The State Lands Commission relied on flawed data to mischaracterize the impact of sand mining leases, which pose a threat to Bay wildlife and shorelines
From the San Francisco Baykeeper:
On March 12, 2026, San Francisco Baykeeper filed a lawsuit in California Superior Court for the County of Alameda against the State Lands Commission for authorizing harmful sand mining leases in San Francisco Bay. Baykeeper is represented in the litigation by Robert “Perl” Perlmutter of Shute, Mihaly & Weinberger and by in-house Baykeeper attorneys.
The case asserts that the State Lands Commission’s approval of ten-year sand mining leases violates both the California Environmental Quality Act and the agency’s public trust obligations. The leases benefit two for-profit companies, Martin Marietta and Lind Marine, which turn the Bay’s dwindling sand into concrete and asphalt.
The Bay’s sandy floor is important habitat for countless Bay fish and wildlife, including Dungeness Crab and White Sturgeon. Sand is also necessary in the ecosystem to fortify shorelines and beaches, which are already experiencing erosion and worsening sea level rise. Alarmingly, new research has determined that much of the Bay’s sand is ancient and irreplaceable.
However, despite this new finding, the State Lands Commission has rubber-stamped renewals of sand mining leases of 1,750,000 cubic yards of Bay sand every year, which is roughly equivalent to 5,350 Olympic swimming pools’ worth of sand over the next ten years. As our lawsuit states, the agency relied on faulty baseline data to claim that the total volume of sand mined would decrease under the new leases—when the opposite is in fact true: the leases approve the taking of more sand out of the Bay. This mischaracterization was a necessary and improper factor in the State Lands Commission’s lease approval.
Baykeeper managing attorney Eric Buescher issued the following statements:
“California cannot afford to sell off its public resources for private profits. Doing so hurts San Francisco Bay and is not in the best interest of anyone who lives in the Bay Area and enjoys our shorelines.”
“Unsustainable sand mining harms endangered fish and marine mammals, reduces necessary habitat for wildlife, increases coastal erosion, and takes away a non-renewable public resource that’s needed for local beaches and shorelines. In approving these leases, the State Lands Commission violated the law and failed in its role as a steward of California’s land and waters.”
San Francisco Baykeeper defends the Bay and its watershed from the biggest threats. Its team of lawyers, scientists, and advocates holds polluters and government agencies accountable and has achieved a winning record for over 36 years.
