Money for bay not being dredged up

With no significant federal or city funding on the horizon, the future of a city plan to begin cleaning Newport Harbor is murky at best, and money to complete dredging in Upper Newport Bay could run dry as early as August.

Despite talk of budgeting $2 million to $4 million in city money as matching funding to spark a federal clean up of the lower part of Newport Bay, no money is slated in next year’s budget for the plan.

The Newport Beach City Council will instead look at passing a resolution at its meeting tonight to provide an undetermined amount of funding for the project in “any fiscal year.” As part of this year’s budgeting process, the Newport Beach Planning Commission recommended the City Council hold off making cleaning the lower harbor a priority until the city’s next planning period.

An outspoken critic of the congressional earmarking process, U.S. Rep. John Campbell will not request any federal funding for cleaning Upper Newport Bay, the congressman said Monday.

“Our congressman is anti-earmark and he thinks of it as a badge of honor,” said Newport Beach Councilwoman Leslie Daigle.

Regardless of Campbell’s stance on earmarks, any appropriations bill, hence any federal funding for dredging, is unlikely to make it out of Congress this year because of the presidential election, Campbell said.

“That’s a function of the fact Democrats believe they are going to increase majorities in both the House and Senate ... they’re pushing a whole lot of things off until 2009,” Campbell said.

Plans for Campbell to author a bill that would give Newport Beach control of Newport Harbor in exchange for one last cleaning of the federally controlled water have run aground for the moment, he said Monday.

Campbell has to obtain an estimate on what would be a fair price for the waterway before he drafts the bill, he said. City officials want the federal government to give them about $12 million for taking over responsibility of the waterway.

The lower harbor is under the jurisdiction of the Army Corps of Engineers, because it contains a federal navigation channel, but the channel is viewed by the Corps as more of a recreational area than a vital waterway.

“The city has said $12 million, and that’s great, but I need somebody in the federal government to say that’s a good number,” Campbell said. “It’s been difficult to do that. Now it makes it sound like a $12 million gift to the people of Newport Beach for people who have big yachts.”

Only a small amount of funding for administrative costs is slated for the dredging of the lower harbor in Newport’s budget for the next fiscal year. The council will consider a $100,000 supplemental budget request tonight to fund permitting and consultation for dredging Newport Harbor.

The council also could decide at a later date to dip into the city’s reserve funds for the project, said Newport Beach City Manager Homer Bludau.

“The question is, can we sit around and wait for the federal government to deal with a situation that’s becoming increasing more serious as time goes on,” Bludau said.

An estimated 900,000 cubic yards of sediment needs to be removed from the lower harbor.

Funding to finish cleaning Upper Newport Bay is short by about $13.8 million, according to the city’s latest estimate. Officials estimate it could cost an additional $1.5 million if the project has to stop due to lack of funding, then resume. City and county officials have asked U.S. Sens. Barbara Boxer and Dianne Feinstein for $12.3 million in federal appropriations next fiscal year.

BRIANNA BAILEY may be reached at (714) 966-4625 or at brianna.bailey@latimes.com.