Officials hope to get center in place earlier

Paul Clinton

BACK BAY -- For Orange County officials eager to install a marine

research center on Shellmaker Island, two years is too long to wait.

The county, Newport Beach and other groups announced plans yesterday

to build the center -- which would include a water quality testing

component, marine education center, working science laboratory and new

rowing center -- by 2003.

The county officials on the project hope to start the testing later

this year, however. The California Coastal Commission, California

Department of Fish and Game, UC Irvine and the California Wildlife

Foundation have all announced they would support the $5-million project.

“We’re working with all the folks to get the lab up and running as

soon as possible,” said Holly Veale, chief of staff for 5th District

Supervisor Tom Wilson. “We’d like to push the time frame ahead and get

our lab in ahead of the building.”

Veale and others said they would like to install trailers or some

other type of temporary structure to house the water lab until the

20,000-square-foot permanent building is in place.

The timing depends on whether the county allocates additional money

during this year’s budget process, which begins in June, officials said.

So far, the county has guaranteed almost $1.5 million in funding, a

move that served as the catalyst to get the long-hoped-for project off

the ground.

County officials plan to use $1.1 million in tobacco settlement money,

made available by Measure H, as well as $330,000 from the general fund

for additional staff and equipment. The later funding was approved as

part of last year’s county budget.

In addition, UC Irvine will chip in $1.25 million for a new crew

center for the school’s rowing team.

Newport Beach and the State Department of Fish and Game, the agency

that has owned the island since 1975, would contribute $500,000 and

$250,000 respectively from oil mitigation funds made available from the

state attorney general’s settlement with Pacific Trader stemming from an

early 1990s spill off the coastline. Other dollars must still be lined

up, Fish and Game spokeswoman Chamois Andersen said.

“We’re still in the planning process,” Andersen said. “We’re trying to

solidify the funding for the project.”

County officials have said they would like to start water monitoring

by “late summer,” said Larry Paul, the county’s manager of water and

environmental programs.

Officials haven’t determined what they would test Back Bay water for,

but antibiotic and DNA testing would probably be included.

Fish and Game officials said they also hope to install some type of

“early warning system” that would alert the proper authorities when

sewage or oil spills occur.

More importantly, they hope to identify the source of pollutants in

the Back Bay.

“We know a lot of things that are in the water,” Fish and Game

spokesman John Scholl said. “But we don’t know the source of the

problem.”