The Noyo Harbor District, with the help of their SHN Consulting Engineers and Geologists, has finally navigated the regulatory maze needed to get permission to dredge its mooring basin this fall.
District Manager Jere Kleinbach told commissioners last week that was the good news. The bad news is that bidding closed last week with only one contractor putting in a bid, he said. That bid came in considerably above the estimate, meaning the district will need to go back to federal and state regulators and get more money and permission to spend more.
The estimate was for up to $1.3 million. The bid by The Dutra Group was for $1.8 million. The Dutra Group is a 108-year-old major construction company out of the East Bay that specializes in dredging, marine construction, harbors, levees and the like.
Both the mooring basin and the river itself need to be dredged. The river has not been dredged since 2009, while it’s been about a decade for the mooring basin.
The mooring basin is the marina where commercial and sport fishing boats park between the Coast Guard Base and the eastern boat ramp. The U.S Army Corps of Engineers handles dredging the river while the Noyo Harbor District heads up the effort to dredge the mooring basin. The district has had to find a way to dispose of all the dredged materials from both jobs. That was a big problem until recently, when solutions were found. Now there is space for 60,000 cubic yards of material, commissioners heard.
That’s enough space to dredge both river and mooring basin. Dredging of the river channel is scheduled for next year, although many factors have interfered in the past. In the future, the district hopes that dredge spoils can be disposed of at sea, as is done in other areas of California.
Kleinbach told the commission the lengthy regulatory process SHN has gone through on behalf of the district. He said the Water Quality Control Board decided well into the process that a 401 (water quality) permit was needed. An eel grass survey was just completed. (This invasive species can cause serious problems and stop work, but this has not been a problem in past surveys of Noyo Harbor).
“The permit will probably be issued Sept. 1,” Kleinbach told the commission. The problem is by the time the district was ready, all dredgers capable of handling a small job within the bid parameters were tied up with other jobs.
“Everybody’s dance card is filled for these short windows,” said Kleinbach.
He said that SHN has gone to the state to “go up the food chain to FEMA to find out if they want to come up with the extra money for us, which would be about a half million (extra). Or we get a postponement to allow us t rebid for next year,” Kleinbach said.
Dredging can only happen in the summer and early fall for regulatory and practical reasons. Dredging in winter wouldn’t be practical. Dredging has environmental consequences that regulators have found are least in the early fall, meaning dredging is no longer allowed simply when conditions are “clear”.
A delay would mean doing both dredge jobs in 2016. That might create some congestion with all the mud going to the storage site just west of the Noyo River Bridge.
Another potentially big issue is the forecast El Nino for this winter, which could put a lot more mud in the river and mooring basin if it creates flooding.
