EDITORIAL

The Newport Beach City Council deserves applause for its decision last

week to jump aboard the growing coalition of coastal cities that plan to

oppose a federal waiver allowing the Orange County Sanitation District to

pump partially treated sewage 4 1/2 miles off the city’s shores.

The waiver, which is set to expire in 2003, was granted to the

district by the Environmental Protection Agency. Without it, all

236-million gallons of sewage the district sends into the ocean each day

would have to be treated fully. Now, half of the sewage has only had the

solid waste removed. The waiver, environmentalists say, leaves it rife

with bacteria.

City leaders -- not to mention residents and business owners -- have

many reasons to want the water to be as clean as possible.

For the city’s businesses, the importance of a clean beach and water

was clearly demonstrated in the summer of 1999, when constant beach

closures wrecked usually profitable months in Huntington Beach. A similar

summer horror is just a series of spills away in Newport.

For residents who go to the beach, being able to go in the water --

let alone sit anywhere on the sand they like -- is part of why they live

in Newport Beach. Denied that joy and benefit, they may as well live in

Missouri.

For the council, when a decision will benefit all its constituents,

the verdict might seem an easy one. But it was still a bold one, as it

joined only Seal Beach and Huntington Beach as early opponents of the

waiver. Now, this trio of cities needs to work to get other, non-coastal

towns aboard this opposition, and Newport Beach leaders should not

hesitate to take the lead and push for this cause. Come November 2002,

when the sanitation district will decide whether to push for the waiver’s

continuation, the county’s other cities will need to be united in

opposition. Costa Mesa are you listening?

We hope so because fighting this waiver is the right thing to do.