Proposed changes to ocean plan cause concern

Alicia Robinson

Environmental activists are fighting proposed changes to the

California Ocean Plan that they say will pollute protected areas

along the coast between Corona del Mar State Beach and Crystal Cove

State Park.

The changes being discussed today by the State Water Resources

Control Board would allow runoff and discharge from unidentified

sources to flow into the ocean, where any runoff is now illegal.

Local environmentalist Garry Brown, executive director of Orange

County CoastKeeper, is fighting to keep the ocean plan as is.

“Quite frankly, in Orange County’s 42-mile coast, that’s one of

the few areas we haven’t already [messed] up,” he said.

But state water board spokeswoman Liz Kanter said the suggested

changes to the plan won’t lessen water quality.

Santa Ana Regional Water Quality Control Board official Kurt

Berchtold said that allowing the discharges in the area won’t be a

problem, as discharges there have already been halted.

Brown has led fights against drainage plans by Caltrans and the

Irvine Co. that he said would degrade coastal water quality. Now he’s

trying to keep the state water board from changing standards for

“areas of special biological significance,” such as this one, which

are more stringently protected than the rest of the coast.

The California Ocean Plan sets standards for the state’s coastal

waters and is used to regulate discharges into the ocean. The state

adopted the plan in 1972 but has done little to enforce it, Brown

said. Now, the board wants to permit discharges into protected areas

so it doesn’t have to deal with eliminating runoff altogether, he

said.

“They haven’t enforced the law they have in 30 years,” he said.

“They’ve done a lousy job enforcing the ocean plan, and they haven’t

managed or monitored anything.”

Brown spoke out against the changes at a public meeting of the

state water board in Sacramento on Jan. 23 and plans to attend

another session today.

The state water board is proposing the changes to meet the

requirements of the federal Clean Water Act, Kanter said.

If the changes are adopted, some discharges from storm water and

unidentified sources would be allowed, she said.

“These discharges would be under very stringent monitoring

requirements to ensure that beneficial uses [of the ocean] are

protected,” she said. “The proposed amendments would not result in

additional water quality deterioration but would instead improve

water quality.”

Changes may have been suggested because of recent problems with

runoff at Crystal Cove, Berchtold said. The regional board issued a

cease-and-desist order in 2000 to stop polluted runoff. That led to

new drainage plans from the state Department of Parks and Recreation,

the Irvine Co. and Caltrans.

Even if some discharges are permitted, Berchtold said, the

regional board won’t have to make changes.

“I don’t think we’d have to do anything differently, because we

will already have in place a system to comply with a stricter

standard,” he said.

The ocean plan amendments as proposed are not final, Kanter said.

Public input is being collected and will be used in creating a draft.

Kanter was not sure when the board would vote on amendments to the

ocean plan.

A number of other environmental groups, including the Natural

Resources Defense Council, Heal the Bay and the Ocean Conservancy,

have signed on to CoastKeeper’s objections, Brown said.

Although the state created the ocean plan, it doesn’t have the

authority to reduce discharge standards because they fall under the

federal Clean Water Act, he said.

If Brown couldn’t get the state board to maintain the standards,

he said, he would take the issue to court.

“We promised that we will litigate,” he said.