Leaders Look Upstream for Bay-Silt Remedy

With state lawmakers unwilling to finance long-term relief for silt-choked Upper Newport Bay, local officials are beginning to eye corrective measures that might keep harmful sediment from ever reaching the ecologically sensitive wetland.

Newport Beach officials are hopeful a study planned by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers will spotlight steps that could be taken to better catch sediment along San Diego Creek, the main tributary into the upper bay.

“The long-term strategy for the bay is going to look at lots of improvements upstream,” said Dave Kiff, assistant to the city manager in Newport Beach. “There’s a huge watershed up there running into Lake Forest and the Irvine hills. This will be the first time it’s been significantly studied.”

For years, local officials have focused their energies on getting money to pay for dredging work to remove mud and silt that accumulates in the brackish bay, which is home to scores of rare fish and bird species.

But funding has always been hard to come by.

State Senate Republican Leader Ross Johnson of Irvine tried to solve that ongoing money problem with a bill this year that would have put $400,000 annually into a fund to help offset the cost of dredging work.

The measure was held hostage last month by Assembly Democratic leaders in the closing days of the legislative session. Over the protests of Johnson, Democrats amended it to provide only a one-time payment of $200,000 for future dredging work.

Gov. Pete Wilson signed the measure this week, but Johnson vowed on Thursday to seek again to get a permanent funding source for dredging.

“We’ll aggressively pursue it again next year,” Johnson said.

Local officials welcome such help but are increasingly turning their attention to more permanent solutions upstream.

Officials hope the Army Corps of Engineers will complete a study by the end of 2000 and then move to fund projects along San Diego Creek and smaller tributaries leading to the bay, which typically must be dredged every five years to maintain the proper water depth needed for the fish and birds that flock to the 752-acre ecological reserve.

Three basins already exist along San Diego Creek to catch silt, but authorities say further improvements are needed. The huge flows during last winter’s storms convinced experts they need to seek more permanent ways to slow the water so less sediment cascades down to the bay.

Possible solutions include introducing types of vegetation along the channels that can better anchor the soil.

If all goes well, work could begin about 2002, Kiff said, although some projects that enjoy unanimous support might get going even sooner if financing can be found.

“What we’ve done upstream has gotten in the way of nature,” Kiff said. “Grading the hills, over-irrigating, all those things contribute to sediment deposits in the bay. We’re going to try to use science to reverse that.”

The upper bay is home to the light-footed clapper rail and the Belding’s Savannah sparrow, two birds on the state’s endangered species list. It also hosts two endangered plants, the salt marsh bird’s beak and the rare Laguna Beach live-forever. Five other rare or endangered birds visit the bay, including the least tern, the brown pelican and the California gnatcatcher. More than 75 fish species inhabit the waters, among them the California halibut and barred sand bass.

While he welcomes upstream efforts to keep sediment from reaching the bay, Johnson remains convinced that dredging will always be necessary. And since the bay is a state-owned ecological reserve, he said, “it’s a state responsibility, and the state ought to set aside funding.”