EPA Investigating Errant Offshore Dumping

Crews dredging Upper Newport Bay dropped 600,000 cubic yards of silt in the wrong spot off the coast before discovering the error late last month, triggering an investigation by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency.

The misplaced muck was equivalent in volume to 300,000 refrigerators or 60,000 dump-truck loads, EPA officials said Tuesday.

“This was a lot of material,” said Brian Ross, dredging projects coordinator for the EPA in San Francisco. “We’re not particularly concerned about contamination because [the silt] was found to be clean and nontoxic. But even just the physical smothering effect can be significant if it’s an important area.”

John Sibley, head of Orange County’s public facilities department, said federal officials want to know if there was any damage to the ocean ecosystem, while county officials want to know what went wrong.

“As far as we’ve been advised, there are no sensitive habitats out there,” Sibley said.

Dredging crews blamed the mistake on incorrect coordinates plugged into a Global Positioning Satellite system used to locate the dump site, five miles off Newport Beach.

Since the project began last year, the material has been deposited about half a mile southeast of the approved site, officials said.

The work is being done by Soli-Flo Partners L.P., which is co-owned by Fluor Daniel Inc. of Irvine. A subcontractor, Brusco Barge and Tug of Longview, Wash., is responsible for dumping the sand, silt and sediment collected from the bay.

Periodic dredging of the brackish Upper Newport Bay is necessary to remove mud and silt that accumulate there, threatening the sensitive wetlands habitat of scores of bird and fish species.

The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers was notified of the error on Jan. 23 by Soli-Flo, which apparently was alerted to the bad satellite coordinates by a tugboat driver.

EPA immediately sent letters to Orange County’s public facilities agency and the California Department of Fish & Game, which together obtained the dumping permit last year.

Improper ocean dumping carries maximum fines of up to $50,000 a day for each violation.

Fines could be levied against both the county and Fish and Game.

EPA officials ordered dumping logs, vessel track plots, project contracts and other records to be turned over by today.

A follow-up meeting is scheduled next week.

A Fluor Daniel spokeswoman said the company is cooperating with the EPA and other agencies.

Soli-Flo President Garland Crockett, reached at the company’s Newport Beach office, referred questions to Fluor Daniel.

The $7-million project to dredge 800,000 cubic yards of silt from Upper Newport Bay began last year and is scheduled to be finished this spring.

The dredged material is scooped onto a barge and taken to the ocean dump site, which the EPA approved as a temporary location to reduce the cost of the dredging project, Ross said.

The next nearest approved dump site is off the Long Beach coast.

Ross said the EPA will determine after the investigation whether fines should be levied, and if so, how much.

Fines are possible even if there was no harm to the environment, he said.