Our Shoreline Is Worth Protecting

The 42-mile coastline is Orange County’s most priceless natural asset, far too valuable and irreplaceable to allow environmental assaults on it to go unchecked.

But for years, from Seal Beach to the South County shore, the oceanfront has been awash in pollution from urban runoff, aging sewage systems and other sources still being sought in various studies.

The new year has introduced several new issues. One is a proposal to enact stricter urban runoff regulations on new developments. Another is a request to double the capacity of a Huntington Beach power plant. Both bring added coastline controversies.

Urban runoff has been identified as the primary source of contamination of the shoreline. The mix of toxic pesticides, oil, metals, animal waste and other pollutants flow into storm drains, creeks, rivers and ultimately into the ocean.

In a growing urban area like Orange County, more development has meant more pollution, more beach closings and more threats, not only to the health of swimmers and surfers but to the community’s economy and recreational and tourist industries.

To stem the growth of pollution, state water officials are looking at new, tough standards for Orange County similar to the ones adopted in Los Angeles last year that will require developers to filter pollution from rainstorm runoff to keep it from reaching the ocean. It’s a reasonable approach given the years of pollution that development has deposited onto our fragile coastline.

It is true, as builders claim, that the tougher standards will add to building costs and do nothing about existing sources of pollution. But the new regulations will at least stop developments from making the problem increasingly worse. And the expense, 1% to 2% of a project’s cost, is an acceptable price to pay for reducing the pollution that should have been controlled long ago.

The push for state legislation by AES Corp., California’s largest private power generator, to allow it to begin retrofitting two boilers in Huntington Beach out of service since 1995 before getting final state permit approval is also tied to the county’s offshore pollution problem.

Given today’s critical shortage of electricity, it might be tempting to buy the power company’s argument that it’s willing to gamble the estimated $145 million it will take to get the boilers on line by June so it can add 450 megawatts of power to its production. That, however, could be a big mistake.

Aside from any local concerns about the company’s commitment to environmental protection, AES paid a record $17-million fine last year for failing to control air pollution at its Long Beach plant. The Huntington Beach facility is presently suspected of being a possible contributor to the offshore pollution problems that have been plaguing Huntington Beach.

Scientists and Sanitation District engineers have been searching for the specific sources of the high concentrations of bacteria that have been forcing closure of the area’s beaches.

Last fall, scientists from UC Irvine came up with a new theory that pinpoints a sewage pipe four miles offshore as the possible source. They believe a combination of tidal forces and warm water released in the power plant’s production process is drawing the bacteria-loaded sewage back to shore.

If that’s so, activating two more boilers before correcting the condition would only make pollution much worse. And it makes no sense to be toughening inland runoff regulations while increasing contamination coming in offshore.

Orange County is a beachfront community. In addition to meeting today’s health and economic challenges, it has an obligation to pass on to future generations as pristine a coastline as it inherited. That’s done by diligently identifying and controlling the pollutants that foul our waters.