High goal for Santa Ana River

Paul Clinton

The Newport Beach chapter of Surfrider is setting aggressively optimistic

goals for the new year and beyond.

In recent newsletters to its members, the group has touted a goal to

reduce the amount of pollution at the mouth of the Santa Ana River by 50%

over the next five years.

Surfrider’s Newport Beach chapter, founded by Nancy Gardner, set the goal

as the centerpiece in its “50 in 5” program.

Group members hope to install a network of wetlands, also known as

biofiltration ponds, along the bank of the river channel as a way of

filtering out bacteria and other pollution found in urban runoff.

The ponds are an alternative to Orange County’s annual dry-season runoff

diversions -- usually metal corrugated pipes that send the runoff into

the county sewer system instead of allowing it to reach the river

channel. The channel drains into the ocean at the west end of Newport

Beach after running along Costa Mesa’s border.

“Really, we have to stop treating our ocean like a toilet,” Gardner said.

“The more natural ways we can do it are less expensive, just as effective

[and have] better aesthetics.”

The group is pushing for the wetlands to be included in the Orange Coast

River Park plan. Both Costa Mesa and Newport Beach, working with a

handful of activists from both cities, are crafting a plan to install a

nature park along the channel.

Costa Mesa officials have been lukewarm about the Surfrider plan but said

they would implement a series of environmental measures next year when

the City Council hashes out the projects that will be included in the

city budget.

“The city of Costa Mesa is all for cleaning the water,” said Ernesto

Munoz, assistant city engineer. “If it has a price tag, we need to

consider it at a public hearing.”

City departments have until March to submit recommendations about which

projects will be included in the budget. The council is expected to begin

public study sessions in May, followed by adoption of the final budget in

June.

Back in the mid-1990s, Surfrider lobbied cities and the county to install

the diversions. At that time, the Orange County Sanitation District

deemed them to be too expensive. But by the late 1990s, the agency was

supporting the effort to send polluted water to its Fountain Valley

treatment plant.

Surfrider has also worked closely with Newport Beach, the environmental

group Orange County CoastKeeper and others to clean up Buck Gully in

Corona del Mar.

Those groups hope to install the wetlands at the edge of that drainage

channel.

Gardner was quick to point out that the diversions are only a short-term

fix to an endemic problem.

“It’s just putting [the pollution] in a different spot,” Gardner said.

“They’re not cheap, but they’re easy.”

* Paul Clinton covers the environment and John Wayne Airport. He may be

reached at (949) 764-4330 or by e-mail ato7 [email protected]

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