Call Goes Up For Solution to Aliso Spills : Pollution: Laguna council members, tired of sewage problems that have closed the beach at times, ask for hearings.

Fed up with frequent sewage spills going into Aliso Creek and then polluting the ocean, three Laguna Beach City Council members have called for public hearings before a regional water board to find a solution.

“My concern is with the ocean water quality,” Councilman Wayne L. Peterson said. “I do not think the agency in charge is being run in a pro-active manner for environmental concerns, and that’s a strange statement coming from me, a businessman.”

The agency Peterson criticized is the Aliso Water Management Agency, an umbrella for seven waste and water districts, serving mostly south Orange County, that all use Aliso Creek for drainage.

Last week, Peterson joined Laguna Beach Mayor Ann Christoph and Mayor Pro Tem Kathleen Blackburn to voice their complaints at a summit meeting for those districts, which cover Laguna Niguel, Lake Forest, Laguna Hills, Mission Viejo, part of Irvine, Laguna Beach, and unincorporated south Orange County areas.

“Our constituents are very concerned about this,” Blackburn said. “We’re concerned about the high number of people using the system and the fact that we’re the downstream recipients of this.”

Peterson said the problems include ocean pollution at the mouth of Aliso Creek, a Laguna Niguel regional waste facility in need of drainage alternatives, the need for more water recycling projects, and increasing the public’s awareness to lessen urban runoff that goes from neighborhood storm drains to the ocean.

“The people living south of Aliso Creek and the people who put on their bathing suits and go there have complained of pulling brown globs off their legs,” Peterson said. “Can you imagine?”

Interest in safeguarding Aliso Creek from sewage is high; two months ago, Laguna Beach residents voted to increase their sewer fees to help upgrade the city’s outdated sewer system. Blackburn also noted a 1992 citywide poll in which nine out of 10 residents surveyed reported ocean water quality--and not crime--as their top priority.

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Bill Becker, general manager for the seven-member, Aliso Water Management Agency (AWMA), said he agreed with some of Peterson’s argument.

“AWMA needs to have its members come together and understand the technical reports that have been prepared and submitted to the members,” Becker said. “Everybody needs to agree on what their future needs are and what our current situation is to plan for agreements to accommodate the future.”

But Becker said AWMA already has proposals to improve the system, and he disagreed with Peterson’s call for greater public scrutiny of AWMA’s decisions.

“Our meetings are already open to the public,” Becker said.

The three council members asked the AWMA to hold public study sessions and said they intend to ask the influential San Diego Regional Water Quality Control Board, which also has jurisdiction for waste treatment facilities, to play a role in stopping the sewage spills into the creek.

The complaints come in the wake of the latest spill June 20, when a one-mile stretch of Aliso Beach had to be closed after 16,000 gallons of partially treated sewage spilled into the creek and flowed to the ocean.

Water district officials say part of the problem is topography. Aliso Creek serves as part of a vast drainage basin from the river mouth in Laguna Beach, inland through cities and communities of Aliso Viejo, Leisure World, Laguna Hills, Mission Viejo, Lake Forest, Leisure World, incorporated areas of Orange County, and Portola Hills in northeast Orange County.

The creek meanders 12 miles, starting at Trabuco Canyon and dumping into the sea in south Laguna Beach about 100 yards north of the Aliso Pier.

“In addition, there are four sewage treatment facilities along the creek,” said Mike Dunbar, South Coast Water District general manager, the agency with jurisdiction at the creek’s mouth.

During winter rains, Dunbar said, the creek carries urban runoff and untreated waste such as fertilizers and pesticides.

But in recent years, spills have become chronic. Local residents have complained about odors, mysterious hissing and bubbling noises coming from creek water, and illnesses such as hacking coughs, skin and rash infections, and hepatitis.

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“I go there a lot,” said skim boarder Charles (Tex) Haines, 41, of Laguna Beach. “I like it because you can park quickly and check out the surf easily. But sometimes, the water there is pretty ugly, like dark brown. And, it smells like you know what and your instinct is that something died right around here.”

Haines, who has a degree in biology from Stanford University, helped found the Laguna Beach chapter of Surfrider Foundation. When conditions are especially bad, Haines said, “I have a hard time believing the people who are in charge are doing their job.”

Surfrider, Haines said, would like to see the creek’s lagoon pumped out by the local waste treatment facility when it reaches excess capacity. He said residents successfully lobbied for a similar plan in the Northern California city of Santa Cruz.

Dunbar acknowledged that ocean water quality at the lagoon “is of poor quality.”

“The Surfriders are right,” Dunbar said, “maybe we need to double our efforts and we’re looking at that right now. Our goal is to have no more spills this year.”

Dunbar added: “Hopefully the public has a mind-set now and is willing to spend money on projects, and draw the issue to greater scrutiny.”