State Water Official Criticizes Continued Aliso Creek Diversion

A state water official on Wednesday said that after this summer he will oppose any effort to allow Orange County and several cities to divert bacteria-laden water from Aliso Creek into the ocean off Laguna Beach.

John Robertus, executive officer of the San Diego Regional Water Quality Control Board, criticized the county and cities for not being more aggressive but said he is hopeful the sources of contamination can be found this summer.

“I have patiently worked with these people for three years,” Robertus said. “Discussions and paperwork don’t clean up the water. The objective is to remove the bacteria from the water and clean it up to a level that it’s not a threat to kids and other people.”

Pollution has been a persistent problem in Aliso Creek, which collects drainage from a 34-square-mile watershed that stretches from the Santa Ana Mountains to the Pacific Ocean at Laguna Beach, often creating a health risk for swimmers. One known culprit is urban runoff--trash, chemicals and other pollutants washed from streets and lawns into storm drains and waterways and eventually into Aliso Creek.

The chronic pollution prompted the regional water board to issue a cleanup and abatement order to Laguna Niguel and Orange County in December 1999. The two local governments were ordered to clean up extremely high levels of contamination in one section of the creek, and they still face fines of up to $5,000 per day or lawsuits if they fail to comply.

In March, the agency ordered every city that has urban runoff flowing into the creek to evaluate whether it might be contributing to the waterway’s longtime contamination problems.

The county and six cities are covered by the order, which sets up a monitoring and reporting plan. The county and cities have appealed the action to the State Water Resources Control Board, the agency that oversees the regional water boards.

Despite the appeal, the county submitted a scaled-down version of the regional water board’s monitoring plan, which was commended by board staff April 5.

However, Robertus said that if the county and cities don’t try to find permanent solutions this summer, such as diverting tainted water to cleansing wetlands or stopping pollutants at the source, he will issue harsher enforcement actions.

The county also is drawing the ire of the California Coastal Commission. The polluted creek water will be diverted into the ocean 1 1/2 miles off Laguna Beach for a third straight summer despite assurances from the county that the diversion was a temporary solution. For the last two summers, the county has diverted the water and later applied for retroactive emergency permits, said Sara Wan, Coastal Commission chairwoman.

Wednesday, the commission unanimously approved a permit that allowed the diversion of contaminated water last summer. Wan said county officials have yet to submit a complete permit application for this summer’s diversion, which could begin May 1.

“They are in the business of doing what we call planned emergencies,” she said. “This is supposed to be temporary.”

County officials did not return telephone calls Wednesday.