County wants to buy a boat to clear abandoned cars, boats from river

By KOVR Staff

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    SACRAMENTO (KOVR) — The Sacramento County Sheriff’s Office is trying to buy a new boat worth more than a million dollars, but this is no luxury yacht.

The department estimates there are currently more than 100 sunken cars and boats on the bottom of the river, and this new tool will help bring them back up.

Sgt. Sam Flores with the Sacramento Sheriff’s Marine Unit said it’s a constant battle to clean up boats and vehicles dumped in the delta. They can see many of them using sonar.

“We do have a list of sunken vessels and sunken vehicles that grows pretty much every week,” Sgt. Flores said.

Now, Sacramento County is getting a grant to purchase a new dive boat that can respond to these types of incidents.

It’s a 38-foot catamaran that is being built by Moose Boats on Mare Island, and it’s a spot where the U.S. Navy once built submarines.

“Our main goal with the new boat is to clean up the Sacramento River to make the water better for our community,”

The new catamaran will be big enough to accommodate members of the department’s dive team, something their current boats can’t do.

And it’s not cheap. The total cost is about $1.5 million, but the catamaran design is more fuel-efficient and stable than the department’s current boats.

It also has a larger interior cabin and one more special feature.

“There is a bathroom on the boat that we did specifically get just so we can do long missions,” Sgt. Flores said.

The goal is to clear more of these sunken ships and cars out of our waterways.

The Sacramento County Board of Supervisors is being asked to approve the purchase next week. The majority of the money is coming from a state grant that pays for removing vehicles that contaminate the rivers.

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