City workers clean out storm drains

Alicia Robinson

Heavy rains this winter will result in less ocean pollution thanks to

city employees.

Newport Beach workers recently cleaned 150 tons of silt and debris

out of the city’s 2,921 catch basins.

Their efforts exceeded U.S. Environmental Protection Agency

requirements that 80% of the city’s storm drains be cleared by July

2004.

“There’s enough there to build a small island,” city General

Services Director Dave Niederhaus said.

All that silt and debris would have ended up in the bay. Newport

Beach has a hefty job cleaning its storm drains, as it is the last

stop before the coast.

“The problem is that we lie at the end of the drainage system from

Costa Mesa, Santa Ana and, in some cases, Irvine, so a lot of what

they do ends up in our harbor and our storm drains,” Niederhaus said.

To tackle the job, the city budgeted $5 million and set up a

water-quality code enforcement division, Niederhaus said.

Costa Mesa also cleaned out 100% of its 1,300 catch basins, Public

Services Director Bill Morris said. That work took a two-man crew

three months and was finished at the end of October.

“It’s labor-intensive, but certainly, we do pull a lot of debris

out of those catch basins,” Morris said. “We certainly see the need

for [the regulations], particularly with us being as close as we are

to the ocean.”

Because it may contain chemicals as well as trash, both cities

disposed of the material in landfills.

Newport Beach and Costa Mesa are installing metal grates to keep

trash out of storm drains so it can be collected by street sweepers,

a weekly task in both cities, officials said.

Newport will clean 100% of its storm drains again next year, but

Niederhaus expects the work to start earlier. The cleaning is most

effective if it’s done before the year’s first significant rainfall,

which will wash more debris into the ocean, he said.