On October 15, Governor Schwarzenegger signed into law the Bay Area Council-sponsored Senate Bill 976 (Torlakson, D-Antioch). SB 976 creates the Bay Area’s first new transportation authority of the 21st Century, the Bay Area Water Emergency Transportation Authority (WETA).
Vallejo’s Baylink Ferry will now be consolidated into the WETA along with the Alameda/Oakland and Harbor Bay Ferry lines. Photo by Joel Williams
Published: November, 2007
Creates New Transportation Authority, Grants $250 Million to Prepare for Disasters and Build BART on the Bay
On October 15, Governor Schwarzenegger signed into law the Bay Area Council-sponsored Senate Bill 976 (Torlakson, D-Antioch). SB 976 creates the Bay Area’s first new transportation authority of the 21st Century, the Bay Area Water Emergency Transportation Authority (WETA). WETA’s mission is to plan and build an emergency response and disaster recovery water transportation system for the region that will be capable of responding to an earthquake or other disaster. SB 976 identifies WETA as the agency to receive $250 million from the infrastructure bonds passed last November to start building the system. SB 976 also consolidates all existing state-funded ferry service in the Bay Area under the authority and control of WETA, including the Alameda/Oakland Ferry, the Vallejo Baylink Ferry and the Harbor Bay Ferry, but excluding the Golden Gate Ferry.
SB 976 was the product of two years of work by the Bay Area Council, said Jim Wunderman, President and CEO of the Council. Hurricane Katrina’s aftermath spurred us to act. When our big disaster comes, which will most likely be a 1906-sized earthquake, the only way to move people, emergency supplies and goods around the region would be on the water. Now we will be able to do so.
Following the devastation caused by Hurricane Katrina, Senator Perata formally requested the Bay Area Council to evaluate and make recommendations on how to better prepare the region for a disaster. The Bay Area Council immediately assembled a Blue Ribbon Task Force chaired by Ron Cowan that extensively consulted with emergency-response transportation agencies, experts on earthquake risk and vulnerability, and vessel suppliers and operators. Experts advised the Task Force that the Bay Area faces a two-thirds chance of a major earthquake in next 25 years and that the regional transportation system will not survive intact, necessitating an alternate water-based system. The recommendations and analysis were summarized in the report The Bay – The Transportation Spine for Disaster, delivered to Senator Perata on April 12, 2006.
The Bay Area Council drove the creation of BART 50 years ago to unite our region on the land, now we hope WETA can unite our region on the water, said Wunderman. Of course, the new boats won’t just sit idly waiting for the ground to shake. In a region with the second worst traffic in the United States it would be foolhardy to not press these boats into service to give residents another option to car-choked freeways. We expect WETA will create one of the most comprehensive water transit services in the world, connecting all parts of the Bay Area.
Experts say the need for WETA is manifest. In addition to the FEMA-predicted 5,000 deaths, 18,000 hospitalizations and 165,000 people made homeless by a major quake, the region will also face a transportation cataclysm. An Association of Bay Area Governments (ABAG) study found that more than 1,700 roads will be closed by a major earthquake on the Hayward Fault. Despite all of the completed and ongoing transportation seismic safety efforts, ABAG and the U.S. Geological Survey warn that all transbay bridges will be closed, either by bridge damage or access-road failure. Soil liquefaction will render many key roads—such as bridge approaches, Highway 101, and Interstates 80 and 880—impassable. Violent ground movement and fault slip will cause large fractures and landslides to block roadways. The BART Berkeley hills tunnel, which passes directly through the Hayward Fault, will be likely closed for years. In short, those that survive a major quake will be stuck in their location for a long time.
Current water-based infrastructure and equipment capabilities are grossly inadequate to the physical task. Ferry terminals exist in only a few spots on the Bay, and the vessel fleet lacks the capacity to make up for even one out-of-service bridge. Prior to the creation of WETA, the few vessels that existed were in the hands of many different public and private owners and operators, and with no detailed plan or identified leader to activate and coordinate them. WETA has a mission to create a robust and flexible system with clear leadership. It should meet the most important transbay emergency response and recovery transportation needs to protect the Bay Area and its residents.
Those who enabled this legislation, namely Senator Torlakson, Assembly Member Desaulnier, Speaker Nunez, Senator Perata and Governor Schwarzenegger, should be very proud that they have helped the Bay Area prevent deaths in the short term and made the recovery of this region much more likely after a major disaster, said Ron Cowan, chair of the Bay Area Council’s Blue Ribbon Task Force. When WETA is built out, the Bay that divides us everyday can unite us. The emergency response and recovery transportation system must be fully implemented as quickly as possible, as if the lives of Bay Area residents depend on it—because they do.
This system would not be possible without the strong leadership of the Water Transit Authority by its CEO, Steve Castleberry, and the President of the Board, Charlene Haught Johnson, added Wunderman.
