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Late into the long afternoon hearing at yesterday’s meeting of the California Coastal Commission, Chair Dayna Bochco acknowledged two things that had become quite evident. 

The first was that she was a bit confused.

The commission had just voted 5-6, narrowly deciding not to agree with a staff recommendation to disagree with a consistency determination from the Bureau of Indian Affairs. (See? Confusing.)

…Bochco, as chair, wound up casting the tie-breaking vote, and she seemed to realize her pivotal position immediately beforehand.

After appearing to tally the “yes”es and “no”s on a piece of paper, she gave her head a little wag back and forth, the classic physical representation of being on the fence. 

Finally, she voted no, signifying that no, she didn’t agree with staff about disagreeing with the BIA on the hotel’s consistency with the Coastal Act — at least not on the basis of its design.

Right?

“We’re trying to figure this out,” Bochco said after that first vote, glancing over at the commission staff for help.

Then she made her second acknowledgement, seemingly to no one in particular: “Probably not the best meeting you’ve seen run.” She then shrugged and added sarcastically, “Fire me.”

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Several months after announcing its intent to construct a $400 million aquaculture facility on the Samoa Peninsula, a Norwegian company has flagged water infrastructure and site contamination issues that could be “show stoppers.”

At the July 23 Board of Supervisors meeting, the company’s request for “financial incentives/funding” to address the issues was met with commitment to seek grant funding. 

But the timing and success of that process is uncertain and the company’s board of directors will meet in September to decide whether or not to proceed with the project’s permitting. 

…Supervisor Mike Wilson was a harbor district commissioner when the district took control of the pulp mill site several years ago and had 2.7 million gallons of stored toxins removed.

“I think this is not an unusual discussion that a community might have when you want to seek out economic development,” he said.

The community needs to be convinced that infrastructure and clean-up investments will “generally benefit the county and not just one company,” he continued.

Supervisors voted to have the county’s task force identify “funding and financing solutions” to the site issues and make a presentation to the board within 45 days.

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With a “huge” price tag looming over infrastructure problems at the Samoa Peninsula, a representative from Nordic Aquafarms said Wednesday the company’s plan to build a large fish farm at the site could be in trouble if the quagmire remains unaddressed.

“The county’s recognizing this project is — I’m not saying it’s in jeopardy, but it potentially is, if we don’t solve this problem,” said Lynette Mullen, Nordic Aquafarms’ community liaison in Humboldt County.

Local surface water needed for Nordic’s proposed fish farm can be highly turbid, or murky, during the winter months, and the cost of treating it could range into the double-digit millions. Meanwhile, the defunct Samoa pulp mills left behind hazardous waste, turning portions of the site into a toxic brownfield.

Without a locally driven solution, Nordic will be left to convince investors the costs involved in mitigating these factors are worth it, Mullen explained. And while Humboldt County has called on a task force to look into the issues — with a staff update coming in 45 days — Mullen emphasized urgency.

“I can tell you that … we ain’t going to pay,” said Dennis Mayo of the McKinleyville Community Services District. He explained that his district is billed for water by the Humboldt Bay Municipal Water District, which manages the water infrastructure for the Samoa site. “If you’re counting on (us)? You can forget it.”

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Fortification of dikes needed to protect infrastructure like Highway 101

Humboldt Bay is reclaiming its former territory, and there’s nothing anyone can do to stop it.

Between 1890 and 1910, almost 90% of Humboldt Bay’s salt marshes, about 8,100 acres, were “diked and drained for agricultural uses or walled off from tidal inundation with the construction of the Northwest Pacific Railroad,” according to the “Humboldt Bay Shoreline Inventory, Mapping and Sea Level Rise Vulnerability Assessment” completed in 2013 by local sea level rise expert Aldaron Laird. Now only 4% of the land is salt marsh.

After keeping the sea at bay for over a hundred years, the earthen dikes are beginning to fail, both because they haven’t been maintained and because they aren’t tall enough to hold back the rising tides brought on by rising sea levels.

The dikes, which are on average 10 feet tall, are finding it increasingly challenging to hold back tides that are ranging from 7.8 to 9.5 feet in height. When a 9.5-foot extremely high tide and storm surge joined forces to damage the dikes in the area in 2006, the governor had to declare a state of emergency, but those types of high tides are expected to be the monthly norm by 2050.

“Sea level rise is an effect of climate change, specifically from the warming of the atmosphere and oceans,” stated more recent 2018 research from Laird entitled “Diked Shoreline Sea Level Rise Adaptation Feasibility Study.” “Going forward, melting ice from areas like Greenland and Antarctica have the potential to greatly accelerate the rate and elevations of sea level rise, particularly after 2050.”

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