Once-Dirty O.C. Beach Gets Clean Bill of Health

Dana Point officials have spent nearly $20 million in recent years trying to clean the harbor and ocean, always with terrible results. Until now.

Water quality has gone from awful to excellent at popular Baby Beach in the city’s harbor, according to Heal the Bay’s newly released annual beach report card.

“Most of the swimming area at Baby Beach overall gets a B, and that’s a huge improvement,” said Mark Gold, executive director of Heal the Bay, which has tracked water quality at California’s beaches for 16 years.

But away from the swimming area, water quality remains poor. This is because of the Golden Lantern storm drain, which dumps into the harbor, said county health officials.

Meanwhile, nearby Doheny State Beach showed only slight improvement and remains among the most contaminated beaches in the state.

The reason, Gold said, is that San Juan Creek drains a large, mostly suburban watershed into Doheny’s waters where currents keep the runoff pinned to the shoreline.

“Our best guess is that our rainfall was less this year, and that may have helped it rise slightly,” he said of the improved reading.

The list is regarded by beach community leaders and environmentalists as the definitive word on the health of popular beaches.

The group’s grades are based on water-quality tests conducted by county sanitation and health agencies. If sewage or animal waste is in the water, bacteria counts are high. Surfers, swimmers and divers have a risk of getting sick in ocean water that tests high. Symptoms usually are flu-like.

On Thursday, light ocean breezes kissed the coastline while Ted Chan’s three children played in the placid waters.

Chan, 50, of Aliso Viejo, recalled seeing signs posted in the past at Baby Beach, warning that bacteria was in the water.

“When those signs are posted, you don’t want to let the children go into the water,” he said. “But with the new report, it means you can enter the water with confidence.”

Nancy and Gary Kirschke of Laguna Beach brought their grandchildren, 3-year-old Beau and his brother, Deuce, 2, who played nearby.

“It’s good news, and we appreciate it,” Nancy Kirschke said.

City, county and state officials said they had attacked the problem with a variety of tactics over the years. The harbor’s pier has been fortified with netting to keep birds off, landscape irrigation is better controlled, filters have been installed on drains, and education programs aimed at dog walkers have been developed.

In recent years, more costly projects have included runoff diversion projects, and a pilot program to circulate stagnant water where bacteria breed.

Six electrically powered paddles were strapped to pontoons just below the water’s surface to determine if the circular motion could help lower bacteria levels, said Sonia Nasser, a county public works manager in engineering.

She said the paddles were turned on last summer for a three-month stretch, and the results were good but inconclusive.

“We don’t know whether the cause for the Baby Beach improvement was any one thing or a combination,” she said. “But we intend to do testing and find out.”

In the last decade, Dana Point has focused on sweeping streets and cleaning and filtering urban runoff before it reaches the beach, said Brad Fowler, public works director.

The city has diverted more than a dozen storm drains to sewage treatment facilities.

Turning attention to Doheny beach, Fowler said the city had requested $2 million in state and federal funds for an epidemiological study of San Juan Creek.

“We want to try to locate the sources of bacteria and determine whether those sources are causing health problems,” he said.

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Paddling away pollution

Six underwater paddles installed last summer to reduce bacteria levels off Baby Beach seem to have been successful--the beach went from an “F” to an “A” rating in an environmental group’s latest beach water report. The teardrop-shaped paddles, or tumblers, circulate up to 200,000 gallons of water per hour, inhibiting growth of bacteria and algae.