Water Heats Up

Two unrelated events near the end of the summer season highlighted the importance of coastal water quality in Orange County. Equally important, they put a spotlight on the agencies that oversee it. On Aug. 31, a San Diego judge reinstated much of a developer’s lawsuit against the California Coastal Commission on development restrictions at Bolsa Chica. And the previous day, a building industry official who had been appointed to a regional water board asked that his name be withdrawn from consideration amid sharp criticism from environmentalists.

As the environmental community has become increasingly sophisticated at the grass-roots level, it has paid more attention to what decisions are being made and who is making them on boards and commissions that traditionally have operated out of the public limelight. Water suddenly has become a very hot topic.

The Coastal Commission has been a factor in the Bolsa Chica debate for some time, and its province has been broader than water quality. But whatever the courts ultimately decide, the commission solidified its stature locally on water issues when it ruled decisively last fall on how much development would be allowed. Bird habitat was central to the legal arguments, but runoff from new development figured prominently in the commission’s overall deliberations.

The soundness of the commission’s decision is likely to be tested further in court, but the commission sent an important message to the degree that it worried about runoff from new development. In the latest round, Superior Court Judge Sheridan Reed reversed her own ruling that had narrowed the developer’s claim that the commission had acted improperly by limiting development to 65 acres.

Whatever comes of an appeal, the focus at Bolsa Chica finally has been refined through years of legal decisions and official rulings. Most of the big plans are off the table. It’s likely that either a modest building proposal will go forward, or there will be a sale of the mesa. The various environmental groups that have talked about a purchase now must put up or live with what the courts decide. Credit the commission with listening to concerns and bringing matters to this decisive point.

The commission is better known to the public than a regional water board, but concern with water quality nowadays is so significant that even the players behind the scenes are coming under new scrutiny. Powerful boards that are not as accessible as, say, someone at city hall now are being looked at, and that is a good thing. This happened with the Santa Ana Regional Water Quality Control Board, which has a lot to say about Orange County’s coastal water.

In the last decade, the strain on ocean water and tidal areas has mobilized cadres of activists in environmental groups. They are concerned about such things as the waiver given to the Orange County Sanitation District for discharging dirtier water offshore than is permitted elsewhere. While some of these organizations are national or regional, others have sprung up in neighborhoods and pockets along the cliffs and inlets of Orange County’s coastal regions.

The attention the regional water quality boards is now getting is part of a new public stewardship by citizens who have nurtured a proprietary view of the environment. They are looking under every rock to see where the real power lies.

Time was when there would be quick approval of such an appointment, despite the board’s vast regional jurisdiction over the Clean Water Act and state water laws. But the nomination of Frank Williams, criticized as being too friendly to the building industry, drew a storm of protest from groups such as the Natural Resources Defense Council. Less than a week before a confirmation hearing, Williams asked the governor to withdraw his name.

Increasingly, environmental groups, some with a regional presence, and others, such as the South County-based Clean Water Now Coalition, are asking good questions about the actions of boards and commissions. The new scrutiny must be fair, but it certainly is welcome and long overdue. Now that people are paying more attention, the governor has even more incentive to choose appointees who regard themselves as trustees of a vital resource.