EDITORIAL

It may just be a drop in a huge, muck-filled bucket. Or it could cause

enough ripples to help clean the Upper Newport Bay.

What effect $600,000 in federal funds will have on the major

restoration of the Back Bay is anybody’s guess.

The money, promised for the job last month as part of the House of

Representative’s 2002 energy and water budget, is a very small portion of

the $35 million needed to complete the work, $21 million of which is now

set to be paid for by Washington.

It was not even half of the $1.75 million Newport Beach officials were

hoping to receive. But it is still a step in the right direction.

And it is a step that needed to be taken. The Back Bay, as has been

well documented, desperately needs routine dredging to keep from clogging

up because of all the sediment that flows into the basin from inland.

And the cost isn’t cheap. The dredging of the late 1990s cost nearly

$7.5 million, in part because heavy El Nino rains in 1997 and 1998

brought more silt than normal flowing into the bay.

The latest, ambitious $35-million project, which is scheduled for

2003, would involve more than just dredging: The plans call for moving an

island in the bay and adding new wetlands in an attempt to slow the

constant filling. It is no small undertaking, but it is one that could

improve the health of the bay for years.

The good news is that ever so slowly, the pot of money needed to

rejuvenate the area is filling up -- in much the same way that the bay,

itself, gets loaded to dangerous overflow. Some $8 million in state money

has been tentatively set aside, as well, leaving about $5 million more

for local agencies to amass.

True, there is a huge amount of money still needed. But the bay’s

future seems only to be getting brighter.