A daily compilation of significant news articles and comment
September 18, 2008
3. Watersheds –
Colossal coastal clean up planned for Saturday
San Francisco Chronicle
Government says salmon disaster money on its way
Associated Press
Invasive mussel could migrate to
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Colossal coastal clean up planned for Saturday
San Francisco Chronicle – 9/18/08
Ninety percent of the trash swirling in the world's oceans is plastic, and in some parts of the
The trash we leave behind inevitably finds its way to our beaches and oceans.
Perhaps that's why Saturday's Coastal Cleanup Day is the biggest annual volunteer event in
Sixty to 80 percent of ocean litter comes from land sources. Most of it runs off city streets. Cups, six-pack holders and dirty diapers are left on beaches. Some waste is dumped at sea. Sport and commercial fishermen lose lines, hooks and nets, which bring suffering and death to entangled and wounded animals.
Trash is such a problem that the environmental group Save the Bay released a map Wednesday showing two dozen of the bay's dirtiest waterways. They are under review by the San Francisco Bay Regional Water Quality Control Board for exceeding federal Clean Water Act water-quality standards.
Among the top 10 are Strawberry Creek as it flows from
Want to help?
What: Coastal Cleanup Day - a worldwide effort to remove trash from beaches.
When: 9 a.m. to noon Saturday.
Where: To find out where to volunteer in your area, go to:
-- www.coastal.ca.gov/publiced/ccd/ccd.html
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2008/09/18/MN7K12V9PJ.DTL
Government says salmon disaster money on its way
Associated Press – 9/18/08
WASHINGTON (AP) — The Bush administration on Wednesday released $100 million in disaster relief to West Coast salmon fishermen, $70 million less than the amount Congress approved to help those hurt by the sudden collapse of the Pacific Coast salmon fishing industry.
The salmon collapse left thousands of fishermen and dependent businesses struggling to make ends meet, Commerce Secretary Carlos Gutierrez said, adding that the disaster aid package will help them get back on their feet.
Of the initial $100 million, about $63 million will go to
The failure stemmed from the sudden collapse of the chinook salmon run in
Salmon advocates and congressional Democrats complained that the Bush administration was shortchanging fishermen in the three states by $70 million. Congress approved $170 million in disaster relief as part of a recent farm bill.
Rep. Peter DeFazio, D-Ore., accused the Bush administration of "trying to steal money from salmon fishermen to give it to an incompetent defense contractor" that is overseeing the 2010 Census.
The Bush administration announced in June that it wants to divert $70 million from the salmon relief fund to help pay for higher-than-expected costs of the conducting the census. The Commerce Department oversees the Census Bureau and NOAA Fisheries, the federal agency responsible for salmon recovery and planning.
Bob Lohn, northwest administrator of NOAA Fisheries, said the salmon money was not being diverted, but merely delayed until the new budget year begins in October.
Over the next few months, the remaining money will be made available to fishermen as they apply for assistance, Lohn said. He denied that the administration was engaged in any accounting tricks or attempts to shortchange fishermen.
"Will the money be there when the people apply for it? The answer is yes," he told reporters on a conference call Wednesday.
A total of 4,229 applications for assistance have been sent out to ocean fishermen, processors, wholesalers and charter boat owners in the three states, said Randy Fisher, executive director of the Pacific States Marine Fisheries Commission, which is administering the salmon payments.
Roughly half the requests for assistance are in
Rep. Mike Thompson, D-Calif., said fishermen up and down the West Coast "have been economically harmed. They were caught in a disaster, Congress responded and the Bush administration has once again failed the American public." #
http://ap.google.com/article/ALeqM5g9RgO6ZxQLIpGz5B87A7aB4ShR2AD938OJ0O3
Invasive mussel could migrate to
By Kera Abraham, staff writer
A fingernail-sized mollusk is quickly becoming one of
Since quagga mussels showed up in a
The mussel migrates in two ways: by floating through waterways and pipes, and by hitching rides on nets and boats. “Where the water goes, they go,” says Andrew Cohen, who chairs the state’s scientific advisory panel on the threat.
Quagga larvae have traveled from the Lake Mead reservoir southeast of
Experts believe that a waterway’s pH, salinity, temperature, and oxygen and calcium levels are factors in its vulnerability to a quagga invasion. High-risk water bodies in
The invasive zebra mussel– quaggas’ annoying cousin– appeared in the
Both likely traveled thousands of miles overland on boat equipment.
“It’s clear they can travel over great distances,” Cohen says, noting that quaggas have been found clinging to boats at check stations throughout the state. (There are no check stations in
Once the mussels’ larvae have invaded waterways, they suck up nutrients and take over habitats, with potentially disastrous impacts on native fish and the animals that eat them.
The mussels are notoriously hard to eradicate once they become established. Ozone, irradiation and other treatments have shown some capacity to destroy the invaders, but at potentially significant environmental costs.
So far the marauding mussels have spared
For now, local officials are keeping the mussels at the periphery of their radar.
“We do not have a boat inspection program, nor does
The agency has installed mussel-monitoring stations in
The worst-case scenario would be if the mussels hitched a ride into the rubber dam that’s under construction in the
Researchers think quaggas prefer waters with a threshold level of calcium– which could spare the low-calcium
Otto Schmidt, who lives near the upper
He’s horrified that
Editorial:
Inclusion in public lands bill good for river rehab
The restoration of the
The river bill is part of a larger Omnibus Federal Land Management Act that has some 90 separate components. Restoring flows north from near
The bill -- and the money that comes with it -- are needed to implement the settlement reached in a lawsuit that was filed in 1988 and resolved in 2006. Part of that agreement would take some Sierra snowmelt now diverted to farms south of Fresno and let it run north down the river channel.
Environmentalists who filed the suit and farmers who want to keep using the water agreed to the settlement for different reasons. Environmentalists want to see historic salmon runs restored; farmers want to see their very livelihoods protected.
There are many components to this -- a drought that has curtailed water supplies; another decision that has cut pumping from the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta; the argument over state water bonds to store more water, including a new dam above Friant.
The settlement doesn't have unanimous support. Rep. Devin Nunes, R-Visalia, and some farm groups remain opposed. The Friant Water Users Authority continues to support the settlement as the best deal they can get. Rep. Dennis Cardoza, D-Merced, Rep. George Radanovich, R-Mariposa, and Rep. Jim Costa, D-Fresno, have all been crucial in getting the legislation to this point. But Cardoza has, at times, been as critical as he has been crucial. Now, he just wants to move forward.
"I remain of the view that it is the best settlement we can get and it is the only way to protect the
Throughout the negotiations, care has been taken to ensure that those who rely on the
The Bee has supported the settlement since it was first crafted. Federal law supports the environmentalists' position on restoration, and valley farmers must accept that reality -- as unpleasant as that is to them. We have also steadfastly supported the building of additional storage on the
The bill headed to the Senate floor contains $250 million for channel improvements and other work needed to restore the salmon run by 2013. It also has $23 million to help fund an underground storage project in
All of those are important. We urge the prompt passage of the omnibus public lands bill. It won't solve all the water problems. But it will take important steps in that direction.#
http://www.modbee.com/opinion/story/433596.html
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