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
It’s hard to believe that Thursday, July 6 will mark nine years since the passing of Newport Beach Lifeguard Ben Carlson. He was special to so many people, as his unexpected and untimely death would prove.
On that Sunday, in 2014, shortly after 5 p.m., a Newport Beach rescue boat identified a swimmer in distress off 16th Street. The surf at the time was six-to-eight feet.
Ben, as everyone knew, entered the water to make that rescue and swam to the man, making contact, before they were both hit by an unexpected large wave. The swimmer Ben was attempting to rescue was successfully pulled from the water, but Ben was not.
Newport Beach scored high marks during the summer season in the 33rd Annual Heal the Bay Beach Report Card, released Wednesday, June 14.
Of the 36 Newport Beach bay and ocean testing sites listed in the report, 32 earned an A or A+ during the summer season, when the beaches are most frequented. Four sites earned a B grade. Heal the Bay’s annual report measures bacterial pollution for more than 700 West Coast beaches, from Washington to Baja, ranking them and grading their water quality from A to F.
The United States Army Corps of Engineers (the Corps) has halted the dredging of Lower Newport Bay and construction authorization for the City of Newport Beach’s (the city’s) Confined Aquatic Disposal (CAD) facility. The Corps put things on hold after Orange County Coastkeeper (Coastkeeper) filed a lawsuit challenging their failure to fully analyze actions possibly violating the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) and Endangered Species Act (ESA).
So, is that a good thing or a bad thing?
On May 23, the City Council approved a pilot program to change the harbor mooring fields configuration and approved changes to the Harbor Code to accommodate the proposed pilot program and the long-term plan for all the moorings in the harbor.
Speak Up Newport is hosting a meeting on Wednesday, June 14 to discuss the mooring plan with guest speaker Bill Kenney, the former Harbor Commission Chair. He will describe the Harbor Commission’s Open Water Initiative and the reasons for the changes to the mooring fields.
The valves, which were built in the 1970s to replace a system from the early 1900s, are necessary to prevent flooding in low-lying areas. They are manually operated, and need to be closed during high tides to prevent seawater from flooding the streets. Once the tide recedes, crews reopen the valves — nearly 90 in total — to allow water to flow from streets to the bay.
City Council this week unanimously approved a pilot project, called the open water initiative, related to mooring field design.
Councilmembers voted 7-0 on Tuesday (May 23) in support of the ordinance that would amend Title 17 (the city’s harbor code) related to mooring standards and permits. The approved action, stemming from Harbor Commission recommendations, will reconfigure mooring field C, which sits between Bay Island and the Balboa Peninsula ferry station.
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)