A daily compilation of significant news articles and comment
October 20, 2008
3. Watersheds –
Pristine PG&E areas in Shasta to go public
San Francisco Chronicle
Billions of fish, fish eggs die in power plants
Associated Press
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Pristine PG&E areas in Shasta to go public
San Francisco Chronicle – 10/19/08
By Peter Fimrite, staff writer
(10-19) 04:00 PDT McArthur Swamp, Shasta County -- Dale Glassburn wasn't looking for serenity on Big Lake, an isolated spring-fed body of water outside the town of Burney.
A person doesn't have to search for that in this 7,596-acre haven for wildlife known as
What Glassburn was after was what Native Americans sought in this former swamp until they were driven off their land: fish.
"I come here every chance I get," the 66-year-old fisherman from
The remote marshland - which, in addition to the rainbow trout, serves as the winter home to tens of thousands of migrating waterfowl - is a signature piece of one of the biggest, most elaborate public takeovers of hydropower lands in
The
The plan, which is part of PG&E's 2003 bankruptcy reorganization settlement, is to donate half of the land to public trusts, parks, wildlife agencies and tribal organizations by 2013 and protect it all through conservation easements.
The deal includes green forests, rolling oak savannahs, many sources of the state's drinking water and some of the best fly-fishing rivers and streams in 22 counties across
The amount of land going into public hands is shy of the largest open space transaction in
PG&E has agreed to pay $100 million in ratepayer funds to the various agencies that are selected to manage the lands, which were deemed unnecessary for hydroelectric power generation.
Hat Creek, just down the road from
The first four transactions are scheduled to be completed by mid- to late 2009. By then, the Stewardship Council will have begun preparing eight to 10 other sites for transfer, said Ric Notini, the council's director of land conservation.
"It is one of the most complex land conservation deals ever done in
Slice of serenity
Fewer than 2,000 people a year visit this gem in the wilderness, which can be reached only by boat. The only boat ramp available to transport visitors is at
Once a large marsh with meadows on the fringes, it is now mostly meadow with 1,400 acres of open water around it. A system of levees and drainage canals were built starting in 1903, creating
The swamp area, which is now essentially seasonal wetlands, has been used for cattle grazing and periodic logging since 1944.
The area, part of what is called the
The tribe is one of seven bidders for the property, including
Historical significance
The area is rich in history.
The word Ahjumawi is said to have meant "where the waters come together." It perfectly describes the spot on state park land next to
One of their techniques was to build elaborate walls out of lava rock on the local springs, which would concentrate the spring water and draw in suckers and trout. The natives would then trap the fish in these shallow areas and spear them.
The remains of these fish traps still exist at the mouth of the springs.
The Ahjumawi were apparently rivals of the nearby Modoc Indians, famous for waging the last great Indian war against
Chris Pirosko, director of natural resources for the Pit River tribe, said the Modocs used to raid
"There are stories in the
The area became known as
Six Native American archaeological sites have been recorded in the marsh area, but a comprehensive survey has never been done.
"There are probably many village sites that are scattered around the perimeter. There are probably prehistoric grave sites. We don't know, but we do know that this place is a part of history," Pirosko said. "The primary objective for the tribe is to enhance the swamp's ecological status and preserve the cultural resources. We intend to keep it as open space and provide access to the public."
As in all of the various units of land that PG&E is donating, the bidders are being encouraged to work together. Ultimately, Notini said, the land steward that is selected may be a collaboration of groups that will take into account the desires of all the users.
"We're looking at it from a long-term perspective," Notini said. "Our goal is to identify the organizations we think are best equipped to preserve these lands in perpetuity."#
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2008/10/19/MNB813B23A.DTL
Billions of fish, fish eggs die in power plants
Associated Press – 10/19/08
BUCHANAN, N.Y. (AP) — For a newly hatched striped bass in the Hudson River, a clutch of trout eggs in Lake Michigan or a baby salmon in San Francisco Bay, drifting a little too close to a power plant can mean a quick and turbulent death.
