Delay Approved for Dredging Project

Despite forecasts of a stormy winter, Port Hueneme officials have endorsed a plan to wait until September 1998 to dump 2.1 million cubic yards of sand on the city’s municipal beach.

The Army Corps of Engineers plans to dredge the sand, at a cost of $4.3 million, as part of an ongoing project conducted about every two years to stem beach erosion caused by the construction of the nearby Navy-owned harbor during the 1940s.

The City Council approved the plan last week.

Waiting more than a year will ensure money is available from Congress for the project. In recent years, less money has been available and therefore less sand has been dredged, leaving the city beach vulnerable to erosion.

Waves threatened a beachfront road and facilities at a city park within the last year before an emergency sand-replenishment program kept the sea at bay.