Cleanup Works on Polluted Aliso Creek

New steps to cut pollution in Aliso Creek are working, say local officials who are under state orders to clean up one of Orange County’s most polluted waterways.

Bacteria levels in water entering the creek have met health standards for the past three weeks after exceeding them repeatedly for months, say Laguna Niguel city officials. They credit the decline to holding ponds the city recently built near a major source of contamination, a massive storm channel that empties into Sulphur Creek, an Aliso Creek tributary.

Some worry that the city’s solutions--the ponds and a potential summer diversion of runoff into a sewage treatment plant--are merely Band-Aids. Though buoyed by the reported bacteria decline, activists remain wary, noting that the source of the pollution remains unknown.

“How can you fix a problem if you don’t know what’s causing it?” asked Garry Brown of the Orange County CoastKeeper.

Pollution has plagued Aliso Creek, which drains more than 34 square miles from the Santa Ana Mountains to the Pacific Ocean. Urban runoff--trash, chemicals and other pollutants washed from streets and lawns into storm drains and area waterways--is also a perpetual problem.

Concerns are focused on a storm channel that drains the Kite Hill neighborhood, where fecal bacteria counts are especially high--once reaching 225 times the allowable health standard. Runoff from the channel enters Sulphur Creek, then Aliso Creek, then the ocean in Laguna Beach, where swimmers are frequently warned of health risks.

In December, the San Diego Regional Water Quality Control Board, which has jurisdiction, ordered Laguna Niguel and Orange County to clean up the creek, prevent future pollution, monitor water quality weekly and submit quarterly progress reports. The city and county face fines of up to $5,000 per day or lawsuits if they fail to comply.

On March 13, Laguna Niguel officials built three holding ponds near the outfall of the large storm channel. As water leaves the channel, it enters the ponds in sequence. Bacteria settle and die off in each pond before the water finally enters Sulphur Creek. City officials say the amount of bacteria decreases with treatment in each pond, and meets standards after the third.

Water entering Sulphur Creek in February averaged 10,480 fecal coliform organisms per 100 milliliters. State health standards for the creek require a 30-day average of no more than 2,000 organisms, with no more than 10% of samples exceeding 4,000. After the ponds were built, average bacteria counts in water entering the creek dropped to 1,156.

“The results look very encouraging,” said Tim Casey, city manager. “This may be part of the permanent solution.”

Oversight Official Wants More Done

Wayne Baglin, chairman of the San Diego regional water quality board, said he is pleased by the city’s preliminary work but disappointed that the city has not conducted DNA testing to determine if the bacteria are coming from humans or animals.

Casey said the city is experimenting with a number of methods to determine the best possible solution. “The DNA testing is expensive, and all of the circumstantial evidence to date points away from a human source of the bacteria,” he said.

But local activists, whose work prompted the regional board’s action, say the city’s performance has been lackluster at best.

“The San Diego regional board issued a cleanup and abatement order--that was an order,” said Michael Beanan, vice president of the South Laguna Civic Assn. “There has been no abatement, and the cleanup has, at best, been perfunctory.”

Brown and Beanan also questioned whether the proposed summertime diversion of runoff into a sewage treatment plant would be practical or effective. Moulton Niguel Water District officials have yet to decide whether to allow a diversion into their system. Even if they do, they are expected to insist on stopping the diversion if manganese--a metal common in local ground water and harmful to treatment plants--causes a problem.

Even if such a diversion is successful, critics say it would be temporary and would fail to address the root cause of the problem.

“That’s why they’ve got to find the source,” Baglin said. “Every [structural solution] has its own deficiencies. It would be a chronic cost on taxpayers.”

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Aliso Creek Runoff

City officials are trying to filter storm drain runoff through a series of settling ponds to help remove bacteria flowing out of Aliso Creek into the ocean.

* Rainy day

Source: Laguna Niguel Public Works