levee break

Work at the San Rafael Rock Quarry has gone into overdrive to cope with levee breaks in Marin and the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta following the deluge that slammed Marin on New Year's weekend.

Operations at the quarry are continuing round-the-clock, seven days a week, said quarry spokeswoman Aimi Dutra. The quarry's inventory was drained repairing levee breaks in Marin last week, Dutra said. Now the focus has shifted to the delta.

"We're making riprap as quickly as we can," Dutra said of the large pieces of rock used to repair levees. "As quickly as we make it, it is being shipped up to the delta."

States of emergency were declared in Marin and several other California counties following the storm. These emergencies have allowed the quarry's operator, the Dutra Group, to exceed limits imposed on it by a Marin Superior Court judge in January 2004.

Judge John Sutro imposed the limits - a maximum of 250 truck trips per day, between 7 a.m. and 5 p.m. only - after the county of Marin, the state Attorney General's Office and a neighborhood group sued the Dutra Group. The litigants alleged the business was operating the quarry in excess of its legal entitlements and creating a public nuisance by generating harmful dust, excessive noise and traffic congestion. The Dutra Group denies this.

Dutra said the current emergency demonstrates the importance to the county and the state that the quarry remain open. In addition to valuable farmland, a major failure of the delta levees could threaten the state's supply of drinking water.

"Most of the areas where these levees have been weakened are on islands and can't be reached by land," Dutra said.

The San Rafael Rock Quarry is the only quarry in Northern California that has waterside access, Dutra said. The Dutra Group ships the riprap to the delta using its own tugboats and barges.

Quarry neighbors contacted Saturday said they are dealing with increased noise because of the stepped up pace of work but acknowledged the Dutra Group is responding to a legitimate emergency.

"I don't think any of the neighbors out here object to having public emergencies dealt with," said Amanda Metcalf, who previously filed her own suit against the quarry.

"They're doing something useful," said Bill Hosken, another neighbor who has been critical of the quarry in the past.

Metcalf, however, did add one complaint. "The problem is that the quarry has continued to operate with antiquated equipment," she said. As a result, Metcalf said the amount of noise and dust that neighbors must cope with is greater than it should be.

Metcalf said that while the Dutra Group is profiting from the work it's doing, "We're receiving the burden of the public emergency."

Dutra, however, said the quarry does not operate with antiquated equipment.

"It uses best management practices and the latest technology available to us," she said.

The major repair work in Marin was completed Tuesday when a break in a levee at Hamilton Field was repaired. Another Marin levee failure near Rowland Boulevard in Novato was fixed on New Year's Day.

The quarry supplied about 10,000 tons of rock and riprap for those jobs.

The quarry also has provided materials to stabilize slides in Fairfax and Novato and sand for flood control in Larkspur and other areas of the county.

Now its attention is focused on the delta.

"The delta is currently a disaster," Dutra said. "The levees have been seriously weakened. There are a lot of boils."

Dutra said that "boils" are areas on the levee where the appearance of bubbles signal weakness. If ignored, these boils escalate into levee breaks, she said.

State officials with the Department of Water Resources have reported more than 40 instances of erosion or seepage in the levees.

The Dutra Group already has shipped about 100,000 tons of rock and riprap to the delta and isn't finished yet, Dutra said. The materials are going to repair levee failures at Twitchell Island, Webb Tract, Staten Island, Bouldin Island, Bradford Island and Roaring River at Grizzly Island.

Dutra said state officials are worried the delta levees could face another severe threat Jan. 29, when a 7-foot high tide is anticipated. High tides put added stress on levees during storms. There was also a 7-foot tide Dec. 31 during the New Year's weekend storm.

"And we're only one month into the rainy season," Dutra said. "Unfortunately, it's far from over."

Contact:
Aimi Dutra
Dutra Group
Phone: (415) 458-5473
Email: adutra@dutragroup.com