Published: Nov. 18, 2009

Updated: 8:36 a.m.

San Clemente wants Poche Beach solution

By FRED SWEGLES

Tired of seeing a new $3 million urban-runoff treatment system fail to meet performance standards in repeated tests at Poche Beach, San Clemente residents and local officials Tuesday called on the county to make it work.

Mary Anne Skorpanich, manager of the OC Watersheds program, appeared before the City Council, reporting that the county hasn't accepted the ultraviolet disinfection system from the contractor that built it. It was unable to meet required standards in tests in April, May and July, she said, despite refinements to the system.

Now the county is directing the contractor to add a second ultraviolet unit, Skorpanich said. It could be ready for testing by the end of January.

Poche, a beach on the boundary of San Clemente and Dana Point, is rated by environmental group Heal the Bay as one of the most polluted beaches in the state. A storm-drain channel feeds the beach a steady diet of dirty street runoff that ponds at the mouth of the channel, stagnating and collecting further bacteria from birds that gather there.

San Clemente is a partner with the county in the project, designed to clean Poche's urban runoff during dry-weather months, the beach season. The system isn't set up to handle heavy flow during the rainy season.

On May 22, the county hosted a ribbon-cutting for the UV system, a celebratory event that unhappy neighbors recalled Tuesday while voicing frustration about the project.

"Is it possible that the county has it all wrong?" resident Natalie McGinley asked. Even if the county gets the UV system to clean the urban runoff, she said, the water is deposited onto the beach, where it ponds and turns dirty again.

"You can clean the water all you want," resident Paige Foreman said. "But if you can't get the cleaned water to the ocean, what good is this project?"

Skorpanich said the California Coastal Commission wouldn't let the county discharge the cleaned water into the ocean but left open the possibility of revising terms of the project's coastal permit if the current discharge system doesn't work. Skorpanich said the county built a pipe to discharge the water past the pond and could go back to the Coastal Commission asking permission to use it.

Bill Hart, a leader with San Clemente's Watershed Task Force and Coastal Advisory Committee, said going back to the Coastal Commission would take time but is worth doing. First, he said, it is important to "get the contractor to do whatever it takes to clean up that water."

Moreover, Hart said "the problem lies upstream" and that residents need to not overwater their lawns or litter the street, creating the runoff and debris that flow to the beach at Poche.

"People have got to start taking responsibility," he said. "We've got to educate the community that the ocean begins at their front door and that we've got to keep our streets clean and our gutters free of runoff water."

Mayor Lori Donchak asked city staff to send Pat Bates, San Clemente's representative on the county Board of Supervisors, a transcript of residents' remarks to underscore the seriousness of the problem. She also asked San Clemente's Coastal Advisory Committee for an action plan for the City Council to consider.

"San Clemente definitely needs to step up on this issue," Donchak said.