Adams downplays water contamination

Paul Clinton

NEWPORT BEACH -- Delivering his comments by proxy Thursday, Mayor Gary

Adams downplayed bacterial contamination found in ocean waters off the

coastline.

Sick with the flu, Adams sent Assistant City Manager Sharon Wood to

read a prepared statement at the Orange County Coast Assn.’s annual

state-of-the-environment luncheon.

The group invited the mayors of the county’s seven seaside cities to

speak about coastal issues affecting them.

In his statement, Adams cited the upcoming dredging of Upper Newport

Bay, concerns about water quality, annexation plans for Santa Ana Heights

and Newport Coast, and the push to extend flight caps at John Wayne

Airport as the city’s most pressing environmental issues.

Reports of bacterial contamination have dogged the county’s coastline

since 1997, when an underwater plume was found off the Huntington Beach

shoreline. The fecal bacteria has been detected in parts of the water off

of Newport Beach.

“It’s not that [the ocean water in] this area is dirtier that the rest

of the state,” Wood said, reading from the statement. “It’s just that we

test more than other areas.”

Costa Mesa Mayor Libby Cowan joined Adams and two others as absentees

from the luncheon, which was held at the Newport Dunes. Laguna Beach

Mayor Paul Freeman, San Clemente Mayor Scott Diehl and Seal Beach Mayor

Patricia Campbell spoke.