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State of the Estuary in Short
It's taken brains, rain, muscle and money, but the state of the Estuary may have improved since 1992, according to a report released on the subject this October. The report describes the current status and health of the Bay-Delta environment and summarizes recent changes in scientific understanding and management of the ecosystem- drawing on the findings of the October 1996 State of the Estuary Conference. The conference and State of the Estuary report (see Now in Print) are part of the S.F. Estuary Project's ongoing efforts to educate and involve the public in protecting and restoring the Bay-Delta system. The following is an excerpt from the report's executive summary.
At the most basic level, the Estuary's "health" comes down to the state of its waters, wetlands and wildlife. Comparing today's (1996-1997) state to yesterday's (1992), there's both good and bad news. On the good side, we have enhanced, restored or protected (through public purchase) substantial tracts of wetlands; cleaned up and improved conditions in numerous creeks and watersheds; and reduced selenium, copper and rice pesticide discharges to waterways. Populations of endangered California clapper rails and winter-run Chinook salmon seem to have stopped declining, and may even be slowly increasing. Fish in Bay creeks are maintaining healthy populations. Waterfowl and shorebirds continue to stopover in large numbers. Freshwater flows for environmental purposes have been easier to come by with the wet weather.
On the bad side, the vital phytoplankton that sustains invertebrates and juvenile fish is being consumed at alarming rates by the invading clam Potamocorbula. The rate of invasions by such foreign species is on the rise, as is their alteration of benthic communities and fish assemblages. Meanwhile Chinese mitten crabs are creeping toward the Delta, where their burrowing could undermine levees, and Atlantic zebra mussels, known to clog water intakes, have appeared at our borders. Species-wise, take limits of the endangered Delta smelt at the water project pumps have been exceeded several years running, harbor seal populations in the Bay have not increased since governmental protections as have coastal populations, and introduced predators such as red foxes and feral cats pose increasing threats to sensitive shorebirds. Pollution-wise, levels of many contaminants frequently exceed water and sediment quality guidelines, and long-banned PCBs and DDT persist in the environment. Indeed, PCBs, dioxin and mercury have accumulated in Bay fish to levels that pose a human health risk. Politics-wise, the water wars- complete with threats, lawsuits and posturing over who's to get and who's to give up water- continue to simmer behind the seemingly calm and cooperative fronts of CALFED and the CVPIA.
Beyond the resources themselves, the state of the Estuary can also be measured in terms of well-intentioned effort, which has certainly increased since the early 1990s. A host of earnest, public-private and government programs have been launched, and some implemented, that reflect the public's commitment to environmental health- one to develop a long-term management strategy for Bay dredged material (LTMS), another to double anadromous fish populations and improve water conservation and environmental conditions in the area served by the Central Valley Project (CVPIA), others to balance water use and supply conflicts (Bay-Delta Accord & CALFED), and others to better monitor estuarine pollution levels (RMP) and map Bay wetlands (San Francisco Bay Area Wetlands Ecosystem Goals Project). Recent years have also seen a wave a new projects and programs tackling some of the Estuary's thornier pollution problems- stormwater runoff from cities, farms and construction sites, metal leaks from abandoned mines, air and road dust from vehicles. And restoration of habitat has never been so well-funded.
These programs- if fully implemented- may go a long way toward addressing the five critical Bay-Delta management issues identified by the Estuary Project in the late 1980s- the decline of biological resources, the diversion and alteration of freshwater flows, increased dredging and pollution, and intensified land use- another measure of the state of the Estuary. Of the five, only the land use issue remains unaddressed on a large scale.
Finally, the state of the Estuary may also be measured in terms of understanding the nature and value of the ecosystem. Many more people- scientists, educators, citizens and resource managers - are involved in researching and monitoring estuarine conditions and health than in the 1980s. The large environmental planning projects described above have expanded the dollars and time committed to getting good science to back up management decisions. In addition, there's been a recent push to better map and document the Bay's remaining wetlands and marsh life using GIS technology and to offer at-your-fingertips electronic access to data on real-time estuarine conditions- from where the endangered fish are swimming to flow and salinity levels. There's also been a blossoming of community and school-based programs that use citizens and students to collect stormwater and creek data for municipalities. Despite this swell of data and knowledge, our understanding of how the estuarine system works and responds to management changes is still far from complete.
All these measures of the state of the Estuary fall short of offering a consistent, meaningful, long-term standard of the Estuary's health. In the meantime, however, the new report and the three conferences and previous report on the subject offer useful snapshots of the state of the Estuary over the last decade.
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