Port of Oakland Has a Problem, and Its Name is Mud

At the Port of Oakland on a recent weekday, trucks, cranes and container-laden ships moved goods across the sprawling 1,300-acre complex with the precarious precision of a Rube Goldberg machine. Mere blocks from downtown Oakland, the port operates essentially as a city within a city. It’s the ninth-biggest port in the country and the first stop for 99% of containerized goods moving through Northern California. In the whir of logistics and machinery, it’s easy to forget that everything happening here is made possible by one unsung, unglamorous and Sisyphean task: hauling mud from San Francisco Bay. That dredging process has enormous implications for the future of shipping and transportation in the Bay Area, and may hold the key to protecting local shorelines. “The bottom line is that if we don’t dredge, none of this happens,” said port spokesperson Robert Bernardo, looking out over stacks of containers. “Period.” San Francisco Bay has long been known as one of the world’s best-run and largest natural harbors. It’s one of the primary reasons that the Bay Area has become the metropolitan area it is today. But in the era of modern shipping, one of the natural features of the bay has posed a growing challenge — although an enormous protected harbor, it is mostly shallow. Its average depth is about 12 feet, only slightly deeper than a swimming pool. Containerships require water at least 30 feet deep, if not more. Dredging solves that problem.

https://www.ttnews.com/articles/port-oakland-dredging