Rhine Channel won’t be filled to fix pollution

Andrew Edwards

Scientists have ruled out the possibility of filling the polluted

Rhine Channel with clean sand as a cleanup measure, officials

involved with the project said.

Though covering contaminated sediments with clean sand would be

less costly than other cleanup methods, such a solution would

decrease the channel’s navigability.

“It will make it too shallow for big boats,” Orange County

CoastKeeper executive director Garry Brown said. “We wouldn’t

recommend something that would restrict use of the channel.”

Possible cleanup measures were laid out in the March edition of

Newport Beach’s monthly harbor report. Fixing the polluted channel

could be completed by a range of dredging alternatives and possible

treatment of the polluted sediments.

Harbor Resources manager Tom Rossmiller could not be reached to be

provide further information on cleanup options.

The Orange County CoastKeeper, a nonprofit watchdog organization

that focuses on water-quality issues, was asked by the Santa Ana

Regional Water Quality Control Board to manage a study of pollution

in the channel. The CoastKeeper hired Irvine-based Anchor

Environmental to collect samples of Rhine Channel mud. Testing of

channel sediments started in November.

Because the layering of clean sand is off the table, scientists

will forego plans for additional testing that would have evaluated

the effects of pollution on marine life living in the muck at the

bottom of the channel, Anchor Environmental partner Steve Cappellino

said.

That testing, which was planned for after the study started, is

not necessary because CoastKeeper’s report on the channel will

recommend cleanup options that would go beyond leaving contaminated

sediments in place and covering them up, Cappellino said.

The water quality control board will select the cleanup method

after receiving public input on the report, which is expected to be

finished around late March or early April.

“I’d be surprised if by the middle of April, something’s not on

the street,” Cappellino said.

Rhine Channel juts into the east side of the Balboa Peninsula and

is a former cannery site at the center of Newport Beach’s boatyards.

Pollutants discovered in the channel include heavy metals, pesticides

and PCBs, industrial chemicals that were used to prevent fires before

being banned by Congress in 1976.

Draft sediment data show that in areas of the channel where the

highest concentrations of some contaminants were recorded, pollutants

exceed levels that could harm marine life, CoastKeeper project

manager Ray Hiemstra said.

In areas of maximum concentrations, copper, lead, mercury,

pesticides, PCBs and other substances could pose dangers to sea life.

Scientists do not believe Rhine Channel pollution is a direct

threat to people, Hiemstra said. However, pollution could pose an

indirect risk via the food chain.

Hiemstra said sand bass is one game species believed to be

affected by Rhine Channel pollution. He did not have information

available on other fish species that could be affected and advised

anglers to rely on health notices provided by the state.

For the waters around Newport Pier, the state Office of

Environmental Health Hazard Assessment does not currently have any

warnings posted for sand bass, but advises that people eat corbina

only once every two weeks.

* ANDREW EDWARDS covers business and the environment. He can be

reached at (714) 966-4624 or by e-mail at andrew.edwards

@latimes.com.