Henry K. Lee / SF Chronicle 22dec00
The Port of Oakland received final approval yesterday for its plans to dredge the city's harbor to 50 feet to allow larger container ships to unload cargo.
The San Francisco Bay Conservation and Development Commission, meeting in Oakland, voted 18-to-0 to approve the project, which will use 13 million cubic yards of dredged material to restore wetlands in a lagoon in industrial West Oakland and at sites in Marin and Solano counties.
Port officials lauded the commission's decision, saying the harbor, the fourth largest in the country behind Long Beach, Los Angeles and New York-New Jersey, would now be able to keep pace with other ports where 50-foot channels are the standard.
"I think this will put the Port of Oakland back on the map in a much more competitive position," said Tay Yoshitani, deputy executive director of the Oakland port. "Because of the deeper draft, you can bring in bigger ships that are not only deeper, but wider."
Dredging by the port and the U.S. Corps of Engineers would begin late next year and be finished in four years, Yoshitani said.
Adria Avilla, a spokeswoman for the commission, described the vote as historic, saying it could set the precedent for other similar projects in which massive amounts of mud are used for habitat restoration.
"It was kind of a long process, but they were very pleased to see the outcome," Avilla said.
Traditionally, dredged material -- also called "spoils" -- has been dumped in the ocean or in designated sites in the bay, creating environmental problems such as choking out fish and shellfish.
But Oakland officials have vowed to deposit the mud in the Middle Harbor basin in West Oakland and elsewhere for wetlands restoration.
They plan to deposit 1 million cubic yards as a base for dockside construction in Oakland and pump 7 million cubic yards into the Middle Harbor and haul 5 million cubic yards of mud to the Hamilton and Montezuma marshland restoration sites in Marin and Solano counties. Some of the material would also be taken to the closed Alameda Naval Air Station.
The dredging project would return Middle Harbor to its shallow, marsh-like state by layering in mud to create a depth of 6 to 10 feet over 200 acres of surface area. The mud would serve as a bed for a plantation of a native aquatic species called eelgrass and provide habitat for the endangered California least tern.
The federal government has earmarked $14 million for the project.
E-mail Henry K. Lee at hlee@sfchronicle.com
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