ORANGE COUNTY VOICES : Keeping Water Pollution-Free Means Action : Orange County faces the millennium with serious environmental problems. But there are solutions.

Were you aware that for 319 days in 1997 there was a beach closed in Orange County due to pollution, according to the Natural Resources Defense Council, which conducts a clean beach survey each year? The county responded by saying that number was incorrect, the true number of beach closings for that year was only 225 days. Feel better?

For 1998, and partly due to El Nino, Orange County suffered a total of 508 days worth of closed beaches. (On some days, more than one beach was closed.) Unlike other California coastal counties, more than three-quarters of the 1998 closures and advisories were caused by contamination of beach water by sewage through pipeline breaks or storm water.

This year, a section of beach in Huntington Beach has been closed because of a sewage spill, the source of which still has not been traced. Last week the closed portion was expanded to more than four miles.

In June of this year, the California Water Quality Control Board adopted a plan that specified 10 “polluted toxic hot spots” that exist in the harbors of Newport and Huntington and our coastal wetlands. The Rhine channel in Newport Harbor (where most of the boatyards and several very nice restaurants are located) is so severely contaminated that if the sediment were to be removed, it would have to be transported to a toxic waste facility. It could not be dumped into the ocean--anywhere. Arsenic, copper, lead, mercury, zinc and more are present, according to the state.

Orange County suffers from one of the largest watersheds in the state. We are at the bottom of a huge 3,000-plus-square-mile natural funnel that contains approximately 4 1/2 million people and all the pollution they generate. It all runs to the ocean through our harbors, beaches and wetlands. Toxins from all conceivable sources--from illegal discharging to the 375,000 dairy cows in the Chino/Ontario area, all affect Orange County.

Currently, there is a plan to allow the amount of waste discharged into the ocean by the Orange County Sanitation District to increase by 17%. Not only does this plan allow the discharge of 3,000 metric tons more per year of microscopic solid particles, but it allows dirtier water to be discharged by changing the blend of primary and secondary treatment. This plan has not been adopted yet, but if the public does not object, chances are it will be.

Being a native of Anaheim, I remember fishing from the Newport pier as a young boy, pulling up as many bonita as I wanted, and collecting shells along the beaches. Today, both the bonita and shells are gone. The kelp forests along the coastline are small remnant patches of what they once were. Orange County faces the millennium with serious environmental problems. There are solutions to these problems, but until the public is educated to recognize and acknowledge the problems and participate in the solutions, our environment will only deteriorate.

The history of the water “Keeper” programs began on the Hudson River in New York. John Cronin, a commercial fisherman on the Hudson, brought other fishermen together because the fish were disappearing, and as a result, they were going broke.

Using the 1972 Federal Clean Water Act, and armed with evidence, a group of citizens filed lawsuits to stop the rampant polluting of the river. They were more than successful. Today, it is well documented that the Hudson River has recovered better than expected.

In 1992 there were three Keeper programs. Five years later there were seven, including the San Francisco and Santa Monica BayKeepers. Today, there are 37 water-keeper programs across the country, each caring for a particular water body or system. The Orange County CoastKeeper is the 27th program to be licensed as part of the now nationally recognized WaterKeeper Alliance.

Our programs include:

* 887-4-CA-COAST. This is a 24-hour toll-free, bilingual hotline: an environmental “911.” We encourage citizens to take an active role in protecting the coast by reporting pollution anywhere in the county or our watershed area.

* Aqua Cops. With our own volunteer-run boats, we respond and investigate citizen reports of pollution, and we obtain and document activities that violate water quality and habitat protection laws.

* Legislative and permit monitoring. The agendas of legislative and permitting agencies must be constantly monitored.

* Clean harbors. Our harbors are too full of trash and debris. We will support ongoing harbor cleanup programs with boats and volunteers.

These programs can be accomplished only with support from volunteers who want to make a commitment to be part of the solutions. For more information please call (949) 723-5424.