A daily compilation of significant news articles and comment
February 15, 2008
3. Watersheds
REMOVAL OF MOTHBALL FLEET:
Aging naval vessels are threat to wildlife; Suisun Bay Reserve Fleet continues to deterioriate, damage ecosystem - Contra Coast Times
Watershed monitoring contract is awarded - Ventura County Star
DELTA ISSUES:
Column:
REMOVAL OF MOTHBALL FLEET:
Aging naval vessels are threat to wildlife;
By Sara Stroud, staff writer
State Sen. Patricia Wiggins led the meeting about the vessels collectively known as the Suisun Bay Reserve Fleet, or mothball fleet -- which are reportedly sloughing toxic materials into the bay's delicate ecosystem.
"The hulls are stuck in a bureaucratic mess and pose an increasing threat to the entire
Also at the meeting were representatives for Rep. George Miller, D-Martinez, and Assemblywoman Lois Wolk, as well as Benicia Mayor Elizabeth Patterson.
State environmental and water agencies are mired in a controversy with the federal Maritime Administration over how to remove the ships from the bay for dismantling.
One option is to tow the boats thousands of miles for dismantling in
Bruce Wolfe, executive officer of San Francisco Bay Area Water Board, said he believes the best choice would be to dry dock the ships and have them cleaned and taken apart locally.
"Dry docking would do it because you can control material coming off the ship," Wolfe said.
Representatives from Allied Defense Recycling, a Mare Island Company, said they could get rid of all the mothballed ships within seven years at local dry docks, while also creating jobs.
A 2007 study of the fleet found that about 20 tons of paint has flaked from the ships into the bay and high levels of toxic materials are in the sediment under the fleet.
Two citizen environmental groups have sued the Maritime Administration. Spokespeople from both the Natural Resources Defense Council and San Francisco Baykeeper decried the polluting ships at last week's meeting.
Commercial fishermen voiced concerns about threats the fleet's pollution could pose to their livelihoods, while recreational fishermen spoke about their fears of toxins in the ecosystem.
In a survey of about 250 fishermen at area fishing spots, about half said they eat fish from local waters, said LaDonna Williams, director of People for Children's Health and Environmental Justice.
Williams, whose group conducted the survey, said she wanted to bring a "human perspective" to the issue.
"We need to get the full scope of what we've been eating all these years. It has far reaching impacts on residents," Williams said.
Jovanathan Clark, 26, and Eduardo Sanchez, 24, both of Vallejo, said they've been fishing in the area for years, but will no longer eat their catch.
"I don't feel safe fishing anymore. It takes all the fun out of it,"
Wiggins, who chairs the Joint Committee on Fisheries and Aquaculture, will discuss what she learned from the meeting with fellow legislators, her press secretary David Miller said.
"What we've heard today is profound, not just about how we store ships, but about how we treat the world," Wiggins said. "There's a will to get this done, and there's a way," she added. #
Watershed monitoring contract is awarded
By Daniel Gelman, staff writer
The city of Agoura Hills has awarded a contract to a
Agoura Hills is coordinating the watershed monitoring program in cooperation with
The Agoura Hills City Council unanimously agreed Wednesday night to authorize the contract to Clean Lakes Inc., which has offices in
The watershed is a 109-square-mile area that includes Malibu Creek, which flows to
The goal of the monitoring program is to reduce pollutants that drain into the creek, to comply with water quality regulations.
The council decided in December that Agoura Hills would take the lead, with a share of the costs to be paid by the county and the other cities.
After soliciting proposals for professional water quality monitoring services, the contract was given to Clean Lakes Inc. after a review by representatives of the cities and the county. The review panel also considered proposals from the Ventura County Regional Sanitation District and Kleinfelder West Inc., officials said.
The review committee did a cost analysis and checked the winning company's references, officials said.
"The references indicated that the firm's performance was excellent," according to Agoura Hills City Engineer Ramiro Adeva's report to the council.
The three-year contract, which officials expect to begin soon, will allow for two optional two-year extensions.
"The cost will be much less than the anticipated costs budgeted for this service," Adeva told the council. The first year will cost about $106,000, and the next two years $107,500 and $108,000, he estimated. The cities and the county share the cost based on their land area.
Agoura Hills will also receive a 15 percent management fee for its work on the contract. Another city or the county will take the lead after the first three years of the contract.
Officials said the city of
http://www.venturacountystar.com/news/2008/feb/15/watershed-monitoring-contract-is-awarded/
DELTA ISSUES:
Column:
By Steve Carson, columnist
As one of
The water-users group "Coalition for a Sustainable Delta" formally filed suit last month against the Department of Fish and Game for violating the Federal Endangered Species Act. Consisting of mostly agricultural water-users from
Michael Boccadoro, spokesperson for CSD, said, "It is extremely counterproductive for the state to implement programs that protect a known predator of federally protected threatened and endangered species at a time when federal courts are ordering significant cutbacks in water pumping operations to protect the same species."
In essence the lawsuit contends that laws protecting striped bass with size limits, bag limits or any other restrictions are illegal because the species is a predator on endangered species in the Delta system.
Numerous sportfishing-related groups oppose the suit. Dave Hurley of the California Striped Bass Association said, "The state water contractors are playing hard ball. They now want to blame the striped bass for the decline of the Delta smelt, longfin smelt, king salmon and other fish in the Delta to divert blame from the state and federal water export pumps, even though the striped bass successfully coexisted with native species for over 120 years."
In addition to striped bass, the majority of what are considered "game fish" in Northern California waters are introduced "non-natives" that were brought here in the late 1800s or early 1900s, including shad, largemouth bass, smallmouth bass, spotted bass, black crappie, white crappie, all catfish species, brown trout, brook trout, lake trout, kokanee salmon and even the lowly carp, bluegill and sunfish.
Interestingly, our own west coast salmonid species like chinook salmon, coho salmon and steelhead were successfully introduced throughout the
http://www.chicoer.com/sports/ci_8268587
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