ON THE WATER -- Defending the Back Bay from all kinds of pollution

Mathis Winkler

NEWPORT BEACH -- It happened during lunch in Laguna Beach. Bob

Caustin, a real estate broker, his wife-to-be, Susan Skinner, and her

father, Jack, had driven down the coast and were enjoying their meal to

ocean views.

Susan and Jack -- both physicians -- did their usual doctor talk and

Caustin tuned out and gazed across the water. But when the conversation

switched to plans by the Irvine Ranch Water District to release treated

sewage into the bay, Caustin began to pay more attention.

“Nah,” he said to his fiancee’s father. “You’re pulling my leg.”

“I’ll show you the green stuff they want to put in [the bay,]” Skinner

responded.

That afternoon proved to be a turning point in Caustin’s life. He

began following his father-in-law to City Council meetings and heard him

talk about the dangers the water district’s proposal would pose to the

bay.

“I realized that a good science presentation in a gentleman’s way

wasn’t working,” Caustin said. “Jack did the science talk. I would tell

people that they are going to put treated sewage in the bay.”

To emphasize his point, Caustin would carry a bottle of the greenish

fluid to council meetings, put it before council members and take the

shock treatment approach.

“This is treated sewage,” he’d tell the council and those watching on

the televisions at home. “You want to swim in it? Drink it?”

It took the Skinners -- Susan’s mother, Nancy, also remains one of the

city’s most active environmentalists -- some time to get used to their

“in-your-face” son-in-law.

“If I was making a presentation and didn’t make [my in-laws] wince, I

didn’t do a good job,” Caustin said, laughing.

In order to protect his new family from possible law suits, Caustin

formed a nonprofit organization in 1995 called Defend the Bay.

The group soon managed to win a court ruling stopping the water

district from realizing its plans.

“If it wasn’t for Defend the Bay, Newport Beach would be a sewage

outfall,” Caustin said, adding that he’s not swum in the bay for the past

six years.

“The bay is pretty polluted,” he said. “As far as the ocean is

concerned, I pick my times and locations. I know too much.”

As a real estate broker, he’d sometimes show people the door if they

lied to him on their loan applications, Caustin said.

“They can tell me all their problems,” he said. “But don’t lie to me.”

In a way, the same holds true for his adversaries in the struggle to

protect the bay.

“If they would be honest and forthright, we would be able to solve our

problems,” he said. “When they work in the dark, it’s nonproductive. It

creates suspicion and mistrust. If they could tell us what they need, I’d

rather spend my efforts building a pipeline and solve their problems.”

But despite years of monitoring the worsening state of the bay,

Caustin’s not lost his optimism and hopes things will improve.

“My goal is to take my son shell fish harvesting on his 18th birthday

in the Back Bay,” he said.

The young Caustin is due to be born on March 15.