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Bulletin Board

Wetlands can convert toxic selenium into a harmless gas, according to U.C. Berkeley biologist Norman Terry. Terry - who previously discovered the selenium-fighting properties of broccoli - says the amount of selenium volatilized depends on the mix of plants in the wetland, with cattail and widgeon grass appearing especially effective. Studies are continuing, says Terry.
Contact: Norman Terry: (510)642-3510

Cattle grazing doesn't impact streams according to research released earlier this year by U.C. Berkeley's Barbara Allen-Diaz. Her ongoing study of nine springs in three oak woodland watersheds near Marysville compared three different treatments - no grazing, light grazing and moderate grazing - and found no significant differences in vegetation cover, creek channel morphology or water quality (overgrazing, of course, can have significant impacts). "We've learned that springs are very resilient systems," says Allen-Diaz. Contact: Sheila Barry (925)371-0154 ext.41

Small fills procedures keep changing. The Army Corps' controversial nationwide permit 26-which currently exempts wetland fills of up to three acres from most reporting and application requirements-will expire on September 15, 1999 under a recently proposed schedule for new and revised permits. The new proposals modify previously proposed changes to the Nationwide General Permit Program-which governs small maintenance or construction projects considered to have relatively minor impact on wetlands-and are "much more restrictive," according to the State Board's Marla Lafer. Among other changes, the proposal would exclude nationwides in designated critical resource waters or impaired water bodies. Lafer says it is not yet clear how the proposed changes will be implemented. Contact: Marla Lafer (916)657-0926

Regulators reassessed pollution levels in the Bay-Delta region this summer and made some changes to their biennial water quality assessments. The assessments -required under the Clean Water Act and updated every other year by the regional water quality boards and the U.S. EPA -contain a detailed "303(d)" list of impaired water bodies and their pollutants. In terms of major changes to their 1998 assessment, the S.F. Board added exotic species and PCBs to the list of Bay-wide pollutants, and got more detailed about metal problems in certain areas; the Central Valley Board added the pesticides diazinon and chlorpyrifos in Sacramento and Stockton urban creeks to the list and delisted rice pesticides in the Sacramento River. U.S. EPA has in turn proposed several additions to the lists, as shown in the table below. Once listed, the law requires responsible agencies to set total maximum daily loads (TMDLs) for each pollutant in each water body, which includes developing management measures to reduce them. The boards must respond to EPA's proposals this December.
For more details see: http://www.epa.gov/region09/water/tmdl/calist/list.html

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