Two weeks ago, California crews diverted low-flow storm drain water from flowing into Alamitos Bay. The first two weeks of health department testing already is yielding imrproved water quality results.
In the first week, all seven bay water testing points showed bacteria levels well within the acceptable range. The only troublesome samples came from Mother's Beach--testing showed high fecal coloform levels Monday; the rest of the bay testing sites showed vast improvements.
In August 2006, high water contamination forced Alaminto Bay beaches to close. Researchers have been scrambling since to find and address causes.
The collaborative effort by the Long Beach Water, Public Works and Health departments, the Los Angeles County Department of Public Works and the Los Angeles County Sanitation District appears to have reduced, if not resolved, the contamination issue.
In July, water was entering the bay from two major, neighboring pump stations--Alamitos Bay Station and Belmont Station. Involved parties worked together to investigate the problem once a health department team associated the storm water releases with poor water quality in the bay. Emergency permits allowed the agencies to divert the polluted water 24 hours a day to a county sewer system and treatment plant.
Normally the pumps only discharge into Alamitos Bay from 10 p.m. to 5 a.m. Now low-flow, or dry season, storm drain water (i.e. car wash and feritilizer runoff, animal feces) are collected and diverted all hours of the day.
"Water quality in the Alamitos Bay is affected by many factors, including contributions of storm water and urban runoff from the storm drain system that serves the bay community," said Mark Pestrella, assistant director for the county public works department. "Storm drains are just a medium for moving water away from city streets. A sustainable water quality solution requires the public's help to curb pollution. Over-watered lawns, litter, poorly managed construction sites and restaurant waste are all major contributors to the pollution of storm water and urban runoff."
The next step, according to Long Beach Water Department general manager Kevin Wattier, is to deal with the smaller storm water pumps dotting Alamitos Bay and Naples, Calif. Six smaller storm water pumps remain in the area that do not divert water to the sewer system or treatment plant. Wattier said the largest of these pumps can only pump about 6,000 gal of water a day into the bay and that the total of all six pumps combined is only slightly more than that of the Belmont Station alone.
"We will do a comprehensive analysis of these pumps, their volumes and such," he said. "We'll be working with the county to look at costs and timeframes to see what we can do. But we probably won't do any more this summer."
The city posts water quality test results on its Web site weekly. To view these results, visit www.longbeach.gov, go to the 'Health and Human Services' page, click on 'services and then 'recreational water quality.'Source: gazettes.com
