Dredging threatens island

As discussions continue about raising funds to continue dredging of Upper Newport Bay, one resident and environmental activist has an idea he believes would help relieve some of the burden: Save Skimmer Island.

Skimmer Island is a bird habitat in Upper Newport Bay near Eastbluff Drive and Jamboree Road. It was created decades ago as a bird habitat and is named for the skimmer, a small tern-like bird.

But the next phase of the dredging project calls for the elimination of Skimmer Island. Jan Vandersloot, a Newport Beach environmental activist, believes Skimmer Island can be left alone.

“If they leave it there, they save the bird habitat and don’t spend so much money,” Vandersloot said.

But for Orange County officials, that isn’t an option.

Estimated at about 500,000 cubic yards, Skimmer Island, and the area that goes with it, are the major portions in the next phase of the Upper Newport Bay dredging.

Without Skimmer Island included in the project, the bulk of the second phase of dredging would be eliminated, rendering much of the project useless in terms of creating a basin for sediment, officials said. That would essentially keep the bay at the same point it was at initially, which led to the need for dredging, officials said.

“If we basically took [Skimmer Island] out, we wouldn’t complete the project [as proposed],” coastal engineer Susan Brodeur said.

A new island habitat has been built farther down the bay, on the west side closer to the Old Salt Dike, to make up for the loss of Skimmer Island. Expert biologists were brought in to help build the habitat to environmental standards.

Officials also believe the full dredging project is necessary to make dredgings less frequent in the future.

“It helps protect the rest of the bay from sedimentation,” Brodeur said. “We would save a substantial amount from the project [if Skimmer Island were kept], but in the future, when it comes time to do maintenance, you will be doing it sooner than the planned 20-year interval, so the locals are going to have to come up with funds sooner than anticipated.”

But opponents, like Vandersloot, feel the current project with the elimination of Skimmer Island is “over-dredging” the area.

A cutback in the project would be better for the environment, Vandersloot argues.

But Brodeur believes that with the addition of a new habitat and the need for dredging, losing Skimmer Island is a necessary trade-off.

“Our position is that island needs to be removed so we can expand and deepen that upper basin to trap the sediments going into upper bay,” she said.

DANIEL TEDFORD may be reached at (714) 966-4632 or at [email protected].