Funds available for runoff programs

Paul Clinton

NEWPORT-MESA -- To cut down on polluted runoff entering the waters off

Orange County, the Board of Supervisors has approved an additional $1

million in grant money for cities.

Officials in Newport Beach and Costa Mesa said they would tap into

those funds.

The county’s 33 existing cities, as well as Aliso Viejo when it

incorporates Sunday, are eligible to tap into a pool of $1.4 million. The supervisors approved the additional $1 million, to go with $416,000 left

over from last year, as part of the 2001-02 budget, which was approved

Tuesday.

Cities must match any money they receive dollar for dollar.

The program is an attempt to motivate inland cities to address a

problem they have helped create. Much of the trash, plastic bags and

other muck that flows through storm drains into the ocean off Newport

Beach has been tossed into a gutter up stream.

“These programs are aimed at reducing the flow to the ocean,” said

Larry Paul, the county’s manager of water and environmental programs.

“The problem exists everywhere.”

Newport Beach will apply for about $29,400, said Assistant City

Manager Dave Kiff. The city will use the money to build concrete

diversion walls to move the waste water into sewage treatment lines

during the spring and summer.

The diversions won’t be used during fall and winter.

“The problem with the diversions is that they require a lot of

monitoring and testing,” Kiff said. “And it doesn’t go to the root of the

problem. . . . You need to stop it at the source.”

Costa Mesa will also apply for money, Assistant City Engineer Ernesto

Munoz said.

Munoz added that Costa Mesa leaders want to secure $33,000 to modify

city catch basins in gutters. The city would install filters, similar to

those used in Dana Point, to prevent debris from entering the storm

drains.