Monthly Archive for February, 2009

Letter Requested on Behalf of Fisheries

Published on February 28, 2009 in Lakes and Resevoirs, Salmonid/Wildlife Impacts and Streams and Wetlands. 0 Comments

Dear Commercial and Recreational Fishing and Salmon Advocates and Colleagues….

Attached is a draft letter to President Obama, asking him to appoint a Salmon Director in the White House Council of Environmental Quality (CEQ), which is the President’s top environmental policy advisory group, to help refashion and redirect the west coast away from the failed salmon policies under the Bush Administration that have left the west coast salmon runs near ruin.  PLEASE CONSIDER SIGNING YOUR PORT ASSOCIATION OR ORGANIZATION ON TO THIS LETTER AS SOON AS POSSIBLE.

Having someone close to the President who can advise him on real and science-based ways to recover west coast salmon, and who (as a representative of the White House) also has the power to force disparate and conflicting federal agencies to work together on a common salmon recovery approach, would be a very long step in the right direction and out of the current salmon policy chaos we have inherited.  THIS LETTER IS NOW CIRCULATING FOR FISHING AND SALMON PROTECTION GROUPS TO SIGN ON TO.  It is co-authored by the Pacific Coast Federation of Fishermen’s Associations (PCFFA) and by Save Our Wild Salmon, which have already signed the letter and are now circulating it to others.  Please feel free to pass it on to your colleagues working salmon restoration as well.

I have listed myself as the contact person for this circulation effort, at the top of the letter. Please contact me at that email.  We would like to finalize this letter by the end of February, if possible.

For signers, please email me with the authorizing person’s name, title, organization, and city. (I’d also like email and phone, so I can follow up with them when the letter is finalized.)

Please contact me with any questions.  Thanks!

Joseph Bogaard Outreach Director Save Our Wild Salmon Coalition 206-286-4455, x103 206-300-1003 © joseph@wildsalmon.org

Comment on SCWA’s Public Meetings on Water Rationing

Published on February 26, 2009 in Streams and Wetlands, Water Conservation and Watershed Related. 1 Comment

Prologue to SCWA’s public meeting schedule notice for talking about the next Urgency Change Petitions to SWRCB and flow reductions:

If SCWA doesn’t have enough water for our salmon and steelhead, why do they keep building?

If they don’t have enough water, when will they institute mandatory reductions and efficiencies for the water they do have?

If they don’t have enough water, why do they keep taking water from the Eel River instead of fixing the mismanagement and overdrafting of the Russian River watershed?

Why are existing ratepayers being forced to subsidize the costs of expanding a water supply system to support the beneficiaries of new growth?

When will SCWA shift their course to one that is truly sustainable for at least the next 150 years?

David

We need to talk… about water. The Sonoma County Water Agency is hosting three meetings to inform the public about Lake Mendocino and Lake Sonoma water storage projections, potential mandatory water conservation, and the related impacts on residents, businesses, cities, water agencies, and agricultural communities in Mendocino and Sonoma counties. The Agency will also discuss plans to seek an Urgency Change Petition from the State Water Resources Control Board for reduced Russian River flows.

Upcoming public meetings:
UKIAH
Monday, March 16, 2009 – 6:30 to 8 p.m.
Ukiah City Hall
300 Seminary Avenue
HEALDSBURG
Tuesday, March 17, 2009 – 6:30 to 8 p.m.
Healdsburg City Hall
401 Grove Street
GUERNEVILLE
Wednesday, March 18, 2009 – 6:30 to 8 p.m.
Guerneville Veterans Memorial Hall
First and Church streets

For more information contact Brad Sherwood, public information officer, at (707) 547-1927 or sherwood@ scwa.ca.gov. You may also visit  www.sonomacountywater.org to learn more about current and projected water storage in our reservoir

Storm Fills Reservoirs – Drought Fears Persist

Published on February 25, 2009 in Lakes and Resevoirs and Water Conservation. 0 Comments

Jill Tucker, Chronicle Staff Writer,
February 23, 2009

A steady rainfall over the weekend helped bring California a lot closer to its normal levels of precipitation for the year – and more rain is on its way this week.

Still, officials cautioned, it’s too early to tell whether the state will have a drought.

