Paul ClintonIn the early 1800s, the muddy...

Paul Clinton

In the early 1800s, the muddy Santa Ana River provided a dependable

water supply to early Native American civilizations to fish and grow

crops. Now, with its urbanized concrete channel, the river has become

a sore spot for water regulators, neighboring homeowners and city

leaders.

The river, long a focus for its polluted runoff, flood-control

limitations and lack of usable open space, is back in the news.

As regional water quality regulators renew their efforts to clean

up the river, Surf City leaders say they’ve already begun a battery

of measures to combat the flow of polluted runoff into the ocean.

“The city is clearly focusing on urban runoff,” Councilwoman

Debbie Cook said. “Compared to other cities, this one is very

progressive.”

Neighboring Newport Beach has also taken an active role in

combating polluted water flowing toward the beach. That city has

begun planning a project that would eliminate a bacterial-laden storm

drain that empties into the river’s mouth at Coast Highway.

In addition to the heightened attention on the river’s water

quality, a Santa Ana assemblyman has proposed a bill that would

establish a wild-lands conservancy for the river. The Army Corps of

Engineers is eyeing 2004 to remove sediment from the river bottom

near the Adams Bridge. Another federal flood-control project would

improve two drainage channels in the city.

Dubbed by Assemblyman Tom Harman as the “drain plug” of Orange

County, the Santa Ana River stretches some 100 miles from Big Bear

Lake south to the border of Huntington Beach and Newport Beach. It

meanders through three counties and, along the way, collects oils

from roadways, pesticides from lawns and bacteria from animal waste.

Harman has proposed a constitutional amendment that would generate

revenue to pay for urban-runoff projects.

URBAN RUNOFF AS POLLUTION SOURCE

The river is viewed as one of several contributors to surf zone

contamination that has closed beaches in Huntington and Newport .

“The Santa Ana River has always been identified as a source of our

beach problems,” said Ken Theisen, a senior environmental scientist

with the Santa Ana Regional Water Quality Control Board. “That is

definitely a significant source.”

Theisen, who oversees regulation of the river, said he estimates

that the river contributes about 50% of the bacteria to Huntington

State Beach, at Magnolia Street. The Orange County Health Care

Agency’s testing station in that area, dubbed 9 North, has registered

the most persistent bacteria problems, officials said.

Since a rash of shoreline bacteria outbreaks in 1999 closed Surf City beaches, Huntington Beach has been diverting urban runoff inside

its borders year round.

Polluted water from all over the Talbert-Lower Santa Ana River

Watershed -- an area that includes Huntington Beach and sections of

Costa Mesa, Newport Beach and Fountain Valley -- flows into a network

of channels and into the river. City and county officials then pump

the wastewater to two sewage treatment plants operated by the Orange

County Sanitation District.

Sanitation district officials accept about 2 million gallons of

runoff each day. The “upstream cities,” as they are known, have

provided little assistance in combating the runoff that soils beaches

along the coastline. Runoff from Garden Grove, Westminster, Fullerton

and other cities flows into the Talbert Watershed, officials said.

“There are some things that need to be done upstream to keep the

water from getting into the river in the first place,” said Robert

Ghirelli, the director of technical services.

Huntington Beach, in early 2002, hired consultant Camp, Dresser &

McKee to prepare twin plans for Surf City’s water quality and

drainage efforts. The city issued contracts for $230,000 to prepare

the water-quality plan and $360,000 for the drainage plan, said

Geraldine Lucas, principal environmental engineer.

By this summer, the firm has said, it will return to the city with

specific recommendations to handle urban runoff, as well as map out,

with a global positioning satellite, the 1,700 catch basins in the

city, Lucas said.

“The city has been pretty aggressive,” Lucas said. “We’re looking

to be innovative in our approach.”

To the south, Newport Beach has also taken up the cause to reduce

polluted runoff into the river. A concrete drain along Coast Highway

and Seashore Drive is dumping a “bacteria stew” into the river, said

Dave Kiff, the city’s assistant city manager.

Regulators have already placed two sections of the river, outside

of Orange County, on a federal list of Impaired Water Bodies, known

as the 303d List.

On the legislative front, Assemblyman Harman, in February,

introduced Assembly Constitutional Amendment 10, which would amend a

state law that requires two-thirds voter approval for any new fees or

taxes. Harman’s bill would add urban-runoff to the list of water fees

that could be imposed without a vote. The bill would generate

millions of dollars to fund projects that would add catch basins or

wetland filters along the river.

“It would allow for the local governments to supply that revenue,”

Harman said. “I think it’s needed.”

CORREA’S CONSERVANCY BILL

Harman’s Orange County colleague, Assemblyman Lou Correa (D-Santa

Ana) has proposed creating an umbrella agency similar to the Santa

Monica Mountains Conservancy as a way to set aside land for open

space and parks.

The bill has been embraced by Harman and Assemblyman Ken Maddox

(R-Costa Mesa), but drew the ire of the Board of Supervisors, who

said it would create regulatory roadblocks and cede too much local

control.

Supervisor Jim Silva, a former Huntington Beach councilman, has

said the bill is too vague.

Surf City, however, is solidly behind the bill, Cook said.

“We’ve been very supportive of that bill,” Cook said. “We’re

trying to work with the county to develop a conservancy.”

FLOOD CONTROL PROJECT PLANS

The river’s concrete basin and a network of interconnecting

channels have also been the focus of a decade-long flood-control

project. The Army Corps of Engineers, in 1992, began shoring up

levees and channels in the event of a catastrophic flood.

The Corps of Engineers wrapped up the $1.4-million project in

2000. The federal agency spent $424 million on the Orange County

section of the river, said Herb Nakasone, the county’s flood control

manager.

As a result of the project, many of the Surf City neighborhoods

along the river have been removed from a flood control plane.

The Federal Emergency Management Agency had placed the designation

on the area, requiring homeowners to pay as much has $800 for annual

flood insurance. Rep. Dana Rohrabacher has secured a string of grants

to pay for the work.

In late March, Rohrabacher submitted an additional request to

study widening the East Garden Grove Wintersburg Channel for the same

purpose. Rohrabacher asked for $300,000.

Next year, the Corps of Engineers had hoped to begin a river

dredging project to remove sediment from the river near the Adams

Bridge. That project has been stalled because of budget worries in

Washington, D.C., Nakasone said.

More than 10% of the channel has been lost because of the amount

of silt that has collected at the river bottom.

The dredging project would cut down the likelihood of the river

overflowing if Orange County has a catastrophic storm similar to the

ones that cut large swaths of destruction through neighborhoods in

1938 and 1969.

“I do believe that [the dredging] does provide a lot of piece of

mind,” Nakasone said. “A flood is like an earthquake. It’s not a

matter of whether it’s going to occur. It’s a question of when.”

* PAUL CLINTON is a reporter with Times Community News. He covers

City Hall. He may be reached at (949) 764-4330 or by e-mail at

[email protected].