PROJECT LOCATION AND DESCRIPTION

Crescent City Harbor is located on the northern coast of California, approximately 350 miles north of San Francisco. The Harbor is a shallow draft, critical harbor of refuge that supports a Coast Guard search-and-rescue station, commercial and sport fishing, and recreational boating. The Operations and Maintenance (O&M) schedule provides for annual inspection and periodic repair of the Outer and Inner Breakwaters, as well as a five-year cycle for maintenance dredging of the Entrance Channel to a depth of -20 feet Mean Lower Low Water (MLLW), and the Inner Harbor Basin and Marina Access Channels to a depth of -15 feet MLLW. The Entrance Channel, Marina Access Channel, and Inner Harbor Basin Channel were last dredged in FY19.

FY 23 ACCOMPLISHMENTS

• Annual inspection of breakwater structures, Geospatial Land Data Migration into the CorpsMap system (as mandated 23 Dec 2013 CECW-ZA), and preliminary planning for cyclical maintenance dredging in FY24.

• Preliminary review of Environmental approvals and sediment suitability requirements.
• Coordinating with the Harbor Master and city council for signage and safety concerns over pedestrians walking on the Corps-owned breakwater.

FY 24 ACCOMPLISHMENTS

• Dredging of the Entrance Channel, Inner Harbor Basin, and Marina Access Channel. 
• Environmental approvals and sediment suitability testing.
• Best management practices implemented on the Corps-owned breakwater to assist the Crescent city community with keeping the public safe.

ISSUES AND OTHER INFORMATION

• The Crescent City Harbor District is the Non-Federal Sponsor (NFS).
• The NFS is to maintain the adjacent upland disposal pond for local marina maintenance dredging material, and the Corps may use it for Marina Access Channel maintenance dredging material (Project Cooperation Agreement 27 June 2000). The site is currently filled to capacity, and Harbor Master coordinating with the Regional Water Quality Control Board for approval to use the material for elevating adjacent office buildings and RV pads for sea-level rise.
• The Selected NED Plan for Operation and Maintenance of the Federal Channel was a nearby ocean site and Whaler Island for qualifying sand material. However, the nearest ocean site, SF-1, has been decommissioned and the next nearest is Humboldt Open Ocean Disposal Site.
• There is a lack of nearby ocean sites and significant environmental coordination is needed to find and establish any new upland site.

CONGRESSIONAL INTEREST

• 2nd District, Rep. Jared Huffman

POINT OF CONTACT

• Deputy for Project Management, Thomas R. Williams, 415-503-6560

Updated on 18 July 2024