By LEN BOSE
I quite often step my foot into it when writing about anything other than sailing. Yet the completion and christening of the Trash Interceptor or Waterwheel in Upper Newport Bay is something for me to take a flyer on in hopes of presenting all the hurdles and efforts needed to complete the building of such a vessel.
All of you who are my age and older will recall all the oranges that floated down the bay after big storms. Now if I heard the story correctly, in the late 1960s what was referred to as the Mulholland effect premiered a hydrological event that changed Orange County forever. Agriculture improving the water channels by deepening and concreting these channels grew closer to the bay each year. In 1969, a large storm pushed most of the debris down the channels creating the San Diego Creek connecting the 120-square-mile tributary watershed into Newport Bay. In the early 1990s, the Upper Newport Bay overflowed with trash and debris after the first big rains of the season; the photos from this time are disturbing and should receive a “viewers discretion is advised alert” before viewing.
The San Diego Creek comprises the cities of Irvine, Santa Ana, Tustin, Laguna Woods and Lake Forest. All of these cities decided not to contribute into the cost of building and installing the Interceptor. The funding partners are the city of Newport Beach, Department of Water Resources, Help your Harbor/Surfrider Foundation, Ocean Protection Council and the Orange County Transportation Authority. I know there were a couple of grants, and local donations with the city spending funds covering staff time with the costs of this project coming in at $5.5 million.
It may read strange but the funding for this project seems almost easier than the permitting process overcoming CEQA and 17 different agencies from aesthetic, biological resources, greenhouse gas emissions, noise, etc.; it took seven years to complete the permitting process. The amount of trash and debris that enters this drainage network is transported by San Diego Creek ranging from 100-500 tons per year. The expected annual trash and debris capture 300-1,000 cubic yards. The Trash Interceptor Project is expected to reduce the amount of floating waste entering Upper Newport Bay via San Diego Creek by 80 percent. There is another channel that enters the harbor which is the Santa Ana-Delhi Channel. This channel has a 100 percent capture system and was completed in 2021. This is not the only way the city attacked this problem with something like more than 400 catch basins and a boom at the North Star Beach, along with the clean-up days around the harbor.
If you want to check out the Trash Interceptor, park on Eastbluff Drive near Jamboree Road. Cross Jamboree Road and walk north toward the Jamboree Road Bridge. Just before the bridge, turn right onto the bicycle path. The Trash Interceptor will come into view on the opposite bank of the San Diego Creek. I went down to check it out myself last week and I was first greeted by an osprey’s high-pitched screeching while searching the waters below its perch on a light pole on Jamboree. Walking the bike trail, I felt a certain back-to-nature feeling I have only felt in Catalina. The interceptor will withstand a 25-year storm. When we have such a storm, the booms will break away allowing the materials to pass by the interceptor and keep it from being overloaded and sinking.
The interceptor, of course, reminds me of a new sailboat with the crew still unsure how long you can keep your big sails up and when it’s time to shift gears and reduce sail area before you crash hard and break things. Don’t take me wrong – this is a very sturdy “ship,” but it’s just going to take a couple of seasons before her crew gets a better clue on how to handle her in different conditions, and how to keep her maintained throughout the seasons. The electronics are state-of-the-art with load cells, monitoring sensors and cameras everywhere. The electric system is solar powered with batteries, and all that other stuff I don’t care to understand, but it’s analogous to when a ship is properly built for the battle she chooses to engage in.
The city will take great pride in their new “ship,” and I am sure it will tell you about all her trophies and achievements. I am looking forward to her christening; it is my understanding that there might well be a naming contest. My two favorite names at this time are Osprey and the Reuben E. Lee. If by chance you are looking for a year’s end tax donation, consider contacting the Newport Harbor Foundation at https://newportharborfoundation.org/. Having one’s name on the wall near the Trash Interceptor would be awfully inspiring to future generations.
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Len Bose is a yachting enthusiast, yacht broker and harbor columnist for Stu News Newport.
