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Newport Bay is an estuary - a place where salt water and fresh water
mix. The salt water comes from the Pacific Ocean. The fresh water
comes from an area of approximately 154 square miles of land that
drains to the Bay. This 154 mile watershed extends to the Santiago
Hills and includes parts of Costa Mesa, Irvine, Lake Forest, Laguna
Hills, Newport Beach, Orange, Santa Ana, and Tustin. Most of the
drainage enters the Bay via San Diego Creek. The remainder enters
the Back Bay via the Santa Ana - Delhi Channel or from the
surrounding bluffs. This drainage brings with it a number of threats
to the Bay. Find out how you can help to keep the Bay clean at the Clean
Water Newport website. |
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The worst visible threat to the Bay is the trash that is carried
here through the storm drain system during winter rain storms. Not
only is the trash unsightly, it is also dangerous to the marine life
and the birds that get tangled up in plastic or eat polystyrene
mistaking it for food. Each September an Estuary
Clean-Up Day is held and, in a few hours, 20 or more tons of
trash is collected from the Bay by teams of dedicated volunteers.
People often ask why this is only performed once a year.
Unfortunately this well-meaning effort disturbs the bird population
and so clean-up is only done during the short period between the
breeding season of the Clapper Rail and Least Tern and the arrival
of migrating birds from Alaska and Canada.
A second threat is the dumping of motor oil, gasoline, paints and
other hazardous liquids and the run-off of pesticides and
fertilizers. The problem caused by run-off of fertilizers from
commercial nurseries and landscaped areas around the Bay is not
immediately apparent. What happens is that an excess of nutrients in
the water causes an algae bloom - the overgrowth of algae on the
surface of the water. The decomposition of algae after it dies off
uses up the oxygen in the water affecting the fish population. In
extreme cases fish may die in large numbers because of a lack of
oxygen.
A third threat is the build up of silt washed down into the Bay.
In the past, soil eroded from the hillsides around the Bay 's
watershed would settle out on the plains below. With increased
urbanization concrete channels have been built to direct the storm
water, and with it the silt, to the Bay. At the same time land
development in the watershed has resulted in soil erosion at the
construction sites that has added to the silt deposited in the Bay.
Without remedial action the Bay would soon become a meadow. See
Low Tide Map. Nearly a million cubic yards of sediments were
removed from the north east corner of the Bay during the 1998/9
dredging. An even more ambitious dredging
project is currently taking place. |
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