Dredging relief for bay

A floating dredge that will suck sediment off the bottom of Upper Newport Bay like a giant vacuum cleaner was launched Friday morning.

The dredging operation is intended to restore and enhance one of the last remaining coastal wetlands in Southern California. The Back Bay serves as a habitat for a variety of migratory waterfowl, shorebirds and endangered species of birds and plants.

If the excess sediment were not removed, the estuary would fill in and become a meadow, destroying wildlife habitat.

Orange County, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, the California Department of Fish and Game and the California Coastal Conservancy worked together to plan the ecosystem restoration project, which is expected to take three years to complete. The dredging portion of the project will continue through June 2007.

Early Friday morning, the dredge was launched at the Newport Dunes Marina on Back Bay Drive.

The dredging will begin once a scow or barge arrives to hold the sediment that is removed, said Larry McKenney, manager of the watershed and coastal resource division of Orange County. The sediment will be deposited on the ocean floor at an EPA-approved site five miles off Newport Beach.

The cost of the project, about $39 million, will be shared by federal, state and local agencies, as well as the private sector. The project was left out of President George Bush’s 2007 budget, but state and local politicians hope to secure the $19 million needed to complete the work.

McKenney said the bay needs dredging roughly every 20 years. To reduce the sediment buildup, the county tries to minimize erosion in the drainage area upstream by maintaining vegetation along the streams and water-retention basins.

Urbanization has exacerbated the sediment problem, he said. Developers now must adhere to design standards intended to control excess water runoff and erosion.

The dredging project will remove 2.3 million cubic yards of material from the Upper Bay to deepen and expand the basins and relocate an island for shorebirds including least terns from the upper basin to the lower basin.

It will also restore wetlands along Northstar Beach, Shellmaker Island and a section of the northwestern edge of the upper basin, as well as restore side channels around the tern island in the upper basin, New Island, Middle Island and Shellmaker Island.dpt.25-dredge-2-CPhotoInfoTQ1OBVBV20060225iv7tcxkn(LA)A dredging barge rests in the boat launch at Newport Dunes. The operation began successfully Friday morning.dpt.25-dredge-1-CPhotoInfoTQ1OBVB920060225iv7tclknPHOTOS BY DON LEACH / DAILY PILOT(LA)A backhoe digs into the mud as dredging begins at Upper Newport Bay on Monday. Rare birds and other wildlife will benefit.