County works to clear sand-clogged, stagnant canal in Newport

Karl Post noticed last week that it had been high tide for an awfully long time in his Newport Beach neighborhood.

Post lives in Newport Shores, a community along a canal that juts from the Santa Ana River just above Coast Highway.

Homes line the waterway where residents kayak, paddleboard and swim.

Typically, seawater cycles in and out of the area with the tides. As the ocean pushes into the river mouth, it fills the nearby canal up to about 15 feet deep, according to neighbors.

But Post said he noticed Sept. 23 that the water level was staying at its highest point.

Crossing over the riverbed below Coast Highway, he could see why.

When Hurricanes Marie and Norbert churned through the Pacific in August and September, they kicked up heavy surf along the Newport coast. It turns out they had a lingering effect in Newport Shores.

The massive waves pushed so much sand up the beach that it blocked the river mouth, meaning water couldn’t flow in or out of the canal, according to neighbors and Orange County Public Works.

“It was totally blocked off from the ocean,” Post said.

In his 15 years of living in Newport Shores, Post had never seen the channel blocked like that. Residents weren’t even sure who to call to fix the problem.

“I think all day [Sept. 25] we spent trying to figure out who to talk to,” said resident Michelle Steinhardt.

Eventually, Steinhardt, Post and others were able to catch the ear of public works officials, who sent crews Wednesday morning to start pushing away the sand.

Residents prodded the county to get something done as they watched their usually clear waterway start to accumulate algae and develop a distinct smell.

“All the sea life was in danger with the stagnant water,” Post said.

Neighbors passed around a photo of a stingray found dead in the canal, and they started worrying about sand sharks and other species they would normally find healthy in the water.

On Tuesday, OC Public Works spokesman Shannon Widor contacted Newport Shores residents to tell them the recent weather had indeed caused the sand build-up and that the county would start work the next day to get the canal back to normal.

High tide will interrupt the work periodically, but Widor said crews hope to be finished by Oct. 10.

Post hopes they’ve already cleared enough sand to let the tide in and out. “If that happens, Mother Nature will take its course and water will start to flow,” he said.