County Officials Say Threat of DNA Policing Is Unfounded

Photo credit, MSN/Hans Laetz
QUELLER—Health officials use Malibu as a scenic backdrop Friday to dispel reports that DNA samples from polluted creeks will be matched to DNA from individuals suspected of using malfunctioning septic tanks. Mark Gold of Heal the Bay, left; Mark Pestrella, a Public Works official; county health officer Jonathon Fielding; and Supervisor Zev Yaroslavsky all give high marks to Malibu efforts to regulate septic tanks, but said a new $1 million project will target sources of pollution.

• Cracking Down on Bad Septics Doesn’t Require User IDs Despite Spate of News Reports to the Contrary

BY HANS LAETZ

Los Angeles County officials, anxious to avoid $10,000 a day fines for allowing their storm drains to pollute the Pacific Ocean, have approved a $1 million effort to track down what is polluting the creeks that drain through Malibu. But plans to use DNA testing to look for human contamination have fueled breathless, but erroneous, news media reports saying DNA would be traced into individual movie stars’ Malibu toilets.

News outlets around the world picked up an Associated Press article Thursday that implied that the individual DNA of Malibu celebrities (and presumably other less well-known residents) could be gathered by court order, and checked against human DNA that might be found traveling down creeks and into the ocean.

“Let me make something clear,” said Supervisor Zev Yaroslavksy, at a hastily-called damage-control news conference overlooking the Malibu coast. “We are not any way in the world going to be identifying individual DNA by doing these tests.”

Yaroslavksy and county health and public works officials emphasized the human DNA tests would be added to existing tests to see if chronic pollution at the mouths of several creeks originates in human waste percolating out of the city’s septic tanks.

“This is not a Malibu problem,” Yaroslavksy said to TV cameras at a news conference at the Santa Monica Pier. “This is a very rural area, and we have to identify what the source is of the material coming down the creeks, a lot of it coming down the creeks from above Malibu.”

The supervisor said he got a chuckle out of the wire story that intimated Malibu residents would be asked to surrender DNA swabs to match against ocean water samples. “The DNA testing aspect is very sexy, and got everybody excited,” he said.

The Board of Supervisors last week approved a $1 million effort to find the biological source of viruses and bacteria that plague a few sections of the city’s 27 miles of beaches. Although human waste is an obvious target, scientists have said that hotspots near creeks and lagoons may be picking up bird droppings or other contamination from dirty sand.

County health department officials already use tests for caffeine and other chemicals that can only be excreted by humans into the environment. If such indicators warrant it, expensive DNA tests can now be used to confirm if human waste caused the problem, but not to identify specific individuals who may have poorly-functioning sewage systems, officials said.

The new task force will first concentrate on two creeks – Ramirez and Escondido – that dump urban runoff, natural seepage and storm water into the Pacific Ocean within a half mile of each other. Ramirez Creek runoff is already cleansed by a small water treatment system paid for by the business interests at Paradise Cove and operated by the Santa Monica Baykeeper.

Comprehensive weekly testing shows that the contaminated water coming down Ramirez Canyon is completely cleaned by the treatment plant, and is also cleaned as it is released back into the creek just above the beach. But as the cleansed water seeps into the sand, it again becomes contaminated by birds and organisms in the muck.

Ocean water quality water is bad at the outfall, but returns to normal just a few dozen feet away in either direction, scientists said.

Longtime residents say the problem may be the year-round nature of the creeks, which are frequently fed by tainted, fertilizer-laden urban runoff. In years past, most Santa Monica Mountain drainages dried up in the summer.

At the news conference, Malibu was singled out for praise by Heal the Bay founder Mark Gold. “If you asked me this five years ago, I would have had a different answer,” Gold said. Since then, he added, “Malibu has adopted the strongest onsite wastewater treatment ordinance in L.A. County by a mile.”

Malibu City Councilmember Jeff Jennings, who rushed to the news conference when tipped off about it by a reporter, told the media that the community has a strong interest in getting to the bottom of the local pollution.

Yaroslavksy agreed, and lauded the city and its residents: “Maybe the pollution is coming down the creek from a mountain lion’s den. Maybe it’s coming from birds, or from dog droppings. We don’t know, but we are going to find out. And if it is coming from a home, they can expect to be visited by us,” he said.