A daily compilation of significant news articles and comment
November 14, 2007
3. Watersheds
AMERICAN RIVER PARKWAY
Residents back American River Parkway levy; A poll finds that people living near the 23-mile stretch favor annual assessments that would add up to $6 million in support - Sacramento Bee
LEGG
City seeking plan for cleanup - Pasadena Star News
INVASIVE SPECIES:
Mussel would be bad news for Clear Lake - Lake County Record Bee
AMERICAN RIVER PARKWAY
Residents back American River Parkway levy; A poll finds that people living near the 23-mile stretch favor annual assessments that would add up to $6 million in support
Sacramento
By Ed Fletcher, staff writer
Residents living near the
Depending on the funding levels, support ranged from 50.3 percent to 60.7 percent overall. If ultimately approved by property owners, the annual assessments would add between $2 million and $6 million toward parkway funding, allowing parks staff to tackle overdue maintenance and repairs, improve safety and further protect the environment.
The mostly untamed 23-mile parkway is a riparian oasis running from the confluence of the
Thousands of area residents visit the parkway to walk, bike, swim, boat, fish or just enjoy the outdoors.
Sacramento County Supervisor Susan Peters said leaders and the public have a long way to go before ballots are printed. The exact assessment amount and ballot date are undecided.
"You had to make sure everybody wanted to do it first and that is what the poll was about," Peters said.
Once leaders from the cities of Folsom, Rancho Cordova,
A joint powers authority would be created among the jurisdictions involved to distribute the funds, said John O'Farrell, a consultant for local governments.
The survey tested annual assessments of $18, $30, and $48 for property owners within a half-mile of the parkway. Those between a half-mile and three miles were questioned about paying half that amount.
As one might expect, support was highest for the lowest assessments. Sixty-one percent of respondents within the two tiers said they'd pay the $18/$9 annual assessment. Support dropped to 56 percent for the $30/$15 assessment. Just over 50 percent supported a $48/$24 assessment.
SCI Consulting Group mailed out surveys to 21,500 Folsom,
Support was slightly lower among
The largest bloc participating were single family residential owners.
A majority of homeowners living within a fifth of a mile of the parkway supported the fees, but significantly less than homeowners living between a half-mile and and three miles from the parkway – who strongly supported the assessments.
"What it really shows is people support the parkway," O'Farrell said. "They recognize the benefit of the parkway."
The additional revenue will be a major benefit to the long-under-funded parkway. "Whatever that number is," O'Farrell said, "it will go a long way to improving the service levels within the parkway."
The parkway has long been under-funded, according to a financial needs study conducted in 2000 and updated in 2006.
The study, conducted by the Dangermond Group, compared the county's parkway funding with its funding of other regional parks. It said the
It also found that the parkway doesn't have enough funding to purchase equipment, do maintenance, make capital improvements and acquire land. It found the parkway would need about $8.5 million of additional funding a year for the next 10 years to meet those needs.
With the county facing a multimillion-dollar deficit, the county parks staff had to fight to keep an unfilled park ranger's position off the chopping block this year.
Jeff Raimundo, a
"What it seems to show to me is that people really are willing to pony up to support the parkway," said Raimundo, whose
He said the results were particularly impressive given the downturn in the economy and the fact that earlier this year area property owners approved increased flood protection assessments.
He said people seem far more likely to support a parkway tax, compared with another recent tax proposal.
"This is an assessment that is intended to benefit the citizens of
"In the Kings arena election the voters felt they were being assessed to help someone else." #
http://www.sacbee.com/101/story/489955.html
LEGG
City seeking plan for cleanup
By Jennifer McLain, staff writer
SOUTH EL MONTE - The city is partially responsible for trash that is polluting
The Los Angeles Regional Water Quality Board asked
The board recommended a $540,000 solution - but
"(The board's solution) is very costly," said City Manager Anthony Ybarra. "The alternative is to put the screens on the storm drains and capture the trash."
