Posted on May 1, 2018
By Keri Brenner, Marina Independent Journal
With a target on potential new federal money, Marin’s lawmakers and county officials are teaming up with local leaders and activists to lobby the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers for $11.7 million to dredge the San Rafael Canal.
San Rafael Public Works Director Bill Guerin and Nadine Urciuoli, CEO of the newly formed San Rafael Channel Association, will travel next week to Washington, D.C. to meet with Corps of Engineers officials about including the dredging in the Corps’ 2018 work plan, to be announced May 22.
“We want to do everything we can to get on the list,” said Guerin, confirming that the federal omnibus spending bill passed by Congress in March included extra money for canal dredging in the Corps of Engineers’ budget. “We want to make sure they know we need the canal funding — hopefully they will do the right thing.”
Guerin’s and Urciuoli’s visit follows a trip earlier this year to Washington by Marin County Supervisor Damon Connolly, who shares representation of San Rafael — and involvement in the dredging issue — with Supervisor Dennis Rodoni. Connolly said he met with both California Sen. Dianne Feinstein and U.S. Rep. Jared Huffman, D-San Rafael, and received pledges of support from both of them.
“There’s been no dredging since 2011 — and that was just a partial dredging,” Connolly said. “(The silt buildup) is creating significant navigational issues that impact the Marin regional economy, and it’s posing significant risks to public safety and flood control.”
Public safety, in particular, is seen as critical, both Connolly and Guerin said.
“The fire department and the police department both use the canal for rescues,” Guerin said. “We need to have a navigable channel.” Last week, for example, he noted, San Rafael Fire Department’s newest fireboat, put into service last year, was called into action after an alleged burglar jumped into the canal to escape police.
San Rafael fire Chief Christopher Gray said Friday he is giving Guerin photos of the fireboat and other documentation to take to the Corps of Engineers as evidence of how critical a deep canal is for emergency access.
He said some places on the canal are so shallow that firefighters have had to jump into the water and swim out to rescue boaters because the fireboat cannot travel there without going aground.
“We are experiencing building fires, apartment fires and boat fires where access is critical,” Gray said. “Not having a predictable measure of access represents the difference between a small incident and a major incident — time is of the essence.”
Connolly added, in a March 30 followup letter to Feinstein, that the “fire department uses the turning basin near the head of the canal to refill with water when helicopters are used to fight hillside fires.”
Urciuoli, general manager of Helmut’s Marine Service Inc., noted the economic impacts of a loss of canal access would be staggering.
“More than 800 homes and 100 businesses and commercial properties are located directly along, or affected by, the San Rafael Channel,” she said in an email Thursday. “Approximately 1,500 vessels are berthed (there), generating significant sales and property tax revenues.”
Urciuoli said she and others formed the San Rafael Channel Association this year as a nonprofit public benefit corporation to “organize support for and promote the dredging, repair, maintenance and improvement” of the entire channel.
Guerin said the association has hired lobbyist Mia O’Connell, of the firm O’Connell and Dempsey, to work with Marin and California leaders to obtain funding for the project.
Urciuoli said last year that the canal, ideally supposed to be at least 6 feet deep for boat access, was only 2 feet deep in some spots.
“The San Rafael Channel is a vital federal waterway for navigation and storm water drainage, and an important economic engine for the city,” Urciuoli said in an email. “In addition, the accumulation of sediment poses a serious risk to our emergency services and search and rescue missions — and a flood risk to the surrounding low-lying areas where more than 12,000 residents live and work in a FEMA flood zone.”
Huffman said in an interview Thursday that he has been meeting regularly with Corps officials and is “absolutely emphasizing this (dredging) as a priority for the district and Marin County — so, we’ll cross our fingers.”
Huffman said the Corps funding would be a two-step process to first gain approval for about $700,000 in engineering work and environmental analyses, and then about $11 million for the actual dredging.
Although the first goal of the local leaders was to receive all the money in the 2018 work plan, “once the (planning money) is allocated, there’s a good chance of getting the dredging done too,” Huffman added.
Guerin said a likely scenario, if the Corps of Engineers funding is included in the 2018 work plan, would be to have the $700,000 in engineering work and environmental analyses done this summer, with the actual dredging to start in 2019.
Petaluma officials, Guerin noted, have already been allocated money for the engineering and environmental studies. Guerin, Rodoni, San Rafael Mayor Gary Phillips and other local officials met in January with Petaluma Public Works Director Dan St. John to discuss possible public-private partnerships that could be established on a regional level to maintain both the San Rafael Canal and the Petaluma River.
“We still plan to continue that (public-private partnership) process,” Guerin said. “(However) this current (Corps) opportunity is much more immediate — certainly if funds are available to dredge canals, we want to get hold of it.”
Source: marinij
