Franks Tract Project

If you enjoy sailing up to the Delta, a proposed project to improve water quality and fish habitat may affect your future plans. "The Franks Tract Project . . . involves installing operable gates to control the flow of water at key locations to limit the movement of fish and higher salinity water into Franks Tract during certain times of the year," a project newsletter from the Department of Water Resources explained.

Project Manager Ajay Goyal noted that it’s likely only one gate will be installed, but there are five possible locations for it — four on Three Mile Slough, one on False River (though Goyal said recent analysis has shown that a gate at False River might not "provide benefit"). Goyal confirmed that whatever its final location, the gate will not restrict boat traffic.

As Goyal explained it, the gate would be closed on either a flood or ebb tide, whatever is most beneficial to the Delta’s ecosystem. During those times, day or night, boats — including sailboats with normal draft, say six feet — would lock through the gate. When the gate is open, regular boat traffic through the channel would resume.

It seems likely that the gate will be located on Three Mile Slough. As a popular shortcut between the Sacramento and San Joaquin Rivers, the construction of the gate will undoubtedly impede traffic at some point, but it sounds as if the agencies involved really value the public’s input. To that end, there will be four public scoping meetings next week to field questions and concerns about the project:

• Monday, 10 a.m.-12 p.m. in Sacramento at the Federal Building, Room C-1001/1002
• Tuesday, 6-8:30 p.m. in Rio Vista at the Memorial Building
• Wednesday, 6-8:30 p.m. in Antioch at the Contra Costa Library
• Thursday, 6-8:30 p.m. in Stockton at the Memorial Civic Auditorium, North Hall

For more on the Franks Tract Project, go to www.water.ca.gov/frankstract.