Filtration System to Abate Some Doheny Beach Runoff

Doheny State Beach is one of the most polluted in Southern California, a 1.3-mile ribbon of shoreline where the county Health Department has posted warning signs more than 100 times so far this year.

But help is on the way. Officials plan to erect a sophisticated filtration system near the mouth of San Juan Creek designed to collect large debris and divert runoff before it hits the ocean.

The $750,000 project represents the biggest effort yet to clean up Doheny, one of Orange County’s first surfing meccas, which has fallen on hard times since the surfers hit the water 70 years ago.

Chris Andrews, the 39-year-old owner of Killer Dana Surf Shop near the beach, said he’s been surfing Doheny regularly since age 10 and has witnessed the worsening pollution. He takes a shower after every dip in the ocean--and urges his surfing students to do the same.

“It’s a great beach to learn how to surf. It has these nice, soft waves,” Andrews said. “[But] I get this weird feeling. I always take a shower after I go in the water.”

Surfers like Andrews have long lamented the decline of Doheny, a magnet since the 1930s, when young men rode the waves on solid redwood longboards. Doheny was one of the first beaches in the country to be embraced by a new generation of surfers in the 1950s who used the smaller, lighter boards that are popular today.

Dana Point officials believe the filtration system will help return Doheny to its previous glory.

“Our industry is our visitors, and if people can’t go in the ocean and they stop coming here, that hurts our industry,” said Mayor Harold Kaufman.

Officials agree the culprit is urban runoff, considered the leading cause of beach pollution in the nation. The San Juan Creek snakes from the Cleveland National Forest through the new subdivisions of south Orange County before emptying into the ocean.

The creek is a collector of runoff, a mixture of decaying vegetation, animal waste, motor oil and detergents.

The plan is to install low-flow diversion pipes and debris traps at two locations along San Juan Creek. One of the projects will require a new storm drain. The low-flow pipes will divert 165 gallons of urban runoff a minute to the nearby Southeast Regional Reclamation Authority facility, where it will be treated.

The traps will capture some of the large debris before it gets to the creek’s mouth. The traps will be cleaned about once a month or more, city officials said.

The system is designed to work during the dry season, when the creek’s flow is not overwhelmed by storm waters.

Officials acknowledge the system won’t stop polluted runoff from hitting the ocean. But they said it’s a first step.

“There’s a lot of other places along the creek where debris enters the channel,” said Carmen Kasner, deputy city engineer with the city’s Public Works Department. “But you have to start somewhere.”

Last year, the environmental group Heal the Bay ranked Doheny State Beach sixth on its annual report card of the worst beaches in Southern California.

“It’s definitely one of the hottest spots we’ve got,” said Chad Nelson, environmental director at the Surfrider Foundation.

Still, Nelson said the improvements do not go far enough in protecting the beach.

“They’re not stopping the problem, they’re treating the symptoms,” he said. “There’s some merit to [installing the filters], because it does reduce bacteria levels and filter out other things like heavy metals. But those practices don’t do anything to reduce problems from urban runoff.”

But City Councilwoman Ingrid McGuire said she cheers any steps being taken to clean the beaches. “Anything that helps to reduce the pollutants . . . is very welcome by Dana Point,” she said.