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<p class=MsoNormal><b><font size=3 face="Times New Roman"><span
style='font-size:12.0pt;font-weight:bold'>This refers to the principal destination
of diverted <st1:place w:st="on">Trinity River</st1:place> water. San
Joaquin Drainage Reevaluation Plan environmental document, and an alternative
included within it, is evaporation ponds. The report won’t be out
for public comment until later this month. The attachment is a picture of
Kesterson birds. The clear best alternative for this budding 950,000 acre
Superfund Site is land retirement. Even Westlands is interested in
retiring a third of its lands – 200,000 acres. Land retirement is
to be included in the draft document, as is reflected in the story below, but
to what extent is not known by me. Is it 450,000 acres identified in the “Rainbow
Report” as toxic land that should be retired? I doubt it. <o:p></o:p></span></font></b></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><b><font size=3 face="Times New Roman"><span
style='font-size:12.0pt;font-weight:bold'><o:p> </o:p></span></font></b></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><b><font size=3 face="Times New Roman"><span
style='font-size:12.0pt;font-weight:bold'>Byron<o:p></o:p></span></font></b></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><b><font size=4 face=Tahoma><span style='font-size:14.0pt;
font-family:Tahoma;font-weight:bold'><o:p> </o:p></span></font></b></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><b><font size=4 face=Tahoma><span style='font-size:14.0pt;
font-family:Tahoma;font-weight:bold'>New Kesterson plan has familiar look;
Evaporative ponds proposed for Westside <o:p></o:p></span></font></b></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><st1:place w:st="on"><st1:City w:st="on"><b><font size=4
face=Tahoma><span style='font-size:14.0pt;font-family:Tahoma;font-weight:
bold'>Modesto</span></font></b></st1:City></st1:place><b><font size=4
face=Tahoma><span style='font-size:14.0pt;font-family:Tahoma;font-weight:bold'>
Bee – 5/23/05<o:p></o:p></span></font></b></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><b><font size=4 face=Tahoma><span style='font-size:14.0pt;
font-family:Tahoma;font-weight:bold'>By Juliana Barbassa, Associated Press
staff writer</span></font></b><font size=4 color="#000099"><span
style='font-size:14.0pt;color:#000099'><o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><font size=4 color=black face="Times New Roman"><span
style='font-size:14.0pt;color:black'><o:p> </o:p></span></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><font size=4 color=black face="Times New Roman"><span
style='font-size:14.0pt;color:black'>LOS BANOS WILDLIFE AREA -- 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. <o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><font size=4 color=black face="Times New Roman"><span
style='font-size:14.0pt;color:black'><o:p> </o:p></span></font></p>
<p style='margin:0in;margin-bottom:.0001pt'><font size=4 color=black
face="Times New Roman"><span style='font-size:14.0pt;color:black'>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. <o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p style='margin:0in;margin-bottom:.0001pt'><font size=4 color=black
face="Times New Roman"><span style='font-size:14.0pt;color:black'><o:p> </o:p></span></font></p>
<p style='margin:0in;margin-bottom:.0001pt'><font size=4 color=black
face="Times New Roman"><span style='font-size:14.0pt;color:black'>"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 <st1:State
w:st="on">California</st1:State> attorney general's <st1:place w:st="on"><st1:City
w:st="on">Fresno</st1:City></st1:place> office. "We've tried that before,
and it was a disaster." <o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p style='margin:0in;margin-bottom:.0001pt'><font size=4 color=black
face="Times New Roman"><span style='font-size:14.0pt;color:black'><o:p> </o:p></span></font></p>
