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County Of Sonoma › Administrative Support & Fiscal Services › County Administrator's Office › Strategic Initiatives › Legislative Affairs › Bodega Bay Dredging
County Administrator's Office

Bodega Bay Dredging

Summary

Bodega Bay, located in Sonoma County on the California Coast about 60 miles north of San Francisco, is a shallow draft harbor of refuge that supports a Coast Guard search-and-rescue station, commercial and sport fishing, and recreational craft. The Operations and Maintenance schedule provides for periodic inspection and repair of three breakwaters and infrequent (11-year cycle) maintenance dredging of the Federal Channel (including three turning basins) to a depth of 12 feet Mean Lower Low Water. Recent sounding surveys indicate that shoaling is occurring and dredging is required.

The last dredging episode was in 2004, with the entire 120,000 cubic yards of materials disposed of at a Deep Offshore Disposal Site (DODS) located approximately 60 miles from Bodega Bay. DODS disposal is also planned for this dredging cycle. The area is experiencing frequent groundings, particularly among transient vessels entering harbor, so high tide exit and entry to the harbor is required for commercial vessels.

To begin dredging Bodega Bay, $500,000 was included in the Army Corps’ FY ‘14 work plan. The FY ‘16 work plan contains $750,000 to complete all environmental work and plans and specifications for dredging. Funding is now needed to complete dredging of the entrance and interior channel. If dredging is not funded in the FY ‘17 work plan or FY ‘18 budget, the funding need will dramatically escalate as the dredge being utilized for the entrance channel will need to be demobilized and then remobilized.

Action

  • Support the FY ‘17 budget request and appropriations bills that contain $4.285 million for Bodega Bay dredging, which is sufficient to dredge the entrance of the channel.
  • Support an additional $2.815 million in the FY ‘17 work plan or FY ‘18 budget in order to dredge the interior channel before the dredge is redeployed, upon completion of dredging the entrance channel.

Bodega Bay Facts
Clip art of map of California with dots locating Eureka, Bodega Bay, and San Francisco.

  • Depth of channel: 12 feet Mean Lower Low Water (MLLW).
  • USCG Station Bodega Bay: Performed 250 rescue missions in FY ‘13.
  • Commercial landings of Chinook salmon: Over 2.7 million pounds, or 18% of total California landings (2013).
  • Commercial landings of Dungeness crab: Nearly 3 million pounds, or 10% of total California landings (2013).
  • Hosts the UC Davis Marine Laboratory. • Serves as a critical harbor of refuge.