City admits to not reporting sewer leaks

Tariq Malik

HUNTINGTON BEACH -- City officials admit they did not follow the law

when they failed to report leaks in Downtown sewage pipes to the

California Regional Water Control Quality Board.

“The law says that if there’s any chance of state waters being

contaminated ... it’s appropriate to notify the water board,” said Public

Works Director Robert Beardsley to the City Council on Monday, adding the

water board looked at all water sources, potable and nonpotable.

In 1996, the city identified the need to repair the sewer system

Downtown and Old Town areas by using video cameras to trace pipelines.

Those findings, however, were not reported to the water board, which

issued a cleanup and abatement order to the city last week.

“Our order doesn’t include a requirement for the city to repair its

lines,” just to determine possible effects of the spill on ground water

and the ocean, said Kurt Berchtold, assistant executive officer with the

Santa Ana Regional Water Quality Board, the local district of the state

agency.

Councilman Peter Green said the order was “perplexing,” mainly because

the city has already been taking measures to fix its sewer lines.

Since 1997, the city has been working on a large-scale slip-lining

plan to seal the broken pipes with a mix of fabric and epoxy. Work began

last April, and the city has spent about $1 million from the general fund

and $2.6 million in grants on the project, city officials said.

Councilwoman Debbie Cook, however, said she was surprised the city

hadn’t rectified the problem in 1996, when holes measuring up to six-feet

long were found in the pipes.

Beardsley stressed to council members there has never been a danger to

the city’s water sources from the leaks, but it should be assumed there

may be ground water somewhere beneath the Downtown area.

To that end, council members unanimously approved an $89,810 contract

with researchers to drill eight 50-foot wells around Downtown to

determine whether there is contamination present in the ground, how much

and the danger it poises to nearby water sources.

Ground water in Orange County typically flows inland, usually at a

rate of 100 to 1,000 feet a year, said Anthony Brown, the engineering

hydrologist who will lead the study.

“It is very unlikely that there is any water moving to the ocean,”

Brown told council members, addressing concerns over the possible

contamination of the ocean. “But it would take a year to travel there,

and bacteria in sewage usually have a life of 30 days.”