Newport Water, Users Squirming

Drawing a bath or filling a glass at the kitchen sink has become an adventure for thousands of residents here.

Besides water, tiny green wormlike larvae have been flowing from some taps in recent weeks--an unsavory sight that has spurred complaints and boosted sales of bottled water in this tony town by the sea.

County health officials say the half-inch-long insects pose no apparent health hazard, even if accidentally ingested.

“Aesthetically, though, I don’t blame people for being upset,” said Robert E. Merryman, director of Orange County’s Environmental Health Division. “Fly larvae in one’s drinking water is unacceptable.”

Newport Beach utility officials agree, but so far have been unable to eradicate the threadlike pest at the source, Big Canyon Reservoir. A few weeks ago, the bugs--harmless larvae of the common midge fly--began showing up sporadically in some sinks, toilets and bathtubs in the city.

“In any given cup of water you could get none or one or five,” said Robert J. Dixon, the city’s utilities director. “Chances are remote any will come out, but it can happen.”

Just ask David Malone, an 18-year-old student who was at home two weeks ago filling a glass through a refrigerator water dispenser when he spotted “a green curly thing floating around.”

“I took one look at it, tossed the water out and called the city,” said Malone, who lives with his mother in the 100 block of Scholz Plaza, near Hoag Hospital in Newport Beach. “We switched to bottled water right away.”

City officials are puzzled by the larvae infestation, especially at this time of year. Midges, the troublesome little flies that clog the air by the millions every spring and summer, surface around open reservoirs, lakes, streams or ponds, where they hatch in the warm sun.

But by early fall, as temperatures cool and the rains return, the flies--and larvae--usually dissipate as the bugs’ sexual appetite wanes, resulting in fewer eggs being deposited in the nutrient-rich algae that grows on reservoir bottoms or in creek beds.

“An occasional larvae sighting is not uncommon, especially in midsummer during the peak breeding season,” Dixon said. “Usually it lasts a week or two, at most. But this is going on several weeks.”

And what started with a few phone calls from bugged residents is now attracting widespread attention. Dixon spent most of Wednesday showing reporters and TV camera crews samples of live larvae at the Big Canyon Reservoir.

“We just want people to know what to look for, and realize there is nothing to worry about,” Dixon said. “I just wish I knew when this was going to end.”

Water supplied to about two-thirds of Newport Beach’s 70,000 residents, including those living in Corona del Mar, Balboa Island, the Peninsula, East Bluff, West Newport and the Hoag Hospital area, comes from Big Canyon Reservoir, a 23-acre, open-air basin owned and managed by the city. The asphalt-lined reservoir can hold up to 600 acre-feet--enough water for the entire city for six days.

City officials have received nearly two dozen complaints, but none from Hoag Hospital, spokeswoman Pam Bolin said. Patients there routinely get bottled water, partially as a result of a similar infestation traced to the Big Canyon Reservoir in 1981 when larvae were found in hospital’s drinking water.

Although the hospital has had no problems, Bolin wasn’t so sure about her Promontory Point home, so she performed her own tap test when she got home one night earlier this week.

“First thing I did was fill a glass,” Bolin said. “Thank goodness, there was nothing in it. The thought makes me uneasy.”

That sentiment was shared by managers of the 1,300-unit Park Newport Apartments, a upscale, gated complex not far from Fashion Island. The managers sent out a notice to their 2,000 residents notifying them of the problem and informing them there was ample bottled water at the complex.

The problem has proved profitable for those who sell bottled water.

“I’ve had about 10 people come in and buy that expensive French water today,” said Mitch Carr, a convenience store manager near the Newport Pier. “They tell me there are worms in the local water. I don’t care if there are grasshoppers as long as they keep buying that stuff.”

Utility officials have battled the midge with chemical treatment of the reservoir, but so far that has had little effect, Dixon said. Chlorine and copper sulfates are used year-round to kill the algae on the reservoir bottom and slopes where the midge eggs hatch. But even increasing the chemical dosage has failed to curb the problem, Dixon said. Several industrial-size “bug zappers,” similar to the fluorescent lights on patios that attract and electrocute bugs, have been installed around the perimeter of the reservoir.

One solution would be to drain the reservoir and scrub away the algae, said Peter Antista, the city’s water quality control supervisor.

“But that means dumping $750,000 worth of water, and leaving the city vulnerable in the event of an emergency, like an earthquake,” Dixon said.

The long-term solution, Dixon said, is putting a vinyl cover over the reservoir to halt the algae growth, which would virtually eliminate the midge population. But that would cost up to $3 million, and Dixon said the city should wait until the Metropolitan Water District decides whether to cap the nearby San Joaquin Reservoir. Water from the San Joaquin Reservoir is used to refill the city’s Big Canyon facility.

“It doesn’t make sense to cover ours and then accept water from an open-air reservoir that may have larvae,” Dixon said. What’s more, he added, residents overlooking the San Joaquin basin have opposed MWD’s plans to cap it, contending it would spoil their views.

Neither the San Joaquin Reservoir or several other reservoirs in the county are experiencing a midge infestation similar to the one in Newport, officials said.

MIDGES AT A GLANCE

RUSS ARASMITH /Los Angeles Times

Larva Adult

MIDGES (Chironomidae)

Where: Midges are flies common worldwide.

Life span: 48 hours or less.

Reproduction: Prolific rate.

Eggs: Eggs are buried by females in the nutrient-rich algae that lines open bodies of fresh water--reservoirs, lakes, streams and ponds.

Appearance: The threadlike midge larvae is usually green but can be dark, almost brown. Often mistaken for a worm. Under a microscope they even look like a tiny shrimp or lobster. They are about a quarter- to a half-inch long.

Habits: Once airborne, they travel in swarms. In some parts of the world the swarms are so large that from a distance they appear as a low cloud or ground fog, at times blocking the sun. Most prevalent in the late spring and summer, when temperatures are highest and days longest. Adult midges are often confused with small mosquitoes. The hearty insect is resistant to many pesticides. Midges are not disease carriers and pose no health hazard, even if ingested.

Source: Newport Beach Utilities Department