Lawsuit revives bygone battles

Paul Clinton

NEWPORT-MESA -- By filing a lawsuit to halt the conversion of the San

Joaquin reservoir from an empty shell into a storage bin for reclaimed

water, environmentalist Bob Caustin is gunning for an old nemesis.

About a year removed from a major court victory against the Irvine

Ranch Water District, Caustin is at it again. This time, the Defend the

Bay founder wants more environmental review of changes to the reservoir.

“We want to stop it and make sure they do the right thing,” Caustin

said.

The suit, filed Wednesday in Orange County Superior Court, challenges

the district’s environmental study of the plan, which says the

$7.8-million project would have little effect on Back Bay.

“We’re pretty puzzled by the lawsuit,” water district spokeswoman

Joyce Wegner-Gwidt said. “All the issues mentioned in the suit have been

addressed in our environmental documentation.”

The water board approved the report at its Dec. 18 meeting.

Under the conversion plan, the district would add new piping, pump

stations and other repairs to the decaying reservoir. District officials

said the suit would delay the project at least six months.

Caustin’s central reason for opposing the project is rooted in his

concern that reclaimed water would leak into Upper Newport Bay via the

ground-water basin.

The suit came less than a week before the Newport Beach City Council

is scheduled to consider a tentative deal with the district to sell its

stake in the reservoir.

In 1980, the city bought a 1.18% share, along with seven other

agencies. Today, the council is expected to consider a deal that would

divest the city of the stake for about $13,000.

Environmentalists have petitioned the city to force a long-term

commitment from the district to avoid releasing any reclaimed water

before handing over its share of the reservoir.

Newport Beach officials had no comment on the lawsuit, which names the

city, or the pending deal.

Caustin’s feuding with the district dates back to his opposition, in

the form of a 1996 lawsuit, to the district’s unpopular plan to discharge

its highly treated waste water into the bay.

The district got a permit for the project from a regional water board,

but an agreement with the city held the dumping off for two years. In the

meantime, Defend the Bay appealed every decision and took the district to

court several times in an attempt to derail the plan.

The efforts finally paid off in the fall of 1998, when a Superior

Court judge overturned the district’s permit.