Cuts Could Mire Oceanside Sand Project : City Will Enter Congressional Budget Fray to Restore Funding

Since 1982, the Army Corps of Engineers has spent nearly $12 million trying to build an experimental sand-bypass system in Oceanside that would dredge the city’s harbor and replenish sand on eroding beaches.

After frustrating delays, city officials were hopeful that the innovative system, an alternative to costly traditional dredging, would at last begin operating in July.

But, just when the city thought it had conquered the problems met early in the project, the future of the system is once again in jeopardy. Proposed federal budget cuts threaten to force the Corps of Engineers to abandon the job.

Plan to Enter the Fray

City officials say that, after investing this much time and money, they plan to enter the congressional budget fray in an attempt to save the project.

Calling the proposed cutbacks for the coming fiscal year “ludicrous,” Dana Whitson, Oceanside’s special projects director, said city officials, including Mayor Larry Bagley and City Manager Ron Bradley, will travel to Washington later this month to meet with lobbyists and try to persuade Congress to restore the project’s funding.

“They’ve spent nearly $12 million total, if you include costs for development, design and engineering,” Whitson said. “That they would walk away from it, quote, to save money, is ludicrous.

“If completed, this could have widespread application,” Whitson said. “It has tremendous experimental value in that it could help decrease the cost of dredging harbors throughout the nation. We’re gearing up for a big effort to get funding reinstated.”

In theory, the bypass system will use jet pumps to suck sand from Oceanside Municipal Harbor’s silt-clogged entrance channel and dump it on beaches.

The project was immediately beset by mechanical problems, but, since a change in contractors last fall, the system is expected to be in operation in July, Whitson said.

Funding Gone in September

However, unless planned budget cuts are restored, money will run out by the end of September, and the multimillion-dollar pumps will become useless, Whitson said.

“It is my understanding that the funds were cut” by the Office of Management and Budget, Mayor Larry Bagley said. “After all the money that has been spent and the potential this project has, we feel that money has to be put back in.”

As a cost-saving measure to reduce the Army Corps of Engineer’s budget, the OMB decided to eliminate the corps’ operation and maintenance account for harbors with less than 25,000 tons of commercial activity a year, Whitson said. The sand-bypass system is financed through the operation and maintenance budget.

The city, which was expecting to receive nearly $5 million through the account for the project and dredging, won’t receive a cent if Congress approves the cuts, Whitson said.

He argues that the proposed cuts unfairly penalize the project, which he says never should have been financed through the corps’ operation and maintenance account in the first place. Typically, a project requiring substantial capital and construction is financed through the corps’ construction account.

But, because the bypass project was considered an alternative to dredging, which is considered a maintenance operation, it was budgeted under the operation and maintenance account, Whitson said.

‘Could Become Useless’

The sweeping budget cuts will affect more than the bypass project; they will also prevent many of the state’s harbors from financing needed dredging, said Thane Young, a lobbyist with the Washington-based Ferguson Co.

The lobbying firm represents the city of Oceanside, the Oceanside Municipal Harbor District and the city’s redevelopment agency.

“A categoric decision was made not to spend any money at all on operation and maintenance,” Young said. “That means 21 out of 27 harbors in the state will not receive funds for operation and maintenance, which is basically used for dredging.

“If this is continued for a number of years, those harbors could become useless as they silt over with sand deposits,” he said.

Young said lobbying to restore the funds must be successful by summer, when Congress is expected to pass appropriation bills for the fiscal year, which begins Oct. 1.

Meanwhile, Perry Davis, a spokesman for the Corps of Engineers, said work on the project will continue.

Happy With the Work

“Everybody here is happy with what they’re doing, and it appears that it will be ready to go by the First of July,” Davis said of the work by Healy Tibbitts Construction, a San Francisco-based marine projects company that took over the Oceanside work last fall.

The original contractor, Maecon Inc. of Irvine, was fired by the corps last April when it failed to get the system operating after three tries.

“But, come October, we would have to stop it because there wouldn’t be any money,” Davis said.