Alicia RobinsonA cable tangled in a propeller...

Alicia Robinson

A cable tangled in a propeller led to the second incident in five

weeks of a 167-foot dredging ship running aground in West Newport.

The Eland ran aground around 9 p.m. Friday night, but the exact

cause is uncertain, said Newport Beach Lifeguard Lt. John Mitchell.

Lifeguards were on scene to keep beach visitors at a safe distance

from the ship.

The boat has been floating just offshore for about the last two

months, helping manage a 1,200-foot pipe carrying sediment dredged

from the Santa Ana River to an offshore disposal site between Fern

and 60th streets.

The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers is heading the $5 million project

to dredge 400,000 cubic yards of sediment from the river to help

prevent flooding.

“What we do know is the fact that [Friday] afternoon in an attempt

to pull the dredge pipe back offshore in a position to start

production again, one of the cables wrapped around one of the

[propellers],” Mitchell said.

A diver freed the cable, but the Eland may have lost

maneuverability long enough to drift inland, or its anchor may have

slipped.

Two tugboats tried to pull the ship back to sea during high tide

Saturday morning -- the same procedure worked when the Eland ran

aground Feb. 5 -- but one of the cables pulling the boat broke and

the effort failed, Mitchell said. Workers were expected to try again

at high tide Saturday evening.

The boat’s plight didn’t interrupt any beachgoers’ activities. In

fact, some Saturday afternoon surfers were riding waves right next to

the hulking, immobile ship just south of the Santa Ana River mouth.

But it has caused another delay in the dredging project, which has

been plagued with them.

The project was supposed to be wrapping up about now. Heavy storms

and damaged pipes have caused minor delays, and the fast-approaching

nesting season of the endangered least terns, which live on an

offshore island near the dredging project, could mean the dredging

will drag on until this fall.

Whether workers will be able to prevent the boat from running

aground again is unknown, but on a project like this one, a few

technical problems aren’t surprising, said Karl Von Voight, a

sergeant with the Orange County Sheriff’s Harbor Patrol.

“It’s a hazardous operation when you’re working that close to the

shore,” he said.

* ALICIA ROBINSON covers government and politics. She may be

reached at (714) 966-4626 or by e-mail at alicia.robinson

@latimes.com.