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News Round-Up
Volunteers will do the kind of ongoing field sampling of Bay-Delta environmental conditions that water quality agencies all need but few can muster, if a new committee of government staffers and citizens led by the State Water Board has its way. The committee wants to improve links between volunteer monitoring groups, watershed awareness groups and public agencies. A Bay Area-based pilot project for this statewide effort will soon be launched by the S.F. Estuary Institute. Its plan is to canvass local agencies to discover their monitoring needs, develop a how-to guide for volunteers (including standard protocols, data quality and assurance procedures, sample field data sheets and data base formats) and nurture two actual on-the-ground volunteer efforts into action. (916)657-0518 & (510)231-9539
Winter flood waters shut down a Yuba river fish ladder and washed away a fish screen. But damage to environmental improvements along the Estuary's larger rivers was slight, due to ample space in most flood control reservoirs. Heavy winter rains turned the Sacramento National Wildlife Refuge complex into a giant lake, drowning and starving some upland critters, according to Fish & Wildlife's Greg Mansik. Mansik says flood waters have also done some good - scouring out years of accumulated silt from fish spawning gravels and introducing foods into rivers for resident catfish and other species.
Environmental quality requirements do not hinder economic growth, according to a new MIT study. The study found that states with the strongest regs had the strongest economies, that pollution control requirements often lead to reevaluations of production processes - and thus to more efficient manufacturing operations, that most corporate executives haven't the foggiest idea what complying with regs actually costs them, and that 99% of layoffs are caused by factors other than environmentalism. For a copy of study call: (617)253-8078.
The Triennial Basin Plan Overhaul had the S.F. Bay and Central Valley Regional Water Quality Control Boards burning the midnight oil to meet the State Board's January 1995 deadline. The former undertook a massive plan reorganization and employed state-of-the-art new GIS mapping to make it more "user friendly," according to the Board's Michael Carlin. Carlin says the revised plan also includes a strengthened watershed approach, beefed-up chapters on monitoring and surveillance and a description of emerging new program areas, such as wetlands planning and sediment management. Carlin's counterpart in the Central Valley Board, Jerry Bruns, says the most significant changes in his agency's Delta Basin Plan are a whole new section on groundwater clean up and some clarification of toxicity objectives. Both plans were submitted to the State Board for review this February. (510)286-1325 & (916)255-3093
A recent study found high levels of human-harming toxins in bay fish, leading state health officials to warn local recreational fishers to limit their consumption of white croaker, perch, shark, halibut, striped bass and sturgeon. But a tandem Save the Bay seafood consumption study suggests such warnings may not be effective, as virtually none of the anglers surveyed knew of an already-existing health advisory for striped bass. Cultural and language barriers may be hindering efforts to reach those most likely to eat contaminated fish - subsistence fishers who depend on their catch for food - according to the study. Leaders from the at-risk communities are now the target of outreach efforts. (510)452-9261 & (510)286-1346
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