Newport Beach Breaks Ground on $5.5-Million Trash Interceptor for Newport Harbor
By Newport Indy Staff – September 15, 2023
Source: Newport Beach Independent – https://www.newportbeachindy.com/newport-beach-breaks-ground-on-5-5-million-trash-interceptor-for-newport-harbor/
Newport Beach City Council members, joined by state and county elected representatives, held a ceremonial groundbreaking event on Friday, Sept. 15 to kick off construction of the Newport Bay Trash Interceptor, a sustainably powered system to collect floating trash before it enters the Upper Newport Bay Nature Preserve, Newport Harbor and beaches.
The $5.5 million system will be built in the San Diego Creek, about 800 feet upstream from the Upper Newport Bay Nature Preserve. It is expected to capture 80 percent of the floating trash and debris from the San Diego Creek. Depending on the amount of rainfall, between 100 and 500 tons of trash reaches the Upper Newport Bay via San Diego Creek every year.
In July, the Council awarded the $3.9 million construction contract to Brea-based Jilk Heavy Construction, Inc. The system is expected to be operational by December 2024.
The solar-powered, debris-gathering water wheel in Baltimore, the same concept that is proposed for Newport Bay. — Photo courtesy of Billy Dutton/Baltimore waterfront ©
The Trash Interceptor, modeled after a similar project in the Baltimore Harbor, will sit on a floating platform that rises and falls with the tide. The platform will be secured to the creek bottom by guide piles. The platform will hold a 14-foot wheel that spins using power from the river current or solar panels to move a conveyor belt.
Trash floating downriver is then collected in four steps:
- A boom system directs floating trash toward the Interceptor.
- A spinning rake moves trash from the boom area to the conveyor belt.
- Trash is deposited from the conveyor belt into a collection container.
- When full, the container is moved by a short rail system to be transferred to a standard trash truck.
The Trash Interceptor will supplement other City trash-reduction efforts already in place, such as trash booms, catch basin collection systems and floating skimmers.
Project partners recognized at the event included:
- State Senate District 37 Rep. Dave Min
- State Senate District 36 Rep. Janet Nguyen
- State Assemblymember (District 72) Diane Dixon
- Orange County Board of Supervisors District 5 Supervisor Katrina Foley
- State of California Dept. of Water Resources
- Ocean Protection Council
- Orange County Transportation Authority
- Help your Harbor/Surfrider Foundation
- CR&R Environmental Services
Source: Newport Beach Independent https://www.newportbeachindy.com/newport-beach-breaks-ground-on-5-5-million-trash-interceptor-for-newport-harbor/
The long-awaited dredging project for lower Newport Harbor will move forward, following recent approval by the Newport Beach City Council and Port of Long Beach to use dredged sediment for a pier fill project at the port.
This arrangement is similar to Newport Beach’s previous projects in 2011 and 2012, when dredged sediment from Newport Harbor that was unsuitable for open ocean disposal was transported to Long Beach for the Middle Harbor Redevelopment Project.
A public swimming pool complex to include a 50-meter pool, a therapy pool, a splash pad and a building for events is moving closer to reality and could become the city’s next successful public-private partnership.
Recently, the Newport Beach City Council approved a change to the city’s general plan that allows the area at Lower Castaways Park to be zoned for development and accommodate the facility.
Having sold four of the five highest-priced Newport Harbor waterfront homes during his 24-year sales career, Coldwell-Banker realtor Tim Smith has been “cleaning up,” but not in the way you might think.
An avid fisherman (he owns a Boston Whaler Realm 38’) and Dover Shores resident who “loves this harbor,” Smith has been focused on how he can help make the bay as clean as possible.
It’s surprising what you can find at the bottom of Newport Harbor.
Bicycles, toolboxes, traffic cones, even a boat. There’s lots of plastic and things that have fallen off boats—not that boaters are dumping stuff deliberately; they just wind up in the harbor.
On one memorable occasion, a diver found a gun. “We informed the police and they said don’t touch it,” explained boatman Guy Harden. “Two divers stayed there until the police showed up, saying the gun was part of an investigation. We never heard anything about it after that, sorry to say.”
The City of Newport Beach celebrated two significant milestones in Newport Harbor on Wednesday, August 27: opening a new public dock and welcoming the first electric patrol vessel in the Harbor Department fleet.
The new VITA Seal electric boat is also the first all-electric work vessel delivered to any public agency in the United States.
Leave a Reply
Want to join the discussion?Feel free to contribute!