Newport Beach sells stake in reservoir

Mathis Winkler

NEWPORT BEACH -- They didn’t get the assurances they wanted. But City

Council members unanimously decided Tuesday to sell the city’s 1.18%

share of the defunct San Joaquin Reservoir to allow the Irvine Ranch

Water District to turn it into a basin for reclaimed water.

Council members and residents had voiced concerns at past meetings

that district officials weren’t willing to sign a legally binding

document that would prohibit a discharge of reclaimed water into the

Upper Newport Bay except during serious rainstorms.

While the goals of a 1996 “no discharge” agreement among the city, the

district and Orange County’s water and sanitation districts have been

achieved, Irvine Ranch Water District officials have refused to put their

signatures on the document.

Members of one of the city’s leading environmentalist families were

split on the council’s decision to go ahead with the sale.

“It’s a bad decision for the bay long term,” said Bob Caustin, the

founding director of Defend the Bay, on Wednesday. “The City Council

obtained nothing from [the district] in exchange for a controlling

interest [in the reservoir]. . . . There’s no written guarantee that [the

district] will not discharge [reclaimed water].”

Caustin added that his in-laws, Jack and Nancy Skinner, seemed to have

decided to support the sale after learning from city officials that no

better deal could be reached with the district.

While she would have preferred a commitment by district officials to a

no-discharge scenario, Nancy Skinner said Wednesday that the city’s

promise to hold the district accountable had convinced her to support the

sale.

“It shall be a standing policy of the council that any action by any

party of [the 1996 agreement] to discharge reclaimed water . . . beyond

those emergency discharges permitted . . . during the term of [the

agreement] shall immediately result in legal action sponsored, funded and

supported by the city,” reads a paragraph in the memorandum of

understanding between the city and the district regarding criteria of

operation for the new basin.

“We’ll be watching [the district] very carefully,” Nancy Skinner said.

The 1996 agreement will expire in 2011.

While it remains unclear what will happen after those 10 years pass,

Deputy City Manager Dave Kiff has said in the past that an increasing

demand for reclaimed water in Irvine, more users in Newport Beach or a

better way to treat the waste water could prevent discharge beyond that

date as well.

In addition to approving the sale, which will earn the city about

$13,000, council members also decided to enter a collective defense

agreement with the reservoir’s other owners.

In a lawsuit filed in Orange County Superior Court on Jan. 17, Defend

the Bay alleges that district officials failed to complete an adequate

environmental review of the project.

District officials have said they were “puzzled” by the lawsuit,

adding that all alleged shortfalls of the environmental review had

already been addressed.