Newport poised for pollution fight

June Casagrande

City leaders are continuing the push to keep potentially poisonous

levels of the element selenium out of local waters.

The Coastal/Bay Water Quality Citizens Advisory Committee last

week heard a presentation on the agent and the hazards it poses to

the local environment.

“What we can do is continue to stress to the regional water

quality board that if this water is pumped into the San Diego Creek,

it will damage the habitat of the bay, and they should consider other

places to pump it -- like into a sewer line rather than the storm

water system,” Assistant City Manager Dave Kiff said.

From time to time, regional transportation authorities ask the

water board for permission to pump out certain low-lying areas in

their jurisdiction. Among these is an area near the Tustin Air Base

formerly known as the Swamp of the Frogs. Experts have found unsafe

levels of selenium in the groundwater that accumulates there.

Selenium is a naturally occurring element that, in small

quantities, is an essential nutrient for fish, birds, animals and

humans. In larger amounts, however, it is toxic.

Newport Beach officials have an ongoing policy of lobbying the

water board to forbid pumping the water into the storm drain system,

which eventually ends up in the ocean and harbor. And that’s an

effort they plan to keep up.

“We have serious concerns about what selenium can do to the local

habitat if this water is pumped into the flood control channel,

letting large enough quantities to get into the environment,” Kiff

said.