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<TD class=v1>Posted on Wed, May. 18, 2005</TD></TR>
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<H1>Plan to drain tainted farm water triggers worries</H1><IMG height=5
src="http://www.montereyherald.com/images/common/spacer.gif"
width=1><BR><B><FONT size=-1><SPAN class=byline>By JULIANA
BARBASSA</SPAN></FONT></B><BR><IMG height=1
src="http://www.montereyherald.com/images/common/spacer.gif"
width=1><BR><B><FONT size=-1><SPAN class=creditline>Associated
Press</SPAN></FONT></B><BR><IMG height=1
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<P><B><SPAN class=dateline>LOS BANOS WILDLIFE AREA</SPAN><SPAN
class=dateline-separator> - </SPAN></B>A federal plan to drain
mineral-laden irrigation water from farms includes a proposal similar to
one that caused an environmental disaster more than two decades ago,
leading to bird deformities and deaths.</P>
<P>Environmentalists fear that leaving the tainted water to accumulate in
evaporation ponds, even if it's treated to reduce most of the toxic
minerals, could lead to problems similar to what happened in the Kesterson
Wildlife Refuge in the 1980s, when entire colonies of birds died and many
were born with missing limbs.</P>
<P>''It's insanity,'' said environmentalist Lloyd Carter, who wrote about
Kesterson as a reporter for the Fresno Bee in the 1980s and now works for
the California attorney general's Fresno office. ''We've tried that
before, and it was a disaster.''</P>
<P>The contaminated ponds in Kesterson were finally covered up with dirt
in 1986, and birds have flocked back to the region, a stopover point for
birds migrating along the Pacific flyway.</P>
<P>But the federal officials who run the Central Valley Project, a massive
irrigation complex that makes farming possible in the arid western half of
the Central Valley, remain under court order to find a way to dispose of
the tainted water. And forming new evaporation ponds is one of several
options outlined in a draft environmental impact report to be released
this month by the Bureau of Reclamation.</P>
<P>Another option in the draft report is taking poorly drained land out of
farming, but that would rob some farmers of their livelihoods and is
strongly opposed by the agriculture industry. The report also suggests
pumping out the contaminated water, either into the ocean just south of
Big Sur, or into the San Joaquin-Sacramento River Delta, where millions of
Californians get their drinking water.</P>
<P>The report won't be issued until later this month, followed by a 60-day
public comment period. But alternatives it envisions are generally
described in a document on the agency's Web site, said Mike Delamore,
chief of the bureau's San Joaquin Drainage Division.</P>
<P>What to do with the water is one of the most vexing dilemmas in the
Central Valley. Farming here depends on irrigation, but the clay
underlying much of the farmland in the west side of the valley keeps
excess water from draining away. The leftover water, heavy with salts and
minerals, damages crops and eventually renders land infertile if left in
the fields. As it drains, the water also pick up pesticides and other
chemicals -- but it's selenium, and its effects on bird reproduction, that
worry most biologists.</P>
<P>Few realized selenium was toxic when agricultural water was first
pumped into Kesterson, which is part of the 26,609-acre San Luis National
Wildlife Refuge, about 80 miles northwest of Fresno.</P>
<P>As the water evaporated, the selenium reached 350 parts per billion --
enough to turn what had been a vibrant wildlife refuge into an quiet,
foul-smelling bog where thousands of birds died, said Gary Zahm, a retired
federal wildlife biologist who managed the refuge at the time.</P>
<P>''The birds were feeding their young insects that had hatched in the
reservoir,'' Zahm said, remembering baby birds born with three eyes, no
legs, or crooked beaks. ''It was like feeding them poison pills.''</P>
<P>The bureau now proposes to treat the water until no more than 10 parts
per billion of selenium remains before pouring it into ponds, and then to
periodically ''scrape'' the ponds of salts and minerals, Delamore
said.</P>
<P>The evaporation units would be in remote agricultural land, not near
wildlife refuges, but they would be within the Central Valley. That's just
where the Pacific flyway -- the route migrating birds take when traveling
from North to South America -- narrows down like the waist on an
hourglass, pinched in by the mountains and the coastal range.</P>
<P>And research shows concentrations as low as 2 parts per billion harm
bird reproduction, according to Joe Skorupa, the biologist in charge of
researching selenium's effect on birds for the U.S. Fish and Wildlife
Service in California between 1986 and 2003.</P>
<P>''There's always a better alternative than evaporation ponds,'' said
Skorupa, who now works at agency headquarters in Washington, D.C. ''It's a
matter of having the imagination and taking the time.''</P>
<P>The Westlands Water District, the largest agency delivering federal
irrigation water to farms, has been working with farmers to take 108,000
acres land out of production with the help of a federal buyout to ease the
area's perennial water shortage, and to take some of the most poorly
drained land out of production.</P>
<P>Environmentalists and others in California's fast-growing midsection
like the idea of freeing up the water that has been poured onto soils that
may eventually be too salty to farm. But farmers don't take easily to
proposals of giving up their land.</P>
<P>''Farmers have been very resistant to looking at abandoning their
livelihood and their lifestyle to solve political and social problems,''
said Westlands spokesman Tupper Hull.</P>
<P>Some farmers elsewhere in the valley have tried their own short-term
solutions, which include small evaporation ponds. The presence of selenium
forces them to harass birds to keep them away from the water.</P>
<P>''There are no easy answers, but there are probably combinations of
solutions that will allow for sustainable agriculture on the west side,''
said Hull.</P>
<P>The bureau doesn't officially favor one option over the others,
Delamore said, but few observers believe the public would accept dumping
the drainage water into the delta or the ocean.</P>
<P>Officially, U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service officials aren't choosing
one option over the others, but said they'd ''prefer to avoid creating a
problem rather than have to mitigate once it's created,'' said Al Donner,
an assistant field supervisor in the agency's Sacramento office.</P>
<P>Any injuries to migratory birds would likely show up in the Los Banos
Wildlife Area, a state refuge just north of the proposed evaporation pond
sites and a few miles from Kesterson.</P>
<P>Biologists like Eileen Edmunds, with the California Department of Fish
and Game, are watching closely over the birds' well-being. Gently, she
reaches into a small cloth bag and closes her hand around a song sparrow
frantically flapping her wings.</P>
<P>Nestled in her fist, the plump, rusty brown bird settles down and
submits to a check of her wingspan, weight, and general health -- all to
be recorded in a database.</P>
<P>Then, with a little tag placed around its ankle, the sparrow flies
away.</P>
<P>------</P>
<P><B><SPAN class=subhead>On the Net:</SPAN></B></P>
<P>Bureau of Reclamation drainage plan documents: <A
href="http://www.usbr.gov/mp/sccao/sld/index.html">http://www.usbr.gov/mp/sccao/sld/index.html</A></P>
<P>Los Banos Wildlife Area: <A
href="http://www.dfg.ca.gov/lands/wa/region4/losbanos.html">http://www.dfg.ca.gov/lands/wa/region4/losbanos.html</A></P><!-- end body-content --></SPAN></TD></TR></TBODY></TABLE></FONT></DIV></BODY></HTML>