Courthouse News reports that an environmental group claims that the US Army Corps of Engineers’ dredging of 11 navigation channels in San Francisco Bay “will erode the shore and put endangered fish at risk.”
Courthouse News said San Francisco Baykeeper seeks writ of mandate compelling the San Francisco Region of the California Regional Water Quality Control Board to set aside its approval of the project.
The dredging project – “Maintenance Dredging of the Federal Navigation Channels in San Francisco Bay, Fiscal Years 2015-2015” – allows maintenance dredging by the Army Corps of Engineers. The Corps of Engineers regularly dredges the Bay floor to keep shipping channels and harbors deep enough for oceangoing vessels in the Bay and farther up the Delta. Three million to 6 million cubic yards of sediment must be dredged every year to maintain navigation in and around San Francisco Bay. The Corps of Engineers is responsible for about 70 percent of Bay dredging.
San Francisco Baykeeper claims that in the past decade scientists have correlated Bay dredging and sand mining with some of the fastest rates of coastal erosion on the West Coast.
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