Swale project set to start

Specialized ditches are designed to filter unhealthful water headed for the bay.Newport Beach officials plan to spend about $200,000 on a project to keep polluted runoff from flowing into the bay. Work is expected to begin at the start of November.

During the project, a contractor will build a swale near Newport Boulevard and 16th Street. When mentioned in the same context as urban runoff, swales are essentially specialized ditches designed to manage the flow of unhealthful water.

The City Council approved the plan on Oct. 11. A contract worth more than $196,000 was awarded to Buena Park-based Belaire-West Landscape. The City Council also voted to set aside $19,000 for any unexpected work and $2,000 for geotechnical testing.

Workers are expected to install rock, sand and gravel in the swale. Newport special projects engineer Robert Stein said about 30,000 gallons of runoff flows every day in the area where the swale will be created.

The goal of the construction, Stein said, is for the sand and rocks to absorb the runoff before it flows into Newport Bay. As it’s planned, bacteria-filled water will get stuck in the swale instead of flowing into Newport Harbor near the Arches Bridge.

In addition to rocks and sand, the project will include adding native plants to the swale, Stein said.

Mark Adelson, chief of the regional planning section for the Santa Ana Regional Water Quality Control Board, said the concept of trapping germ-infested water in the swale could be successful.

“That’s an excellent approach,” Adelson said.

Earlier this year, Caltrans built swales near Crystal Cove to trap runoff flowing from East Coast Highway. The swales were designed to naturally filter runoff and prevent the water from flowing into Crystal Cove’s protected ocean waters.

Caltrans spokeswoman Pam Gorniak said the agency does not yet know if the swales have had an effect on runoff. That information could be available in one or two weeks since analysts needed to wait for rain to compare flows.

The Newport project is expected to wrap up at the end of December, Stein said. After the project is completed, runoff flows and bacteria levels are expected to be monitored to find out the swale’s effectiveness.

* ANDREW EDWARDS covers business and the environment. He can be reached at (714) 966-4624 or by e-mail at andrew.edwards@latimes.com.