The City of Newport Beach

The Facts Behind the City’s Dredging Project and In-Harbor Sediment Plan

The California Coastal Commission is preparing to consider permitting plans for an important Newport Harbor dredging project. The City of Newport Beach would like to remind residents about the critical need for this project and clarify key topics, including the rigorous environmental analysis that supports the proposal.


Dredging Newport Harbor is critical to maintain safe navigation and a well-functioning harbor. Over the past several decades, sediment has washed down into Newport Bay and accumulated at the bottom of Newport Harbor, which reduces water depths, impedes navigation and diminishes natural tidal flushing. Periodic dredging of Newport Harbor is essential to maintain safe, navigable waterways for recreational, commercial and public safety vessels; increase necessary ocean water flushing to support good water quality and habit and support the economic vitality of the harbor. In total, the project will dredge and remove about 1.2 million cubic yards of accumulated sediment, therefore returning the waterways to their original depths of -10 to -20 feet. Without dredging, sediment will continue to build up, making navigation more difficult and dangerous and decrease tidal flushing, leading to more stagnant water conditions.


This project will improve the harbor environment. Dredging will improve the harbor aquatic environment by increasing tidal flushing. The harbor’s smaller back channels will especially benefit from increased circulation. The project will also improve water quality. Sediment that contains low levels of pollutants (identified in less than 9% of the dredge material) would be placed underground within the harbor where it would no longer be freely circulating near the harbor floor.


The sediment identified for in-harbor placement is not considered hazardous or toxic under the stringent definitions of the EPA. The sediment has been tested and is not toxic or hazardous as defined by state or federal regulations. These terms have very specific regulatory definitions that do not apply to the material being dredged. Rather, the material is considered “unsuitable” for open ocean disposal at EPA’s dredge material disposal sites offshore. The primary contaminant of concern in the harbor are trace amounts of mercury (found in fluids such as motor fuels) that is contained in the harbor bottom sediments. The generally accepted threshold allowed in Southern California for open ocean disposal is 1.0 parts per million (ppm) of mercury within the sediment. The in-harbor mercury levels to be placed within the CAD range from about 1.5 ppm to 5 ppm. To be clear, this same sediment material is currently allowed to remain on the harbor bottom as-is should the in-harbor disposal project not be constructed.


Testing showed that the unsuitable dredge material was not harmful to aquatic organisms. The assessment of proposed dredge material included biological testing using multiple species of aquatic organisms that were exposed to sediment for several weeks. This was done under strict laboratory testing protocols developed by the EPA and regulatory agencies. No toxicity was observed during testing. All mercury concentrations in tissues were below those that have been shown to cause toxicity to marine organisms. This means that the tested species were healthy and not affected or harmed by weeks of direct contact with the unsuitable material. In addition, all tissue concentrations were below U.S. Food and Drug Administration action levels for mercury in fish and shellfish for human food, indicating this would not pose a human health risk.


The CAD would provide a confined location for harbor bottom sediment that is now exposed to the environment. The sediment unsuitable for open-ocean disposal is currently situated at the bottom of the harbor where it is subject to being continually stirred up through everyday boating activity. The unsuitable sediment will be placed in a large hole, then covered with clean sediment to create a contained system that will prevent this material from being stirred up and resuspended in the water, where it makes contact with boats, swimmers and wildlife.


The dredging plan is subject to rigorous environmental analysis and approval by multiple outside agencies. The city’s Environmental Impact Report (EIR) which includes a thorough analysis of the proposal, has been available to the public since 2020. Several public hearings were held as the EIR came before the Harbor Commission and City Council for approval in 2021. Throughout the approval process, city staff has met with numerous groups, harbor stakeholders and individual residents to explain the proposal and invite comment. The dredge plan is subject to approval by the EPA, California Coastal Commission, U.S. Army Corps of Engineers and the Regional Water Quality Control Board.


Multiple alternative methods other than in-harbor disposal were considered. As required by the EIR, the city considered many potential alternatives to the recommended proposal. Shipping the material by barge to the ports of Long Beach or Los Angeles was not possible as the ports do not have plans to expand in the foreseeable future. Removing the material by land is impractical, prohibitively expensive and would result in increased environmental impacts. It would require the construction of a shore-side processing area and transporting the material to a landfill by an estimated 8,800 truck trips. This would cause considerable impacts to the environment, roadways and surrounding neighborhoods. The city also considered alternatives suggested by residents, such as placing unsuitable material at the Lower Castaways public park. An independent consultant retained by the city to review this approach found that it could cost as much as $89 million and would impact public access, animal habitats, coastal bluffs, visual quality and public views. Another suggested approach was to treat the material and then dispose of that treated material in the open ocean. Unfortunately, the EPA does not allow any treated material to be placed in the open ocean.


Without the CAD, Newport Beach could not dredge main channels in the harbor. If the unsuitable material is left in place and not dredged, high spots in the main channels would continue to build up over time. Navigation will continue to be affected along the entirety of W. Coast Highway as well as the Peninsula Channel from 12th Street to 19th Street. Larger vessels and vessels with deep keels would be restricted to favorable high tides and would continue to stir up unsuitable sediment, creating plumes in the harbor. These navigation concerns would affect all vessels, including visiting vessels and those requiring shipyard maintenance that must pass through these channels.

