As sea rises, unease follows

Whether or not climate change is to blame, rising sea levels are a growing concern for Newport Beach city officials.

For the past few years, municipal workers in charge of closing the city’s tide valves, which prevent ocean water from coming up through storm drains, have noticed that the high tides are getting higher.

“It seems to be just several inches above what the tide book calls for, so we just plan to close the tide valves sooner so water doesn’t come into the storm drains,” said Mark Harmon, director of Newport’s General Services department, which oversees the tide valves. “But we have seen an increase in tide heights, and it seems to be a steady one.”

City-commissioned research has estimated that Newport could see sea levels rise by 1 to 3 feet by the end of the century.

“Whether you believe in climate change or not, there is no question the sea level is rising, and we have areas that can be very vulnerable to that,” Councilwoman Nancy Gardner said.

Gardner has asked the City Council to make dealing with rising sea levels one of its top priorities this year.

As part of its annual goal-setting session, the council has vowed to create a plan to deal with rising sea levels by October, and create a proposal to strengthen and raise the height of a sea wall around low-lying Balboa Island by fall 2011.

A 2008 city-commissioned study on high tides found that the elevations of Balboa Island, Little Balboa Island and nearly the full length of the bay side of the Balboa Peninsula, already fall below the highest of current high tides.

In responses to a survey conducted by the California State Lands Commission, published in December, Newport Beach city officials reported that a sea level rise of between 16 inches and 55 inches would result in “possible flooding over most of our bulkheads when coupled with a storm surge.”

Sometime in the near future, Newport will have to look at raising the height standards for local sea walls to accommodate rising water levels, Newport Beach City Manager Dave Kiff said.

City officials estimated Friday that Newport has about 13 miles of sea walls, most of which are privately maintained.

The city is responsible for the sea wall around Balboa Island and in a few other, scattered locations, Newport Beach spokeswoman Tara Finnigan said in an e-mail.

“Basically, we need to plan to have a plan,” Kiff said.