The state’s rainfall total for the year late Sunday was at 90 percent of normal, said National Weather Service forecaster Bob Benjamin. Only two weeks ago, rainfall levels were at about 60 percent of normal.

But, Benjamin added: “Rainfall is only one part of the drought equation. There are a lot more factors.”

One is the fact that California has had several years where rainfall for the year fell short of normal. “It’s like having your checkbook overdrawn,” Benjamin said, adding, “This year you may add a normal (or above normal) amount of funds, but you might still be short.”

Another factor is water management and conservation, Benjamin said.

Still another factor is that a sudden drenching may produce a lot of runoff – but that runoff may not always go into the watersheds and reservoirs. It sometimes floods channels or ends up in storm drains.

“A lot of rain at once doesn’t always mean you’re going to fill in the appropriate containers,” he said.

San Francisco, which received about an inch of rain Sunday, was at 85 percent of normal rainfall for the year by late Sunday.

“The normal should be 16.12 inches – we have gotten 13.72 inches,” Benjamin said.

San Rafael got 2.4 inches of rain, Olema 3.9 inches, Oakland 1.2 inches and Mount Barnabe, in Marin County, 5 inches.

“There’s definitely been a fair amount of rain out of this little system,” Benjamin said.

Light rain is expected today – and showers are expected throughout the week, Benjamin said. Next weekend, there may be even more rain, he added.

The weekend drenching caused problems on Bay Area highways and also in the air, delaying flights for up to two hours at San Francisco International Airport.

Several local roadways had minor flooding, and numerous fender benders tied up weekend traffic. Flights in and out of San Francisco were delayed all day Sunday as wind, rain and decreased visibility slowed air traffic.

A falling tree killed a Sonoma County woman about 11:30 a.m. Sunday as she walked before church on Freestone Flat Road, the Sonoma County Sheriff’s Department said. The name of the woman, a Freestone resident in her 40s, was not released pending notification of family.

The storm may have contributed to the capsizing of a boat in rough waters off the San Mateo County coast. A fisherman was reported missing and was still unaccounted for Sunday night.

In the higher elevations, the warm storm dropped rain on some lower ski slopes, with the snow level pushed up to 7,500 to 8,000 feet.

Chronicle staff writer Demian Bulwa contributed to this report. E-mail Jill Tucker at jtucker@sfchronicle.com.

Recent Rainfall Increases Storage Levels, Rationing Still Likely, Public Meetings Scheduled

Published on February 25, 2009 in Lakes and Resevoirs. 0 Comments

Sonoma County Water Agency
PRESS RELEASE For Immediate Release

February 24, 2009

Santa Rosa, CA – The Sonoma County Water Agency is encouraged by the recent rainfall pattern that settled over the North Bay, however, as of February 23 Lake Mendocino’s water storage level still remains low – only 44 percent of capacity – compared to 85 percent last year. Lake Sonoma is currently 80 percent of capacity – compared to 100 percent last year. The Agency has scheduled public meetings to address water storage, water conservation, and possible State Water Resources Control Board action to reduce summertime Russian River flows.

The recent storms brought Santa Rosa’s year-to-date rainfall to approximately 15.54 inches, just 69 percent of normal. Santa Rosa only received approximately .49 inches of rain in January – nearly breaking the record of .39 inches received during the record drought year of 1977.

“We counted on the current level of rainfall when calculating our water storage projections for Lake Mendocino. That projection showed that even if we received seven inches of rain our storage levels would remain low and could result in a 30 percent reduction in water availability for SCWA contractors,” said Pam Jeane, deputy chief engineer of operations.

The recent rainfall did increase storage levels, but releases from those reservoirs into the Russian River, in order to meet state mandated instream flow requirements, may bring storage levels back down to pre-storm levels – pending future rainfall. To address this concern, SCWA is preparing plans to apply for an Urgency Change Petition from the State Water Resources Control Board for reduced Russian River flows. The declaration of a normal, dry or critically dry year is based on Decision 1610, SCWA’s water rights permit issued by the State Water Resources Control Board. If cumulative inflow into Lake Pillsbury on the Eel River increases above 45,000 acre-feet by March 1, then the water year would remain dry and flows would remain at 75 cfs. A dry year was declared on February 1 and flows were reduced to 75 cfs in the upper and lower Russian River. “Reducing water releases from our reservoirs and lowering flows in the Russian River would allow us to save every drop for water supply, recreation and fisheries in the summer and fall,” said Jeane. “We have several meetings scheduled to address this plan with the public.”

