Department of Water Resources
A daily compilation of significant news articles and comment
April 21, 2008
5. Agencies, Programs, People -
Opinion:
‘No Furniture Is as Expensive as a Government Bureau’ -
Mendocino coast rocked by closure of salmon fishing -
Opinion:
Michael Keopf: Solution to salmon decline: Build more hatcheries -
Coastal Commission's enforcer walks a beautiful beat -
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Opinion:
‘No Furniture Is as Expensive as a Government Bureau’
Business in the
This is update No. 2,000 on the
The process is about as long lasting as a daily television soap opera.
We could call it, “As the Tide Turns, So Does the Government Process.”
The latest episode took place on the stage of the State Regional Water Resources Control Board on April 9 in Kearny Mesa.
The plot is intricate, deceptive and mostly self-serving to the public actors who star in these sagas.
All of the government agencies that have a part in approving the proposed desalination plant have publicly stated that the only answer to
But the big three approval process players — the State Lands Commission, California Coastal Commission and the Water Resources Control Board — are playing pingpong with Poseidon Resources and the city of Carlsbad by approving the permit, then adding conditions to it.
Then, as they plan to hear the permit conditions update at a later date, staff members of the big three get together to find ways to drag out the process.
This plant, by most expert opinions, should be under construction or operating by this time.
It always amazes me when government bureaus claim that they are the main line of defense in protecting the citizens from harm. I think the real mission of most bureaus like these is the self-preservation of their jobs and salaries.
In this case, by claiming they are protecting both the citizens and the ocean, everyone in
The Regional Water Resources Board voted 5-2 April 9 to issue a water discharge permit and allow Poseidon Resources Corp. to move on to the last two agencies for approval.
It seems to me that this process is too long and too costly. Sometimes I guess this old adage is appropriate, “No furniture is as expensive as a government bureau.”#
http://www.sdbj.com/article.asp?aID=124303&link=perm
Mendocino coast rocked by closure of salmon fishing
Sacramento
By M.S. Enkoji , staff writer
"As of now, I'm broke," says Randy Thornton in the cabin of his 50-foot boat, his face coppered by sun and wind. Overhead, salmon rods with brightly colored lures are racked, idled for the year.
"My dilemma is I have a boat and I have to make a living," says Thornton, 46 and father of two.
After 10 years of payments, he finally paid off the boat last year. This might have been the year he and his wife would buy a house, he says.
But last week, state Department of Fish and Game officials voted to ban salmon fishing in state waters, which extend out three miles from shore. Five days before, the Pacific Fishery Management Council had banned salmon fishing in the 200-mile-wide swath of federal waters off
Federal and state biologists believe closing the season for virtually all the West Coast before it even revs up is the only way to boost the number of chinook salmon returning from ocean waters to spawn in the
Last year was the second-lowest spawning season on record along the
For those who hook their hopes on the popular, pink-fleshed fish, the finality of the season is like a death knell for an already struggling way of life.
"Every day I'm not taking people out, I'm losing business," says Thornton, who would be taking out a boatload of anglers at least four times a week about now.
Charter guests fishing for salmon might also dip for crabs, but
In another spot along
"I feel fortunate that I have a fishery," says Ammerman as he wields a giant basket of the burgundy-spiked urchins onto the deck. He has one of just a few permits to fish for the delicacy that is shipped as far as
He is part owner of a fuel dock in the harbor. He's trying to sell but knows the chances for a buyer narrowed considerably with the ban.
"Times change," he says.
Town was built on lumber and salmon
Fishing and lumber put
"It's a big ocean to predict what's out there,"
Sportfishing for salmon generally runs from mid-February through early November, with the big months in summer.
Of the 1,400 commercial salmon permits issued by the state this year, about 100 went to fishermen in
Before 1990, commercial fishing pumped as much as $12 million into the local economy, according to the Pacific Fishery Management Council. Sport-fishing, which draws overnight guests, contributes about $2 million annually to the economy.#
http://www.sacbee.com/101/story/875715.html
Opinion:
Michael Keopf: Solution to salmon decline: Build more hatcheries
Sacramento
By Michael Keopf - Special to The Bee
When I was a boy growing up in
My father was a salmon fisherman, and in time I was too, as were my brothers. We all fished salmon to feed our families, for there was a time in
Now it's finished.
The Pacific Fishery Management Council has halted salmon fishing for commercial and sport fishermen off the coasts of
Sadly, there are a few misguided visionaries who applaud this decision, effortlessly citing overfishing as the culprit. They see commercial fishermen as ravishers of the ocean. They see sports fishermen as recreational rednecks who should learn to eat tofu. It's a condescending viewpoint.
Salmon are sustainable. No fisherman would cut his own throat and fish himself out of business.
What has happened to our salmon? The answer is simple: King salmon have lost their bedrooms. There's no place for hanky-panky to spawn little fish.
