$8-Million Project Scours Marina’s Clogged Channels

They are the invisible bane of Marina del Rey--towering undersea sand dunes that threaten to snag the keels of passing sailboats or slam the hulls of speeding rescue cutters.

For 30 years, Los Angeles County and the Army Corps of Engineers have battled those murky mountains by digging channels through them and marking their peaks with buoys. Time after time, boaters would watch helplessly as the channels filled back in with sand.

This year, however, helped by a hefty federal grant, caretakers of the world’s largest man-made marina are declaring all-out war on the submerged dunes. Marine construction workers are in the midst of the largest dredging job ever seen in the marina, a task that entails removal of nearly 1 million tons of sodden sand--and an unexpectedly large amount of trash and debris--at the marina’s entrance.

The purpose of the $8-million project is to improve safety for the 5,000 boats docked there by returning the marina channel to its designed depth of 20 feet. In some areas, the depth now is only three feet. Workers must finish by a mid-March deadline to accommodate the breeding seasons of certain fish and birds.

In recent years, harbor monitors have reported no major mishaps on the sand piles. Boats that strike them are more likely to stop short than sink.

But the mounds at times have prevented emergency vessels from using one of two marina exits. Officials fear the following possible scenario and cite it as a prime reason for the work: A plane goes down in waters off Los Angeles International Airport and a U.S. Coast Guard cutter is dispatched from the marina on a search and rescue mission. Instead of using the marina’s closest, southern exit, the vessel must navigate around the marina’s stone breakwater and exit through the farther, north opening.

All that maneuvering, officials say, will cost precious time. “If you’re the guy in the water with the sharks, you want that cutter to get out there as fast as possible,” said Dean Smith of the Department of Beaches and Harbors.

The dredging, which officials predict will solve the problem for the next five to 10 years, is funded by $3 million from Los Angeles County and $5 million from the federal government.

The project has been embraced by boaters and marina business leaders. “If the marina were shut off, all you’d have is a big mudhole,” said Richard Musella, executive director of the Westchester/LAX-Marina del Rey Chamber of Commerce. “That’s not a very big attraction.”

Environmentalists, too, welcome the removal of hundreds of thousands of tons of contaminated sand that has piled up since the marina was dedicated in 1965.

The biggest problem is that the sand piles have proven to be tougher opponents than anticipated because they are filled with trash: countless soda and beer cans, hubcaps, shopping carts and plastic bags washed down the Ballona Creek storm runoff channel. The trash has repeatedly clogged dredging machinery, causing delays. Some worry about the project meeting its deadline.

Under its environmental work permit, contractor Manson Construction Co. of Seattle must finish the job by March 15, then make way for spawning grunion and nesting least terns.

The grunion, a silvery fish about five to seven inches long, spawns at night only during full and new moons at high tide between February and August. The fish lays its eggs on area beaches and is very sensitive to light and noise. The least tern, an agile bird that lays its eggs only in sand or gravel, will also begin nesting in February.

Hoping to make this deadline, Manson has ordered up more equipment: two dredgers and a new sand-hauling scow that must be delivered via the Panama Canal. Company officials say they will finish on time. “We’re going to do it, but it’s going to be right on deadline,” said Richard Ferguson, a Manson supervisor.

Anchored to a network of cables between the marina’s north and south exits, the hulking derrick barge Viking has been tediously scooping up loads of dark, streaming sand and dumping them into a waiting garbage scow. The sand itself, which turns white when exposed to the sun and air, will ultimately find a new home on a storm-damaged portion of Redondo Beach and as fill for a Port of Long Beach construction project.

On a recent morning, Ferguson hitched a ride on a tugboat to visit the Viking. The barge, which sports an enormous clamshell dredging crane, was anchored by the stone breakwater at the north entrance to the marina channel. Ferguson grimaced as a strong, acrid odor wafted over the bow.

“That’s the pelicans,” Ferguson said, pointing toward dozens of the birds standing on the guano-stained breakwater. “They make that smell.” Early on in the project, pelicans threatened to make an even greater stink.

Fearful that the crane might frighten the pelicans away from their prized perch on the breakwater, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service said the county must supply the birds with an alternate squatting site. The county rented an empty barge for $11,000 and floated it nearby.

After two weeks, though, the barge was removed. The pelicans had refused to visit it and stuck to the breakwater instead.

Much of the problem sand was deposited by Ballona Creek, which empties into Santa Monica Bay beside the marina channel. Environmentalists like Mark Gold, of the organization Heal the Bay, say much of this runoff is contaminated with 30 years’ worth of pesticides, heavy metals and petroleum hydrocarbons. They say the dredging project is the perfect opportunity to rid the bay of this material.

Because the sand at the south entrance was found to be contaminated--a designation that is less severe than toxic--it cannot be dumped on area beaches or at sea. Instead, the sand will be used as construction fill. The Port of Long Beach will use it to fill a defunct docking slip. Once capped with a layer of clean sand and asphalt, the slip will be used to hold cargo from container ships.

Although environmental groups are happy to see the material moved, they are worried that it might be spread through the water if dredgers work too quickly. Heal the Bay is monitoring waters in the area. If too much sand is mixed with the water, dredgers must perform remedial actions, such as slowing work.

Not all of the marina sand is contaminated.

The sand at the marina’s north entrance is from nearby Venice Beach and will be used to repair a section of Redondo Beach.

Some boaters have complained about having to negotiate buoys, dump scows, tugboats and dredging equipment. “I think if you polled a bunch of boaters, most of them would comment about the inconvenience,” said sheriff’s Deputy Fred Pausch of the Marina Harbor Master’s office.

Dennis Saunders, a tugboat captain in the dredging project, says boaters will get more room to navigate. But he wonders how long the channel will remain sand-free, since it is adjacent to Ballona Creek.

Saunders called the marina an engineering marvel. “The only thing I can’t figure out,” Saunders added, “is why they built a harbor right next to something that would fill it up.”