Researchers Go With the Flow

Early indications from a new study to explain last year’s mysteriously high bacteria levels off Huntington Beach support suspicions that Talbert Marsh--contaminated with urban runoff--is the culprit, researchers said Monday.

Workers began the experiment Monday by pumping 150 liters of magenta dye into the water at the mouth of the marsh and the Santa Ana River. Researchers plan to watch over coming days to see if the dye concentrates in areas where high bacteria readings have been found, confirming that one--or both--are sources of contamination that closed the shoreline for two months last summer.

The closure dealt a stinging blow to the city’s economy and image as a premiere beach town in the middle of the tourist season. Officials are scrambling to solve the problem before it can recur. Bacteria levels have been escalating along stretches of the city’s shoreline since late March, and swimmers were advised Monday to avoid two 300-foot stretches around Beach Boulevard and Magnolia Street because of high bacteria levels.

Though Monday’s observations are preliminary, they support earlier findings from a UC Irvine study.

“The dye released at Talbert Marsh seemed to move up and sit in an area of concern: Newland Avenue,” said Burt Jones, a USC researcher. “The dye from the release at the Santa Ana River . . . hasn’t done a lot.”

“It certainly says [runoff] can come from Talbert Marsh. I won’t say it doesn’t come from the Santa Ana River too,” Jones said.

It is hoped that the dye’s dilution over the next few days will help “explain the dynamic of what’s going on,” said Rich Barnard, deputy city administrator. “Until we understand it, we’re not in a position to address it in any significant way.”

The cause of last summer’s two-month closure remains unknown despite millions of dollars spent on studies. Officials suspect urban runoff--the brew of chemicals, metals and bacteria washed off lawns and streets into storm drains, and eventually into area waterways and the ocean--from Talbert Marsh and the Santa Ana River.

Talbert Marsh, on the inland side of Pacific Coast Highway at Brookhurst Street, is a 25-acre wetland that attracts thousands of migratory birds and other wildlife each year. It drains 12 square miles of Huntington Beach and Fountain Valley.

The Santa Ana River begins more than 100 miles away in the San Bernardino Mountains. Its watershed includes more than 2,650 square miles in San Bernardino, Riverside and Orange counties and is home to more than 4.5 million people.

Jones said the dye allows study of the route that runoff-laden water from the marsh and the river takes once it enters the ocean. Researchers, who released 75 liters at each spot, will also study whether dye concentrations correlate with “hot spots” that had high bacteria counts last year.

The dye, which created frothy pink waves as it dissipated along the shore, will be monitored until Wednesday. Researchers will use fluorometers to measure dye concentration at two offshore locations and along the shoreline. Aerial photographs taken Monday and today will also help.

Researchers also lobbed 70 numbered oranges into the river’s mouth and 70 numbered grapefruits into the marsh’s entrance to see where they wash up.

Preliminary results will be available midweek, and a draft report is expected by month’s end, Jones said.

Huntington State Beach, which was closed from the Santa Ana River to Newland Street, is scheduled to reopen at 6 a.m. today.

Part of a $90,000 study, Monday’s test is tentatively scheduled to be conducted again May 10--with a twist. Nine recently installed pump station diversions in the river and flood channels that flow into the marsh will be turned off, allowing more runoff to flow into the waterways. The beach will again be closed for the day, Barnard said.

The dye tests are part of several ongoing studies. From May 13 to 17, researchers will test water quality at the shoreline, the breakwater and beyond “so we can get a picture at each area out in the ocean,” Barnard said.

Since the closure, Huntington Beach, Orange County and the Orange County Sanitation Districts have spent millions of dollars and countless hours seeking the source of the pollution, including:

* A $1.2-million investigation last summer by local, state and federal agencies that ruled out a sewage spill as the cause and began looking at the marsh and urban runoff.

* A $150,000 UCI study that zeroed in on Talbert Marsh as a possible contributing factor.

Beachgoers remained wary Monday as they watched the dye flow north.

“It’s about time,” said Bruce Martin, who has lived in Huntington Beach with his wife, Debbie, for 22 years. The couple arrived on in-line skates and a bicycle at the mouth of Talbert Marsh and took pictures of the unusually colored surf.

Their family has been personally affected by the high bacteria counts. Daughter Melody, 18, belongs to the surfing team at Edison High School. High bacteria counts have sent the team to Newport Beach for practice. Melody’s 15-year-old sister, Melissa, worked at concession stands along the beach last summer when her hours were slashed because of the closure.

The Martins don’t recall such pollution problems when they first came to Huntington.

“It was never announced,” Debbie Martin said. “You didn’t hear about it till the last few years.”

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Dying for an Answer

Fruit and dye released from Talbert Marsh and the Santa Ana River and carried by ocean currents were tracked Monday in a search for the source of high bacteria readings at Huntington Beach.