Briefly in the news

Huntington Beach and a slew of other Orange County cities may be

forced to reduce the amount of pollutants being discharged into storm

drains and rivers and eventuallyoceans.

At its meeting next week the Santa Ana Regional Water Quality Control

Board will conduct a public hearing prior to considering the renewal of

the county’s storm-water permit.

The storm-water permit applies to 25 Orange County cities and sets

conditions on which cities can discharge storm water and urban runoff

into receiving waters such as lakes, rivers and streams.

After three public workshops to gather input from citizens, business

owners and environmental groups in the cities involved, a revised permit

will go before the board on Wednesday, said Regional Water Quality

Control Board Assistant Executive Kurt Berchtold.

A recent focus on the importance of water quality led to some of the

proposed changes to initial proposals of the permit, he said.

Some areas of the permit where more strict guidelines may be needed

are in business inspecting, placing more requirements on new developments

and minimizing waste from newly paved roads, Berchtold said.

“There’s a need to make permits more restrictive to address the real

water-quality problems in coastal Southern California,” he said.

On Dec. 19 the board will be voting on the permit that will serve the

county for the next five years. The current permit was last renewed in

1996.

The permit already requires cities to make sure any discharges meet

the water-quality standards, but now there will be some more stringent

rules to adhere to, said Mark Smythe, who heads the waters board’s

coastal storm water unit.

“We already have the education, now it’s time to change behaviors,” he

said.

But no matter what is done, pollutants will always be discharged,

Smythe said.

Changing behaviors could be anything from businesses washing out

pollutants that flow into storm drains, commercial car washing facilities

or homeowners over-watering their lawns.

“This is an attempt to come to an across-the-board standard,” said

Smythe, who expects the permit to be renewed with some possible additions

or deletions.

But some feel the permit doesn’t go far enough in addressing water

quality issues.

Officials at Orange County CoastKeeper, a grass-roots organization

who’s goal is to protect and preserve the county’s marine habitat,

believe the permit should employ stricter water quality standards like

the ones Los Angeles and San Diego counties use.

City officials admit that costs associated with increased water

quality monitoring are going to be a concern in the face of a reduced

budget and a downtrodden economy, but said they recognize the importance

of maintaining a clean water supply.

“We support [water quality], we think it’s a good thing that needs to

be recognized, and will do everything in our power to follow standards,”

said Rich Barnard, deputy city administrator of Huntington Beach.

In the eyes of one city engineer, Huntington Beach’s newly adopted

Water Quality Management Plan is a step in the right direction toward

cleaner waters.

“This plan goes beyond the permit to do much more than the state would

require,” said city engineer Dave Webb.

Brown said he understood the city’s reluctance with a stricter permit

because of it’s reduced budget, but added that water quality isn’t

something to be taken lightly.

Some Huntington Beach business owners wouldn’t mind

heightenedinspections of their businesses.

“Anything to inspect the water and make sure it’s clean is fine by

me,” said Candice Dubrin, owner of Jon’s Coffee Shop.