City still $13 million short for dredging
Andrew Edwards
Some local environmentalists have said they favor a federal proposal
to dump dredged sediment off Newport Harbor, but the timeline for any
work in Newport Bay is uncertain. The president’s proposed budget
would not provide any funds for the project.
“We need $13 million,” Newport Beach Assistant City Manager Dave
Kiff said. “We got zero.”
The city has already secured $13 million from the California
Coastal Conservancy to dredge the upper bay and has spent $500,000 on
planning, Newport Beach Harbor Resources Manager Tom Rossmiller said.
No city funds are earmarked for dredging, but an additional $13
million from Washington would be needed for the first year of the
project and another $12 million for the second year.
Dredging is used to prevent silt carried into the bay by the San
Diego Creek from accumulating and filling the bay.
One-million federal dollars were appropriated during the last
fiscal year for the Army Corps of Engineers, the federal agency that
would be involved in dredging, Rossmiller said. The proposed budget
for fiscal year 2006, which begins in October, cuts the Corps’ budget
by 7%, to $4.3 billion.
The reductions will likely reduce funding for projects that have
already started, Rep. Chris Cox said.
The president’s budget proposal outlines George W. Bush’s
priorities, but the final budget is traditionally a mix of fiscal
compromises between the White House and members of Congress.
Rossmiller said city officials plan to work with Rep. Chris Cox in an
effort to secure dredging cash as lawmakers wrangle for federal
dollars.
“As in years past, it means we are going to have to add this money
in Congress, because it is not in the president’s budget,” Cox said.
“I’m working this year to secure a multimillion-dollar contribution
for Upper Newport Bay restoration in 2005.”
In late January, the Environmental Protection Agency announced
plans to set aside an underwater area about 4.5 nautical miles from
Newport Harbor as a permanent dumping site for dredged sediments.
Materials would be subject to biological tests to make sure they are
not hazardous before they are dumped, EPA oceanographer Alan Ota
said.
Newport Beach officials supported the idea, because a local dump
site would prevent barges from having to haul waste to a site near
San Pedro, Kiff said. A more distant site would raise costs for
dredging projects.
Environmentalists who support the EPA’s idea include Newport
activist Jack Skinner, Newport Beach Surfrider Foundation chair Nancy
Gardner and Defend the Bay founder Bob Caustin. All three cited the
need for upper bay dredging as the primary reason for their views.
“Most of the sediments that are going to [the site] are to deal
with the sediments in Upper Newport Bay,” Skinner said.
The federal permit for the dumping site used in past dredging
operations expired at the beginning of 2003, but if funding
materializes, the project won’t end up in limbo if a permanent
dumping site is not approved, Rossmiller said. Since plans to dredge
the upper bay were approved when the old disposal area -- located
slightly closer to shore than the proposed site -- was still used,
scows will still be allowed to dump there if upper-bay dredging is
ever funded.
A decision on whether the new site will be approved could be made
by the EPA as early as this fall, Ota said.
Not all local environmentalists are happy with the project. Jan
Vandersloot of the Ocean Outfall Group is skeptical of the dumping
proposal and the specifics of the dredging plan. Vandersloot said he
is still evaluating the EPA’s idea, but he is concerned that dumped
waste could be swept by ocean currents to Crystal Cove or end up
mingling with sewage discharged by the Orange County Sanitation
District.
As far as the bay project is concerned, Vandersloot said he is
worried dredgers will dig too deep.
“I don’t think it’s a good idea to dig Newport Bay to 20 feet
[deep] when it’s supposed to be a shallow estuary,” he said.
The planned project will be larger than the 1998-99 dredging,
Rossmiller said. The last upper-bay dredging removed about 900,000
cubic yards of sediment; plans call for the next project to dig out
2.1-million cubic yards. Planners anticipate the upper bay will not
need to be dredged for 20 years after the project.
If money for dredging cannot be found, Gardner said, the bay could
end up with a drastically new look.
“Maybe it’s all moot,” she said. “The money will never be there,
and we’ll have a lovely meadow.”
* ANDREW EDWARDS covers business and the environment. He can be
reached at (714) 966-4624.
Daily Pilot Staff Writer Alicia Robinson contributed to this
report.
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