A daily compilation of significant news articles and comment
November 5, 2007
3. Watersheds
New River gets chance for renewal - Imperial Valley Press
WILDFIRE EFFECTS:
Long-planned river park is dealt a major setback -
BEAVER DAMS REMOVED:
Water flowing again in Big Chico Creek - Chico Enterprise Record
$2 billion could buy 13 feet of clarity at Lake Tahoe -
By Victor Morales, staff writer
The liquid is dark green and peppered with solids.
Its stench is so strong that even in the open vastness of the
Up until late 2006, 15 million gallons worth of this fluid waste was being discharged daily into the New River that snakes north past the border and comes within a mile of homes in Calexico and Brawley prior to being dumped into the Salton Sea, according to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency.
In the west side of Calexico, more than 300 homes are located within a quarter-mile of the river.
Historically, the river’s stench has been the biggest complaint of residents there and many blame the river for ailments and cancer.
Undocumented immigrants submerging themselves in the open cesspool of fecal coliform to avoid detection are feared to be contaminated with disease and working in
The sewage dumps large loads of phosphates and other substances to the
For decades the river, whose pollution is attributed to the population and industrial surges in
But with millions of dollars invested from both the
Las Arenitas
The EPA alone granted $13 million to help build the $30 million plant along with 16.7 miles worth of pressurized sewer pipe and a pumping station. The Mexican government matched the funds and secured a loan from the Japanese Bank for International Cooperation to build the project.
Both governments have publicized the plant. The EPA has stopped just short of touting it as the cure-all to the
The Mexican president even made the trip from
And the Mexican government frequently evokes the benefit of the plant to the
“It’s very important that we don’t send polluted waters to the
The plant is impressive. It process 232 gallons of raw sewage water per second that has historically fed the
Treated water processed at Las Arenitas makes a 28-mile trip southward to the Rio Hardy, a tributary of the Colorado River Delta where it is dumped.
But although there has been some improvement in the water, the plant has not gotten off to a problem-free start.
Improvements and glitches bound
Since it became operational in late 2006, Las Arenitas has substantially reduced fecal coliform concentration by 90 percent in water tested at Calexico by the Colorado River Basin Regional Water Quality Control Board, the agency charged with monitoring its water quality since 1975.
“In general, I think
In June 2005, before Las Arenitas became operational, bacterial levels recorded around 1 million per 100 milliliters of water, or MPN/100 ml. The most recent analysis indicates the level is down to about 100,000 MPN/100ml, still exceeding the
The EPA is patient, needing to be diplomatic with its counterpart agencies abroad. It is pragmatic about the complexity of policing a foreign river in a dense area.
“Our expectations are that they will eventually meet the
The EPA does not know the origin of the bacterium showing up in recent water samples collected in Calexico.
A return to the old practice of dumping untreated sewage into the
But no one knows for sure.
The EPA intends to find out when it meets with a team of the International Boundaries and Water Commission, a bi-national agency that oversees water conflicts on the border.
“We expected bypasses. I’m not at this point worried about it, but we don’t want to see this continuing,” Liden said.
There are other signs the wastewater system has not been perfected. A private company has yet to transfer full operational responsibility to CESPM.
The EPA appears to have a not-so-fluid relationship with CESPM and other counterpart agencies in addition to struggling to be informed of operational shifts in the plant that could impact water quality in the
“We have stressed to them how critical it is to tell us. People in the
http://www.ivpressonline.com/articles/2007/11/04/top_weekend_stories/sunnews01.txt
WILDFIRE EFFECTS:
Long-planned river park is dealt a major setback
By Elizabeth Fitzsimons, staff writer
It was a Northern Harrier hawk, perched on a rock. In a flash, it was up, wings outstretched, carving fat circles over the denuded land below.
There still must be something for it to eat.
Hard to believe. Much of the San Dieguito River Park, from
The fire consumed 62 percent of the 80,000-acre open-space park, where one day paths will be linked to form the 55-mile Coast-to-Crest Trail from the ocean to
The park has been in the making since 1989, when a joint powers authority was formed by the county and five cities. Over the years, the agency has acquired land for the park, cobbling it together piece by piece.
The fire was a major setback.
It destroyed the 1880s Sikes Adobe Farmhouse in south
The house was one of three in the canyon to burn. Two homes survived, one with a swimming pool where 20 people, unable to flee, huddled together as the fire roared around them.
“It started at the head of the river park and it just came right down through the river park,” said Dick Bobertz, the park's executive director.
Much of the park is closed, and rangers and volunteers are assessing the damage, taking note of burned bridges, dead animals, and places where the trails have been obscured by ashy dirt.
“This burn area is so big it's all just really terrible at this point,” said Leslie Woollenweber, resources specialist with the San Dieguito River Valley Conservancy.
The park is most concerned with erosion and weed control, and with keeping people out of sensitive habitat. Impenetrable brush that once kept hikers, bikers and equestrians on the trail, now is gone. There are wide-open spaces that, for some, are awfully inviting.
“It looks like there's nothing there,” Woollenweber said.
“But that kind of disturbance will bring more weeds in if there's trampling and driving in those areas. The more disturbance there is, the more erosion is going to take place.”
Park staff members are working with insurance adjusters to determine the scale of loss. “We have no records whatsoever,” Bobertz said. “Since 1989, every paper record we had is gone.”
