Not surprisingly, Groundhog Day Part II is very similar to Part I and the dozens of other stories of agency and officialdom inaction when it comes to preventing lawlessness and cleaning up and reestablishing the Oakland Estuary as a clean, safe community resource. After we wrote about the ongoing problems on Wednesday, we reached out to Mary Spicer of I Heart Oakland-Alameda Estuary, since Brock de Lappe said she and the Estuary community had put together a map to quantify the number of sunken boats.

Mary explained the map and situation this way: “This map was created by community members who regularly use the Oakland Estuary. This is not an official map. The red markers indicate sunk boats. A few of these areas are debris piles of multiple boats that have gone down in storms and are decaying over time. To the best of our knowledge, these boats still remain on the Estuary floor — although marker 18 may have been removed.

“The recently sunk Blue Star is a boat that has an oil sheen and has been reported multiple times by various community members. We’ve been told that if we see an oil slick when out on the water to immediately report the oil slick to [the] Coast Guard.

“The most painful and dangerous consequence of these sunken boats is the threat they pose to our shoreline, our community, and our environment. It’s devastating to report a drifting or abandoned vessel, only to watch it slowly sink with the tides — ignored until it becomes an expensive, toxic wreck that breaks apart in the Estuary.

“The Oakland Estuary is facing a growing environmental and public safety crisis. Community members have observed numerous abandoned and illegally anchored vessels sinking, leaking fuel, and discharging pet and human waste directly into the Bay. Some people have repeatedly acquired and sunk multiple boats, leaving wrecks that are extremely costly to remove and destructive to the environment. As these vessels deteriorate, oil, gasoline, sewage, and fiberglass leach into the water, contaminating the Bay and damaging the shoreline. The ongoing pollution threatens water quality, marine life, and the health of the Estuary ecosystem.”

From a Latitude 38 perspective, we and all sailors are confident knowing that when someone is hundreds of miles offshore or in the middle of the Bay and calls, “Mayday,” the Coast Guard has dedicated, trained people and the resources to send helicopters, ships, paramedics and rescue planes to help. Unfortunately, when concerned citizens call the Coast Guard to say there is a boat sinking a few hundred yards from Coast Guard Island, the Coast Guard apparently does not have the budget or people able to respond. It’s a shame. When a boat is floating, the cost to dispose of it is reduced by thousands of dollars and the environmental damage is largely prevented. Coast Guard rescue boats generally have dewatering pumps that can keep your boat afloat if circumstances are right.

We also note that the first red pin to the northwest of Coast Guard Island is on the site of the stunning new Brooklyn Basin project. The total cost to build this mixed-use development in Oakland was estimated to be at least US $1.5 billion. It has at least 3100 housing units including 465 “affordable housing units” that are adjacent to the illegally anchored liveaboards who are causing so much heartache for bureaucrats, law enforcement, city budgets and citizens. The most expensive units are around $800,000, with a view of all the wrecks, anchor-outs and Coast Guard Island. It’s hard to make sense of the mismatch of funds, efforts and results. We are sure the residents and developers’ interests align with the sailors and community members who want to enjoy a clean, safe and accessible waterfront. It would be very cool to live at Brooklyn Basin and have your kids walk or ride bikes along the waterfront to participate in East Bay Rowing’s youth programs at the Jack London Aquatic Center less than half a mile away! It will happen — someday.

Last fall we announced the fantastic news that Oakland had received a $3+ million grant to clean up the Estuary. It’s Groundhog Day again; nothing has been done. Mary expressed the frustration of the whole community as she and many volunteers continue to spend their “free” time cleaning up messes that all the responsible agencies are in charge of preventing. The funds are there but have not been dispersed or allocated for the cleanup. Meanwhile, as boats continue to sink, the price of the cleanup only grows. While these boats sink on a regular basis, the upcoming winter storms will only exacerbate the problem.

Mary noted that members of the Alameda yacht clubs — Encinal, Oakland, Alameda, Island, and Aeolian — regularly show up to help in the volunteer cleanup efforts. We’re not sure if any Coast Guard or Oakland law enforcement officers have used some of their free time to volunteer to help keep the Estuary clean, but it seems as if it could be motivating.

The lack of response to boats sinking at the Coast Guard’s doorstep feels like a dereliction of duty. We know the phrase probably carries a heavy weight if you’re a military sort, but we are civilians and don’t know when a term like that kicks in. As observers, we feel all those red and yellow pins that continue to pollute and threaten the federal waterway appear as a dereliction of duty, but maybe there’s a better term for it.

Our understanding is that the BCDC is beginning to take steps to use whatever enforcement power they have to require the City of Oakland and Port of Oakland to take care of their waterfront. Jack London would be proud to know that Jack London Square would be named after him but ashamed to see how the City of Oakland has treated the waterway and lost its respect for the maritime heritage he cared about so deeply. (Our November issue, coming out today, has a story by Aleta George on the sailboats of Jack London.)

We expect we’ll be writing several more installments of Groundhog Day on the Oakland Estuary, but, someday, we look forward to writing about East Bay residents sailing, paddling, swimming and rowing in the sparkling, clean, safe waters of the Oakland Estuary. The community deserves it, the resources are available, and in the meantime, it’s dedicated volunteers like Mary Spicer, Brock de Lappe and many others who keep the Estuary as clean as possible until the people employed to do the job are up to the task. We’re sure there are volunteers ready to assist and support whenever that effort comes forth.