Pollution

The Surfrider Foundation’s Newport Beach Chapter will hold its first RockWater Run March 28 to raise awareness of pollution in the Santa Ana Watershed. The organization hopes to make it an annual event. At midnight, runners will depart from the mountains of Big Bear, descending 100 miles alongside the snowmelt as it travels through the Santa Ana River and into the ocean. The run is divided into four 25-mile legs, each run by a different team of runners who will alternate mileage to cover the distance.

Alicia Robinson Five years ago, Garry Brown made a promise while looking out over the murky waters of the Rhine Channel. He kept that promise Friday, announcing a major study of pollution in the channel at the site where water quality watchdog Orange County CoastKeeper was founded in 1999. Data collection began in late June, but CoastKeeper, the city of Newport Beach and other groups officially kicked off a $346,000 study with a media event Friday at the Cannery restaurant, which overlooks the channel.

Alicia Robinson Orange County's streams are polluted by some easily traceable sources, such as dairy farms, and much of that has been stopped or reduced recently. But harder-to-trace pollutants, such as animal waste and runoff from washing cars, are still spoiling some waterways, a new report shows. Two-and a-half years of research and the work of more than 200 volunteers went into a report released this week by Newport Beach-based, water-quality watchdog Orange County CoastKeeper.

Deirdre Newman Five industrial property owners in an area of the Westside that the city is considering adding to the downtown redevelopment zone violated air quality rules within a one-year period ending in May. From July 2002 to May 2003, a total of nine companies within the area received Notices of Violation that could have penalties of up to $50,000 per day. The five industrial properties are Pinecraft Custom ...

Last year was the hottest year on record in the U.S., and the effects of global warming are already showing up in our backyards. The state took a big step forward in 2006 by adopting AB 32, the California Global Warming Solutions Act of 2006, but now it's time for Congress to act. The good news is that we can reduce global-warming pollution nationwide by harnessing America's vast renewable energy sources like wind, solar, geothermal and biomass...

Alex Coolman NEWPORT BEACH -- The results of an environmental study to be released Tuesday should help the city address some of its runoff-related pollution concerns, city officials said. The study was conducted by the Southern California Coastal Water Research Project, a public research group whose board members are drawn from city, county, state and federal agencies. The group has been looking at nine spots in Newport Beach where levels of bacteria are frequently high.

The numbers are eye-popping. Pollution in the water along Newport Beach and Huntington Beach costs people as much as $3.3 million in medical treatments each year -- anywhere from $37 to $77 per illness. That's an expensive dip in the ocean. Right? Well, maybe not. As much as the numbers -- which come from a study released this month by a group led by a UC Irvine doctoral student -- seem to be yet more fodder in the battle to increase water-quality standards, they are, sadly, not nearly as shocking as they appear.

A research team at UCI’s Institute of Transportation Studies has received a grant to study commercial traffic around the Long Beach and Los Angeles ports in hopes of finding ways to ease traffic and pollution. The University of California Transportation Center, funded by the California and U.S. departments of transportation, is expected to provide the UCI study team with $220,000 during the next two years. Six faculty experts will examine traffic patterns on the 110 and 710 freeways and the Alameda Corridor, a rail-cargo expressway between the ports and city of Los Angeles.

June Casagrande A pollution-prone storm drain that may have contributed to the 1999 beach closure in Huntington Beach doesn't have to be shut down and the flow diverted into the sewer system, but the city must take other measures to stave off hazards posed by the Caltrans-owned drain. And neighbors are sure to feel some of the effects. City officials say they plan to step up enforcement of water-quality rules in the Seashore Drive watershed, an area between 61st Street and the Santa Ana River on the south side of Coast Highway.

In the summer of 2008, the 29th Olympic Games will open in Beijing. Taking advantage of worldwide attention brought about by the Olympics, China will no doubt try to show the world it is now a modern political and economic superpower rivaling the United States and the countries of the European Union. China likes to talk about its growth, rapid modernization and influence, but what it doesn’t like to talk about is its increasing contribution to worldwide pollution. Although China claims it is spending money on cleaner sources of energy, these claims are not supported by facts.

