News

12/18/13

Tomorrow marks the anniversary of California’s marine protected area network. Comprised of 124 MPAs, the network is the only one of its kind in the country and serves as not only an investment in our environmental and economic future, but also a testament to public process. Thousands of hours of meetings, debate, review and design resulted in tangible protection that can be felt when you’re out kayaking, birdwatching, surfing, diving, tide pooling or just standing on the beach enthralled by spouting whales, playful marine mammals and abundant fish.

Aside from the sheer visual and visceral pleasures MPAs offer, opportunities to better understand our nearshore ecosystems have arrived via 10 grants aimed at developing a comprehensive baseline monitoring program. Scientists, fishermen, tribal governments and citizen groups from 31 organizations will work together over the course of the next three years to monitor habitats including kelp forests, rocky shores and beaches as well as commercially important fish populations and iconic seabirds.

Proving our uniqueness – and long-term vision – yet again, the North Coast is the first MPA baseline program in the state to incorporate traditional ecological knowledge through a collaboration among Smith River Rancheria, InterTribal Sinkyone Wilderness Council, Trinidad Rancheria and the Wiyot Tribe.

The North Coast MPA Baseline Program is overseen by a partnership among the California Ocean Protection Council,California Department of Fish and Wildlife, California Ocean Science Trust and California Sea Grant.

Visit oceanspaces.org to view descriptions of the awarded projects, receive news and updates about the baseline program and learn more about California’s statewide network of MPAs.

Cleaning up the past

In other news, don’t forget about tomorrow night’s meeting to discuss cleanup of area brownfields, including the former Lousiana-Pacific pulp mill site on the Samoa peninsula.

Coastal Currents

More today on Coastal Currents! Tune in to KHUM at noon for updates from Carol Vander Meer from Friends of the Dunes, Pete Nichols from Waterkeeper Alliance and yours truly.

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This month's Ocean Night features a presentation by the Wiyot Tribe about the environmental and cultural restoration of Tulawat.

New maps show risks for flooding in Humboldt Bay

11/19/13

It will not be long before the coast of Humboldt Bay looks dramatically different.

The Humboldt County Public Works Department and Humboldt Bay Harbor, Recreation and Conservation District hosted a public information meeting to discuss rising sea levels around Humboldt Bay on Nov. 12.

Jennifer Kalt, policy director of Humboldt Baykeeper, said they discussed the vulnerability of the earthen dikes surrounding Humboldt Bay. The dikes were built in the late 19th and 20th centuries and have not been properly maintained, according to Kalt.

New inundation maps were released for the first time at the meeting, which is part of the Humboldt Bay Sea Level Rise Adaptation Planning Project.

The goal of the mapping is to determine which areas need to be protected by armoring the existing dikes and which areas will be allowed to turn back into wetlands.

“We’re going to be one of the first places that is going to have to make the difficult decisions as the sea level rises,” Kalt said.

Kalt explained that in the past few years Humboldt Bay has been experiencing twice the sea level rise of the California average.

“Between two and three feet of sea level rise is the point at which most of the former tidelands will be flooded,” she said.

Most vulnerable to flooding from storm surges are the Arcata and Eureka wastewater treatment plants due to their location. Highway 101 between the two cities is also at risk.

Up to 90 percent of local wetlands were diked off and turned into agricultural land Kalt said.

“The former salt marshes that are now pastures behind the dikes have dropped two to three feet due to land subsidence,” she said. The subsidence and rising coastline leave these areas vulnerable.

The Coastal Commission is calling for all new building projects in the coastal zone to plan for an additional 18 inches of sea level rise by the year 2050.

The sea level is expected to rise as much as 55 to 65 inches by the year 2100, according to the National Research Council.

“It is important to note that although the timing is uncertain and predictions will change with more info, sea level rise is happening and we need to plan for it,” Kalt said. “That’s the big lesson: building and developing wetlands isn’t really going to get us anywhere.”

Dan Berman, who is a part of the project and works for the Humboldt Bay Harbor District, said there are two main components to what the group is working to do. One component is the technical work of mapping and modeling and the other is analyzing that data and looking at case studies to determine what the options are.

“Part of our goal for this is to share information with the community,” Berman said.

