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<h1><b><font size=6 face="Times New Roman"><span style='font-size:24.0pt'>Repeat
of Tragedy Feared in <st1:place w:st="on">San Joaquin</st1:place> Drainage Plan<o:p></o:p></span></font></b></h1>
<p class=MsoNormal><font size=3 face="Times New Roman"><span style='font-size:
12.0pt'>Proposal for tainted <st1:place w:st="on">San Joaquin</st1:place>
drainage raises concerns about causing a new ecological disaster.<o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><font size=3 face="Times New Roman"><span style='font-size:
12.0pt'>By Bettina Boxall, Times Staff Writer<br>
July 8, 2006 <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 style='margin-bottom:12.0pt'><font size=3
face="Times New Roman"><span style='font-size:12.0pt'>LOS BANOS, <st1:State
w:st="on">Calif.</st1:State> — More than two decades after toxic farm
drainage emptying into a small wildlife refuge stilled the chatter of migrating
waterfowl with death and deformity, the federal government is on the verge of
deciding what to do with vast amounts of tainted irrigation water still
produced by <st1:place w:st="on"><st1:PlaceName w:st="on">San Joaquin</st1:PlaceName>
<st1:PlaceType w:st="on">Valley</st1:PlaceType></st1:place> croplands. <br>
<br>
The selenium-spiked flows that poisoned ponds at Kesterson National Wildlife
Refuge were shut down long ago. But the irrigation didn't stop, and the
drainage continues to build up in the shallow groundwater table that underlies
part of the valley's west side, stunting crops.<o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><font size=3 face="Times New Roman"><span style='font-size:
12.0pt'>ADV<o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><font size=3 face="Times New Roman"><span style='font-size:
12.0pt'><script language="JavaScript" src="http://ad.doubleclick.net/adj/trb.latimes/news/local;ptype=s;rg=ur;sz=300x250;tile=4;ord=77779560" type="text/javascript" _base_target="_parent">
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</noscript>
<p class=MsoNormal><font size=3 face="Times New Roman"><span style='font-size:
12.0pt'>The U.S. Bureau of Reclamation is under court order to do something
about the drainage problem. But its proposed solutions — which involve
treating the tainted water and taking a huge chunk of farmland out of
production — have raised alarms that they could wreak more environmental
havoc while costing federal taxpayers a potentially enormous sum.<br>
<br>
"There is no good answer to how to do this," said Joseph Skorupa, a
U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service biologist who spent 16 years working on <st1:place
w:st="on">Central Valley</st1:place> selenium issues.<br>
<br>
Nobody was thinking of selenium when growers persuaded Congress in 1960 to
extend the federal Central Valley Project, the nation's biggest water supply
system, to the San Joaquin Valley's west side.<br>
<br>
But they knew there were problems with drainage, caused partly by insoluble
clay beneath the groundwater. So the expansion's congressional authorization
included a clause that the government would also build a drainage system.<br>
<br>
In the 1970s, a master drain was partly constructed, ending in 1,200 acres of
ponds at Kesterson Reservoir, where the farm water evaporated in the scorching
summer sun.<br>
<br>
Fish and Wildlife officials at the nearby refuge welcomed the drainage, which
seemed like a blessing in a region where most of the vast historic wetlands had
been filled or plowed under. Some 10 million to 20 million waterfowl winter or
pass through the <st1:place w:st="on">Central Valley</st1:place> every year
looking for places to rest and nest.<br>
<br>
But within two years of the drain's 1981 start-up, it was evident that
something was terribly wrong.<br>
<br>
The Kesterson ponds had become a death trap. Federal biologists discovered
chick embryos were missing eyes and parts of their beaks. Others had only stubs
where their wings and legs should have been growing.<br>
<br>
Researchers testing the water and bird carcasses discovered toxic
concentrations of selenium, which had washed by the ton into valley soils from
the neighboring coast range.<br>
<br>
Essential to human and animal life in minute amounts, selenium had reached
dangerous levels in the irrigation drainage, which leached the chemical from
the soil and carried it into the aquatic food chain.<br>
<br>
The Kesterson drain was shut down in 1985. The ponds were covered with dirt.
The old reservoir is now a field of brown grass guarded by a locked metal gate
and red, white and blue <st1:country-region w:st="on"><st1:place w:st="on">U.S.</st1:place></st1:country-region>
government "No trespassing" signs.<br>
<br>
But the drainage problem didn't go away. Landowners went to court, and in 2000
they won a U.S. Court of Appeals decision that the federal government had to
provide drainage.<br>
<br>
Now, the Bureau of Reclamation's proposal to create at least 1,270 acres of
evaporation ponds as part of the drainage treatment has again raised the
specter of Kesterson.<br>
<br>
"My God," said Ed Imhoff, a retired U.S. Interior Department official
who in 1990 headed a state and federal task force on valley drainage. "Why
would we be replicating something that caused all the deaths and deformities at
Kesterson? Why would we do that?"<br>
<br>
Most selenium in the drainage would be removed by high-tech filtration and
microbes before the resulting brine was piped to the ponds. But the water would
still contain selenium at 10 parts per billion — twice the U.S.
