ST Winter 2023 - Flipbook - Page 20
San Mateo Harbor District
continued from page 17
closely study and monitor the project
to determine whether it is e昀昀ective in
meeting its goals and identifying any
unanticipated environmental impacts
or safety issues. If post-construction
monitoring and review indicate that
the project is e昀昀ective, then we envision that additional sand placements
and a larger beach restoration project
would be pursued in the future, as
part of the District’s ongoing maintenance dredging and sediment management e昀昀orts at Pillar Point Harbor.
Permitting for the project has been
extremely challenging, largely due to
the presence of special status animals
and habitat including eelgrass beds.
The California Coastal Commission
approved their permit for the project
in September 2023 and we are expecting the remaining permits from
Greater Farallones National Marine
Sanctuary, Regional Water Quality
Control Board, and Army Corps of
Engineers to be issued by December 2023. The CEQA (California
Environmental Quality Act) process
was completed in late 2022 and determined that the project would not
likely result in signi昀椀cant negative
impacts if the proposed mitigation
measures are used.
project’s proposed dredging areas, the
Harbor District is required to mitigate
for damages to eelgrass by creating
new eelgrass habitat and relocating eelgrass within the harbor. The
shoaling of the harbor over the years
allowed eelgrass to establish in areas
that were previously too deep to support it. As subtidal areas in PPH 昀椀lled
in, eelgrass beds established and
spread to areas where the depths were
conducive to their growth. The proposed eelgrass mitigation area will be
constructed by adding 昀椀ll to an area
o昀昀 the west breakwater elbow in the
harbor’s west basin. The identi昀椀ed
mitigation site occurs around existing eelgrass and the area of suitable
habitat will be expanded by placing
additional 昀椀ll (sourced from near the
boat launch ramps) o昀昀shore to make
the deeper areas shallower. Prior to
dredging, eelgrass will be salvaged
from the east basin dredging areas,
then bundled and transplanted into
the new mitigation site.
The Harbor District is planning on
putting the project out to bid by the
end of 2023 with project construction start-up by early summer 2024.
Construction of the eelgrass mitigation area will occur 昀椀rst, followed by
dredging and sand placement at Surfers Beach.
continued on page 36
Because eelgrass exists within the
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