[env-trinity] Redding Record Searchlight Editorial May 1 2005

[Byron]

WATER QUALITY IN TRINITY COUNTY:

Editorial: Pristine' Trinity waters contain a hidden hazard

Redding Record-Searchlight - 5/1/05

 

The adjective "pristine" is as tightly linked to Trinity County's mountains
as "sunny" is to "California" and "United" to "States," but looks aren't
everything. 

 

As happened everywhere the 49ers hunted for gold, miners left behind a
hidden residue of mercury, which they used to separate precious metal from
worthless rock. Quicksilver leaked from sluice boxes, but even more from
mines such as the Altoona on the East Fork of the Trinity. The crud flows
downstream until something stops it, in this case Trinity Dam. 

 

In a sad process scientists call "biomagnification," mercury concentrates as
it goes up the food chain, with a 10-fold increase at each step from
lake-bottom bacteria to plankton to bugs to little fish to big fish. At the
top of that ladder stands the angler on the lakeshore. 

 

There's no need for paranoia about mercury in fish -- as officials from the
state Office of Environmental Health Hazard Assessment will explain at a
Tuesday workshop in Weaverville -- but lovers of trout, salmon and bass
should be cautious, especially pregnant women and children. 

 

At worst, mercury poisoning mars babies' growing brains. The Environmental
Protection Agency says exposure in the womb can hurt children's memory,
language and motor skills. That's no way to get a start in life. 

 

The state guidelines advise that women who could become pregnant and
children eat bass and Trinity Lake chinook salmon no more than once a month,
and most other fish in the watershed no more than once a week. For older
women and men, the limits are looser -- once a week for the big fish, three
times a week for the others. 

 

Frankly, anyone who pulls his supper fresh from the water more often than
that probably feels lucky enough to take his chances, but it's worth knowing
what the experts say. 

 

It's also worth keeping things in perspective: Fish is among the healthiest
foods, and government scientists with human health in mind err on the side
of caution. Enjoy your day at the lake. 

A welcome flood on a parched river 

 

Speaking of the Trinity, the river is in the midst of a remarkable
transformation as the Bureau of Reclamation re-creates -- as far as possible
in a thoroughly plumbed and tamed waterway -- a natural spring surge that
should scour the river channel and rush young salmon on their way to the
ocean. 

 

The artificial flood is huge, taking the river from a few hundred cubic feet
per second up to a peak of 7,000 cfs on May 10. That is about the difference
between Cottonwood Creek and the entire Sacramento River. 

 

To some, the reservoir is always half-empty, and water diverted from
agriculture and power back to nature is simply a squandered resource.
Certainly, we must take human needs into account, but if the Trinity
restoration project succeeds in building healthier fisheries, there will be
a substantial economic as well as ecological payoff. 

 

And -- who knows? -- maybe the flood will wash away some leftover mercury.

 

 

Byron Leydecker, 

Chair, Friends of Trinity River

Consultant, California Trout, Inc.

PO Box 2327

Mill Valley, CA 94942-2327

415 383 4810 ph

415 383 9562 fx

bwl3 at comcast.net

bleydecker at stanfordalumni.org (secondary)

http://www.fotr.org

http://caltrout.org

 

 

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