State grants L.A. County $146,500 for abandoned vessel exchange

LOS ANGELES — The Los Angeles Board of Supervisors accepted a grant from the state’s Division of Boating and Waterways (Cal Boating) at its Dec. 2 meeting to fund the Surrendered and Abandoned Vessel Exchange (SAVE) program in Marina del Rey.
Los Angeles County will receive $146,500 from the state and, through Oct. 1, 2016, fund the Sheriff’s Department’s to rid Marina del Rey and surrounding areas of surrendered or abandoned vessels.
“In an effort to avoid potential health and safety hazards, it is imperative to remove these vessels in and around the Marina del Rey Harbor and Santa Monica Bay waters. This grant will assist the department in eliminating the Marina del Rey Harbor and Santa Monica Bay waters of abandoned and submerged vessels,” said John Scott, who recently served as interim Sheriff.
The grant also comes with a 10 percent matching requirement. Accordingly, Los Angeles County must contribute $14,650 from its own funds to help pay for the SAVE program. Combining the state grant with county funds, the Sheriff’s Department will have $161,160 available for the next 22 months.
Specifically, the money would be used, according to official county documents, for “abandoned or surrendered vessel removal, disposal, destruction, and storage fees.”
Scott added the SAVE program is a “positive impact” on the services offered to users of Marina del Rey Harbor.
“The SAVE Program supports emergency dive services, boating accident investigations, sunken vessel recoveries and the removal, storage, and disposal of abandoned or surrendered vessels, or parts thereof that are in danger of being abandoned and have the likelihood of causing environmental degradation or becoming a hazard to navigation in the Marina del Rey Harbor and Santa Monica Bay waters,” Scott said.
With the money, Sheriff’s deputies would be able to help recreational boat owners unable to pay slip fees because economic hardships and expressed interest in giving up their vessel through SAVE.
This is the ninth year Los Angeles County is participating in the SAVE program and receiving grant money from state officials.
SAVE was established earlier this year as a consolidation of two existing grant programs within Cal Boating’s purview: the Abandoned Watercraft Abatement Fund (AWAF) and Vessel Turn-in Program (VTIP).
Susan Sykes, a vessel abatement analyst with Cal Boating, said SAVE was developed “to allow agencies – who apply for and are granted both the AWAF and VTIP – to be able to blend these grants into one fund to be used for either purpose, or both.”
“Previous to this fiscal year, the funds had to remain completely separate and could not be transferred for the other use,” Sykes added.
Since 1997, Sykes said 1,723 abandoned vessels were removed under AWAF, costing an average of $3,200 per vessel.
As of 2010, 392 abandoned vessels were processed at an average cost of $4,300 per vessel. During the same stretch, another 245 vessels were voluntarily surrendered to city, county or state officials, according to Sykes. The average cost to process and dispose of surrendered vessels since 2010 was $1,600 per vessel.
Sykes noted local public agencies throughout California have been granted $7.5 million for abandoned vessels and $475,000 to process and dispose of surrendered vessels.
City and county governments can still apply for SAVE grant funding for the current fiscal year through Jan. 15, 2016.
Cal Boating does not maintain real time statistics of how many abandoned vessels actively exists within any of California’s harbors.
The Board of Supervisors approved the funding without discussion. It was also the first Board of Supervisors meeting for Sheila Kuehl, who now represents Marina del Rey on the county level. Kuehl was sworn-in earlier in the meeting; about four weeks earlier, she defeated Bobby Shriver in the race for the third supervisorial district seat.