Posted on April 1, 2019
Shoaling should be cleared by start of salmon season, April 13
Following a meeting Thursday night, the Board of Commissioners for the Humboldt Bay Harbor, Recreation and Conservation District is hopeful the Army Corps of Engineers will be out “within approximately a week” to execute emergency dredging for hazardous shoaling conditions on Humboldt Bay that reduced depths near the channel entrance, board Executive Director Larry Oetker told the Times-Standard on Friday.
“There is a tremendous amount of work that’s going on right now and the district is just very pleased with the support that we’ve received from the (Army Corps of Engineers), the Coast Guard, the sheriff’s department and the private sector,” he said.
According to Oetker, the Coast Guard is presently working alongside military divers to locate the chain for buoy nine, which snapped last fall and is now buried beneath the sediment build up the Army Corps is expected to clear within the next week, though it has not yet confirmed when the agency’s crew will arrive as it is finishing repairs on its dry-docked dredge.
“As long as all the tests go good and the weather holds, they should be here,” said Oetker, who anticipates the area will be dredged before the start of the salmon season April 13.
Conditions meanwhile remain “very dangerous” and “life-threatening,” according to Oetker, and shoaling will remain a problem unless the proper energy and funding is funneled into long-term solutions — a process that begins with a federally funded study with a $3.5 million price tag, only half of which would be covered by the Army Corps.
The district is requesting the Army Corps submit a federal work plan as part of its 2020 budget that would allow funding for a long-term solution, in addition to paying for regular maintenance operations. The total cost of funding would amount to $11.5 million, Oetker said — $5 million for the channel entrance, $3 million for the inner harbor (the industrial stretch and Eureka waterfront) and another $3.5 million for the study.
The Army Corps had already allocated $8 million for bay maintenance — $5 million of which is directed toward regularly-scheduled entrance channel dredging and $3 million of which was originally intended for “inner channel” dredging along the Eureka waterfront and the industrial stretch following the Samoa peninsula to the Samoa bridge.
Because of emergency shoaling conditions, the harbor district requested the Army Corps of Engineers “re-prioritize” the funding so as to address the hazard, Oetker said, diverting the $3 million intended for inner channel areas to the urgent dredging that needs to take place.
“We need to get the money back as soon as we can,” Oetker said, as the areas along the waterfront and industrial stretch are now not likely to receive maintenance.
He said dredging is “critical” for offshore wind and other clean energy projects the Samoa peninsula could house.
“We need to have this safe, reliable, navigable harbor in order to attract these businesses that we want to have that are clean and are good paying jobs because we want to make a 21st-century port that is a renewable energy port,” Oetker said.
He could not quantify the loss to local commerce in light of the shoaling conditions but said that they have “definitely had an impact” on the fishing and logging industries.
“The good thing is we have everyone’s attention all the way up to D.C.,” Oetker said, celebrating the work U.S. Rep Jared Huffman has done pressuring federal agencies “to make sure that Humboldt Bay is a priority.”
Rep. Huffman was not available for comment by the article deadline.
Oetker also voiced gratitude for the work of Samoa shipyard owner Leroy Zerlang who “led the way” on the effort to accomplish emergency dredging.
“Everyone in the port has been really working amazingly together to try to solve these issues,” Oetker said. “The harbor district just wants to thank everyone for all the support that we’ve received.”
Source: times-standard.com
