A warning that won’t be missed

There’s something missing at the beach by 43rd Street in Newport Beach. And there’s nothing at all wrong with that.

Last week, county health officials removed a warning for the water off 43rd Street, at the tip of Newport Isle in the harbor. The warning had been in place, shockingly, for more than six years, a consistent reminder of how difficult it is to keep all of our waters clean. The problem of high bacteria levels there was exacerbated by runoff from several storm drains that empty directly into the still, end-of-channel water.

For years, water-quality reports would point to this spot -- along with several others in the harbor with similar natural characteristics that make them breeding grounds for pollution -- as among the worst, the dirtiest, the most polluted in Orange County and even Southern California. Each time these Newport locations appeared it amounted to a challenge to city leaders.

It is a challenge, as we have said and reported before, that Newport Beach is slowly, but surely, beginning to overcome. The removal of the warning at 43rd Street -- up since Sept. 22, 1999 -- surely is among the biggest victories in the city’s battle against water pollution.

Newport Beach Assistant City Manager Dave Kiff guessed that screens the city uses to block trash from entering storm drains during dry months may have played a part in cleaning up the water.

“The less trash you get into the pipes, the less bacteria that can stew down there,” Kiff told the Pilot.

It is a simple but ultimately effective solution, and one that offers hope that Newport will overcome the other trouble spots in town: the waters in the 33rd Street channel, between 33rd and 37th streets, that have been under warnings since August 1997; and water at West Coast Highway and the Newport Boulevard bridge, unhealthy since May 1999.

There will be no missing those signs, either.