By LEN BOSE
I can’t tell you how often someone will say, “I’m not going to swim in the harbor; that water is disgusting.” My response is “Oh No, No – the water has never been cleaner in my lifetime.” This leads to a long explanation of my observations and opinion of the water quality of the harbor. While on this topic, the city’s Harbor Department has some new equipment arriving to support my observations.
Keep in mind – I am a seat-of-the-pants sailor. When the smart people start talking about water quality and parts per million, my mind goes to the second race of last Thursday night’s race and how I gave up the lead on the second weather beat by not staying between the weather mark and my competition. What I do notice is that when I look down into the water I can see the bottom more often than in the past. When I push off from my slip, I notice much more eelgrass than I ever have.
Now for all the people like me who like to keep it simple and understand who the smart people are in town who know how to interpret the information, and make quick decisions on how to solve unforeseen problems. My smart person is our Harbormaster Paul Blank, and I was pleasantly surprised to learn during a Yachtsman Luncheon that Blank had taken classes in college on water quality and has a strong understanding of the lingo. Blank also has some new tools to help him monitor our harbor’s water quality. There are two Data Pods that have been placed in the harbor – one in Marina Park and the other in the anchorage off the end of Lido Isle. Note that this pod is stationed right where the proposed CAD collection area will be. The builder of these pods is Clean Earth Rovers; you can look them up for more information. These pods provide real-time diagnostic data to Blank every 15 minutes, so when pollution is detected action can be taken quickly. There is an artificial intelligence program named Gillian that helps Blank analyze raw data when there is a spill and how to manage it. This is some really cool stuff!
Next, you will notice two new “Roombas for the Harbor” officially called Rovers. These Rovers can get into the difficult areas of the harbor that can’t be reached by people with pool nets. These Rovers can travel 5 miles an hour, have 20 hours of battery life at cruising speed, and collect 100 gallons of debris including physical and chemical contaminants, oil, trash, algae, and more. There are many areas of the harbor with stagnant water flow that these tools are designed for.
Our harbor will soon be christening two new VITA Seal patrol boats; they’re not just for chasing seals off boats and docks. Seal patrol boats are a model name for VITA electric boats.
“We will be the first public agency in the U.S. to have an all-electric workboat. It seems fitting that we should be the first given the heritage and history of electric boats here in Newport Harbor, said Blank. “Through a voucher grant, the California Air Resources Board is paying for about half of it. We expect there to be environmental benefits associated with the use of the vessel including zero emissions and reduced hazards associated with refueling.”
Along with the new patrol boats, there will be a new charging station at Marina Park. “While it would be ideal if the charging station were in place before the vessel gets here, we’ll still be okay if it doesn’t,” said Blank. “There is a power pedestal already on the dock where the boat will berth and we can use it to charge overnight. On standard 50A electrical service, the charge time is expected to be six hours for the 126 kWh batteries. With the AQUA Superpower charger, that should be reduced to 56 minutes,” he said.
At this time, the christening of the new patrol boats is scheduled for Tuesday, Aug. 27 at 2 p.m. in conjunction with the ribbon cutting for the new public dock at 29th Street.
Sea ya.
~~~~~~~~
Len Bose is a yachting enthusiast, yacht broker and harbor columnist for Stu News Newport.
No comments:
Post a Comment