Keeping ocean clean goes beyond duck roundup

Tod Ridgeway

Newport Beach got a bit of attention when city crews and others

nabbed 60 ducks from the Grand Canal (“Ducks -- ducks -- vamoose,”

Aug. 23). The relocation effort brought chuckles from even the most

hard-core clean water supporters among us -- because we know that

duck droppings contribute to poor water quality, but we also know how

silly grown men look when chasing down ducks.

Duck roundups -- while being visible and attention grabbing -- are

a very small part of Newport Beach’s overall clean water effort. We

were proud to be one of the first cities that opposed the Orange

County Sanitation District’s continued discharge of partially treated

sewage into the ocean outfall. Here in town, the city will spend more

than $4 million this year alone on programs that attempt to clean up

the bay and the ocean shoreline.

As an important reminder, Newport Bay is one of the most

intensively tested waterways in the state. Each week, the health

department samples 35 sites around the bay. In addition, the

sanitation district and the health department sample another 20 ocean

sites from Crystal Cove to the Santa Ana River.

Where a sample exceeds state standards for bacterial indicators,

we “post” the area to advise swimmers of the bacteria. Of the 55

sampling locations, only four have chronic problems with bacteria --

the bay waters around Newport Island and, oddly, Harbor Patrol Beach

off Bayside Drive.

That’s pretty good news when you think about it -- the vast

majority of bay beaches, and all of our ocean beaches, get top marks

for water quality. As such, we have allocated our time and resources

to maintaining the good water quality we see and to improving those

areas that get poor marks. Here are the ways we do this using Newport

Beach tax dollars:

* Keeping roads clean. You may not know it, but effective street

sweeping and trash removal are some of the best tools to improve

water quality. We sweep streets daily in commercial areas and weekly

in residential areas. It’s vitally important that you move your car

in advance of street sweeping day, because the trash (especially

cigarette butts), sediment, oil, pet waste and brake dust that the

sweeper misses ends up in the bay and ocean. Street sweeping is

expensive (about $500,000 annually) -- and we’re one of only a

handful of cities that sweeps streets daily and weekly. Some inland

cities are still on a twice-monthly schedule.

* Keeping storm drains clean. Those openings in the gutter (with

the decals that say “No Dumping -- Drains to Bay”) are the new focus

of a war on urban runoff. Urban runoff is water from dry-weather

activities like over-watering gardens and washing cars at home. The

water picks up contaminants in the streets and carries it into the

gutter, down the inlet, down a pipe and straight out to the bay.

Storm drains like these do not have treatment systems like sewer

lines do. Anytime you see water in the gutter, it’s headed for the

bay and ocean, picking up trash and bacteria all the way. New

regulations adopted by water agencies now require our city to better

protect these drains -- often in a manner that will surprise you. The

regulations, too, will make the city spend about double the $300,000

it spends today on cleaning these pipes.

* New devices. If you walk around West Newport, you’ll see new

screens in front of the gutter inlets. Runoff passes through the

screens (keeping trash out of the storm drain pipe) and then through

new filters installed within boxes just inside the inlet. The filters

catch toxic materials and oils and kill some bacteria so that the

materials can’t reach the bay. In other locations, we have physically

diverted dry-weather runoff from the storm drain to the sewer system

so that the entire flow stays out of swimming waters. This summer,

we’ll also test new circulation devices around Newport Island to see

if improved circulation helps reduce bacterial levels. These efforts

have cost more than $500,000 in partnership with the state of

California’s Clean Beaches Initiative.

* Education. Huge numbers of Newport Beach tourists and many of

our own neighbors don’t realize how what they do at home and at work

impacts clean water. The single most effective way to improve water

in the bay and ocean is to reduce runoff. That means recalibrating

sprinkler controllers so water doesn’t get into the gutter. And it

means taking our cars to the car wash instead of washing them at

home.

For businesses and homeowners, it means no longer hosing down

awnings, driveways and patios -- use a broom first. If you must, use

a small amount of water after sweeping -- use so little that it

doesn’t reach the gutter. Newport Beach will soon be embarking on a

comprehensive education campaign called “Clean Water Newport” that

will increase neighborhood, business and visitor awareness of these

simple facts. Our fifth-grade education program enters its third year

this year, a partnership between the Newport-Mesa Unified School

District, CoastKeeper, Surfrider, the city, Pacific Life, Fletcher

Jones Motorcars, the Balboa Bay Club and the Newport Harbor Nautical

Museum.

* Sewers. I would be remiss if I didn’t remind you that you can

stop sewer spills at home, too. Make sure a plumber comes by at least

annually to rod out the sewer line that connects your home to the

city’s line. If you have lots of trees in your yard, you may want to

do this quarterly or twice a year. Your bimonthly sewer fees pay for

the more than $1.4 million that we’ll spend this year alone on

regular maintenance of the city’s sewage collection lines and pump

stations -- just to avoid spills.

* Boating. In partnership with the Orange County Sheriff’s

Department, we continually work on ways to get the word out about

keeping Newport Harbor clean. More than 20 pump-a-head stations make

it easy to clean out toilet facilities on boats, thus protecting our

“no-discharge” harbor. “Clean and Green” boating campaigns help

educate boaters about ways to keep cleaning and painting chemicals

out of the bay. Some believe that an Avalon-style dye tablet program

would work here to find illegal waste discharges -- but I agree with

the Harbor Patrol that our harbor’s uses and size make this type of

program ineffective here.

Finally, remember that the city’s Coastal/Bay Water Quality

Citizens’ Advisory Committee, a City Council-appointed committee with

a long name and with an important charge, works on these projects and

more each month. Meetings are open to anyone interested in learning

more about water quality and in helping the cause. Readers can all

(949) 644-3002 for more information about the Water Quality

Committee.

As I hope you can see by now, our clean water efforts involve far

more than a summertime duck roundup.

* TOD W. RIDGEWAY is the Newport Beach Mayor and is the Chairman

of the city’s Water Quality Committee.