Sucked in with enormous volumes of water, battered against the sides of pipes and heated by steam, the small fry of the aquatic world are being sacrificed in large numbers each year to the cooling systems of power plants around the country.
Environmentalists say the nation's power plants are needlessly killing fish and fish eggs with their cooling systems, but energy-industry officials say opponents of nuclear power are exaggerating the losses.
The issue is affecting the debate over the future of a nuclear plant in the suburbs north of
The issue's scope is tremendous. More than 1,000 power plants and factories around the country use water from rivers, lakes, oceans and creeks as a coolant. At Indian Point plant in
Most of the casualties are just fish eggs, and for many species, it takes thousands of eggs to result in one adult fish. The U.S. Environmental Protection Administration, which counts only species that are valuable for commerce or recreation, uses various formulas and says the number of eggs and larvae killed each year at the nation's large power plants would have grown into 1.5 billion year-old fish.
Environmentalists note that even fish that die before maturity contribute to the ecosystem as food for larger fish and birds, and as predators themselves on smaller organisms. But once they've gone through the power plant, they become decomposing detritus on the river bottom and have moved from the top to the bottom of the food chain, said Reed Super, an environmental lawyer specializing in the federal Clean Water Act.
"This is a really significant ongoing harm to our marine ecosystem," says Angela Haren, program director for the California Coastkeeper Alliance in
Technology has long existed that might reduce the fish kill by 90 percent or more. Cooling towers allow a power plant to recycle the water rather than continuously pump it in. New power plants are required to use cooling towers, but most existing plants resist any push to convert, citing the huge cost and claiming that most fish eggs and larvae are doomed anyway.
"We're not killing grown fish," says Jerry Nappi, spokesman for Entergy Nuclear Northeast, owner of Indian Point. "If we were killing billions of grown fish you'd be able to walk across the
And Nappi says the fish population in the
He also says an insistence on cooling towers could lead to Indian Point's closing and a sudden power deficit in the
"What you're really talking about is a $1.5 billion hit on the company, and then it becomes an economic decision whether they want to stay here," he says. He believes talk of cooling towers is "a backdoor attempt by some to shut down Indian Point."
A recent ruling dealt at least a small blow to Entergy's efforts. The state Department of Environmental Protection, which is pushing for cooling towers, said the simple fact that so many fish eggs are destroyed each year at Indian Point is proof of an environmental impact, and Entergy can no longer maintain that it's not adversely affecting the river.
There's still months of argument ahead, but the ruling could be influential.
"We'll be very interested to see how that comes out," says Katie Nekola, an attorney for Clean Wisconsin, which failed to force cooling towers at the
State agencies in
According to the Nuclear Regulatory Commission, nuclear plants drink from other familiar bodies of water as the Mississippi River, Chesapeake Bay, Lake Michigan, the Gulf of Mexico and the
Most plants without cooling towers use a system in which water is continuously pumped in, used for cooling, and returned.
Various types of barriers are used to keep adult fish out of the system; Indian Point uses screens with holes measuring a quarter-inch by a half-inch.
However, fish that are blocked by the screen can become caught on the screen by the force of the water intake. To rescue them, the screens rotate, and as they come out of the water a spray of water knocks the impinged fish into a trough, which is directed back to the river.
A
"When you hit a deer in your car, just because it gets up and runs away doesn't mean it's not going to die," Haren said.
But Ed Keating, environmental manager at the nuclear subsidiary of Public Service Enterprise Group Inc., said that probably only 1 percent of the fish caught get killed on the screens. Dara Gray, environmental supervisor at Indian Point, says there's no reason to believe that any fish are injured or killed by being caught on the screen.
In the process known as closed-cycle cooling, used mostly in newer plants, the number of fish and eggs sucked in or impinged is sharply reduced because cooling towers use so much less water. Even if a power plant draws its cooling water from a river, it uses that water over and over again and rarely needs to replenish.
Some plants with cooling towers don't have to worry about fish at all. PSEG Fossil has plants in
http://ap.google.com/article/ALeqM5i2E6H8NpzgdCh9Pc8_keKg_jCpBgD93T1GQ00
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