VIDEO: Dredging Begins at the Harbor This Week

Video of Pillar Point Harbor dredging by Deb Wong

Hired crews began dredging the harbor near the boat ramps Monday, planning to remove about 3,500 cubic yards of sand.

The sand and sediment buildup is clogging the harbor’s boat launch ramps. Clearing it will aid navigation.

The harbor is dumping the dredged sand on Perched Beach, where it will dry out and be seeded to grow vegetation.

The dredging plan was delayed, following several permit reviews and public complaints that the project was wasting the removed sediment, but is slated for completion next week, said Harbormaster Scott Grindy. 

"Dredging efforts are going very very well," said Grindy. "I anticipate that the boat ramp will be fully open within about that same time period."

The Harbor District's boat launch ramp at Pillar Point Harbor, built around 1992, periodically requires maintenance dredging to keep its three ramps open for use.

Emergency dredging was last done in 1999 and 2006 to remove siltation caused by severe storm activity leading to runoff from Deer Creek in El Granada. The dredged material was placed on the nearby Perched Beach, a dredged material disposal site that was created in the 1980s by the original dredging to create Pillar Point Inner Harbor's boat basins.