LOU MURRAY AND VIC LEIPZIG -- The Natural Perspective

During recent weeks, beaches in two Orange County cities have been

closed. Huntington Beach has been under a beach warning. So far this

year, Orange County has had 20 beach closures due to pollution. There

have been more days that beaches were closed in the first four months of

this year than in 1996, 1997 and 1999 combined.

This is completely unacceptable.

It would be so easy if we could find some big industrial culprit to blame

-- an upstream dairy farm perhaps or some nasty developers who dug into

an ancient septic system and tried to hide their error. We know the

groups we like to hate and find it easy to point the finger at them. But

what if the culprit is us?

Some beach closures have been caused by broken sewer lines. Those can be

found and fixed. But most contamination is not likely to be caused by one

broken sewer line or one dairy farm or one septic tank.

Water pollution generally comes from a variety of sources that are not

easily identified. This is called nonpoint source pollution because it

has no one particular point of origin.

For example, the fertilizers and pesticides that we lovingly lavish on

our lawns and gardens end up in the ocean when water runs off lawns and

into storm drains. Every dog and outdoor cat in the county adds its

contribution to pollution. Trash in the gutters and on roadways and

parking lots contributes, as does oil that drips from cars and trucks.

Odds are reasonably good that many pollution problems are within our

power to prevent or correct. The recent beach closures have been due to

bacterial contamination. The first step is to determine the source.

Meanwhile, everyone with pets should see to it that pet waste isn’t

washed into the storm drain and that lawns and gardens aren’t fertilized

unless they really need it.

Knowing that one big source of ocean pollution is urban runoff, the city

of Huntington Beach has taken the commendable step of diverting storm

drain runoff -- the water that comes from washing our cars and hosing

down our driveways -- into the sewer lines, where it will be treated

before exiting five miles offshore. This is an important step.

But runoff from our city isn’t the only problem. We must contend with

upstream pollution as well. Every community in our watershed is

contributing to the pollution of the beaches in Huntington Beach. Every

outdoor pet in Garden Grove, every French fry thrown on the pavement in

Anaheim and every food vending truck in Santa Ana that drains melted ice

onto the street contributes to our beach problem.

Therefore, we shouldn’t have to bear the entire financial burden of

determining the cause and fixing the problem. People from throughout the

county contribute to the problem, and people from throughout the county

use our beaches. So let people throughout the county pay to solve this

problem.

It’s crystal clear that our infrastructure is decaying. One of the main

causes of beach closure in Orange County this year has been leaking,

clogged or broken sewer lines. Another problem is an old storm drain

system that collects and grows bacteria. Our sewer lines and storm drains

need to be repaired or replaced -- not just ours, but those of all the

communities in our watershed.

This is not a local problem, it’s a regional problem. So let’s all ask

Rep. Dana Rohrabacher (R-Huntington Beach) to fund a solution. Just

changing the definition of what levels of bacteria constitute pollution

is not a solution. Kids swimming in the ocean are getting sick! We need a

real solution.

We need some of our federal tax dollars returned to our community, and to

the communities of our neighbors, in the form of infrastructure upgrades.

Our health and the economic viability of our community depend upon

bringing a closure to these beach closures.

* VIC LEIPZIG and LOU MURRAY are Huntington Beach residents and

environmentalists. They can be reached at o7 [email protected] .