Bay and beaches may see less runoff

Alex Coolman

NEWPORT BEACH -- The Orange County Sanitation District is considering

a proposal to take in more urban runoff water, a move that may provide a

boost for local pollution-control and beach and bay cleaning efforts.

The sanitation district, the agency that handles sewage flow for the

county and cities like Newport Beach and Huntington Beach, already

accepts into its treatment plants about 2 million gallons per day of

diverted urban runoff.

But major revisions to its plans could be approved as soon as the end

of this month that would see the district take in as much as 10 million

gallons of runoff per day, said Tom Meregillano, a regulatory specialist

in the environmental compliance and monitoring division of the sanitation

district.

The district plans to accept up to 4 million gallons per day without

charge, Meregillano said, and it also plans to expand the period during

which it accepts runoff -- from summer only to year-round.

“The district has taken a new lead in terms of its watershed

approach,” Meregillano said. He noted the new plans must be approved by

both the district’s technical services committee in its Monday meeting,

and by the board of directors at the end of the month.

If the level of runoff that is accepted by the district rises to more

than 4 million gallons per day, the district plans to pass along the

costs of diversion to all the agencies using the district’s services,

Meregillano said.

“It’s an incentive to reduce the urban runoff,” he said. “It’s up to

everybody who’s diverting at that point to work together to say ‘Look,

let’s reduce it.’ ”

The new proposal could be a boon to the agencies that deal with water

quality in Newport Beach, said Monica Mazur, a spokesperson for the

Orange County Health Care Agency.

“We’re delighted to get [runoff] off the beach or out of the harbor,”

she said. “But people have to understand that these diversions aren’t the

end-all to the urban runoff problem. People still have to understand that

they have to reduce the sources of runoff,” she said.

Nancy Gardner, president of the Newport Beach chapter of the Surfrider

Foundation, had similar sentiments.

“This is great,” she said. “Obviously it’s going to make the surf zone

cleaner.

“But in our mind, it’s in the same league as storm drain filters and

debris booms. These are after the fact, and they’re simply putting the

problem somewhere else.”

Long-term solutions to runoff problems, she stressed, would require

education and behavioral changes on the part of people who live within

the watershed.

The district’s proposed move to year-round acceptance of runoff would

be a dramatic shift from its current policy, which restricts diversion to

April 1 through Oct. 15.

Even under the new approach, though, the district will be unable to

handle the massive volumes of water that flow through runoff channels

during seasonal rains, Meregillano said.

Those flows, which often bring with them extremely high bacteria

counts, will continue to empty directly into the ocean.

FYI

* Current runoff diversion level:

2 million gallons per day

* Proposed free diversion level:

Up to 4 million gallons per day at no charge.

* Proposed maximum diversion level:

Up to 10 million gallons per day. All diversion over 4 million gallons

per day to be billed at the rate of $321 per million gallons diverted,

with costs split among all agencies using the district’s services.

SOURCE: Orange County Sanitation District.