Lin Koester to determine who should be responsible for testing seawater and installing warning signs on beaches when bacteria levels exceed state health standards.

“We need to have someone or some agency minding the store,” Flynn said. “We do have sewage spills from time to time and apparently there is a problem. . . . If the ocean is not safe, then we better have signs go up.”

The supervisor said he became alarmed after reading an article in The Times this week reporting that Ventura County is the only jurisdiction in Southern California that fails to post warning signs during major sewage spills or other episodes of unsafe bacterial levels.

State officials say the law requires county health officers to post warning signs when they determine that polluted waters pose a risk to swimmers, surfers or anyone else on public beaches.

But Donald Koepp, the county’s environmental health director, has said his office has no legal obligation to put up warning signs because it does not test for bacteria and thus has no way to determine whether the ocean is unfit for swimming. The environmental health division, he said, cannot do more unless it gets the money to test coastal waters.

Flynn said he realizes that money is tight, but emphasized that the county needs to take a much more aggressive stand in warning the public about potential hazards.

“This is one of the areas where we have to set priorities,” Flynn said. “This is a health matter.”

Flynn’s comments drew immediate praise from a member of the Surfrider Foundation, a coastal protection group that started its own bacteria testing program three years ago out of frustration over government inaction.

“There is a health issue that needs to be addressed,” said Richard Sweet, a Surfrider member. “If there is a full-blown monitoring and public information program, it could prevent a lot of illnesses.”

One noted EPA study found “a direct, linear relationship between swimming-associated gastrointestinal illness and the quality of bathing water” off beaches on the East and Gulf coasts.

Although USC Medical School researchers this month launched the first such study on the West Coast, local physicians said they have diagnosed ear and sinus infections, skin rashes and other ailments that they attribute to ocean pollution.

State officials had expressed interest in investigating Ventura County’s practices.

But Jack McGurk, environmental manager of the California Health Services Department, said Tuesday that he believes county officials--rather than state officials--should review Koepp’s decisions.

“He is the one who is entrusted to operate the program,” McGurk said. “If there are problems, it’s the Board of Supervisors and the county administrator and the public who can bring pressure.”

Koepp could not be reached for comment Tuesday.

Flynn said he did not give Koester a deadline to determine the county’s proper role in monitoring ocean pollution. Koester last week took on the job of chief administrative officer and is busy assembling the county’s budget for next year.

But the supervisor said he wants a quick review and noted that Koester is familiar with the program. In the 1970s, Koester was director of the county’s Resource Management Agency, which oversees the environmental health division.

At that time, Flynn said, the division routinely tested seawater and put up signs during periods when bacteria reached unhealthful levels. The program ended in late 1978 as part of budget trimming after the passage of Proposition 13.

Times staff writer Carlos V. Lozano contributed to this article.