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Inside the Agencies
CLUB FED TANGOs OUT OF COURT
Two newly settled lawsuits brought by environmental groups against federal agencies promise major changes in who gets how much of California's scarce fresh water and what they pay for it.
In the first suit, EPA agreed to propose water quality standards by December 15 to protect the Delta environment. A decade of state and federal efforts - stalled by ongoing battles between thirsty farms, cities, wetlands and fish - has not yet produced these long-awaited standards. Since Governor Wilson shelved interim state standards this spring, citing federal endangered species actions as his reason, EPA has been at the wheel. But the governor's plea for coordinated federal action has been heard. This September, EPA, BurRec, U.S. Fish & Wildlife and the National Marine Fisheries Service - collectively nicknamed Club Fed - signed a coordinating agreement to make sure that what Fish & Wildlife wants for Delta smelt doesn't conflict with what NMFS wants for salmon, what EPA wants for water quality and what BurRec needs to operate the Central Valley Project.
Perhaps more momentous is a September 17 lawsuit settlement under which the Department of Interior will rewrite rules and more strictly enforce a 960-acre cap on the size of farms eligible for taxpayer-subsidized water. This could more than double the cost of water to larger corporate farms and make it harder for them to slip through loopholes in farm size limit rules. Contact: Patrick Wright, EPA (415)744-1993
WILDLIFE AGENCY SEEKS RESOURCE RESULTS
S.F. State scientists will be delving into California clapper rail genetics this fall with a grant from the U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service's San Francisco Bay/Estuary Program. By examining the genetic relationships among Bay Area populations of this endangered bird, and thus the gene flow between fragmented habitats, the study will provide much needed preliminary data on rail movement from one patch of wetland habitat to another and what the bird's future habitat needs might be.
Fish & Wildlife's Rick Morat says this is just what he needs to make better management decisions about where to restore habitat for both rails and other estuarine species. In fact, Morat is now looking for other projects that promise "immediate resource results" and address his program's current top priorities: to ensure adequate freshwater flows, restore wetlands and reduce contaminants in the Estuary. With the Estuary Project's CCMP awaiting implementation, Morat wishes he had more money. "Since we only have $200,000 to spend, we want our dollars to go to the best possible demonstration projects," he says (proposals welcome). Contact: Rick Morat (916)978- 4618
OPENING A WETLAND SAVINGS ACCOUNT
In Farnum Alston's dream of the future, developers and scientists would team up to create wildlife refuges and give them away to government agencies.
Alston's dream revolves around mitigation banking, a practice endorsed in wetland policy statements this summer by both Bill Clinton and Pete Wilson.
In concept, a mitigation bank allows development of sensitive land in one place in exchange for an equal deposit of land into a refuge-bank. California's first mitigation bank that can take outside deposits is about to be opened by a company that Alston heads, say Cal Fish & Game officials. At this 96-acre site called Springtown near Livermore, scientists would use developer dollars to create a full-service wetland refuge.
Past mitigation banks operated by counties and public entities have been limited in scope and scale, and often tailored to a local purpose such as a specific type of wetland or endangered species so as to avoid a regulatory and technical mountain of requirements. The result has been a mixture of solutions around the state that can create as many problems for wildlife as developers, says Hal Thomas of Cal Fish & Game.
"Land use planning is fragmented right now," says Thomas, "but an ecosystem doesn't recognize political boundaries."
Private banks like Springtown may be better equipped than public banks to help Fish & Game implement the kind of regional ecosystem planning mapped out in its 1991 Natural Communities Conservation Planning program, says Thomas. Current public mitigation banks in Humboldt County, Placer County and other areas have become snagged in new layers of bureaucracy and the confusing regulatory environment. But a private bank like Springtown would remain outside the bureacratic fray and simply offer a sound technical solution to developers who can get state and federal permission to use it to meet their mitigation requirements, says Alston.
The cost at Springtown varies between $45,00-$70,000 per acre, according to Alston, who hopes his refuge-bank, now limited to a small geographical area, can be franchised later.
"I think each county should have one of these," he says.
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