[env-trinity] FW: SF Chronicle July 19, 2005

[Byron]

CALIFORNIA 
Contaminated valley drain water a problem yet unsolved 
Public comment on controversy closes on Aug. 1

 <mailto:glenmartin at sfchronicle.com> Glen Martin, Chronicle Environment
Writer

Tuesday, July 19, 2005

 


 
<http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/object/article?f=/c/a/2005/07/19/BAGGGDQ4RK1.
DTL&o=0> Chronicle graphic by Joe Shoulak

*                                  


 

Time is running out on the public's opportunity to express itself about
possible solutions to a problem that has vexed environmentalists and San
Joaquin Valley farmers for decades -- the disposal of selenium-tainted
agricultural drain water from the Central Valley. 

The U.S. Bureau of Reclamation is looking at three alternatives to the drain
water problem, all of them controversial. One would discharge the waste --
which is a danger to birds and fish -- into the Sacramento-San Joaquin River
Delta, a drinking water source for several East Bay communities. 

The public comment period will end Aug. 1. 

Contaminated drain water has long plagued San Joaquin Valley agribusiness.
The problem is caused by irrigating western valley lands rich in selenium,
an element that can cause birth defects in birds or fish, or sometimes kill
them outright. The western San Joaquin Valley sits on an impermeable clay
base. When land is irrigated, the salt, boron and selenium present in the
land dissolve, then concentrate in the upper layers of soil. Crops can grow
in the presence of selenium, but not salt and boron, so the land is
periodically flushed with additional water to remove the minerals. 

This selenium-impregnated drain water then becomes a logistical nightmare;
farmers must dispose of it to stay in business, but there is no easy
solution. 

The problem came to the public's attention in a spectacular fashion in the
mid-1980s, when thousands of birds died at the now-decommissioned Kesterson
Wildlife Refuge near Los Banos in Merced County. The refuge's marshes had
been flooded with agricultural drain water. 

Congress had anticipated the problem when it passed the San Luis Act of
1960, authorizing construction of water delivery systems from the Trinity
and Sacramento rivers to the western San Joaquin Valley. The legislation
required construction of a disposal pipeline for the drain water. 

With the delta planned as the original disposal point, the San Luis Drain
was built as far as the Los Banos area. At that point, it was decided to
plug the drain and flood Kesterson with the waste water. 

But after the wildlife catastrophe at Kesterson, the federal Bureau of
Reclamation reached an agreement with environmentalists and farmers to
re-open a portion of the drain so contaminated water wouldn't seep out of
croplands, poisoning other wildlife refuges in the valley. That water is now
dumped into tributaries of the San Joaquin River, although fairly strict
limits on selenium discharges are enforced. 

Under the Clinton administration, momentum gained for retirement of
agricultural land as an alternative to a drain. By the government buying
land and irrigation rights, it was reasoned, the drain water problem would
be solved: No irrigation, no drain water. 

About 40,000 acres have been retired from agricultural production. The lands
can no longer grow crops, but the farmers were allowed to keep their land
and water rights. 

That still leaves about 350,000 acres of land with drainage problems in the
western San Joaquin Valley. In 1995, federal Judge Oliver Wanger in Fresno
ruled that the Bureau of Reclamation had to file for state permits to
complete the San Luis drain. And in 2000, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the
Ninth Circuit, based in San Francisco, upheld a significant part of Wanger's
decision, agreeing that the bureau had to provide some kind of solution to
the waste water problem -- though completion of the drain was not specified.


In response to the courts' decisions, the bureau has completed a draft
Environmental Impact Statement outlining three possible scenarios for the
drain's completion: 

-- Drainage into the delta, near either Chipps Island near Antioch or near
the Carquinez Bridge. 

-- Drainage into Estero Bay on the Central Coast, near Morro Bay. 

-- An "in valley" solution that would involve some land retirement and some
evaporation ponds. Depending on the plan's configuration, the ponds would
total from 1,200 to 3,300 acres. 

Terry Young, a chemist, environmental consultant and one of the negotiators
in the drain agreement that allowed discharge to the San Joaquin River
following the Kesterson incident, said the delta option raises significant
Bay Area concerns. 

"Both the Contra Costa Water Agency and the Contra Costa Water District
(which serve numerous East Bay cities) went on the record at a (July 12)
public meeting on the drain stating the Chipps Island alternative could have
deleterious effects on water quality," Young said. "Drinking water quality
wouldn't be as much an issue with the Carquinez Strait alternative, but it
could still have a major impact on fisheries and wildlife." 

The in-valley solution has also raised concerns among environmentalists that
it could result in "Kesterson II." 

But Mike Delamore, the chief of the San Joaquin Drainage Division for the
Bureau of Reclamation, said the agency will take pains to mitigate the
threat to wildlife if that option is chosen. 

All the drain water would be treated to reduce selenium content to less than
10 parts per billion, said Delamore. The selenium residue would then be
taken to approved disposal sites, he said. 

"Even that level of selenium (in the water) is a matter of concern, so we
would make the evaporation ponds as unattractive to wildlife as possible,"
he said. "For example, we could give them vertical sides so there wouldn't
be any shore bird or puddle duck habitat." 

Tupper Hull, a spokesman for Westlands Irrigation District -- which at about
600,000 acres, is the largest district on the west side -- said the bureau
has done a good job of addressing the drainage problem. 

"It is a difficult task, and there are no easy solutions," Hull said. "It's
a very, very tough nut to crack." 

But most environmentalists continue to disparage all the alternatives,
saying they perpetuate the problem rather than solve it. 

"There is very little chance of success for any of these alternatives in the
real world," said Byron Leydecker, the chairman of Friends of the Trinity
River and an adviser to California Trout. 

Following the close of the comment period, the bureau is expected to choose
one of the alternatives by July, 2006. It will then issue a record of
decision, which will go to Congress for authorization and appropriation. 

 

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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