Citations irk locals, keep water unpolluted

Alicia Robinson

Few cities are more diligent than Newport Beach when it comes to

preventing water pollution, but that diligence sometimes ruffles the

feathers of residents and business owners cited for violating

water-quality rules.

As part of its extensive water-quality enforcement program, the

city issued close to 1,000 violation notices and citations between

July 2003 and June 2004. Information from Orange County’s Resources

and Development Management Department showed that in the 2002-03

fiscal year, Newport Beach was responsible for 85% of water-quality

enforcement actions county-wide.

“We try to be as proactive as possible,” city code and water

quality enforcement manager Jim Sinasek said. “We’re at the end of

the pipe, and [clean water is] important to our community both from

an economic as well as from a pleasurable living area [standpoint],

and we want to keep it that way.”

While the code-enforcement department also handles other city code

violations such as illegal dwelling units and public nuisances,

Sinasek said water quality is the department’s main emphasis. State

and federal clean water standards hold the city responsible for what

gets into or comes out of its storm drains, which lead to the bay and

beaches.

Education efforts are one facet of city programs. Since May, the

city has sent out 27,000 water-quality brochures with residents’

water bills, and businesses are now getting brochures with their

business-license renewals. The city also produces “Water Wise,” a

program on cable, and code-enforcement staff members personally

deliver “knock and talks” -- explaining the rules instead of giving

tickets to people seen violating water-quality regulations.

And, of course, there is enforcement. In the last fiscal year, the

city issued 618 notices of water-quality violation, which don’t carry

a penalty, and 315 citations, which come with a $100 fine the first

time, $200 the second time and $500 for a third offense.

It’s important to stop people from hosing away their grass

clippings or pet waste because they will get into storm drains and

then the ocean, Sinasek said.

“Even though that may be relatively insignificant to a homeowner,

cumulatively it’s very significant when large amounts of people are

doing those things,” he said.

Residents and business owners aren’t always pleased when

code-enforcement officials come knocking.

Highland Drive resident David A. W. Young was surprised when his

gardener received a citation in the mail after using a hose to clean

up after yardwork.

“[The gardener] apparently was hosing down my driveway, and the

city inspector was across the road in his van,” Young said. “The guy

in the truck gave me a wave and then drove off. I thought, well, he

could have come over to me since he hadn’t issued the citation yet.”

Young paid his gardener’s ticket, but he was annoyed that the city

sent a reminder before he had a chance to pay the fine. His gardener

doesn’t live here, so he wouldn’t know Newport Beach’s rules, Young

added.

While he’s glad the city is trying to enforce clean-water

standards, Young said, “I thought they could have done a better job

[handling the citation].”

Sometimes the city cracks the whip on businesses, too. A few years

ago, Costa Mesa businessman Tom Unvert’s awning-cleaning service

received several water-quality citations, including one in Newport

Beach.

“My employees were coming back with these fines, and of course, I

was getting upset,” he said.

He looked into the cost of machines to reclaim the wash water, but

they were so expensive he ended up starting his own company to build

the machines. Now Unvert regularly tries to educate people about

water quality, he said.

Many people are ignorant of what the law is, and business owners

tell him they just wash things down at night when code-enforcement

workers aren’t around, Unvert said. He thinks the city could be doing

even more to educate people and enforce the law.

“They need to crack down even harder on this,” he said.

For more information about city water quality, visit

https://www.cleanwaternewport.com.

* ALICIA ROBINSON covers business, politics and the environment.

She may be reached at (949) 764-4330 or by e-mail at

alicia.robinson@latimes.com.