Estimate to dredge Bahia Lagoon skyrockets

By Rob Mitchell, Marin Independent Journal
Wednesday, July 20, 2005

Residents of the Bahia area of northeast Novato hoping to restore backyard boat access to San Pablo Bay will have to pay at least $15.5 million - more than twice what they had expected for a long-awaited dredging project, consultants said this week.

The price tag is up from $6.3 million, which was calculated three years ago - and the project will occur only if all 11 interested state, federal and local agencies, departments and organizations approve of the plans first.

"It could be 2013 before dredging begins," Michael Josselyn, an environmental consultant, said to a chorus of hisses at a Bahia Homeowners Association meeting Monday night. Some 75 homeowners filled the parish hall at Our Lady of Loretto Church in Novato to hear a presentation on the costs and feasibility of a court-ordered dredging and lock project for Bahia Lagoon.

They got a shock when they received a copy of the report in the mail last week and saw that the estimated cost of the project would be at least $9 million more than the last figure they saw in 2002.

At $15.5 million for the project, on-water households would pay $83,000 each and off-water households would pay $41,500, said Wanden Treanor, the association's attorney.

Treanor joined environmental consultant Josselyn of WRA Associates of Novato and construction consultant Scott Noble in a presentation of the numerous permit and approval hurdles the project must clear before work can begin.

"What's the chance of all agencies giving us the go-ahead for the project?" Josselyn read from a card submitted during the question-and-answer session. "That's the real question of the night," he said.

The association, which represents 288 households, plans to dredge the west lagoon at Bahia, block the original access channel between the Petaluma River and the west lagoon, dig a new channel to the east lagoon from the west lagoon and install a lock between the east lagoon and the Petaluma River. A total of 14 acres would be dredged.

But silting has changed what was once a body of water to a grassy swamp; two endangered species, the clapper rail and the salt marsh harvest mouse, have been discovered in the lagoon area.

To protect the endangered species, the homeowners association has proposed creation of 108 acres of new wetlands. The new wetlands would be established across the Petaluma River in Sonoma County at a cost of almost $2 million, and must be in place for five to 10 years before the Bahia dredging could begin, under federal regulations.

"I think the (homeowners) board was just as much in shock as you are," Treanor said. "You have some realistic figures now. But the $15.5 million doesn't include all the costs," such as previous consultants' fees and other associated work.

The association's board of directors commissioned the most recent study in April to update the status of the permit process, which had been unsuccessful after eight years of court-ordered receivership.

In January 2004, Bahia residents petitioned to remove receiver Marshall Levy and hold an election for a new board of directors, which occurred in April 2004.

Lynn Emrich, association president, said Levy steadily lowered the percentage of project contingency funds from the standard 20 percent to a half percent over his eight years as receiver, keeping the apparent project cost at about $6 million.

He was also inconsistent in updating costs of construction, mitigation and monitoring, Emrich said, leaving Bahia residents with an unrealistic picture of the actual project cost. Levy could not be reached for comment.

West Bahia Lagoon had provided boat access to the Petaluma River for about a third of the 288 Bahia subdivision houses - those with backyard docks. It was last dredged in 1987. In response to several lawsuits, a 1995 court order required the homeowners association to dredge the lagoon to restore the backyard boat access, which had become blocked by silt.

The board is awaiting a biological opinion from the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service in August or September. The opinion will dictate requirements for the additional wetlands and will help shape the permit process of a half dozen other agencies.

The Novato City Council has already signed off on the project, but the city use permit expires in May 2006.

Treanor said the board would not start the wetlands project without assurances other government agencies would not change mitigation requirements later to prevent the dredging.

"No way will we give them nice new beautiful wetlands and you get nothing out of it," she said.

The board of directors plans to send out a survey in August to judge community reaction to the study and solicit opinions on how to proceed.

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