Reservoir’s Future Is Clearer

The problem-plagued San Joaquin Reservoir--infamous for past infestations of midge fly larvae and African clawed frogs--could be resurrected as an open-air storage basin for reclaimed water under an agreement being worked out by regional water districts.

The plan, approved Tuesday by the Metropolitan Water District’s board of directors, calls for the Irvine Ranch Water District to repair the empty reservoir atop Newport Beach’s Spyglass Hill to feed its public irrigation system.

The Irvine district hopes to begin the environmental review for restoring the reservoir early next year, said Gregory Heiertz, district director of engineering and planning.

The 34-year-old reservoir has been dry since 1995, when a landslide collapsed a 150-foot section of the east wall as MWD finalized plans for an anticipated $31-million renovation project aimed at correcting persistent health problems. The project centered on building a $17-million floating lid atop the 55-acre man-made lake, located south of the Bonita Canyon exit of the San Joaquin Hills Toll Road.

As repair costs escalated, though, MWD officials determined they no longer needed the reservoir for its drinking-water system, paving the way for its conversion by the Irvine district as a storage basin for reclaimed water, officials said.

“That is the best news I’ve heard all year,” said Vonnie Gibbons, who bought a house overlooking the reservoir about a year before it was emptied.

Residents opposed plans to cover the reservoir, which health officials for years had urged to shield it from bird droppings and other contaminants. As a basin for reclaimed water, a cover is unnecessary, which means residents will reclaim their long-missing view--blue water with the mountains visible on the horizon beyond.

Empty, though, the reservoir resembles an old construction site or a massive abandoned playground, the surface matted with dried weeds.

“It’s terrible. It looks awful,” said Patricia Gallardo, who has lived within view of the reservoir for 20 years. “It has all weeds in it and everything. It’s not very pleasant to look at. I like the atmosphere when it’s full, but when it’s empty it looks like you want to do something with it, put in plants or something.”

While residents said they would be happy to see the reservoir filled, they aren’t pinning much hope to the latest developments, citing the facility’s troubled history.

“You never know,” Gallardo said. “One month they’re talking about one thing, the next month about something different. There are so many people involved and politics and that type of thing that you never know what’s really going to happen until you see it.”

Under a 1980 agreement, eight water agencies split up the reservoir storage rights, with the Irvine district the biggest partner at 48%. MWD owned about 10% and operated the facility to handle peak water demands for some 400,000 customers living along the Orange County coastline from Huntington Beach to Dana Point.

In recent months, the Irvine district has bought the rights from the other districts, except for about 31% owned by the Mesa Consolidated Water District and the city of Huntington beach. Negotiations with those partners are continuing, Heiertz said.

The total cost of buying the rights is about $300,000.

“Our position is, it’s really not worth much,” Heiertz said. “It really doesn’t have any benefit to any agency that doesn’t participate in a reclaimed water project.”

The Irvine district plans to reseal the reservoir, disconnect it from the drinking water system and link it to the district’s separate irrigation system, which provides nondrinking water to parks, schools and other public areas.

Preliminary cost estimates for the conversion are about $4 million, Heiertz said.

Problems at the reservoir first surfaced in the mid-1970s when midge fly larvae discolored the water and tainted its taste. The larvae attracted African clawed frogs in biblical proportions--some 850,000 were found and destroyed when the reservoir was drained in the early 1980s.

Further problems cropped up as chlorine used to purify the water by killing algae and bacteria left its own byproduct, trihalomethanes, a suspected carcinogen in humans.

As a storage basin for irrigation water, though, most of those problems are avoided, Heiertz said.

“MWD tells us the frog problem has been eradicated,” Heiertz said. “There’s been no water in the lake for several years. No water, no frogs. They could come back in, but it’s not as much of an issue with reclaimed water because people aren’t drinking it. Midge fly larvae, hopefully we’d be able to control that.”

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Fill ‘er up

Irvine Ranch Water District is close to acquiring full ownership of the now-empty San Joaquin Reservoir. Troubled for years by water contamination, fly larvae and frog infestations, the reservoir would be converted at a cost estimated at $4 million to hold irrigation water only.

Souce: Metropolitan Water District.