‘Not My Problem’ Is Not a Strategy for Dirty Beach

The government of India recently released a report on the zoo deaths of 13 rare Bengal tigers. A panel of government bureaucrats agreed on one thing: None of them was responsible.

A report has just been released on contamination of Kiddie Beach, officially Channel Islands Beach Park. Here children, not tigers, are at risk. Here too, the report was controlled by an all-government task force. It too finds its member agencies blameless.

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The calm and shallow water of Kiddie Beach attracts families with small children for its safety from sea currents and boat traffic. Unfortunately, it is unsafe due to chronic water contamination.

This has been known since late 1998, when Ventura County began testing ocean beaches. Since September 1999, county officials have continuously posted Kiddie Beach with ineffective paper signs warning “water contact may cause illness.”

Studies were begun of storm drains and sewers. Then last May, the environmental watchdog group Heal the Bay declared Kiddie Beach the most contaminated beach in Southern California. This spurred Ventura County and the city of Oxnard to sign a $118,000 contract with a water contamination expert.

Working with the task force, the consultant’s mission was to suggest “a control strategy [that] protects Kiddie Beach from further contamination and restores its function as a community recreational resource.”

The resulting report contains useful data but fails to set priorities or a comprehensive control strategy. Action is stalled by bureaucratic denial and cautious inaction.

The report minimizes the problem. It stresses that state-required tests measure “indicator bacteria” and says “it is difficult to infer a public health risk” just from their presence. Further, it says scientific data are “inconclusive” on the relationship of water quality standards and health risks.

The report is all wet on the relationship of pathogen contamination and illness. The state testing requirement was spurred by studies showing a direct link to illness. Further, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency says that “studies in the United States and abroad have consistently found an associated disease burden.”

The primary finding of the Kiddie Beach report is that weak water circulation results in concentration of pollution in a narrow band at depths less than two feet along the shoreline, known as the swash zone. Testing by the consultant clearly established that lack of near-shore circulation is “creating an environment capable of supporting high bacteria densities.”

The EPA warns that shoreline pollution “may pose an increased risk for toddlers and young children who play, wade and swim in the swash zone,” and that “children may be more vulnerable to environmental exposure due to their active behavior and their developing immune systems.”

Concentration of pollution in the swash zone at Kiddie Beach should heighten safety concerns. Ironically, this isolation of the problem to a narrow band of shallow water may also create an opportunity to permanently lower pollution levels by improving circulation. There can be no guarantee but a promising chance exists that this beach can be safely restored to children this summer by the use of temporary water circulation pumps. If this works, permanent means could be implemented.

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It is not a surprise that the report finds that there are multiple sources of pollution and no cause for which any one agency is responsible. A collective will to act on the expert’s water circulation findings is lacking.

One of the contributing pollution sources is birds. To try to scare them off, metal poles have been stuck in the sand with Mylar ribbons attached. In reality, no amount of tinsel or other small steps will clean this beach without also addressing water circulation--an issue downplayed lest the fix impact other harbor operations.

After more than two years of known chronic pollution, after 18 months of continuous posting and after an eight-month study, the task force offers these recommendations:

* Divert one storm drain during dry weather.

* Consider funding yet another study of water circulation.

* Negotiate a memorandum of understanding between public agencies to resolve who has jurisdiction over the beach for clean-up and litter control.

* Increase the number of covered trash containers and take steps to minimize animal droppings.

* Replace paper warning signs with better permanent ones.

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The task force will present its recommendations at a public meeting at 7 p.m. Wednesday at Casa Sirena Hotel in Channel Islands Harbor.

The group needs to be persuaded to revise its recommendations to follow the facts found by the expert and to recognize improved water circulation as the top priority. The final report should, at minimum, propose implementing temporary methods of increasing shoreline circulation and testing the results. The health and safety of children depend on Board of Supervisors and Oxnard City Council action before summer to:

* Fund immediate temporary measures to increase shoreline water circulation.

* Jointly take responsibility for ongoing beach cleanup and the disgusting public restroom.

* Put up a visible low-profile warning barrier when pollution is present.

* Open a temporary alternative to Kiddie Beach.

* Restore summer lifeguards to warn and protect children.

Action is overdue to “save the tigers”--and not just deflect blame.