Newport Beach holding out on sale of reservoir

Noaki Schwartz

NEWPORT BEACH -- The San Joaquin reservoir -- with its murky past of

being overrun by wormlike larvae and African clawed frogs -- might

finally have a clear future storing reclaimed water.

The idea is being promoted by the Irvine Ranch Water District, which

wants to buy out the other six owners of the reservoir. So far, almost

all the water districts -- Huntington, Mesa Consolidated, South Coast,

Laguna Beach County and Metropolitan -- have agreed to sell their share

and move forward with the new plans.

“We’re the one holdout,” said Dave Kiff, deputy city manager.

The city owns 1.2% of the reservoir. Kiff said the City Council members

have said they will not sell unless water district officials agree to try

to avoid discharge from the reservoir into the bay.

Although the treated waste water is “pretty clean” Kiff said, the city

wants to limit the times that the reservoir can discharge into the

environmentally sensitive waters. This week he plans to list what

situations would be acceptable.

Examples, Kiff said, would be during a heavy El Nino year or if there

were an earthquake and the dam cracked, forcing a drain of the reservoir.

But local environmentalists are cautious about this proposal.

“I would hope the city would stick to their guns requiring IRWD to build

a sewage outfall,” said Bob Caustin of Defend the Bay.

Caustin said that this would require a pipeline to handle the overflow

into the Santa Ana River or the Orange County Sanitation District. If

not, Caustin said, he plans to protest.

And this would add another facet to the already-turbulent history behind

the empty 1 billion-gallon reservoir. From 1985 to the early 1990s, it

was host to bugs and small animals that had to be scooped out regularly,

much to the chagrin of residents that drank the water. During that time,

the reservoir that supplied water to 400,000 residents from Dana Point to

Huntington Beach was closed 22 times because of contamination.

The Metropolitan Water District, which operated the reservoir, eventually

decided to put a floating cover on the 55-acre drinking supply. But

though water officials hailed this as the perfect solution, residents

surrounding the reservoir were furious and formed groups protesting the

gray plastic cover.

It was not the residents but the overwhelming cost that killed the idea.

Although officials estimated it would only cost $18.2 million,

complications pushed the final price up to $34 million.

“And that’s when they said it wasn’t cost-effective anymore,” said Mike

Hoolihan, a senior engineer for the Irvine Ranch Water District.

Since then, Irvine Ranch began studying the nearly 50-year-old drained

reservoir and decided that it might be more useful as reclaimed water

storage. Officials began approaching the various owners and, apart from

Newport Beach, got the agreement they sought.

Irvine Ranch officials said they are hoping to hear from Newport Beach

soon so they can move forward with their plans.