Dredging Bill a Needed Remedy

Upper Newport Bay is one of Orange County’s jewels, but one that can tarnish quickly without attention.

The dredging equipment now deepening the bay is a welcome sight, and overdue. Local officials and scientists believe the bay needs to have the silt taken up from the bottom and carted away about every five years. But the current procedure is the first in a decade. That’s too long.

The hang-up usually is money. The state Legislature finally came through this year with funds for the current $7.4-million project. Unfortunately, it failed to act on a proposal by state Sen. Ross Johnson (R-Irvine) to have the state set aside $400,000 annually for dredging the upper bay. Johnson plans to reintroduce the bill next year. It deserves support.

As counties have learned in the past, Sacramento can take away or move around money, especially when the economy gets bad and tax revenue drops. Passage of Johnson’s bill would not guarantee the arrival of the money. But it would demonstrate a legislative awareness of the importance of the bay and could tip the balance for future funding.

Covering more than 700 acres, the state-owned bay is a good place to relax and get away from the daily grind. It’s also important as a visiting place for many varieties of birds and a spawning ground for marine life.

One reason for dredging is to preserve the habitat. When mud builds up on the bottom, birds and fish accustomed to deep water are endangered. Another reason is to assist boaters. Silt buildup can close off a channel. A boater used to sailing away can run aground when the water gets shallow and the mud gets deeper.

The delay in dredging has made the project more expensive than the early estimates. Also increasing the cost were the El Nino rains. The downpours increased the flow of water into the bay and added hundreds of thousands of cubic yards of extra silt. What originally was supposed to be a removal of 800,000 cubic yards of mud now has been increased to more than a million cubic yards.

The dredging operation will improve the bay, but it also will start the clock running again until the next barge and derrick are required to take up position. Passing Johnson’s bill should be the start of a nearly automatic process where the dredging is done approximately every five years, so long as it is needed. That would avoid waiting for a decade and letting the silt build up to a dangerous level.