[Water_news] 3. DWR'S CALIFORNIA WATER NEWS: WATERSHEDS - 9/25/08

Department of Water Resources

California Water News

A daily compilation of significant news articles and comment

 

September 25, 2008

 

3. Watersheds –

 

 

Lawyer considers suit over New River

Imperial Valley Press- 9/24/08

 

Tahoe regulators toughen boat inspection rules

Reno Gazette Journal- 9/25/08

 

Program to check beaches curtailed: Governor slashes funds for water tests

San Diego Union Tribune- 9/25/08

 

More fish pulled in rescue operation

The Stockton Record- 9/25/08

 

+++++++++++++++++++

 

Lawyer considers suit over New River

Imperial Valley Press- 9/24/08
By NICOLAS TABOREK, Staff Writer

The New River is one of the Imperial Valley’s oldest problems, having remained the country’s most polluted waterway for years despite residents’ attempts to attract the government’s attention.

On Wednesday in this border city, a San Diego lawyer offered what he said was a new approach to cleaning up the river. Instead of waiting for the federal or state government to act, attorney Dan Lawton said the courts could be used to hold American companies that operate polluting maquiladoras responsible.

“We think the courts can do things the government isn’t going to do,” Lawton told a group of about 20 residents that showed up at Nosotros Park in Calexico for the gathering. “Anyone in Calexico that has suffered because of the river is someone we are interested in listening to.”

Lawton said his firm has been studying the river and its possible effects on residents who live nearby.

A potential lawsuit could mean payments to residents who have been affected by the river and an injunction to stop the pollution, Lawton said. Complaints against the companies could include charges that the pollution has caused health problems, such as cancer, and harmed residents by decreasing the values of their homes.

The government could also be a defendant in a potential suit, Lawton added.

Lawton has not been hired by any of the residents to pursue a lawsuit.

Lawton said he was only aware of one previous lawsuit related to the New River. That suit, he said, involved Border Patrol agents who sued after they had to enter the river while doing their jobs.

Many of the residents who attended the meeting were from the neighborhood surrounding Nosotros Park, which overlooks the New River.

Ruben Moreno, a Calexico resident who grew up near the New River, came to the meeting on behalf of his parents, who still live near the polluted stream.

As a kid, he said he had allergies and trouble breathing when he would jog in the neighborhood.

Moreno said he was interested in the lawyer’s ideas, but that he was most concerned with cleaning up the river, not getting a payout.

“We’re not here because we want to get money out of a lawsuit. We want to stop the pollution and solve the problem,” he said.

Moreno also said his parents have suffered financially by living near the river. They’ve been trying to move away from the river for 10 years, he said, but haven’t been able to get a high enough price for their home on Calexico Street.

Ernestina Calderon, who has lived on Calexico Street near the New River for 22 years, said she was diagnosed with cancer last year. On her block, she said five of her neighbors have the disease.

Calderon said she has long urged government involvement in cleaning up the river, traveling to Sacramento last year to tell state legislators her story.

She said Lawton’s plan appealed to her because it was “very different from all the other meetings that we have had” on cleaning up the river. She said she would talk to her neighbors about working with Lawton on a possible lawsuit.#

http://www.ivpressonline.com/articles/2008/09/25/local_news/news02.txt

 

 

 

Tahoe regulators toughen boat inspection rules

Reno Gazette Journal- 9/25/08

By Jeff Delong

 

Characterizing the threat as dire, Lake Tahoe land-use regulators Wednesday strengthened a program to prevent an invasion of foreign mussels.

 

Governors of the Tahoe Regional Planning Agency approved regulations requiring boat ramps and launches around Tahoe be closed when qualified inspectors are not available to ensure vessels are clean.

 

The mandatory inspection program also requires that boats that inspectors suspect are infested with mussels or other aquatic invaders be decontaminated, with civil penalties possible.

 

Quagga mussels are overrunning Lake Mead and other bodies of water in Southern Nevada and Southern California. Zebra mussels were recently discovered in a Northern California reservoir only 250 miles from Lake Tahoe.

 

"It can happen here," warned Steve Chilton of the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, citing the summer discovery of juvenile quagga mussels in a high altitude lake in Colorado.

 

Boaters, environmentalists and officials from several agencies urged TRPA to consider the threat as potentially extreme.

 

Mussels could disrupt the lake's sensitive ecosystem, water intakes be clogged, boats damaged and pristine beaches become layered with shells.

 

"You've got to do this and do this soon," Tahoe boater Roger Rosenberger said of tougher regulations. "The cost of failure is way too high."

 

Joe Pomroy, director of public works for the Incline Village General Improvement District, said mussels could cause widespread and costly problems for his district and other communities that draw drinking water from the lake.

 

"There are many intakes around the lake that would be affected," Pomroy said. "Once they get in, there's no turning back. It could really change the nature of Lake Tahoe."

 

Regulations adopted Wed-nesday do not take effect until Nov. 1, in part to give boat ramp operators time to install gates. It also gives agency officials an opportunity to determine how to pay for the inspection program. The source of most of the $803,000 needed annually has not been identified. Fees paid by boaters likely will be an important component, officials said.

