Petaluma River Dredging Project Completes with Oct. 13 Ribbon Cutting

October 09, 2020

Please join Congressman Jared Huffman (CA-02), project delivery team members from the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, Petaluma Mayor Teresa Barrett, and others as they commemorate the completion of the long-awaited Petaluma River Dredging Project. Following the ceremony and a group photo, media are invited to go down to the Petaluma River dock for filming and to do individual interviews with members of the event.

Event Details

WHAT:

Petaluma River Dredging Ribbon Cutting

WHEN:

Tuesday, Oct. 13, 2020 at 12-1:30 p.m. PT

WHERE:

Waterfront Area Next to the Petaluma Yacht Club

10 C St #3025, Petaluma, CA 94952 

WHO:

Congressman Jared Huffman

Lt. Col. John Cunningham, U.S. Army Corps of Engineers

Sonoma County Supervisor David Rabbitt

Teresa Barrett, Mayor of Petaluma

Marie McCusker, Executive Director at Petaluma Downtown Association & Visitors Program

Stephanie Bastianon, Executive Director, Friends of the Petaluma River

CLOTHING:

Casual (recommend wearing active-style footwear)

Members of the press should send their RSVP to Mary Hurrell (mary.hurrell@mail.house.gov). 

About the Project

The river, which is actually a 13-mile tidal slough that empties into San Pablo Bay and historically served as a vital artery for Petaluma commerce, was normally dredged every four years, but the Corps of Engineers had not completed a proper dredging since 2003 due to lack of funding. In February of this year, $9.7 million in long-awaited federal funding was allocated for river maintenance in the Fiscal Year 2020 Army Corps of Engineers Work Plan for the North Bay. Congressman Jared Huffman, a member of the House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee, helped lead the congressional effort to secure this funding.

Dredging officially began in the River Channel on Saturday, Sept. 5, and will wrap up on or around Thursday, Oct. 15. Around-the-clock dredging is being done by the Sandpiper, an all-electric cutter-head suction dredge owned and operated by San Diego-based Pacific Dredge & Construction. More than 150,000 cubic yards of mud and silt will be removed from the channel clearing the way for increased commercial and recreational vessel traffic. Following their work in the River Channel, the crew will move its operations south of Highway 37 to begin dredging the Across-the-Flats portion of the project.

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