Hoag, locals face off

Newport Beach city officials acknowledged Wednesday that they were unaware of the plumes of vapor and exhaust a Hoag Memorial Hospital Presbyterian power plant would emit when it was first approved in 2002.

“If I were a mechanical engineer, I would have known; but we’re not engineers — we’re planners,” Newport Beach Senior Planner James Campbell told the City Council Wednesday.

Campbell spoke during a special hearing to discuss whether Hoag has been a good neighbor to condominium residents, who say the power plant is an eyesore that emits opaque plumes of steam and exhaust that block their views of the ocean.

Councilman Steve Rosansky, who represents the residents who live in the Villa Balboa condominium complex next to the hospital, suggested hospital officials might have been less than forthcoming about emissions a hospital cogeneration plant would produce when the city first approved it.

“Certainly Hoag didn’t have pictures of plants with plumes above them in their application,” Rosansky said. “I wouldn’t imagine anybody thought about it at the time.”

The council was expected to vote late Wednesday night on whether to give Hoag permission to shift up to 225,000 square feet of building space from its lower campus, which stretches along West Coast Highway, to its upper campus bordering Newport Boulevard to build a new 300,000-square-foot tower there. Several community groups have called on Hoag to reduce emissions from the plant before the city approves the proposal.

Hoag officials at the meeting said that while they want to work with the residents, the plant is vital to running the hospital. Officials suggested a plan to build a weather station that would monitor weather conditions and switch hospital operations to a different power source before plumes begin to form.

Such a plan, which would reduce the plumes by about only 30%, would cost about $500,000 to implement and between $120,000 to $140,000 a year in ongoing costs, according to hospital estimates.

Ideally, the hospital wants to keep running the plant without doing anything to reduce the plumes, said Steve Jones, chairman of the Hoag Memorial Hospital Presbyterian Board of Directors.

“We have been struggling to find what we call a balance between the aesthetic concerns of residents and the operations of Hoag Hospital,” Jones said. “We’ve concluded the best overall option truly is the operation of the cogeneration plant as designed.”

Residents want the hospital to completely replace cooling towers on the plant with quieter, cleaner models, something hospital officials say would cost millions.

“It’s no secret that this is an open wound,” said Erik Thurnher, co-chairman of the community groups Friends of Sunset View Park and the Villa Balboa-Hoag Liaison Committee. “...It really harms our quality of life in Newport Beach.”

Hoag officials claim plumes from a hospital cogeneration plant are only visible in the mornings for a few days a year, typically during the winter — a claim residents dispute.

A firm hired by Hoag to analyze emissions from the plant from April 20 to June 24 last year found the plant uses natural gas to generate electricity, reducing the hospital’s need for outside sources of energy.

BRIANNA BAILEY may be reached at (714) 966-4625 or at brianna.bailey@latimes.com.