Rash of O.C. Sewer Spills Spurs State Crackdown

Sewer spills have fouled Orange County’s beaches and harbors a record 51 times this year, an increase of more than 25% over last year.

Officials attribute the jump to crumbling pipes, better reporting of spills, increased scrutiny of problem spots and natural fluctuations.

“We’ve obviously had way too many,” said county Supervisor Tom Wilson, who created the Orange County Coastal Coalition. “All of us--the cities and the county working closely with the water and sewage agencies--we’ve got to work to try to eliminate the causes.”

In Los Angeles, storm-related sewage spills virtually disappeared in the city this year as it began a nearly $600-million program to eliminate bottlenecks in the sewer lines. The city was still plagued by hundreds of smaller spills, mostly from blocked lines caused by restaurant grease.

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency and state officials sued the city in January, demanding that it stop spills that had averaged up to 50 a month.

City officials said the lawsuit was unnecessary because they were already working on the problem.

In Orange County, state water officials are poised to impose costly, stringent measures to prevent spills. Last week, the Santa Ana Regional Water Quality Control Board held a public workshop on the new rules.

The proposed regulations cover 32 agencies that collect sewage, mostly cities and sanitation facilities, in northern and central Orange County. They would forbid all spills that reach waterways and require better monitoring and planning for faster mop-ups of spills. It allows for fines of $5,000 per day.

“When we have a sewage spill that reaches surface waters, that’s a violation of the basin plan, that’s a violation of the [federal] Clean Water Act and that’s a violation of the [state] Porter-Cologne Act,” said Ken Thiesen, an environmental scientist with the regional board, at the session.

Most of this year’s 51 spills were caused by grease and roots blocking sewer lines. But health officials say it’s also possible that a higher percentage of spills is being reported to them, especially since a state law went into effect two years ago that mandates that beaches be closed if tainted by untreated human waste. Last year, Orange County officials received reports of 40 spills reaching the ocean.

Swimming in sewage-tainted water can cause gastrointestinal problems such as nausea, vomiting and diarrhea; eye, ear, nose and throat infections; and viral diseases such as hepatitis.

Coastal tourism is a $54-billion industry in California, and seaside communities suffer badly when their beaches are closed. Consider Seal Beach, where the beach was closed three times this year because of sewage spills miles away in inland cities. A quarter-mile of the city’s oceanfront was closed from July 3 to July 5, a normally lucrative tourist time, by an 8,200-gallon spill originating in Anaheim.

When the beach is closed, “you see tough times on Main Street in Seal Beach,” City Councilman Shawn Boyd said.

Business drops by 50% in beach cities during closures, said Boyd, who speaks from experience as owner of Boyd’s Books on Main Street, a shop- and restaurant-lined strip that leads to the sand. “We are visitor-serving. We depend on people from outside the area,” he said.

“This is not a new problem,” Boyd added. “Unfortunately . . . there has yet to be any significant effort on the punitive side to force cities upriver to change their behavior.”

Under the rules proposed by the regional water board, cities and other agencies would have to fix crumbling pipes more quickly and report spills more consistently.

If the rules are adopted, the agencies must immediately implement a stepped-up monitoring plan. In phases over the next five years, each agency also must create a rehabilitation plan for its entire system, a sewer-system management plan, emergency spill response plan and grease-control program. Lines clogged by grease are a common cause of sewage spills.

The new requirements will be costly, Thiesen said. A well-operated agency can expect to spend $250,000 to $500,000 upfront, and the same amount annually for implementation, he said.

Agencies are worried about the costs; Garden Grove, which inherited a crumbling sewer system four years ago from an independent district, sent a letter to the regional board saying it will have to spend $500 million if the rules are adopted.

But environmentalists and local officials say cities and agencies have to make up for years of negligence.