<p style='margin:0in;margin-bottom:.0001pt'><font size=4 color=black
face="Times New Roman"><span style='font-size:14.0pt;color:black'>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. <o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p style='margin:0in;margin-bottom:.0001pt'><font size=4 color=black
face="Times New Roman"><span style='font-size:14.0pt;color:black'><o:p> </o:p></span></font></p>
<p style='margin:0in;margin-bottom:.0001pt'><font size=4 color=black
face="Times New Roman"><span style='font-size:14.0pt;color:black'>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 <st1:place
w:st="on">Central Valley</st1:place>, 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. <o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p style='margin:0in;margin-bottom:.0001pt'><font size=4 color=black
face="Times New Roman"><span style='font-size:14.0pt;color:black'><o:p> </o:p></span></font></p>
<p style='margin:0in;margin-bottom:.0001pt'><font size=4 color=black
face="Times New Roman"><span style='font-size:14.0pt;color:black'>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. <o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p style='margin:0in;margin-bottom:.0001pt'><font size=4 color=black
face="Times New Roman"><span style='font-size:14.0pt;color:black'><o:p> </o:p></span></font></p>
<p style='margin:0in;margin-bottom:.0001pt'><font size=4 color=black
face="Times New Roman"><span style='font-size:14.0pt;color:black'>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. <o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p style='margin:0in;margin-bottom:.0001pt'><font size=4 color=black
face="Times New Roman"><span style='font-size:14.0pt;color:black'><o:p> </o:p></span></font></p>
<p style='margin:0in;margin-bottom:.0001pt'><font size=4 color=black
face="Times New Roman"><span style='font-size:14.0pt;color:black'>What to do
with the water is one of the most vexing dilemmas in the <st1:place w:st="on">Central
Valley</st1:place>. 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. <o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p style='margin:0in;margin-bottom:.0001pt'><font size=4 color=black
face="Times New Roman"><span style='font-size:14.0pt;color:black'><o:p> </o:p></span></font></p>
<p style='margin:0in;margin-bottom:.0001pt'><font size=4 color=black
face="Times New Roman"><span style='font-size:14.0pt;color:black'>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. <o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p style='margin:0in;margin-bottom:.0001pt'><font size=4 color=black
face="Times New Roman"><span style='font-size:14.0pt;color:black'><o:p> </o:p></span></font></p>
<p style='margin:0in;margin-bottom:.0001pt'><font size=4 color=black
face="Times New Roman"><span style='font-size:14.0pt;color:black'>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. <o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p style='margin:0in;margin-bottom:.0001pt'><font size=4 color=black
face="Times New Roman"><span style='font-size:14.0pt;color:black'>"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." <o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p style='margin:0in;margin-bottom:.0001pt'><font size=4 color=black
face="Times New Roman"><span style='font-size:14.0pt;color:black'><o:p> </o:p></span></font></p>
<p style='margin:0in;margin-bottom:.0001pt'><font size=4 color=black
face="Times New Roman"><span style='font-size:14.0pt;color:black'>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. <o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p style='margin:0in;margin-bottom:.0001pt'><font size=4 color=black
face="Times New Roman"><span style='font-size:14.0pt;color:black'><o:p> </o:p></span></font></p>
<p style='margin:0in;margin-bottom:.0001pt'><font size=4 color=black
face="Times New Roman"><span style='font-size:14.0pt;color:black'>The
evaporation units would be in remote agricultural land, not near wildlife
refuges, but they would be within the <st1:place w:st="on">Central Valley</st1:place>.
