COMMUNITY COMMENTARY:

If you regularly drive along Jamboree Road from the 73 Freeway to the coast you will have noticed some dramatic changes at the uppermost end of the Back Bay. Sediment washed down San Diego Creek has transformed areas of open water into mudflat.

The channels around the two islands that are protected nesting areas for the endangered California least tern are filled in, making the birds and their eggs vulnerable to feral cats. Sediment carried down the bay and out to the ocean has affected other habitats and species within the Upper Newport Bay Ecological Reserve, created navigation problems in the Lower Newport Bay, and has affected the Marine Refuges along the Newport Coast.

The need for a long-term solution was identified in the 1990s, various studies were performed, and alternate designs proposed. The outcome was a $38.5-million UNB Ecosystem Restoration Project (“dredging project”) to be funded 65% by the federal government and 35% by local partners.

For the project to be performed efficiently, all of the roughly $13.5 million local share of the funds was committed up-front in 2005. Yet only $11 million of the roughly $25 million federal share has been provided so far. U.S. Sen. Dianne Feinstein and Rep. John Campbell and Ed Royce have been able to secure an additional $2.2 million in the current federal budget, which will enable the contractor to continue on the crucial main part of the project, which is the widening and deepening of the capture basin at the entry of San Diego Creek to the Bay. However, unless more federal money is authorized by fall, the work will have to stop and the contractor will demobilize. Remobilization later will result in substantial additional costs.

Potentially much of the restoration work performed thus far with the local funds will be undone because the much larger and more efficient capture basin will not have been dredged. The recent wildfires that ravaged the foothills of the Newport Bay watershed have left barren hillsides that are prone to mudslide before new vegetation is established. If we have a wet winter in the next several years, a major storm will almost certainly dump a massive amount of sediment into the bay.

To avoid a costly demobilization this fall two things must happen. The federal Army Corps of Engineers needs to allocate sufficient bridge funding this summer to keep the contractor fully mobilized pending approval of the federal October 2008 to September 2009 budget. And the bulk of the remaining federal commitment needs to be included in the 2009 budget.

The Newport Beach City Council is committed to lobbying the Orange County Congressional Delegation to express its full support for the restoration project, as well as to request that they take every necessary action to secure final funding for the project. The Newport Beach Chamber of Commerce has initiated a petition to help this effort. You can view the petition online and write a letter to support this important cause.

ROGER MALLETT isa member of Newport Bay Naturalists & Friends.