Federal money will help complete bay studies

Susan McCormack

Almost $1.5 million recently awarded to the city will be spent to

complete shoreline and bay protection projects that are already underway,

said Dave Kiff, deputy city manager.

The money was given to the city as part of a total $3.4-million

package presented to the county this week by the House Appropriations

Subcommittee on Energy and Water Development.

Orange County Supervisor Tom Wilson, who chairs the county’s Coastal

Coalition, and Congressman Christopher Cox (R-Newport Beach) worked to

get the money eventually approved by the subcommittee.

Bob Caustin, president of Defend the Bay, a Newport Beach-based

nonprofit group that fights for the estuary’s protection, applauded the

efforts.

“I’m thrilled that Supervisor Wilson was able to bring this money from

[Washington,] D.C. home,” he said.

Kiff said about $700,000 will be used to complete Environmental

Protection Agency studies on a dredging dump site about four miles off

the Newport Beach pier. The site is temporary, and Kiff said the studies

will determine whether or not it can be made permanent, which would

greatly reduce the cost of future bay dredging projects.

“If [the site] goes away ... it will double our dredging costs because

we will have to take our dredging to Long Beach,” Kiff said.

The studies, which amount to a total of about $1 million, entail

mapping the sea floor using satellites.

An additional $200,000 will benefit studies being conducted by the

U.S. Army Corps of Engineers on the upper and lower bay. One is a

“baseline” study that will determine the optimal ecosystem for Upper

Newport Bay. The study is expected to be completed by March, and the

federal government will then pay for 65% of the cost of helping the bay

achieve that optimal ecosystem, Kiff said.

The other part of the study is focused on finding out what can be done

upstream to prevent sediment from flowing into the bay in the first

place.

The rest of the money will be used to improve the Newport Beach

shorelines and other bay projects.

Caustin said while the money will greatly benefit the city, it is not

enough to solve all the problems that plague the estuary.

“The work we’re doing with this is going in the right direction,

toward solving some of the problems that have been plaguing the bay for

years,” he said. “But there’s so much to be done. $1.5 million sounds

like a lot, but when you’re looking at 154 square miles of watershed

being drained into the bay, it gets eaten up pretty darn fast.”