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Bulletin Board
SWALLOW BOXING - After returning from their wintering grounds in South
America, some South Bay swallows - those swift-flying, insect-eating machines
- found new homes awaiting them in the marshland at Coyote Hills Regional
Park. The high-rise homes (nest boxes on poles) were built by naturalist
Dave Riensche (aka "Doc Quack" for his love of birds) and fifth-graders
from Graham Elementary School in Newark. The project began last year with
the installation of 15 boxes. Seventy percent of those boxes were nested
in, according to Riensche. This year, he and the students doubled the
number of boxes and will count nests later this season. The program, which
is funded by the East Bay Regional Parks District and the Alameda Countywide
Clean Water Program, teaches kids about the links between pesticide use,
impacts on wildlife, and water quality. Riensche says the students are
fascinated to learn that each swallow can consume up to 4,000 insects
a day. "They learn that what we do in our own backyards affects the
birds and the Bay," says Riensche.
Contact: (510)795-9385
ATLANTIC SALMON FARMED in the Pacific Northwest are breeding in the wild, creating problems for their endangered Pacific cousins, according to research by John Volpe at the University of Victoria (Conservation Biology, June 2000). The Atlantic salmon are cultured in marine-net pens off British Columbia and Washington State, and storms, predators and human error all cause fish releases into the Pacific. The Canadian government maintains that farmed fish are too domesticated to spawn in the wild, but DNA analysis and other research by Volpe has identified juvenile Atlantic salmon in British Columbia's Tsitika River. The Atlantic salmon could compete for food and occupy habitat needed by native salmonids. Steelhead trout may be at the greatest risk, according to Volpe. (Environmental News Network, 6/7/00)
SELENIUM SURGES-An annual regulatory review of a four-year-old regional effort on the part of Grasslands area farmers and drainers to reduce selenium inputs to local wetland water supply channels along the San Joaquin River concludes that despite dramatic overall improvements to water quality in the channels, the 2 5g/L selenium water quality objective has continued to be exceeded during various times of the year. The regional effort to curb the selenium combines both district- and farm-level activities, ranging from consolidation of agricultural drainage into a single channel (part of the old San Luis Drain) and operation of a regional drainage entity with the power to trade selenium loads among its members to on-farm water conservation and recycling. The Central Valley Regional Water Quality Control Board recently completed three reports detailing water quality impacts of the project, and is working with farmers and drainers to isolate remaining selenium sources.
SPILLS , BILLS & A LAWSUIT were the result of a Port of Oakland attempt to clear a few derelict vessels from its waterways this March. Residents of the Clinton Basin Area-also known as Shipwreck Point-watched an "ecological disaster" unfold when the port's backhoes and crew tried to drag the 65-foot, 150-ton Moby Dick up onto the beach and break it down, only to find it was filled with fuel which soon slicked the shoreline and adjacent mudflat. "The right way to do it is to lift them out of the water with a crane and onto concrete," says local artist Patty St. Louis, who has long been fighting to get her neighborhood's stretch of commercial shoreline some respect for the waterfowl it attracts. As a result of the demo no nos, BayKeeper sued the port and the S.F. Regional Water Board is issuing a notice of water quality violations and a fine.
CONTROLLING GUADALUPE FLOODS-Officials released an EIS/EIR describing
an environmentally sound flood prevention project for the Guadalupe River
in downtown San Jose for public comment this June (see calendar). The
Army Corps and the Santa Clara Water District abandoned construction of
a less sound option for containing a 100-year-flood that included widening
and reinforcing a 2.6 mile section of the river downtown in response to
a lawsuit calling for better protection of water quality and listed steelhead
and salmon. After consensus building on eight different new designs, stakeholders
and agencies settled on an option that includes construction of a bypass
channel to avoid impacts on nearly 3,500 linear feet of riparian habitat;
creation of a channel for fish passage during low flow conditions; riverbed
and riverbank armoring planted with riparian vegetation; and the removal
of barriers to fish passage.
For EIR copies, www.heynoah.com/floodmgt/grfpp
SHORTCHANGING RESTORATION? - Rebutting charges by some water users that the environment has received the lion's share of water-related funding in recent years, Environmental Defense reports that aquatic ecosystem resources received only 25% to 38% of such funding since 1992. In a report entitled Following the Money (see Now in Print), the organization tracks more than $8 billion directed at projects throughout the Bay-Delta water management system.
HARBOR SAFETY practices aimed at preventing oil spills and promoting
safe navigation in Bay waters may soon become institutional policy if
a proposed Bay Plan amendment now being considered by the S.F.Bay Conservation
and Development Commission doesn't run aground. The amendment builds on
the recommendations of the San Francisco Bay Region Harbor Safety Committee.
Contact: (415)352-3600
AUBURN TUNNEL - A tunnel that has diverted the American River's flow around the controversial Auburn Dam's construction site for the last 25 years will be closed under an agreement between the U.S. Department of the Interior and California Attorney General Bill Lockyer. Although closing the tunnel will not prevent future construction of the dam, it will restore the river's natural course, and reopen five long-closed miles to rafters and kayakers. (Sacramento Bee, 3/18/00)
B-2 COUNTDOWN - Both CVP water users and environmental groups are appealing a federal judge's March ruling upholding the Interior Department's method of accounting for water allocated to fish restoration under the 1992 Central Valley Project Improvement Act. Although environmentalists are generally pleased with the ruling, they still have some technical concerns about the way the water is counted, according to Save the Bay's Cynthia Koehler.
FISH SCREEN BILL - This April the Senate passed Senator Ron Wyden's (D-OR) bill to create a voluntary program to help pay for construction and operation of fish ladders, fish screens, and other facilities that decrease fish mortality from the operation of irrigation and other water diversion systems. As approved by the Senate, the bill would provide up to $25 million a year in federal matching grants for five years to irrigation and soil conservation districts and other local government entities in Oregon, Washington, Idaho, California and Montana.
BAY BLUEPRINT FOR DREDGING - Amendments to the region's Bay Plan and Basin Plan, which codify a recently completed long term management strategy for Bay dredging, are now being considered by the S.F. Bay Conservation and Development Commission and the S.F. Regional Water Quality Control Board respectively. At public hearings to be held this July (see calendar), attendees will learn more about this interagency/stakeholder developed strategy to reduce in-Bay disposal and maximize beneficial reuse of dredged material. Contact: (415)352-3600
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