Newport Beach City Manager Update: New Marine Trash Skimmer
By Guest Contributor Grace Leung, Newport Beach City Manager – February 25, 2023
Source: Newport Beach Independent Newport Beach City Manager Update: Trash Skimmer
Grace Leung, Newport Beach City Manager
Representatives from the Surfrider Foundation North Orange County Chapter recently presented the City with a generous donation of $12,415 toward the purchase and installation of a new marine trash skimmer for Newport Harbor. The donation will be used to offset the $18,000 cost of a new trash skimmer that will replace an older, broken skimmer located at the Rhine Wharf public dock.
Marine trash skimmers are floating devices attached to docks that operate in a manner similar to pool filters, using a motor to cycle water through a filtration system while trapping trash and debris. The new skimmer will be part of a network of eight skimmers that collect seven to eight tons of trash and debris from Newport Harbor every year. The new model will be more efficient than previous versions, using 80 percent less power and a self-cleaning filter that empties automatically every 30 minutes.
The Newport Harbor trash skimmers are an important part of the City’s ongoing efforts to keep our beaches, harbor and waterways clean.
Source: Newport Beach Independent Newport Beach City Manager Update: Trash Skimmer
The Newport Harbor Underwater Cleanup, in partnership with the City of Newport Beach, has announced the 4th Annual Newport Harbor Underwater Cleanup scheduled for Saturday, Sept. 21 at Marina Park in Newport Beach.
Launched in 2017 by Help Your Harbor’s founders—former Newport Beach mayor Marshall “Duffy” Duffield and local environmentalists Billy Dutton and Mark Ward — NHUC hosted three years of sold-out cleanup events at the Balboa Bay Club before being put on hold due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
“We’re thrilled to expand this year’s event at our new location,” says Billy Dutton, co-founder of NHUC and Help Your Harbor. “The Newport Marina Park site allows for much greater community participation, with volunteers helping to clean up our harbor both above and below the water. The addition of the International Coastal Cleanup Day celebration at Marina Park that afternoon will bring together over two dozen organizations and their volunteers, all committed to protecting our precious marine environment.”
After years of advocacy and enforcement actions, we are excited to see the Corps’ dredging project proceed with an improved design that better considers the health of Southern California’s coastal ecosystem,” said Garry Brown, founder and president of Orange County Coastkeeper. “The new plan for the dredged material is a big win for our waters and helps lower costs. Rather than burying contaminated sediment underneath Newport’s turning basin in a poorly designed disposal facility, the material will be repurposed and contained in an expansion project at the Port of Long Beach.
On August 1, the Newport Aquatic Center welcomed Beyond Blindness, a nonprofit in Santa Ana providing support for visually impaired children and their families, to their facility as part of Beyond Blindness’ inclusive summer camp, taking the campers on outriggers in the Back Bay.
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