Newport weighs when, how to fix Balboa seawalls

Moving forward with the replacement of aging seawalls surrounding Balboa Island may find its way onto the Newport Beach City Council’s list of goals for this year.

Mayor Ed Selich said the state of the seawalls around the island and Balboa Peninsula will be among the topics during the council’s annual goal-setting meeting Jan. 31.

City staff and the Tidelands Management Committee have been working on the issue for years, but questions still need to be answered before a recommendation can be made to the council, Selich said.

“There’s a structural issue that needs to be solved,” said Selich, a member of the committee. “The fact of the matter is that they are old and nearing the end of their useful life.”

The City Council first set a goal in early 2010 to look into preparedness for rising sea levels. Staff members determined that the city needed to replace and/or increase the height of portions of the 20 miles of concrete walls that line the island, protecting bayfront homes from water surges during high tide.

Nearly every winter during especially high tides, city workers pump sea water back into the ocean after it has lapped over the walls. However, this winter’s high tides have been generally mild, officials said.

Seawalls around Balboa Island were built 85 years ago and were thought to have a longevity of 75 years. Over the years, the walls began to crack and become unstable. However, a city study completed in 2011 indicated the walls had 10 to 25 years left in them, giving the committee time to discuss options.

The committee said walls on the Grand Canal and west end of the island probably would need to be replaced because of cracking and projections of a sea-level rise between 17 and 66 inches by 2100. The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency projects a global sea-level rise of 24 inches by that year.

“This [rising sea level] is certainly coming,” Harbor Commission Chairman Brad Avery said. “But it’s not coming tomorrow.”

The total cost of fixing the seawalls was previously quoted at about $75 million, but the scope has been reduced to those two locations on the island. New seawalls there, expected to last about 100 years, are likely to cost about $22 million, according to city staff.

Jamshed (Jim) Dastur, chairman of the Balboa Island Improvement Assn., said it has been hinted in several forums that the city may look to property owners to pick up a portion of the cost.

“For the city and the property owners of Balboa Island to work as a homogenous team, working toward the most cost-effective solution, it is important for the city to unequivocally accept the financial responsibility for fixing the seawalls,” Dastur said.

Balboa Island residents and city officials also continue to debate how high the walls need to be to protect Balboa without corrupting the community’s charm.

“I think we’re moving ahead on this in a methodical manner,” Selich said. “We’ve developed a lot of information and are incrementally closing in on a solution.”