[env-trinity] Additional SF Chronicle Glen Martin July 19 2005

[Byron]

Below are the three drainage alternatives in the San Luis Drainage Feature
Re-Evaluation Environmental Impact Statement:

 

Drain pains 

The U.S. Bureau of Reclamation is looking at three alternatives for
completing the San Luis Drain, which would dispose of selenium-tainted
agricultural waste water from the western San Joaquin Valley: 

 

1) Drainage to the Sacramento River-San Joaquin River Delta: 

Disposal would be either near Chipps Island off Antioch or near the
Carquinez Bridge. Concerns include threats to drinking water, fisheries and
wildlife.. 

 

2) Drainage to the ocean: 

A pipeline traversing the Coast Range would end in Estero Bay in San Luis
Obispo County. Advocates say the open sea would provide ample room for
diluting the effluent to safe levels, but environmentalists say fish and
birds could still be affected.. 

 

3) The in-valley solution: 

This approach would consist of a combination of retired agricultural lands
and evaporation ponds. After the drain water evaporates in the ponds, the
remaining solids would be disposed of in approved landfills.
Environmentalists favor complete reliance on land retirement, arguing that
evaporation ponds, no matter how configured, would poison birds.

 

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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