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Obama Administration Takes Important Step toward Protecting America’s Waterways

2/22/12

From the Chesapeake Bay to the Puget Sound to the many smaller waters in between, America’s waterways are today one step closer to protection under the Clean Water Act, as the Obama administration is now in the final stage of issuing guidelines to restore critical Clean Water Act protections to the nation’s waterways.

“This is an important step forward for America’s waters and the people who depend on them and enjoy them,” said Shelley Vinyard, federal clean water advocate for Environment America. “Once these guidelines are final, everyone from the Great Lakes fisherman to the family visiting the shores of the Narragansett Bay will be able to reap the rewards of cleaner water.”

The guidelines come at a time when nearly 60 percent of the country’s streams, 20 million acres of wetlands, and 117 million Americans’ drinking water is at risk of pollution, thanks to two polluter-friendly Supreme Court decisions in the last decade. The guidelines, which were proposed last April, received overwhelming support from ordinary citizens, thousands of public health professionals, and hundreds of farmers, local elected officials, and recreational businesses—from Confluence Kayaks in Colorado to Angus Murdoch, a farmer from central Virginia.

The proposed guidelines are expected to be finalized by early spring, and were sent to the Office of Management and Budget on Feb. 22.

The industries primarily responsible for this pollution—mega-agribusiness, the coal industry, Big Oil and big developers, are fighting to block these guidelines. In fact, Sen. Rand Paul (R-KY) introduced a bill Feb. 16 that, if passed, would block the president and his administration from ever finalizing these guidelines, and would leave as many as 2.5 million miles of streams nationwide permanently unprotected.

“We are excited that the administration has taken this step toward restoring the Clean Water Act and has reiterated its commitment to protecting America’s waterways from pollution,” Vinyard said. “We are counting on the Obama administration to continue to stand up to big polluters, and look forward to working with them to ensure all Americans have clean water in which to swim, fish, recreate, and drink.”

Noyo Harbor's fishing heydey

2/21/12

They say a picture is worth a thousand words, and these historical photos from Noyo Harbor, at the south end of Fort Bragg, tell a more vivid story about Northern California's rich fishing heritage than any list of numbers. The photos show halibut the size of full grown men, and decks overflowing with the day's catch.

Fishing has been a part of the area's way of life for as long as people have lived there. And that is precisely why north coast residents are so intent on protecting their ocean resources.

Fortunately, local fishermen are working alongside conservationists, businesses, tribal leaders and government groups on an ocean protection plan tailored for the region's unique socioeconomic and environmental conditions. The Marine Life Protection Act has brought these stakeholders together to plan a system of sea life refuges that balances protection of key breeding and feeding grounds with tribal and fishing access.

The community's marine protected area plan has earned support from state decisionmakers, with some adjustments to accommodate traditional tribal harvest. The plan is expected to be finalized later this year.

Original Article

Officials prepare for Japan tsunami debris; float found on Mad River Beach spurs questions

2/20/12

A black float recently spotted at Mad River Beach has stirred up some questions surrounding Japan's tsunami debris and when it will make its way to our shores.

The find coincides with state and county officials' efforts to form a plan for any upcoming increase in debris due to the tsunami triggered by the 9.0-magnitude earthquake in Japan on March 11.

Officials are expecting to develop a response in the next month.

Mike Kelley, a fisheries biologist and an avid beachcomber, found the float -- the size of a 55-gallon drum -- two miles south of the Mad River Beach parking lot near Arcata in late January and reported it to the authorities. Kelley said he received a marine biology news alert regarding similar floats washing ashore in Washington and Oregon.

Humboldt State University geology professor Lori Dengler said officials are still reviewing data, but it is very unlikely that what beachcombers are finding right now came from the tsunami.

”Debris with Japanese writing shows up on our beaches all the time. ... The odds that it is from the tsunami are about the same as winning the Big Spin,” she said.

National Oceanic Atmospheric Administration officials said they are aware of Kelley's find and, while they can't confirm it is specifically from the Japan tsunami incident last year, they have not ruled it out.

Kelley also reported the finding to Curtis Ebbesmeyer, a Seattle resident who has been following flotsam -- everything from Nike sneakers to plastic bath toys -- since the 1960s. Ebbesmeyer said Kelley's sighting is the first he's received from California.

