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Bulletin Board
THE WATER BOND approved by voters this March is the largest in the state's history and will give $250 million to Bay-Delta improvement projects. Funding provided by Proposition 13 - the Safe Drinking Water, Clean Water, Watershed Protection and Flood Protection Bond Act - will include, among other things, $17 million to tackle in-Delta agricultural drainage problems; $120 million to improve water project fish screens and facilities; and $17 million to curb abandoned mine drainage. Statewide, lots more dough will be doled out for flood control, water conservation, habitat protection, pollution prevention, watershed protection and sewage treatment.
THE WATER BOND approved by voters this March is the largest in the state's history and will give $250 million to Bay-Delta improvement projects. Funding provided by Proposition 13 - the Safe Drinking Water, Clean Water, Watershed Protection and Flood Protection Bond Act - will include, among other things, $17 million to tackle in-Delta agricultural drainage problems; $120 million to improve water project fish screens and facilities; and $17 million to curb abandoned mine drainage. Statewide, lots more dough will be doled out for flood control, water conservation, habitat protection, pollution prevention, watershed protection and sewage treatment.
CLOSING THE DELTA CROSS-CHANNEL HALF the time may protect both fish and water quality, according to modeling analyses done by the Bay-Delta Modeling Forum. How these results can be included in next fall's operational plans will be considered by a new Interagency Ecological Program work team. Opening the channel - which connects the Sacramento and Mokelumne Rivers - has long been thought good for water quality but bad for salmon. When it's open, high-quality freshwater from the Sacramento River can flow down into the Delta toward the export pumps, but can lure migrating salmon into the wrong waterways. When it's closed to prevent salmon from straying, too much salty water from the western Delta gets into the water supply. Last fall, channel managers had the bright idea of only opening the channel half the time, when the rising tide imports the most salt water. Follow-up modeling then implied that such tidally-timed closures would protect water quality as much as opening it full-time.
ORGANIZERS OF A CALFED SCIENCE CONFERENCE to be held October 3-5 in Sacramento invite scientists and engineers working on CALFED-related issues to submit abstracts of oral and poster presentations. CALFED is the state and federal partnership developing a comprehensive solution for improving the Bay-Delta ecosystem. The conference will focus on themes including Delta hydraulics, organic carbon and lower trophic level processes, fluvial processes, invasive species, effects of contaminants and other chemical stressors, salmonids, species of special concern, tidal wetland processes, diversion effects and environmental water banking, fish facilities and fish screening, drinking water quality and levee system integrity. The deadline for abstracts is June 23, 2000. http://www.iep.water.ca.gov/calfed/sciconf
TIDYING UP A 1999 BALLAST WATER BILL is the purpose of a second bill proposed by Assemblyman Ted Lempert. AB2380 is designed to help the state's Board of Equalization implement the 1999 bill (AB703), which went into effect this January. "We didn't give them enough administrative authority to do their job," says Lempert staffer Linda Barr, explaining that while the Board could collect the required ballast water discharge fees from outside EEC (European Economic Community) shippers, they could not give refunds or process credits. AB2380 is likely to reach the Assembly floor in late April. Contact: Linda Barr (916)319-2021
TACKLING DELTA WATER QUALITY PROBLEMS is the job of the fledgling Veale and Byron Tract Working Group, which is gathering momentum in its examination of ways to reduce problems caused by ag and stormwater drainage from the two tracts and the Knightsen area. The group is a diverse coalition that includes the Contra Costa Water District, Contra Costa County Flood Control District, CALFED, local reclamation districts, farmers, landowners, residents, and state and federal agencies. The group is now looking into sources of elevated salinity and other contaminants and will recommend immediate and long-term solutions for reducing pesticides and nutrients discharged into the Delta, particularly near the Contra Costa Water District's intakes near Rock Slough and Old River. Solutions discussed so far, include relocating discharge outfalls and pumps, creating wetlands to treat discharges, and changing the timing of discharges. Contact: Judy Heath (916) 653-2994
A MOCK OIL SPILL to be simulated at the Bay Model in Sausalito will kick off a legislative hearing on May 5 concerning California's preparedness for any real such disaster. This joint hearing - of the state Assembly Natural Resources Committee and the Select Committee on the Protection of Inland Waterways - will examine the Office of Oil Spill Prevention and Response's proposed "unannounced drill" regulations. The regulations govern what kind of drills oil spill response contractors have to go through to be approved for work in California. Enviros have two criticisms of the proposed regs, according to the Center for Marine Conservation's Doug Obegi. "Contractors don't have to prove they can keep oil from getting into the marshes and estuaries, or clean it up, as the rules only test open water response capabilities," he says. The Center's also worried about the increasing tendency of contractors to subcontract the equipment and trained staff they need to respond to a drill. "Should the public trust a fire department that has to rent a fire truck and hire a fireman for every 911 response?" says the Center's Warner Chabot.
