Newport Beach to get $500,000 for beach cleanup

Deirdre Newman

NEWPORT BEACH -- As swimmers and surfers flock to the city this

summer, city officials will get $500,000 to use to reduce the number of

beach closures.

On Thursday, Gov. Gray Davis announced that the city will receive the

funds for Upper Newport Bay and Newport Harbor as part of his Clean

Beaches Initiative.

“California beaches are one of nature’s priceless blessings,” Davis

said in a press release. “Love of our magnificent coastline is something

that all Californians share. This coast is a vital part of our character.

It deserves every protection government can afford.”

The funds, part of $4 million in state assistance for communities in

Orange County, are designated for coastal cleanup projects. City

officials suspect that a sewage plume and urban runoff, as well as animal

and human waste, contribute to pollution in coastal waters.

Newport Beach has been hit by more postings than closures this year,

but several Orange County Sanitation District studies have shown

bacterial contamination as close as a half-mile from the shoreline.

City officials, along with a slew of other agencies, support an end to

a federal waiver that would force the sanitation district to treat all

its waste at the highest treatment level. The waiver allows the district

to discharge 240 million gallons of partially treated waste water from an

outfall pipe leading 4 1/2 miles out to sea.

A recent district study found that the role of the sewage plume -- a

collection of discharge off the shoreline -- in contaminating local

beaches was inconclusive. The sanitation district paid $5.1 million for

the study, which was completed last summer.

Some environmentalists, however, said they would like to see the state

funds used for further studies driven by some other group or agency.

“It would be great to have that money go toward some independent

studies and looking for real solutions as opposed to ways to deny

culpability,” said Bob Caustin, founder of the nonprofit group Defend the

Bay.

The Clean Beaches Initiative is funded by Proposition 13 bond money

approved by California voters.

Before the $500,000 goes to work on the nagging bacteria problem, it

would be given to the Santa Ana Regional Water Quality Control Board. The

local water-quality regulator would distribute the money based on project

proposals from the city.

Davis also handed $1 million to Huntington Beach from the Clean

Beaches Initiative.