 

Greg Gibeson of the Recreational Boaters of California urged the TRPA board not to take any action that would place too great an economic burden on Tahoe boaters, noting many boats on the lake never go anywhere else.

 

Incline Village boater Larry Swick warned that too onerous an approach by the agency might prompt boaters to try and avoid inspections, resulting in the type of infestation TRPA hopes to avoid.

 

"If the public is angry about what you do, they can easily circumvent you," Swick said. "You need the public on your side. By attacking boaters, you're not going to have them on your side."

 

Ron Grassi, a Sierra Club member who worked as a volunteer boat inspector over the summer, urged quick action to avoid "immense destruction."

 

"Often we don't see eye to eye with TRPA," he said of his organization. "On this we certainly do. I know we can figure it out and spread the cost in an equitable fashion."

 

That urgency was echoed by Sudeep Chandra, a University of Nevada, Reno scientist studying aquatic invaders at Tahoe.

 

Any infestation could impact past efforts to protect Lake Tahoe, Chandra said.

 

"You've spent hundreds of millions of dollars trying to protect Tahoe," Chandra said. "One invader can change everything you've done over the last 40 years."#

http://news.rgj.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20080925/NEWS04/809250342/1047/TT

 

 

 

Program to check beaches curtailed: Governor slashes funds for water tests

San Diego Union Tribune- 9/25/08

By Terry Rodgers, STAFF WRITER

 

Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger has eliminated funding for a statewide beach monitoring program, an action that will severely curtail shoreline water testing in San Diego and Orange counties.

 

Using his line-item veto power Tuesday, the governor cut $984,000 for coastal water monitoring under a program established by state legislation in 1997.

 

Environmental health officials for San Diego County said the governor's action deletes their entire $302,000 annual budget for beach water monitoring. Orange County will lose about $200,000.

 

“The governor has essentially placed a 'Swim at Your Own Risk' sign along the entire California coastline,” said Mark Gold, president of Heal the Bay, a Santa Monica-based environmental group that focuses on water quality.

 

“I can't imagine the governor eliminating this program in light of how successful it has been,” Gold said. “It has kept the public informed about which beaches have pollution problems and has led to tremendous cleanup successes.”

 

In San Diego County, environmental health officials will have to stop testing at 63 sites or find some other source of money. Monitoring by sewer agencies and other dischargers at 41 shoreline locations throughout the region will not be affected.

 

Gary Erbeck, the county's environmental health director, said he was trying to get clarification from state health officials on the extent of the budget cuts and what options may exist for alternative funding.

 

On numerous occasions over the past decade, weekly water monitoring has allowed the county to identify beaches where high levels of bacteria from unknown sources pose a risk to public health.

 

Nine days ago, for instance, routine testing detected abnormal bacterial contamination in Mission Bay after someone dumped an unidentified, gelatinous substance into the water. Contamination warnings remain posted at De Anza Cove.

 

A spokesman for the state Department of Finance said Schwarzenegger made line-item cuts totaling $510 million to boost the state's budget reserve.

 

“This was one of dozens of difficult decisions the governor had to make to build that reserve back up to pay for costs that we know are going to come from such things as emergency fire response,” said H.D. Palmer, deputy finance director.

 

The law creating the beach testing program allows the state to withdraw funding during lean budget years, Palmer said.

 

Schwarzenegger's decision “in no way, shape or form should be interpreted to mean that the governor doesn't think that water quality along the California coast isn't important,” Palmer said.

 

State Assemblywoman Lori Saldaña, D-San Diego, said the cut is regrettable, but “the state is tapped out.”

 

“Our public health is being put at risk because of the loss of these funds,” she said. “I consider this program to be a pretty essential service.”#

 

http://www.signonsandiego.com/news/metro/20080925-9999-1m25beach.html

 

 

 

More fish pulled in rescue operation

The Stockton Record- 9/25/08

By The Record

 

A second rescue operation has pulled 20,000 additional fish from Caples Lake.

 

The lake is in danger of freezing solid this winter because water levels have been lowered to allow emergency repairs to dam-release gates. The El Dorado Irrigation District operates the lake and is paying for the rescues staffed by state Fish and Game workers and volunteers.

 

Most of the fish rescued on Monday were brown, rainbow and lake trout, and they were taken to Silver Lake, a few miles to the west.

 

About 300 captured brook trout were taken to Red Lake because Silver Lake is not stocked with brook trout.

 

A rescue done over several days in August yielded only 6,300 fish. That earlier rescue was done when water was still deep enough to allow the use of boats. That rescue used electro-shock boats to stun fish so they could be netted from the water.

 

In contrast, the latest rescue required Fish and Game personnel to wade into shallow, muddy waters between the permanent dam and a temporary bladder dam erected to protect the crews who will repair the release gates. Fish and Game workers used buckets and barrels to carry fish from the receding water to waiting hatchery trucks so they could be transported.

 

The El Dorado Irrigation District is using pumps to remove the rest of the water between the two dams so repairs can begin.

 

The fish rescued Monday ranged from 1 inch to 24 inches long.#

http://www.recordnet.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20080925/A_NEWS/80924015/-1/A_NEWS14