[env-trinity] MASSIVE CALIFORNIA WATER RECLAMATION SCHEME FULL OF HOLES — EPA Warns of Unproven Approach

Thu Aug 30 10:33:33 PDT 2007

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For Immediate Release: August 30, 2007
Contact: Carol Goldberg (202) 265-7337

MASSIVE CALIFORNIA WATER RECLAMATION SCHEME FULL OF HOLES — EPA Warns of Unproven Approach, Severe Eco-Effects and Huge Taxpayer Costs

Sacramento —A multi-billion dollar Bureau of Reclamation plan to address mounting irrigation-induced pollution in California’s Central Valley is packed with economic, environmental and technical problems, according to a U.S. Environmental Protection Agency memo released today by Public Employees for Environmental Responsibility (PEER). Rather than retire the land producing the drainage contamination, Reclamation is pushing an expensive scheme for agribusiness to assume control and continue irrigation.

One danger is a repeat of an ecological disaster from the early 1980s that went by the name Kesterson. Tens of thousands of grotesquely deformed and dead birds littered the Kesterson National Wildlife Refuge, poisoned by selenium and other toxics that accumulated in irrigation drainage water from the Westlands Water District, the nation’s largest and most influential irrigator. 

In 1985, the Bureau of Reclamation closed the drainage conduits to Kesterson, and Westlands pledged to solve the drainage problem. Twenty years later, that solution still appears elusive. Reclamation’s latest plan relies upon untested technology and an unprecedented privatization of federal water power. In exchange for the San Luis Contractors (which includes Westlands) finally addressing drainage problems, Reclamation proposes increasing water deliveries, forgiving Central Valley debt repayment worth tens of billions of dollars over the next 60 years, and ceding the contractors control of public water facilities.

In an August 21, 2007 memo, EPA Regional Administrator Carolyn Yale outlined several concerns to Reclamation Mid-Pacific Regional Director Frederico Barajas, including –

  a.. The “current proposal assumes unproven feasibility for complete management, treatment and disposal of drainage on a regional scale”; 
  b.. Likelihood of “unacceptable environmental impacts” such as “continued generation of high volumes of contaminated drainage without the assurance of effective and economic treatment and disposal” and “the potential to yield biologically available organic forms of selenium”; and 
  c.. Significant taxpayer liability since irrigators will not “assume responsibility for the full cost of generating, managing and disposing of agricultural drainage” based upon “cost estimates provided by the districts…substantially below the Reclamation’s calculations” of what is required. 
“The Bureau of Reclamation seems to be peddling selenium snake oil,” stated California PEER Director Karen Schambach, noting that Reclamation historically backs irrigator preferences. “The Bureau selenium bio-treatment scenario is simply wishful thinking, unsupported by a shred of credible science.”

The San Joaquin River already suffers from severe selenium effects and is an impaired water body for a 130-mile stretch, reaching down to its delta, Suisun Bay and adjacent marshes. The impacts also extend to the salmon and steelhead of the Sacramento, American, Trinity and Klamath Rivers.

“Left to its own devices, the Bureau of Reclamation will embrace a hugely expensive boondoggle that may result in the mother of all Kestersons,” Schambach warned. “It would be far more effective and ten times less expensive to retire the land and shut off the irrigation pumps.”

###

Read the EPA memo 

See the economic comparison of retiring the land versus other options

Find out more about Bureau of Reclamation’s plans 

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http://www.sfgate.com:80/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2007/08/30/BAHVRRMP6.DTL&hw=selenium&sn=001&sc=1000

EPA questions toxics cleanup proposal in exchange for water rights
Peter Fimrite, Chronicle Staff Writer
Thursday, August 30, 2007
The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency has concerns about a proposal to have a group of San Joaquin Valley farmers clean up a toxic farm-water drainage problem in exchange for promises of water and debt relief from the federal government, according to an EPA memo provided to The Chronicle on Wednesday.

The proposed deal, which is still subject to extensive environmental review and congressional approval, would ensure water rights for landowners in the Westlands Water District for 60 years - more than double the length of a normal water contract. In return, the sprawling water district would assume responsibility for cleaning up a polluted mess created 20 years ago when naturally occurring salt and selenium drained off irrigated farmland, killing and deforming wildlife.

The Aug. 21 memo written by EPA Regional Administrator Carolyn Yale, expresses reservations about the feasibility of management, treatment and disposal of the contaminants by agricultural interests without government assistance and oversight.

"We are concerned about the possibility of implementing a drainage plan which allows continued generation of high volumes of contaminated drainage without the assurance of effective and economic treatment and disposal," states the memo, which was addressed to Frederico Barajas, the regional director for the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation.

It urges the bureau to implement extensive monitoring of the cleanup program and testing of drainage water.

The U.S. government has calculated it would cost $2.6 billion to clean up the mess. Westlands officials believe they can do it for less than $1 billion, according to government sources.

The water agency and its farmers owe the federal government nearly $500 million. The farmers would have that debt forgiven under the latest proposal. That debt has lingered since the 1930s, when the Bureau of Reclamation advanced the money to build the massive water distribution system known as the Central Valley Project. That system pumps water out of the Sacramento-San Joaquin River Delta and redistributes it to cities and farms in the San Joaquin Valley.

The high-stakes negotiations pit the politically connected farmers with vast tracts of cropland against conservationists who are opposed to giving away precious drinking water. Several environmental groups have already expressed some of the same concerns outlined in the EPA memo.

The Westlands Water District is a coalition of agribusinesses in the San Joaquin Valley that use water from the Central Valley Project, which in addition to supplying irrigation water also delivers drinking water to about 1 million households. Much of the food in California, including lettuce and tomatoes, is grown with the project's water.

Karen Schambach, the California director of the Public Employees for Environmental Responsibility, said turning cleanup over to the farmers is asking for another mishap like the one at the Kesterson National Wildlife Refuge, where thousands of dead and deformed birds were linked to the runoff. The group gave the memo to The Chronicle.

"The Bureau of Reclamation seems to be peddling selenium snake oil," Schambach said. "It would be far more effective and 10 times less expensive to retire the land and shut off the irrigation pumps."

Given the financial interests at stake, the pumps are not likely to be shut down completely, according to experts, but the complex negotiations are far from over. They are going on at a time when jurisdictional battles over water rights are becoming more contentious after a dry winter. Predictions of more frequent droughts as a result of global warming have not helped matters.

The Bureau of Reclamation and the Westlands Water District could not be reached for comment.

Online resource

Read the EPA memo

links.sfgate.com/ZRC

E-mail Peter Fimrite at pfimrite at sfchronicle.com

This article appeared on page B - 1 of the San Francisco Chronicle

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