Bolsa Chica’s Back in the Swim, and Just in Time

Most of Bolsa Chica State Beach is due to reopen today, 23 days after a leaky sewer forced a swimming ban that kept thousands away from one of Orange County’s most popular beaches.

All but one small stretch of the 2 1/2-mile beach is scheduled to reopen to swimming and surfing at 6 a.m. today, the Orange County Health Care Agency announced Friday.

“I’m happy. Elated,” said park supervisor Don Ito.

Ito and his staff have been grappling with sewer engineering problems and lost revenue since county health officials closed two-thirds of the beach June 6 because of elevated bacteria levels offshore.

The bacteria have been blamed on liquid raw human sewage seeping from a crack-filled sewer line that serves the park’s 140 toilets.

With the weather warming and the busy July 4 holiday approaching, the state Department of Parks and Recreation has been urging that Bolsa Chica be allowed to reopen.

On Friday, county health officials gave the go-ahead after monitoring offshore waters and approving an elaborate plan for operating beach restrooms without using the faulty sewer system.

However, the swimming ban remains in effect along a 750-foot swath of beach between lifeguard towers 17 and 18, where water testing this week still detected higher-than-normal bacteria levels.

“Our monitoring has shown that the water is acceptable for bathing except for the area where we’ve maintained the closure,” said Monica Mazur, environmental health specialist at the county Health Care Agency.

Stepped-up water monitoring will continue along the shore, with the remaining piece of beach to be reopened when bacteria levels drop to normal levels, Mazur said.

Although most sewer spills can be fixed in a few days, this one involved a 2 1/2-mile sewer line found to contain dozens of cracks. Parks supervisors plan to replace the line in a $1.4-million construction project this fall, but they were hard-pressed to find a way to provide restroom facilities for summer beach-goers without using the faulty line--and thus continuing the flow of sewage.

The parks department was losing an estimated $20,000 each weekend that the beach remained closed.

After long--and sometimes tense--talks with health officials, parks supervisors have devised a system that will allow nine of the 14 restrooms to remain open.

A pump truck will remove sewage from seven underground holding tanks and transport it to a nearby public sewer line. The plan, which will keep sewage out of the flawed line, also includes the temporary use of 30 chemical toilets, officials said.