San Francisco Bay Area Finally Receives Much Needed Funding for Estuarine Complex

San Francisco Bay Area Finally Receives Much Needed Funding for Estuarine Complex

Local Bay Area news are ripe with reports about the $52.5 million funding the 9-county Bay Area received from the $1 trillion federal Infrastructure Bill. The allotment will be used by the the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), as funding for projects that will see to the restoration of lost wetlands and for addressing water pollution issues that stem from estuaries that have been degrading the water quality throughout the San Francisco Bay Area. The EPA projects will also include bolstering the defenses of the Bay Area communities against possible sea-level rise.

Local environmental organizations and law makers commented that for years the San Francisco Bay Estuary did not receive its fair share of federal funding for restoration projects. That was despite the San Francisco Bay Estuary, being the largest in the West Coast; supporting not only a multi-billion dollar economy but also a highly diverse ecosystem.

Several multiagency organizations like the San Francisco Bay Estuary Partnership and the San Francisco Bay Joint Venture will oversee the multiple Bay Area restoration projects. The leaders of the organizations are saying that the substantial boosts in funding boost is timely, as the region needs to aggressively move forward with projects aimed at preventing permanent habitat loss and high level flooding in bayside communities.

EPA Eyes Long Term Management Strategies and Not Just Agitation Dredging

Reports have it that for years, only agitation dredging has been practiced in the management of the San Francisco estuarine complex. Agitation dredging, the approach used for centuries in rivers and estuaries, involves the suspension of bottom material and the subsequent transport of the dredged materials by way of currents or by loading them on barges for deep ocean disposal.

Except of course if the dredged materials include vehicles, which will require the use of the hydraulic arm of a boom truck. A hydraulic arm is basically a hook and chain system that lifts the object, although nowadays some prefer to use slings and belt lifts; being a safer method, especially for heavy-duty towing or recovery.

Going back to estuary dredging operations, the large volume of dredged materials have long been a controversial environmental issue for causing ocean pollution. That is why, the EPA, the San Francisco Water Quality Agencies and the US Army Corps of Engineers are currently working on Long Term Management Strategies (LTMS) for the San Francsco Bay Area Estuaries.

The LTMS goal is to develop a better approach that would see to the disposal of dredged materials using an environment-friendly method. Moreover, the LTMS objectiuves include optimizing the potential use of dredged materials as a resource.

One of the possibilities involve using the services of towing companies as they are quite adept at recovering vehicles discovered to have sanked in lakes and rivers. An accredited towing company san jose authorities use in such cases are those equipped with different kinds of towing trucks, from flatbeds, to boom trucks to integrated trucks with tow and boom meachnisms, whichever would be suitable to use for transporting dredged materials in an environmentally friendly manner.

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