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.