Board Hails Firms for Cut in Newport Bay Discharges

Voluntary efforts by the Irvine Co. and Orange County plant nurseries are reducing fertilizer discharges into Newport Bay, the Santa Ana regional office of the state Water Quality Control Board said Monday.

“We feel good progress is being made,” said Joanne Schneider, an environmental specialist at the Riverside office of the Water Quality Control Board.

“The discharge of nutrients (fertilizers) into the bay over the years has caused two kinds of algae to grow, and both are not desirable to the water quality. So last spring a task force was formed and started work on ways to reduce the discharge.”

Schneider said voluntary actions by major growers, including the Irvine Co., were among the suggestions of the task force, which is made up of several state and local agencies and citizen representatives.

A major part of the voluntary efforts was to reduce water flowing from the farmland into the bay.

The water quality board, in a prepared statement, praised the Irvine Co., Hines Wholesale Nurseries of Santa Ana, El Modeno Gardens Inc. of Irvine and Bordier’s Nursery Inc. of Santa Ana for their voluntary moves to reduce fertilizer drainage into the bay.

In its statement, the board said: “The Irvine Co. has converted 98% of its 5,578 acres of citrus and avocado orchards to drip irrigation, an efficient technology that results in no water runoff. . . .

“Total runoff from the Irvine Co. properties is expected to decrease 20% over the coming year as a result of continuing reduction efforts.”

Hines Wholesale Nurseries “has achieved a 10% reduction in water use and an 18% reduction in nitrogen use, compared to previous years,” the board said.

El Modeno Gardens is installing a computerized irrigation system that “is expected to increase irrigation efficiency and thereby reduce runoff,” according to the board’s statement.

Bordier’s Nursery “has constructed a water-recycling system” that resulted in a 45% reduction in water use on the nursery’s land in September, compared to the same month a year ago, the state board said.

Schneider said the moves by the nurseries and the Irvine Co. will result in water-quality improvement.

“It’s going to be very difficult to measure,” she said. “but over a period of time, we should see a better quality as far as water in the bay is concerned.”