The Port of Oakland and the Bay Area’s environmental community have come a long way in working together for the common good.
By Wes Starratt, PE
Published: April, 2008
The May 13, 1988, issue of the Oakland Tribune vividly describes a dramatic confrontation between a barge filled with Oakland’s dredged materials and fishing boats at what was undoubtedly the low point of the battle over where to put the mud dredged from Oakland’s shipping channels. Contrast that with the bucolic Partnership Recognition Ceremony held recently in Marin County for Hamilton Wetland Restoration and Oakland Harbor Deepening. Now, clean dredge material has become a valuable resource and not just dredged spoils that must be disposed of in the bay, at sea, or, when contaminated, in landfills.
The 1,000-acre Hamilton site is authorized to receive up to 10.6 million cubic yards of dredged material from the Port of Oakland and other dredging projects. It is the largest federally-funded wetland restoration project on the West Coast, involving an investment of $106 million in federal funds and $15 million in state funds through the California State Coastal Conservancy. So, shipping interests have found a disposal site for their dredged material, and the environmental community is able to restore a wildlife sanctuary on San Francisco Bay.
The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers is the lead federal agency for the two separately-funded projects. Project manager Dave Doak, exclaimed that incredible teams of people are working on each of the projects, noting the start of this collaborative effort in 1996. Previously, dredged materials had to be put somewhere, such as adjacent to Alcatraz Island or, at times, even out to sea. Now, Oakland’s dredged material is starting to be barged to a delivery point in mid-San Pablo Bay where it is discharged into a converted hydraulic dredge and then pumped through seven miles of pipeline to the Hamilton site. Oakland’s joint-venture dredging contactor, Manson and Dutra, is responsible for this delivery system.
The port has always had dredging problems. Historically, Oakland was a marshland on the east shore of San Francisco Bay, and San Francisco was the port city. That began to change in the late 1800s with the arrival of the transcontinental railroad, which required boats and ferries to transfer goods and passengers to San Francisco. Those vessels needed channels that had to be dredged through the East Bay’s shallow waters. Then came the container ships. San Francisco didn’t have space to handle the containers nor railroad connections to move them to inland destinations. So, the container ships went to Oakland, which had to be dredged and dredged again as the container ships grew larger and larger. In 1988 the dredging was from a depth of 35 ft to 38 ft; a decade later, it was up to 46 ft, and finally the target is a 50 ft depth. That depth is expected to permit the largest container ships from Asia to make their first West Coast call at Oakland, instead of having to first call at one of the southern California ports to off-load sufficient containers to be able to enter Oakland’s shallow waters.
A turning point in Oakland’s dredged materials disposal program took place in 1994, with the transfer of the U.S. Naval Supply Depot at Oakland’s Middle Harbor to the Port. It was apparent that Middle Harbor would provide an excellent site for the disposal of dredged materials from the adjacent shipping channel, but, since that program would involve filling the bay, a permit would be required from the Bay Conservation & Development Commission. BCDC responded that it would not grant a permit unless the port agreed to utilize some of the dredged mud for wetland restoration projects around the bay.
One wetland restoration project was provided by a private individual who made the so-called Montezuma site available along the shore of Suisun Bay for the payment of a tipping fee. Soon, dredged mud from the Port of Oakland was being barged to the Montezuma site, as well as to Oakland’s adjacent Middle Harbor. That effort by BCDC also brought together the Port and those involved in the Hamilton Wetland Restoration Project. Meantime, commented Joe Wong, Oakland’s Executive Director of Operations, We have also created a shallow-water habitat in the Oakland Middle Harbor, and we are very proud of that.
Oakland’s 50 ft dredging project will be completed in June 2009, while Hamilton will continue to receive clean dredge materials from various dredging projects for several more years. By 2015 tidal action will once again become active at the restored Hamilton Wetlands. Endangered species will no longer be endangered; the environmental community will feel that it has achieved its wetland restoration goal, and the Port of Oakland will be receiving the largest container ships available.
