Roadwork to lead to cleaner water

Alicia Robinson

A temporary inconvenience to drivers on Coast Highway by Crystal Cove

State Park is expected to result in long-term benefits to the

environment.

Caltrans has narrowed Coast Highway by one lane between Los

Trancos and Muddy creeks to construct swales that will filter storm

water before it is discharged into drainage facilities, Caltrans

spokeswoman Pam Gorniak said.

The $1.8-million project began in September and will be finished

in February 2005. The swales are shallow, trough-like depressions

planted with a mixture of types of vegetation that will act as a

natural filter for highway runoff, which will then flow to the

creeks, Gorniak said.

“This was a better approach to ensuring that the highway runoff

doesn’t go into [Crystal Cove] itself but it goes into a discharge

system,” she said.

The project stems from a 2000 cease and desist order from the

Santa Ana Regional Water Quality Control Board. That year, water

quality watchdog group Orange County CoastKeeper sued the Irvine Co.

over runoff from a housing development into Crystal Cove, and that

suit led the regional water board to order the Irvine Co., the state

parks department and Caltrans to control runoff in the area, said

CoastKeeper Executive Director Garry Brown.

“Our initial issue was that the area of water in front of Crystal

Cove is designated as an area of special biological significance --

it means that it’s a very special protected water,” Brown said. “The

law stipulates you cannot discharge anything in or near [protected

waters] that would degrade the water quality Everything was just

draining all the storm water into that [area].”

The state parks department and the Irvine Co. already have

complied with the order to stop discharging untreated runoff.

Caltrans appealed to the State Regional Water Quality Control Board,

which upheld the regional water board’s order, Brown said. The Coast

Highway swale project is Caltrans’ response to the order.

Brown said he’s glad to see the work get underway, although it

took four years to get started.

“Finally in 2004 it’s getting done,” he said. “I’m just glad I

wasn’t holding my breath.”

* ALICIA ROBINSON covers business, politics and the environment.

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

[email protected].