Rhine cleanup may cost less in long run

Andrew Edwards

A draft report detailing options to clean up contaminated mud at the

bottom of Rhine Channel recommends the most expensive procedure be

pursued to fix the channel, though that option could cost millions

less than originally estimated.

The price of dredging the polluted waterway and dumping the

sediments in a landfill could cost slightly less than $17 million,

according to a draft report completed by Anchor Environmental, a

consulting firm with an office in Irvine. In April, the Newport Beach

Harbor Resources Division released figures stating that particular

cleanup method could cost more than $22 million.

Anchor Environmental’s final report initially was expected to come

out last month, but was delayed to allow for more study on the cost

of the landfill disposal. Anchor partner Steve Cappellino said he was

still working with landfills and the final report could show an even

lower estimated cost.

“What we’ve assumed is a worst case,” he said.

The report’s conclusion recommends landfill disposal if costs can

be reduced, though depositing the muck in a landfill would not be

Cappelino’s first choice.

Cappellino said he would prefer to use dredged sediment in a port

construction project. That method, which has a price tag of about

$7.5 million, would be the cheapest and safest environmentally.

However, that option depends on an outside party starting a project

that could use Rhine Channel mud.

“[A landfill is] the only kind of option that has certainty to

us,” Cappellino said.

A third choice, taking Rhine Channel mud offshore to a covered

disposal site, could cost about $12.6 million. The report states this

choice would likely be unpopular with environmentalists.

Rhine Channel, east of Balboa Peninsula, was home to the Newport

Beach’s shipbuilding industry and a former cannery site. Heavy metals

and industrial chemicals have been found in Rhine Channel sediments.