Laguna Water District Locates Preferred Site for New Reservoir

LAGUNA BEACH —  After years of searching, the Laguna Beach County Water District has identified a preferred site for a new reservoir and is in negotiations to purchase the land from the Irvine Co., a district official said Friday.

“We’ve been attempting to find a site for about seven years now,” said Joe Sovella, general manager of the water district. “We had a reservoir study that identified the north Laguna Beach area as a place we needed to put a reservoir, and we finally narrowed it to this site.”

The reservoir would be off Pinecrest Drive near Laguna Coast Wilderness Park. Its primary purpose would be for use in emergencies, such as fires, Sovella said.

Paul Kranhold, an Irvine Co. spokesman, said a crew was clearing away brush and doing erosion-control work in the area Friday.

“We have had quite a few calls from residents who wondered what was going on, and whether plant life on the land would be damaged,” he said.

Kranhold said the crew was removing the tops of vegetation for fire prevention but leaving the roots in the ground for erosion control.

“The only relationship between what we’re doing and the possibility of a future reservoir on that spot is that this work will make it easier for the water district to get their equipment in to get the work done, if a reservoir is built,” Kranhold said.

Talk of building a reservoir in the area took the city manager and some residents by surprise.

City Manager Kenneth C. Frank found out about the possibility after he happened to drive by and see a bulldozer on the land.

“I’m not as concerned now that I know what is going on,” Frank said. “But it would have been nice to have been told about it.”

Sovella said that once the land is acquired, environmental and engineering studies are needed before a reservoir can be built.