Newport Bay

From F to H Street, Newport Bay is closed to swimming and diving through at least Thursday following a sewage spill, county health officials said. A 15-gallon spill contaminated the water in the area Tuesday, officials said. They called the spill "minor. " County water quality experts check the water there daily and will have to get negative contamination results on back-to-back days to reopen the waters to people, officials said. For more information on water closures and water pollution warnings, go to ocbeachinfo.

Residents are advised to stay out of the 33rd Street Channel in Newport Bay after a sewage spill over the weekend. The Orange County Health Care Agency closed the channel between 32nd and 38th streets to swimmers and divers after the spill Saturday, said program manager Larry Honeyborne. An Orange County Sanitation District sewage pump failed to work, causing an estimated 1,000 gallons of raw sewage to back up and spill out into the storm drain and then into the channel. The spill was called into the agency about 4 p.m. Saturday.

Newport Beach firefighters and officials from the Orange County Sheriff's Department cleaned up about 200 gallons of diesel fuel that leaked into Newport Bay between Adams and Cypress streets, officials said Monday. About 1:50 p.m. Friday, the Newport Beach Fire Department responded to a fuel leak in the bay at the Petrosea fuel dock, 503 E. Edgewater Ave., according to the Fire Department. Authorities found that a supply line leading to the dock was leaking, and it was immediately shut off, according to the Fire Department.

Newport Bay is a very productive fishery for a large variety of small game fish and big bat rays despite being one of the busiest harbors along the Pacific Coast during the summer recreational season. Anglers can effectively fish the bay from public piers and docks, off a few bulkheads, in float tubes, out of a kayak or with a bass boat, but the best way to fish Newport Bay is in a rental skiff from the Balboa Pavilion. Tides were right earlier this week for this outdoor editor to spend a morning sampling the fishing in the bay with my wife, Toni.

Alex Coolman NEWPORT BEACH -- A new federal ban on a common home and garden pesticide could be the solution to some of Newport Bay's contamination concerns, city officials said. The Environmental Protection Agency announced last week that the over-the-counter sale of the pesticide chlorpyrifos, which is known as Dursban and Lorsban, must terminate by the end of 2001. The prohibition will help Newport Beach because chlorpyrifos happens to be a major problem in Newport Bay, said Deputy City Manager Dave Kiff.

Alicia Robinson A recent study found some fish in Newport Bay contained high levels of contaminants that could be harmful to humans, but no official health advisory has been issued against eating most of those fish. The Orange County Health Care Agency on Thursday announced that preliminary results of the study found levels of polychlorinated biphenyls, commonly known as PCB, and dichlorodiphenyltrichloroethane, commonly known as DDT, exceeded state recommendations in five fish species collected in Newport Bay between 2000 and 2002.

An apparently intoxicated Costa Mesa resident drove her car into a Newport Beach nature preserve and then crashed into a marshy area of Upper Newport Bay early Wednesday, police said. About half an hour after midnight Tuesday, the woman drove down a trail and broke through a barrier on the side of a bridge, dropping into the shallow water below, according to Newport Beach police and a report from KTLA-5. The driver, Amy Melissa Gibson, 29, of Costa Mesa, was the only person in the vehicle, Newport Beach police spokeswoman Jennifer Manzella said.

Two residents have sued Newport Beach in hopes of blocking a residential, commercial and marine development proposed for a section of the Upper Newport Bay. Bert Ohlig and Susan Skinner, who make up the Stop the Dunes Hotel group, sued the city, council members and others March 14 in Orange County Superior Court, alleging that the parties did not provide adequate review of the project's potential environmental impacts. The city and a potential operator of the proposed Back Bay Landing project have called the lawsuit meritless.

Firefighters battled a blaze in the Upper Newport Bay Nature Preserve on Thursday morning that burned just under an acre, officials said. It occurred around 6 a.m. near Irvine Avenue and Santiago Drive, not far from where another vegetation fire burned about 1.5 acres last week . Investigators from Newport Beach Fire Department and the Orange County Fire Authority will be looking for any people or series of circumstances connecting the...

A memorial service will be held this weekend for a former Newport Beach city councilman. Ray Williams, an early advocate of the Upper Newport Bay ecological preserve, died of natural causes at his home in Lake Arrowhead Aug. 15. He was 79. Williams "stood in the front lines" with others during the efforts in the 1970s to protect the bay area from development, according to his wife, Tatyana "Mary" Melnikoff. The nature-enthusiast lived in Newport Beach for 12 years, beginning in 1969, she said.

Newport Beach firefighters and officials from the Orange County Sheriff's Department cleaned up about 200 gallons of diesel fuel that leaked into Newport Bay between Adams and Cypress streets, officials said Monday. About 1:50 p.m. Friday, the Newport Beach Fire Department responded to a fuel leak in the bay at the Petrosea fuel dock, 503 E. Edgewater Ave., according to the Fire Department. Authorities found that a supply line leading to the dock was leaking, and it was immediately shut off, according to the Fire Department.

A stretch of Newport Bay that had been closed to swimmers and divers because of a sewage spill reopened Friday, according to the Orange County Health Care Agency, which monitors water quality. The ocean was closed earlier this week along a half-mile stretch of beach, from Bayside Drive Beach to Carnation Cove, after about 500 gallons of sewage spilled into the water, according to the agency. In order for it to reopen, water had to have acceptably low bacterial levels for two consecutive days.

About a half mile of beach along Newport Bay, from Bayside Drive Beach to Carnation Cove, is closed to swimmers after a sewage spill, an Orange County Health Care Agency notice said Wednesday. About 500 gallons of sewage overflowed from a blocked city of Newport Beach line, according to an OCHCA news release. Officials will continue to monitor water quality, and the affected areas will reopen once bacterial levels meet acceptable standards, it said. Agency spokesman Larry Honeybourne said Thursday that the earliest the affected areas could reopen would be Friday afternoon.

The Federal Aviation Administration could revisit Newport Beach's request that the agency consider developing an advanced departure procedure from John Wayne Airport that would dampen the roar of jet engines over homes neighboring the Upper Newport Bay, according to a letter the FAA sent the city. But first, FAA officials said, the world's busiest airport is in line for a test version of the upgrade. Starting this fall, Delta Air Lines pilots taking off from Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport will have the option of flying a Requiered Navigation Performance departure procedure, which would "take aircraft on a curving path over a golf course" west of the airport, FAA spokesman Ian Gregor wrote in an email.

A dredging company reimbursed the city of Newport Beach for $25,000 in damages made to a sewer main, according to city documents. Newport Beach invoiced R.E. Staite Engineering Inc. for damages made Aug. 15 to the main during dredging around the Balboa Yacht Club, 1801 Bayside Drive, according to a city memo. The city received full payment May 17, according to Mary Locey, a city spokeswoman. That payment will cover the repair costs, but does not apply to any future fines that could be imposed by a regulatory agency, according to the city memo.

Newport Beach residents Doug and Alice Brownell stood on the docks admiring a 39-foot catamaran exhibited Friday at the Newport Boat Show. The couple has attended the boat show, now celebrating its 40th anniversary, nearly every year since the 1970s. "We have our little Duffy, but it's fun to dream," Doug said, as Alice took photos of the catamaran. The reason the event has grown so big is its location - Newport harbor rather than a convention center floor - greatly enhances the feel and experience of the show by putting boats in their "natural environment," according to founder and producer Duncan McIntosh Jr. "This is the biggest water boat show on the West Coast," he said.