County unveils runoff diversion project

Kenneth Ma

HUNTINGTON BEACH -- County officials last week launched a full-diversion

program to treat urban runoff in the Talbert Channel and parts of the

Santa Ana River watershed during the dry season months.

Diverting and treating runoff, officials said, should prevent a repeat of

last year’s multiple beach closures in an area from the Santa Ana River

to Huntington City Beach. The program will last until the wet season in

early fall.

“We feel that this is one of the solutions,” said Orange County

Supervisor Jim Silva, who helped to create the program.

The program will supplement a city diversion program in the Talbert

Channel watershed that was started in April.

“Ninety percent to 95% of the urban runoff in the Talbert watershed will

be diverted as a result of the city’s and county’s programs,” said Rich

Barnard, a spokesman for the city.

Barnard said the city is spending nearly $1.8 million on its diversion

program and research to identify sources that contribute to high bacteria

levels in the ocean.

The county’s program, which will use 16 pump stations to treat dry season

runoff, is expected to cost $276,000, said Mary Anne Skorpanich, special

projects manager for the county’s public facilities and resources

department.

Don Hughes, Silva’s executive assistant, said the program will employ

berms, miniature concrete dams surrounded by concrete, in certain areas

to keep urban runoff from flowing into the ocean.

The county began a diversion program last year in response to the beach

closures. But the lack of berms allowed some runoff to flow into

watersheds near the coast and to enter the ocean, Hughes said.

Hughes said the runoff will be diverted to the Orange County Sanitation

District’s pump stations, where they will be treated and discharged seven

miles offshore through a pipeline at the mouth of the Santa Ana River.