Help for Polluted Beach Is on the Horizon

Help may be on the way for a once-popular children’s beach in Oxnard that has been closed for nearly a year because of disease-causing pollution swirling in the water.

Shallow, calm waters have made Channel Islands Harbor Beach Park, better known as “Kiddie Beach,” a favored spot for families with small children. But this summer, tourists have stayed away because of the no-swimming signs that have been in place since September.

The pollution has become so persistent that Santa Monica-based Heal the Bay recently declared Kiddie Beach the most polluted of 250 beaches between San Luis Obispo County and San Diego County.

Now, officials in Ventura County are poised to hire experts they hope will identify the source of the pollution and devise cleanup remedies to put the beach back into use.

On Tuesday, the county’s Board of Supervisors is scheduled to consider a contract calling for $118,000 in new water-quality studies at the beach. Later this month, the Oxnard City Council is expected to contribute 42% of that amount.

The proposal calls for hiring a Thousand Oaks environmental consultant to organize a task force, hold public meetings and work with scientists to solve the problem. Work probably would begin by the end of this month, and the first public meeting is tentatively scheduled for Aug. 9.

Local officials hope the consultant, Larry Walker Associates, has better luck than they did tracking down the origin of the pollution.

Investigators have sampled runoff to the beach and rerouted storm drains. They have checked for leaks in sewage lines. They relocated feral cats suspected of defecating around the beach. They installed pooper-scoopers for dog walkers. They looked at possible sewage discharges from boats in the harbor.

But none of those sources seems sufficient to account for the beach pollution.

“We’ve done the routine stuff. Now it’s getting tricky,” said Jeff Pratt, deputy director of the county Public Works Department.

The next investigation would go high-tech. Working with scientists at UC Davis, the consultant would test water samples for DNA to pinpoint the source of the pollution. Another technique, which requires burning bacteria samples and reading the emissions like smoke signals, would also be employed. Another study goal is to zero in on precisely which pathogens, including viruses, may be swirling in Kiddie Beach surf.

High bacteria and other pathogens in ocean water can cause stomach flu, sinus infections, skin rashes and upper respiratory infections.

But in the end, there is no guarantee that scientists will discover the source of the pollution. The tests are expensive and the budget will allow only limited use of those technologies, Pratt said.

“A lot of communities have been wrestling with this problem of trying to find the source of fecal coliform in the water, and it’s tricky. There isn’t a cookbook approach you can use to this, but it’s the best shot we have at identifying the source,” Pratt said.