Wildcat Marsh doesn't need a port

Richmond's City Council should drop wasteful study

Wildcat Creek Marsh, a rich tidal marsh and one of the last surviving marshes in the Bay, is threatened with plans to build a container port.

Even though the Port of Oakland can meet the Bay Area's existing and future needs for port capacity, the Richmond City Council has voted to have a consultant prepare a scope of work for a feasibility study for the project.

The project would destroy the largest eelgrass bed in San Francisco Bay, as well as habitat for endangered species such as the clapper rail and salt-marsh harvest mouse and for other bird species that could be on their way to endangerment. It would require dredging a channel two miles long and 50 feet wide through the tidal mudflat and then finding a location to deposit the toxic dredge spoils.

The executive director of the San Francisco Bay Conservation and Development Commission, Will Travis, has pointed out the insurmountable regulatory hurdles that such a project would face. The San Francisco Joint Venture, a coalition of environmental, business, and regulatory bodies has written in opposition to this proposal.

Richmond staff says that potential investors will pay for the Feasibility Study, and therefore there will be no cost to the city. In fact, the hidden cost of staff time to provide information, respond to requests for information, and process comments on this hopeless project would divert staff from Richmond's many pressing needs.

The two Council members who oppose the feasibility study are Gayle McLaughlin and Tom Butt, both of whom the Club endorsed when they ran for Council. This issue is one more of the reasons the Club has endorsed McLaughlin in her current campaign for mayor against the current mayor, who supports the project.

WhatYouCanDo

Write to Mayor Irma Anderson and the City Council at:

P.O. Box 4046
Richmond, CA 94804.

Express your opposition to this proposal, and urge the city to withdraw from any work on a feasibility study.

To help the West County Group's efforts on this issue, contact or call (510) 848-0800, ext. 312 or come to West County Group meetings.

Norman La Force, chair, West Contra Costa Group