Cleaning OC's beaches

By William R. "Bill" Orton

Heavy state involvement is needed to bring about a fundamental upgrading of our region's sewers, storm drains and wastewater treatment capability. Without this kind of state involvement, the issue is simply too large for any ONE city -- or even for ALL the cities -- to handle.

All year long, big objects (like refrigerators and sofas) are washed into our storm drains, along with roadway pollutants and chemicals and all sorts of things that really shouldn't be allowed to find their way into the storm runoff system. The results are vast floating trash dumps that wind up on our region's beaches and tremendous clean-up bills for coastal communities.

Out THERE, floating close to shore, are vast bacterial plumes that no one can quite explain. People are getting sick, businesses are losing customers and the beaches are being shut down. In 2001, there was a record 51 beach closures in Orange County.

There is no mystery to what steps we must take to solve the "sea pickle" problem. The county sanitation system is simply not able to keep up with the volume of wastewater that flows everyday through the pipes and to the treatment plants. It backs up. It leaks out. It chokes the system, forcing planned releases. It is simply too much to handle.

We need more than just short term mitigation (although even that would help). We need a major regional partnership, led locally but funded in part by the state. In all fairness, it is wrong to expect that the cities alone must continue to bear this burden. The state has been robbing the cities for a decade now and shifting greater burdens to local government. Precisely at the moment when much is called for, the cities have less and less.

And even the Orange County Sanitation District, with its $500 million cash reserves, should not be expected to wholly shoulder this burden. Though it could likely afford most of the cost, the Sanitation District should not be milked like a cash cow. There's been enough robbing Peter to pay Paul.

I would suggest that the state, the cities and the sanitation district work on equal terms to fund a major regional long-term upgrade of the county's sewers, storm drain system and wastewater treatment capability, with an eye to serving the population of the coming generation.

Much would have to be rebuilt or switched out. Some systems would have to be added new. It's a job that could add up to hundreds of millions of dollars of work. For that reason, it should be a partnership that is based locally, as a project of this scale would only become more expensive and less accessible to locals if it were to be shipped up to Sacramento.

This would involve a process of lawmakers, city officials, sanitation officials, environmentalists, civic activists and ordinary citizens coming together on a nonpartisan basis to create bond measures, governance structures and safeguards rom anyone getting too much power.

In short, it would involve a lot of work and it would be best done by people who can put all differences aside and listen.

I don't know all the answers. But I know that a room can be filled with some clever people and that with enough listening, enough sharp pencils and a steady flow of coffee, much can be accomplished.

If we DON'T fix this sea pickle problem, then more people will get sick, fewer people will visit our coasts, businesses will continue to shutter their doors and our region will come to be known as Sea Pickle City.