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 Sierra Nevada range and the coastal range. <o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p style='margin:0in;margin-bottom:.0001pt'><font size=4 color=black
face="Times New Roman"><span style='font-size:14.0pt;color:black'><o:p> </o:p></span></font></p>
<p style='margin:0in;margin-bottom:.0001pt'><font size=4 color=black
face="Times New Roman"><span style='font-size:14.0pt;color:black'>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 <st1:place w:st="on"><st1:State
w:st="on">California</st1:State></st1:place> between 1986 and 2003. <o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p style='margin:0in;margin-bottom:.0001pt'><font size=4 color=black
face="Times New Roman"><span style='font-size:14.0pt;color:black'><o:p> </o:p></span></font></p>
<p style='margin:0in;margin-bottom:.0001pt'><font size=4 color=black
face="Times New Roman"><span style='font-size:14.0pt;color:black'>"There's
always a better alternative than evaporation ponds," said Skorupa, who now
works at agency headquarters in <st1:place w:st="on"><st1:City w:st="on">Washington</st1:City>,
<st1:State w:st="on">D.C.</st1:State></st1:place> "It's a matter of
having the imagination and taking the time." <o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p style='margin:0in;margin-bottom:.0001pt'><font size=4 color=black
face="Times New Roman"><span style='font-size:14.0pt;color:black'><o:p> </o:p></span></font></p>
<p style='margin:0in;margin-bottom:.0001pt'><font size=4 color=black
face="Times New Roman"><span style='font-size:14.0pt;color:black'>The Westlands
Water District, the largest agency delivering federal irrigation water to
farms, has been working with farmers to take 108,000 acres of 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. <o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p style='margin:0in;margin-bottom:.0001pt'><font size=4 color=black
face="Times New Roman"><span style='font-size:14.0pt;color:black'><o:p> </o:p></span></font></p>
<p style='margin:0in;margin-bottom:.0001pt'><font size=4 color=black
face="Times New Roman"><span style='font-size:14.0pt;color:black'>Environmentalists
and others in <st1:place w:st="on"><st1:State w:st="on">California</st1:State></st1:place>'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. <o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p style='margin:0in;margin-bottom:.0001pt'><font size=4 color=black
face="Times New Roman"><span style='font-size:14.0pt;color:black'><o:p> </o:p></span></font></p>
<p style='margin:0in;margin-bottom:.0001pt'><font size=4 color=black
face="Times New Roman"><span style='font-size:14.0pt;color:black'>"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. <o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p style='margin:0in;margin-bottom:.0001pt'><font size=4 color=black
face="Times New Roman"><span style='font-size:14.0pt;color:black'><o:p> </o:p></span></font></p>
<p style='margin:0in;margin-bottom:.0001pt'><font size=4 color=black
face="Times New Roman"><span style='font-size:14.0pt;color:black'>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. <o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p style='margin:0in;margin-bottom:.0001pt'><font size=4 color=black
face="Times New Roman"><span style='font-size:14.0pt;color:black'><o:p> </o:p></span></font></p>
<p style='margin:0in;margin-bottom:.0001pt'><font size=4 color=black
face="Times New Roman"><span style='font-size:14.0pt;color:black'>"There
are no easy answers, but there are probably combinations of solutions that will
allow for sustainable agriculture on the west side," said <st1:place
w:st="on"><st1:City w:st="on">Hull</st1:City></st1:place>. <o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p style='margin:0in;margin-bottom:.0001pt'><font size=4 color=black
face="Times New Roman"><span style='font-size:14.0pt;color:black'><o:p> </o:p></span></font></p>
<p style='margin:0in;margin-bottom:.0001pt'><font size=4 color=black
face="Times New Roman"><span style='font-size:14.0pt;color:black'>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. <o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p style='margin:0in;margin-bottom:.0001pt'><font size=4 color=black
face="Times New Roman"><span style='font-size:14.0pt;color:black'><o:p> </o:p></span></font></p>
<p style='margin:0in;margin-bottom:.0001pt'><font size=4 color=black
face="Times New Roman"><span style='font-size:14.0pt;color:black'>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 <st1:place w:st="on"><st1:City w:st="on">Sacramento</st1:City></st1:place>
office. <o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p style='margin:0in;margin-bottom:.0001pt'><font size=4 color=black
face="Times New Roman"><span style='font-size:14.0pt;color:black'><o:p> </o:p></span></font></p>
