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Inside the Agencies
The State Board has "more recommendations than resources" after the eight public advisory task forces charged with developing recommendations for the state's Inland Surface Waters Plan and Enclosed Bays and Estuaries Plan completed their reports last October. The recommendations were intended to assist the State Board in drafting new water quality control plans after a 1994 Superior Court judgment forced it to rescind the 1991 plans, leaving California out of compliance with the federal Clean Water Act. According to the Board's Gail Linck, most of the task forces "came a long way towards consensus" on such thorny issues as chemical- and site-specific water quality objectives, toxicity, agricultural waters, permitting and compliance and economic considerations. But Board staff are left with the "time-consuming" task of evaluating the numerous recommendations and then developing alternatives and assessing attainability and economic impacts for each, says Linck. A staff workshop planned for late March will give task force members and the public a chance to comment on which recommendations should receive priority implementation. (916)657-2188
The governor's proposed 1996-1997 budget contains a reduction of at least 36 "Environmental Specialist" (ES) positions from the State Board's water quality program - a program whose scientific staff do environmental and water quality monitoring and manage Musselwatch and toxics assessment efforts. Board upper management say the cuts reflect the fact that funding ("Old Bond" money) for the program and these particular positions has dried up. Exactly how many real people in seats (as opposed to vacant positions) may get cut or reassigned, or whether the ES designation is just a placeholder for less scientist-specific cuts, isn't all that clear due to the complexities of bureaucratic budgets. "If these cuts are real people then we'll see a wholesale reduction in the Board's scientific expertise," says Stefan Lorenzato, site union rep for scientists at the Board. (916)657-1247
The S.F. Bay Commission (BCDC) will work "better, faster and smoother" now that it's implemented a host of guidelines aimed at improving its operational, planning and permitting functions says BCDC's Will Travis. The guidelines were jointly proposed in a recent letter to Secretary of Resources Doug Wheeler by the Bay Planning Coalition and Save the Bay, which joined forces to support BCDC after the governor threatened it with the budget ax last year. According to Travis, the two groups worked clos0ely with BCDC staff to develop the guidelines, leading the agency to adopt most of them as part of its regulatory reform process. Improvements include: a new abbreviated regionwide permit (ARP) to speed approval of routine maintenance projects within the shoreline band, better collaboration among BCDC, Caltrans and area ports, and increased engineering expertise. (415)557-3686
The State Board and the Army Corps received an inch-thick stack of comments on the Delta Wetlands Project draft EIR/EIS and are now working on responses. The project would divert and store water on two Delta islands (Bacon Island and Webb Tract) and seasonally divert water to enhance wetlands and manage wildlife habitat on another two (Bouldin Island and Holland Tract). The State Board's Jim Sutton says that in addition, his agency is evaluating water rights "protests" and working with the Corps to negotiate endangered species issues raised by the project. He says fish and wildlife agencies will probably issue a biological opinion this spring. "Board management doesn't want to go into the water rights hearing for Delta Wetlands without the fisheries issues substantially resolved," he says. Contact: (916)657-2190
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