[Water_news] 3. DWR'S CALIFORNIA WATER NEWS: WATERSHEDS - 1/22/09

Department of Water Resources

California Water News

A daily compilation of significant news articles and comment

 

January 22, 2009

 

 

3. Watersheds –

 

 

Editorial:

Healing the waters

Federal legislation will help restore San Joaquin River, end lawsuit

Stockton Record

 

Rio del Mar residents raise a stink about creek

Hanford Sentinel

 

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Editorial:

Healing the waters

Federal legislation will help restore San Joaquin River, end lawsuit

Stockton Record – 1/22/09

 

Legislation has cleared the U.S. Senate that will begin the process of actually healing the long-ailing San Joaquin River.

 

Lawmakers have been arguing over restoring the river and courts have been hearing environmental and water rights cases about it for years.

The Senate voted to set aside 2 million acres as protected wilderness. Acreage in nine states will become wilderness, including 730,000 acres in California. Part of that set-aside will be used to implement a legal settlement to restore the San Joaquin River.

 

The idea is to bring water back into the river that in stretches is dry and, in the process, to bring back salmon runs. Those plentiful runs were a yearly occurrence before the opening of Friant Dam in 1949, which changed the San Joaquin River from the Valley's main liquid artery into little more that an irrigation ditch. At certain times during the year, 63 miles of the once-teeming river dry into a sandy gravel bed, home mainly to lizards and jackrabbits rather than fish. The idea is to restore river flow and salmon runs by 2013.

 

The Senate measure that passed is a collection of about 160 separate bills conferring wilderness protection to 470,000 acres in California, with additional lands in other states.

 

Federal officials are completing a big environmental study of the river restoration plan. No water can start flowing until the study is done, perhaps later this year.

 

Restoration work includes a bypass around the Mendota Pool in western Fresno and Madera counties. That will keep migrating salmon from getting hung up on their way home. In addition, gravel pits along the river will be filled or isolated to protect juvenile salmon. And seasonal screens will keep fish from getting lost near Los Banos.

 

The river restoration bill includes $88 million in federal funds over 10 years, a down payment on an effort that settles a lawsuit filed 21 years ago by the Natural Resources Defense Council. The federal money will be combined with $200million in state bond funds and additional federal dollars to complete the restoration.

 

It has been a long haul to get to this point. Much is yet to be worked out. But returning salmon and other life to the once mighty river, the second longest in the state behind the Sacramento, is much closer.#

http://www.recordnet.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20090122/A_OPINION01/901220315/-1/A_OPINION

 

Rio del Mar residents raise a stink about creek

Hanford Sentinel – 1/22/09

By Kurtis Alexander - Sentinel Staff Writer

 

RIO DEL MAR -- As water managers scratch their heads about the lack of rainfall this winter, residents of Rio del Mar are holding their noses.

 

Aptos Creek, which normally runs to the sea at the southern edge of Seacliff State Beach, has too little water to push through the sandy shoreline and that's left it backing up in a long, stinky pool now posted as a county health hazard.

 

"It's a horrible odor, it's unsightly, and moreover, it makes it impossible for tourists to get to the beach," said Sara Clarenbach, a 28-year Rio del Mar resident.

 

Fixing the situation is no simple matter, however.

 

In past years, State Parks officials have used bulldozers to clear away the sand so the creek could flow to the ocean. But environmental regulators have increasingly frowned upon interference with Mother Nature out of concern for fish that live there, namely the endangered tidewater goby and steelhead trout.

 

"What we're trying to do is get back to the natural breach of rivers," said Eric Larson, biological programs manager for the state Department of Fish and Game, which would need to approve any human effort to unleash the creek waters.

 

When creeks are opened to the ocean at the wrong time, Larson explained, the consequences for wildlife can be grave. Young steelhead might leave the stream before they're mature. The tidewater goby, a small fish that lives only in California, could be exposed to too much saltwater.

 

But a growing number of residents, joined by State Parks officials who manage the beach and at least one county supervisor, say the problems with not breaching have become too big to ignore.

 

"It is a public health hazard," said Supervisor Ellen Pirie, who has recently begun looking into the issue. "The water is contaminated and the lagoon is so long that people have to ford it in order to get to the ocean."

 

The backed-up channel now flows a half-mile down the beach, and testing by the county Health Services Agency has revealed elevated levels of bacteria.

 

"There could be anything in there ... bird droppings, pretty much everything that goes off the street goes into there, lattes, cigarette ash," said Steve Peters, a water quality specialist for the county.

 

No-swimming signs are posted along the waterway, but residents say few heed the warning. Children continue to splash in the grungy water and adults often cross it to avoid the half-mile walk to the other side.

 

State Parks officials say their hands are tied. The permit they once had to remove sand and allow the creek to flow has expired and was not renewed by Fish and Game.

 

While the backed-up creek has been a problem for years, according to State Parks Sector Superintendent Kirk Lingenfelter, rarely has it grown as big and stayed as long as this year. By January, he says, the flow of the creek is usually sufficient to push the water through to the ocean during a high tide.

 

The holdup is attributed to the lack of rainfall -- 58 percent below normal for the season, as of this week.

 

Lingenfelter would like to see a long-term fix for the creek mouth, so the annual headache can be avoided. A permanent channel or a drain to release the backup are possibilities, though Lingenfelter says the specs are best left to wildlife experts at Fish and Game.

This week, Fish and Game officials appeared to soften their opposition to a manual breach.

 

"It's likely we wouldn't object to it now," Larson said Tuesday, noting how long the winter has gone without the stream opening.

He said the bigger concern at this point is whether there's enough water in the creek for fish to be living and breeding there viably.

"Breaching manually isn't the answer to the problem. It's a symptom of what's going on with the overall weather system," he said.

Across the Central Coast, Larson said, fish populations are suffering this year because of the lack of water in rivers.

For Rio del Mar resident Bob Harris, however, the concern remains public safety.

 

"I just don't like seeing the young children play in that creek," he said.#

http://www.santacruzsentinel.com/ci_11523842

 

 

 

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