There is no uniform guideline for deciding when it is safe for people to return to the waters affected by the spill of up to 131,000 gallons of oil in Orange County, leaving each municipality to decide for itself when to reopen beaches, according to state documents.
Huntington Beach’s state and city beaches were reopened Monday morning based on testing contracted by the state and city but without any involvement by the Orange County Health Care Agency. County health is not expected to complete its initial testing until mid-week.
Newport Beach reopened its beaches Monday afternoon and said on its website, “water quality testing showed the ocean water is safe for swimmers and surfers to return.”
Meanwhile, the city of Laguna Beach is conducting its own testing but will work with the county to determine when to proceed, officials there said.
Despite having a “Unified Command” to coordinate spill operations, jurisdictions are “on your own” in deciding when to reopen their waters, said an email sent Friday by Brian Ketterer, chief of operations for the southern division of state parks, to several coastal municipalities.
“No consultant or county appears to be providing a set standard for re-opening. Meaning it is left up to your municipality,” Ketterer wrote.
Many municipalities have contracted for their own testing to determine when the water is safe for humans, Ketterer wrote.
Huntington Beach state and city beaches were closed late Oct. 2 after the oil spill was identified off the coast of Newport Beach and Huntington Beach.
Huntington Beach and the state Department of Fish and Wildlife contracted with the Moffatt & Nichol engineering company to test the waters, which was begun on Friday.
Huntington Beach spokeswoman Jennifer Carey said water samples collected on Friday, October 8, did not show unhealthful levels of petroleum-related toxins.
“They test for PAHs (polycyclic aromatic hyrdrocarbons) and TPHs (total petroleum hydrocarbons),” said Carey, who said 40 sites were tested from Sunset Beach to the border with Newport Beach. “Only one site returned any kind of detectable amount of oil chemicals.”
Carey said Huntington Beach was able to reopen quicker than predicted partly because of the wind and the weather.
“Currents kind of drove the flow of oil away,” she said.
Also, she said: “There was much less oil than we originally thought. Estimates of the spill have gone down significantly, which is great news.”
Huntington Beach Mayor Kim Carr said the city wouldn’t have gone ahead with reopening its shoreline without knowing it was safe to do so, and it’s sharing all its water testing data on a new city spill information website.
“We want the public to feel comfortable,” she said. “We want them to be safe.”
Newport Beach said on its website that it tested 10 spots and “testing did not reveal any detectable levels of PAH or petroleum hydrocarbons at eight of the 10 locations. Some remaining oil was detected at low, non-toxic levels at two locations, the Wedge and Balboa Pier.”
More beaches, and in some cases the shoreline and water as well, have reopened after the spill, but it’s not completely clear which agencies are involved in those decisions.
Adam Stanton, a public affairs specialist with the joint spill cleanup effort (including Orange County, state Fish and Wildlife and the U.S. Coast Guard), said the uniform command has an environmental firm called CTEH taking water samples and having them tested using the federal EPA’s methods.
The U.S. Coast Guard is asking beachgoers in San Diego and Orange County to be aware that weather changes and increased wave action may increase the concentration of tar balls washing ashore. Those who see tar balls are asked to contact the coast guard’s clean-up teams at [email protected].
Meanwhile, Orange County District Attorney Todd Spitzer on Monday during a radio interview called for all the oil pipelines off Orange County’s coast to be inspected.
