$5,000 Penalty Urged for Spill That Fouled Bay

In the latest move to crack down on pollution in Newport Bay, state authorities are asking a Chinese restaurant to pay a $5,000 fine for a spill that fouled a part of the harbor with streams of grease.

The China Palace Restaurant at 2800 West Coast Highway is the third Newport Beach restaurant to be caught polluting the beleaguered bay in the past 1 1/2 years.

For years, the popular harbor has suffered from a continuous buildup of bacteria from spilled sewage and chemicals from urban runoff. The pollutants endanger marine life and have rendered the bay unsafe for swimming.

On March 2, Newport Beach Police Officer John Ludvigson saw a stream of oily globs and traced it to a clogged grease trap at the China Palace. He said restaurant workers were pouring Tide detergent on the grease in the parking lot and washing it into storm drains, which flow into the harbor.

“It was quite a mess,” said Ludvigson, the city’s environmental-crimes officer, who spotted the spill while entering the restaurant for lunch. “There was a strong smell of grease as you got within 50 yards of the place. It was like the smell you get sometimes when you walk behind a restaurant that serves a lot of greasy food. But even the bay smelled like that.”

The Santa Ana region of the California Regional Water Quality Control Board has filed a civil administrative complaint against the restaurant, owned by Jack Mau, and has proposed a $5,000 fine. The maximum allowable penalty under state water-pollution laws is $10,000.

The board, which is responsible for enforcing the pollution laws, will hold a hearing Friday before imposing the final penalty, although board officials said it is expected to remain at $5,000.

Also, the Coast Guard plans to fine the China Palace up to $10,000 because the oily substance and soap violated the federal Clean Water Act, Coast Guard Lt. (j.g.) Donna Davis said Friday.

Mau was unavailable for comment Friday despite messages left at his home and business.

However, Mau told authorities that he thought the spill was a minor accident involving small quantities of grease that caused no damage and claimed that the proposed fine was excessive, water board and police records show. Mau, who was at the restaurant during the spill, directed his employees to wash it into the street and admitted to authorities that his restaurant was responsible, records indicate.

Authorities had to use three snake-like, 50-foot plastic booms to contain the oily, soapy substance in the harbor. About 3,500 gallons of contaminated water were removed from the bay during the four-hour cleanup, according to police and water board records.

Witnesses said the March spill wasn’t the first at the 3-year-old China Palace. Police interviews with neighboring businesses indicated that grease spills occurred at the restaurant several times during the past year.

Water-quality officials said the March spill was a serious offense caused by negligence.

“It covered about 5,000 square feet of the bay,” said Bruce Paine, an associate engineer with the water board. “You could see the milky discoloration from the detergent, plus the big particles of grease. It looked pretty bad and it smelled really bad.”

Apparently, no marine life was harmed. Paine said the grease posed more of a nuisance to bay area residents than an environmental threat because it was gobbled up by fish. The detergent, however, caused algae to build up, increasing the bay’s existing odor problem, he added.

Ludvigson said the restaurant owner should have cleaned out the grease trap regularly to prevent spills. The waste might have contained some sewage, which can harbor disease-carrying bacteria, because sewer lines serving the restaurant backed up at the same time, he said.

The bay’s most serious pollution case came in early 1989 when the Reuben E. Lee Restaurant was caught operating a plumbing system that pumped human waste directly into the water.

The popular restaurant, which is a fake steamship anchored in the harbor, apparently had been using the illegal overflow-sewage system since it opened more than 25 years ago. The company paid $40,000 in fines. Corporate officials for the restaurant said they didn’t realize the overflow system existed until a police officer acting on a tip found it.

Also, the Warehouse Restaurant paid a $5,000 fine to the water-quality agency last fall for allowing raw sewage to flow into the streets of Lido Village and the bay for 2 1/2 hours while customers were allowed to keep using the toilets. The restaurant’s operations manager said the spill was an accident and that he didn’t realize the sewage that employees washed into the storm drains ultimately flowed into the bay.

Bacteria in the bay is so chronic and severe that county health officials advise people to stay out of the water. The bacteria can cause gastrointestinal illness.

One of the largest sources of the bay’s bacteria is from boat owners who illegally dump their sewage holding tanks into the water, Paine said. Another major source is urban runoff--when pesticides, fertilizers and other chemicals flow into the water from household yards and businesses.

NEWPORT BAY POLLUTION FINES

The following companies have walked the plank for dumping into Newport Bay: Establishment, City: China Palace Restaurant, Newport Beach Date: May, 1990 Offense: Grease trap overflow (possible sewage also) Fine: $5,000 (Proposed) Establishment, City: Warehouse Restaurant, Newport Beach Date: Aug., 1989 Offense: Raw sewage spill Fine: $ 5,000 Establishment, City: Grace Restaurant Co., dba Reuben E. Lee Restaurant, Newport Beach Date: Oct., 1988 Offense: Dumping raw sewage Fine:$ 40,000 Establishment, City: ITT Cannon, Santa Ana Date: May, 1988 Offense: Industrial waste discharge Fine: $ 40,000 Establishment, City: Junior Lee Edwards, Newport Beach dba Newport Plating Date: Feb., 1988 Offense: Industrial waste (discharge caught before it reached bay) Fine: $ 5,000 Establishment, City: Container Corp. of America, Irvine Date: Sept., 1986 Offense: Industrial waste discharge Fine: $ 1,500

Source: Calif. Regional Water Quality Control Board, Santa Ana Region

Researched by Dallas M. Jackson / Los Angeles Times