NEWPORT BEACH : Water Release Plan Will Be Studied More

The Irvine Ranch Water District Board has voted to do more environmental study on possible effects of a plan to release partially treated waste water into duck ponds near the city’s border with Irvine.

Under the plan, the water would move from the ponds into the San Diego Creek, where it would ultimately flow into Upper Newport Bay.

The City Council in October wrote a letter requesting additional study before the water district seeks approval for the plan from the California Regional Water Quality Control Board.

As originally planned, water drained into the bay could increase the nitrates there by 1,000 pounds a day--an estimated 27% increase, according to district consultants working on the proposed Wetlands Demonstration Project.

The district asked for permission to run a projected 15 million gallons of water a day through three duck ponds abandoned by two shooting clubs in 1988 to filter out some of the nitrates, then pump the water into San Diego Creek.

While the plan would not pose a threat to people, Newport Beach environmentalists said they fear the increased nitrates would worsen the Back Bay algae blooms they have worked to reduce over the past 10 years.

In 1986, algae blooms were so thick that the water was depleted of oxygen, causing massive fish deaths.

Joanne Schneider, environmental program manager for the water quality board, earlier told Newport Beach officials her agency was unlikely to approve the plan without a detailed environmental study about the plan’s effects on the bay.