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Bulletin Board

INTERSEX MICE DISCOVERED AT KESTERSON yield further evidence that the presence of toxics in the environment can screw around with the wildlife, according to a June 17 article in the Sacramento Bee. Monitoring conducted by CH2M Hill found that 29 of 87 mice and voles at the former Kesterson National Wildlife Refuge - once a collection point for selenium and pesticide-laced agricultural drainage from the San Joaquin Valley - had both male and female sex organs. Researchers will now try to home in on the culprit - possibly the locally high levels of selenium, possibly something else - as well as to determine if this is a Kesterson-unique phenomena. Gruesome deformities and deaths in waterfowl eggs and embryos linked to selenium led to the closure of Kesterson back in 1986.

DREDGED MATERIAL DUMPING IN THE BAY will decrease by 75% over the next 50 years under a regional dredging and disposal strategy signed by five government agencies on July 16. This record of decision is the product of ten years of collaborative effort on the part of regional government, shippers and environmentalists to break out of the mudlock of the 1980s, when concerns about the ecological impacts of the then Bay-centered-disposal program blocked efforts to expand local shipping. The new plan is to divvy up the dredge spoils in a more balanced manner, with only 20% going back into the Bay, 40% going out to an ocean disposal site, and the remainder going to wetland restoration, levee repair and landfill cover projects. Contact: (415)744.2201

WHERE DIOXINS COME FROM depends on whom you ask, according to a June 24 article in the Contra Costa Times. U.S. EPA, for example, says only 9% of this man-made carcinogenic chemical comes from cars, trucks, buses and other mobile sources, as well as wood burning stoves, whereas the local air district puts the figure at 66% and the regional water quality board at 84%. Similar disparities appear in estimates of industry's share. Scientists say it's time to stop the finger-pointing and focus instead on which sources are the most controllable.

A BAY AREA MASTER PLAN FOR WATER RECYCLING released this July by 13 local and regional agencies suggests that cost-effective use of recycled water could reach 125,000 acre feet by the year 2010 and grow to up to 500,000 acre feet by 2040. Planners zeroed in on the least costly means of connecting potential users of recycled water with the treatment plants that produce the supply, with a goal of offsetting water shortages projected for dry years. The Master Plan also identifies 18 potential wetland sites and 13 streams where recycled water could be used to swell the quantity, and sweeten the quality, of the water. Contact: www.rmcengr.com

AN ORDINANCE REQUIRING MID-OCEAN BALLAST WATER EXCHANGE for vessels calling at the Port of Oakland was passed by the Board of Port Commissioners this June and went into effect August 1. The ordinance aims to protect the Bay from further invasions of non-native marine life via ballast water from foreign ports. Contact: (510)272.1179

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