Pollution Battle Continues on Multiple Fronts : Environment: High-tech equipment, low-tech ‘fruit launch’ to be used in search for source of beach contamination.

Still unable to isolate the source of bacterial contamination that has closed the waters off Huntington Beach since July 1, city and county agencies will try a host of measures today aimed at both stemming the flow of pollution into the ocean and determining its source.

And Huntington Beach Mayor Peter M. Green said he would ask county health officials this afternoon to consider reopening the beaches north of the pier, where bacteria levels have tested in the range that is not unhealthful for swimmers.

“We do not want the beach open until it’s safe for everybody to enjoy,” Green said. But the mayor said he hoped county officials would make a distinction between those areas that are polluted and those that continue to test clean.

A meeting Sunday of more than 20 frustrated local officials, however, focused strictly on confronting the menacing bacteria levels, spawning a number of strategies both high-tech and low.

On the high-tech end, county officials, with help from the U.S. Coast Guard, will use sophisticated airborne equipment on loan from the Orange County district attorney’s office to scan the ocean for clues.

The equipment, used by the environmental crimes unit, detects temperature and chemical variations in water.

On city streets, waste water from three city-operated storm drain pumping stations will be diverted today through the Orange County Sanitation Treatment Plant.

Normally the runoff from city streets collects at the pumping stations and is released directly into the ocean. But because water samples from these stations have shown some of the highest levels of the troublesome enterococcus bacteria, the water will be treated like the city’s sewage before its release about five miles offshore.

And in the lowest-tech strategy, the Orange County Sanitation District is planning to dump two cases of citrus fruit into Talbert Marsh this afternoon. They hope to chart the flow of water currents by monitoring the paths of dozens of oranges and grapefruit.

The fruit launch was suggested by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, said Michael Moore, environmental compliance and monitoring manager for the district.

The sanitation district will also take 408 water samples from the marsh throughout the day.

Green added a moment of levity to the meeting. “Does anybody know about the currents? Could they shift and take the [contaminants] down to Newport?” he asked--only half jokingly--at Sunday’s meeting.

Moore replied that so far, the Santa Ana River has acted as a barrier that keeps the pollutants from spreading in that direction. “It’s highly unlikely anything would move south of the river,” he said.

By targeting the storm drain pumping stations, officials have shifted their focus from the 60-year-old sewer pipes that run under the Huntington Beach bike path.

Workers digging and drilling near the path on Sunday found no clues, although that work will continue even as new efforts are underway.

One of the three storm drain pumping stations, at Newland Street and Hamilton Avenue, was shut down earlier.

The other two, which will be drained today, are located at the intersection of Atlanta Avenue and Beach Boulevard and where Banning Avenue meets the storm channel.

It could not be determined if the work would cause traffic disruptions today.

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Flow Diversion

Three Huntington Beach storm drain pumping stations will be taken offline to help determine if they are a source of the pollution that has closed more than four miles of beach. The stations’ flow, normally pumped directly into the sea, will instead be diverted through the county sanitation treatment plant and then released into the ocean five miles from shore.