The Sonoma County Water Agency will host three public meetings on Lake Mendocino and Lake Sonoma water storage projections, plans for an Urgency Change Petition for reduced Russian River flows, potential mandatory water conservation and impacts to cities, water agencies, residents, businesses and agricultural communities in Mendocino and Sonoma counties. Below are the dates and locations of the public meetings:

Continue reading ‘Recent Rainfall Increases Storage Levels, Rationing Still Likely, Public Meetings Scheduled’

Comments Due Feb. 26 on EPA Effluent Limits

Published on February 18, 2009 in Waste Discharge. 0 Comments
Comments Due Now on EPA’s Proposed Construction and Development Effluent Limitations Guidelines (ELG)

Public Comment Period Ends February 26th! 
This is an important reminder for all CWN Members that you have the opportunity to influence on ongoing rulemaking at EPA that is central to the regulation of stormwater from construction and development.    

EPA’s proposed technology based standard for construction site runoff is now open to public comment, and it is important that EPA hears from you about two things in particular (1) the importance of an objective, performance based standard; and (2)  the importance of controlling post-construction stormwater as well as construction site runoff.  The proposal can be found at   http://www.epa.gov/waterscience/guide/construction/index.html 

An excellent fact sheet on the proposal from Waterkeeper Alliance is available through the following link:

http://www.cleanwaternetwork.org//issues/pollutedrunoff/prfocus/displaycontent.cfm?ContentID=744&ContentTypeID=1&PageFormat=DisplayContent&ConfigID=133

If you have questions on this topic please contact NRDC’s lead on this, Melanie Shepherdson, who can be reached at  202-289-2393.     
 

Thanks very much,
Natalie U. Roy
Clean Water Network 

 

Lawsuit Aims to Protect Northern California Salmon Habitat

Published on February 18, 2009 in Salmonid/Wildlife Impacts and Streams and Wetlands. 0 Comments

Colin Sullivan, Greenwire PM DC Februarary 4, 2009

SAN FRANCISCO — Environmental and fishing groups sued California today for allegedly ignoring laws aimed at guaranteeing clean water along the North Coast for endangered chinook salmon, coho salmon and steelhead trout.

The groups — led by the Sierra Club, Earthjustice and the Pacific Coast Federation of Fishermen’s Associations — filed suit in state Superior Court, saying state officials had failed to craft plans that protect water quality and provide habitat for the fish.

“Without such plans, water quality in North Coast rivers and streams will not meet the standards that the state is obligated to achieve,” Earthjustice attorney George Torgun said.

The suit challenges the North Coast Regional Water Quality Control Board’s application of the federal Clean Water Act’s Total Maximum Daily Load program related to removal of sediment in spawning streams and rivers. The groups say the TMDL program “has suffered from a history of inaction.”

Declining river conditions in the region, caused largely by development around the waterways, have resulted in fishing restrictions over the last few years, to include a complete shutdown of the salmon fishing season last year. The groups say the state board has failed to deal with its part of the problem — namely, debris discharge.

The agency, the suit charges, has not maintained a list of rivers and streams that do not meet the water quality standards. Nor has it set pollution limits for these sources, the groups claim.

A North Coast Regional Water Quality Control Board spokesman refused to comment on the lawsuit, but he did cite the agency’s “sediment TMDL implementation policy,” which was passed in 2004. He said the board is working under this program to clean the rivers and streams and to ensure cold water for the fish.

The filing of the complaint comes as water officials statewide are bracing for possible mandated water rationing to cope with a persistent drought. In the same Northern California region yesterday, officials at the Sonoma County Water Agency said they will curtail water deliveries in the coming weeks (E&ENews PM, Feb. 3).

A New Diet for North Coast Rivers

Published on February 18, 2009 in Salmonid/Wildlife Impacts and Streams and Wetlands. 0 Comments

Eric Bailey, Greenspace – LA Times February 4, 2009

Total Maximum Daily Load shouldn’t be confused with the latest dietary fiber standard. In the real world of rivers and environmental regulations, the alphabet soup that is TMDL has long been feared and fought over on the rugged north coast of California.

