Panel’s topic: watershed issues

-- Susan McCormack

“Watershed Issues on the Newport Coast” will be the topic of discussion

Nov. 30 for a panel of environmentalists and developers at the annual

Friends of the Irvine Coast meeting at the El Morro School in Laguna

Beach.

Carol Hoffman, vice president of the Irvine Co., and Gary Brown, member

of the Coastkeepers, a nonprofit organization dedicated to keeping nature

areas free of contamination, will participate on the panel.

Fern Pirkle, president of the group, said the panel discussion should be

lively.

“We’re at a place where the Irvine Co. thinks it’s come up with good

solutions to the problems [in the Crystal Cove] area, and let’s say

everyone isn’t happy,” Pirkle said, referring to an 800-home project the

Irvine Co. is constructing.

Last week, environmentalists alerted authorities that an Irvine Co.

contractor accidentally dumped 3,500 gallons of chlorinated water into

the pristine cove.

The event is free and open to the public. It will take place at 7:30 p.m.

at the school, on Pacific Coast Highway just north of the El Morro Mobile

Home Park. For information, call (949) 644-5998.