The long awaited public meeting on the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers’ San Francisco to Stockton dredging plan has been scheduled for Pinole on Wednesday, November 13th. Save the date, spread the word, and plan to show up en masse to tell the Corps what you think about current plans for their San Francisco Bay “navigation program.”
The Corps proposes to dredge a deeper channel through San Francisco Bay to enable oil tankers to move greater amounts of crude to and from Bay Area refineries. A short description of the project is here, and the entire Draft Integrated General Reevaluation Report and Environmental Impact Statement is here. The Army Corps is co-sponsoring the project with the Port of Stockton; Contra Costa County and the Western States Petroleum Association are listed as project partners. (Yes, you read that correctly.)
The thirteen-mile dredging project would enable more oil trafficking on the taxpayers’ dime, providing four refineries with a nearly $15 million annual subsidy. It would multiply the risk of oil spills, pump up the production of petroleum products, and increase greenhouse gas emissions as well as the toxic burden on the Bay Area’s refinery corridor.
Sign a petition to our federal representatives to do everything in their power to stop this project. And you can send comments to the Army Corps at SFBaytoStockton.PA@usace.army.mil.
Several environmental groups have filed a joint protest letter about the San Francisco Bay to Stockton Navigation Improvement Project. There’s still time for you to do that, too. The comment deadline was extended after a large number of impassioned Bay Areas activists hijacked a mid-July meeting of the Corps of Engineers that was to have focused on a separate but related dredging material disposal plan. The Corps agreed to extend the deadline and also committed to a followup public hearing, now scheduled for November 13th. Such is the power of passionate public outcry—and we’ll need to hear more of it in November and beyond.
For more background, see this excellent article in the East Bay Express. Here, also, are an earlier KQED piece and Sierra Club blog post.
Please sign the petition, and don’t forget to review the proposal before you write your comments. Give ’em hell.
Public Meeting and Overview of the District’s Navigation Program
WHEN
Wednesday, November 13, 6-8 PM
WHERE
Pinole Public Library
2935 Pinole Valley Rd.
Pinole 94564