Lower Bay in focus

Newport Beach hopes Congress will finally be able to dredge up some money to begin a clean-up of Newport Harbor this year.

A $17.3 million chunk of federal stimulus funding awarded to finish dredging Upper Newport Bay earlier this week bodes well for Newport Harbor, local officials said.

“Now that funding is secured for the Upper Bay, priorities have shifted,” Newport Beach Councilwoman Leslie Daigle said. “We are hoping the Feds can reshuffle the deck and come up with seed money for the Lower Bay.”

It’s the season in Washington to talk appropriations, and the harbor dredging project could be higher up on the priority list this year for Orange County’s congressional delegation, said Newport Beach Assistant City Manager Dave Kiff.

“It’s good news for the harbor because we can now shift priorities for congressional appropriations for the Lower Bay,” Kiff said. “Now that the Upper Bay is taken care of, the Lower Bay is No. 1 on the list.”

The City Council has made cleaning out the harbor one of its top priorities this year, Daigle said.

“There’s a political catalyst taking place that was not present before that is causing things to happen,” she said.

“It’s a stated priority of the City Council and we’ve reached out to federal representatives outside of our congressional district for support.”

Newport Harbor hasn’t been thoroughly dredged since the 1930s, and boaters often complain of running aground. Cleaning the harbor falls under federal jurisdiction, but the project is low on the list of priorities because government officials view the site as a pleasure harbor, not a working waterway.

Newport Beach is doing its own preliminary testing in the lower harbor for sediments and toxins to give the project a jump-start.

The city hopes doing its own water testing will make the project more enticing for the Army Corps of Engineers when it comes to funding.

Col. Thomas H. Magness IV, commander of the Los Angeles District of the Army Corps of Engineers, is expected to head to Washington next week to seek out funding for various Corps projects, Newport Beach City Manager Homer Bludau said.

“The Army Corps of Engineers can now focus more on how we get a dredge in the Lower Bay and the financial pieces that need to be put together get that project ready and make a convincing argument that this is a project that should be funded and done,” Bludau said.

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