Pillar Point Harbor is filling with sand

Pillar Point Harbor is filling with sand that is being washed down from the hills in El Granada and which is confined by the harbor’s walls, reports Julia Scott in the County Times.

Pillar Point hasn’t been dredged since the 60s, becuause there is no place to put dump the spoils. The Harbor is considering dumping it on Surfer’s Beach, which has been deprived of sand by the Pillar Point breakwater, but it’s part of a marine sanctuary.

Maria Brown, manager of the Gulf of the Farallones National Marine Sanctuaries, said her agency decided to consider the policy change after hearing from harbor officials and surfers at meetings held up and down the coast in 2002. She said the ban on pumping dredge spoils into sanctuary waters reflected concerns over potential damage to sensitive marine organisms and whether the sediment was free of toxins.

An environmental study of Pillar Point Harbor conducted in 1995 certified that 90 percent of the sediment was clean and would have no effect on marine life, according to Grenell. The other 10 percent is composed of very fine sediment, clay-like in substance that would need to be disposed of at an upstream location away from the tides.