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Bulletin Board
Pesticide Lawsuit Settlement
Less runoff of dormant sprays used to control pests in Central Valley orchards is the hoped for result of a lawsuit settlement between the Sacramento Valley Toxics Campaign and state regulators this February. The settlement requires California's Department of Pesticide Regulation to more carefully monitor waterways for diazinon, chlorpyrifos and other sprays, to use its authority to reduce orchard discharges of these sprays, to determine what spray levels adversely effect aquatic organisms, and to measure the success of any new runoff reduction efforts. "We're confident that some real focused efforts to keep these chemicals on site aren't going to cause economic hardship to growers," says the Department's Paul Gosselin. Though the settlement concerns ag runoff, it begs a question as to whether a similar clamp-down should be made on other diazinon sources such as urban runoff. Gosselin says his agency is already working with sanitation districts and the S.F. Regional Board to address this question, and in the interim, encouraging industry BMPs and homeowner education about diazinon in household products. (916)445-3984
Flow Fish Monitoring
Tracking flows and fish movements in the water in order to minimize fish loss from spring pumping began on April Fools this year. This "real-time monitoring" expands a 1995 Interagency Ecological Program pilot effort, extending the monitoring period from two to three months and adding new sampling sites at Old River, False River and the Turner and Columbia Cuts. "We've tried to make a ring of sites including all the major waterways fish travel toward the pumps," says Cal Fish & Game's Chuck Armor. This year's program also has a more flexible design, he says, so sampling locations can be shifted if fish barriers are added as proposed. Armor says the real time, up-to-the-minute, data flow to pump managers will be even more important this season as endangered Delta smelt have been found much further upstream in the Estuary. (209)948-7800
Baumberg Tract Purchase
An 835-acre purchase of old salt ponds and uplands, approved this February by the Wildlife Conservation Board, will augment S.F. Bay's tidal marsh habitat by up to 10%. Hayward's Baumberg Tract was purchased from Cargill through a complex and expensive transaction that some observers fear will drive up the price of other such acquisitions. But the wildlife values of the tract, among them the largest snowy plover nesting habitat on the Central Coast, "far surpass" that of any other areas acquired, says the Audubon Society's Arthur Feinstein.
Organic Cotton Grows
California cotton farmed organically grew from 100 to 15,000 acres between 1989 and 1994, according to the Sustainable Cotton Project. Such eco-friendly cultivation practices, while they reduce chemical runoff into the Estuary, also result in cotton that costs 15-20% more than the nonorganic variety. But the price difference has halved over the past two years as practices become more efficient, banks become more supportive, and the market grows, says the Project's Will Allen. (209)862-0860
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