Eastside Costa Mesa is about to get another Starbucks, the third in about a 2-mile stretch off 17 t h Street, but this one is different. This one has a drive-through. Housed with what used to be a credit union, the location at 450 E. 17 t h St. was not without controversy. "More than 60 residents of Cabrillo Street have written letters to the City Council opposing the (drive-through) aspect of the proposed Starbucks," Councilwoman Wendy Leece wrote in a request to review the project.

COSTA MESA — A group of high-school seniors brought home a national first-place title for creating an environmentally friendly business. "We're not supposed to be winning championships, but we do," said Business Academy teacher Mike Sciacca. "We don't have as much money as wealthier schools, but our kids just chose to win … I hope they realize success is a choice. " One of Costa Mesa High School's Virtual Enterprise classes created Sanatorius, a pollution-offset company that installs compost toilets in developing countries.

After years of debating a ban on leaf blowers, the city of Newport Beach is, well, debating it some more. The city announced Thursday an online poll to gauge residents and business owners' take on the matter. Options on the survey range from a ban on gas-powered blowers to some sort of restriction on the quieter electric-powered leaf blowers, as well as restricted hours of use. Most people who complain about leaf blowers cite noise or how they stir up harmful particles in the air. Others say it's a cost-effective way to keep landscaping clean.

If Harbor Patrol deputies board your boat in Newport Harbor and ask to see the restroom, don't be offended. They're just doing their job. When the Orange County Sheriff's Harbor Patrol contracted with Newport Beach to continue overseeing the harbor's 1,200 or so moorings, they also took on a new task: checking the plumbing. In the next 60 to 90 days, the Harbor Patrol will roll out a new dye tab program, where deputies drop a tab of a colored dye into the toilet and flush.

I paid a visit to City Hall on Tuesday to reserve a park for my daughter’s third birthday party. Seeing as how I have not attended City Council meetings for some time now, I took the opportunity to view the posted agenda for our fair city’s council meeting Tuesday night. I cannot begin to express my befuddlement over the council’s absolute silliness. The last two items on the agenda, introduced by Mayor Allan Mansoor and Councilwoman Wendy Leece, seethe with hypocrisy and ignorance.

This week I was still focusing on the rain storms and their aftermath. I revisited the south county spots I’d checked during the storms and got some fun waves at San Juan Creek mouth. The flow went north, across the little jetty and pushed out a lot of sand. Doheny will be different for a while. The road into San Onofre is taped off just past the point so you have to walk to Old Man’s. The reefs south were empty — long walk with a SUP or 10-footer. Thursday I checked the San Gabriel River mouth, the Orange-L.

Research efforts in breast cancer, the effects of traffic pollution and prenatal stress are some of the recipients of nearly $24 million in federal stimulus grants given to UC Irvine to date. In total, $787 billion in economic stimulus funds is being distributed nationwide as part of the national recovery program. Some of the 76 projects the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act will benefit are listed below.  A math and science recruitment program at the National Science Foundation has awarded nearly $2 million to the school, in hopes of developing successful science and mathematics undergraduate students.

I’m fired up. One of mainland California’s most polluted beach of 2008 was right here in Newport Beach. This week, the Natural Resources Defense Council released its 19th annual summary of the nation’s most polluted beaches, titled “Testing the Waters: A Guide to Water Quality at Vacation Beaches.” It’s a 453-page nationwide summary of coastal pollution, and it was Vaughn’s Launch at the edge of Newport Back Bay that took home one of the top honors.

Newport Beach had two five-star beaches in 2008, the highest ranking the Natural Resources Defense Council gives, according to its annual report released Wednesday. The two beaches in the city that were most popular, by the Newport and Balboa piers, both proved to have consistently low bacterial pollution, responded to pollution dangers quickly and tested their water frequently enough to earn the nonprofit organization’s highest marks. For at least the last three years, both beaches — which hundreds of thousands of visitors frequent a year — were within health standards nearly 100% of the time and posted advisories when their beaches were closed.