Scientists ID Chief Suspects in ’99 Closures at Huntington

Scientists who spent more than a year studying the causes of the 1999 Huntington Beach closures on Thursday identified two prime suspects: bird waste from a nearby marsh and sewage flowing from a sanitation outfall.

The long-awaited report represents the most exhaustive examination of Huntington Beach’s shore contamination problem, which kept the city’s famous beaches off limits for much of summer 1999 and dealt a blow to its “Surf City” tourist economy.

The exact cause of the high bacteria counts recorded at the beaches has remained a mystery ever since, but the group of 11 scientists on Thursday presented what they considered their best theories:

* Birds living in the Talbert Marsh produced waste with a strong strain of bacteria that does not die easily. The marsh acts as an “incubator” for the bacteria, which eventually washes into the surf.

* The Orange County Sanitation District releases partially treated sewage from an underwater outfall four miles off the coast. Normally, this sewage stays away from beaches. But the report suggests that heated water from a nearby power plant actually draws the effluent to the surface, polluting the beach.

* Studies showed that high tide causes ocean water to rush 2 1/2 miles inland along the Talbert Channel. When the tide subsides, it pulls various pollutants out to sea.

The scientists who wrote the report ruled out broken sewer lines as a cause for the fouled water but said more study is needed to determine exactly how to prevent the pollution from coming back.

The Latest Clues in Pollution Whodunit

The study marks the latest chapter in an environmental whodunit that began in June 1999 when officials first began seeking the cause of the rising beach bacteria levels. Local and state agencies have spent more than $5 million on the probe, trying everything from placing red dye in the water to detect tide patterns to checking miles of sewer lines for leaks.

“What this study shows is that it’s not a quick fix,” said Richard Barnard, communications director for the city of Huntington Beach.

Indeed, scientists pointed out that the bacteria caused by bird waste at the Talbert Marsh raises questions about whether the effort to protect such marshlands ecosystem conflicts with the goal of clean ocean water quality.

“Marshes have always been thought to be cleansers,” said Stanley Grant, a researcher at the UC Irvine. “What this study showed was, surprise, they are not. That on the contrary, the water coming out has more bacteria than when it comes in.”

Grant said he could think of no easy answers to prevent the bird waste bacteria from mixing with the ocean water.

Not all findings in the report were unchallenged. The Orange County Sanitation District took issue with the scientists’ theory that effluent from the agency’s outfall contributed to this beach closures.

“We don’t find the same conclusion to be true,” district spokeswoman Lisa Lawson said. “We will be doing further studies to see if this theory is acceptable or not acceptable.”

Study authors also expressed concern Thursday about the way officials administer beach closures.

Grant said that because of a time lag between when water is tested and unsafe bacteria levels are detected, beach closure postings are untrue about half the time. Often, by the time beaches are closed, the pollution has dissipated.

It’s “almost like navigating the freeway with SigAlert info that is a day old,” he said.

But since the report was started, the county has purchases new technology that allows officials to much more quickly analyze water samples, shortening the lag time between testing and postings.

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Times staff writer Seema Mehta contributing to this report.

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Beach Closure Theories

Scientists identified some possible causes for the 1999 Huntington Beach closures; bacteria from Talbert Marsh, sewage from a sanitation outfall and urban runoff from Talbert Channel.

Source: Huntington Beach Water Quality Investigation

Reporting by BRADY MacDONALD / Los Angeles Times