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Bulletin Board
The Sacramento Splittail got formally listed as threatened under the federal Endangered Species Act in early February, after years of delays. Populations of the silvery-gold minnow, which is found only in Central Valley rivers and the Delta, have declined 62% in the past 15 years as a result of dams, diversions and lost spawning ground. According to U.S. Fish & Wildlife's Mike Thabault the splittail listing is unlikely to result in major changes to state or federal water project operations due to provisions of the 1994 Bay-Delta Accord requiring that any new listings not reduce water deliveries.
Dischargers can now report electronically to the S.F. Bay Regional Board on their monthly compliance with wastewater and pollution discharge (NPDES) permits. Friends of the Estuary developed the software and programming for the new reporting system with $50,000 in pollution fines (ACLs). The new system is now up and running and being truth-tested, but not all dischargers have begun using it.
An American River Action Plan and draft EIR was released by the stakeholder-based
Sacramento Area Water Forum this January, detailing steps to provide reliable
and safe water supplies and to preserve fishery, wildlife, recreational
and aesthetic values in the lower watershed. The plan, released in draft
form in 1997 and since revised, is the product of five-years of cooperative
research and negotiation on the part of business, environmental, agricultural,
public, government and water interests in the Sacramento area. Comments
on the EIR are due by March 22.
To view see http://www.waterforum.org
or call (916)433-6287
New Priorities for Bay - Delta Management came out of a February 5 workshop on implementation of the 145-action S.F. Estuary Project Comprehensive Conservation and Management Plan. At the workshop, 60 diverse stakeholders updated 1996 priorities and added one new one. Updated priorities are to expand, restore and protect Bay-Delta wetlands; to prevent the introduction of exotic organisms, plants and animals into the Estuary from all sources, and control their spread; to promote watershed management; to create incentives that encourage local government, landowners and communities to protect and restore the Estuary; to reduce pollution from urban and agricultural runoff and other non-point sources; to strengthen public awareness about the Estuary's natural resources; and to expand the regional monitor ing program and then integrate the results into management and regulatory actions. The new priority is to promulgate baseline inflow standards for San Francisco, San Pablo and Suisun bays. Further clarification of the priorities, and the specific CCMP actions they encompass, can be found in the March 1999 CCMP Workbook.
Four drive-up ramps for a do-it-yourself oil change have recently been
installed in rural California counties lacking fast oil change service
centers. The ramp, called the "Lube Rack" and developed by a
South Carolina-based recycling equipment company, not only makes it easier
for self-appointed mechanics to get under their cars, but also reduces
runoff pollution from improper used-oil disposal. It features a built-in
used-oil tank in which to drain the oil directly from the crank case (the
used oil is then disposed of by professionals). An estimated 53% of the
U.S. population changes their own oil, but much fewer take the used oil
to hazardous waste collection centers, as required by law. "A lot
of people just change oil in the street and let it run into the gutter,"
says Ken Hornick of the San Joaquin County Housing Authority, which installed
a Lube Rack at its 400-unit Sierra Vista public housing complex in Stockton
last year. Hornick's agency is now distributing informational flyers and
conducting resident training in use of the Lube Rack.
Contact: (843)308-0507
Leg hold traps can still be used by federal employees to protect clapper rails and endangered birds from foxes and other predators, according to a preliminary injunction issued in February. The judge's order in the suit brought by the Marin, Golden Gate and National Audubon Societies, the California Waterfowl Association and Muir Beach Enviro, came after the defendants - the Governor and the state Department of Fish & Game - conceded that Proposition 4, the leg-hold trap ban approved by voters last fall, does not cover trapping under the federal Endangered Species Act. According to Marin Audubon's Barbara Salzman the ruling is important because "the traps are the only thing that works against red foxes." Fans of furry, fanged critters can take comfort in the fact the ruling does not affect the ban on trapping to prevent depredations on private property. The ruling also left several questions unresolved, including whether or not the ban covers trapping by Cal Fish & Game under state endangered species laws.
