BCDC Confronts Jurassic-Era Sand Mining as Bridge, Permitting Decisions Advance

The San Francisco Bay Conservation and Development Commission took on a packed agenda April 16, tackling the future of ancient sand beneath the bay, the fate of bike access on the Richmond-San Rafael Bridge, and a long-overdue leap from paper card catalogs to digital permitting. The sand mining briefing — revealing that the bay's sand dates to the age of dinosaurs and is being extracted faster than nature can replace it — set the stage for what may become the Commission's most consequential environmental decision in years.

• First-ever bay sand studies show the resource is 145–199 million years old and not being replenished, with full mining permit applications expected this year

• Commission approves preliminary benchmarks to measure whether cutting weekday bike access on the Richmond-San Rafael Bridge improves traffic and safety

• $316K Salesforce contract approved to replace decades-old paper permitting with online applications and real-time case tracking

• Chair Wasserman discloses MTC's executive director unilaterally paused BARC, the state agency coordinating Bay Area regional bodies, without public input

• $29M+ in combined state and federal funding secured for beneficial reuse of dredge sediment at Bay Area wetlands despite proposed Trump administration cuts

The basics: San Francisco Bay's sand was deposited during the Jurassic and Cretaceous periods — 145 to 199 million years ago — and no new sand is entering the system. Two companies, Martin Marietta and Lind Marine, mine the bay floor for construction aggregate. The Commission required $1.2 million in independent studies before considering new permit applications, and staff presented those findings for the first time.