Riverbed sand soon to find its offshore home

Alicia Robinson

Workers will begin laying pipe sometime next week to pump sand

offshore at West Newport as part of a U.S. Army Corps of Engineers

project to dredge the Santa Ana River.

Work began in September on other parts of the project, which will

overhaul the Santa Ana River to prevent flooding. The corps was

planning to use trucks to distribute the river sediment on the beach

between 32nd and 56th streets, but residents protested that the

sediment would spread contaminants and change wave patterns, creating

dangerous shore breaks.

That outcry has led to a decidedly different plan. Instead, the

corps will dig a trench so it can bury about 2,400 feet of pipe from

the river along the beach to Walnut Street, where the pipe will veer

offshore, Newport Beach city engineer Bill Patapoff said. Sediment

will be pumped about 1,200 feet offshore. In the water, material will

have a chance to settle out, and the waves will wash some of the sand

back onshore.

Crews will work 24 hours a day, seven days a week to complete the

disposal of 400,000 cubic yards of sediment, which is expected to

take four months. The area immediately around the pipe will be closed

to recreation during the work.

The pumping is awaiting the arrival of dredging equipment from

Oregon, said Corps of Engineers project manager Ken Morris. A

contractor hired to perform the work had to replace the dredger’s

engines, which didn’t meet state air quality standards, he said.

The first sand disposal is likely to take place at an island just

east of the river where endangered least terns live. Workers could

begin putting sand offshore at Newport by the first week of December.

Although the project will now cost about $5 million -- $500,000

more than spreading the sand on the beach -- the corps wanted to

address residents’ concerns with the original project, Morris said.

Residents preferred the offshore disposal option, and city

officials are happy because they’re still getting sand to combat

gradual beach erosion.

“I think everybody thinks this project is now a very good one that

won’t impact the community in any significant way, and indeed it will

be beneficial to get that additional sand,” Newport Beach assistant

city manager Dave Kiff said. “[The beach] is in pretty good shape

right now so it wasn’t a dramatic need, though our policy in the past

has always been when free sand is offered we take it, because we want

to try to build up the beach for the day when free sand ... isn’t

available to us.”

* ALICIA ROBINSON covers business, politics and the environment.

She may be reached at (714) 966-4626 or by e-mail at

[email protected].