IMPORTANT NOTICE

The California Coastal Commission is meeting on the final approval of this project October 14, 2022.

Email correspondence will be distributed to the Commission before the hearing on this item if it is received by 5 pm on Friday, October 7, 2022 before the hearing. If it is received after that time, then it will not be distributed to the Commission.

Please send your support in email to:

So********@co*****.gov

Subject Line: I support the CAD & Dredging Project in Newport Beach
Application No. 5-21-0640

The Coastal Commission website is www.coastal.ca.gov.
Application No. 5-21-0640.

Thank you for your support!

This piece was provided by the City of Newport Beach.

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Some 175 community leaders, harbor residents and elected officials gathered at the Balboa Bay Resort yesterday for a kickoff luncheon acknowledging the fundraising success of the Newport Harbor Foundation (NHF). The NHF announced that they’ve raised more than $275,000 to support an effort to have the Newport Beach Police, Fire and Harbormaster assume sole jurisdiction over controlling our harbor.

What made the $275,000 announcement even more exciting was the fact that an anonymous donor gave a matching gift, immediately making it $550,000.

Former Newport Beach Mayor and current City Councilmember Marshall “Duffy” Duffield was also recognized at the luncheon for his longtime service to the community and in particular to the harbor. The timing, coincidentally, celebrated the 50th Anniversary of the Duffy Electric Boat.

“Today, I was touched by the community’s outpouring of financial support for my family business and Newport Harbor – the heart of our city. Now the hard work of ‘Taking Back Our Harbor’ begins,” said Councilmember Duffield.

Duffy built his first electric boat as a 16 year old growing up on Newport Harbor. Then, over the next half-century, Duffy followed up building and delivering 30,000 Duffy Boats throughout the world.

So, what’s ahead for the NHF? In 2019, a group of concerned Newport Harbor residents organized, recognizing “decades of benign-neglect of the harbor and the need to begin creating our own Harbor Public Safety Department. The Foundation plans to purchase a fire boat and four patrol boats to jump start the effort. This is the first step to “Taking Back Our Harbor.”

Why do it?

Duffy said, “We want to make our harbor healthier, cleaner and to get the public educated on what makes this harbor so special.”

Continue reading at https://www.stunewsnewport.com/

Duffy House

By Sandra Barrera, Orange County Register

Remember the waterfront mansion on Newport Beach’s Balboa Peninsula that generated international buzz with a YouTube video that spoofed Cali Swag District’s viral dance hit “Teach Me How to Dougie?”

The video for “Teach Me How to Duffy” helped sell the house for $35.008 million – about 22.2% less than the $44.995 million asking price when it hit the market in Oct. 2018.

Even so, the house, which sold on Aug. 28, set a record.

The sale is highest-priced home to ever sell in Newport Harbor, said Tim Smith of Coldwell Banker, the listing agent. The record previously was held by the home of actor Nicolas Cage, which sold in 2008 for $35 million.

But Smith expected as much.

The house was designed by Robert Sinclair, built by Patterson Custom Homes and finished by Blackband Design.

“The type of buyers that buy these (homes), and the buyer that bought this isn’t going to go through the five-year entitlement process and build a house,” he said. “They’d rather have something turn-key and they’re OK paying for it. That’s why we had more than one offer.”

The towering 14,000-square-foot, five-bedroom house presented as party central in the “Duffy” video stretches across three lots, with 90 feet of bay frontage. It boasts a theater, sauna, solar system with three Tesla batteries, 57-foot-long pool with underwater speakers and a private beach with a dock.

“You can park eight Duffies on the dock just for starters,” goes the song in a viral video that starred Smoove da General and Mr. Swag of Cali Swag District and a variety of young Instagram influencers, models and dancers.

Other highlights include a floating underlit staircase illuminated from above by a large skylight, 16-foot stone fireplace and 1,100-gallon aquarium.

There’s also a five-car garage with EV plug-ins.

“The job of the ‘Duffy’ film was to let everybody in real estate, especially, know about this house,” Smith said. “It did its job and because of that it gave us exposure that we never would have got.”

More than half of the showings, he added, were people from outside of the area and saw the film first.

Tara Foster Shapiro of Pacific Sotheby’s International Realty represented the buyer, whom she wouldn’t identify.

But she said, “Their interest in the house stemmed from their admiration in architect Rob Sinclair’s work. That is why we toured the property.”

Photo Credit: Tim Smith, Coldwell Banker

Newport Harbor Channel

Visitors to Newport Beach today might know the coastal Southern California city from “The Real Housewives,” “The O.C.” and “Arrested Development,” all of which were set amid its rolling green hills and picture-perfect beaches. But I had come to Newport Beach to commune with the stars of Old Hollywood, who began staking their claim to this idyllic spot just one hour south of Los Angeles during the silent film era.

In the Golden Age of Hollywood, Newport Beach’s lure was not so much its land, dotted as it was with big-band ballrooms and smoke-filled cocktail bars. It was its water, and specifically the sprawling recreational harbor where the stars docked their yachts and sailboats.

Continue reading at The New York Times…

Photo Credit: Beth Coller/The New York Times