Mud Put to Good Use
STEVE GOLDBECK
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Mud Put to Good Use STEVE GOLDBECK |
  Dredging in the Oakland Estuary
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| VAST QUANTITIES of mud must be dredged from the Bay to establish and maintain navigation channels. As many as six million cubic yards of sediment are barged to bay disposal sites each year -- enough to fill a line of dump trucks stretching from San Francisco to New Jersey. How to dispose of this mud has been a burning issue for more than a decade. For many years, most dredged mud was disposed of near Alcatraz Island, based on the mistaken expectation that outgoing tides would pull it all out to sea through the Golden Gate. Instead, the elevation of this dump site rose so high that it became a navigation hazard. Meanwhile, fishermen and environmentalists protested that the mud was choking fisheries and polluting the water. In 1989, the controversy came to a head when fishermen and their allies blockaded the site. Yet the navigation channels had to stay open for the use of ferries, fishing and recreational boats, and a multi-billion dollar marine transportation economy. In 1991 the five agencies responsible for managing Bay dredging and disposal joined in a common effort to develop a Long-Term Management Strategy (LTMS) that all concerned could accept. The San Francisco Bay Conservation and Development Commission, San Francisco Bay Regional Water Quality Control Board, State Water Resources Control Board, U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, and U.S. Army Corps of Engineers worked together for seven years conducting technical and policy studies and environmental review, and have now agreed on a strategy that is designed to maintain Bay navigation channels in an economically and environmentally sound manner, maximize the reuse of dredged material, and establish a cooperative framework for processing dredging permit applications. The LTMS will allow 20 percent of the sediment dredged annually to continue to be disposed of at sites within the Bay; meanwhile, opportunities will be sought to put as much as possible of the remaining mud to beneficial uses outside the Bay. It may be used for restoring wetlands, capping landfills, bolstering levees, and other construction purposes. The surplus will be barged to an ocean disposal site 50 miles offshore in water over a mile deep. To ensure that this shift in practices does not impede needed dredging projects, priority will be given to small marinas. Further, the strategy will be put into effect gradually, as in-Bay disposal is decreased over the next decade. The LTMS has not only defused the dredging controversy, it has brought other benefits as well. Dredged sediments are now being tested more effectively for toxicity and pollutants, and the dredging permit process has been streamlined. Dredgers no longer need to apply separately to the various agencies; now they can submit a single application to a newly established Dredged Material Management Office, which represents all the agencies that oversee dredging. The strategy's long-term success depends on the availability of beneficial reuse opportunities for dredged material. The proposed Hamilton Wetlands Project will be a welcome part of the Long-Term Management Strategy. |
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