EDITORIAL:

Money to dredge Upper Newport Bay could evaporate as early as August, and the city might need about $14 million to clean it up.

Because the waterway falls under federal jurisdiction, this sounds like a job for Rep. John Campbell. Problem is, Campbell thinks there’s only two ways to solve the dilemma. Either he convinces the feds to hand over the keys to the bay and throw in about $12 million into the deal to clean it up, or he just seeks federal funding for the project.

Newport Beach officials, meanwhile, are talking about throwing in a few million of their own money to jump-start some matching federal funds.

But Campbell stubbornly refuses to ask for federal funding. He considers that an “earmark,” and he’s philosophically opposed to earmarks.

While we admire the congressman’s earnest crusade against wasteful Washington spending, we fail to see how using tax dollars to clean the upper bay is an unnecessary extravagance. Like most sensible folks, we’re appalled when we hear about boondoggles like earmark funding for a museum paying homage to the Woodstock concert. But cleaning the upper bay isn’t pork. It has to be done.

Newport Beach officials shouldn’t have to run hat in hand to Sens. Barbara Boxer and Dianne Feinstein to get the funding. That’s just plain embarrassing. This is Campbell’s backyard, and he needs to fight for necessary funding in his district.

Go ahead and fight the good fight against wasteful spending, Congressman, but use some common sense when it comes to the upper bay. We seriously doubt a federal grant to clean Upper Newport Bay is going to touch off a local tax revolt.

And for Campbell to also try to put the blame on Democrats, claiming the majority party won’t even consider doling out any spending on this scale until after the presidential election, sounds like a self-fulfilling prophecy. He hasn’t even tried, and he’s already calling it quits.

Rep. Campbell, not all earmarks are bad. You need to fight harder to solve this problem.