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Cargill's Dredge Locks

Mallard isn't a duck, it's a dredge used by Cargill to maintain the 200 miles of channels, levees and locks that surround and access its 29,000 acres of salt ponds. Whether and how this mechanical duckling can get on with its work is now being discussed by permitting agencies.

At stake are wetland fringes that host endangered birds and rodents and which might be temporarily disturbed by Mallard dredging and cutting its way in and out of the locks. Ways to minimize these impacts have been the subject of a recent slate of meetings between Cargill and officials from the S.F. Bay Commission, the Army Corps and environmental agencies.

According to the salt company's Jill Singleton, none of the impacted acreage is pristine but much offers valuable habitat despite 100 years of ongoing maintenance work. Without this work, levees would fail, and all habitat would be lost, she says. Out of a total of 38 locks, Mallard enters an average of three per year. "Only 17 acres of marsh will be impacted at any one time and most of that recovers substantial vegetation within a few years," she says.

Cargill has offered to mitigate for the temporary impacts by creating 34 acres of permanent new tidal marsh. It's also offering to undertake protective measures such as giving wildlife agencies a chance to identify locally sensitive areas well before Mallard reports for work and training dredge operators to minimize disturbance. Other measures are recommended in the Bay Commission's recently released environmental assessment - among them providing buffer zones between operations and sensitive species, replanting access cuts with plugs of cordgrass, and taking steps to inhibit growth of invasive exotic plant species in disturbed areas.

Such measures are and have been part of the negotiations over Cargill's application for both a Commission and Corps permit. In terms of the state permit, the S.F. Bay Commission voted on February 16.

The Corps, meanwhile, is gearing up to release a public notice on the federal permit and is also doing battle in court, where Cargill is arguing its maintenance activities are exempt from Clean Water Act and Rivers and Harbors Act regulations.

Contact: Jill Singleton (510)790-8157; Rick Cooper, Bay Commission (415)557-3686; Liz Varnhagen, Army Corps (415)744-3318

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