Creeks close to getting protection

Paul Clinton

Environmentalists are cheering the State Water Board’s recommendation

that three local drainage channels get federal Clean Water Act

protection.

State water board members included Buck Gully Creek, Los Trancos

Creek and a 24-mile section of the Santa Ana River, which has been

identified as a transport for bovine urine from inland dairies to

coastal Orange County, on a list of impaired areas.

The Environmental Protection Agency now is considering whether to

add them to its Impaired Water Bodies, or 303d, list. Congress

created the 303d list, part of the Clean Water Act of 1972, as a way

to mandate cleanup of dirty streams, lakes watersheds and any other

areas that are used for recreational purposes.

Orange County CoastKeeper led the charge to list the two creeks,

which are both located in Newport Coast. The 0.3-mile Buck Gully

drains to the beach in Corona del Mar and the 0.19-mile Los Trancos

drains onto the beach at Crystal Cove State Park. They are known to

deliver bacteria to those beaches.

“[Listing the creeks] is the first step toward cleaning them up,”

said Garry Brown, CoastKeeper’s executive director. “They’re watched

more closely. They’re monitored more closely.”

For about two years leading up to the state’s Feb. 4 decision to

include the creeks, Brown submitted bundles of photos, more than 200

water samples and other documentation on the two creeks. The group

actively worked to improve water quality at those locations between

1997 and 2001.

Newport Coast homeowners, joined by Irvine Ranch Water District

director Peer Swan, opposed the listing because it could lead to

increased enforcement and a potential homeowner-funded mandate to

clean it up.

Much of the pollution is caused by urban runoff, which is caused

when lawn pesticides, copper brake residue and other pollution is

washed into the channel, environmentalists say.

Also included among the state’s recommendations was a section of

the Santa Ana River that came under increased scrutiny in 2002 when

Defend the Bay founder Bob Caustin, a local environmentalist,

announced a settlement with a group of Chino Valley dairies that he

said were polluting the waterway.

Caustin also spent months investigating the issue and collecting a

bevy of data about the problem.

“It was great news,” Caustin said about the listing. “It gives us

a tie to litigate and force the responsible parties upstream to do

what is right,” Caustin said. “They can no longer deny that it’s a

serious problem.”

Cow waste that enters the Santa Ana River contains viruses that

are moved down the line toward Orange County, Caustin said.

Caustin won a landmark lawsuit against the EPA in the mid-1990s

that forced the agency to set pollutant mandates for Upper Newport

Bay; San Diego Creek, which drains into the bay; and Newport Harbor.

There is no date scheduled for when the EPA will announce the

final protected list.

* PAUL CLINTON covers the environment, business and politics. He

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

[email protected].