A daily compilation of significant news articles and comment
April 27, 2007
3. Watersheds
Resources secretary considers Salton plan - Imperial Valley Press
Business, community leaders intensify effort to save the sea; They want local voice in state's version for a fix - Desert Sun
LAKE DAVIS PIKE:
Pike poison plan includes carcinogens; Portola resident says putting chemicals in reservoir is 'insane.' - Sacramento
WATER RIGHTS DISPUTE:
Reid's bill could resolve water rights dispute - Reno Gazette Journal
INVASIVE SPECIES:
Threats to Tahoe: Invasive mussels, milfoil under the microscope - Tahoe Daily Tribune
Resources secretary considers Salton plan
By Jonathan Athens, staff writer
SALTON SEA —
California Resources Agency Secretary Mike Chrisman was slated on Monday or as early as today to unveil the final proposed plan to restore the Salton Sea, but he’s delayed doing so for up to 10 days, Salton Sea Authority Executive Director Rick Daniels said.
At issue is a 75-year plan to reverse ecological damage to the Salton Sea and restore it to its 1950s heyday of being
And the stakeholders here are playing hardball politics. The county and the Salton Sea Authority are sending this message to Chrisman — give us what we want or we’ll take our cause to state lawmakers.
In an April 13 letter to Chrisman, the
Daniels said he does not know why Chrisman’s office has postponed releasing a final version of the restoration plan but he speculated the delay means Chrisman is taking a longer, harder look at making changes.
“He is listening. I know that he knows that he needs local support,” Daniels said Thursday.
His comments came hours after the authority unanimously voted to accept the supervisors’ letter demanding Chrisman’s restoration plan include a 10,000-acre lake in the southern portion of the sea and a 5,000-acre wildlife habitat in the northern portion.
“We’ve gotten our message across. It’s whether he’s going to accept the changes,” Daniels said. “We need that economic and recreational development to help pay for this.”
A spokesman for Chrisman’s office did not return calls placed by the Imperial Valley Press seeking comment.
Daniels said the authority plans to craft its own letter to Chrisman stating they have reached a consensus among stakeholders for these changes. He said the authority wants more of a 50-50 mix of lake and wildlife habitat to be included in the final plan.
The draft plan Chrisman is reviewing heavily favors restoration projects that will economically benefit Riverside County’s portion of the sea, calling for 34,000 acres of marine sea there and a 62,000-acre saline habitat here.
And that has been a bone of contention with Imperial County because only 30 percent of the sea is within Riverside County
Daniels said he believes Chrisman’s final plan will include a lake in the south and a wildlife habitat in the north.
He vowed to take the fight to state lawmakers if Chrisman’s plan does not include provisions to economically benefit Imperial County
http://www.ivpressonline.com/articles/2007/04/27/news/news05.txt
Business, community leaders intensify effort to save the sea; They want local voice in state's version for a fix
Desert Sun – 4/27/07
By Erica Solvig, staff writer
The push to build local support for restoring the
Nearly 100 business and community leaders gathered at the Rancho Las Palmas Country Club to discuss how they can join the effort to save the dying lake. The event was sponsored by Valley Action, a newly formed business and civic leader organization.
The invited group had been supporting the restoration plan created by the Salton Sea Authority, said Fred Bell, executive director of the local chapter of the Building Industry Association of Southern California.
And as the state prepares to release its own version of how the sea should be fixed, local business leaders want to make sure elements of the Authority's plan are included,
California Secretary of Resources Mike Chrisman plans to release his plan in early May. Expected to cost about $6 billion, the plan shrinks the sea and creates a wildlife habitat that will attract birds and fish.
Officials on Thursday said they think there's still time to negotiate some of the local ideas into the plan.
"We're all willing to work toward the goals,"
Earlier Thursday, during an Authority meeting in La Quinta,
With the project nearing the next phase - convincing lawmakers from across the state to invest in the sea's restoration - the Authority on Thursday approved spending a combined $30,000 a month to hire a lobbyist and a professional public affairs firm. 
"We can't let up on the pedal now," Riverside County Supervisor Marion Ashley said. #
http://www.desertsunonline.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20070427/NEWS0701/704270375/1006/news01
LAKE DAVIS PIKE:
Pike poison plan includes carcinogens; Portola resident says putting chemicals in reservoir is 'insane.'
Sacramento
By Jane Braxton Little, staff writer
PORTOLA -- A plan to poison northern pike in
Naphthalene and three different benzene compounds, all hydrocarbons identified as causing cancer, are among the components of the liquid rotenone formulation the California Department of Fish and Game plans to pump into the
A Wednesday night workshop to discuss the environmental effects of the chemical treatment, scheduled for September, drew strong criticism from local residents who objected to putting carcinogenic chemicals into the reservoir, a backup source of drinking water for Portola and a neighboring community.
"I don't want to see any hydrocarbons in drinking water," said Dr. Chris Stanton, a Portola general practitioner.
Fish and Game officials are not happy about putting chemicals in drinking water, said Ed Pert, Fish and Game pike project manager.
"However, we have a serious problem with pike, and unfortunately, it's in your backyard," he said.
In January, California Department of Fish and Game Director Ryan Broddrick announced plans to lower the Plumas County reservoir to about 45,000 acre-feet and apply liquid rotenone to kill all its fish, including pike, a Midwestern native species.
