[Water_news] 3. DWR'S CALIFORNIA WATER NEWS: WATERSHEDS - 6/19/08

Department of Water Resources

California Water News

A daily compilation of significant news articles and comment

 

June 19, 2008

 

3. Watersheds –

 

California leaders say 'no way' to coastal oil drilling

Sacramento Bee

 

Karuk Tribe and Fishing Groups Call on Schwarzenegger to Limit Gold Mining To Save Struggling Fisheries

Yubanet.com

 

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California leaders say 'no way' to coastal oil drilling

Sacramento Bee – 6/19/08

By Rob Hotakainen, staff writer

 

WASHINGTON – If President Bush and Republican Sen. John McCain are expecting any support from California's top leaders for their plan to lift a ban on offshore drilling, it could be a long wait.

 

"California's coastline is an international treasure," Republican Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger said Wednesday. "I do not support lifting this moratorium on new oil drilling off our coast."

 

Ditto from the state's two Democratic senators, who are out to thwart the proposal. Sen. Barbara Boxer says all Bush wants to do is "drill, drill, drill." And Sen. Dianne Feinstein says the president has returned to "the mantra of drilling."

 

"Californians are all too familiar with the consequences of offshore drilling," Feinstein said. "An oil spill in 1969 off the coast of Santa Barbara killed thousands of birds, as well as dolphins, seals and other marine animals. And we know this could happen again."

 

Bush proposed to allow drilling off U.S. coastlines as part of a broader effort to boost oil supplies, but it's likely to go nowhere because of a reluctant Democratic-majority Congress.

 

McCain made support for lifting the ban the centerpiece of a major energy speech Tuesday in Houston, saying, "We have enormous energy reserves of our own, and we are gaining the means to use these resources in cleaner, more responsible ways."

 

McCain, the presumptive Republican presidential nominee, may not officially be giving up any chance of winning in California, but that may be the practical effect of his push to lift the ban. It was first imposed by Congress in 1981 and long considered the defining environmental issue in California.

 

Dan Schnur, a Republican political analyst in California who served as the communications director of McCain's presidential campaign in 2000, said the McCain campaign appears to have made a strategic decision to abandon California in hopes of bolstering its support in key swing states where offshore drilling may be more popular.

 

"John McCain may have had a chance in California, but it was always going to be an uphill fight for him," Schnur said. "Giving up on that chance in exchange for a better opportunity in Michigan and Ohio is probably a good trade."

 

In announcing his plan, Bush talked tough, saying, "Our nation must produce more oil, and we must start now."

 

Annual American oil production is about 1.8 billion barrels, and the Interior Department estimates that as much as 19 billion barrels remain untapped in coastal areas currently off-limits to drillers. Even if U.S. coastal waters were opened to exploration, experts agree it would take at least seven and probably 10 years before any benefits were apparent.

 

Time after time in recent years, drilling advocates have been unable to get the votes in Congress. When Republicans controlled Congress in 2006, the House of Representatives agreed to overturn the ban on offshore drilling, but the measure died in the Senate. Last week, Rep. John Peterson, R-Pa., tried to get a House Appropriations subcommittee to overturn the ban and lost 9-6 on a party-line vote.

 

Last year, Boxer, Feinstein and Democratic Rep. Lois Capps of Santa Barbara reintroduced a bill that would provide permanent protection for California's coast from any future drilling.

 

Boxer, who heads the Senate's environment committee, said McCain had "joined the president's bandwagon." And she called the president's plan "the height of hypocrisy."

 

"Two years ago, he said America is addicted to oil, and today he wants to feed that addiction," Boxer said.

 

Democratic House Speaker Nancy Pelosi of San Francisco said the plan represents another example of the president cozying up to oil interests.

 

"The president's proposal sounds like another page from the administration's energy policy that was literally written by the oil industry: Give away more public resources to the very same oil companies that are sitting on 68 million acres of federal lands they've already leased," Pelosi said.

