Back Bay dredging funds approved

S.J. Cahn

BACK BAY -- The city’s on-again, off-again, on-again need to beg for

money to dredge the Back Bay could be coming to an end.

The U.S. House of Representatives on Thursday passed legislation that

will give Newport Beach $21 million dollars over the next two decades to

consistently remove sediment from the bay.

“That’s excellent,” said water quality activist Jack Skinner. “We’ve

been working hard for several years for an endowment on the dredging.”

The money will be combined with about $11 million in state, county and

local funds -- much of it from Proposition 12, the state’s water bond.

Just last summer, the city nearly lost its part of the proposition

funding when other cities attempted to spend it before Newport Beach

could.

But that is no longer a threat, said a jubilant Homer Bludau, Newport

Beach city manager.

“We can go ahead and claim that money now,” Bludau said, adding that

the first dredging project could begin within a few years. “This is

really good news for us.”

Rep. Christopher Cox (R-Newport Beach), who helped ferry the

legislation through the House, said the bill has a “100% likelihood” of

being signed into law by President Clinton before the end of the month.

The best news, Skinner said, is that dredging now will be conducted on

a consistent basis.

“Every time there was a need for a dredging project, we’d have to go

begging,” he said. “It was so disconcerting because it took so much

effort, and oftentimes it was turned down at one level or another.”

Without dredging, he added, silt flowing down from adjacent canyons

and nearby land developments would fill the area, creating “a meadow out

in the Back Bay” and essentially wiping out its fragile ecosystem.

The sediment problem was first noticed in the 1980s, when three

sediment basins were dredged. During the ‘90s, when another round of

clearing was needed, it took years for the state to agree to pay the

$5.4-million dredging bill.

And then came the El Nino rains in late 1997. Some 200,000 cubic tons

of silt were washed into the bay, carrying with them an additional $2

million in dredging costs.

With the endowment in place, and constant dredging now a reality, the

overflow caused by such storms would be handled more easily, Skinner

said.

In addition to improving the condition of the Back Bay, the endowment

will allow for more economical work, Cox said.

“This is a better approval. This is a more efficient use of money,”

Cox said.

Frequently, because of delays often caused by political wrangling over

money, the typical $6- to $8-million cost of a five-year dredging project

would soar as much as 60%, Cox said.

The length of the endowment, which also includes money for projects

such as Everglades restoration, is much longer than usually seen, he

added.

Skinner stressed that it is necessary as well.

“We know that there is going to be a continuing threat of sediment

filling the Back Bay,” he said.