Marshaling Forces to Save O.C.’s Coast

The Fourth of July has come and gone, and summer is in full swing. Americans everywhere are flocking to our country’s beaches--180 million people last year alone--to swim, surf, sail, fish and relax. Here in Orange County, 10 million folks will cool off in our ocean waters this year, but what will they find when they get there?

It is no secret that our coast is in distress. Our beaches are washing away. Our tide pools are being loved to death. Chronic water quality issues plague our ocean waters and creeks, and our wetlands are disappearing.

The problems have been building for years. Projects by individual cities, the county and public agencies have failed because they did not consider the regional nature of the problems. The fixes often were neither scientifically based nor broad enough to make a difference. Because of turf battles and competing agendas, many agencies were unable to discuss the issue or focus on solutions.

But all of that has changed. Collaborative, science-based, comprehensive watershed planning is well underway. It places heavy emphasis on studies to identify all the competing needs within the watershed.

Doing it right takes time. One example is Aliso Creek. There are proposals to construct coastal wetlands, reduce creek water temperatures, restore habitat, improve sand transport and ensure flood control.

But with beach closures and postings occurring more often, our immediate strategy is to clean up the water where we can and move it off the beach where we can’t. To do this, cities, sanitation districts and the county are filtering run-off, diverting contaminated water into sewers and an outfall and even using on-site treatment units.

Matching grants from the county have been designed to help promote these activities. Cities along the coast have worked quickly to put these in place. Now we turn to our inland brothers and sisters to do the same.

In the long run, changing our habits is key to our success. We have met the enemy and the enemy is us.

As such, our education programs become critical. Next we need to look carefully at how we plan our communities and our neighborhoods and implement important features like wetlands, more permeable surfaces and retention basins.

There are a lot of very good things happening on our coast, but the problem is bigger than any one governmental agency.

To coordinate all these efforts, we formed the Orange County Coastal Coalition. It has become a proactive alliance of Orange County cities, state and federal agencies, legislators, the county, sanitation districts, the science community, environmental groups and the public, working to get funding, finding the best science and learning from each other.

Our objective: creating healthy beaches, restoring our coastal environment, protecting our tide pools and addressing bluff erosion.

But we continue to work in a scientific void. The best minds in the country are examining new and better ways to determine whether our recreational waters are safe.

Did you know that it takes 24 hours to obtain the results from our current water quality tests? And once we receive those results, they do not really tell us where the bacteria came from or whether they will truly make us sick. Our new water quality lab will assist us with research in this regard.

The Orange County Grand Jury recently commended the coalition for its work in searching for answers. Our legislative platform is aggressive. We’ve established the matching grant program, supported education curricula in our schools, created a water quality research laboratory and implemented a model tide pool management program.

We are dedicated to pursuing dollars at every level and from every conceivable source. Help is on the way. Witness the unique funding source of our water quality lab.

It twice was vetoed by the governor, but our county’s emergency room physicians came forward with $1.2 million of their share of the tobacco settlement because they recognized the importance of good science in the battle to clean up our oceans. The Coastal Conservancy has granted $600,000 for tide pool management. We’ve received $2.4 million from the Proposition 13 bond issue and are in the legislative budget for $12 million in Clean Beach Initiative projects.

Do we have all the answers? Of course not. But working together we can clean up our beaches now and restore the balance of Mother Nature so that our children and their children can bask on the beach in the summer sun and not fear going in for a dip.