Huntington Beach Stretch Opens After Month Off-Limits

A section of Huntington Beach’s coastline that has been closed to swimmers for a month because of high bacteria levels has been reopened, but officials said they are no closer to determining what polluted the beach.

The reopening Wednesday was met with unease by Huntington Beach city officials and merchants as they prepare for the busy summer tourist season.

They fear that unless the source of the pollution is identified and a solution found, the city could witness a repeat of the 1999 beach closure that devastated its tourist-dependent economy.

That closure also did damage to the city’s “Surf City” image, and many residents fear the fallout of another summer of dirty water.

“It may take one year to clean the beach up, but it will take 10 years to clean our reputation up,” said Jinx Varona, owner of the Catwalk nightclub.

Huntington State Beach was closed 1,000 feet in each direction of Magnolia Street on April 9 after county health officials noticed elevated levels of bacteria considered harmful to humans, including coliform and enterococcus. Initial tests could not pinpoint the source of the pollution.

Early tests ruled out beach bathrooms and an 84-inch sewer line paralleling the beach. Tests of the water at various levels from the sand also failed to determine a cause.

The mystery is reminiscent of the 1999 closure, the cause of which has still not been determined.

Researchers from several institutions spent $5.1 million last summer to test a UC Irvine scientist’s theory that much of the pollution resulted from a massive plume of partially treated sewage.

The results of those studies will be released May 15 at the Orange County Sanitation District board of directors meeting.

Though preliminary results indicate that the tides are not sending sewage back to shore, another study found the sewage plume could have contributed to the 1999 beach closures. Huntington Beach Mayor Debbie Cook said the plume is the most likely culprit.

“We’ve exhausted every on-shore source,” Cook said. “To me it just seems so clear that 240 million gallons [of treated sewage] a day are contributing significantly to the closure of our beaches.”

But a spokesman for the Orange County Health Care Agency, which monitors the ocean for pollution, posts warnings and orders closures, said that if the answer were that apparent, it would have been discovered long ago.

“One of the things we’ve learned from the process is nature doesn’t give up her secrets easily,” Larry Honeybourne said.

“It’s a challenging puzzle, and some of the smartest people in the world are looking at this issue, trying to sort it out.”