The planned May 5 dry run follows on a similar March 15 spill at the Bay Model - a warehouse full of concrete in the shape and relief of the Bay - which simulated a 120,000 barrel, worst case spill in the Carquinez Strait. "No matter when the drill or mock spill, the result is always the same, " sums up Obegi. "Prevention is always more effective than containment and clean up."
Contact: Doug Obegi (415)391-6204 or Linda Barr (hearing) (916)319-2021
BIRTH ANNOUNCEMENT - The San Joaquin Valley has a new organization working
to achieve regional cooperation on water issues. As of April 1, the San
Joaquin Valley Water Coalition, incubated by the Great Valley Center,
became a fully independent nonprofit. The coalition was formed in 1999
to bring together the agricultural, environmental, and business communities
to develop a coordinated response to water and land use policies affecting
the Valley, and ensure that the region's interests are fully represented
in the CALFED process and other state water policy decisions.
Contact Jim Duarte (209) 531-0351
FILLING A HALF ACRE OF WETLANDS or more will soon require an individual permit on the part of developers, according to new rules to be announced by the Army Corps this June. The new rules, spurred by an environmental lawsuit, end developers' use of a streamlined "nationwide permit" process for most construction projects affecting small acreages of wetlands (New York Times, 3/4/00).
FISH FRIENDLY FARMING certification for Sonoma vineyards is now being extended to fruit growers. The certification program - originally developed for Russian River area wineries - has a list of beneficial management practices ranging from erosion control to creek restoration that farmers must use to get a "green" label for their wine (Headwaters, Winter 2000).
MOLECULAR DETECTIVE WORK recently identified the reason for the sudden death of over 400 California sea lions in May 1998 - countless others suffered severe brain disorders. The culprit turned out to be not a deadly disease but a powerful nerve poison produced by sudden bloom of algae, and possibly associated with the warm waters of El Nino (SF Chronicle).
SPRAYING THE WATER HYACINTH clogging Delta waterways was temporarily halted this March when DeltaKeeper sued the state Department of Boating and Waterways, saying they needed a permit and a hearing to continue their 16-year-old war against this South American plant. DeltaKeeper did not demand that they stop spraying but wants to see them revisit the information the state used to choose chemical over mechanical and other controls. The state has since applied for a permit from the local regional water quality control board (SF Chronicle, 1/6/00).
A HIGH SPEED OIL SPILL BAND-AID BOATis nearing completion that can patch a rent in a leaky tanker up to nine square feet in size. This "Magna Patch" technology employs a boom crane and water jets guided by sonar and cameras to place a magnetic neoprene patch on the side of the tanker. Promoters say 60%of all leaks are smaller than two square feet, (Marine Digest, 3/00).
ESTUARY ARRIVED IN THE BIG LEAGUES this spring when it was chosen as a finalist in the Western Publication Association's "Maggie Awards." Other finalists in the social and political publications category included two long-established, full-blown color magazines: Sierra and Mother Jones (which later won the prize). ESTUARY is tickled pink to have been placed in such illustrious company! Thank you to all our writers, subscribers, printers and supporters, especially the US Environmental Protection Agency and the US Fish and Wildlife Service.
CORRECTION This newsletter's February 2000 article on the STRAW project failed to mention one of its key participants: the Marin County Storm Water Pollution Prevention Program.
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