Port of Redwood City CURRENTS Newsletter for December 2015

The tides from San Francisco Bay were formally returned to Bair Island by breaching the levees yesterday (Thursday, December 10) during ceremonies sponsored by the U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service, Peninsula Open Space Trust, Ducks Unlimited, the Friends of Redwood City, and other partners including the Port of Redwood City and City of Redwood City.

With the decade-long project to restore Bair Island now achieved, it becomes the largest undeveloped Island in south San Francisco Bay. The island was diked in the late 1800s for agriculture and later converted for salt production.

According to an official release from USFWS, the dedication of a few remarkable individuals, perseverance, and a little luck saved the island from development. New and diverse partners came together to conserve and restore the island.

The Port of Redwood City played a key early role in jump-starting the restoration process at Bair Island.  During the winter of 2008-2009, the Port’s dredge material from its maintenance dredging was used by USFWS to help restore the tidal marsh.

The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers awarded a $3.6 million contract to move sediment from the bottom of the port channel into barges. The barges were towed up Redwood Creek to a pumping station across from the former Pete’s Harbor, where the sediment was removed and piped to Bair Island. The process took six weeks. 

 “The overall cost was about the same or slightly more that hauling the dredged materials to other approved disposal sites, but it was more about the ecosystem opportunities,” Army Corps of Engineers then project manager Joel Pliskin said. “You’re getting a lot more for the same amount of money.”

  “It was unique because it was the first time the sediments dredged from the channel were placed on Bair Island to help the restoration of the tidal marsh,” Port of Redwood City Executive Director Michael J. Giari said of the new project.

 Sediment was used on a 35-acre portion of Bair Island, where the Fish and Wildlife Services had created temporary containment levees. The sediment was about half water and half mud, and when the liquid separated, mud was left to raise the land level.

When the levees were breached this week for the area to be restored to marshland, the mud will have restored the area to a level between high tide and low tide – the level of a more natural tidal wetland, Giari said. “Then you have an area subject to tidal action,” he added.

“It was a matter of a number of agencies realizing that this would be of benefit to everyone to do it this way,” Giari said.

In subsequent years the Port has been active along with the City of Redwood City, Silicon Valley Clean Water, and private and public interests in what was called the Bair Island Task Force, to monitor the phases of the project that have been achieved over the years leading to this week’s reclamation.

After the placement of the dredged material, the City of Redwood City contributed $300,000 to the construction of a pedestrian access bridge to the top of the levee. It provides access to the trail and various platforms that are part of the restoration project. 

    Doug Cordell, public affairs director for the USFWS, says his 2010 story on the history of Bair Island remains the most thorough examination of the long-struggle to save it from development to this week’s final reclamation.  The link for “The Story of Bair Island” is http://www.fws.gov/refuge/don_edwards_san_francisco_bay_/StoryofBair.html

Photos courtesy of Jerry Pierce.  Taken December 10 of the breaching of Bair Island.

• Update the Port’s federally-mandated Facility Security Assessment (FSA) and Port Facility Security Plan (FSP) for all of the Port’s marine cargo facilities and areas.
• Design and facilitate function-specific security and emergency management training for those Port workers involved in the new Interagency Operations Center.
• Provide Port-specific emergency management and security training deemed necessary by the Port for gate guard training and facility security officer training.
• Assist the Port in exercises and drills to prepare for man-made and natural disasters, including development, design, and evaluation for a US Coast Guard-required annual full scale exercise to prepare for disasters and developing and administering/evaluating the quarterly drills Port employees.