Much ado about nothing should have been the title of the recent San Francisco Chronicle story heralding the return of a long-vanished native oyster to the Bay, say some scientists. The article described fishery biologists as "thrilled" and "incredibly excited" to find a small colony of bivalves called Olympia oysters, or Ostreola conchaphila, near Redwood City - a colony so rare that its location had to remain a secret. While it's true that silt and pollution have greatly reduced the native oyster population since the early 1900s, it's not as if the Olympia is such a rarity, says invertebrate scientist Andy Cohen. On a 1996 survey of organisms attached to docks around the Bay, Cohen found Olympia at almost every station with a salinity above 15 parts per thousand. Cohen says the oyster used to go under the Latin name of Ostreolo lurida, and that it's been "pretty common as long as I've been here."
Marching orders on exotics grew early this year as environmental groups, scientists, senators and the U.S. President all hopped on the bandwagon. Increasing rumblings from the Bay Area, home of the most invaded Estuary in the world, have finally been felt on the other side of the continent. On February 3, President Clinton issued an executive order directing all federal agencies to work harder to control invasive species and prevent their introduction, and setting up a new multi-agency committee charged with coming up with an invasive species management plan in 18 months. Local expert Andy Cohen points out that President Carter gave the same order in 1977 with little effect but that the political and scientific climate, and public awareness on the issue, is different now. "The executive order provides a new rationale to get EPA moving," he says. In January, environmental groups and scientists petitioned U.S. EPA to use its Clean Water Act authorities to regulate exotic species commonly found in ship's ballast water as pollutants. And on February 11, EPA Administrator Carol Browner got a letter from Congressman George Miller and 17 other legislators urging her to roll back the Clean Water Act exemptions for discharges normal to the operation of a vessel, noting that the exemption dates back to a time when exotic species impacts and vectors were "poorly understood."
Polymers greatly reduce stormwater turbidity and associated pollutants,
according to recent research completed by Gary Minton of Seattle's Resource
Planning Associates. The study (see Now in Print) monitored six construction
sites in Redmond, Washington - where contractors collected stormwater,
dosed it with polymers, then removed the sediments. "The fine, silty
material normally takes forever to settle out," says Minton. "Polymers,
these large complex molecules, make the little clay particles mesh together
into big enough particles to settle right to the bottom." According
to the study results, the process routinely reduced the initial turbidity
(cloudiness resulting from sediment in the water) of site discharges from
between several hundred and several thousand NTU (nephelometer turbidity
units - a measure of light penetration) down to 5-10 NTU. It also reduced
phosphorus pollution by 95-99%. Minton says that such an aggressive approach
to sediment control has been necessitated by the need to protect salmon
streams and meet water quality standards, and that these standards are
frequently not met at construction sites using only standard BMPs. Does
the polymer add toxics to the water? Minton says the dosage required to
cause toxicity is considerably greater than that necessary to reduce turbidity.
Contact: (206)282-1681
Three Island Fragments are soon to become demonstration projects for
how to restore the Delta's 800 or more in-channel islands. The islands
- the fast-eroding homes of fish, wetlands and riparian plants have been
the focus of a workgroup organized by the S.F. Estuary Project and now
coordinating with CALFED. Their small size and highly exposed conditions
present special restoration challenges. "They're constantly bombarded
by boat wakes and tides," says the Project's Marcia Brockbank. "We're
trying to get away from protecting them with concrete rip rap and experimenting
with biotechnical approaches such as special plantings and coconut mats."
Initial permitting and planning for the three demo projects - located
on Little Tinsley Island and off Webb Tract - is well underway. The workgroup
is now applying for construction funds.
Contact: (510)622-2325
Fish water can go back to ag, according to a controversial brief filed by California's new governor this February. According to the brief, filed as part of a federal lawsuit over the 1992 Central Valley Project Improvement Act, the 800,000 acre feet of fresh water releases the act mandates to aid fish passage through the Delta can be reclaimed at downstream pumps for reuse by farms and cities. Environmentalists are outraged, saying that this hard-won environmental water must pass all the way through the estuarine ecosystem to be of any use to fish. They were also smarting because Governor Davis' action slapped the hand of his new Secretary of Resources Mary Nichols, who only a week earlier had killed a similar brief left in place by Governor Wilson (Nichols had to then withdraw her order). "A guy with a strong environmental track record as a legislator should be at least neutral on the issue," says The Bay Institute's Gary Bobker. "Taking sides with a few farmers over the broader interests of the state, and continuing to frustrate federal efforts to implement the law (CVPIA), only encourages people to fight and increases the likelihood that consensus efforts like CALFED will fail."
