A contaminated corner of the Menlo Park baylands may be restored into a natural sanctuary by the San Francisco Pubic Utilities Commission (SFPUC). The plan, presented by PUC representatives Aug. 16 at the Palo Alto Art Center, would transform land previously owned by the Peninsula Sportsmen’s Club into a native habitat for shorebirds and the salt marsh harvest mouse.
“Saline-dependent marsh vegetation, including pickleweed and other salt-tolerant habitat types, would be restored and created,” according to material handed out Thursday.
Trap and skeet shooting at the Sportmen’s Club from 1969 to 1994 left a swatch of the baylands adjacent to the Dumbarton bridge littered with toxic debris. The Club was evicted in 1996 after failing to follow a 1994 clean-up order issued by the state, and its declared bankruptcy left the $20 million job in SFPUC’s hands. Since 2000, decades worth of lead shot, shells casings and clay pigeons have been removed, while thousands of cubic yards of contaminated soil have been carted to landfill sites in the Central Valley.
The SFPUC is now planning to dedicate part of the 33-acre parcel, which was rented from it by the Club, to a conservation easement for local species. The easement itself “would have some kind of fence or barrier, to protect the habitat mitigation area,” said SFPUC environmental representative Greg Lyman, but recreational trails could be established through other parts of former Club property if “regulatory agencies support it.”
The plan is but one small part of the larger Habitat Reserve Program, SFPUC’s answer to the possible environmental impact of upcoming projects of its Water System Improvement Program (WSIP). A $4.3 billion overhaul of the water delivery system to the Bay Area, WSIP will seismically upgrade or replace aging pipelines, pump stations and other parts. This large-scale renovation may damage nearby lands, however. The Habitat Reserve Program aims to mitigate damage by creating about 1,400 acres of grassland and woodland, among other habitats. Its range would stretch far beyond Menlo Park, from Sunol Valley to the San Joaquin valley, through which pipelines carrying water from the Hetch-Hetchy reservoir run.
“The HRP would preserve, enhance, restore and create habitats within the regions affected by WSIP … [and] would be implemented to develop habitat benefits, where possible, in advance of WSIP project impacts,” said SFPUC habitat mitigation engineer Greg Lyman at Thursday’s presentation.
The presentation was part of a public scoping meeting to gather comments on the planned Environmental Impact Report (EIR) for the habitat restoration project, one of many steps that California law requires SFPUC to complete before beginning.
On hand were Libby Lucas, chair of the Santa Clara chapter of the California Native Plant Society, and Brian Schmidt, legislative advocate for the Committee for Green Foothills, both of whom suggested that the city collaborate with San Mateo County-based programs.
A draft EIR incorporating comments, which will be taken by the San Francisco Planning Department until Aug. 29, should appear in late 2008.
Further information about the HRP is available online in PDF form at www.sfgov.org . Send comments either by mail attn: Paul Maltzer, Habitat Reserve Program, 1650 Mission Street, San Francisco CA, 94103-2479, or e-mail to chris.kern@sfgov.org.