Now a coalition of conservation and fishing groups is pushing to end the battle once and for all.

In plain English, TMDL standards set the limit for how much sediment and other pollutants are allowed in rivers and streams. Scientists say the North Coast’s waterways long have been degraded by runoff from logging, mining, agriculture, grazing and urban development.

The result has been declining conditions that have undercut fish, most notably salmon and steelhead, now on the endangered species list. Recent years have seen commercial and recreational salmon fishing cut or dramatically curtailed because of declining river health.

Enter TMDL. More than a decade ago, environmentalists sued to force regulators to aggressively implement the Clean Water Act’s TMDL standards on the North Coast. The result was a decree requiring the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency to set pollution limits for 17 North Coast rivers and streams by 2007.

Although the feds have completed most of that work, state water quality agencies have cemented cleanup plans for just three of the rivers. State officials say budget and staff cutbacks have hamstrung their efforts. But environmentalists want to force the issue and get the North Coast’s rivers back on the road to health.

A coalition that includes the Sierra Club and the Pacific Coast Federation of Fishermen’s Assns. sued anew Wednesday in San Francisco to prod the state and regional water boards to come up with plans of action for the remaining rivers.

The time for excuses is over, said Scott Greacen of the Environmental Protection Information Center. “The state has dragged its feet and ignored the law for far too long.”

Click here for the article

Suit Targets Water Quality Enforcement

Published on February 18, 2009 in Salmonid/Wildlife Impacts and Streams and Wetlands. 0 Comments

John Driscoll/The Times-Standard Posted February 5, 2009

Environmental and fishing groups on Wednesday sued state water boards over what they say is a failure to put enforceable water quality standards in place to protect North Coast rivers and fish.

The groups, which include the Sierra Club, the Environmental Protection Information Center, and the Pacific Coast Federation of Fishermen’s Associations, claim the State Water Resources Control Board and the North Coast Regional Water Quality Control Board have violated state law by allowing delays in enforcing water quality standards.

They want the agencies to draft enforceable standards on how much sediment can be allowed in streams and how warm streams are allowed to get from land uses like logging, mining, building and grazing. That would improve habitat for salmon and steelhead, they say, and provide for their recovery.

The suit, filed in San Francisco Superior Court, claims that the agencies have abused their discretion by not finishing the plans.

“They’re not just behind,” said Scott Greacen with EPIC, “they’re pretty much stalled out.”

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency was sued in the 1990s for not protecting North Coast streams, and ended up agreeing to set pollution limits, called Total Maximum Daily Loads, or TMDLs.

The state is required under California law to craft plans to implement those measures. Of some 33 TMDLs, the North Coast board has finished four.

North Coast Regional Water Quality Control Board Executive Officer Catherine Kuhlman said that her agency has done the work to ensure water quality standards are upheld through permitting and watershed programs to improve streams.

Kuhlman said board staff are stretched too thin to have a person assigned to every watershed — especially considering that the office employs half what it did in 2000. She added that the agency is still diligently enforcing water quality law, but it is resource intensive to produce the implementation plans.

“It’s more about boots on the ground than paper on the shelf,” Kuhlman said.

There is no enforcement mechanism by which the EPA can press the state to put the implementation plans in place, said EPA standards and TMDL Office Chief Janet Hashimoto. And while Hashimoto said that the TMDLs themselves cannot be enforced until the state takes action, she added that the regional boards have their hands full with many other regulations.

“We would like to see it eventually,” Hashimoto said of the state implementation plans.

The North Coast board has finished plans for the Garcia, Scott, Shasta and Salmon rivers, although it hasn’t yet rolled the Salmon River document into its basin plan. The Klamath River plan has become a priority, given developments on the river regarding dam removal and a federal relicensing process.

Greacen said that while state agencies are stretched with economic and budget constraints, he believes the enforceable plans are not dispensable, and are critical to improving conditions in the streams.

“These aren’t luxuries,” he said, “they’re necessities.”

Regarding Chu’s Warning of Global Warming

Published on February 16, 2009 in Agriculture Impacts, Climate Change, Coastal Impacts, Groundwater, Lakes and Resevoirs, Streams and Wetlands and Water Conservation. 0 Comments
FYI…???
Brock

“I don’t think the American public has gripped in its gut what could happen,” says Nobel winner Steven Chu.