Mitten crabs guzzle oxygen say Cal Fish & Game biologists exploring reasons why fish stuck in loading buckets and hauling trucks with the Chinese invader died last fall. Up to 20,000 crabs a day clogged fish salvage operations at the Skinner Fish Facility in September and October 1998, sending workers scrambling to separate the crabs from the fish and minimize impacts. But it may not be just the clawing and crowding that stressed out and killed so many fish, it may also be oxygen deprivation. Biologists conducted some preliminary tests in which various numbers of crabs were held for 90 minutes in a 439 liter tank of ambient water while a control tank with no crabs was tested simultaneously. Dissolved oxygen levels dropped markedly in the tank containing the crabs, especially when the tank contained more than 70. These initial tests suggest that as few as 1,600 crabs in a 2,500-gallon fish hauling truck could reduce dissolved oxygen to lethal levels for salvaged fish.
River Refuge Grows - December and January brought a Christmas gift of
sorts to the geese, cranes, herons and other birds who nest in the San
Joaquin River National Wildlife Refuge. During those months the refuge
nearly doubled its size, adding more than 2,700 acres to its oak-cottonwood-willow
riparian forests, wetlands and pastures. Located within the historic floodplain
of the confluences of the San Joaquin, Stanislaus and Tuolumne Rivers,
the refuge is the primary wintering site of the threatened Aleutian Canada
goose and a critical part of U.S. Fish & Wildlife's recovery plan
for the goose. According to Fish & Wildlife's John Fulton, part of
the newly acquired property will be used for non-structural flood control:
existing levees will be breached and the river channel permitted to return
to its naturally meandering ways. The refuge expects to acquire an additional
518 acres by the end of February, and will eventually encompass 12,877
acres. A public meeting focusing on the future of the refuge is planned
for March 17 (see Calendar).
Contact John Fulton (209)826 3508
Bay cities are taking policy shots at Dioxin this winter, with Oakland
and San Francisco both exploring resolutions to reduce current impacts
and future environmental contamination from this carcinogen. Local regulators
and watchdogs have found dioxin - a byproduct of burning plastics, refining
oil, bleaching paper and driving diesel cars and trucks that persists
in the ecosystem for decades - in Bay fish, waters and air. Dioxin plays
a role in numerous health problems, according to U.S. EPA. The two cities
final and draft resolutions (Oakland's resolution passed on February 3
and San Francisco's is scheduled for a vote on March 11) vow to establish
a regional task force to tackle the problem, as well as new policies on
dioxin, public health and the environment.
Contact: (510)238-3266
Experts breached the Tolay Creek dike on December 1, letting the tides
in through three miles of newly-dredged creek and into a 50-acre former
farm field and future wetland. This is just one step in a 435-acre Sonoma
County floodplain restoration and enhancement project undertaken by Ducks
Unlimited, U.S. Fish & Wildlife and local agencies. Soon after the
breach, watchdogs reported waterlogging at the site. But Fish & Wildlife's
Louise Vincencio says that crews have already been sent out to combat
the drainage problem, conducting more dredging to facilitate low tide
outflows from a large lagoon within the floodplain. At press time, bad
weather was still preventing crews from finishing the job. Similar observations
about drainage problems at Sonoma Baylands, a nearby 300-acre restoration
project built in 1995, led to stepped up monitoring of the evolution of
the tidal channel feeding part of the site. Two years of monitoring showed
desired channel erosion occurring on all but a 20-foot section, where
time eventually exposed a plug of buried construction debris impeding
the tides. The debris - including branches, pieces of metal, and a sizable
amount of chain link fence - was recently removed by the California Conservation
Corps. "All these problems aren't serious, they just show that we
have to keep going back to tweak things," says environmentalist Marc
Holmes. "Each project gives us valuable new information about what
size the tidal channel has to be in relation to the area restored."
Contact: (707)562-3000
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