Orange Coast Watch takes on first official task

Kenneth Ma

HUNTINGTON BEACH -- Orange County’s newest environmental watchdog took

its first assignment this month to monitor the county’s beaches.

Orange Coast Watch, which has not officially launched yet, was asked

by county officials to comment on a study to improve water quality in

Aliso Creek, said Vic Leipzig, the organization’s executive vice

president. Leipzig said the group’s launch date hasn’t been determined.

The study, released last month, suggests ways to plant native

vegetation and create wetlands to trap nutrients along the creek, which

has long been a hotbed for urban runoff and other contaminants that

eventually discharge into the ocean in south Orange County, he said.

Organizers said the countywide nonprofit group will serve to educate

people, and to protect and monitor the county’s coastline to improve

water quality and curb beach closures.

Alarmed by last summer’s ocean closures, necessitated by high bacteria

levels, Huntington Beach business leaders and residents devised plans for

a water-quality organization modeled after Heal the Bay in Santa Monica,

said Steve Bone, co-founder and president of the Waterfront Hilton Beach

Resort.

The organization will be dedicated to keeping the coastline clean for

residents and visitors, Bone said.

Co-founder Anthony Brown, a local environmental consultant, said the

organization should cost about $200,000 annually to operate. Funding is

expected to come from government agencies, as well as corporate and

private donors.

In addition, the organization is expected to have up to 30 people on

its board of directors, which will be made up of government officials,

businesspeople, academic representatives and environmentalists. It will

either be headquartered in Irvine or Huntington Beach, Brown said.

Councilwoman Shirley Dettloff said the group will be a positive

addition to efforts to improve water quality.

“You can never have too many environmental organizations that will

address water quality,” she said. “I’m hoping that with all of us working

together, we will be able to solve this.”