Pollution solution

Alicia Robinson

Five years ago, Garry Brown made a promise while looking out over the

murky waters of the Rhine Channel. He kept that promise Friday,

announcing a major study of pollution in the channel at the site

where water quality watchdog Orange County CoastKeeper was founded in

1999.

Data collection began in late June, but CoastKeeper, the city of

Newport Beach and other groups officially kicked off a $346,000 study

with a media event Friday at the Cannery restaurant, which overlooks

the channel. Terry Tamminen, the state Environmental Protection

Agency secretary, joined CoastKeeper officials for the event.

After years of pollution from shipyards and boating activities,

the Rhine Channel was named one of Orange County’s toxic hot spots in

1998. One of CoastKeeper’s goals from its inception was to solve that

problem. The study will determine how much pollution is there and the

best way to heal the channel.

“I think there’s a commitment by this community to clean it up,

but you can’t fix something until you know how it’s broken,” said

Brown, the executive director of Orange County CoastKeeper.

Project officials already have created a radar-generated map that

reveals a scattering of unidentified underwater debris.

“We suspect all kinds of ship debris, batteries, motor blocks;

it’s difficult to identify,” said CoastKeeper project manager Ray

Hiemstra.

In October, project workers will take sediment core samples from

as deep as six feet, or as far down as necessary to reach clean

sediment, and analyze the samples to see what contaminants are in the

channel. An environmental consultant hired for the project will

suggest the most effective and affordable clean-up methods, which

could include dredging, spreading clean sediment in the channel, and

treating and replacing sediment. A final draft report on the channel

is expected in April 2005.

The state funds that are paying for the Rhine Channel study come

from Proposition 50, which voters approved in 2002 to pay for

water-quality projects, said Tamminen. The city of Newport Beach also

provided funding for the project.

Once the channel is returned to a healthier condition, nature is

likely to bounce back quickly, but unfortunately, California has

numerous sites that were contaminated before people realized that

just throwing things away isn’t the end of them, Tamminen said.

“We’ve now learned that there is no ‘away,’” Tamminen said.

“Everything has come back in one form or another to haunt us.”

Also on Friday, CoastKeeper unveiled a video it produced with the

Irvine Co. to educate construction workers on how to prevent trash

and runoff from escaping construction sites.

The video is available in English and Spanish and will be the

first in a series of environmental education productions, Brown said.

* 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.