Forthcoming--at Last

It turns out that the Orange County Sanitation District has been less than candid about some of that partially treated waste water it has pumped off the Orange County coastline.

The district’s prior assertion--that the millions of gallons it discharges regularly remained safely offshore--was for a long time merely counter-intuitive. That notion alone challenged the common sense of any weekend mariner or surf rider who is aware of the vagaries of currents, winds and tides.

Now, from what we are learning from waters off Newport Beach, it looks like obfuscation as well. A new question has come up about district credibility, and it severely weakens an already thin case for the renewal of a waiver from federal clean water requirements.

The model of discharged sewage remaining four miles offshore already is being questioned. Scientists have been testing a UC Irvine theory that suggested a power plant was pulling polluted water into shore, causing beach closings at Huntington Beach. But now the district has made a startling acknowledgment that it has known since 1987 that the waste water off nearby Newport Beach washed to within half a mile of shore. It is also not certain whether any of the waste water has come closer, because there are no monitoring stations that close to shore.

How is it that the district has not been more forthcoming sooner? Its best answer is “not to worry” because the plume has been trapped safely off the Newport Pier and has not been linked to any high bacteria counts.

But surely this was something that city officials and environmental groups should have been told.

Still more information is needed. Meanwhile, the district certainly isn’t doing much to bolster its case should it unwisely seek to extend the waiver.