Seaside Lagoon to Have Its Summer Season

The will be open for business this summer.

The L.A. Regional Water Quality Control Board accepted the city’s request for a one-year reprieve from further testing and fines, City Manager Bill Workman said at Tuesday's City Council meeting. The issue of water quality will probably resurface next year, but the City Council was pleased to get out of paying $50,000 for additional water testing that the board wanted completed this year.

Workman said the water quality board was ready to grant the reprieve with a few conditions, which are much more affordable than $50,000.

“Some of the things that need to be worked out have been pushed off until 2012,” Workman said.

The Seaside Lagoon, a saltwater swimming and recreational facility, uses ocean water, chlorinates it and then discharges the water back into the harbor after de-chlorinating it. The water is often returned to the ocean with more suspended solids than when it was taken.

City officials believe strongly that the suspended solids are created naturally, but no tests have demonstrated definitively how the suspended solids are created.

The City Council for years has complained about the water quality standards the 1960s-era lagoon has been held to. The council had threatened to shutter the popular facility again this year instead of paying for additional water tests.

“We saved $50,000, and we can open as planned,” Councilman Bill Brand said.