CoastKeeper to get portion of Pelican Hill fine

Alex Coolman

NEWPORT BEACH -- Operators of Pelican Hill Golf Club will pay $40,000 to

a local environmental organization as part of a penalty for dumping

recycled water into Crystal Cove.

The arrangement, finalized at last Friday’s meeting of the Santa Ana

Regional Water Quality Control Board, will benefit the kelp reforestation

program of Orange County CoastKeeper, a Newport Beach-based group that

focuses on water quality issues.

Western Golf Properties, the Scottsdale, Ariz. company that operates the

golf course, was originally fined $148,000 in May for dumping recycled

water into the ocean over a period of several years.

The golf course released almost 16 million gallons of water in the second

half of 1999, said Kurt Berchtold, assistant executive officer for the

water board, and had released large quantities of water in other years as

well.

It did not have permits to dump the water, which was treated sewage water

intended for use as irrigation, and it failed to report doing so.

Under the new payment plan, $40,000 of that fine will now be given

directly to CoastKeeper.

CoastKeeper’s Randy Seaton says the money will be used for paying

consultants and buying gas and other supplies in connection with its

recently started kelp reforestation project.

That project aims to restore some of the kelp beds off the coast of

Newport Beach by transplanting kelp onto the rocky ocean bottom. Some of

the areas that will benefit from the project are the same ones that were

affected by the water flows from the golf course.

“It’s a way of using some of that penalty money to improve the local

environment, rather than just putting it up in the state fund,” Berchtold

said.

The offices of Western Golf Properties were closed for the holiday Monday

and could not be reached for comment.

Orange County CoastKeeper was the first organization to focus on the

problem of Pelican Hill’s discharging practices, and it was interest in

the project that led the water board to intervene.

“We were the cage rattlers,” Seaton said.

When it came time for the penalty money to be distributed, CoastKeeper

put in a request for a piece of the pie.