Erosion is a problem

Alicia Robinson

For Ron Centra and some of his neighbors, the phrase “slippery slope”

is not just rhetorical -- it describes where they live.

The residents of about 20 homes on the edge of Morning Canyon want

the city of Newport Beach to pay for stabilizing the canyon, where

runoff from the Pelican Hill golf course and other development in

Newport Coast has carved holes in the soil and caused slope failures.

After high-volume rainstorms earlier this year, residents are

worried about their yards -- and with good reason. A storm drain

outlet built around 1960 once ended at the same level as the canyon,

said Bob Patterson, whose family owns a home on Rockford Road in

Cameo Highlands. Now there’s a dropoff of about five feet from the

end of the storm drain to the channel below, and large chunks of

earth have fallen away from the slope into the bottom of the canyon.

The canyon used to be “self-healing” because water flows carried

soil that replaced what got washed away, Patterson said. But when the

Irvine Co. built Pelican Hill, it included basins to trap excess

water and sediment.

Now no sediment comes down, but plenty of water does -- more than

ever before, residents said.

“Ever since they built those homes up in Newport Coast, and they

built the golf course, everything seems to be draining down our

canyon,” Centra said. “The more building they do up there, the louder

I hear that stream down here.”

The city hired a consultant in 2004 to study the canyon erosion,

and on Tuesday the City Council will decide whether to have plans

drawn up for an $825,000 stabilization project.

The proposed solution is to build seven rock structures, called

gabions, that will slow the water coming down the canyon, so it

doesn’t blast away the soil.

But the council hasn’t yet agreed to pay for the fix. Residents

think the city should cover the costs because the water is coming in

part from a city storm drain, and the city signed off on drainage

plans for the Newport Coast developments that send their runoff into

the canyon.

It’s a tough call, because the erosion is happening on private

property, which the city wouldn’t normally pay to repair.

The drainage system that’s feeding water into the canyon was built

to accommodate the homes there, so the residents share some

accountability for the problem, Councilman Don Webb said.

“Should the city do 100% of it? I don’t think so,” he said. “I

feel, myself ... that there should be some responsibility for the

adjoining property owners since the general public doesn’t have

access to the area.”

But residents want the city to step up to the plate.

“We feel like they’ve caused a problem with the sediment flow, and

we’re bearing the brunt of all the Newport Coast developments, so why

should private property owners have to bear the burden of that

damage?” Rockford Road resident Joy Wynkoop said. “If you’re going to

say it’s private property, take the water off our private property.”

Drainage and design standards have evolved since Cameo Highlands

was built, and the Newport Coast developments were built under Orange

County’s rules, so the blame for the erosion doesn’t fall on any one

party, said Steve Badum, the city’s public works director.

Morning Canyon’s erosion could be a test case that shows the city

how to solve a similar crisis in Buck Gully, Patterson said.

“It’s the Rosetta stone of the problem here,” he said. “If you

understand what happened here, you understand all of the canyons.”

* ALICIA ROBINSON covers government and politics. She may be

reached at (714) 966-4626 or by e-mail at alicia.robinson

@latimes.com.