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| Don Logan photo |
By LEN BOSE
We all know that the Super Bowl is next weekend, but did you know it’s being played right here in Newport Beach, California? I bet you were thinking NFL championships. No, this is all about completing Phase II of the Lower Bay Dredging Project, which only comes around every 100 years. The cost of a Super Bowl ticket and dredging is similar in that both are very expensive and difficult to obtain. The purpose of this column is to explain the need for a Confined Aquatic Disposal (CAD), or “Super Hole” as I call it, in our harbor and explain how it will be used to reach our long-game goals.
The goal of the Phase II dredging project is to improve navigation and streamline the dredging process in Newport Harbor by creating a cost-effective disposal location for unsuitable materials. The level of unsuitability of this material is less than what the FDA permits for the swordfish you would be served at any of the seafood restaurants in town – that is, 1.5 ppm for the unsuitable material versus 1.6 ppm for the swordfish. The construction of a CAD facility is the solution for unsuitable sediment dredged from within lower Newport Harbor that is not accessible for beach replenishment or disposal at the EPA approved disposal site called LA3, which is about six miles out to sea from the harbor entrance.
So, before I get too far ahead of myself, let me go back to the beginning when on May 23, 1936, President Roosevelt pressed a telegraph key on his White House desk, to start the opening of our harbor. Prior to opening day, the Army Corps of Engineers removed 8,500 tons of sand and 50,000 tons of rock and the Lower Bay was dredged to a depth of 15 feet with the main channels 20 feet and the entrance channel to 25 feet at the cost of $1,835,000. Now fast forward to 2003 with the start of the environmental restoration of the Upper Bay and the Lower Bay with 2.9 million cubic yards of material removed. For us to return to our original depth, we have to enter into Phase II, which is the removal of one million cubic yards of sediment that covers most of the Lower Bay from the harbor entrance channel to the most western reaches of the harbor.
Of the one million cubic yards (CY), about 90 percent of the sediment in the harbor is characterized as “suitable.” Our councilmembers, harbor commissioners and city staff with a huge amount of hard work were able to lobby the EPA to allow us this one-time deal to place sediment at 1.5 parts per million from 1.0 parts per million. This allows us to place 850,000 CY in the LA3 dumping site. Seventy thousand CY of clean sand will be placed six miles off our coast that will replenish our beaches. This is a beautiful thing, and we are very lucky to be so “sand-rich.” The other 100,000 CY is “unsuitable material” and is the responsibility of the city to dispose of.
This is where the Super Hole/Confined Aquatic Disposal (CAD) is needed to complete the dredging of the Lower Bay. The hole would be 450 feet x 450 feet and 47 feet deep. The CAD will be located in the five points area of the harbor in the anchorage area just east of Lido Isle. The EPA and Army Corps have accepted the CAD as an affordable method to safely dispose of unsuitable materials. The CAD system is not new and is in seven other locations in the U.S., including two in California that are located in Long Beach and San Francisco. Simply put, the CAD system is the only feasible option the city has to complete our harbor’s dredging at this time.
There are concerns from some harbor users that the dredging will stir up the unsuitable materials, and if you are going to dredge them up why place them back in the harbor? When referring to unsuitable materials, mercury is the material that grabs your attention first. Understanding mercury concentrations within our harbor is well beyond my pay grade, yet it is simple to understand that these unsuitable materials are at the top of the level of the sediment. So, if your kids or grandchildren are making sandcastles on the beaches around Lido, Balboa Bay Club, or at Marina Park, they could potentially be playing in or near unsuitable material. By dredging the harbor, we would be digging up these materials and placing them in a 47-foot hole and placing a three-foot cap of clean sand on top of it which completely isolates chemical contaminants from the environment. With one million CY of sediment removed from the harbor, the bay will have two hundred million gallons of additional water. The deeper the water, the bigger the flush. These two flushes a day bring in cleaner water and nutrients to our ecosystem.
Another concern is the disruption of navigation at this point of the harbor with the scows and dredging equipment. After further review and a better understanding of the whole project, this is simply a win-win for the entire harbor. I’m confident the city will work with the community to minimize the impact. The many different harbor users have worked and played around the dredging equipment before, therefore it should be no different than the last time we dredging in Phase I.
So here is the good news! The Army Corps of Engineers’ work plan for 2021 includes 6.7 million dollars for dredging Newport Harbor, which is twice as much as we received in 2012. That brings the scoreboard to $9.6 million in federal funding. The city has spent two million already on engineering, design and permitting along with six million in sponsorship in hand and is working to find the remaining funds to complete the project. It has taken years to get to this point, with Congressman Ken Calvert (CA-42) and Congresswoman Michelle Steel (CA-48) stepping up and obtaining the funding for our harbor. A Bravo/Zulu for a job well done must be flown for City Councilmembers Duffy Duffield, Mayor Brad Avery, Harbor Commissioner Scott Cunningham, Public Works Director Dave Webb and Public Works Administrative Manager Chris Miller. It’s game time baby…the ball is teed up, so let’s do this and kick the ball past the end zone. The last thing we need is to have some Lucy pull the ball away and have us land on our backs for another 100 years.
Sea ya.
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Len Bose is a yachting enthusiast, yacht broker and harbor columnist for Stu News Newport
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