Surfrider sets high goal for Santa Ana River

Paul Clinton

NEWPORT BEACH -- The local chapter of Surfrider is setting

aggressively optimistic goals for the new year and beyond.

In recent newsletters to its members, the group has been touting a

goal to reduce the amount of pollution at the mouth of the Santa Ana

River by 50% over the next five years.

Surfrider’s Newport Beach chapter, founded by Nancy Gardner, set the

goal as the centerpiece in its “50 in 5” program.

Group members hope to install a network of wetlands, also known as

biofiltration ponds, along the bank of the river channel as a way of

filtering out bacteria and other pollution found in urban runoff.

The ponds are an alternative to Orange County’s annual dry-season

runoff diversions -- usually metal corrugated pipes that send the runoff

into the county sewer system instead of allowing it to reach the river

channel. The channel drains directly into the ocean at the west end of

Newport after running along Costa Mesa’s border.

“Really, we have to stop treating our ocean like a toilet,” Gardner

said. “The more natural ways we can do it are less expensive, just as

effective [and have] better aesthetics.”

The group is pushing for the wetlands to be included in the Orange

Coast River Park plan. Both Costa Mesa and Newport Beach, working with a

handful of activists from both cities, are crafting a plan to install a

nature park along the channel.

Costa Mesa officials have been lukewarm about the Surfrider plan, but

said they would be implementing a series of environmental measures next

year when the City Council hashes out the projects that will be included

in the city budget.

“The city of Costa Mesa is all for cleaning the water,” said assistant

city engineer Ernesto Munoz. “If it has a price tag, we need to consider

it at a public hearing.”

City departments have until March to submit recommendations about

which projects will be included in the budget. The council is expected to

begin public study sessions in May, followed by adoption of the final

budget in June.

Back in the mid-1990s, Surfrider lobbied cities and the county to

install the diversions. At that time, the Orange County Sanitation

District deemed them to be too expensive. But by the late 1990s, the

agency was supporting the effort to send polluted water to their Fountain

Valley treatment plant.

Surfrider has also worked closely with Newport Beach, the

environmental group Orange County CoastKeeper and others to clean up Buck

Gully in Corona del Mar.

Those groups hope to install the wetlands at the edge of that drainage

channel.

Gardner was quick to point out the diversions are only a short-term

fix to an endemic problem.

“It’s just putting [the pollution] in a different spot,” Gardner said.

“They’re not cheap, but they’re easy.”

* Paul Clinton covers the environment and John Wayne Airport. He may

be reached at (949) 764-4330 or by e-mail ato7

[email protected] .