Newport Beach City Manager Update:
Water Wheel Trash Interceptor
By Guest Contributor Grace Leung, Newport Beach City Manager – July 17, 2023
Source: Newport Beach Independent Newport Beach City Manager Update: Water Wheel Trash Interceptor
Grace Leung, Newport Beach City Manager
I am pleased to report that a long-awaited water quality project, the Newport Bay Trash Interceptor, was approved this week by the Newport Beach City Council.
On Tuesday, July 11, the City Council awarded a $3.9 million construction contract to Brea-based Jilk Heavy Construction, Inc. We expect to break ground this fall and begin operations in 2024.
The Trash Interceptor is a sustainably powered, floating trash and debris collection system that will be built in the San Diego Creek between the Jamboree Road Bridge and MacArthur Boulevard Bridge, upstream from the Upper Newport Bay Nature Preserve.
The Trash Interceptor will greatly reduce the amount of trash and debris that washes into the bay, harbor and ocean areas adjacent to Balboa Peninsula from upstream inland communities of the Newport Bay watershed.
The Newport Bay watershed spans 154 square miles, encompassing the cities of Irvine, Tustin, Orange, Lake Forest, Laguna Hills, Costa Mesa, Santa Ana and Newport Beach, that includes a vast drainage network of storm drains, rivers, creeks and canals.
The Trash Interceptor, modeled after a similar system in 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 creek’s current or solar panels to move a conveyor belt.
Trash floating downriver will be collected in four steps, as shown in the drawing above:
- 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 system is expected to reduce the amount of waste reaching the Upper Newport Bay by 80 percent (from an estimated 100 to 300 tons a year). It will supplement other public and private efforts already in place – such as trash booms, storm drain collection systems, and floating skimmers – that protect sensitive aquatic environments.
I would like to thank our funding partners for making this project possible. They include the State of California, Help Your Harbor/Surfrider Foundation, Ocean Protection Council, and the Orange County Transportation Authority. I also want to thank Senator David Min and Assembly Member Diane Dixon for requesting and advocating for the State funding, and the members of the City’s Water Quality/Coastal Tidelands Committee for their ongoing support and advocacy of the project.
I look forward to bringing you further updates as we begin construction this fall.
Source: Newport Beach Independent Newport Beach City Manager Update: Water Wheel Trash Interceptor
Hello friends of the Newport Harbor Foundation,
There is an urgent issue we need a little help with… something that impacts one of our favorite local playgrounds – the Newport Harbor.
After years of lobbying the federal government for help, the City of Newport Beach has obtained grants of almost $16 million to pay for dredging of the harbor which will significantly enhance the quality of water and create safer boat passage in the harbor. Along with the dredging process, there is a process called CAD (contained aquatic disposal) which places unsuitable material now existing in the harbor into a safe and secure location deep below the harbor bed. This process is totally safe and has been used for many years all over the country, including harbors in California.
By Phillip Palmer
ABC Eyewitness News, Los Angeles
NEWPORT BEACH, Calif. (KABC) — Keeping garbage out of the ocean isn’t easy. So enter Mr. Trash Wheel, the 70-square-foot barge gobbling up garbage by the ton to keep the beach and ocean pristine.
Trash in the streets ends up in the river and then from the river, the ocean.
Hoping to reduce the amount of trash making it to the ocean, Newport Beach is set to become the first west coast city to use a water wheel system to scoop up trash headed toward Upper Newport Bay.
“We really need to knock that trash load down. This is not going to be a silver bullet, it’s not going to get everything, but it’s going to get a big slug of stuff,” said John Kappeler, a senior engineer for the city of Newport Beach.
By Matt Morrison
For a generation of youngsters who grew up around the Newport Harbor, there’s a legacy to perpetuate. OK, maybe they’re only considered youngsters on a geologic scale, yet together they’ve accumulated decades of passion for the fabulous waterway central to our community. The goal now is to preserve it for generations to come.
We might compare it to fixing up a stately landmark home; the curb appeal is still magnificent but the bones need attention. Dennis Durgan can certainly relate to the analogy.
A residential real estate professional in the community for more than four decades, Durgan grew up on the harbor, beginning in the early 1960’s when it was a seasonal recreation destination. He learned to sail here, then went on to crew in three America’s Cup competitions working with both Ted Turner and Dennis Connor. Now it’s a cause for the future, and not just his own.
“There are numerous issues the harbor has, and will continue to have, as we move forward. There’s more and more people that want to use it,” Durgan explains. “I used to call it the sandbox. Well, the sandbox is overflowing with kids that want to play.”
“With all of their toys…” chimes in Val Lyon, like Durgan, a board member of the Newport Harbor Foundation, established in 2019.
Who will operate/maintain the interceptor once operations begin?
This is great news for our harbor and beaches health. Although this is needed in the Santa Ana river inlet even more than the San Diego inlet.
The amount of rubbish that is deposited on both the northern beaches of Newport and the state beaches of Huntington definitely outweighs any coming out of the harbor. It would be fantastic to see both of these inlets covered by this technology.
Sincerely,
Curt Mitchell (Newport Shores)