Pert, who said then the $12 million project would use no naphthalene, has since corrected himself. "I was wrong," he said Wednesday.
But he assured the crowd of about 50 people that the department is taking extraordinary steps to protect human and environmental health. In addition to pre-testing the chemicals before applying them, they have established a comprehensive plan to monitor the reservoir, nearby wells and groundwater before and after the project, Pert said.
"We won't go forward unless it's safe," Pert said.
Pike have been proliferating in
They feared the voracious predator would escape downstream into the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta, where they would pose a threat to native fisheries.
Once in the Delta, pike could impact the state's ability to move water from
To eliminate these threats, in 1997 Lake Davis became the first California drinking water supply to be poisoned to kill fish. The chemical treatment cost the state about $20 million but failed to eradicate the pike. Chemicals leaked below the dam into Grizzly Creek and killed trout and other aquatic species. Other chemicals lingered in the lake for nine months, making it unavailable as drinking water.
Fish and Game drilled wells for customers in Portola and Grizzly Lake Resort Improvement District, although water from them has detectable levels of arsenic.
The failures of the 1997 project have driven state officials to take extra precautions with the second eradication project. But that has not thwarted opposition to again introducing chemicals to
"Poisons in drinking water -- this is all rather insane," said Dan Wilson, a fifth-grade teacher in Portola.
The liquid formulation being manufactured specifically for the
The concentrations planned are one-hundredth of the amount used in 1997, he said.
Dave Spath, who is overseeing the project for Department of Health Services, said concentrations that low are barely detectable.
Officials will not declare the water safe until three consecutive samples contain no detectable levels of poison, he said.
State health standards for
But that did not convince Portola resident Larry Douglas: "Acceptable risk is fine as long as you are not the person poisoned."
A Fish and Game workshop on May 22 will focus on the economic impacts of the project. #
http://www.sacbee.com/101/story/162129.html
WATER RIGHTS DISPUTE:
Reid's bill could resolve water rights dispute
By Diana Marrero, staff writer
In testimony Thursday before the Senate Indian Affairs Committee, U.S. Sen. Harry Reid said the bill he is sponsoring would resolve one of the last tribal water rights disputes in his home state of
Reid, whose bill would likely be fast-tracked because of his position as Senate Majority Leader, said the Shoshone Paiute Tribes of the
"This tribe really deserves this," Reid said.
Nearly all the parties involved -- the Shoshone Paiute Tribes of the
W. Patrick Ragsdale, the director of the Bureau of Indian Affairs, said the agency is willing to work on a settlement agreement but did not agree with certain details in the bill.
"It's a curious way to deal with the issue given the history," said committee chairman U.S. Sen. Byron Dorgan, D-N.D., who noted that the federal government was responsible for creating the tribe's water woes. "I am very disappointed."
The river's salmon and steelhead trout, which once helped support the tribe's fishing economy, are long gone. The tribe, whose economy now primarily relies on agriculture, says a settlement could double its agriculture production. The tribe grows alfalfa and hay, which they use to help feed livestock and horses.
"Passage of this bill would bring closure to this sad history," said Kyle Prior, the tribe's chairman. #
http://news.rgj.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20070427/NEWS07/704270510/1321/NEWS
INVASIVE SPECIES:
Threats to Tahoe: Invasive mussels, milfoil under the microscope
Tahoe Daily Tribune – 4/27/07
The threat aquatic invasive species pose to the environmental health of
"The workshop will serve to provide input on strategies to the Aquatic Invasive Species Working Group and basin agencies as they finalize a management plan for species already in the lake as well as others that are a threat," according to a TRPA press statement.
Thursday's meeting will include interagency discussion on the spread of Eurasian Milfoil and the hazards associated with a possible introduction of New Zealand mud snails to Lake Tahoe among others, but quagga mussels are sure to receive a great deal of attention.
These fingernail-sized, striped mollusks were found in
Quagga mussels are close relatives of the zebra mussel, a species that can latch on to just about any solid surface and quickly reproduce.
Zebra mussels have caused billions of dollars in damage to industrial, agricultural, and municipal water supplies, according to U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service statistics, while littering the beaches of the
Scientists don't draw many distinctions between zebra and quagga mussels, according to Jenny Francis, Backyard Conservation Resource Planner for Tahoe Resource Conservation District, coordinator of Thursday's event.
Although Francis said boating is the most likely way for invasive mussels to spread from one waterway to the next, there are also hidden links between apparently unconnected bodes of water. She used the example of the recent stocking of
Mead to Topaz to Tahoe are short steps for a mussel that readily takes advantage of man's modern mobility, according to Francis
"I think it's a huge threat. If it has just jumped all the way across the country, it would be easy for it to just jump up here." said Francis. "May 3rd is really a good opportunity for the public to give us some initial feedback on what is feasible," said Francis.
While the spread of zebra mussels represents one of the most dramatic examples of the potential damage invasive species can cause, the non-natives already in Lake Tahoe may be contributing to declines in water clarity, according to Sudeep Chandra, A limnologist at the
He said that milfoil and largemouth bass may be acting as phosphorus pumps, encouraging increased algae growth in the lake. Algae growth has been a major contributor to declines in water clarity witnessed in past decades.
"Do we want to have a
A public boat inspection will follow Thursday's meeting on May 15. More information can be obtained by calling Jenny Francis at (530) 543-1501, extension 109. #
http://td.us.publicus.com/article/20070427/NEWS/104270087
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