DANA POINT : Surfers’ Plan Would Curb Spill Damage

Just days after one of the worst sewage spills in Orange County history fouled their home beach, members of a surfers’ group arrived at City Hall this week with an ambitious plan to clean up the mouth of San Juan Creek.

The Doheny Longboard Surfing Assn., a club that takes its name from the once spectacular but now infrequent surfing break at Doheny State Park, presented its San Juan Creek Estuary Restoration Project to the City Council Tuesday and won conceptual approval.

The plan calls for re-establishing the wetlands area at the creek mouth and installing two locks upstream that will regulate the flow of water and trap and treat sewage that spills into the creek.

San Juan Creek has been troubled in recent years by several sewage spills, the worst coming during a storm Jan. 19 when a Mission Viejo pipeline burst and dumped about 6 million gallons of sewage over three days into Oso Creek. Oso and Trabuco creeks are tributaries of San Juan Creek, which winds down from the Santa Ana Mountains before emptying out at Doheny Beach.

“We have come to the point where the pollution at the beach is unacceptable,” said Bill Barnes, director of the club’s blue water task force. Helping the club on the plans is the Surfrider Foundation, an international surfing association based in Southern California.

“We have always known the waters were polluted, so a couple of years ago we started testing to see how polluted it was and we were shocked,” Barnes said. “That’s when we started thinking about how we can stop this.”

Barnes estimates that the project would cost $3 million to $5 million for the area of the creek south of the Stonehill Drive bridge, and less than $3 million for the portion between Stonehill and San Juan Capistrano.

The project’s major funding could be the Port of Long Beach, which hopes to pay for wetlands restoration in a variety of Southern California coastal areas as a means of credit for the wetlands it might endanger in its own harbor expansion, Barnes said. Port officials have consulted with the club on the San Juan Creek plans, Barnes added.

Another added benefit of the project could be the regulation of the sand flow from the creek, Barnes said. San Juan Creek is considered a major source of sand for southern Orange County and San Diego County beaches.

San Juan Capistrano city officials have also given the club an unofficial endorsement.