User:MaritimeMasino/sandbox

Brief History

Construction of the Port of Sacramento was first approved by Congress under the Rivers and Harbors Act of July 24, 1946. This act approved the construction of the Sacramento Deep Water Ship Channel, a 30 feet deep, 43 mile long shipping channel from Suisun Bay to an inland harbor at Washington Lake. The project started construction 3 years later in 1949 and the port was opened to deep sea traffic in 1963.

Operations

Since July 1, 2013 the port and its operations are being leased by SSA Marine from the Port of Sacramento for a minimum of 5 years for a minimum annual payment of $650,000. This move by the port is intended to allow it to shift focus on developing its other available real estate assets, and further the growth of the port. It also transfers all liabilities and operational expenses to SSA Marine.

Cargo

The Port of Sacramento does not receive the high volume of ships that other California ports handle. This is mainly due to the fact that the Port of Sacramento is a “Non-Container” port. The majority of all shipping worldwide is done by container ships and the fact that the Port of Sacramento is not set up to handle this type of cargo cuts it out of a large percentage of port traffic. The Port of Sacramento’s cargo is mainly of the agricultural, industrial and heavy equipment type, and the port specializes in bulk cargo. This works out well for the port because of its location in a dense agricultural region. Some of the ports’ main cargo is the exportation of local agriculture such as rice, barley, wheat, almonds and corn along with other local products such as lumber, cement, clay and metals. The Port of Sacramento is also set up to handle heavy machinery such as wind turbines, steel, generators and transformers.

Recent Developments

In February of 2010 in partnership with the ports of Oakland and Stockton, the Port of Sacramento has received a $30 million dollar award from the United States Department of Transportation (D.O.T.) as part of its America's Marine Highway Program. This program is designed to increase the amount of goods transported across the U.S. on ships and therefore decrease the amount transported by trucks and rail."source?" This is thought to have many environmental and economic benefits. This funding will be used to start a movement of containers between all three of these ports. The Port of Sacramento has since used a portion of this funding in order to give it the ability to accept containers. The main thing they have done is purchased a crane that will allow the port to lift containers on and off the ships or barges. Sacramento has high hopes for its port to increase its cargo traffic and economic output with these advancements.

Environmental Impacts

One of the main issues with the Port of Sacramento is that the Deep Water Ship Channel needs to be regularly dredged to maintain an adequate depth for ocean going ships. This dredging process presents a number of problems . One of the main problems associated with the dredging of this channel is the water quality. One such measure of quality is the salinity of the water. As the channel is deepened more salt water from the bay enters the system to maintain sea level. This is an issue because the affected area of the dredging includes a number of drinking water intakes. These intakes require a certain maximum salinity level that can be exceeded due to the dredging. The salinity of the water can also have negative effects on local fisheries."source?" Another environmental impact associated with the dredging is the disturbance of rare and endangered species. One of these species is the Delta smelt which has its main spawning grounds in and around the Sacramento Deep Water Ship Channel. The dredging itself can harm the spawning habitat directly by destroying eggs placed by the fish in the dredging zone. The spawning habitat can also be disturbed by the increase in salinity as well as the increased traffic the dredging will allow, as well as the noise created while dredging. Another species affected by the dredging and the water quality is the winter run salmon. In order to maintain the water quality needed for this species habitat, additional releases from reservoir will need to be made. These releases will negatively affect the amount of water stored in the reservoirs, which is needed for drinking water, agricultural purposes as well as providing cold water flows for the migration of the salmon. In other words there may not be enough fresh water to make sure the salinity levels are maintained under the maximum amounts as well as serve all the other needs of the ecosystem and the people in the area. Another water quality issue is the dredging process itself agitates the underwater landscape and releases sediment into the surrounding water. Also many times the dredged material is placed on the tops of levees which is subject to erosion into the surrounding waters during rains. While these are obvious negative impacts, the dredging of this area will allow for more environmentally friendly forms of transportation of cargo. It will in fact eliminate 24,585 trips by trucks along the I-80 corridor. These trucks are much less fuel efficient which burn more fossil fuels and in turn create greater amounts of greenhouse emissions. So the use of ships for the transportation of cargo also has environmentally positive impacts.