Aldaron Laird, environmental planner and owner of Trinity Associates, said the purpose of the meeting was to show the public the inundation footprint.

“We showed what the potential for flooding is based on the existing conditions of the shoreline,” Laird said.

According to Laird, 75 to 80 people attended the meeting last week. The group plans to hold public meetings annually.

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Public officials see pulp mill site up close Friday

11/16/13

Public officials toured the Samoa pulp mill on Friday, seeing firsthand an abandoned industrial site reminiscent of a ghost town that is rife with potential despite its lurking environmental dangers.

Humboldt Bay Harbor, Conservation and Recreation District CEO Jack Crider led the tour, which included a pair of Humboldt County supervisors, a few harbor commissioners and representatives of the Headwaters Fund board. Walking the group of about 15 people through the 72-acre property, Crider showcased the good, the bad and the ugly -- explaining the problems that pushed the United States Environmental Protection Agency to initiate an emergency response and the vast potential the district sees in the site.

Crider led the tour out onto the shipping dock and through cavernous, sprawling industrial spaces, pointing out tanks storing caustic liquids and chemical-laden blue barrels with EPA stickers on them along the way.

The biggest concern is that a large earthquake could destroy the tanks, causing millions of gallons of caustic liquids to run into Humboldt Bay. A large-scale spill wouldn't carry major risks to human life, but could have devastating impacts on the bay's ecosystem and booming aquaculture industry.

The mill has sat dormant for more than five years, since Evergreen Pulp shut it down in October 2008, essentially shuttering the buildings without notice in the dead of night and putting 200 people out of work. Freshwater Tissue purchased the mill in February 2009, but plans for a pulp-and-tissue paper facility were never realized.

The harbor district acquired the site in August with the aim of transforming the mill into the National Marine Research and Innovation Park, a mixed-use space with aquaculture hatcheries, an aquaponics greenhouse, renewable energy research labs, a public shipping dock and educational facilities.

Aquaculture hatcheries are the first part of that plan coming to fruition. Taylor Mariculture is planning to open a large oyster nursery at the site and lease part of the old mill facility, according to Crider.

Crider said there are real challenges, which is why the district refused to pay to acquire the site from Freshwater. Harbor commissioners Greg Dale and Richard Marks also said Friday that the district took over the mill in part because of environmental concerns and the possibility they would grow while the site was inactive.

The largest concerns swirl around the 4 million gallons of pulping liquors left at the site, much of which was stored in failing tanks. The liquors -- which have a pH of higher than 13 -- are a caustic byproduct of the pulping process.

Crider said closing mills generally wind production down, burning off most of the pulping liquors but leaving a small amount of concentrated, highly valuable liquors on the site. The Samoa mill closure happened quickly, and large amounts of the liquors were left, some of them in roofless tanks that allowed rainwater to mix with the liquors, diluting them and increasing the overall volume of caustic materials.

Concerned with the liquors and how they were being stored, Dale asked the EPA to inspect the site shortly after it was acquired by the district. EPA federal on-scene coordinator Steve Calanog was immediately alarmed at the condition of the facility and its proximity to Humboldt Bay.

He initiated an emergency response action, federalizing the site under EPA's control.

EPA and U.S. Coast Guard crews worked to relieve the pressure on some of the worst tanks, bringing in temporary storage containers to hold the liquors.

”EPA has basically stabilized the site,” Crider said Friday. “The site is actually a lot safer now than it was a couple of months ago.”

Under EPA's emergency response, the district plans on piping the liquors out to a shipping barge, which will transport them to a mill in Longview, Wash., that plans to reuse the liquors. The effort will likely involve three barge loads of the caustic substance, the first of which is tentatively scheduled for January.

The effort will prove expensive. Each barge shipment costs about $400,000, according to Crider, and the district plans to cover the expenses by selling off parts from the old mill.

The EPA's response will include getting all the liquors off-site and destroying the old tanks. Even after that's complete, the site has some other hurdles, such as ground contaminants, including possible dioxin, left behind by Louisiana Pacific. Crider said soil sample tests are currently underway to determine the extent of the brownfield cleanup. The good news, he said, is that Louisiana Pacific has so far taken responsibility for the site.

”They've been very responsive,” he said.

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