2 Cities Feel Swamped by Water Rules

As the water-quality police in California work to reduce the amount of pollution flowing into rivers and other ocean-bound tributaries, two small south Orange County cities that straddle a pair of water districts find themselves afloat in rules.

In Lake Forest, residents on one side of El Toro Road can wash cars in their driveways, but those on the other side can’t.

In nearby Laguna Woods, landscape workers keep debris out of storm drains by vacuuming sidewalks and gutters to comply with both sets of water-district guidelines.

“It’s nuts,” Lake Forest Mayor Richard T. Dixon said. “My code-enforcement guy’s going to get pummeled with eggs trying to enforce this.”

Because runoff from Laguna Woods and Lake Forest flows in two directions, city officials must follow guidelines established by both the San Diego and the Santa Ana regional water quality control boards. Other Orange County cities fall under the jurisdiction of one or the other.

Until this year, the guidelines for the regions were identical. But in recent months, each has adopted new clean-water rules. Though the rules are aimed at keeping tainted runoff from making its way to the ocean, those guidelines adopted by the San Diego region are more stringent than Santa Ana’s, Dixon and other officials said, leaving the cities of Laguna Woods and Lake Forest with two sets of rules to enforce.

El Toro Road is roughly the dividing line between the districts. Runoff that flows into Serrano and San Diego creeks is under the jurisdiction of the Santa Ana regional water board, while water that makes its way to Aliso Creek is the concern of the San Diego board.

The main difference between the two sets of guidelines is in monitoring. The San Diego region requires its public agencies to monitor pollution and treat it at the source--the driveway, for instance. The rule requires more staffing and water testing than previous clean-water programs, which focused on street sweeping and keeping storm drains free of debris.

In contrast, the Santa Ana board asks agencies to examine historical sources of pollution and develop a treatment plan.

San Diego regional board officials said the two programs are compatible and claim the issue has been blown out of proportion.

“I think the case has either been misunderstood or misstated by the cities that they have to comply with two permits or two separate programs,” said David Gibson, an environmental scientist for the San Diego region.

Although the cities could follow the stricter rules, city officials aren’t so sure it’s fair to impose such edicts across the board, especially in Lake Forest, where only one-third of the community is within the San Diego district.

“Then we’d really have to become water cops and be hated by everyone,” Dixon said.

In Laguna Woods, the task of figuring out an enforcement plan falls largely in the lap of Leisure World officials, since most of the town’s 18,000 residents live within the gates of the private retirement community. The city, however, is responsible for enforcing the plan and monitoring water quality.

“We’re still trying to sort it all out,” said Milt Robbins, president of the Golden Rain Foundation board of directors, which is the governing body for Leisure World.

Implementing the two sets of guidelines will cost about $300,000--compared with the $20,000 Laguna Woods spent last year on clean-water programs, City Manager Leslie A. Keane said.

Dixon said Lake Forest may spend up to $2 million to comply with the guidelines this year.

“We’re going to have to hire employees [who] will be dedicated to nothing but making sure that our residents can swim in our storm drains,” Dixon said.

Dixon would like to see more uniformity among the guidelines in Orange County and believes federal officials must rein in the regional boards’ authority in interpreting the Clean Water Act.