Drain

Bryce Alderton City officials concerned with flooding on Laguna Beach roads when heavy rains pour down are hoping to build an additional storm drain. Mayor Wayne Baglin met with Councilwoman Toni Iseman, City Manager Ken Frank and officials from the California Department of Transportation last week to discuss citywide projects such as storm drains and adding traffic signals, Baglin said. "I was pleased [with the meeting]," Baglin said. The city wants to add a storm drain at 6th Avenue and Coast Highway, which is expected to go before the city's Design Review Board in May, Frank said.

Mary A. Castillo There are some telltale signs of one season giving way to another. In Laguna fall is signified by the swift departure of the arts festivals, classrooms full of students and city crews getting down and dirty as they clean the vast network of storm drains. "We have 910 inlets, catch basins, outlets and spillways in the system that collect surface run-off and eventually spill out into the ocean," said Bill Liebel, deputy director of city public works.

David Shissler, Laguna's director of water quality, used to walk past a faded storm drain marker near City Hall each day. The marker served as a reminder that his department needed to do something about the deteriorating state of the markers ? reminders to the public not to throw trash or pollutants down the city's storm drains, which lead to the ocean. "We are always looking to improve our ways of providing public education regarding water quality and urban runoff," Shissler said.

Laguna Beach cannot control storms, but flooding can be reduced and measures can be taken to better prepare residents and businesses for the next deluge, according to a task force report. With a presentation at Tuesday's City Council meeting, the Laguna Canyon Flood Task Force culminated eight months of reviewing floods in the canyon and considering ways to shore up the city's defense against the next deluge. "A recent study revealed that the ocean-facing slopes of Laguna have only about 7 inches of topsoil overlaying steep, impermeable rock," task force Chairman Eric Jessen told the council.

Laguna Beach is reeling from a staggering half-million-gallon sewage spill that closed a 4-mile stretch of beach to swimming from 2:30 a.m. Wednesday through at least today. It?s believed to be the biggest spill in Southern California since a 2-million-gallon sewage leak in Manhattan Beach two years ago. It certainly is the largest since the last ?big? spill in Laguna, only six months ago, April 17, which closed the Coast Highway for 24 hours when a valve in the North Coast Interceptor ?

If you live long enough, you get a taste of most of life's mishaps. The latest taste at our house involved plumbing. I use the upstairs shower because the water pressure up there is intense and manly. Patti Jo and our daughter Katie take their showers in the girlie shower downstairs. The other day, Patti Jo said something about the downstairs shower draining slowly. I noticed no problem when I took my upstairs shower, but when I came down afterward, I did notice that the downstairs bathroom, hallway and master bedroom were all flooded.

Construction of a new sewer line along South Coast Highway continues to snarl traffic and dampen businesses near Nyes Place, but an end is in sight. The project, known as the North Coast Interceptor, was originally slated to be finished by February, but rain delays have pushed back that date to early March, Laguna Beach Director of Water Quality David Shissler said. The 25-year-old pipeline will be replaced along the area of Coast Highway where there is a dip in the road and sewage would pool.

With her pet dog Pedro in tow, Laguna artist and Arts Commissioner Joan Corman laid the ceremonial first storm drain marker Wednesday at the corner of Forest Ave. and Glenneyre Street. "When I read the call for entries in our local newspapers, I felt it was the perfect competition for me," Corman said. "Growing up in Laguna Beach, the daughter of an artist, I naturally respected our ocean, loved our tide pools and currently teach watercolor tide pool journaling classes." Corman, who won the marker design competition in May, teaches the classes to visitors at area hotels in addition to working and teaching at her studio.

The City of Laguna Beach Arts Commission and Water Quality Department are now accepting designs for the 2006 Storm Drain Marker Competition. The competition is designed to promote public awareness of water quality by discouraging activities that result in polluted runoff to the storm drains. The selected artwork will be displayed on more than 900 storm-drain inlets throughout the city. The city will own the rights to the selected design, which may be used on other city-produced materials, publications and web-site.

The city has challenged a 100-year floodplain map prepared by the Federal Emergency Management Agency that adversely affects Canyon Acres property owners. FEMA's map is based on aerial photographs of areas that generate enough run-off to create a problem in a flood. City officials claim the map relied on outdated information and have submitted a hydrology study to make their case. "The map was done on an extremely broad-brushed level," said City Engineer Steve May, director of the Public Works Department.