Coast Highway runoff project appealed

Paul Clinton

A Newport Beach environmentalist is fighting a project that Caltrans

promises will keep East Coast Highway’s polluted runoff from reaching

the ocean.

Garry Brown, executive director of Newport Beach-based Orange

County CoastKeeper, filed an appeal on Wednesday of Caltrans’

drainage work. He called Caltrans’ plan for the road above Crystal

Cove a “moronic” effort.

“Our concern is that the Caltrans plan is ‘Let’s dig a ditch and

put plants in it,’” Brown said. “It’s a totally inadequate plan.”

Brown is protesting Orange County Zoning Administrator John Buzas’

approval of Caltrans’ plan to create a drainage channel and wetland

filters along East Coast Highway. Brown filed his appeal of the plan

with the California Coastal Commission. Since the county -- and not

Newport Beach -- has jurisdiction over coastal planning in the area,

the Coastal Commission could be brought in to revisit the issue.

Caltrans had not seen the appeal, agency spokeswoman Sandy

Friedman said.

“We have not seen the appeal and cannot comment,” Friedman said.

“Our plan was approved by the Water Quality Control Board.”

The work is being done in response to a cease-and-desist order

that regional water quality officials issued in November 2000. In it,

they named the state’s Department of Transportation, along with the

Irvine Co. and the state’s Department of Parks and Recreation.

The order singled out Caltrans for the copper brake residue, oil

slicks, motor oils and other substances that are washed off East

Coast Highway. The ocean off Newport Coast and Crystal Cove State

Park has been protected by the state as a so-called Area of Special

Biological Significance.

On Sept. 27, the regional board approved Caltrans’ remedy, which

proposes to divert the runoff to wetland filters before discharging

it into Los Trancos and Muddy creeks. This year, Los Trancos was

placed on a state watch list of impaired water bodies.

Buzas approved the plan on March 16.

In a March 12 letter to the county’s planning department, Michelle

Lyman, CoastKeeper’s attorney, wrote that the Caltrans plan is

“legally as well as environmentally unacceptable.”