Residents may be paying to keep water clean

Alicia Robinson

Orange County residents have paid the price of urban runoff when they

get sick from swimming or their beaches are closed, but they may soon

be asked to pay in cash.

Orange County Sanitation District staff members have proposed

charging residents a fee, which could range from $25 to $50 a year

per household, to help clean up urban runoff.

Runoff water from urban areas can contain fertilizers, pesticides

and fluids that leak from cars and other toxic materials.

Local city officials said they would likely support paying for

runoff treatment improvements by charging residents a fee.

“Politically, I think it’s acceptable to our citizens because we

live and recreate in the lower and upper harbor, so it’s important to

us,” said Newport Beach Mayor Tod Ridgeway, who is on the ad hoc

committee. “Clearly I’m supportive of moving forward with a fee for

urban runoff.”

The proposal is still being mulled over, but so far an ad hoc

committee of the Orange County Sanitation District has discussed up

to $25 million in improvements that could include diverting more

runoff water to sewage treatment systems, building wetlands to

naturally treat runoff or putting filters at the end of storm sewer

pipes.

“As this program is developed little by little, this idea of

pulling things together as a countywide program has come to the

fore,” said Bob Ghirelli, director of technical services for the

sanitation district. “We’re really early in the game to be talking

about what this could cost.”

At an April meeting of the ad hoc committee Ghirelli suggested

polling residents in the sanitation district’s service area to see if

the necessary 50% of property owners would vote for a fee to fund

runoff improvements if it were on the ballot. Another option would be

to implement a county-wide plan to clean up runoff and charge

residents a fee. In that case, the Orange County Board of Supervisors

would take the lead on the issue and put a proposed fee on a ballot.

The supervisors will be discussing how to solve runoff issues at

an Aug. 24 meeting, said Don Hughes, executive assistant to

Supervisor Jim Silva. County officials will involve each of Orange

County’s 34 cities as well as the area’s three sanitary districts, he

said.

“This isn’t just the county going out on its own and doing this

thing,” Hughes said.

Costa Mesa City Councilman Mike Scheafer said residents are likely

to question a new fee, but that doesn’t mean they wouldn’t support

it.

“We need to be able to justify anything we do to the citizens with

facts,” he said. “I think [the fee is] fair if they present their

case, and they can make a good case for why they’re charging it.”