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Bulletin Board

HOMES FOR GOLFERS BECAME HOMES FOR THE BIRDS this February, when the California Coastal Conservancy signed a preliminary agreement to buy the 1,600-acre Bel Marin Keys property in Marin for $16 million. Environmentalists have long viewed the developer's plans to build 800 homes and an 18-hole golfing green as a disaster for local wetlands, migrating shorebirds and endangered marsh birds and mice, resulting in a war of words and lawsuits that has raged for nearly two decades. Once secured, restored and paired with adjacent marshmaking on the former Hamilton Airfield, the Bel Marin Keys property will become part of one of the largestenvironmental restoration projects on the West Coast.

A STEP FOR SMART GROWTH - Legislation that would ban new residential developments of more than 200 units unless water agencies verify in writing that there is an adequate water supply to serve them was approved by the State Assembly on January 29. Backers of the bill, sponsored by Sheila Kuehl (D-Santa Monica), hope to strengthen it in the Senate by adding language addressing drought year conditions.

A NEW BALLAST WATER EXCHANGE METHOD developed by Brazilian engineers working for a state oil company proved safer and more economical than conventional methods in 1998 trials. The method involves simultaneous loading and unloading of ship's ballast water - a contributor to exotic species invasions in estuaries worldwide - while maintaining a constant flow rate and tank level. The International Maritime Organization recently listed this Brazilian Dilution Method as a new alternative in its draft code on ballast water management.

CARGILL TO SELL OUT? - After insisting for years that its South Bay salt operations were here to stay, Cargill, Inc. has offered to sell its salt ponds to government agencies for a cool $300 million, according to several publi shed reports. If the deal goes through it would be the second-largest state-federal land acquisition in California history, and could lead to the restoration of approximately 18,000 acres of marshland. Although many environmentalists and agency officials are clearly excited about the prospect of acquiring the long-coveted ponds, they are concerned about some aspects of Cargill's proposal, principally the price and the responsibility for clean up of concentrated salts and other materials on the property.

DAM REMOVAL GRABBED THE HEADLINES of two new reports this millennium. One documents 465 dam removals across the country and 25 detailed case studies of successes resulting in restored fish habitat, improved irrigation and better public safety. The other zeroes in on potential removals in California, and explores issues to be resolved.
For a copy of Dam Removal Success Stories, call (202)347-7550; for Rivers Reborn: Removing Dams and Restoring Rivers in California, call (916)442-3155

CHLORPYRIFOS TURNED UP in the urine of 8 of 10 adults and 9 of 10 children in a recent survey by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency. This common insecticide is one of 30 organophosphates EPA is studying to determine health risks to children.

A BOTCHED RESTORATION AT TOLAY CREEK in Sonoma County has U.S. Fish & Wildlife working hard to be a better neighbor in the future. Since this major riparian and wetland creation project was implemented , more water has been seeping into the backyards and farmfields of adjacent private properties than anyone anticipated. To address such problems, the service has since built a new and less permeable core to one farmer's levee, met with the owners of 6-8 homes to resolve flooding and water quality concerns, and examined erosion issues along Highway 37, which may need to be settled with CalTrans. "This was a very narrow restoration project along a creek, so we had greater impacts along the edges than in a project involving a wide open wetland," says the service's Marge Kolar. "Next time we might think about doing this kind of project in stages, so we can see what happens each step of the way."

MONTEZUMA CORRECTION - In a December 1999 story about the Montezuma wetland restoration project, ESTUARY made the following error: the size of the rehandling facility to process dredged sediment for reuse is 165 acres, not 2,400. In addition, the "rezoning of 57,000 acres of Suisun Marsh for industrial use" that ESTUARY reported concerned environmentalists was actually, according to project managers, an amendment to the Suisun Marsh Protection Plan clarifying that restoration can occur within the marsh using approved dredged sediments and within areas reserved for water-related industry.

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