ENVIRONMENT Newport Beach gets a little more...

ENVIRONMENT

Newport Beach gets a little more grassy

The city is about halfway through a seven-week pilot project to

transplant eelgrass from parts of the harbor where it is plentiful to

see how it will grow in other sites.

If the project works and the city gets the go-ahead from the

California Coastal Commission and the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers,

the city will create a site to grow eelgrass, which is protected by

state and federal policies. Dock owners would then be able to dredge

without worrying about disturbing eelgrass. Officials hope to have

their eelgrass mitigation plans approved by fall 2005.

* Orange County CoastKeeper officials and other environmental

activists gathered Friday at the Rhine Channel for the kickoff of the

most comprehensive study to date of what kind of pollutants are in

the channel and how best to clean them up. The channel is rife with

debris and contaminants from former shipyards and ongoing boating

activities, and it was named one of the county’s toxic hotspots in

1998.

The $346,000 study includes mapping exactly what’s in the channel,

taking core samples to see what contaminants are in the sediment and

suggesting clean-up strategies. Officials expect the study to be

finished in April 2005.