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ENVIROCLIP - BIG BOX OR BIRDS?

Beyond the familiar economic concerns about where to site "big box" stores, local opposition to a proposed new 168,000-square-foot Wal- Mart supercenter in Vallejo invokes environmental issues. Vallejoans for Responsible Growth, chaired by Vicki Gray, claims the store planned for the banks of White Slough would adversely affect wildlife, including special-status species.

Myrna Hayes, co-founder of Vallejo's popular Flyway Festival, a celebration of birds and birding, describes the slough as "critical resting and feeding habitat" for shorebirds, ducks, and geese. White Slough is part of the Napa-Solano Marshes Important Bird Area. It's known as a hot spot for rare birds. And PRBO Conservation Science biologist Leonard Liu says he has detected endangered California clapper rails and threatened California black rails on the slough not far from the Wal-Mart site.

A central concern is the danger of polluted stormwater runoff from the supercenter entering the slough, carrying chemicals from bags of fertilizers, pesticides, and herbicides stored outside. Valleojans for Responsible Growth says Wal-Mart has been cited by the U.S. EPA for violations of the Clean Water Act in nine states; other lawsuits have involved illegal discharges during construction.

Gray's group also says the Wal-Mart project violates the White Slough Specific Area Plan, which envisaged 523 acres of protected wetland bordered by site-appropriate development guided by habitat enhancement and open space preservation. A 1995 agreement among the city of Vallejo, Solano County, BCDC, and the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers restricts development to residential and small-scale commercial mixed use, limiting any slough-side buildings to less than a third of the proposed Wal-Mart footprint. The Vallejo City Council is closely divided on the issue.

Stopping Wal-Mart, Hayes says, could be the key to a cleaner, greener future for Vallejo: a "chance to shed its industrial-town image and jump with both feet into the multi-billion dollar birdwatching business." CONTACT: Vallejoans for Responsible Growth (707)980-8678; www.vfrg.org. JE

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