Port of Stockton


The Port of Stockton is a major deepwater port on the Stockton Ship Channel of the Pacific Ocean and an inland port located more than seventy nautical miles from the ocean, in Stockton, California on the Stockton Channel and San Joaquin River-Stockton Deepwater Shipping Channel. The port sits on about, and occupies an island in the Sacramento–San Joaquin River Delta, and a portion of a neighborhood known as Boggs Tract. It is governed by a commission appointed by the City of Stockton and San Joaquin County. In 2012 it employed 4,500 people and made about $4.9 million in local tax funds.

Geography

The only natural outlet for the waters of the Central Valley to pass into the sea is through the narrow Carquinez Strait, at the inland eastern extreme of San Pablo Bay. Further inland are the Suisun and Grizzly Bays, arms of the Pacific Ocean deep in the Californian interior. Further inland again from these last bays is the broad Sacramento–San Joaquin River Delta, formed where the San Joaquin and Sacramento Rivers meet and cross together. This verdant triangle of land with deep black soils is at the heart of the Central Valley and stretches some fifty miles from Suisun Bay on the west to the cities of Stockton and Sacramento on the east.

Pollution

The California Office of Environmental Health Hazard Assessment has issued advice based on PCBs that no one should eat any fish or shellfish from the Port of Stockton.

History

In 1846, the first cargo boat ascended the San Joaquin River. In 1848, John Doak established the first ferry service on the river, and the first freight vessel, the sloop Maria, visited Stockton. In 1849, Doak brought lumber from San Francisco to Stockton and began a lumber business. By the 1850s, the port had become a center of commodity shipping and the supply center for the California goldfields. By the 1860s, the region saw a decline in gold production and an increase in agriculture.
The first dredging contracts for the Stockton Deepwater Channel were awarded in 1930. The Port District officially opened on February 2, 1933 when the ship the Daisy Grey arrived bringing lumber from Oregon.
Port management recognized the increasing importance of containerized cargo and upgraded dock side facilities. The ship channel was improved in order to accommodate large Panamax class ships.
The Navy Rough and Ready Island Naval Supply Depot built during World War II was phased out of use as a result of special legislation sponsored by United States Senate Dianne Feinstein in 1995. It was transferred to the port between 2000 and 2003. This area of the port is now known as the "West Complex".

Port services