This headline could be misleading

MIKE WHITEHEAD

Ahoy.

Now, I normally do not poke fun at the headlines in this

newspaper, but I cannot help myself this week with some tempting

stories involving Newport Harbor and water quality. The reporter did

a good job writing these stories; I am just poking fun at the

headlines. Oh, the irony.

Breaking news was the closure of the beaches along Mariner’s Mile

from the Harbor Marina that is located by the Newport Boulevard

Bridge at Coast Highway to Riverside Drive. The April 7 article is

titled “Stretch of sand closes after spill” where a sewer pipe

spilled 2,000 to 3,000 gallons of you-can-guess-what into the bay via

the storm drains. This headline caught my eye because there are not

any sand beaches in this stretch of the harbor where the city is

studying the feasibility of building a harbor-side walkway.

At first read, the headline leads one to believe that a section of

the ocean front beaches are closed, versus in the harbor where boat

docks reside. The only swimmers that I know in this section will be

the divers who clean and work on the boats. At least this spill was

not blamed on the boaters, but once again to urban runoff pollution

or urban runoff sewage as the primary culprit for our harbor’s

closures. Also, you can read this posting and all the closure

postings on Orange County Health Care Agency’s website at

https://www.oc.ca.gov/hca/ regulatory/ocean/beach. htm.

How about the April 6 headline that reads “Urban runoff source of

contamination” from a recent UCI study. I wonder if the researchers

have ever attended a Newport Beach Coastal/Bay Water Quality Citizens

Advisory Committee meeting where this is discussed in detail. At

least this report continues to try and identify what’s in the water

that’s making swimmers sick along the coastal beaches, but this is a

perfect introduction to the next headline.

“Some fish in Newport Bay contaminated” is from an Orange County

Health Care Agency’s recent study. They’re kidding, right, only some

fish? Why, we have the Rhine channel, which is a toxic superfund

site, storm drains emptying into the bay, and the old days of what is

dumped below the waterline is gone for good. However, the interesting

section in the report is that no official advisory has been issued

against eating fish caught in the harbor, but an advisory was issued

for eating the corbina when caught outside the harbor at the Newport

Pier. So, I theorize from the advisory that the harbor is cleaner

than the ocean. Nice to hear, as I think the harbor is cleaner than

decades ago.

The last headline, “Groups demand pollution reduction,” in a

reaction to the report of the contaminated fish. Environmental groups

are demanding that the Santa Ana Regional Water Quality Control Board

reduce pollutants in San Diego Creek and Newport Harbor. I agree with

the groups, but I have never read where the groups said all is well

so you can increase pollution.

TALK OF THE WEEK

Talk of the town is that I am the guest speaker for Wednesday’s

Speak Up Newport meeting. How valuable is Newport Harbor and boating

to us and across the nation? Stop and think who you know that is

employed in the marine industry and those businesses that generate

revenue from boating. That will be the major topic of my talk, but we

will have some fun too. Both boat shows this month in Newport have

nearly sold out of vendor space, and what an economic boost to our

local economy.

I expect to see you at the Speak Up Newport meeting at 6 p.m.

April 14 at the Newport Beach Yacht Club on Bayside Drive next to the

Balboa Island Bridge.

Tune in to my “Boathouse Radio Show” this and every Sunday from 4

to 5 p.m. on KCBQ-AM (1170), or listen over the Internet at

https://www.boat houseradio.com.

You can call in to the toll-free listener line at (888) 344-1170

and join in on Southern California’s only boating talk radio show,

broadcasting along the coast from San Diego to Oxnard and out to

Santa Catalina Island.

Safe voyages.

* MIKE WHITEHEAD is the Pilot’s boating and harbor columnist. Send

him e-mail to [email protected] or visit

https://www.boathousetv.com.