County, contractor to pay for bay dredging project violations

Mathis Winkler

SANTA ANA -- Orange County and a contractor will pay $735,000 in

penalties to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency for dumping

violations during the Upper Newport Bay dredging project, officials

announced Wednesday.

The settlement agreement is the second largest in terms of the penalty

sum and involves the largest number of incidents of wrongful dumping in

the EPA’s recent history.

The county has agreed to pay $270,000 to the California Coastal

Conservancy to help buy 17 acres of key Huntington Beach wetlands owned

by Southern California Edison.

The county will pay an additional $90,000 in fines.

“We felt that as long as there was going to be a penalty, we should

turn that expenditure into a benefit for the people of Orange County,

rather than just pay a penalty and have that go into U.S. coffers,” said

Ken Smith, the county’s deputy director of public facilities and

resources.

Soli-Flo, the dredging contractor, will pay $375,000.

Representatives for the company could not be reached for comment

Wednesday.

In 1998 and 1999, the county contracted with Soli-Flo to dredge nearly

1 million cubic yards of sand and mud from the bay.

Due to misprogrammed positioning systems, the company missed the

designated dumping site four miles off shore. On more than 1,000 trips,

Soli-Flo released the loads into the wrong areas.

“What it was was sloppy,” said Brian Ross, of the EPA’s dredging and

sentiment management team. “Every time you dump, it physically smothers”

animals on the bottom.

The dumping loads had not been contaminated with toxic substances,

allowing the animals living in the area to come back quickly, Ross said.

Ross added that it was determined neither the county nor the

contractor intentionally dumped sand and mud in the wrong areas.