Water testing continues

Paul Clinton

CORONA DEL MAR -- The testing boats fanned out on the sea again

Wednesday as county sanitation officials continued efforts to determine

the cause of the high bacteria levels in area water.

Five boats left Newport Harbor for three-hour sessions, returning to

their docks about noon. In addition, a Jeep headed south from the Santa

Ana River to the Newport Pier to collect samples at the shoreline.

The survey was the second round of testing in a six-part effort taking

place during the summer months. The Orange County Sanitation District has

pledged to spend $4.1 million to help answer lingering questions about

the presence of animal waste and other bacteria in the ocean.

The bulk of the testing, in which more than 2,400 samples were taken,

occurred in Huntington Beach, where polluted water and closed beaches

severely dented that city’s tourist trade two summers ago.

Sanitation district officials will examine and study the location of

an underwater plume of treated sewage discharged by the agency via an

“outflow” pipe.

“It’s a very in-depth survey,” district spokeswoman Lisa Lawson said.

“What we need to learn is how the treated waste-water plume travels to

determine if it is moving to the shoreline.”

During the testing, sanitation testers used three methods:

* A “rosette,” a metal cage with open-ended bottles that can be

lowered to various water depths. Officials in the boats can

electronically close the bottles at different levels of the ocean.

* A “CTD,” an instrument that measures temperature and how easily

electricity can pass through it.

* An acoustic Doppler to measure the direction and speed of water

currents.

All the data during the 48-hour testing period that will end at noon

today will be analyzed at sanitation district labs.

The testing will examine a hypothesis by a UC Irvine professor that

warm water discharged by the AES Corp. power plant in Huntington Beach

could be driving the sewage toward the ocean’s surface.

Cold water on the sea floor and warm water at the surface are

separated by a “thermocline,” which acts as a lid for the sewage.

However, warm water from the power plant, combined with a warm summer,

could weaken the thermocline and allow more sewage to drift to the

surface.

Orange County Heath Care Agency spokeswoman Monica Mazur said the

study should produce a gold mine of data.

“This is the biggest study that is being done and should provide some

very valuable data,” Mazur said. “But we have to be patient. . . . They

don’t intend to have any definite results until the end of the year.”