Pelosi Announces Funding for Health Care, Shipping, and Wetlands Restoration in Bay Area

Pelosi Announces Funding for Health Care, Shipping, and Wetlands Restoration in Bay Area

Thursday, May 25, 2006

Contact: Brendan Daly/Jennifer Crider, 202-226-7616

Washington, D.C. â€" House Democratic Leader Nancy Pelosi announced today that she helped secure $65 million for San Francisco Bay Area health care, shipping, and wetlands restoration in H.R. 5427, the fiscal year 2007 Energy and Water Appropriations Act. The bill includes $10 million for San Francisco projects and $55 million that Pelosi and her Bay Area colleagues requested for regional projects.

â€Å"Funding in this bill will help enable the charity clinic at St. Mary’s Medical Center to treat cancer patients who would otherwise be unable to obtain care,” Pelosi said. â€Å"All San Francisco residents, regardless of their income, should have access to life-saving health care.”

Pelosi continued: â€Å"This bill also contains funding to benefit shipping and commerce, restore wetlands, and reduce erosion at Ocean Beach. The effort to curb erosion is already underway; beachgoers can see the Army Corps ship Essayons, which is currently dredging sand from the San Francisco Bar Channel and depositing it offshore from Ocean Beach.”

The following San Francisco-related projects were funded in the bill:

• $500,000 for cancer treatment at St. Mary’s Medical Center. These funds will support the acquisition of a new linear accelerator to enable St. Mary’s Medical Center to reinstate radiation therapy for cancer patients, including patients at the largest private charity clinic in San Francisco.
• $2.8 million for dredging the San Francisco Bar Channel and reducing erosion at Ocean Beach. Shipping channels into San Francisco Bay must be dredged regularly to ensure that commercial shipping can continue. In addition, sand dredged from the Bar Channel, which is the channel leading into the Golden Gate, is being deposited off Ocean Beach to protect the beach and the Great Highway from further erosion.
• $3.89 million for removing floating debris from the Bay. The Army Corps removes more than 1,100 tons of large debris from the Bay each year, protecting commercial ships, ferries, and recreational watercraft from floating hazards.
• $2.5 million for the Long Term Management Strategy. These funds are used to develop beneficial uses for mud and sand dredged from ship channels and harbors. Efforts are underway to use dredged material to restore San Francisco Bay wetlands.
• $500,000 to study erosion at Ocean Beach. Erosion at Ocean Beach threatens the Great Highway and a major sewage pipeline beneath the highway. The City of San Francisco, Army Corps of Engineers, and Golden Gate National Recreation Area are working together to study solutions, including the depositing of sand dredged from the Bar Channel, described above.

The following projects were requested by Pelosi along with her Bay Area colleagues:

• $43.5 million to deepen Oakland Harbor ship channels to 50 feet to accommodate new deep draft container ships and use the sediment to create wetlands habitat.
• $11.7 million for restoration of wetlands at the former Hamilton Army Airfield.

The House passed the bill last night by a vote of 404 to 20. The Senate must now approve the legislation before it can be signed into law by the President.