A $3.9 million concrete wave screen could be the fix for Galilee Harbor's storm-battered docks
At Galilee Harbor on Napa Street, environmental consultants from ESA presented a feasibility study for a fixed vertical concrete wave screen roughly 1,260 feet long, built on city-owned tidelands to protect the harbor's 38-family floating home community and Dunphy Park from wave damage. The design would include a single navigation gap, a bed gap for ecological connectivity, and textured concrete meant to attract oysters and mussels — with the possibility of seal haul-out features built in.
“The preferred alternative is a fixed vertical wave screen located offshore on city-owned lands... It provides meaningful wave reduction, it avoids direct eelgrass impacts, and it offers opportunities for ecological enhancements.”— Michelle Orr, ESA consultant
Staff want to take the presentation to City Council next, seeking support for including the project in the Capital Improvement Program and pursuing grant funding; the effort already has a $150,000 grant from the Marin Community Foundation behind it. Harbor Manager Greg Cornelius told the commission the floating community has lost entire docks — carrying electricity, sewage and water lines — in past storms, making the attenuator a longstanding goal now gaining momentum.
The vertical wall option beat out a floating pontoon attenuator largely on performance and footprint: ESA's Michelle Orr said a floating structure would need to be 20 to 30 feet wide to match the wave protection of a wall just one or two feet wide, and the vertical design also avoids direct eelgrass impacts despite a higher upfront price tag of $3.9 million. A commissioner asked about long-term monitoring commitments for oyster recruitment, wave conditions and sediment shifts that might trigger design changes down the line.
No vote was taken — the commission lacked a quorum — but members agreed the case for protecting low-income floating housing, plus the co-benefits for Dunphy Park erosion, makes a strong pitch for City Council. The project heads there next for a decision on funding and CIP inclusion.