Huntington Beach Water Untainted, Study Says

A court-ordered study has concluded that Huntington Beach’s ground water was not contaminated by the massive sewage leaks that resulted in criminal charges against the city.

The study was undertaken after Huntington Beach officials pleaded guilty to three misdemeanor counts of violating state water laws by knowingly discharging pollutants from the city’s decayed sewage system.

As part of a plea agreement reached with the Orange County district attorney’s office, the city was put on probation and ordered to follow through with previous commitments to assess the damage and make any necessary repairs.

At a cost of $200,000, Komex H20 Science, a Huntington Beach-based environmental consultant, sampled ground water at 10 wells over the past five weeks, testing for bacteria, viruses, four forms of nitrogen, two types of phosphate, and organic carbon.

When found in large amounts, those elements would indicate the presence of sewage, said Wade Major, the company’s project manager for the study. But no unusual levels of any of the elements were found, he said.

Komex’s report will be filed June 4 with the Santa Ana Regional Water Quality Board, which under the city’s plea agreement is overseeing the effort to fix the broken sewer lines.

City officials, who face a huge task in repairing the aging sewer system, expressed satisfaction and relief with the findings.

“It is clear from this fifth week of test results that the water quality in the downtown area meets the required state standards,” said Huntington Beach City Administrator Ray Silver.

City officials continue to dispute how much raw sewage leaked from its lines in 1996. Levels have been estimated as high as 71,374 gallons a day, or about 6.6 million gallons by year’s end.

State and local officials do not believe the leaks were related to the costly closing of beaches during most of the summer of 1999. But it remains unclear what happened to the sewage.

“I think the city would contest the amount of leakage reported,” said Dave Webb, city engineer. “And if there was any sewage spilled, it tends to break down very rapidly.”

The crumbling municipal system, which stretches 600 miles and handles about 32 million gallons of sewage a day, remained in disrepair until 1999, when crews embarked on a repair project, focusing first on the most troubling area downtown.