COMMUNITY COMMENTARY:Dredging needed to improve quality of life

The marine environment around us moderates the temperature, creates diversity of climate and produces a unique geography of cliffs, bluffs, beaches, a bay and estuaries. Our environment is a main factor in our quality of life and the enhancement of our property values. The city’s water resources are used for a broad range of recreational activities. Newport Harbor, which is also referred to as Lower Newport Bay, is a beautiful and unique yacht harbor with more than 9,000 boats. The city is proactively working to address the problem of sedimentation in our harbor.

The harbor was constructed in the 1930s. Because of the Federal Navigational Channel, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers is obligated to dredge parts of the harbor. The entrance to the harbor was dredged three times in the past 30 years, but there has not been any significant maintenance dredging for more than 70 years. The ongoing accumulation of sediment presents issues for safe navigation. It impairs the use of slips, marinas and yacht club facilities. The number of vessel groundings in the harbor has grown to the point that Newport Beach has requested that the Army Corps perform an emergency dredging.

These conditions have languished due to technical, bureaucratic issues and funding availability. The city is being proactive about this problem by looking at state and local financing methods to get harbor dredged.

Year after year, despite requests made to the corps and to Congress, funding to dredge the harbor never materializes. Therefore, the city is taking it upon itself to find a means to solve the problem of sedimentation in the harbor by defining a project and identifying state and local financing. Among other things, our harbor commission developed an emergency project for the area surrounding Lido Isle, Bay Island, Bayshores and Harbor Island. This area contains substantial anchorage, slip and berthing facilities, and navigation channels. The project proposes to remove 400,000 cubic yards of sediment. The City Council’s finance committee will evaluate nine financing options identified by the harbor commission and present the results to the council.

The efforts presently underway to dredge the Upper Newport Bay, or Back Bay, are integral to the future sediment conditions of the harbor. Part of the natural process of sedimentation is that sand and silt wash downstream from San Diego Creek Watershed and gradually fill the Back Bay and then the harbor.

The current Back Bay dredging project will remove 2.1-million cubic yards of sediment and create two sediment basins with a capacity of 4 million cubic yards but are not allowed by a Santa Ana Regional Water Quality Control Board order to exceed one-half their capacities. These basins are designed to intercept sediment that would be transported to the harbor. As the Back Bay dredging project finishes, it would be most appropriate to take advantage of an existing dredge and marshaling area on site and conduct the long-neglected maintenance dredging of the harbor.

Residents are also taking initiative to solve the problem of the silting up of the harbor.

Residents of Channel Reef recognized that inadequate dredging over the years created difficulties for the maintenance of a safe and usable marina near China Cove. They worked with the city to plan and permit the dredging of their marina. As a result of this partnership, the city will take clean sand from the Channel Reef dredging to replenish public beaches on Balboa Island and at Corona Del Mar State Beach. The Channel Reef Community Assn. will spend approximately $200,000 for dredging, and the city will fund the $195,000 cost to transport the sand, which provides benefits to other waterfront areas. The Coastal Commission enhanced the project by offsetting the city’s $195,000 participation with $185,000 in developer-impact fees that reduced the city’s cost. Tom Rossmiller of the city’s harbor resources department monitors projects before the Coastal Commission and fought for the funding to come to our community.

Recently ratified by the voters of Newport Beach, our community’s vision statement within our general plan states that Newport Beach is a premier recreational harbor. Policy language in the general plan requires the city to develop a comprehensive sediment-management program that provides for safe navigation and improved water quality.

The harbor commission and the City Council are responding to our community’s vision by proactively looking at financing methods to dredge Lower Newport Bay.

The removal of sediment provides benefits for those seeking recreation, cleaner water, more vibrant wildlife and an even better quality of life in our coastal community.

is a Newport Beach city councilwoman.