Environmental Protection Agency's standard for aquatic life and five times a
state standard used in some <st1:place w:st="on">Central Valley</st1:place>
wetlands.<br>
<br>
Moreover, some scientists warn that the microbial treatment could convert the
selenium into a more toxic form.<br>
<br>
A March assessment by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service concluded that the
proposed project carried an "incredible amount of risk and
uncertainty" and predicted that several thousand birds could die from
selenium poisoning each year.<br>
<br>
Bureau of Reclamation officials acknowledge there will be bird losses and plan
to create wetlands as compensation. Agency engineers say that though they
initially experienced problems with a treatment pilot project, recent tests
have yielded good results.<br clear=all>
<o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal style='margin-bottom:12.0pt'><font size=3
face="Times New Roman"><span style='font-size:12.0pt'>"It's not perfect.
We're not getting all the selenium out. But we're getting most of it out,"
said Scott Irvine, an environmental engineer.<br>
<br>
The treatment was outlined last month in environmental documents that sketch
various steps the bureau could take to resolve the drainage issues. Its
preferred alternative would also remove 308,000 acres, roughly the size of <st1:City
w:st="on"><st1:place w:st="on">Los Angeles</st1:place></st1:City>, from
irrigation to reduce the amount of drain water. The proposal's price tag: $918
million, most of it to retire the land from production, along with $11 million
in annual operating costs.<o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><font size=3 face="Times New Roman"><span style='font-size:
12.0pt'>ADVERTISEMENT<o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
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</noscript>
<p class=MsoNormal><font size=3 face="Times New Roman"><span style='font-size:
12.0pt'>A final decision is expected this summer. But federal officials are now
engaged in settlement talks with the affected irrigation districts that could
yield a new plan. Citing confidentiality, they declined to provide details.<br>
<br>
Still, any agreement would likely include a mix of taking some acreage out of
production as well as treating the drain water.<br>
<br>
Cotton, tomatoes and lettuce are grown on the land with bad drainage, most of
which lies in the huge Westlands Water District, one of the most politically
influential irrigation districts in the country.<br>
<br>
Westlands General Manager Thomas Birmingham said the district opposes taking
much more than 130,000 to 140,000 acres out of irrigation, a good deal of which
is already at least temporarily fallowed by the district to resolve water supply
and drainage issues. <br>
<br>
<st1:City w:st="on"><st1:place w:st="on">Birmingham</st1:place></st1:City> also
argued that the tab for any irrigation buyout would fall to the federal
taxpayer. Under federal reclamation law, the cost of building a drainage system
would be fronted by the <st1:country-region w:st="on"><st1:place w:st="on">U.S.</st1:place></st1:country-region>
government.<br>
<br>
But over decades growers would repay the amount — without interest
— through an assessment on their water rates. They would also be
responsible for annual expenses to operate the system.<br>
<br>
But <st1:City w:st="on"><st1:place w:st="on">Birmingham</st1:place></st1:City>
said land retirement is not a drainage service and would therefore "be borne
entirely by the federal Treasury."<br>
<br>
At full market value, which reclamation says it would pay growers, that would
amount to at least $725 million to take 308,000 acres out of irrigation. <br>
<br>
<st1:PersonName w:st="on">Kirk Rodgers</st1:PersonName>, the regional
reclamation director, said his agency hasn't determined its position on who
would pay for the buyout. "We need to continue to review and evaluate our
position on that," he said recently.<br>
<br>
If it fell to the government, it is also unclear what taxpayers would actually
get for all that money — the land, or just the irrigation rights.<br>
<br>
"No decision's been made on that," Rodgers said. <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>
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<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><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'>Advisor, 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;
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color=gray face="Times New Roman"><span style='color:gray'> 2327</span></font></i></em></st1:address><o:p></o:p></p>
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<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><font size=3 face="Times New Roman"><span
style='font-size:12.0pt'><a href="mailto:bwl3@comcast.net">bwl3@comcast.net</a></span></font></i></em><o:p></o:p></p>
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style='font-size:12.0pt'><a href="mailto:bleydecker@stanfordalumni.org">bleydecker@stanfordalumni.org</a></span></font></i></em><o:p></o:p></p>
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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><u><font size=3 color=blue face="Times New Roman"><span
style='font-size:12.0pt;color:blue'>http:www.caltrout.org</span></font></u><font
color=lime><span style='color:lime'> </span></font></i></em><o:p></o:p></p>
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