Department of Water Resources
California Water News
A daily compilation of significant news articles and comment
July 6, 2009
4. Water Quality –
EPA tentatively agrees to pesticide use restrictions near Bay Area endangered species habitat
Contra Costa Times
SoCal Asian communities aim to weed out toxic fish
Fresno Bee
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EPA tentatively agrees to pesticide use restrictions near Bay Area endangered species habitat
Alameda Times-Star-7/4/09
By Suzanne Bohan
The Environmental Protection Agency last week announced its tentative settlement agreement to temporarily ban in eight Bay Area counties the use of 74 pesticides in habitat set aside for 11 imperiled species.
The agency also agreed to work with the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service to rigorously assess any risks posed by these pesticides to the endangered or threatened species.
That latter step will clear up uncertainty over the effects of these powerful chemicals on animal species deemed near the brink of survival, said Jeff Miller, a spokesman for the Center for Biological Diversity in San Francisco, a nonprofit that filed a 2007 lawsuit leading to the settlement.
"The end game is to get them to actually conduct the assessments of what the actual effects are," Miller said.
Counties covered by the agreement are Alameda, Contra Costa, Marin, Napa, San Mateo, Santa Clara, Solana and Sonoma.
The settlement lists the Alameda whipsnake, bay checkerspot butterfly, California clapper rail, California freshwater shrimp, California tiger salamander, delta smelt, salt marsh harvest mouse, San Francisco garter snake, San Joaquin kit fox, tidewater goby and valley elderberry longhorn beetle as at risk from the chemicals.
The EPA, under the Endangered Species Act, is required to subject pesticides to extra scrutiny if they're used on or near critical habitat set aside for imperiled species. In its lawsuit, the environmental group contended that the agency for years has failed to take this extra step. The group settled a similar case with the EPA in 2006, which prohibited the use of 66 pesticides statewide in and adjacent to threatened California red-legged frog habitat.
The EPA, however, defended its approval process for pesticides.
"Scientifically supported findings are the foundation of our regulatory decisions," said Enesta Jones, an EPA spokeswoman. "The agency intends to ensure that all registered pesticides are evaluated consistent with requirements of the Endangered Species Act."
Allen James, president of RISE, or Responsible Industry for a Sound Environment, said the group supports efforts to require the EPA to subject pesticides to all required reviews.
"We have always supported full implementation of the law," said James, whose trade group represents pesticide suppliers and users in urban areas. "We want them to do it, we need them to do it as rapidly, as scientifically, as possible."
But James strongly objects to the proposed halt on using the 74 pesticides in imperiled species habitat until the scientific review is completed, estimated in 2014.
"It brings commerce to a halt," he said. And homeowners living on or near the imperiled species habitat will have fewer options for battling termites, weeds and other pests, he said.
Miller countered that few homeowners would be affected.
"Very few people have homes within endangered species habitat," Miller said. He also said those homeowners have numerous other options for battling the pests.
The EPA has opened the settlement agreement to public comment through July 16, and will consider petitions for amending it. The two parties would go back the negotiating table to agree to any new terms.
"We do not feel this is an equitable agreement, and we will enter our comments," James said.
The proposed settlement can be viewed, and comments posted, by visiting tinyurl.com/l95swf.
While only land set aside for endangered species would be affected under the proposed terms, James said that amounts to "a tremendous amount of acreage." Miller said it's largely farm and vineyard operators that will be affected.
James said there's no evidence that any of the pesticides are actually causing harm to the listed animals. The lawsuit, he said, focused on a procedural flaw within the EPA.
The environmental group, however, has no doubt that these pesticides have worsened the condition of the imperiled wildlife.
"There is very good evidence of pesticide harm to the species," Miller said. "Obviously there are a lot threats to species: climate change, habitat loss, invasive species. But for some species pesticides are a pretty big factor, especially amphibians."
He cited the center's 2006 report, "Poisoning Our Imperiled Wildlife: San Francisco Bay Area Endangered Species at Risk from Pesticides," which critiques EPA handling of endangered species' exposure to pesticides.
http://www.insidebayarea.com/timesstar/localnews/ci_12753941
SoCal Asian communities aim to weed out toxic fish
Fresno Bee-7/4/09
By Amy Taxin (Associated Press)
John Fallan's trained eye scans rows of iceboxes brimming with tiger fish and shrimp in a Vietnamese supermarket, searching for one pesky fish that threatens the health of seafood lovers.
