March 15, 2024 Sediment & Beneficial Reuse Commissioner Working Group

BCDC’s Sediment and Beneficial Reuse Working Group members met on March 15, 2024, for a virtual public meeting at 10 am.
The meeting began with Maya McInerney, BCDC’s project manager for the Sediment for Wetland Adaptation Project, providing the group with a debrief of the recent sediment stakeholder workshops. One hundred and fifty individuals across sixty-seven different organizations were invited to help frame the issues and potential actions that will inform the structure of the project roadmap. The first day of the workshop focused on barriers and actions for sediment and soil sources, storage, and placement. The second day of the workshop was centered around source and placement action pathways, governance, and funding.

Over fifty people attended each day of the workshop, and contributed to conversations that will shape the roadmap and project going forward. The stakeholder workshops also served as the first step in building a coalition of those dedicated to increasing beneficial reuse in the Bay Area. The project team is now working on synthesizing all of the feedback from the stakeholders and create a draft roadmap from their input.

Maya then explained in further detail how the project will transition from the workshops to constructing the roadmap. First, the team will send a survey out to workshop participants. The core team will also be finalizing issue papers and hold further meeting with stakeholders to refine the actions described in the roadmap.

The presentation then shifted into a discussion of the roadmap itself. Maya described how the roadmap will be structured, beginning with the statement of purpose and background, followed by the goals and principles. The sediment to wetland pathways will come next and will describe the pathways to placement for each of the three primary sources of sediment: construction, flood control dredging, and navigation dredging. The roadmap will end with eight to ten action plans divided across several focus areas, each with specific tasks achievable in the next five years.
A group discussion of the roadmap followed and specifically focused on funding and governance models. The meeting then reached the public comment period, and concluded.
The next Sediment and Beneficial Reuse Commissioner Working Group is scheduled for May 17th.