[Water_news] 3. DWR'S CALIFORNIA WATER NEWS: WATERSHEDS - 8/17/07

Department of Water Resources

California Water News

A daily compilation of significant news articles and comment

 

August 17, 2007

 

3. Watersheds

 

NAPA RIVER:

Napa River in need of cleanup; Vallejo waterfront at risk of turning into marshland, but city can't afford to pay for long-overdue dredging - Contra Costa Times

 

FISH CROSSING:

County engaged in latest phase to rebuild Bayside stream - Eureka Times Standard

 

 

NAPA RIVER:

Napa River in need of cleanup; Vallejo waterfront at risk of turning into marshland, but city can't afford to pay for long-overdue dredging

Contra Costa Times – 8/17/07

By Rachel Raskin-Zrihen, staff writer

 

As Vallejo struggles to define its identity, civic leaders count on its waterfront character, but they're finding that the waterfront itself may be disappearing.

 

"As long as the Napa River has water in it, Vallejo will have a waterfront, but it won't be what it is today" if long-overdue dredging doesn't occur, said Kathy Hoffman, Vallejo spokeswoman for Rep. George Miller's office.

 

Dredging keeps parts of the Mare Island Strait and the city's two marinas from reverting to marshland, officials said.

 

And since the strait's last dredging was more than 13 years ago, "the waterfront is disappearing," said Erik Raahague, ferry captain and longtime waterfront property owner. "It's filing up with silt and getting shallower and shallower."

 

The city and Vallejo Yacht Club marinas were last dredged about five years ago, city officials said.

 

City Manager Joe Tanner said it's a problem with no obvious remedy.

 

"I don't know if I'd use the word 'disappearing,' but I know we have a silt problem. You can't even use J Dock at the marina," Tanner said Wednesday. "If nothing is done, more and more marina slips will become unrentable. The Napa River needs to be dredged, there's no question about that, and we don't have the money to dredge it, there's also no question about that."

 

If the area isn't dredged, over time, it will be become a national security issue because it will be impossible for ships to navigate through the strait, said Steve England, city real estate assets manager.

 

"The Coast Guard has an interest in the channel remaining passable," England said. "Were working with them now, and hopefully, they can use their pull as Homeland Security to maybe get the Army Corps of Engineers to come in."

 

The Army Corps was responsible for dredging the strait until the Navy left Mare Island in 1996.

 

Dredging likely would cost $2.5 million to $4.5 million, said B.K. Cooper of the Mare Island-based dredging firm Cooper Crane & Rigging. Whatever the cost, the city can't afford not to regularly dredge the area, he said.

 

"The marinas that are occupied are the ones that can be used any time of the day or night," unlike Vallejo's, which larger boats already can use only at high tide, Cooper said. "Our berth had 25 feet of water 15 years ago and now has 4 (feet) at low tide."

 

Dozens of pieces of old dock infrastructure and abandoned boats are stuck in the accumulating mud, England said.

 

"They're piling up, and it takes money to get rid of it," he said. "But I think the fuse has been lit, and hopefully, the four miles of entities that share and rely on that space can speak with a common voice" to find a solution.

 

A lot is riding on the dredging, officials agree. If left alone, Mare Island will cease being a viable option for maritime industry, Cooper said.

The expense is daunting for a city facing a multimillion-dollar deficit and proposing to cut $7 million in public safety.

 

"We have a problem with no solution," Tanner said. "I'm not going to recommend the City Council lay off firefighters and police officers so we can dredge the marina." #

http://www.contracostatimes.com/search/ci_6647827?IADID=Search-www.contracostatimes.com-www.contracostatimes.com&nclick_check=1

 

 

FISH CROSSING:

County engaged in latest phase to rebuild Bayside stream

Eureka Times Standard – 8/17/07

By John Driscoll, staff writer

 

Old Arcata Road is blocked between Bayside and Indianola cutoffs to make way for fish crossing. Humboldt County, in cooperation with fish restoration experts, has launched another phase in rebuilding the small but promising Bayside stream called Rocky Gulch.

 

Excavators have dug up two small concrete culverts under the road and are replacing them with a much larger culvert designed to better allow both fish and floodwaters to pass under the road.

 

”There is always that dual benefit,” said Chris Whitworth with the county Department of Public Works.

 

The road should be open again by the end of next week or earlier, he said.

 

Equipment operator Matt Smith with Environmental Restoration Services has also redug the channel of the creek up and downstream of the road, widening and deepening it, and putting rocks and boulders in place to provide habitat for salmon. A crew with the Humboldt Fish Action Council is working in the wake of heavy equipment, planting the banks with native vegetation like dogwood, azalea, alder and wild ginseng.

 

The work follows a 2004 project that replaced a tide gate on Rocky Gulch and transformed in 2005 a ditch-like channel through ranch land into a meandering creek. The projects have been funded in large part by the California Department of Fish and Game and the California Coastal Conservancy. Biologists have begun keeping track of coho salmon in Rocky Gulch -- which runs into Humboldt Bay -- and are seeing strong numbers of fish.

 

”We've really opened up that channel in the last place where fish would really struggle to get through,” said Darren Mierau with the Arcata firm McBain and Trush.

 

A new culvert built by Wahlund Construction has replaced undersized pipes on private property just downstream from Old Arcata Road. Upstream, where the stream had flowed in a cramped channel past dilapidated wood retaining walls, the channel is now about 7 feet deep and 8 feet wide. Creek water is being pumped around the construction site while the project is under way.

 

It looks like a stream where before it was almost unnoticeable.

 

The Pacific Gas and Electric Co. is moving a gas main that runs through the site.

 

While the site is messy right now, the design and landscape look like it will be much more attractive than before. Larry Hand with the Humboldt Fish Action Council said it's important for urban residents to know that restoration can look good and be good for fish as well.

 

The final stage of the project, which will replace a culvert with a bridge on Mierau's property upstream, is set to begin this fall, Whitworth said.  #

http://www.times-standard.com/local/ci_6648120

####