Newport Beach Rejects Release of Sewage in Bay

A controversial plan to release 5 million gallons of highly treated sewage daily into the Upper Newport Bay was rejected unanimously Monday night by the City Council.

“Because the Irvine Ranch Water District has not established with certainty that the proposed project will have no adverse impact on public health . . . [or] on the flora or fauna in Newport Bay, the City Council is opposed to the project,” Councilwoman Norma Glover said.

The Irvine Ranch Water District wanted, but did not need, the City Council’s approval. The final decision rests with the California Regional Water Quality Control Board.

The district now will apply to that board for a permit for a two-year demonstration project in which the reclaimed water would be released into the bay, said Ken Thompson, the district’s director of water quality.

The City Council suggested that if the board approves the project, the city may sue.

For more than a year, the district has argued that sending the treated waste water into the bay during non-summer months would benefit both the bay and the district.

The project, they say, would reduce the amount of algae during the summer, a concern of environmentalists for decades, and would provide wetlands for waterfowl. But two independent studies released last week by a UCLA biologist and a San Diego-based ecologist concluded that the plan would not benefit the bay’s ecosystem.

Under the water district’s proposal, the reclaimed water would flow through a series of duck ponds near the Irvine-Newport Beach boundary to San Diego Creek and finally to Upper Newport Bay.

The district also proposed paying for a system that would divert creek waters to create wetlands with ponds and islands during the summer. The system also would filter the water before it went into the bay.

The water district contends it would save close to $20 million over five to 10 years by emptying the treated sewage into the bay rather than paying another agency to dispose of it.

Opponents have said that the release would endanger not only the delicate ecology of the bay but the public’s health. Both allegations have been denied by district officials.

Still, beyond any impact on the local ecology, the public perception of treated sewage water flowing into the bay would be harmful to the city’s property value, said Bob Caustin, who formed Citizens for a Sewage-free Bay.

But state water quality control officials have said that contaminants such as motor oil that drain from city streets into the bay are much more dangerous than the reclaimed water that is typically used for irrigation.

Department of Fish and Game officials, who were once opposed to the project, agreed.

” The current water quality in the bay is poor. There will be a net reduction in [algae bloom] and salinity for a reduction in viruses,” said Troy Kelly, a wildlife biologist and manager for Upper Newport Bay Ecological Reserve.