Department of Water Resources
A daily compilation for DWR personnel of significant news articles and comment
May 5, 2009
1. Top Items–
Study: Most key fishing spots in state polluted
The San Francisco Chronicle
Supreme Court lets Shell off the hook in pollution cleanup
McClatchy Newspapers
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Study: Most key fishing spots in state polluted
The San Francisco Chronicle – 5/5/09
By Jane Kay
The most comprehensive survey ever of pollutants in
Of 152 lakes tested statewide, 21 were clean while 131 showed one or more pollutants at levels above state health guidelines, according to the study released Monday by the State Water Resources Control Board.
In Northern California, some of the cleanest were the high-elevation lakes of the
"This study is helping to define the scope of the statewide problem of contaminants accumulating in sport fish," said Jay Davis, lead author and toxicologist at the nonprofit San Francisco Estuary Institute in
Results of the two-year study of California lakes, rivers, reservoirs and coastal waters will be used to develop cleanup plans in watersheds that feed the lakes and to establish guidelines for consuming fish to protect anglers and their families from health risks, Davis said.
In addition to the 100 popular lakes tested in 2007, the survey included 50 other lakes picked at random. Next year, 2008 sampling results from 100 additional lakes will be released, bringing the total to 250 lakes out of 9,000 in
Popular lakes were those that appeared in fishing guides and were known to state fish and water officials. The lakes were considered clean if all concentrations of pollutants in all the tested species were below thresholds set by the state.
Toxic chemicals under scrutiny were mercury, most of which comes from past mining activities; PCBs, chemicals once used in electrical equipment; and the banned pesticides DDT, dieldrin and chlordane. Fish were also tested for selenium, which is discharged as waste from oil refineries and seeps from irrigated land in the
Methylmercury, the potent form of mercury that taints fish, is the most widespread potential health risk, the study said.
Inorganic mercury, used as an ingredient in gold mining or washing out of crushed rock and natural rock formations, transforms to methylmercury in rivers and lakes, where it accumulates in ever-higher concentrations as it moves up the food chain to larger fish-eating species, such as large-mouth bass.
About one-fourth of the lakes surveyed had at least one fish species with a mercury level high enough that state health officials would consider prohibiting it for the most sensitive humans - pregnant and nursing women, women between 18 and 45 years old who might conceive and children.
PCBs, or polychlorinated biphenyls, are the chemicals that caused the second-most concern among health officials. In
Concentrations of banned pesticides and selenium were generally low, and they infrequently exceeded the state's thresholds, the study said.
The study will be used to identify the lakes where state health officials should return to gather and test more fish and establish safe-eating guidelines, officials said.
The strictest limits will be set for pregnant and nursing women because they can pass pollutants onto fetuses and infants, who are most vulnerable to poisons. Mercury and PCBs can impair mental and motor development, while PCBs and the pesticides are believed to increase cancer risks.
Curtis Knight,
"A big part of fishing in a lake is fishing with your kids. That's how they learn to fish. You certainly want to know what you're feeding your kids, and you want that to be safe," Knight said.
Knight said the lakes and the fish in them are indicators of watershed health. "Lakes are collecting bodies for what's coming out of the streams, and that gives a sense of the watershed's history," he said.#
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2009/05/05/MN5I17EG6E.DTL
Supreme Court lets Shell off the hook in pollution cleanup
McClatchy Newspapers – 5/4 /09
By Michael Doyle of McClatchy and John Ellis of the Fresno
Capping an excruciatingly long legal battle, the court by an 8-1 margin limited the liability of two major railroads for chemical spills in the
"It's a hugely significant case," said Baker & Botts' attorney Daniel Steinway, who wrote a legal brief on behalf of the National Association of Manufacturers and other business groups. "It will have enormous financial consequences for industry."
The five-acre site in question, located about 21 miles southeast of
It is one of 94 Superfund sites scattered throughout
State and federal officials wanted to charge Shell, the Burlington Northern Santa Fe and Union Pacific railroads the full cost of the Arvin site clean-up, which has been underway since 1988. The railroads own part of the property in question, and Shell supplied some of the chemicals distributed by Brown & Bryant, which is now out of business.
The government officials wanted to apply what's called joint-and-several liability. This means a responsible company can be charged 100 percent of the cleanup cost even if it is only responsible for, say, 1 percent of the problem.
Instead, the court ruled Shell wasn't liable at all, while the railroads had only limited liability.
"The primary pollution was contained in an unlined sump and an unlined pond in the southeastern portion of the facility most distant from the railroads' parcel," Justice John Paul Stevens noted, adding that "the spills of hazardous chemicals that occurred on the railroad parcel contributed to no more than 10 percent of the total site contamination."
The contamination includes pesticides, soil fumigants like D-D and Nemagon and the weed-killer dinoseb. Stevens reasoned separately that while Shell "was aware that minor, accidental spills" had occurred at the Arvin site, this knowledge was insufficient to conclude the company was an "arranger" of the disposal and hence fully responsible financially.
The court's ruling overturned the San Francisco-based Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals and restored Fresno-based U.S. District Judge Oliver Wanger's determination that the railroads owe a total of 9 percent of the total cleanup costs. The ruling absolved Shell, on the grounds that the company wasn't directly involved in the pesticide spills. The cleanup so far has cost well over $8 million, and the final cleanup will require millions of dollars more.
The business-friendly ruling culminates a series of lawsuits that began in 1992, and it largely united the court's traditional liberal and conservative wings, with only Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg dissenting.
"Relieving Shell of any obligation to pay for the cleanup undertaken by the
For other companies, attorney Dan Steinway noted, the ruling means that onerous joint-and-several liability may be avoided if a percentage of liability can be calculated.#
http://www.mcclatchydc.com/environment/story/67478.html
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