The State - News from May 9, 1988

Fishermen who charged that tons of mud dredged from the Oakland harbor could wreck their businesses if it were dumped in prime fishing waters south of San Francisco have won a federal court order stopping the dumping. “We’re hoping this will buy us enough time to make an appropriate appeal,” said Roger Beers, the attorney representing commercial fishermen. The fishermen’s effort to halt the dumping of 500,000 cubic yards of dredged mud off Half Moon Bay to make way for bigger supertankers at the Port of Oakland had been rejected by U.S. District Judge William Schwarzer. A U.S. Court of Appeals panel said it would review the fishermen’s appeal. The fishermen had argued that they were never advised of the planned project and therefore unable to participate in the environmental impact study that cleared the dumping. Said Port of Oakland spokesman Bob Middleton: “Every day this project is delayed it costs money and it could jeopardize long-range plans for the port.”