Aliso Creek Cleanup Is Still in Dispute

Local officials are taking issue with a state order that compels them to clean up Aliso Creek, one of Orange County’s most polluted waterways.

But while Orange County and Laguna Niguel officials say they need a public hearing next month to settle important factual disputes, environmentalists and some state regulators accuse them of nit-picking as part of an effort to delay carrying out the order.

“I’m disappointed,” said Wayne Baglin, chairman of the San Diego Regional Water Quality Control Board. “It’s really frustrating to have public officials who are not concerned with the environment and the danger to public health.”

Roger von Butow, whose Clean Aliso Creek Assn. and Clean Water Now! Coalition were active in prompting the cleanup order, also was critical. “It’s what we expected, nothing new,” Von Butow said. “Laguna Niguel is trying to figure out a way to get out of it.”

City and county officials, however, say they have already begun carrying out the work and only want the hearing to correct what they call inaccuracies in last month’s cleanup order.

“It’s important for the record that some statements get clarified,” said Ken Montgomery, Laguna Niguel’s director of public resources. “We’re still planning on basically doing anything they ask us to do.”

Aliso Creek drains over 34 square miles of Orange County from the Santa Ana Mountains to the Pacific Ocean. Fecal coliform bacteria levels near a storm channel were 225 times the amount considered safe for swimming in October 1998. High levels have continued to be a problem in the creek--three spills of sewage or reclaimed water were reported since Jan. 12.

Urban runoff--trash, chemicals and pollutants washed off streets and lawns into storm drains and area waterways--is also a perpetual problem. The creek empties into the ocean in Laguna Beach, regularly leading to postings warning swimmers about health risks.

The San Diego Regional Water Quality Control Board issued a cleanup and abatement order on Dec. 28 that charges the city, the county and the county’s Flood Control District with allowing illegal discharges that hurt Aliso Creek’s water quality.

The cleanup order focuses on the Kite Hill neighborhood in Laguna Niguel, where 130,000 gallons of urban runoff a day flow through a channel into the creek.

The order directed the three agencies to submit a cleanup plan to the board by Feb. 11, monitor water quality and submit quarterly progress reports. The three face fines or lawsuits if they fail to comply with the board’s order.

In early January, Montgomery, of Laguna Niguel, joined Vicki L. Wilson, the county’s public facilities and resources director, in requesting a public hearing at the regional water board’s Feb. 9 meeting. At the hearing, they plan to dispute some of the board’s factual findings, such as charges that there are illegal sewer connections and that they allow illegal discharges.

The two officials also complained that the state isn’t giving local officials enough credit for action they have taken, such as increasing public education efforts and diverting some runoff to a wetlands area that acts as a natural filter.

They also questioned the regional board’s action in light of two ongoing creek studies.

The first, by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, is a $1.2-million study of erosion, habitat, flood-control and other conditions surrounding Aliso Creek. The county, cities, water districts and other bodies are reviewing 15 projects that would cost more than $17 million. An environmental impact report will be released in late February or early March, said Michael Wellborn, a county senior planner.

The county is also conducting a state-funded, $151,000 study to find the sources of pollution in Aliso Creek.

Herb Nakasone, program development manager for the flood control district, said the county will ask for an extension of the state’s Feb. 11 deadline for a cleanup plan until early March so local officials can incorporate findings from those studies.