Caltrans project to filter highway runoff

Andrew Edwards

Caltrans crews are heading into the final stages of a highway project

near Crystal Cove that was undertaken to prevent polluted runoff from

spilling into protected waters.

The bulk of the work is scheduled to be completed in mid-May,

agency spokeswoman Sandra Friedman said.

“It’s just the bioswales that need to be dug -- dug and seeded --

and they should be doing that this week,” Friedman said.

Swales are like shallow ditches that are planted with various

types of vegetation. They are designed so water that flows into them

are naturally filtered by the plants before being diverted around

Crystal Cove.

“This will help mitigate the freeway runoff,” Friedman said. “The

way it’s set is that there are two pipes that take whatever results

after [runoff] goes through the bioswales like a filter. And then it

takes whatever remains to the ocean, but that is not in the cove. It

takes it out on the sides, and by then, there’s nothing wrong with it

anyway. But it bypasses the cove.”

The ocean around Crystal Cove is listed by the state as an area of

special biological significance, a designation that prohibits

wastewater from being discharged into that part of the ocean.

In 2000, the Santa Ana Regional Water Quality Control Board issued

a cease-and-desist order against Caltrans to prevent the

transportation agency from allowing runoff to flow into Crystal

Cove’s waters. The board also ordered the Irvine Co. and state

Department of Parks and Recreation to keep wastewater out of the

cove. The cease-and-desist order was issued after water-quality

watchdog Orange County Coastkeeper sued the Irvine Co. over runoff

issues related to housing construction at Crystal Cove.

Caltrans started the highway project last September, and work was

originally slated to be finished in February.

“That was before the rains came and changed everything,” Friedman

said.

Though the project has not met its original deadline, officials

with the Santa Ana Regional Water Quality Control Board believe the

project has effectively addressed the runoff issue and accepted the

weather-related setbacks, agency spokesman Kurt Berchtold said.

“We were satisfied that the delays were caused by problems that

were out of Caltrans’ control,” Berchtold said.

* ANDREW EDWARDS covers business and the environment. He can be

reached at (714) 966-4624 or by e-mail at andrew.edwards

@latimes.com.