County pushing for creek clearing

Alicia Robinson

To avert a flood that could cause a sewage spill into the Upper

Newport Bay, county officials want to begin removing plants and

sediment from San Diego Creek above MacArthur Boulevard as early as

Wednesday.

Local environmentalists say they’re concerned about the animals

that travel the waterway and they want to see some other area within

the watershed improved to replace the lost habitat.

On Tuesday, the Orange County Board of Supervisors will address a

request from the Public Facilities and Resources Department to

declare an emergency so that the clearing of vegetation from a

2.5-mile segment of the creek can begin immediately.

“I think the big risk is that in a moderate to heavy rain, that we

could be having severe environmental damage in Upper Newport Bay,”

said Ken Smith, the county’s director of public works.

A severe flood could overwhelm the Irvine Ranch Water District’s

Michelson Water Reclamation Plant with 10 feet of floodwater,

shutting down pumps and sending as much as 4 million gallons a day of

raw sewage into the bay, Smith said.

“That is the big difference between that and, say, some other

flooding problem that would be a threat,” he said.

The $3.3-million project will take about three months and will

restore the creek to full flood capacity. The 10-mile creek is the

main tributary in the San Diego Creek watershed and has been reduced

to 54% of its design capacity by overgrowth, according to information

from the county.

The plan is to remove trees and plants in the 2.5-mile stretch of

the creek between Michelson Drive and MacArthur Boulevard. A 40-foot

buffer of vegetation on the east bank will be thinned in places.

After county engineering studies in August uncovered the threat of

flooding, the Irvine Ranch Water District immediately explored the

effects of flooding on its treatment plant.

Although weather experts are predicting a normal to dry year, the

project is urgent because public health will remain at risk, as will

some area businesses and residences, if the creek’s capacity isn’t

restored, Smith said.

Newport Beach officials support the idea.

“I think it’s important to do the work quickly,” said Dave Kiff,

Newport Beach assistant city manager.

He added that he thinks the county will address his concerns,

which include that no more vegetation is removed than is necessary

and that a plan is created to replace lost habitat.

Environmentalist Jack Skinner was also worried about the effects

of reducing the riparian, or stream-side, corridor.

“The preservation of these animal species would be lost if you

didn’t have the adequate ability for animal movements in these

corridors,” Skinner said.

Other environmentalists are taking an even harder stance against

the idea.

Activist Jan Vandersloot said he thinks the county is using the

threat of a sewage spill to rush the project through as an emergency

instead of going through the usual process of evaluation by the

public and various government agencies.

“What really concerns me is that they’re getting around the normal

regulatory process,” he said. “I think the threat of raw sewage going

into the bay is just a red herring that they’re using to scare

people.”

He agrees with Skinner that some sort of work should be done to

replace the riparian habitat that the project will remove.

Instead of funding this project, Vandersloot said, “they ought to

be spending a million or so to fix the water reclamation plant so

they can divert the sewage if there’s a flood.”

About 70% of the wastewater coming into the plant can be diverted

to the Orange County Sanitation District if necessary, but the

remainder could overflow during a flood because the plant’s pumps

might not work.

County staff members note that if the work is not done under an

emergency declaration, obtaining permits could take three to four

years, but the county might have chosen to act quickly for another

reason: to ward off the possibility of litigation.

Smith said there wasn’t any threat of litigation, but the Nov. 24

meeting agenda for the Irvine Ranch Water District Board of Directors

lists a closed session to discuss “significant exposure to

litigation” concerning San Diego Creek and flood risk to the

Michelson Water Reclamation Plant.

Marilyn Smith, Irvine Ranch Water District spokeswoman, said that

she didn’t know if any litigation was proposed but that the board did

discuss it.

“Our board of directors’ main responsibility is protecting public

health, so there’s always that potential,” she said. “Our board

discussed all options, but it doesn’t look like we’re going to go in

that direction.”

Ken Smith said any mitigation will have to be negotiated with the

involved government agencies, such as the U.S. Army Corps of

Engineers and the state Department of Fish and Game.

* ALICIA ROBINSON covers business, politics and the environment.

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

[email protected].