Donation will help clean up watershed

Paul Clinton

CORONA DEL MAR -- Jeff Powers walked into the Orange County

CoastKeeper office in Newport Beach with a check in his pocket and a

cleaned-up Buck Gulley on his mind.

Powers, who owns a Costa Mesa landscaping company, had been sent by an

anonymous donor to hand CoastKeeper a $50,000 check to spur an effort to

reduce the flow of silt, water and other runoff down the Corona del Mar

watershed.

Daily, nearly 200,000 gallons flow from the northern tip of Buck

Gulley, near Signal Peak, down more than five miles to Little Corona

Beach, Powers said.

“There is an anonymous donor who is very interested in getting the

water off the beach,” Powers said. “The long-term goal is to restore the

water quality.”

Powers declined to reveal his source but said the man lives outside

Corona del Mar. The money was earmarked for Buck Gulley because it would

be a manageable starting point for an urban runoff plan, Powers said. The

donation also includes a three-year commitment of $300,000 if a plan can

be worked out.

As a result of the financial backing, Newport Beach officials have

joined the effort. The city has applied to the Santa Ana Regional Water

Quality Control Board for $226,000 in state water bond money via

Proposition 13. That funding could be available later in the year,

officials said.

Powers, the city of Newport Beach, CoastKeeper and others have banded

together to find a way to stop silt from flowing into the tide pools and

the ocean.

“The problem has been the entire watershed,” said Dave Kiff, Newport

Beach’s deputy city manager. “When the freshwater gets into the ocean, it

harms the critters.”

Representatives of those involved with the issue have held several

committee meetings to steer the process. On Monday, the committee

recommended the groups hire Clear Creek Systems Inc., a Bakersfield

environmental firm, to begin testing the runoff. The company is also

expected to install a mechanism to remove and treat some of the flow.

The ultimate goal, Powers said, is to develop a system to recycle the

water, instead of dumping it into the sewer system.

Morning Canyon would also be included in the scope of the work,

expected to start in the next few weeks. The work must be completed in 90

days, CoastKeeper Executive Director Garry Brown said.

“We think we’re on the right track,” Brown said. “We’ll be identifying

where the water is coming from.”

Brown said he is hammering out the details of a contract with Clear

Creek for the work, expected to cost the groups $8,000. The groups have

also hired a UC Irvine professor for about $1,200 to perform virus

testing on the runoff.

A pocket of Corona del Mar residents led by activist Nancy Gardner

have also thrown their weight behind the project.

“It’s been a mess,” Gardner said. “It’s been high in bacteria counts.”