Dredging funds secured

A $17.3 million injection of federal stimulus money could see dredging in Upper Newport Bay completed by summer 2010, city officials announced Tuesday.

“This is a major milestone for improving the environmental quality of the bay and for our many citizens who appreciate this remarkable resource,” said Newport Beach Councilwoman Leslie Daigle, who has long lobbied to find funding for the dredging project.

Local officials had asked for $13.1 million in economic stimulus money for dredging the Upper Bay, under the direction of the Army Corps of Engineers, but were pleasantly surprised to learn Tuesday that the project had been awarded $17.3 million, said Newport Beach Assistant City Manager Dave Kiff.

“I’ve been a nag for probably the last five years now to get money appropriated — it’s ironic that it took an economic downturn to get the project done,” Kiff said.

The dredging project, which has been underway since 2006, has struggled to gain enough funding to continue work in the Upper Bay. A few, relatively small federal earmarks and a grant from the California Wildlife Conservation Board have kept the project going in recent months.

“We were pleasantly surprised that so much was allocated for this project — we didn’t really expect to receive the whole amount,” said Susan Brodeur, a senior coastal engineer for the County of Orange, who has overseen the dredging project.

One of the last remaining coastal wetlands in California, the Upper Bay is home to several species of protected migratory birds. The completed dredging project will improve water quality in the Upper Bay for the animals that call it home, officials said.

The Upper Bay provides a habitat for at least two endangered species of birds, the California least tern and the Belding’s savannah sparrow, Brodeur said. An earlier phase of the dredging project carved out an island in the Upper Bay for terns and sparrows to nest there.

The stimulus money will go to deepen and expand sediment-catching basins in the Upper Bay, visible from Jamboree Road, which will help filter some of the sediments and pollutants that flow down from the bay’s 750-acre watershed area, Brodeur said. The dredging phase of the project could be completed as soon as summer 2010.

The remaining money will go to test water quality and monitor sediment in the Upper Bay over the next few years, she said.

Daigle credited Reps. Ed Royce, Ken Calvert and Loretta Sanchez, along with Sen. Dianne Feinstein for helping to secure funding for the dredging project.

“They are true champions of this project and we’re grateful for their support,” she said.

Reporter BRIANNA BAILEY may be reached at (714) 966-4625 or at [email protected].