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November 29, 2006
Max Taves ,
Beachgoers passing through the underground tunnel at Chautauqua to Will Rogers State Beach have faced a challenge this month: to pass through a six-inch deep pool of contaminated water or not to pass.
'God knows what's in that water!' said Hillary Atkin, a frequent yet increasingly reluctant beachgoer. 'What if I had cut my ankle or a child fell in that stuff? It's a public health hazard. And there's no way you can avoid it.'
The tunnel cuts under Pacific Coast Highway at West Channel Road and is intended to give visitors a pedestrian-friendly passage to the beach. But since early November, residents have complained about the ankle-high murky water at the tunnel's beach exit.
The Flood Maintenance Division of the L.A. County Department of Public Works manages the tunnel and the adjacent storm drain, which channels the flow of urban runoff from Santa Monica Canyon.
Beginning November 1 and ending March 1 (the so-called wet season), urban runoff is allowed to flow into Santa Monica Bay. But during the rest of the year, new state laws prohibit the often contaminated flow from entering the Bay and affecting beachgoers.
Storm drains often collect harmful fecal bacteria that can cause large risks to public health. The common result for swimmers and surfers from such runoff is skin rash, eye and ear infections, respiratory disease and gastrointestinal illness.
At Chautauqua during the beach-going season, a storm-water diversion system directs all runoff away from the beach, and berms of sand block any runoff that gets by the diversion. On November 1, as permitted by law, that storm-water diversion was turned off and the runoff began to flow toward the Bay. But the berms were not removed, creating a large pool that collected next to the underground tunnel rather than passing quickly into the Bay.
'I think that water snuck into the tunnel underground,' said Gary Hildebrand, the area engineer responsible for the tunnel and storm drain at Chautauqua.
Last week, Flood Maintenance tractors cleared the berms, which emptied the pool on the beach and drained water from the tunnel. The tunnel is expected to stay dry for the rest of the winter season, said Hildebrand.
And that's good news for beachgoers' health. The runoff that flows through the Chautauqua storm drain is among the most contaminated urban runoff statewide, according to Heal the Bay.
In September, the Regional Water Quality Control Board forced L.A. County to stop all urban runoff from flowing into the Bay during the dry season, or March 1 to October 1. But there are local calls for stopping such runoff during the wet season as well.
'People go to the beach every day of the year,' said George Wolfberg, president of the Santa Monica Canyon Civic Association. 'You have surfers, paddlers and swimmers in the water. And they should have the expectation of being in reasonably clean water.'
Wolfberg favors year-round dry-weather diversion. In other words, urban runoff would be diverted away from beaches every day without rain. For November, that would have meant diverting runoff all but the one day of rain, preventing the tunnel from being flooded.
Such year-round diversion is not expected to begin until July 2009, but those plans are not yet finalized.
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