City gets $200,000 for beach cleanup

Paul Clinton

NEWPORT BEACH -- Gov. Gray Davis handed the city $200,000 in grant

money Tuesday to help clean up its beaches.

The funding is part of a $32-million slice of the budget Davis set

aside for coastal cleanup projects across the state to reduce the rising

number of postings and closures caused by urban runoff.

The funds come from Proposition 13, a bond issue approved by votes in

March 2000.

Davis’ effort is known as the Clean Beaches Initiative.

City officials said they welcomed the news, adding that the money

would be put to good work.

“We’re happy we got funded today because it took a long time to get to

this point,” said Assistant City Manager Dave Kiff.

The city will use the money to install an aeration device in the

Newport Dunes Waterfront Resort’s swimming lagoon, which is a constant

trouble spot for beach warnings.

The device, known as an InStreem unit, will move across the top of the

water and, like a jet in a Jacuzzi, circulate the water.

The city also has plans to cap three or four other storm-water

diversions that empty into the lagoon.

Diversions heading into the ocean off West Newport would also be

included in the project.

The allocation is part of about $500,000 that Davis set aside for

Newport Beach last summer when he unveiled the program.

Kiff said he is working with the Santa Ana Regional Water Quality

Control Board to tailor projects that would be eligible for the remaining

$300,000 money.

Newport Beach led the county in beach closures in 2001, a dubious

distinction city officials have said they hope to shed.

The money, Davis said in a release, will help keep all of the state’s

beaches open for business.

“The public health and economic threat to our beaches by polluted

runoff is real,” Davis said. “These grants help state and local agencies

address contamination.”