City reverses flow on Aliso Creek berm

Two proposals to clear the ponding of polluted waters on Aliso Beach were endorsed Tuesday by the City Council.

The council voted unanimously to reverse its opposition to a county proposal to regularly excavate — or “break” — the berm that dams the toxic runoff from the Aliso Creek, supported by neighboring homeowners.

The council also approved the proposal by some South Laguna residents who oppose the dredging to conduct a 100-day pilot test of the efficacy of diverting a portion of the daily flow to the coastal treatment plant. The test will cost an estimated $25,000.

“I will support the county [permit] if the county will support the 100-day test and not do any beach maintenance during the test,” Councilwoman Elizabeth Pearson-Schneider said.

The council had voted 3-2 in March to oppose the permit application, citing violations to the local coastal program and recommended alternatives including flow diversions.

Pearson-Schneider also pledged Tuesday to help raise $5,000 toward the estimated cost of the test and asked county spokesman Larry McKenney to seek funding.

“The test won’t help with the pollution, but the data would help with the Super Project,” Pearson-Schneider said.

City and county officials are seeking federal and local funding for the $45 million Aliso Creek SUPER Project, named for the goals of creek Stabilization, Utility Protection and Environmental Restoration.

The first phase of the proposal includes the construction of a series of low structures in the creek and the reconnection of it to the natural flood plan. Creek sides will be shaved to reduce the steepness of the slopes and invasive species of plants will be removed and replaced with native vegetation. Infrastructure protection will include locking the low flow channel in place with rock at the toe, with soil wraps above the rock.

Diversion of the low flows of Aliso Creek at the South Orange County Water Agency treatment plant to make the water suitable for sale for irrigation is also a goal.

Council members Pearson-Schneider and Toni Iseman successfully lobbied for Congressman John Campbell’s support for the cleanup project in a visit this spring to Washington D.C.

“We need all the traction we can get for the Super Project,” said McKenney, committing to Pearson-Schneider’s stricture on maintenance during the test.

Berm maintenance, as proposed in the county’s application for a new permit from the Army Corps of Engineers, involves more frequent dredging, but with less intrusive equipment than the bull dozers used in the past.

Without the maintenance, the polluted pond meanders and spreads. Maintenance involves cutting a straight path through the berm, that allows the warm, enticing, but poisonous pond to flow from the creek mouth to the surf.

“The creek flow is foul whether it meanders or goes straight, but straight is shorter,” Aliso Circle Improvement Association President Bob McMahon said.

Left to its own devices, the undulating flow threatens homes, the public stairs and the public, McMahon said.

The concerns of neighbors, who produced evidence of the large pond that had collected this dry season, prompted Mayor Steven Dicterow, who had supported the county’s proposal in March, to reopen the public hearing on options to berm or not to berm.

“I am really disappointed that you are talking about putting polluted water in the surf zone,” South Laguna resident Jinger Wallace said. “For a city like Laguna Beach to talk about putting at least a million gallons into the [ocean] water appalls me.”

Speaking on behalf of the South Laguna Civic Association, Michael Beanan said ocean pollution is a paramount concern of Laguna Beach residents and visitors.

“As much as one-half billion gallons of polluted urban run-off is discharged annually at Aliso Beach during the local dry season,” Beanan said. “Urban runoff is known to contain harmful contaminates that threaten public health and safety as well as the well being of Laguna’s coastal sea life.”

The pilot test proposed by the association would divert to the coastal treatment plant about 800,000 gallons from an estimated daily flow of more than 1 million gallons of urban runoff. The flow would be mixed into the treated water that is pumped through the plant’s outfall and dumped into the ocean about one mile offshore.

“This effort is consistent with other coastal cities to capture, treat and redirect urban runoff for beneficial reuse opportunities and protect the coast from ocean pollution,” Beanan said.

Clean Water Now! founder Roger Butow said the association’s proposed test would just move the polluted water from one place to another.

The proposed test will be presented to the South Orange County Water Agency board at their next meeting.

Iseman, who represents the city on the water board, said the two-pronged policy proposed by Pearson-Schneider deals with the short-term emergency of ponding and long-term pollution.

The city’ position is not binding on the county, which owns Aliso Beach. The project is exempt from California Environmental Quality Act requirements and an environmental impact report is not necessary because the sand is relocated on the beach, not removed.