The Central Coast Chapter finalized their suite of recommendations for best management practices along Nye Creek and throughout the City of Newport for stormwater management affecting water quality levels in the creek and on the beach. The watershed management ordinances and codes were sent back and forth to the council workgroup sessions 3 times before finally passing all recommendations made by the chapter. In late February, the Council voted 7-0 in favor of a watershed protection ordinance, stormwater utility and disconnect program, pet waste ordinance, and nuisance ordinances protecting the watershed to name a few. Additionally, the chapter and City’s plans for a supplemental environmental project for a biopond and DNA testing along Nye Creek were accepted by the Department of Environmental Quality. The project will begin this summer and end in the fall of 2009. This spring the chapter will be launching a new campaign (Stop the Sewage), in light of sewer and stormwater cross-connects discovered during the chapter and city’s source id testing this winter. The codes are in place now to enforce this important issue and the chapter and city of Newport have begun a smoke and dye testing project aimed at identifying the households in violation.
