Department of Water Resources
A daily compilation of significant news articles and comment
March 23, 2007
4. Water Quality
Meeting to look at plan to help troubled lake
The Desert Sun
Report fails to find E. coli link
E. coli that tainted spinach traced to
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Meeting to look at plan to help troubled lake
The Desert Sun – 3/23/07
By Jake Henshaw
State Resources Secretary Mike Chrisman said Thursday he will present a ''draft proposed alternative'' to the advisory board that met for more than two years to decide how to counter the salinity and air quality problems of the state's largest lake.
''The meeting next week will be a presentation of our best idea ... of what we think our composite alternative will be,'' he said.
The 32-member Salton Sea Advisory Committee, comprised of federal, state and local officials and experts, has been reviewing what became eight alternative plans, including those from the Salton Sea Authority and a group of
While the La Quinta-based Salton Sea Authority's multi-billion-dollar proposal might not be chosen in full, Executive Director Rick Daniels says the authority hopes the chosen plan creates a large recreation lake and wildlife in the north end, a lake and habitat in the south and keeps water in front of west shore communities.
After about two dozen revitalization efforts at the state and federal levels that have produced no results, Daniels said it is "great news" that the state and stakeholders are keeping this revitalization effort on track.
"There's a real effort to do something," Daniels said.
Chrisman said he looks forward to feedback from the advisory panel before he reviews and creates his final preferred alternative restoration plan to present to the Legislature by late April.
''The proposed alternative will be a composite of the eight alternatives that we went out to notice on for people to comment on,'' he said.
Chrisman said he's required by law formally to focus on three issues: habitat preservation, air quality and water quality, but not economic development.
''It doesn't mean anything the state would do would preclude recreation or economic development,'' Chrisman said. ''And we are trying to identify a restoration plan that would allow for those things but it can't be a project purpose.''
The Salton Sea Authority has also focused on financial benefit of the lake - a popular recreational spot in the 1960s that has since been all but abandoned by tourists because of periodic fish kills, odors and dust.#
http://www.desertsunonline.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20070323/NEWS0701/703230355/1006/news01
Report fails to find E. coli link
After a six month study, health investigators say they don't have a definitive cause to explain how spinach that sickened 200 and killed at least three last fall was contaminated with E. coli.
The report by the state Department of Health Services and the U.S. Food and Drug Administration was released this morning.
The outbreak of E. coli sickened more than 200 and killed at least three last fall.#
http://www.montereyherald.com/mld/montereyherald/16961388.htm
E. coli that tainted spinach traced to
By Garance Burke
Associated Press
Authorities for the first time said they had isolated the deadly E. coli strain from a field the small ranch leased to Mission Organics, a spinach grower.
They found E. coli "indistinguishable from the outbreak strain" in river water, cattle feces, and wild pig feces on the ranch within a mile from the spinach fields, the California Department of Health Services and U.S. Food and Drug Administration said in a joint report.
Investigators also said they could not make a "definitive determination" as to how the E. coli contaminated the spinach.
The Paicines Ranch, which breeds Angus cattle and quarter horses, said in a statement on its Web site that it leases land to crop growers and was not under investigation in the outbreak. A phone number could not immediately be located to reach the ranch for further comment.#
http://www.mercurynews.com/news/ci_5505185
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