The First Mile Horizontal Levee Project is being featured on NBC Bay Area ’s OpenRoad program, highlighting an innovative nature-based shoreline adaptation along the Hayward shoreline.
The project will combine habitat restoration, wastewater treatment and flood protection, a concept first demonstrated at the Oro Loma Horizontal Levee Pilot Project nearby and apply it to an approximately one-mile reach of the Hayward shoreline between Bockman Canal and Sulphur Creek.
The San Francisco Estuary Partnership along with the East Bay Dischargers Authority and East Bay Regional Parks District are leading the charge on the project.
As sea level rise begins to pose a unique and unprecedented risk to the region, shoreline communities and jurisdictions are embracing a different and more collaborative approach to managing the shoreline. The First Mile Horizontal Levee is an example of this new approach. It seeks to provide a regional solution for strengthening the Bay Area’s shoreline for rising seas.
It also provides an additional level of treatment for wastewater effluent that reduces pollutants like metals, nutrients, and pharmaceuticals from entering the Bay, reducing the “food” that can fuel harmful algal blooms. This new levee can protect shoreline communities against rising sea levels with habitat slopes that augment the outboard profile of a traditional levee with wetland plants. This nature-based approach helps buffer against wave action and provides a place for plants and animals to migrate as sea levels rise.
A key theme of this OpenRoad episode describes how the First Mile Horizontal Levee project demonstrates a new model of multi-jurisdictional coordination to find efficiencies in addressing multiple risks and delivering the multiple benefits for habitat, flood protection and improved public access.
It discusses the crucial role community involvement plays in accurately identifying and addressing community concerns and needs. Collaborating with communities allows project planners and designers to create solutions embraced and co-designed by the communities we serve.
To ensure this level of community engagement on this project, our team works local partners, such as Teach Earth Action, to provide community input, which will be incorporated into the design and planning as the First Mile Horizontal Levee project progresses into the next phase.
Watch the episode at https://www.nbcbayarea.com/news/local/watch-openroad-episode-103/3870202/. It will also air on Sunday, June 8, at 11:30 a.m. and Sunday, August 3, at 6:30 p.m. on NBC Bay Area (KNTV).
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The San Francisco Estuary is named in the federal Clean Water Act as one of 28 “estuaries of national significance." Millions of people, hundreds of communities, and many industries rely on the San Francisco Estuary for fresh water, recreation, agriculture and more. Additionally, thousands of wildlife species rely on the estuary for habitat. For over 30 years, the San Francisco Estuary Partnership has worked together with local communities and federal and state agencies to improve the health of California’s most urbanized estuary.
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