Department of Water Resources
A daily compilation of significant news articles and comment
January 15, 2008
4. Water Quality
REGULATION:
Seeno to pay for 'threatening environment'; Company must perform habitat assessments on future projects, including one in
Seeno, state reach $3 million settlement -
RUNOFF ISSUES:
Threatened Lawsuit Targets Lab Runoff Contaminants -
GROUNDWATER CLEANUP:
Groundwater cleanup begins near Franklin High - Stockton Record
REGULATION:
Seeno to pay for 'threatening environment'; Company must perform habitat assessments on future projects, including one in
By Sara Stroud, staff writer
A company behind the proposed
According to the Contra Costa Superior Court lawsuit, Albert D. Seeno Construction Company "threatened the environment" by filling in waterways during grading and discharging waste into state waters while building an Antioch housing development.
"This is a great environmental win," said Liz Kanter, spokeswoman for the state water board, one of the plaintiffs in the case.
Seeno representatives were not available for comment Monday.
Between 2002 and 2004, Fish and Game officials discovered that Seeno - which has owned the property for about 20 years - filled a small pond and some waterways without proper permits, Contra Costa Deputy District Attorney Lon Wixson said.
Among the payments Seeno agreed to as part of the settlement are $500,000 to the Central Valley Water Board, $500,000 to fish and wildlife preservation funds and about $1.2 million to the California Wildlife Foundation. The construction company will also grant 60 acres to the East Bay Regional Park District and provide enhanced environmental training to some of its employees, according to the water board.
For its future projects - which would include the
"We agreed with Seeno that this is an appropriate settlement," Wixson said.
Seeno owns the 527-acre plot at
Last year, the Benicia City Council approved a draft environmental impact report for the project and likely will review the final EIR in coming months. But as proposed, the project does not conform to the city's general plan, Community Development Director Charlie Knox said.
"It's a unique situation. They're asking us to certify a project the city said can't be built as proposed," Knox said.
The proposed project has raised protests from some residents - even giving rise to a grassroots group called Benicia First!, which says the business park is "too big for
Among the concerns voiced by some residents and city officials is 9 million cubic yards of dirt that must be moved under the current plan, which would flatten hills and fill gullies, Knox said.
Wixson said that, although it is too late for the buried waterways in
Seeno, state reach $3 million settlement
By Simon Reed, staff writer
State water officials have reached a $3 million settlement with mega-developer Albert Seeno over pollution issues at the Mira Vista housing development in
The state had charged that Seeno didn't have proper permits to do work on the property that destroyed a pond and several waterways during various stages of development. The violations were uncovered and investigated by the California Department of Fish and Game.
In addition to monetary penalties, Seeno has agreed to give the state some land for environmental preservation and train his employees on environmental regulations.
The company has agreed to pay $500,000 to the Central Valley Regional Water Quality and Control Board, $250,000 to the state's Fish and Game Preservation Fund, $250,000 to the Contra Costa County Fish and Wildlife Propagation Fund, $250,000 to the California Department of Justice to pay for future environmental enforcement, and $250,000 to the Contra Costa County Treasurer. #
http://www.mercurynews.com/breakingnews/ci_7968862
RUNOFF ISSUES:
Threatened Lawsuit Targets Lab Runoff Contaminants
By Richard Brenneman, staff writer
Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (LBNL) pollutes
The California Sportfishing Protection Alliance and the Strawberry Creek Stewardship Group have served notice on UC Regents, LBNL Director Steven Chu and Secretary of Defense Robert M. Gates.
Gates was notified because the lab operates under the joint auspices of the university and the Department of Defense.
Michael Lozeau, the
The lawyer, who specializes in environmental law, is a key player in another suit that targets the regents, challenging the
Lozeau represents the Panoramic Hill Association in that action.
The federal Clean Water Act mandates the 60-day notice before the filing of any legal action brought under the law’s provisions.
“They’re failing to comply with the permit that applies to their stormwater discharge,” Lozeau said. “We have reviewed the last five years of data and they have consistent excedances of the EPA (Environmental Protection Agency) levels of concern.”
Lozeau said he has brought 50 or 60 similar actions in the Bay Area and
Ron Kolb, the lab’s chief Public Information officer, said Monday afternoon that he hadn’t seen the letter, but would comment Tuesday after he had a chance to review the document.
Lozeau said that the lab’s remedy would be to “beef up their control measures” using the best available technology achievable (BAT) and the best pollutant control technology (BCT).
The highest relative concentrations of contaminants involve magnesium, with a federal benchmark level of 0.06 milligrams per liter of runoff versus measured LBNL runoff levels reaching up to 29 milligrams per liter—or 456 times the figure the federal EPA says can be achieved with appropriate technology.
Lozeau said the figures, provided by the lab, may be ambiguous because questions remain about how they are collected and whether or not they included contaminants arising up-slope from the lab.
While the lab’s permits require the facility to reduce contaminant levels, “we allege their stormwater pollution plan is not adequate because it is not knocking the numbers down,” he said.
Of all the contaminants, the nitrates and nitrites in the runoff may have the most potential to harm fish downstream, he said. “They can be pretty nasty, and they can have pretty profound effects on fish.”
With a federal benchmark level of 0.68 milligrams per liter, lab runoff measurements run as high as 13 milligrams.
Lozeau said the numbers also raise questions about the Draft Environmental Impact Reports submitted for the Helios and Computational Research and Theory buildings now planned for the lab.
While the documents propose that the new construction will not be adding to the lab’s cumulative water quality impacts, Lozeau said the fact that the lab isn’t in compliance with its current stormwater discharge permits raises questions about the accuracy of the documents.
“The more the lab is built out, the more you can expect to see cumulative effects,” he said.
The good news in the report is that the figures give no indications of runoffs of tritium—a radioactive isotope of hydrogen—or any other radioactive materials, Lozeau said. Tritium is present in subsurface groundwater plumes that have been documented at the lab, but it doesn’t appear to be contaminating surface runoff.
As for the other contaminants which do appear, “They are supposed to put in the best technology available to reduce those numbers to something that is insignificant,” Lozeau said. #
http://www.berkeleydaily.org/text/article.cfm?issue=01-15-08&storyID=28921
GROUNDWATER CLEANUP:
Groundwater cleanup begins near Franklin High
The Department of Toxic Substances Control is injecting a chemical solution into the groundwater to eradicate poisonous chromium, a metal than can cause liver, kidney and nerve damage.
The Marley Cooling Tower Co. opened a
Marley treated the wood with chemicals that seeped into the water table, forming a plume that spread more than a mile to the south.
City officials have said they were aware of no water quality problems with chromium in their wells.
The site is one of several hundred on the state's Superfund list. #
http://www.recordnet.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20080115/A_NEWS/80115001
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