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Derelict Boat Removal

At high tide, you can barely see them. At low tide, they emerge from their muddy hideouts, ghosts of their former selves. But the derelict boats and old junks that have been clogging the sloughs and waterways of Redwood City have begun to disappear, thanks to the efforts of a grassroots team of citizens and agency officials known as "Operation Aqua Terra."

So far, approximately 30 abandoned sailboats, motor boats, barges and pieces of boats left to rot in the Bay's waters have been removed by Aqua Terra, with another 50 to go, says Louis Vella, co-founder of the task force. Aqua Terra convened a couple of years ago when the Redwood City Fire Department's Vella was approached by the Sheriff's Department about the derelict boats, which were creating navigational and other hazards in the waterways. Vella and others recruited support from the Port of Redwood City, the Redwood City Pride and Beautification Committee, the S.F. Bay Commission, the Coast Guard, the Don Edwards National Wildlife Refuge and other agencies.

"These waterways were like a lawless community," says Vella. "For years, any irresponsible person who had a boat that got old or dilapidated just left it there, sitting in the mud or water." With the help of the Bay Commission, Aqua Terra found a marine salvage company that had been fined for some illegal operations (but could not afford to pay), and had it remove 23 boats. A sunken barge was removed by its owner. Community clean-up days were organized and trash removed from nearby levees. "We're making the statement that this will no longer be tolerated," says Vella.

The Redwood City police recently acquired a new boat, donated by a Florida law enforcement agency, that will help Aqua Terra patrol the waterways, and a $400,000 grant from the Integrated Waste Management Board will help fund future cleanup efforts. The group is also working to strengthen the port's existing mooring ordinance and to pass legislation authorizing stiffer fines for anyone abandoning a boat. "We have this valuable natural resource here that very few cities have," says Vella. "But it was becoming an eyesore and a navigational hazard. We had to ask ourselves, 'Is this what we want to greet our visitors with?'

Contact: Louis Vella (650)780-7452

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