We know the culprits: Mining in the 19th century washed away spawning grounds; pollution; real estate development; logging; the extraction of fresh water from the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta that salmon require to get out to sea.
Sea lions are blamed, but sea lions and salmon have coexisted for eons. Then comes the big one – dams. There are 1,400 dams in the state of
And, there's another reason, even bigger than dams: global warming, that convenient excuse that forestalls solutions. Some claim that global warming has robbed the ocean of the food salmon eat.
Is there a solution? Congress has got one. Last year, it authorized $60 million and this year members of Congress are talking about $90 million more to pay impacted fisherman to sit around the docks. The welfare state is sailing out to sea.
Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger wants to help. He's proposed a new dam near
There is a solution despite our lack of state and federal leadership: hatcheries.
Currently, there is one federal hatchery in the state of
How many hatcheries would $60 million or $90 million build? The Pacific Fishery Management Council spends roughly $3 million a year on salaries and expenses. They've been around for three decades "regulating" salmon back into existence.
Hatcheries are a low-tech solution. I oversimplify, but all that is needed is clean flowing water, egg and milt (sperm) collection with seasonal labor and holding ponds to raise the smolts (baby fish) before they're released to go wild in the sea. New hatcheries could be built not only on the waterways that drain the
Unfortunately, hatcheries are disdained by some very good people – well-meaning environmentalists who view hatcheries as a Band-Aid to mask the real problem: the degradation of streams and rivers. They are correct, but in so doing they see salmon as a symbol instead of a fish. Salmon and fishermen are merely the latest casualties in a much bigger war they are determined to win.
There are environmentalists who oppose hatcheries. They say salmon continue to decline despite existing hatcheries. They're right, but how many are we talking about: those paltry nine? They say that hatcheries require money. But look at the pay-off: the sustainable restoration of wild king salmon. They say that hatchery fish, selected by human hands, could be genetically unsound; that strays from hatcheries can breed with what's left of the wild spawning salmon. So be it. Select fish at the hatchery that are strong, fast and wiley, as nature has for a million years. Trust salmon to hook up with the survival of their fittest. It's bound to be better than what we have now: a glut of genetically altered Atlantic salmon reared in pens. Salmon awash in our market place – mostly from foreign countries – raised on antibiotics with their flesh dyed pink.
The mast lights have disappeared from the ocean. Soon, there will be no king salmon beneath it unless we come together with a pragmatic solution. Fishermen and environmentalists, sportsmen and native tribes must seek a common goal and build new hatcheries to compensate for the habitat that all of us have destroyed. We must wake up the politicians from their comfort of doing nothing save throwing money after problems. Salmon create salmon, not regulation and symbolism.
About the writer:
Michael Keopf is a former commercial fisherman and a novelist who lives in Elk. He wrote "The Fisherman's Son" (Random House, Broadway Books).#
http://www.sacbee.com/110/story/873883.html
Coastal Commission's enforcer walks a beautiful beat
By Tony Barboza, staff writer
Someone with a small bulldozer had been moving dirt down the side of a bluff 30 feet above, a neighborhood tipster reported. It could be illegal. And it was Willis' job, and only his, to investigate.
Willis, 30, is the sole California Coastal Commission official patrolling for illegal development and habitat destruction from Pacific Palisades to San Clemente, some 280 miles of shoreline that are among the most populated stretches of the West Coast.
Included in his territory are coastal wetlands and offshore islands, and he is the commission's only guardian of public access for dozens of beaches in
"It's almost an impossible task," he said.
He has stopped county workers in Marina Del Rey from trimming trees where herons nested. He has told a
And he has tracked down a group of
The San Pedro resident has 300 open cases, some dating to the 1980s. And the backlog is growing.
"There's a lot of people and a lot of coast. A lot of homes being built," he said. "But I'm just one person for that area, and I can't protect everything."
In 1976, a year before Willis was born, the Coastal Act gave the state broad powers to protect the
Statewide, only four other coastal inspectors patrol the remainder of the state's coastline.
"It's like having five cops for the whole state of
When Willis checks out reports of coastal rule-breakers, he uses commonplace tools: a digital camera, aerial photos, maps, binoculars and his eyes. He usually roves on foot, but occasionally borrows a kayak or floats atop his surfboard in search of a vantage point.
He does not carry a ticket book, gun or baton. He wears the uniform of a beach boy: short-sleeved, surf-brand shirts, jeans or shorts.
Willis said he was not about "sirens and citations." Some coastal dwellers are unaware that building a deck, moving sand or cutting down plants can be illegal, he explained. "I approach it as more of an educational experience."
But he wields considerable authority.
Aside from
Some say enforcers like Willis have too much power, relying on tips from nosy neighbors and eroding homeowners' rights.
"I have had clients who have had heart attacks and cannot sleep at night over dealing with the Coastal Commission," said Ronald Zumbrun, a
http://www.latimes.com/news/local/la-me-enforcer21apr21,1,6275445.story
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