Plan to End Beach Closures Unveiled

In hopes of avoiding another crippling beach closure this summer, Orange County officials plan to announce today a sweeping set of measures to keep bacteria-laden urban runoff from hitting the ocean.

Timed to coincide with the busy tourist season, the $276,000 plan to divert and treat millions of gallons of runoff a day, then pipe it five miles out to sea, is unprecedented in scope for Orange County. From June through Labor Day, the measures will include erecting concrete barriers, sandbag walls and even temporary sand berms at the mouths of major waterways.

Scores of storm drains and more than a dozen water pumping stations also will be rerouted to sewage treatment plants.

“The county is really committed to quality of life in Orange County,” said Mary Anne Skorpanich, a special projects manager for the county. “We’re doing this so we can balance all of the components that go into quality of life: environmental protection and recreational opportunities.”

Area business owners were elated with the plans.

“Our reputation has been among the finest beaches in the nation,” said Steve Bone, president of the Robert Mayer Corp., which developed the Waterfront Hilton and is building the Hilton Grand Resort next door. “With the [efforts] that are going on now I’m very confident we’re going to remain one of cleanest beaches in the nation.”

But environmentalists said the plans to divert urban runoff to a sewage treatment plant for the summer months are a Band-Aid fix.

“This is by no means a complete solution. I’m always concerned that when the public sees these diversions that they think we don’t have to worry,” said Christopher J. Evans, executive director of the Surfrider Foundation, based in San Clemente, “Dry-weather diversions are fine. They’re certainly going to help, but it’s dubious as to how much.”

Officials have been closely watching Huntington Beach, hoping to avoid a repeat of last summer’s economically draining, two-month beach closure. Despite extensive studies that have cost nearly $2 million, the cause of last summer’s problems remains elusive. Urban runoff from Talbert Marsh and the Santa Ana River are suspected to be contributing factors.

The specter of another long summer of closed beaches escalated when bacteria levels began rising along Huntington Beach in late March.