Alternative to controversial plan to bury contaminated sediment in Newport Harbor gains traction

Environmentalists claimed victory this week over a stalled plan to bury contaminated sediment in Newport Harbor and applauded an alternative proposed earlier this month that would repurpose it for a pier expansion program in Long Beach.

But city officials say both options are still on the table.

The sediment would be the byproduct of dredging the harbor so channels remain deep enough for boats to safely navigate the federally controlled waterways. Newport Beach officials have described the substance as nontoxic. But samples from the bottom of the harbor have tested positive for trace amounts of harmful chemicals including mercury, polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs) and the pesticide dichloro-diphenyl-trichloroethane (DDT).

The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers had planned on building a confined aquatic disposal (CAD) facility to contain the sediment. That would have meant digging a 47-foot deep hole in the harbor to deposit the contaminated material, then capping it with a clean layer of sand.

But after ongoing outcry from environmentalist groups and a lawsuit that has put the CAD project on hold for over a year, the Corps might abandon it entirely. Instead, the sediment could be taken out of the water and sealed, repurposing it for a pier extension project at the Port of Long Beach, according to an updated report submitted by the government agency on Aug. 14.

Tiaan Wienand with Friends of Newport Harbor protests a dump site in Newport Bay on Sept. 27, 2022.

(File Photo)

“The new plan for the dredged material is a big win for our waters,” Orange County Coastkeeper President Garry Brown said in a statement issued Tuesday.

The alternative to the CAD facility proposed this month is similar to how officials dealt with sediment from the dredging of the Rhine Channel south of Lido Peninsula in 2011. It’s an option city and federal authorities would have pursued when they were planning the current phase of dredging in 2022, Newport Beach spokesman John Pope said. But at that time, officials in Long Beach said they wouldn’t have use for more sediment as a building material for the foreseeable future.

That changed earlier this year, and talks with officials in Long Beach in recent months have been moving in a positive direction, Pope said. But he added that no formal agreement had been reached as of this week. So if the pier extension plan falls through, the Corps may have to return to the CAD or some modified version of it to deal with the byproduct of dredging Newport Harbor.

A rendering of what the proposed confined aquatic dredged disposal site will look like.

(Courtesy of the city of Newport Beach)

OC Coastkeeper sued the Corps in 2022, alleging it had violated the Endangered Species Act and National Environmental Policy Act by failing to conduct surveys and analysis on the impact of dredging and the CAD facility on protected wildlife. That resulted in an out-of-court settlement agreement in March requiring the Corps to consult with other federal agencies like the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) to further examine the dredging project’s impact on habitats.

One new provision mentioned in the updated environmental report is a monitoring program to look out for sea turtles and other protected species. It also states that the Corps “is now proposing to transport and place the [sediment] within the Port of Long Beach’s (POLB) Pier G Slip Fill Site.”

It’s still unclear how soon dredging in Newport Harbor may resume. Representatives for the Corps declined to discuss the project’s timeline or its plans for the contaminated sediment it collects “given pending litigation.”

“The Corps is continuing to work diligently to complete its environmental review under the National Environmental Policy Act and other applicable environmental laws,” a spokesperson for the agency said in an email Thursday.

Although federal and local officials have not characterized the CAD facility as canceled, Coastkeeper considers it defeated. In addition to the proposal of the pier extension, the group also points to the suspension of the California’s State Water Resources Control Board certification for dredging and the CAD project in July.

“Based on this, I don’t believe it is accurate to say that other options are on the table at this point,” Coastkeeper spokesman Matt Sylvester said Wednesday via email.

Newport Beach officials called the pier extension project “a promising opportunity,” in a statement. However, they say it’s not a done deal.

“In the event that the Pier G option is not implemented, the Confined Aquatic Disposal (CAD) in Newport Harbor remains an option to the city and Army Corps,” Pope said.