Water Pollution

Southern Californians love their beaches. So to keep the beaches and ocean unfouled, government agencies have over the last decade passed strict pollution laws and spent millions of dollars trying to reduce sewage spills and urban runoff. But a county audit released this week determined that all of the regulations and disclosure requirements have created a communications breakdown that has left Los Angeles County health officials in the dark about numerous sewage spills.

Twenty years ago, scores of state and regional agencies, landowners and conservationists hammered out a comprehensive agreement that dictated virtually every aspect of future development at Lake Tahoe, save one: how many piers, slips and buoys would be allowed along the lake's 72 miles of shoreline.

Two landmark Los Angeles lakes will be cleaned up and restored with bond funding approved Wednesday by the City Council. On a unanimous vote, the council allocated $58 million in Proposition O money for six water-quality projects, including $23 million to begin the cleanup of Echo Lake, north of downtown, and Lake Machado in Harbor City. The council also set aside an additional $178 million for future phases of the two lake projects.

Setting up a confrontation with President Bush over spending, the Democratic-controlled House on Friday approved a bill that would increase funding for clean-water projects, such as those aimed at preventing beach pollution. The bill, which would authorize $14 billion over four years, was approved on a 303-108 vote, despite a White House veto threat. It now goes to the Senate. The debate offered a preview of coming budget fights between the White House and the Democratic majority in Congress.

Investigators say water pollution is contributing to a spate of marine mammal deaths that have scattered carcasses along the California coast. In the last several weeks, dozens of whales, dolphins and sea lions have washed ashore dead or dying from Venice to San Luis Obispo. The latest discovery occurred Tuesday in Ventura, where an 8-foot juvenile minke whale washed up dead near the end of San Pedro Street at San Buenaventura State Beach. Lifeguards buried it in the sand. "It is episodic.

Perchlorate contaminating the Santa Clarita Valley's underground water supply is to be cleaned up under an estimated $100-million settlement of a federal lawsuit against former and present owners of a shuttered munitions and fireworks factory announced Wednesday. The suit was filed by four area water agencies in November 2000 against Whittaker Corp., Remediation Financial Inc.

Bulldozers replaced bass boats on a dried patch of Lake Okeechobee on Thursday, scraping away tons of polluted muck. Taking advantage of near-record-low water levels amid a severe drought, water managers have work crews digging out pollution-laden muck from exposed areas in the western and southern portions of the lake.

SOUTHERN California beaches offer a little slice of heaven for true water hounds -- regular sets of big, muscular waves for surfers, cool ocean breezes for kite boarders and windsurfers and long stretches of shallow water for flopping around on rafts and belly boards. But nearly everyone who's ever swallowed a big mouthful of ocean water has wondered the same thing: What exactly is lurking in there -- and what are the chances of getting sick from it?

Iraq has reported five cases of cholera among children in the last three weeks, a worrying sign as summer sets in and the war leaves sewage and sanitation systems a shambles. All of the cases were among children younger than 12 in the southern city of Najaf and were reported by medical officials on alert for signs of the potentially lethal ailment, Claire Hajaj of the United Nations Children's Fund, or UNICEF, said Tuesday.

Thousands of Marine families who lived at Camp Lejeune in North Carolina over three decades drank and bathed in water contaminated with toxins as much as 40 times over today's safety standard. The government on Tuesday disclosed results from a new study the same day lawmakers listened to emotional testimony from families about cancers and other illnesses they blame on tainted tap water at the sprawling base. Jerry Ensminger of White Lake, N.C., lost his 9-year-old daughter, Janey, to leukemia.