California farms, vineyards in peril from warming, U.S. energy secretary warns

‘We’re looking at a scenario where there’s no more agriculture in California,’ Steven Chu says. He sees education as a means to combat threat.

By Jim Tankersley LA Times

February 4, 2009
Reporting from Washington — California’s farms and vineyards could vanish by the end of the century, and its major cities could be in jeopardy, if Americans do not act to slow the advance of global warming, Secretary of Energy Steven Chu said Tuesday.

In his first interview since taking office last month, the Nobel-prize-winning physicist offered some of the starkest comments yet on how seriously President Obama’s cabinet views the threat of climate change, along with a detailed assessment of the administration’s plans to combat it.

Chu warned of water shortages plaguing the West and Upper Midwest and particularly dire consequences for California, his home state, the nation’s leading agricultural producer.

In a worst case, Chu said, up to 90% of the Sierra snowpack could disappear, all but eliminating a natural storage system for water vital to agriculture.

“I don’t think the American public has gripped in its gut what could happen,” he said. “We’re looking at a scenario where there’s no more agriculture in California.” And, he added, “I don’t actually see how they can keep their cities going” either.

A pair of recent studies raise similar warnings. One, published in January in the journal Science, raised the specter of worldwide crop shortages as temperatures rise. Another, penned by UC Berkeley researchers last year, estimated California has about $2.5 trillion in real estate assets — including agriculture — endangered by warming.

Chu is not a climate scientist. He won his Nobel for work trapping atoms with laser light. He taught at Stanford University and directed the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, where he reoriented researchers to pursue “clean energy” technologies to help reduce the use of greenhouse-gas-emitting fossil fuels in the U.S., before Obama tapped him to head the Energy Department.

He stressed the threat of climate change in his Senate confirmation hearings and in a video clip posted on Obama’s transition website, but not as bluntly, nor in as dire terms, as he did Tuesday.

In the course of a half-hour interview, Chu made clear that he sees public education as a key part of the administration’s strategy to fight global warming — along with billions of dollars for alternative energy research and infrastructure, a national standard for electricity from renewable sources and cap-and-trade legislation to limit greenhouse gas emissions.

He said the threat of warming is keeping policymakers focused on alternatives to fossil fuel, even though gasoline prices have fallen over the last six months from historic highs. But he said public awareness needs to catch up. He compared the situation to a family buying an old house and being told by an inspector that it must pay a hefty sum to rewire it or risk an electrical fire that could burn everything down.

“I’m hoping that the American people will wake up,” Chu said, and pay the cost of rewiring.

Environmentalists welcomed the comments as a sharp break from the Bush administration, which often minimized research about global warming.

“To say the least, it’s a breath of fresh air,” said Bernadette Del Chiaro, who directs the clean air and global warming program for Environment California. “We’ve been worried about the impacts of global warming for years, even decades. He’s absolutely right — California stands to lose so much in our way of life.”

Global warming skeptics were not swayed. “I am hopeful Secretary Chu will take note of the real-world data, new studies and the growing chorus of international scientists that question his climate claims,” Sen. James Inhofe (R-Okla.), the top Republican on the Environment and Public Works Committee, said in a statement. “Computer model predictions of the year 2100 are simply not evidence of a looming climate catastrophe.”

jtankersley@tribune.com

Workshop on 303(d) Impaired Water Bodies, Feb. 17th

Published on February 16, 2009 in Agriculture Impacts, Gravel Mining Impacts, Lakes and Resevoirs, Logging Impacts, Pesticide pollution, Salmonid/Wildlife Impacts, Streams and Wetlands, Waste Discharge and Watershed Related. 0 Comments

Hi Everyone!

This is a reminder that the Regional Board staff  will hold a workshop on
Tuesday, Feb. 17th, at their offices at 5550 Skylane Blvd. at 6 PM on the
303(d) impaired water body list and 305(b) Water Quality Assessment.

The comment period was opened recently and will remain open until March
20th. Call Matt St. John at 576-2220 for more information or check out their
website (google North Coast Regional Water Quality Control Board).

Hope to see you there.

Brenda