Mayor asks for drinking water reimbursement

Paul Clinton

NEWPORT-MESA -- To help ease the financial burden of last month’s

discovery of a cancer-causing substance in Newport Beach’s water supply,

Mayor Tod Ridgeway has asked the county water agency for about $3.9

million.

The city’s four drinking-water wells have been shut down since Jan.

29, when county water officials announced they found an industrial

solvent in the ground-water aquifer.

The solvent, known as 1,4-Dioxane, has been placed on a state watch

list of substances potentially harmful to human health.

In a Feb. 14 letter to the Orange County Water District, Ridgeway

asked for $3.9 million a year to cover the increase.

“Therefore, this letter respectfully requests your board’s

consideration of reimbursement of the city’s water costs,” Ridgeway wrote

in the letter.

Mesa Consolidated Water District, the agency that delivers water to

Costa Mesa, has also submitted a request to the Orange County Water

District. Mesa officials, who shut down three of their nine wells, have

asked the county water district for $1.3 million.

At a Wednesday meeting, the county water district’s board scheduled a

decision on the requests for March 6 and began the environmental review

and design work on a plan to treat the tainted wells.

The board is moving toward the elimination of the chemical from the

ground water, said Diana Leach, Mesa’s general manager.

“[It is] very good news,” Leach said. “If you don’t remove the Dioxane

from the basin, it stays there. There’s a risk of it moving to other

wells.”

The board has already begun treating water in one of Mesa’s

contaminated wells using ultraviolet light and peroxide.

“We want to make sure we contain this thing,” Orange County Water

District spokesman Ron Wildermuth said. “Starting treatment on the wells

is a good way to do that.”

Since the shutdown, both Mesa Consolidated and Newport Beach have had

to buy more of their daily supply from the Metropolitan Water District.

Between October and April, the city relies on the aquifer for all of

its water. During the peak summer months, the city receives 75% of its

water from the aquifer and buys the remaining 25% from the Metropolitan

Water District.

While the wells are down, Newport Beach will import all of its water

from that agency. That will lead to a spike in city water costs from the

typical $7,350 to $15,225 a day.

In his letter, Ridgeway laid out several possibilities for possible

relief, including direct payments, credits or cash relief from the Orange

County Sanitation District.

The Dioxane contamination occurred when the sanitation district

injected streams of treated waste water into the aquifer.

Traces of the solvent were found in the aquifer at levels that are not

considered to be dangerous. The state has not set a standard for the

maximum level of Dioxane that can be present in the water.

The solvent was found in the wells in the range of four to eight parts

per billion, which is above the state’s “action level” of three parts per

billion on the substance. Local agencies must address the contaminant

when it crosses that level.

The county water district discovered the chemical in the aquifer in

December.

* Paul Clinton covers the environment and John Wayne Airport. He may

be reached at (949) 764-4330 or by e-mail ato7

[email protected] .