Beach Reopened After Needle Cleanup

A large stretch of beach was declared safe by health officials and reopened Friday after workers removed more than 1,000 used hypodermic needles that had washed ashore.

Lifeguards took down two miles of yellow warning tape that kept visitors away after the needles were discovered Thursday on the beach from Newland Street to 10th Street, north of the Huntington Beach Pier.

The needles had been used in dental procedures, said Monica Mazur, Orange County environmental health specialist. “We’ve determined that these are the needles that attach to aspirating syringes that the dentist uses to inject Novocain,” she said.

County health investigators believe the needles may have been dumped by a passing boat.

Most of the needles were capped with blue plastic tops, Mazur said. But the devices had a sharp end exposed, and lifeguards cautioned visitors to watch out any remaining needles.

City crews scoured the beach overnight Thursday. Lifeguards on boats and motor skis patrolled the offshore waters and two miles of beach Friday and found only one more needle, Mazur said.

Although cool weather is expected to limit crowds at the beach this weekend, Huntington Beach Lifeguard Lt. Kyle Lindo warned visitors not to touch any type of medical waste or debris. “Instead, contact a lifeguard or maintenance worker,” he said.

The material is still being gathered as evidence, Lindo said. “We’re still trying to track this down.”

The beach reopening was good news for surfer Jamil Sulenan, a Florida aerospace engineer on vacation. He had been surfing early Friday and was ordered to leave by lifeguards.

“They chased me out of the water,” Sulenan said. “ . . . This is one of my dream places to surf.”

The dumping of medical debris has been a problem at Orange County beaches for several years.

In 1996, county health officials imposed a $35 fee on doctors and dentists to help fund a pollution enforcement and education program. The fee was created after lifeguards found 300 hypodermic needles, glass vials, earplugs and other debris that had washed ashore and forced officials to close several beaches.

Health officials this summer were stumped by the cause of high bacteria levels that kept as much as four miles of beach closed for two months.

Sam Ali, whose family owns Zack’s concession stand, said the beach closures have made business terrible.

“We’ve had 80% less business this summer,” he said. “First we had pollution and now this comes up. It doesn’t look good. People see it and it scares them.”

On Friday, a task force investigating the bacteria levels said it is continuing to focus on urban runoff, especially water flowing from the Santa Ana River.

In addition, a $100,000 dye test is planned for later this month to check for any leaks in an outfall pipe that extends five miles out to sea.

Diagnostic pipe tests have so far been negative, said Michelle Tuchman, an Orange County Sanitation District spokeswoman. “But we want to run the dye test to totally eliminate the outfall pipe as a possible source.”

Meanwhile, more than 1,200 children and adults are expected to visit Huntington Beach this weekend to participate in a statewide coastal cleanup.

Organizers said they will concentrate cleanup efforts away from the water’s edge as a precaution.