Ocean Runoff: A Priority

Each year, the accounts of beach closings in Orange County follow a familiar pattern. Sewage spills caused by heavy rains or urban runoff render our waters unfit for swimming. But while the cycle of cause and effect is predictable, we seem not to be learning all that much from our experience. Rather, as the current decade has marched on, the number of closings has gone in the wrong direction: seven closures in 1993, 17 in 1994, and 22 each in 1995 and 1996.

Then last year, the number went off the charts. The county has 319 closings, contributing to making California the state having the most in the nation. Is a cycle that renders a coastline off-limits and therefore indistinguishable from the nation’s heartland simply a matter to be regretted and accepted? While some urban runoff and damage from aging infrastructure may be unavoidable, there is much we can do.

Some problems are simply the result of aging infrastructure or the need to spend more on better facilities. In 1996, a pump station failure spilled a whopping 440,000 gallons of sewage into the ocean at Aliso Creek. At a location where closings had become all too common, that spill was stunning for its size and damage.

But too much of the time, the problem is the result not of mechanical failure but of our own carelessness. Continued growth has meant that more of the trappings of a motorized society have found their way into storm drains and flood channels. This includes fertilizer for lawns, grease from restaurants and cars, pesticides, and dust and waste from construction sites. That material ends up in the ocean.

Ocean pollution is not a new problem. However, as population has grown, state Water and Coastal Commission officials only recently began to educate the public and formulate a strategy to deal with runoff. Better late than never.

In dramatic pollution cases, such as the American Trader tanker spill in 1990, the cause is easily identifiable. In that instance, BP America, the company that owned and chartered the tanker, which ran over its anchor off Huntington Beach, agreed to pay more than $9 million in compensation. It also spent $12 million to repair damage and pay those who lost money. Some of the settlement money went to restoring and creating habitat.

It was a big story with dramatic consequences that painted a vivid image for the public. But education on how day-to-day choices for waste disposal affect the ocean is equally important.

In the case of Aliso Creek, a long-term plan to minimize the effects of runoff has been under discussion by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers. Under a short-term solution, a dam will result in the collection of water to be pumped miles offshore. Unfortunately, this is only one trouble spot. Overall, there is a need along the coast for better drainage systems to avoid sending all the runoff into the sea.

Whatever is done at the state, county and local levels, much of the initiative has to come from ordinary citizens. Some volunteer groups like the Surfriders have shown the way.

Ordinary citizens have taken weekend days out on occasion to participate in annual beach cleanups. These friends of the shoreline have shown the way for the rest of us, even if their actions succeed in a temporary beach cleanup and in briefly raising awareness.

The public needs to think continually about its habits for disposing of waste. We need to adopt environmentally friendly methods of cleaning up oil spills and of cleaning up around restaurants. Homeowners now can even choose new driveways that absorb more runoff.

This is really about raising consciousness of our proximity to the ocean, and of our responsibility to be its protectors.

In Orange County, where the sea is our neighbor and our special resource, we have a trustee relationship. Preserving the ocean for our children, for the sea life in the tidal pools they visit, for our visitors and for future generations is an obligation shared by all.