Even the fire-proof safe, and its contents, burned.
Officials intend to reopen the park within a year, and to restore the Sikes Adobe, though to what extent has not been decided.
Park staff will work out of a temporary office, and once settled in, will put out a call for help – for volunteers and donations, Bobertz said.
Despite the fire, the park still is moving ahead with planned projects. A pedestrian and bicycle bridge over
West of Lake Hodges Dam in Del Dios Gorge, a new 180-foot footbridge across the river still stands, untouched by the fire that ravaged the hillsides through the canyon.
Last week, the park's resources and trails manager, Jason Lopez, ventured out on the Piedras Pintadas trail off
“The idea is to balance recreation with recovery,” Lopez said, looking out at the stripped hillsides.
He worries about the hillsides being torn up by unleashed dogs or by mountain bikers who leave tracks that would deepen when the rains come.
He stopped. “Hear that?”
Silence, and then a couple of high-pitched squeaks, like a baby cat's meow.
“It's a gnatcatcher,” Lopez said. Nearby, two small gray birds balanced on a singed bush. The gnatcatcher is a threatened species, and its fondness for
“To see them this clearly is pretty rare,” Lopez said.
But, then, there isn't much place to hide anymore. Where there had been waist-high brush, there were only black stumps a few inches high.
“They live, they nest, they look for food in this habitat,” Lopez said.
Rangers have found few dead animals, but their assessment has just begun.
Last week, volunteers Tom Bussey and Steve Scarano stopped to flag a damaged bridge that had been built by Eagle Scouts. They had seen only a couple of rabbit carcasses. Live rabbits, too. A few hundred yards away, a roadrunner paused, and in the Green Valley Creek inlet of
It will be weeks, and perhaps months, before the fire's full impact will be clear. A scarcity of plants and seeds may cause the small animals that survived the fire to starve. In turn, the creatures that eat the small animals may leave the area in search of food.
So that Northern Harrier hawk that was on the hunt might not stay long in the river park. #
http://www.signonsandiego.com/uniontrib/20071104/news_7m4park.html
BEAVER DAMS REMOVED:
Water flowing again in Big Chico Creek
By Jenn Klein, staff writer
Water is back in Big Chico Creek, but the number of fish dead after it was dried out Thursday by the work of beavers remains unknown.
Water began flowing back down Big Chico Creek late Friday morning after officials breached three beaver dams and one rock dam made by humans.
Interim Assistant City Manager Dennis Beardsley said Friday morning it would take some time for the water levels to get back up to their normal levels.
"There will be a surge of water that will come through because its been backed up, and then it will go back to its normal level," said Beardsley, who is in charge of the city's parks.
One beaver dam, located about 10 yards from the Five-Mile Dam, had been diverting water from Big Chico Creek into the Lindo Channel, which is normally dry at this time of year.
Workers with the city of
Beardsley said Fish and Game decided to go ahead and modify the other three dams as well to get a healthy stream flow. The dams modified in the three-hour period were from the Five-Mile down to the One-Mile.
The beavers are fine and will probably be back out Friday night trying to repair their dams, he said.
"Until we get some rains we'll continue to have to monitor this because the beavers will understandably make their dams whole again," Beardsley said.
Fish and Game's Tracy McReynolds said the department did not do an assessment of the number of fish killed.
"It was a pretty good kill except for a few areas where fish could live," Barrett said.
Barrett said Big Chico Creek is not that big of a game fish stream but the fish he saw dead included bass, suckers, trout, and a lamprey. He did not see any dead salmon.
He said the dry out was a major catastrophic event for the fish in the stream but said he noticed other animals benefiting.
"The raccoons probably had a feast," he said.
Beardsley said the act of building rock dams in the creek goes back generations as some people build them to deepen a favorite swimming hole or create places to swim in.
He said many people don't accept or understand that those dams can do damage to the fish and the creek. #
http://www.chicoer.com//ci_7359776?IADID=Search-www.chicoer.com-www.chicoer.com
$2 billion could buy 13 feet of clarity at
Grass Valley
By Annie Flanzraich, staff writer
INCLINE VILLAGE - Bringing Lake Tahoe's clarity back to a midway bench mark of 75 to 80 feet in 20 years could cost anywhere from $1.8 billion to $2 billion in capital improvement expenses according to a report recently presented at a Pathway 2007 Forum.
Currently, the clarity of
Three different scenarios to increase lake clarity were presented by the Lahontan Regional Water Quality Control Board at a Pathway Forum meeting last week in
Fine sediments are particles smaller than the width of a human hair that enter the lake and reduce clarity.
Scenario A focuses on retrofitting and enhancing current lake practices to deal with atmospheric, urban and ground water sediment. At a $1.8 billion price tag for capital costs, this plan suggests a 31.7 percent reduction in particles to improve clarity by almost 11 feet to a 78.6 feet clarity level in 20 years. Taking it a step further, scenario B also includes new innovations and suggests 78.7 feet of lake clarity for $1.5 billion.
The most rigorous possibility is scenario C which exceeds the 20-year bench mark with 81.5 feet of clarity at $2 billion.
The purpose of creating the scenarios was not to create a requirement, but rather to start a conversation about methods to improve lake clarity, said Robert Larsen, an environmental scientist with the Lahontan water board.
"We're going to keep working on this information," Larsen said. #
http://www.theunion.com/article/20071102/NEWS/111020156
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