Newport sends conditions to water district

Noaki Schwartz

NEWPORT BEACH -- The last holdout in a deal to turn the San Joaquin

reservoir into a storage for reclaimed water might finally agree to the

plan if the city’s meeting with the Irvine Ranch Water District in two

weeks goes well.

“I think we’re going to have a positive outcome soon,” said Deputy City

Manager Dave Kiff.

In addition to Newport’s 1.2% share of the reservoir, the Irvine Ranch

Water District wants to buy out the other owners. Those water districts

-- Huntington, Mesa Consolidated, South Coast, Laguna Beach County and

Metropolitan -- have agreed to sell their shares and move forward with

the new plans.

Newport Beach has been putting off the decision because of concerns about

the reservoir discharging treated waste water into the environmentally

sensitive Back Bay. City Council members told the water district

officials that they would not sell their share unless they got a firm

agreement to strictly limit discharge.

Kiff has since made a list of specific situations that would be

acceptable and sent it to the Irvine Ranch Water District. Although he

would not elaborate on the list, Kiff said an example would be if there

were an earthquake and the dam cracked, forcing a drain of the reservoir.

All that is left now, Kiff said, is to meet with officials in two weeks.

They are cautious in their support, but some local environmentalists said

city officials have done the right thing in holding out for a written

agreement outlining extreme cases when discharging would be acceptable.

“I’m in favor of it because they are making use of reclaimed water, which

is important in Southern California where there’s such a shortage of

water,” said activist Jack Skinner. “However, right now IRWD is waffling

on this situation saying, ‘We will probably not discharge in the future.’

Frankly, I do not trust them unless there’s a clear-cut, written

agreement.”

If the district gets what it wants, it might put an end to the empty 1

billion-gallon reservoir’s rocky history. From 1985 to the early 1990s,

it was home to bugs and small animals that had to be regularly taken out

of the reservoir, much to the chagrin of residents who drank the water.

During that time, the reservoir, which supplied water to 400,000

residents from Dana Point to Huntington Beach, was closed 22 times

because of contamination.

The Metropolitan Water District, which operated the reservoir, eventually

decided to put a floating cover on the 55-acre drinking supply. But

though water officials called this the perfect solution, residents

surrounding the reservoir were furious and formed groups protesting the

gray plastic cover.

In the end, the overwhelming price tag killed the idea. Although

officials estimated it would only cost $18.2 million, complications

pushed the price up to $34 million.

Since then, Irvine Ranch began studying the reservoir and decided it

might be more useful as reclaimed water storage.