Regional dredging partnership taking shape
An unprecedented regional partnership to dredge several neglected river channels connecting to San Pablo Bay is now taking shape, offering new hope for removing the accumulating mud that increasingly chokes the Petaluma River.
With Petaluma as the lead agency, the collaborative spanning Sonoma, Marin, Napa and Solano counties would bundle a number of dredging efforts together to lower overall costs while raising the project’s attractiveness for federal support, the city’s top public works official outlined on Monday. The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers is supposed to keep several waterways in those areas clear using federal dollars, but has fallen more than 10 years behind schedule in Petaluma alone due to limited funding and competing priorities.
The idea has attracted tentative interest as a possible “poster child” for a new approach by the Corps, where local agencies play a greater role in facilitating and even helping to fund the work than in years past, said Dan St. John, Petaluma’s director of public works.
“They are looking for better ideas, so that they can accomplish their federal mandate for less money,” he said.
A vote by the Petaluma City Council on Monday would have been the first official legislative action around the idea, which has been the subject of informal discussion since the summer of 2015. Petaluma would pitch in $12,000 in a six-way split to hire a consultant to refine the proposal by this summer, when the city would join representatives from San Rafael, Marin County, Vallejo, the Napa County Flood Control District and the Sonoma County Water Agency in making their pitch to the Corps.
Council members asked that the language be modified to make it more clear that Petaluma would not be on the hook for the entire $65,300 consultant cost if those other partners bowed out. The item is now expected to be up for another vote later this month.
In general, the new approach would save overall costs by having dredging crews embark on a single regional project. Those companies have historically charged to mobilize their equipment for each individual job.
Participants would coordinate on the disposal of dredge material, which could be used for purposes like raising shorelines around the San Francisco Bay in anticipation of rising sea levels, St. John said. The partnership would look to sell the dredge spoils to further offset costs.
A potential scenario would have the Corps fully funding an initial round of dredging in the region, and local agencies paying for subsequent maintenance over a certain period using a possible combination of public and private funding, according to a city council report. The specifics of the strategy will be a central focus of the consultant’s work.
Cost estimates to dredge the Petaluma River, a 13-mile tidal slough used by commercial and recreational vessels, have varied. A Corps estimate in May of last year pegged the job at between $6.5 million and $9 million.
As a major force behind the new approach, Rep. Jared Huffman, D-San Rafael, who represents Petaluma, acknowledged that times have changed from when federal dollars were a reliable source for maintaining the city’s eponymous waterway every four to six years.
“I’m going to keep working on the old school (Corps of Engineers) approach, but the years keep passing. There are a lot of demands on a diminishing pot of money, and it’s very frustrating. I feel like we have to pursue both paths, but the alternative path may get it done faster,” Huffman said.
Source: by Eric Gneckow
Next Article Previous Article