A Damper on Crystal Cove Plan

Regional water officials said Friday they are requesting that a key federal permit for an Irvine Co. housing project be put on hold until they investigate whether the developer is discharging runoff into the Pacific Ocean at Crystal Cove State Park.

Kurt Berchtold, assistant executive officer of the Santa Ana Regional Water Quality Control Board, said the agency is concerned that drainage from a construction site is flowing across the beach and into the surf.

“We got some information from Orange County CoastKeeper and the Alliance to Rescue Crystal Cove that there might be direct discharges from this project,” Berchtold said. “We’ll be talking to the Irvine Co. to get a better understanding of that.”

An Irvine Co. spokesman said Friday that the company has all the required approvals for its projects underway and is complying with them.

Environmental activists say they are concerned about water runoff problems from the homes under construction and those being planned.

A 664-home Crystal Cove project, still to be built, has already prompted a year of public debate over potential harm to wildlife and water quality along one of the most picturesque stretches of the Orange County coast. The debate appeared to be settled when the California Coastal Commission voted unanimously last month to allow a revised project to proceed but added special conditions to protect water quality.

Now, environmentalists have presented regional water officials with photographs and other documents that they say raise serious questions about current Irvine Co. practices regarding water runoff. The company is planning two projects in the area above the park. Work has already begun on the first.

One Crystal Cove activist ventured into a culvert near her home after becoming suspicious about water running from the culvert across the beach. The activist, Laura Davick, director of the Alliance to Rescue Crystal Cove, said she found a labyrinth of pipes extending “three or four city blocks” inland from the culvert. Much of the piping was new, some dated April 1999, she said.

Davick said she took photographs of the piping to the regional water board staff. Her statement and other concerns prompted the board staff’s decision to scrutinize the pipe system and whether it would be used by the planned 664-home project.

Irvine Co. spokesman Rich Elbaum said Friday night that the piping explored by Davick is for the development already under construction and is not connected to the 664-home area. In fact, no drainage from the new homes will run through the pipe network, he said.

“My understanding is that we have the necessary approvals,” Elbaum said.

The regional board already reviewed both projects and issued a certification for them. The next step for the second project is a permit from the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers to allow filling or dredging of streams.

The regional water board’s staff is now concerned about whether water running from the culvert Davick explored is draining directly into the ocean, Berchtold said.

The staff also wants to know more details about where runoff water from the planned 664-home project would be discharged, Berchtold said.

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Questionable Construction

State water officials have asked the Army Corps of Engineers to delay issuing a permit to the Irvine Co. until investigators determine the origin and purpose of the labyrinth of pipes under the Crystal Cove planned community.