Authorities say the white croaker has become a popular catch in local Asian communities. But when reeled in off a stretch of California's coastline southwest of Los Angeles, the fish has been laced with cancer-causing toxins stored from decades of chemical dumps near the scenic shore.
Fallan leads a team of wardens from the California Department of Fish and Game to hunt down the white croaker on fishing piers, landings and in Vietnamese and Chinese markets across Southern California, where in recent years the silvery, fatty fish could be found in droves.
"It's a massive effort," said Fallan, a lieutenant specialist with the department. "We can't keep up with all these markets and restaurants and retailers."
Between the 1950s and 1970s, Montrose Chemical Corp. - the world's largest producer of DDT - and other companies released tons of the pesticide into sewers that emptied into the Pacific Ocean off the Palos Verdes Peninsula. Other companies discharged chemical compounds known as PCBs.
Federal and state government agencies sued them in 1990, and $140 million in settlements is being used to find the fish and reduce the effects of the pollution.
Eating white croaker poses potential harm to humans because it doesn't metabolize pollutants like other fish off Southern California's coast, said Michael Franklin, a marine biology professor at California State University, Northridge.
While no cancer cases have been directly linked to its consumption, regularly eating the fish off the Palos Verdes Peninsula carries 60 times the cancer risk of eating rockfish or kelp bass from the same area, the Environmental Protection Agency said.
While California banned commercial fishing of white croaker stretching three miles out from the peninsula in 1990, the fish can be found farther to the north and south. However, there is no way to tell the difference between a polluted and clean fish without testing it.
Consequently, authorities are urging consumers to steer clear of the white croaker altogether.
For years, the fish didn't have much of a market and was used as bait but became more popular as the region's Asian population grew, experts said. The EPA focused on the Vietnamese and Chinese communities after a study showed their fish-eating habits put them at higher risk for toxin exposure.
Last year, the EPA started enlisting wardens and health inspectors in Los Angeles and Orange counties to check markets and bring back suspicious samples of the fish for testing, and recruited community groups to teach families how to cook fish in ways that reduce their exposure to the chemicals.
The groups are urging consumers to use only the fish fillet and steam fish so the fat drips out, and with it, the toxins.
Studies show chemical concentrations are 10 times higher in the whole fish than just the fillet, said Sharon Lin, an EPA remedial project manager who oversees the outreach efforts on fish consumption.
Trying to change people's behavior routinely comes up against age-old customs, such as using fish heads to flavor soup. "A lot of people think the fish head is the tastiest part in soup," Lin said. "It is really hard to change that."
Vietnamese community groups in Orange County began holding workshops last year at health clinics and beauty schools, hoping to target young women of childbearing age who are especially vulnerable to the toxins.
"Back in Vietnam, it is a poor country so they want to use everything," said Tiffany Nguyen, branch manager in Orange County for Boat People SOS, a Vietnamese-American organization that has been conducting some of the workshops.
"In America, there's more abundance of food so they're more picky as to what to eat."
Chinese immigrants in San Gabriel, a small city northeast of Los Angeles, launched similar outreach programs this year.
Winston Huang, a 45-year-old self-professed health buff, appeared anxious about his eating habits after a community educator met with him in the waiting room of a Chinese health clinic. "I will notice which kind of fish I'm eating," he said afterward.
Authorities say landing receipts filed by commercial fisherman show 30,000 pounds of white croaker are caught every year in accepted zones. Since white croaker is commonly caught and doesn't fetch a high price, authorities believe the fish is not shipped outside Southern California.
Besides teaching fishermen, shopkeepers and consumers to shun the white croaker, authorities plan to lay sediment over the 110 tons of DDT and 10 tons of PCBs still found off the Palos Verdes Peninsula. But the project will take several years and even longer for the white croaker to emerge clean, Lin said.
Meanwhile, wardens say they have seen relatively few specimens in Asian markets that were teeming with white croaker a few years ago. To date, wardens and health inspectors have taken only 25 fish for lab testing. No results are available yet.
Authorities hope that seafood market managers drop white croaker from their inventory altogether. In Orange County's Little Saigon neighborhood, several managers said they no longer carried the fish and one said a health inspector had warned him not to sell it.
But inspectors aren't too confident, noting the steady number of landings mean the fish are still out there and likely ending up on someone's plate.
"They're being sold some place," Fallan said. "We just haven't found them yet."
http://www.fresnobee.com/641/story/1514571.html
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