Eelgrass a blessing and a curse
Steve Bromberg
Since our new Harbor Commission first got rolling more than a year
ago, I have been pleased to see how active the commissioners are in
tackling some of our harbor’s most difficult policy issues. These
include, naming a few, charter boat regulations, how to best protect
vessels from fires and harbor dredging projects.
There is perhaps no other issue as challenging for us as harbor
dredging. Many readers know that Newport Harbor and the Back Bay
receive sediment from 155 square miles of watershed, including the
communities of Irvine, Lake Forest, Costa Mesa, Orange, Tustin, Santa
Ana and Laguna Woods. Storm water either carries this sediment out to
sea or drops it in the Upper Newport Bay or the harbor. When it lands
in the Back Bay, we work with the U.S. Army Corps to dredge it out.
When it lands in the harbor, oftentimes, individual dock owners have
to pay to remove it -- usually once every four to five years.
The city helps residents do this “maintenance dredging” when we
apply for and receive a five-year “regional general permit” from the
U.S. Army Corps of Engineers and the California Coastal Commission.
Residents can then work with our harbor resources staff to pull a
second permit to dredge their specific dock area.
In 2000, we renewed our permit. This time, the corps and the
Coastal Commission added some fairly stringent requirements involving
a water plant called eelgrass (zostera marina). Eelgrass, while not
an endangered species, is a plant that shelters many species of fish
and that serves as a foraging area for endangered birds. Eelgrass
tends to thrive during periods of low rainfall and low sedimentation.
With good light penetration and a temperature range of 50 to 68
degrees Fahrenheit, eelgrass will grow underwater in areas that are
about 1 to 10 feet deep.
Today, we think there are close to 35 acres of eelgrass in the
Back Bay and harbor, with more than 20 acres alone near the jetty.
Other locations include Balboa Island (including the Grand Canal),
Harbor Island, Linda Isle, Lido Channel and Carnation Cove. With
approximately 750 acres of water area in the harbor, there is
currently about 5% eelgrass coverage. The lowest recorded eelgrass
coverage occurred in 1993 with less than 3 acres, or about 0.5% of
the harbor.
The current dredging permit says that if you find eelgrass beneath
your dock, you either cannot dredge or must carefully mitigate lost
eelgrass via planting and monitoring a new supply. This planting and
monitoring has multiplied the cost of a dredging project by a factor
of seven to 10. What once cost $2,000 to $3,000 now can run into the
$30,000 to $40,000 range. Finding eelgrass also means that you’re on
your own with permitting -- you cannot use the city’s permit and
instead must seek permits from three federal and four state agencies
before our Harbor Resources Department can allow the dredging to
proceed.
So why is all of this important? Property owners must be able to
dredge beneath docks -- commercial or residential -- for the harbor’s
economy to remain prosperous. If our bay silts up, property values
and the bay’s recreational resource value will plummet, and we must
do everything we can to prevent that from occurring.
I want everyone to know that we at the city did not choose this
costly replanting or mitigation requirement, but we are trying our
best to follow the law and protect property rights at the same time.
Our goal -- as soon as this provision was applied to our permit --
has been to maintain recreational boating use alongside the
environmental protection required by U.S. and California resources
agencies.
To improve the situation, here’s what the City Council, the Harbor
Commission and city staff members are working on:
* Mitigation areas. We need to establish places in the Back Bay
and harbor that eelgrass can grow without impacting commerce or
property rights. With the county and the Army Corps of Engineers, we
have a cooperative project underway which creates eight eelgrass
planting areas that may be used for mitigation. We intend to
distribute eelgrass mitigation credits once the planting areas are
successful and once we receive authorization to do so from the
resources agencies.
* Baseline. Working with Rep. Chris Cox, we want to define a
minimum baseline for the distribution, density and productivity of
the eelgrass in Newport Harbor for essential fish habitat -- eelgrass
that exists above the baseline may be able to be removed, if needed,
without penalty or additional mitigation. I will be meeting with Cox
this month. In attendance will also be our city manager, assistant
city manager, our Harbor Resource manager, a representative from the
Newport Beach Chamber of Commerce-Marine Division, a representative
from the Orange County Realtors Assn. as well as a few others.
* Training. To lower the cost of small dredging projects, we have
worked with experts to train and certify more local eelgrass
surveyors and mitigation bank monitors. These monitors can also help
evaluate the success of our eelgrass mitigation projects.
* Next Permit. We will attempt to include our eelgrass mitigation
measures in the upcoming permit renewal process. Doing so may protect
the small gains we might make during this permit term.
* Local Coastal Program. As many readers are aware, we are well
into the development of our Local Coastal Program. The program
includes sections on coastal resources protection. We’d like to
memorialize our mitigation areas and baseline within the program.
We fully recognize that maintenance dredging in Newport Harbor is
essential for the continued use of the harbor’s recreational and
commercial boating interests. Other benefits of dredging include sand
for harbor beach replenishment. But in order to accomplish the
dredging, we have to meet the environmental requirements of the state
and federal regulators. These laws and regulations have become
exceedingly more complex over time.
Simple dredging projects are a thing of the past. But we think we
can develop and implement an eelgrass management strategy to provide
for environmental enhancement while balancing the needs of harbor
residents and visitors. This will be accomplished over the next year
with the input and guidance from the Harbor Commission and interested
citizens. I encourage you to monitor the city’s Web site
(www.city.newport-beach.ca.us), especially the Harbor Commission
agenda and minutes, for updates.
I will keep you posted as to future developments.
* EDITOR’S NOTE: Steve Bromberg is the mayor of Newport Beach.
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