IRWD to begin review of reservoir storage

June Casagrande

NEWPORT BEACH -- The Irvine Ranch Water District announced Thursday it

will begin a court-ordered environmental review of a plan to store

reclaimed water at the San Joaquin Reservoir, even while opposing that

court mandate.

A district spokeswoman said the seemingly contradictory moves are the

most efficient way to speed the district’s plans to store treated waste

water in the now-empty 994-gallon storage facility in the unincorporated

Newport Coast area.

“We don’t want it to take that long,” district spokeswoman Marilyn

Smith said. “We don’t want people living with a hole in the ground.”

District officials said they would begin the environmental report and,

at the same time, file a request that an appeals court review a decision

that required the review. The latter move, district officials say, is

faster than filing a legal appeal.

Environmentalist Bob Caustin said this reaffirms the court’s original

decision.

“If you think you’re going to win an appeal, don’t do the EIR,”

Caustin said.

The Sept. 28 court decision was a victory for Caustin’s environmental

group Defend the Bay, which had argued that safeguards offered in the

district’s original plan were insufficient without an environmental

report.

Caustin said the district’s plan poses a number of health and safety

threats, including seepage of the water, which comes from sewage that has

undergone numerous treatment processes. Such seepage could introduce

toxins such as phosphorous into the local environment.

He also said that without proper safeguards, an earthquake could send

large quantities of water downhill. Another concern is the district’s

plan to store at the facility and transport chlorine gas, which is used

to treat the water.

“The only way to get the gas in is to drive in right past a

preschool,” Caustin said. “It’s highly dangerous stuff that can cause

burning and blindness.”

District spokeswoman Joyce Wegner-Gwidt said chlorine gas is used

routinely at numerous other water-storage and treatment facilities,

including the district’s Irvine treatment plant.

“This will follow the same rules as the chlorine we use at our

treatment plant,” she said. “We follow all the rules and regulations for

transporting.”

The water that would be stored at the reservoir would come from sewage

that had been treated at the Irvine facility. Under the plan, it will be

stored at San Joaquin before being used for irrigation.

Wegner-Gwidt said that if the court overrules its previous decision,

the district would drop the environmental review process.

“That would mean they agree that all the environmental documentation

we’ve done so far is sufficient,” Wegner-Gwidt said.

-- June Casagrande covers Newport Beach. She may be reached at (949)

574-4232 or by e-mail at o7 [email protected] .