Water Agency Fined After Treated Sewage Enters Marsh

Irvine Ranch Water District has agreed to pay $45,000 to settle a complaint that it illegally dumped treated waste water into San Joaquin Freshwater Marsh, a tributary to San Diego Creek and Newport Bay, officials said this week.

The fine was assessed by the California Regional Water Quality Control Board after state and water district officials met Tuesday, said Joanne E. Schneider, the state board’s environmental program manager.

The maximum fine for such a violation could have been more than $2.6 million. However, the state board’s executive officer, Gerard J. Thibeault, used the amount specified in the complaint, which was $50,000, to determine what penalty to levy.

“It was a steep fine, nevertheless,” said Ron Young, the water district’s general manager. “We have learned a valuable lesson in the operation of our facilities.”

Regional board engineers estimated that about 1.4 million gallons of highly treated sewage water, commonly called reclaimed water, were released into the marsh during three days late last October. A rupture in a 50-year-old pipe was the cause of the leak, district officials said.

The marsh, near the Irvine-Newport Beach city line, is home to plants that support a variety of wildlife including state and federally listed endangered species.

UC Irvine biologist Bill Bretz, manager of the freshwater marsh reserve, has told the board that the discharge of reclaimed water has caused significant changes to plant and animal life within affected areas of the marsh.

Irvine Ranch Water District biologists say Bretz’s conclusions are premature, however, and that effects on the marsh’s ecosystem have not been determined.

State officials said Wednesday that water district representatives have taken action to correct any problems and that the leak was repaired shortly after Bretz discovered it.

The penalty comes at a crucial time for the water district, which is awaiting a March 8 decision by the state water quality board on a controversial plan that has prompted an outcry from Newport Beach residents.

The water district’s plan, called the Wetlands Water Supply Project, would entail emptying 5 million gallons of reclaimed water--typically used for irrigation at parks--into the bay daily during nonsummer months for a trial period of two years.

Critics have said that the project would not benefit the bay and that freshwater may increase the level of algae. Last fall, the City Council vehemently opposed the project, threatening to take legal action if it were approved.

Regardless, district officials maintain that the project is sound and say they are optimistic that the proposal will be approved. The project includes a wintertime water diversion project that would filter San Diego Creek water before it goes into the bay. At the same time, it would save Irvine city water users close to $20 million within 10 years.

State water quality officials have said that the type of water the district is proposing to discharge into the bay is of higher quality than that coming from San Diego Creek.