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News Round-Up

Delta Ducklings May Get New Ponds under a $40,000 grant program launched by Ducks Unlimited and the Delta Protection Commission this spring. Grants will be available to landowners within the legal Delta for projects that provide permanent duck habitat. Potential projects include brood ponds (shallow, secure waters where mother ducks and young can hang out before the ducklings learn to fly) and seasonal wetlands managed to maximize their food and habitat resources year-round (summer irrigation can spur seed production among floral duck delicacies like swamp Timothy and smart weed). (916)776-2290

Preserving a 7,000-Acre Mosaic of Wetlands, diked historic baylands and associated upland habitat areas between San Rafael's Canalways and the Sonoma County border is the aim of Marin Baylands Advocates, a new coalition of Marin County environmental leaders. According to Advocate founder Barbara Salzman, about 2,500 Baylands acres face development for housing, office space, golf courses and other uses. (415)388-0930

A Horizontal-Axis Washing Machine that uses 40% Less Water, 60% less energy and 40-60% less detergent than conventional vertical axis machines may finally give the Maytag repairman something to smile about. The machine's washer tub (which by design only fills to one-third its capacity) rotates around a horizontal axis, cleaning clothes as they plunge through the water. Horizontal spinning requires less electricity and distributes detergent more efficiently. Many horizontal models load from the front, allowing a dryer or cabinet to go on top. PG&E and some local water districts plan to offer rebates to customers who buy the energy-efficient washers. (415)973-8890

Penn Mine Will Get a $10 Million Clean Up, thanks to a new agreement on the parts of the State Water Board and the East Bay Municipal Utility District to each kick $5 million toward permanently ridding the Calavaras County mine of toxics. Despite construction of catch nets and holding ponds, toxic runoff sometimes spills into the nearby Mokelumne River. EBMUD's contribution is provisional on the feds' providing the rest of the $16 to $20 million cleanup costs. The agencies hope their actions will help end the extensive litigation over the property. (510)287-1380

Turning Sea Water into Drinking Water may finally become cost-effective thanks to new carbon-based aereogels originally developed for classified military uses. Scientists at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory have created a desalination prototype system that pumps water through aerogel stacks that look like thin sheets of brittle black construction paper. The aerogels act as electrodes and attract dissolved salt from the water when an electric charge is applied. Key to the system's success is the aerogels' enormous salt-storing surface area - a piece 6.9 centimeters square and only 0.0125 cm thick has a surface area of roughly 2.8 million square centimeters, which means a lot of desalination can occur in a relatively small space. The lab's Joseph Farmer says the prototype system requires less electricity than either reverse osmosis or electrodialysis, other desalination technologies currently available. Several water agencies and industries are now looking for ways to bring the aerogels' production costs down. (510)423-6574

A New Guide Explores the 400-Mile Long Ring that will one day be the Bay Trail, winding in and among the cities, ports, parks, marshes, marinas, wildlife refuges, salt ponds, cow pastures, coastal hills and beaches that comprise the Bay shoreline. Currently just over 170 miles of Bay Trail, an ambitious project started in the 1980s via state legislation, have been completed. The new 198-page guide offersmile-by-mile maps of the trail and shoreline; hundreds of tidbits about the natural and human history of the Bay's fringes; details on boat ramps, fishing piers, swimming beaches, duck ponds, bike paths and wheelchair accessible waterfronts; and basic how-to-get-there information. For a copy ($14.95), contact the California State Coastal Conservancy: (510)286-1015

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