Navy Opens Up Military Deep-water Pier to Merchant Ships to Ease California Cargo Crisis
With Southern California seaports overburdened by commercial ships and pandemic and supply-driven delays in moving cargo, the Navy agreed to allow cargo-carrying vessels to use one of its military wharves at Port Hueneme, Calif.
Port Hueneme is the only deep-water port sited between San Francisco and Los Angeles that can support the heavy, large commercial vessels with deep drafts that require deeper channels and harbors to take on or offload their cargo.
The Navy’s Nov. 4 decision activated a 2002 “joint use agreement” between the Navy and the Oxnard Harbor District that allows commercial use of the 1,000-foot Wharf 3, an adjoining four acres and a 21-acre industrial land to support loading, off-loading and storing of cargo, providing it doesn’t interfere with the military’s operations. The 40-page agreement has been modified twice with congressional support.
The terminal and stevedore operator Ports America had off-loaded “a large number” of 40-foot containers from one commercial vessel, “merchandise expected to have direct impact with helping to support holiday supply demands,” Daniel Herrera, Naval Base Ventura County’s assistant program director for port operations, said last week in a Navy news release.
