top
San Francisco
San Francisco
Indybay
Indybay
Indybay
Regions
Indybay Regions North Coast Central Valley North Bay East Bay South Bay San Francisco Peninsula Santa Cruz IMC - Independent Media Center for the Monterey Bay Area North Coast Central Valley North Bay East Bay South Bay San Francisco Peninsula Santa Cruz IMC - Independent Media Center for the Monterey Bay Area California United States International Americas Haiti Iraq Palestine Afghanistan
Topics
Newswire
Features
From the Open-Publishing Calendar
From the Open-Publishing Newswire
Indybay Feature

Appeal Hearing for Sharp Park Pumphouse Project

Date:
Tuesday, March 25, 2014
Time:
2:00 PM - 5:00 PM
Event Type:
Other
Organizer/Author:
Amy
Email:
Location Details:
San Francisco City Hall, Room 250
1 Dr. Carlton B. Goodlett Place
San Francisco, CA

We have a great opportunity to save local endangered wildlife! There is a hearing before the full San Francisco Board of Supervisors on 3/25 and we need EVERYONE to join us at City Hall to urge the Supervisors to support the Sharp Park Pumphouse Project appeal and order a full Environmental Impact Report for the Sharp Park Pumphouse Project.

This is a must attend event!!! Sharp Park's threatened and endangered wildlife needs each and every concerned citizen to give public comment in support of the Sharp Park Pumphouse Project Appeal. This project must not go forward without a full EIR!

You do not need to be a San Francisco resident to give public comment. Your comment can be short. In fact, comments are usually limited to 2 or 3 minutes. We do need you to tell the supervisors you want a see a full Environmental Impact Report for the Sharp Park Pumphouse Project.

The Sharp Park Pumphouse Project proposes to dredge sediment and aquatic vegetation from the Laguna Salada wetland complex so water flows more rapidly to the pumphouse, allowing the pumphouse to drain the wetland complex at a faster rate.

A full Environmental Impact Report is needed because:

• Experts such as Greg Kamman—the hydrologist retained by SFRPD to analyze Sharp Park’s hydrology—have explained that increasing the pumping rate will harm the threatened California Red-legged Frog and the Laguna Salada wetland complex in at least two ways:

Increasing the pumping rate will cause additional harm to the California Red-legged Frog by draining more of the frog’s breeding habitat before the frog can reproduce.

Increasing the pumping rate will cause the complex’s water level to remain shallow for a longer period of time. Because aquatic vegetation grows rapidly in shallow water, the project’s purpose cannot be sustained unless the wetland system is dredged regularly. Dredging releases harmful sulfur-based sediments into the water column, and regular releases of these compounds can disrupt the wetland complex’s ecology.

• Experts have proposed a feasible alternative to the pumphouse project: allowing the wetland complex’s water levels to rise higher than the aquatic vegetation can tolerate. This would reduce the amount of aquatic vegetation in the wetland complex without harming the frog, and would not require regular dredging.

• The Pumphouse Project’s Mitigated Negative Declaration does not consider the environmental consequences of increasing the pumping rate, nor does it consider alternatives to the project. This violates CEQA, because the project’s pumping protocols only constrain pumping after California Red-legged Frog egg masses are laid. Preemptive draining of breeding habitat currently occurs, and faster pumping will cause even more breeding areas to be preemptively drained.

• San Francisco has never considered the environmental effects of the existing pumping rate—let alone increasing the pumping rate—in any prior CEQA document. Therefore the increase in pumping cannot be considered part of this project’s “environmental baseline.”

• The Laguna Salada wetland complex and the adjacent Mori Point National Park are one of the most prolific California Red-legged Frog breeding areas in the state. Yet the California Red-legged Frog population is declining at Sharp Park because existing pumping protocols cause egg masses to be killed when the wetland system is drained.

• Draining existing or future breeding areas at faster rates will not enhance the California Red-legged Frog population. To enhance the population pumping rates must be reduced so that eggs can hatch and tadpoles can become adults before the wetlands are drained.

• Unless a full Environmental Impact Report is ordered by the Board of Supervisors, these environmental effects will not be considered, and environmentally superior alternatives will be ignored.

• When the Sharp Park pump is used as planned it drains so much water that federally protected California Red-legged Frog egg masses are exposed and left to die. This pumping threatens future generation of frogs! The Sharp Park Pumphouse Project must undergo a thorough environmental review.

Please join us on 3/25 at 2:00pm at San Francisco City Hall Room 250 to call for a full Environmental Impact Report of the Sharp Park Pumphouse Project.
Added to the calendar on Thu, Mar 6, 2014 6:43AM
We are 100% volunteer and depend on your participation to sustain our efforts!

Donate

$110.00 donated
in the past month

Get Involved

If you'd like to help with maintaining or developing the website, contact us.

Publish

Publish your stories and upcoming events on Indybay.

IMC Network