 

While Schnur said the plan is a losing issue for McCain in California, Republican Rep. Dan Lungren of Gold River said attitudes might be changing.

Lungren, who backs the plan, said that $4-a-gallon gasoline is the top issue in his district and that state residents might be ready to back such a proposal.

"People want something done," he said.#

http://www.sacbee.com/378/story/1024359.html

 

Karuk Tribe and Fishing Groups Call on Schwarzenegger to Limit Gold Mining To Save Struggling Fisheries

Yubanet.com – 6/19/08
By Karuk Tribe

Sacramento, CA, June 18, 2008 - A Native Tribe along with commercial and recreational fishermen called on Governor Schwarzenegger today to restrict the controversial gold mining technique known as suction dredge mining. The groups' call to limit the recreational mining technique comes as California faces the worst fisheries collapse in history.

"In April, the state and federal government took unprecedented emergency actions to completely close California's coast to recreational and commercial salmon fishing, something that is causing severe economic harm to businesses and communities," said Brian Stranko, CEO of California Trout. "This is why it is inappropriate and unacceptable for state government to allow recreational suction dredge mining operations to continue to harm fish, particularly endangered species like coho salmon."

Suction dredges are powered by gas or diesel engines that are mounted on floating pontoons in the river. Attached to the engine is a powerful vacuum hose which the dredger uses to suction up the gravel and sand (sediment) from the bottom of the river. The stream bed passes through a sluice box where heavier gold particles can settle into a series of riffles. The rest of the gravel and potentially toxic sediment is simply dumped back into the river. Depending on size, location and density of these machines they can turn a clear running mountain stream or river segment into a murky watercourse unfit for swimming.

"Dredging disturbs spawning gravels and kills salmon eggs and immature lamprey that reside in the gravel for up to seven years before maturing. In a system like the Klamath where salmon can be stressed due to poor water quality, having a dredge running in the middle of the stream affects the fishes ability to reach their spawning grounds," according to Toz Soto, lead fisheries biologist for the Karuk Tribe.

Soto adds, "there is a lot of mercury settled on the bottom of these rivers from gold smelting operations from the 1800's. Dredging reintroduces mercury to the stream creating a toxic hazard for fish and people."

Exposure to mercury can lead to mental retardation and birth defects.

The groups are hoping that the Governor will agree to a provision added by the Legislature to the 2008 Budget Bill that would establish a temporary moratorium on suction dredge mining in areas that represent the most important habitat for salmon and trout while the Department of Fish and Game revises (DFG) its regulations in compliance with a 2006 court order.

"The 2.2 million Californians that buy fishing licenses every year expect the Governor to protect both our natural resources as well as our rural economies," said Stranko.

According to the American Sportfishing Association, licensed anglers in California contribute $4.9 billion annually to the state's economy This includes 43,000 jobs amounting to $1.3 billion in wages and salaries annually. Commercial salmon fishing contributes $255 million and 2,263 jobs to the California economy.

By comparison, DFG only issues 3,000 permits for suction dredging each year.

For the Karuk Tribe the threat is even greater. "Suction dredge mining is nothing more than recreational genocide. The first gold rush killed more than half our people in 10 years.This modern gold rush continues to kill our fish and our culture," says Leaf Hillman of the Karuk Tribe.

"While we cannot harvest enough salmon for our ceremonies or to meet our families' food needs, miners are allowed to rip and tear our river bottoms to shreds. We need the Governor to take a stand with Native People and the 2.2 million anglers in California - not 3,000 recreational gold miners," added Hillman.

In coming weeks the Governor will have to consider the groups' proposal to limit mining as part of the 2008 Budget Bill to provide interim safeguards while DFG conducts a two-year effort to overhaul statewide regulations covering instream mining.#

http://yubanet.com/california/Karuk-Tribe-and-Fishing-Groups-Call-on-Schwarzenegger-to-Limit-Gold-Mining-To-Save-Struggling-Fisheries.php