Controversial Top of the World Reservoir Completed

Capping a controversy that has been simmering for years, water district officials have finished building a giant new reservoir at one of this city’s highest points.

Perched on 3.5 acres more than 1,000 feet above sea level, the Top of the World reservoir will supply about 3 million gallons of water for use in such emergencies as earthquakes and fires, like the one that swept Laguna in 1993.

“We’re very happy about it,” said Jim Nestor, a spokesman for the Laguna Beach County Water District, which advocated the reservoir since 1990. “It’s been an uphill battle.”

It was the 1993 wildfire, which damaged or destroyed 441 homes, that finally cleared the way for completion of the project. It had been bitterly opposed by environmentalists and some city officials.

Critics said the reservoir was to be built on land owned by the city that had been set aside for open space.

“We don’t think that wilderness areas are places for urban infrastructure,” said Elisabeth Brown, a biologist with Laguna Greenbelt, an environmental organization that did not oppose the reservoir, but objected to its proposed location.

Then came the wildfire. Fire officials said afterward that some homes might have been saved had firefighters had access to the extra reservoir, particularly in some canyon areas that ran out of water during the blaze.

The controversy became so pitched that angry residents demanded the resignation of then-Mayor Lida Lenney and two other City Council members who had opposed the project.

“I think it’s fantastic,” Wayne Peterson, the city’s current mayor, said of the new reservoir. “We had a very hard time getting it approved.”

Even former critics of the project seem to have put the issue behind them.

“We feel it’s great,” said Gene Felder, president of the Top of the World Neighborhood Assn. which, he said, had never questioned the city’s need for a new reservoir but wanted to see it built at a different location. “This is a battle that the environmentalists lost and we consider it over and done with.”

Water officials have also agreed to bury the reservoir under about 45,000 cubic yards of dirt, which will then be contoured to match the surrounding area and landscaped with native vegetation.

“In three years you won’t know that the reservoir is there,” said Nestor, adding that the area will eventually be returned to the city for use as open space.

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Water Ready

Laguna Beach’s once-controversial new reservoir, built underground in its highest- elevation neighborhood, gives the city more general- use water as well as additional insurance against another catastrophic fire.

Reservoir Log

Elevation: 1,002 feet

Height: 20 feet

Diameter: 160 feet

Capacity: 3 million galloiion llons

Cost: $4 million

Time to build: One year

Reservoir will hold 3 million gallons Source: Laguna Beach County Water District