The Almanac
November 14, 2007

Guest Opinion:
A better use for Stanford dirt

By Lennie Roberts

Stanford University is seeking a permit that would allow the deposit of up to 300,000 cubic yards of excavated dirt on its 143-acre “Christmas tree farm” site along Sand Hill Road, west of Highway 280, over the next 10 years.

Blanketing these scenic hills with up to seven feet of surplus diggings from expansion of the campus, hospital, shopping center, and other construction projects would be unattractive both in its process (10 years of hauling along Sand Hill Road, a quarry-in-reverse operation that's out of character with the natural setting) and its outcome (an altered landscape).

The Committee for Green Foothills proposes a far better alternative. This same excavated earth is badly needed just a few miles away, in the restoration of Cargill’s former industrial salt ponds. By partnering with the Don Edwards San Francisco Bay National Wildlife Refuge, Stanford has a golden opportunity to put its extra fill to beneficial re-use.

An Almanac feature story (Aug. 22) on the future of the Cargill salt ponds highlighted the impressive bay restoration project, the largest on the West Coast. As it happens, the wildlife refuge needs up to a million cubic yards of clean fill at Bair Island to raise the salt ponds to the proper level as the first step in re-establishing historic marshes and other habitats.

Refuge manager Clyde Morris projects that raising the subsided areas by 2-1/2 feet will take three to five years. After completion, the old levees will be opened up to restore tidal action to the former baylands. This marsh restoration has multiple environmental benefits, including increased habitat for many wildlife species, protection from flooding as sea levels rise, and reduced pollution from natural marsh filtering of urban runoff.

Fill will also be needed for many more years to restore former salt ponds along Menlo Park’s Bayfront Expressway and rebuild levees in Menlo Park and East Palo Alto, all part of the ambitious South Bay salt pond restoration project. Providing this fill from Stanford’s nearby projects would yield fewer CO2 emissions than those resulting from trucking fill in from distant locations.

Stanford has been at the forefront of many environmental initiatives, including the Woods Institute for the Environment and Jasper Ridge’s Leslie Shao-ming Sun Field Station. The field station has won awards for sustainable design using green building materials, and energy efficiency with its net-zero carbon emissions.

By applying these same principles of sustainability to the disposition of its excess fill, Stanford can achieve an environmentally superior result. We hope Stanford officials will consider this proposal.

Lennie Roberts is the legislative advocate for the Committee for Green Foothills.

Page last updated November 28, 2007.