Water testing site may cost $4.5 million

The Newport Beach City Council will vote Tuesday whether to award a contract on the planned Back Bay Science Center, a precedent-setting project that will create a nearly $4.5-million, state-of-the-art, ocean-water testing program and educational facility on Shellmaker Island.

The council will vote whether to approve a $584,000 contract to Douglas E. Barnhart Inc. as construction manager, contracts to 16 subcontractors and to amend a professional services agreement with Gail P. Pickart to manage the project. The total bid price of the project is $4,469,033, about $1 million more than the city’s previous estimate.

The project, in the making for five years, stalled for a while when the contract was let out for bid in June 2004 and the city received no bids. Competition for contractors may have contributed to that result, said Asst. City Manager Dave Kiff.

Over the past 10 years, the city has invested in programs that help protect water quality, said Nancy Gardner, founder of the Newport Beach Chapter of the Surfrider Foundation.

Even before ocean water testing became state law, the city had one of the few ocean water quality testing labs in the state, Gardner said.

“With the Back Bay Science Center’s planned state-of-the-art ocean-water-testing program, it is only fitting that we continue to lead the way,” Gardner said.

City Councilwoman Leslie Daigle said the facility will achieve a breakthrough for the community by creating an unusual collaboration of diverse groups. The Miocean Foundation, which is donating $500,000 to the project, is a nonprofit that connects corporate sponsorship to environmental projects.

“The Miocean board is very excited about this project,” said Greg Wohl, head of the foundation’s education task force. “It is the essence of what Miocean’s cause is all about ? eliminating runoff pollution along the Orange Coast.

“If you can’t measure the quality of water ? measure the level of pollution in the ocean ? it is impossible to do anything about it,” Wohl said.

The Back Bay Science Center is proposed for construction on Shellmaker Island in the Upper Newport Bay Ecological Reserve.

If the council awards the contract, the city is expected to break ground in March and construction is expected to take 11 months, Kiff said.

Douglas E. Barnhart has experience managing complex projects such as the proposed science center, said Newport Beach City Manager Homer Bludau, adding that it was also selected for its background in wetland and environmental restoration.