Ebbesmeyer's prediction of the debris making its way to North America's western shores -- which is based on modeling and beachcomber reports -- puts the first arrival at a faster pace than NOAA estimated. According to Ebbesmeyer, 38 beachcombers from California to Alaska reported sightings of 260 buoys since October, with 188 of those seen along the coast of Vancouver Island. He's been chronicling the finds at www.beachcombersalert.blogspot.com.

”Part of the difference is that NOAA doesn't really deal with the debris on the beach as I have been doing it for 20 years, and I have a network of beachcombers around the world sending me information,” Ebbesmeyer said.

Another record-breaker: Chinook salmon stage a comeback on the Eel

2/17/12

The Eel River Recovery Project reports that the 2011 fall run of Chinook salmon on the Eel River was "another record-breaker" at the Van Arsdale Fish Station.

The first of 2,436 Chinook that jumped over the Van Arsdale Dam and spawned in the 12 miles of habitat below Scott Dam and Pillsbury Reservoir was counted on October 16. This was a new high since records began to be kept at Van Arsdale in 1946/47. Last year's fall Chinook run was also a record-breaker, with 2,315 salmon counted.

"Steelhead and chinook right now seem to be experiencing fairly major resurgences," said fisheries biologist Pat Higgins, who has helped organize the EERP. Higgins says improved salmon counts on the Eel, "in a nutshell," are a result of high water flows in the spring during five of the last seven years, a reduction of the pike minnow population, good ocean conditions, and "not much fishing pressure."

High flows get the salmon past the pike minnows, also known as squawfish, Higgins said, and high flows and wet conditions also tend to suppress the pike minnow population.

Future climate cycles, Higgins said, may be "less helpful," making it important to restore salmons' fresh water habitat, "to help these fish to be more resistant to changes in ocean conditions and flows."

The Eel River Recovery Project is a new grassroots effort to help citizens monitor and report Eel River water quality and fish runs and to share information on how to protect and restore the river.

These citizen fish reporters gave eyewitness reports of widespread Chinook spawning throughout the Eel River watershed, which was also documented by California Department of Fish and Game surveys. This is "more good news," Higgins commented.

There have been no official Eel River basin-wide estimates of Chinook population since 1955-58, the EERP report said, "but there are indications the 2011 population spawning in the wild may rival the annual average of 24,000 spanners found at that time."

U.S. to cut funds for water testing at beaches

2/16/12

The EPA plans to cut $10 million in grants it gives annually. Water quality advocates worry that swimmers and surfers will be at even greater risk of illness.

Health testing at beaches in California and across the nation is at risk of being cut under a plan to eliminate federal funds for monitoring whether the water is too contaminated to swim in.

Citing the "difficult financial climate," the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency said in its budget request this week that it would do away with $10 million in grants it gives each year to state and local agencies in coastal and Great Lakes states to test for tainted water.

"While beach monitoring continues to be important to protect human health and especially sensitive individuals," the EPA said in an emailed statement, "states and local governments now have the technical expertise and procedures to continue beach monitoring without federal support."

But state and local officials have struggled to pay for health testing along California's busy coastline in recent years, and water quality advocates worry that swimmers and surfers will be at even greater risk of getting sick if the federal funds evaporate.

The proposed cuts come as the agency is drafting new nationwide beach water quality standards, which have been panned by environmental groups as being even weaker than the 1986 rules they replace.

"It feels like a double whammy to beachgoers," said Kirsten James, water quality director for Santa Monica environmental group Heal the Bay. "The EPA is on multiple levels telling them they are swimming at their own risk every time they go to the beach."

The EPA has paid $111 million for beach water quality testing over the last dozen years through the grant program authorized by Congress in the 2000 BEACH Act. "As a result, the number of monitored beaches has more than tripled to more than 3,600 in 2010," the agency announced last month.

The grants slated for elimination pay for local health and environmental protection agencies to conduct water quality tests and post warning signs or even close the beach when bacteria levels indicate the water is too contaminated.

Swimming in polluted water exposes people to pathogens that can cause gastrointestinal illness, diarrhea, vomiting, skin rashes and ear, eye and staph infections.

California is eligible for about $500,000 each year, second only to Florida, and uses the EPA funds to supplement beach water monitoring up and down the coast.

"The cut could reduce the amount of testing unless other funding sources are found," Judie Panneton, a spokeswoman for the state water board, wrote in an email.

State and county budget cuts have in recent years led California beaches to scale back testing, though a law signed last year by Gov. Jerry Brown restored funding at the state level, giving the water board authority to provide up to $1.8 million a year to pay for more consistent testing at hundreds of beaches.