Agencies team up to restore Bair Island sooner

By Beth Winegarner
Staff Writer
Tuesday, February 21, 2006

REDWOOD CITY — Two federal agencies have reached a key agreement that will allow material dredged from the Port of Redwood City to restore a sinking area of Bair Island, but it could be at least a year or two before work starts.

The material will be used to fill a low-lying region of the wildlife refuge adjacent to the San Carlos Airport that becomes a wetlands area in the winter, attracting ducks that occasionally tangle with planes, according to airport officials.

Although the Army Corps of Engineers will save money by taking material from the port to nearby Bair Island, rather than to Alcatraz, the project also includes new levees north of the island — estimated to cost $3 million.

“The overall cost will be about the same or slightly more, but it’s more about the ecosystem opportunities,” Army Corps of Engineers project manage Joel Pliskin said. “You’re getting a lot more for the same amount of money.”

Although nobody at the airport has been seriously harmed by avian interference, the ducks do pose a risk, according to San Carlos Airport Manager Mark Larson.

“It’s always a problem for the bird, and they can pose a significant hazard to the aircraft,” Larson said. Several planes have sustained damage that required pilots to return to the airfield after encountering ducks in the air.

It remains unclear how soon restoration could begin, according to Clyde Morris, refuge manager for the Don Edwards San Francisco National Wildlife Refuge. First, his agency must obtain all the necessary permits. Then, it must secure the $3 million needed to build levees so that once the sunken portion of Bair Island is filled, water doesn’t surge in and erode the new soil.

The project also depends on the Port of Redwood City’s dredging cycle, according to Pliskin. The Corps completed a full dredging of the port in the fall of 2005, removing 400,000 cubic yards of material at a cost of approximately $2 million.

Dredging is performed on an as-needed basis, meaning the Corps has to request federal money each time, Pliskin said. The port may opt to dredge again this fall, but traditionally it’s needed every three years, and it will take 1 million cubic yards of dredged material to fill in the sunken section of the island, according to Morris.

“If the world goes right, we could start preparing inner Bair Island in 2007 or 2008,” Morris said.

http://www.sfexaminer.com/articles/2006/02/22/peninsula/20060222_pe06_bair.txt