Burned-out boat pulled from Sacramento River. What about the other 50 in the Delta?

The shell of the “All American,” an 85-foot boat that went up in flames in June, floated in an industrial area of the Sacramento River for the last six weeks with no one to claim it.

On Wednesday morning, the ship finally left the river. A barge loaded with construction equipment moored beside the boat and began dismantling it, ripping off pieces of wood to be transported to a waste facility.

Sacramento County leaders hope that extraction marks just the beginning of their new push to clear the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta of dozens of abandoned boats cluttering up waterways. They say they can’t do it alone, and are asking state lawmakers pass a bill that would set aside $25 million to seed the cleanup work.

“It is not often that the county sponsors a bill,” said Natasha Drane, governmental relations and legislative officer for Sacramento County. “This issue is of importance to Sacramento County. We have over 30 abandoned vessels just in Sacramento County; it’s the reason why we wanted to take a leadership role in this. But we know and recognize that it’s a statewide issue, which is why we are pursuing a statewide program.”

Sacramento County is sponsoring Senate Bill 1065, introduced by Sen. Susan Eggman, D-Stockton, which would create the California Abandoned and Derelict Commercial Vessel Program to clear abandoned boats. The new program would create a standard source of funding to allow counties to clear abandoned vessels, rather than having them rely on emergency grants from the California State Lands Commission, as Sacramento County did in the case of “All American.”

Sheri Pemberton, the chief of external affairs for the State Lands Commission, said that the agency has been called in to clear abandoned and derelict vessels “a few times in the past year or two.”

“It has been a problem overall for many years,” she added.

The California Department of Fish and Wildlife’s Office of Spill Prevention handled the initial petroleum spill that came when “All American” caught fire. According to the office’s spokeswoman Mary Fricke, of the approximately 1,000 notifications the office receives of oil spills per year, 25% comes from abandoned and derelict vessels.

Drane said that the boat clearing is an example of what could happen across the state should SB 1085 pass. Around 30 abandoned and derelict vessels are floating in Sacramento County and between 50 and 60 are in the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta, Drane said. The number statewide is unknown, she said.

Drane added that she “think(s) the bill will go to the governor,” as it has bipartisan support and has yet to receive a No vote.

“There’s an acknowledgment of the importance of getting these boats out of the water,” she said. “They pollute and they create navigation hazards and safety hazards for other boaters.”

This story was originally published August 4, 2022 at 5:25 AM.