Sea level rise. King tide flood control. Airliner bird strikes. A new lagoon with algae and sediment. 50 years of conflicting regulations. Sinking runways. Shore-based or Bay-based. Swing a cat--hit an environmental group: Citizens Committee to Complete the Refuge, the Center for Biological Diversity, Sequoia Audubon Society, Green Foothills, Baykeeper and Sierra Club. The Daily Journal's Holly Rusch did as good a job as could be done describing the circular firing squad of government agencies, politicians, environmental groups and the OneShoreline county entity that seeks to build a seawall in the Bay from SFO to Coyote Point. The article didn't note what size budget OneShoreline has to gather public comment and attempt to get a draft EIR out by 2025, but we will $niff that out going forward. In the meantime, the engineer in me is very curious about this:
The proposed barrier would remain open unless the Bay was hit by extreme storms or king tides, at which point the tidal gates would close to protect from flooding impacts. One major concern regarding the project is the permitting and legal hurdles it could face when receiving approval due to its unprecedented scale and goals, said Save the Bay Executive Director David Lewis, a point his organization’s letter emphasized. The “unprecedented” size of Bay fill required for the project, which includes a lagoon that could be as many as 670 acres, could require significant mitigation, BCDC warned in a letter to the agency.
For those keeping track at home, 670 acres is about 29.2 million square feet or exactly two-thirds the size of Golden Gate Park. What could go wrong? The County Supe contender (against Jackie Speier) notes:
Millbrae Councilmember Ann Schneider, who has been speaking out against the project since November when she was mayor, reiterated concerns that the community had not been given adequate time or space to provide feedback on the project. “OneShoreline completely ignored me, me as the mayor of Millbrae, me who has been working on sea-level rise since they created the first vulnerability process,” she said.
I predict a lot of sound and fury ultimately signifying nothing--apologies to the Bard. Here is our local jewel Coyote Point yesterday as an airliner descends through our December clouds.
Go to Holland.
Learn to build dikes.
Easy-peasy.
PS- What sea-level rise?
If it ever starts noticeably rising people will react and handle it.
Posted by: Cassandra | December 29, 2023 at 05:06 PM
I agree 100%.
Posted by: hollyroller@ gmail.com | December 29, 2023 at 06:00 PM
I'm no expert on the dikes in Holland, but a bit of reading about them did not yield anything about having to let water OUT as we need to do on the Peninsula. Remember B'game has 7 creeks and some underground sloughs and Millbrae and San Mateo have some as well.
Posted by: Joe | December 30, 2023 at 01:01 PM