Below the Headlands in Dana Point

Baby Beach in Dana Point: A Clean Water Story

            The Sierra Club gets all the glory. But if you want to meet the hardest of the hard core environmentalists, head down to what the maps say is Dana Point Harbor, but what the locals call "Baby Beach."

            That is where you will find the moms and dads on beach chairs chairs watching their youngsters frolic in the water -- shallow and calm.

            But not always clean. That is the way it used to be, anyway. Hell hath no fury like a parent who finds his children playing in dirty and dangerous water.

            One of those dads was Sanford Edward, the owner and developer of The Strand at Headlands, a luxury real estate development adjacent to Baby Beach. Edward bought the property in 1998, hoping the water quality would improve by the time his first homebuyers moved in.  Several years later, the water quality was better, kind of anyway. Maybe good enough for Mr. Edward the business man. But not Sanford, the dad.

            “We knew when we started we  could use the development to improve the quality of life in Dana Point,” Edward said. “So now instead of just one way of getting to Strand Beach, we have four. It has never been more well used. Ditto for our trail system and nature center. Great additions. But the thing we are most proud of is water quality, and how we helped improve it.”

            There was a lot to improve: Several different public and private agencies issue report cards for water quality at beaches throughout the region. For Baby Beach, let’s just say this: There were way too many F’s and not enough A’s.

            Remember: Not too long ago the industry standard for stormwater discharge was this: The solution to pollution is dilution. Not any more.

            But it took a long time to get it right at Baby Beach. Even the professional engineers were stumped. In a 2009 article, Stormwater magazine reported “over the past several years, Baby beach has been closed more than its been open.” The Orange County Register called it one of the area’s “notoriously dirty beaches.”

            The Los Angeles Times reported “record closures” and “widespread peril.”

            Here is what that meant: Fish kills and sick people. How many? No one knows. The Center for Disease Control says thousands of people get sick from polluted water every year -- but don’t even know it. Some think they have the flu.

            Yes it was ugly.

            That was then, this is now: All the F’s have turned into A’s.  It wasn’t magic. Or some kid hacking into the school computer.

            Edward pointed to a recent article in Municipal Sewer and Water magazine called   “Working on Multiple Fronts: Low-impact development practices and public outreach enhance Orange County’s storm water management efforts.”

            It showed how local agencies combined to improve water quality by educating boaters, land owners, local governments and others about how they could do their fair share to improve water quality.

            “The regional agency did a great job of changing attitudes,” said city councilman Mark Yarbrough of Perris. “It’s the kind of thing government leaders  talked about all over Southern California: With all the boaters, parking lots, businesses and homes dumping stuff into the storm water drains, which ended up at the beach, it was quite a challenge to turn that around. They did. Everyone did their part. People like Sanford Edward did his, and then some.”

            Anyone who takes -- and passes -- Storm Water 101 knows this: Whatever is on the streets soon enough ends up in the water. Pesticides. Soap. Dirt. Whatever: It’s not pretty. But water quality regulators at Baby Beach were often at the mercy of random spills coming entering the storm water system from miles away. Maybe it was  someone dumping a few quarts of used motor oil down the drain. Maybe it was household wastes or even pesticides.

            It all ended up at Baby Beach.

            That was the bad news. The good news is these spills and contaminants passed right through Sanford Edward’s property. And he could do something about it.

            “We knew legally we were not responsible for that dirty water,” said Edward. “But that’s not how we looked at it. We saw it as an opportunity to be leaders and clean it up. Not ask someone else to do it. We wanted to do it. So we did.”

            Here’s how: It was simple, but expensive. Edward and his folks at the Headlands installed new -- more and more effective -- state of the art filters. This was before they started construction.

            The filters are huge, pre-made concrete boxes about 12-feet square. They were lowered into the ground at the Harbor parking lot. All the water went through them. Then they began treating the water differently after filtering it. In the summer, it goes to the wastewater treatment plant.

            In the winter, the system has a large enough capacity to treat even pollution from large rain fall.

            Even the executive director at Heal the Bay liked it. “We support the efforts that have been taken, and we hope this year’s grades will be the start of a long upward trend in water quality,” said Mark Gold.

            Without getting into the politics of it, let’s just say Heal the Bay is not really in the business of heaping plaudits on landowners.

            Four years later, Baby Beach is still reeling in the A’s. “And the same goes for the beach in front of our property, Strand Beach,” Edward said. “This makes the beach a lot better, a lot more desirable for our homeowners, but most of the beach users -- by far -- are people who do not own a home here, but now think they have discovered a new beach.”

            And that comes from Sanford Edward: Dad and property owner. In that order.