"If you find a body of water that doesn't meet the water-quality standards, then you have to adopt a total maximum daily load," said Stephen Cain, spokesman for the water quality control board.
Couple the city's plan with an aggressive public outreach campaign, Ybarra said, and it will satisfy the water quality board's requirements.
Also partially responsible for cleanup are the city of
Carmen Barsu, associate engineer for
"Once the major contributors are going to decide what the most appropriate way to address the issue, we will respond," Barsu said.
Officials from the
Imee Perius, spokeswoman for
"The park is responsible for the trash from patrons," Perius said. "Because the lake is on our facility, we are responsible for making sure it is clean."
Perius said the department will likely submit a report to the executive office within the next six months as to the amount of trash that was collected.
South El Monte Councilman Louie Aguiñaga said the city has been working on cleanup of the lake for the past year by placing screens on some of the storm drains.
"Hopefully, within the next couple of months, we should have screens put up, and everything should be great," Aguiñaga said.
The water quality control board is recommending, however, that the city also install sophisticated and costly screens, pumps and debris traps.
According to the consultant's report, "While the (catch basin inserts) appear to be less costly for the city, it may be more difficult to prove compliance."
The board's recommendation would allow the cleanup to take place over an eight-year period. If
"We will do the inserts in our city," Ybarra said. "If there is still trash found in the
The trash limit is expected to be fully adopted by the EPA in March. But at a local level, it was adopted in June.
"It is designed to gradually reduce the trash that reaches the water bodies in the
"It's filthy,"
INVASIVE SPECIES:
Mussel would be bad news for Clear Lake
By Terry Knight, columnist
A creature that's as small as your fingernail could spell doom for
The danger of this invasive species was brought home last week during a workshop sponsored by the Lake County Fish and Wildlife Advisory Committee and the county's Department of Water Resources.
Dr. Ted Grosoltz, a biologist at the
Quagga mussels feed on phytoplankton, which is the primary food for the young bass and other game fish in
According to Grosoltz, if the mussels become established in
"There has never been a lake that has been infested with quagga mussels successfully treated to get rid of them," Grosoltz said.
Pamela Francis, Deputy Director of Lake County Water Resources Division, said the county will focus on keeping out the mussel and that means inspecting all watercraft entering the county. To accomplish this, the county would have to purchase and man inspection and decontamination stations 24 hours a day. The problem is obtaining funding for such a task.
Francis said it would cost $1,000,000 per station per year, and at least three would be required to cover the county. Funding for the stations would have to be obtained from either the state or federal governments. There also have been suggestions that a launch fee or an annual fee be imposed on boaters to pay for the decontamination stations.
The Department of Fish and Game (DFG) is tasked with the responsibility of monitoring the mussel problem. According to DFG game warden Lynette Shimek, the DFG is presently training dogs to detect the presence of mussels or their larva (called veligers) on boats. She already has one dog trained and others are undergoing training. Under recently passed legislation (AB1683), the DFG also has the authority to stop any vessels entering the county and inspect them. The DFG also has the authority to close waters and control access to waters that may contain the mussels.
The state also has inspection stations set up on the borders. Last year approximately 80,000 watercraft were inspected and 84 were found with mussels attached. While that may seem like a small number, consider that if just one of the those boats had been launched at
Bass boats that come from Southern California,
Presently quagga mussels are in Lake Mead,
Several audience members at the workshop expressed the opinion that all boats owned by people from out of the area should be banned from the lake and all future bass tournaments canceled. Actually,
As it now stands the county requires all organized water activities such as boat races and wakeboard events to first obtain a permit from the county. Bass tournaments aren't yet required to have a county permit, only a state permit, but that could change in the future if the county doesn't get a handle on the mussel problem.
The bottom line is that everyone has to cooperate to keep the mussels out of the lake and that includes bass fishermen and pleasure boaters. #
http://www.record-bee.com/sportsoutdoors/ci_7455865
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