<p style='margin:0in;margin-bottom:.0001pt'><font size=4 color=black
face="Times New Roman"><span style='font-size:14.0pt;color:black'>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. <o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p style='margin:0in;margin-bottom:.0001pt'><font size=4 color=black
face="Times New Roman"><span style='font-size:14.0pt;color:black'><o:p> </o:p></span></font></p>
<p style='margin:0in;margin-bottom:.0001pt'><font size=4 color=black
face="Times New Roman"><span style='font-size:14.0pt;color:black'>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. <o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p style='margin:0in;margin-bottom:.0001pt'><font size=4 color=black
face="Times New Roman"><span style='font-size:14.0pt;color:black'><o:p> </o:p></span></font></p>
<p style='margin:0in;margin-bottom:.0001pt'><font size=4 color=black
face="Times New Roman"><span style='font-size:14.0pt;color:black'>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. <o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p style='margin:0in;margin-bottom:.0001pt'><font size=4 color=black
face="Times New Roman"><span style='font-size:14.0pt;color:black'><o:p> </o:p></span></font></p>
<p style='margin:0in;margin-bottom:.0001pt'><font size=4 color=black
face="Times New Roman"><span style='font-size:14.0pt;color:black'>Then, with a
little tag placed around its ankle, the sparrow flies away.</span></font><o:p></o:p></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><font size=3 face="Times New Roman"><span style='font-size:
12.0pt'><o:p> </o:p></span></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><font size=3 face="Times New Roman"><span style='font-size:
12.0pt'><o:p> </o:p></span></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><st1:PersonName w:st="on"><em><i><font size=3 color=gray
face="Times New Roman"><span style='font-size:12.0pt;color:gray'>Byron
Leydecker</span></font></i></em></st1:PersonName><em><i><font color=gray
face="Times New Roman"><span style='color:gray'>, </span></font></i></em><o:p></o:p></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><em><i><font size=3 color=gray face="Times New Roman"><span
style='font-size:12.0pt;color:gray'>Chair, Friends of <st1:place w:st="on">Trinity
River</st1:place></span></font></i></em><o:p></o:p></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><em><i><font size=3 color=gray face="Times New Roman"><span
style='font-size:12.0pt;color:gray'>Consultant, California Trout, Inc.</span></font></i></em><o:p></o:p></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><st1:address w:st="on"><st1:Street w:st="on"><em><i><font
size=3 color=gray face="Times New Roman"><span style='font-size:12.0pt;
color:gray'>PO Box</span></font></i></em></st1:Street><em><i><font
color=gray face="Times New Roman"><span style='color:gray'> 2327</span></font></i></em></st1:address><o:p></o:p></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><st1:place w:st="on"><st1:City w:st="on"><em><i><font
size=3 color=gray face="Times New Roman"><span style='font-size:12.0pt;
color:gray'>Mill Valley</span></font></i></em></st1:City><em><i><font
color=gray face="Times New Roman"><span style='color:gray'>, <st1:State w:st="on">CA</st1:State>
<st1:PostalCode w:st="on">94942-2327</st1:PostalCode></span></font></i></em></st1:place><o:p></o:p></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><em><i><font size=3 color=gray face="Times New Roman"><span
style='font-size:12.0pt;color:gray'>415 383 4810 ph</span></font></i></em><o:p></o:p></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><em><i><font size=3 color=gray face="Times New Roman"><span
style='font-size:12.0pt;color:gray'>415 383 9562 fx</span></font></i></em><o:p></o:p></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><em><i><u><font size=3 color=blue face="Times New Roman"><span
style='font-size:12.0pt;color:blue'><a href="mailto:bwl3@comcast.net">bwl3@comcast.net</a></span></font></u></i></em><o:p></o:p></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><em><i><font size=3 color=blue face="Times New Roman"><span
style='font-size:12.0pt;color:blue'><a
href="mailto:bleydecker@stanfordalumni.org">bleydecker@stanfordalumni.org</a><u>
</u></span></font><font color=gray><span style='color:gray'>(secondary)</span></font></i></em><o:p></o:p></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><em><i><font size=3 face="Times New Roman"><span
style='font-size:12.0pt'><a href="http://www.fotr.org">http://www.fotr.org</a></span></font></i></em><o:p></o:p></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><em><i><font size=3 color=blue face="Times New Roman"><span
style='font-size:12.0pt;color:blue'><a href="http://caltrout.org">http://caltrout.org</a></span></font></i></em><o:p></o:p></p>
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