Plan may net $5 million in federal funds

D.C. lawmakers recommend the sum for Back Bay dredging project; supporters positive.Back Bay dredging could get $5 million in federal money, funds that are still millions away from paying for the work but enough to have project supporters feeling optimistic.

That confidence comes from their belief that the start of dredging should generate momentum that could make it easier to secure more funding.

It’s easier to keep a project once it’s begun, Orange County Supervisor Jim Silva said.

The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers is set to supervise the dredging, and a corps spokesman said the work is expected to begin in January. The projected cost for dredging is $39.2 million, and the bulk of that money is expected to come from the federal government.

If the $5-million recommendation is allocated to the project, it would be added to $1 million in federal money already approved for the project and $12 million pledged to the work by the California Coastal Conservancy.

Newport Beach City Councilman Tod Ridgeway, who as mayor traveled to Washington in 2004 with Silva and others to garner support for the project, agreed with Silva that bay dredging would likely have a greater chance of capturing money as it moves from a proposal to an actual undertaking.

“We become a project -- a project has a much higher priority in the [budget] cycle,” Ridgeway said.

A House-Senate conference committee recommended the $5-million amount Monday. Members of the conference committee ironed out differences between versions of the energy and water appropriations bill passed by the House of Representatives and the Senate. The House passed the conference committee’s version of the bill Wednesday.

In Ridgeway’s view, two key factors leading to the $5-million recommendation were Sen. Dianne Feinstein’s support for the project and when former Rep. Chris Cox toured the bay in February with Ohio Rep. David Hobson. Hobson chairs the House’s subcommittee on energy and water development appropriations.

Cox left Congress in August after being appointed chairman of the Securities and Exchange Commission.

Lacking a representative in the House, Ridgeway said project funding was vulnerable, though he believes local advocates managed to make up for the Congressional vacancy.