Council: Dump site not harmful

Laguna Beach is dropping its study of the dumping of dredged materials from Newport Beach’s Back Bay at a site three miles off the coast of Laguna, after a subcommittee determined there was no cause for alarm.

The Laguna Beach City Council on March 4 accepted the verdict of its Newport Harbor Dumping Site subcommittee — Mayor Jane Egly and Councilman Kelly Boyd — that their research should be terminated.

“After hearing reports, Kelly and I decided there was no reason to go forward,” Egly said.

According to Egly, no prohibitive toxicity was found by the Army Corps of Engineers in the Back Bay that is being dredged and dumped in the ocean.

The subcommittee, however, was advised to watch out for dredging in the lower bay, because it probably is more toxic.

Councilwoman Cheryl Kinsman, whose son sails in Newport Harbor, said the whole area is suspect.

“I know that what is at the bottom of that bay is not healthy,” Kinsman said “What comes out of boats is not good.”

The site of the dumping had many local water quality activists in an uproar because of its proximity to Laguna and because they believed Laguna officials were never notified.

“An EIR[ environmental impact report] was done and sent to a number of agencies, including Laguna Beach, but it never got the right people,” Egly claimed.

“Newport Harbor would have liked a dump site closer [to it] because it would be cheaper.”

In fact, she said, the Corps thought it was closer to Newport.

“That doesn’t surprise me,” Kinsman said.

The site off of Laguna’s coast is 1,600 feet deep and more than three miles out. The dump flattens out in the water and does not build into a cone, Egly said.