The Port Of Oakland Needs Your Help!

In our April issue, we learned that "Oakland Opens the Door to Its Waterfront" (Page 8), which described the development of the Middle Harbor Shoreline Park and the Middle Harbor Habitat. We pointed out that Middle Harbor Cove had been a tidal marsh that was dredged to accommodate ships docking at the Navy Supply Depot during World War II. After its closure, it was agreed by a broad spectrum of local groups, including the Sierra Club, the Audubon Society, and Save San Francisco Bay, to transform the cove back into its original form as a tidal marsh and a wild life habitat. That would be accomplished by filling portions of the cove with clean dredged material from the 50-foot dredging program scheduled for the Oakland Estuary. Dredged materials would also be used for wetland restoration at the former Hamilton Army Airfield in Marin County.

In order to stay competitive with other West Coast ports and be able to accommodate the next generation of ships carrying more than 5,000 containers, it is essential that the Port of Oakland increase its water depth from the 42 to 50 feet. Dredging was authorized in the Federal Water Resources Development Act of 1999 for a total cost of $252 million, half of which would be borne by the Port. To date, only $26 million in federal funds has been appropriated. Tay Yoshitani, Executive Director of the Port of Oakland, points out that, "We still need the Congress to continue to appropriate funds on an annual basis over the next several years until the project is completed. Unfortunately, this year, while the Army Corps of Engineers requested that $50 million be included in the President’s budget for this project, only $7 million was allocated. Therefore, we urgently need you to write or call your Bay Area congressional representatives and our two California senators to request that they incorporate funding for the 50-foot project and related projects that will reuse dredged materials for environmental restoration into their appropriation requests."

Bob Middleton, Chaplain and Director of the International Maritime Center and former Public Relations Director for the Port of Oakland, already has written a letter to Senator Dianne Feinstein in which he points out that, "The Port of Oakland is the single largest economic enterprise in the San Francisco Bay. If the Port’s competitiveness continues to be compromised by shallow water, the livelihoods of millions of your constituents, in transportation and in related industries, such as agriculture, will be placed at risk."