San Francisco LTMS:
Accomplisments
And New Challenges
SFBJV, March 29, 2011
Origin of the LTMS
The San Francisco Estuary Project’s CCMP
• Five Key Challenges Facing the Estuary:
– Decline of biological resources (especially wetlands and related
habitats)
– Increased pollution
– Freshwater diversions and altered flow regime
– Intensified land use and population
– Dredging and waterway modification
• The San Francisco Bay LTMS
– Implementing arm of the CCMP for Dredging and Waterway Modification
The LTMS Goals
• Maintain…those channels necessary for
navigation…and eliminate unnecessary dredging
• Conduct dredged material disposal in the most
environmentally sound manner
• Maximize use of dredged material as a resource
• Establish a cooperative permitting framework
The LTMS Plan
Minimize In-Bay Disposal
Maximize Beneficial Reuse
Percent of all Disposal
90
In-Bay
Ocean
Upland/Reuse
80
70
60
50
40
30
20
10
0
Pre-LTMS
LTMS Plan
How To Get There
Step 2: 12-Year Transition Period Systematically Reduces
In-Bay Disposal
Initial: LTMS annual limit
less than 1/2 previous limits
1/1/10: Annual limit reduced
by another 1,135,500 cy
Long-term Goal
How Are We Doing?
The LTMS Transition is On Track
• In-Bay Disposal
– Significantly reduced: disposal limits have been met every year
– Mostly done successfully within Environmental Work Windows
• Ocean Disposal
– Successful low-impact alternative
– Over 15 million cy diverted from in-Bay disposal to date
• Beneficial Reuse
– ~20 million cy has already been reused
– Current and near-term capacity for many millions cy more
• Beach Nourishment
– ~1 million cy sand placed nearshore for Ocean Beach demo project
– EPA/USACE preparing to designated official reuse site “SF-17”
Montezuma Wetlands
Project
Sonoma Baylands &
Carneros River
Ranch
Cullinan Ranch
Hamilton Army
Airfield/BMK
Middle Harbor
Habitat Area
S. Bay Salt Ponds?
SF-8/Ocean Beach
Nourishment Site
Bair Island
Major Bay Area Beneficial Reuse Sites
But Today We Face New Challenges that the
LTMS Plan Did Not Foresee:
• Short Term:
– Escalating costs for:
• Ocean disposal
• Hydraulic offloading at reuse sites
– Flat or decreasing dredging budgets
• Long Term:
– Sediment deficit (habitat erosion, Bay water quality)
– Climate change – especially sea level rise – will
accelerate habitat loss and other changes
Changed Situation
The New World: Sediment Deficit
1600
1400
SSC, mg/L
1200
1000
800
600
400
200
0
1992 1993 1994 1995 1996 1997 1998 1999 2000 2001 2002 2003 2004 2005 2006
Point San Pablo, mid-depth, Dave Schoellhamer,
USGS
Changed Situation
Sediment Supply
Shift: from the
Delta to local
tributaries
Oakland Museum Creek
Changed Situation
The New World:
Sea Level Rise
Area subject to high
tide with 16 inches
of sea level rise
55 inches of sea
level rise and
Current 100-year
flood plain
Shorelines, Marshes and Beaches need
sediment to keep up with sea level rise
PWA & PRBO in review
Sand mining
removing sand
Sand appears
slow to
replenish
Patrick Barnard & Rikk
Ocean Disposal Removes Sediment from
the System
Is the LTMS Approach to Sediment Management
too Narrow?
• Minimizes in-Bay disposal
• Emphasizes large-scale tidal wetland projects
• Ocean disposal for remaining dredged material
Or Does It Need to be
Re-Framed?
How can LTMS help in this New World?
• RSM planning: coordinate sediment sources and
needs beyond navigation dredging?
– Sand miners
– Flood control districts
– Watershed management
•
•
•
•
Less reliance on mega-projects?
New kinds of Beneficial Reuse, including in-Bay?
New policies/laws to facilitate reuse?
Your Ideas?
LTMS
RSM
• While still working under the LTMS
Management Plan for dredging:
– Funding local tributaries study
– Funding sediment modeling (“UnTRIM” combined
with “Sedmorph” and “SWAN”)
– State of the Sediment Workshop 2010
– Spring 2011 RSM Stakeholders Workshop
– Stakeholder listening sessions
– Work toward 2010 program review
Contact Information
• Brian Ross (EPA): 415.972.3475
– Ross.Brian@epa.gov
• Brenda Goeden (BCDC): 415.352.3623
– brendag@bcdc.ca.gov
• Al Paniccia (USACE): 415.503.6735
– Al.Paniccia@usace.army.mil
• Beth Christian (Water Board) 510.622.2335
– echristian@waterboards.ca.gov