Over 50 people showed up to the King Salmon Fishermen’s
Channel Beneficial Reuse Dredging Pilot Project open forum tonight at the
Woodley Island conference room. Not much elbow room. Pacific Gas and Electric representatives Kris
Vardas and Loren Sharp were present as were Humboldt Bay Harbor 1st
Division Commissioner Larry Doss, Deputy Director Adam Wagshcal and Executive
Director Jack Crider.
Mr. Vardas outlined the scope of the project and some
history. In 1952 PG & E purchased the property. They last dredged the
Fishermen’s channel in 1982 and removed 21,000 cubic yards of material. They
are paying for the permitting process to allow the Humboldt Bay Harbor
Recreation and Conservation District to dredge the Fishermen’s Channel. They did sampling of the channel in 2013 and
realized that the Fishermen’s channel was basically not accessible. The Regional Water Board focused on allowing
dredge spoils on the King Salmon spit that was created with spoils. The spit is
considered Environmentally Sensitive Habitat Area (ESHA) and the California
Coastal Commission (CCC) would not approve the project dredge spoils in that
location.
The United States Fish and Wildlife Services (USF&WS)
came up with a Dredge Recycle Identity Plan that produced 30 soil samples from
3 general areas in the channel for a total of 90 samples that measured toxicity
levels and predicted affects to animals and organisms in the channel. The North Coast Regional Water Quality Control
Board (NCRWQCB) granted permission on Dec. 2nd 2015 for the project
to move forward with mitigation measures for Eel Grass and longfin smelt.
Dredging will be done from August 1st to October 15th
2016. Other agencies that were part of this process were the County of Humboldt,
California Environmental Quality Act (CEQA), Humboldt Bay Harbor, US Army Corp
of Engineers (USACE), National Marine Fisheries Service (NMFS), North Coast
Rail Authority (NCRA) and other regulatory agencies.
The project itself will remove 5,000 cubic yards of material
from the King Salmon Fishermen’s channel and pump the spoils to White Slough
near College of the Redwoods, approximately 2 ½ miles from the dredge area. (The
white slough area is in need of 100,000 cubic yards of material for buildup of
that area. The Harbor District needs to mitigate 1.2 acres of Eel Grass by
removing 6,000 cubic yards of material in the form of dilapidated pilings and
replanting and monitoring replaced Eel Grass for 5 years. (Even though Humboldt
Bay has the most dense Eel Grass population of any bay in California, by many
times.)
Some of the residents in attendance were not happy with
PG&E’s agreement with the Harbor District and felt the residents should
have received PG&E’s 2 million dollar “gift” to the Harbor District for
taking on 30 acres of responsibility. They also argued that PG&E promised
the residents that they would dredge the private owned channel fingers. Mr.
Sharp said that he tried to do just that, but PG&E legal counsel said they
could not do a public benefit gift to PG&E rate payers. Harbor Commissioner
Larry Doss suggested the 88 King Salmon home owners create an association to
have a voice in the process. They would need to organize and come to solutions
for mitigating 3 acres of Eel Grass in the channel fingers, and apply for
grants to help pay for the dredging process for the home owners. (This was also
suggested 3 years ago with no success to the residents. This time multiple
residents stepped forward to help organize. “United we Bargain, Divided we beg!”)
1st District County
Supervisor Rex Bohn voiced his opinion that there should be one fluid motion of
including the resident owned finger dredge spoils to the process and sending
10,000 cubic yards to White Slough while the pipe line is available. He felt the timing could work to pressure
the multiple agencies working on the project now.
There were some gripes from the public but also many solution oriented suggestions and it was good to see the King Salmon community rise to the occasion. This was a positive process overall.
4 comments:
I was there, King Salmon residents are getting the short end of the stick from both PG&E and the Harbor District. They are dredging the main channel but not all the way to peoples docks, as had been previously promised. PG&E lack of maintenance over the years on the main channel has led to the private channels becoming filled with sediment, they are to blame and should fix the mess, Harbor District bit off more then they can chew...
This wasn't a positive meeting, the harbor district and pg&e have moved forward without thinking of the best interests of the people of fortuna. Rex was the only one one the people's side last night. Very disappointing meeting.
The Harbor District offered last night to do the environmental review and permitting, find a place on their property for eelgrass mitigation (otherwise the residents would have to buy property to do that on), AND find grant money to do the dredging. All the property owners have to do is sign a long-term lease agreement for the Harbor District to access the middle of the canals to do the dredging. A very generous offer, which was met with lots of yelling and insults. Fortunately there were 3 proactive people who volunteered to be the point person for their canals - just need 2 more to take the lead on getting everyone to sign the lease agreement. It seems to me that no one in King Salmon is willing to pay a dime to have e canals dredged even though it's all private property - and the Harbor District just offered to do the work on taxpayers' dime. How is King Slamon getting the short end of the stick exactly?
Those who think the Harbor District have been doing a bad job must also feel the Grand Jury and Humboldt Bay Keeper are wrong about the positive comments they presented to the North Coast Journal for the recent "Safe Harbor" cover story. From what I read in that article the commission and CEO have done great services for our community by getting the lp pulp mill site cleaned up, purchasing a dredge for our bay and getting it ready to use as soon as agencies will let them, and taking a realistic look at their budget so they can provide services for years to come. These guys should be seen as heros for Humboldt Bay.
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