Dredging

EPA Seeks to Expand Dredge Spoils Site Off California

Federal officials are seeking to expand an ocean dumping site for dredge spoils off Eureka, Calif., and one future plan includes using a location near the shore for disposal to help buffer the coastline from sea-level rise.

Each year an estimated 1 million cubic yards of nontoxic sediment is dredged from Humboldt Bay and dumped about three miles offshore to clear the way for recreational boats and commercial vessels, including oil tankers.

Jennifer Kalt, director of the advocacy and education group Humboldt Baykeeper, said scientists have been advocating for placing sand closer to shore rather than hauling it out to the ocean to counteract erosion that happens on the north and south spits of the bay.

“Local experts have been advocating for this for years—it’s good that the EPA is nally listening,” Kalt wrote in an email.

Dredging urgently needed - but Harbor District lacks authority to declare emergency; fuel shipments not affected

On Thursday, the safety committee of the Humboldt Bay Harbor, Recreation and Conservation District called for an emergency meeting to address the issue of shoaling in the bay due to severe winter storms.

The harbor district, responding to results of soundings performed by the Army Corps of Engineers that found the bay shallower than at any other point in its history, called for an emergency declaration. But the district does not have the authority to declare an emergency.

Harbor District Declares State of Emergency

The Humboldt Bay Harbor, Recreation and Conservation District voted unanimously at a special meeting yesterday to declare a state of emergency due to increased sedimentation in the channel into Humboldt Bay that is causing dangerous conditions and imperiling the county’s fuel supply.

The vote came after the district received the results of depth testing by the Army Corps of Engineers, which found that the 48-foot deep channel is currently at about 21 feet, filled with sediment that washed out of the Eel River during storms last month. The shallowing of the channel is creating large cross waves and “extremely large sneaker waves” around Buoy 9, an area known as “Rock and Roll Alley,” according to a staff report. The conditions are imperiling local recreational and commercial fishing boats, as well as the commercial shipping industry, including the fuel ships that deliver 6 million gallons of gasoline, diesel and aviation fuel to the Chevron fuel dock every nine days.

Dredging work must wrap by October 15

Coast Guard station, Eureka marina to be cleared of sediment

8/31/17

It’s a race against time on Humboldt Bay as two separate dredging projects battle the elements so both finish before an Oct. 15 deadline, according to harbor district and city of Eureka officials.

Sediment is set to be removed from near the Coast Guard Station Humboldt Bay boathouse at the south end of the Samoa peninsula before work is done at the Eureka Boat Basin near the Wharfinger Building. Sediment brought up from the bottom of the bay will be dumped in the Pacific Ocean about 3 miles west of the Humboldt Bay entrance — known as the Humboldt Open Ocean Disposal Site, or HOODS.

Read Entire Article

Humboldt Bay Dredging Faces Setbacks From State and Federal Agencies

5/15/17

Dredging on Humboldt Bay could be done this year. So why is that such a big deal? Because it's been a decade since the bay has been cleaned and some 80 million gallons of mucky, goopy sludge has piled up. But in order to dredge the bay, the harbor district and city of Eureka need approval from the Environmental Protection Agency, along with other federal and state agencies about where to put that gunk. And those approvals are moving about as fast as boats in thick mud.

Listen to the audio