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<P>For Immediate Release: August 30, 2007<BR>Contact: Carol Goldberg (202)
265-7337</P>
<P><STRONG>MASSIVE CALIFORNIA WATER RECLAMATION SCHEME FULL OF HOLES</STRONG> —
EPA Warns of Unproven Approach, Severe Eco-Effects and Huge Taxpayer Costs</P>
<P>
<P>Sacramento —A multi-billion dollar Bureau of Reclamation plan to address
mounting irrigation-induced pollution in California’s Central Valley is packed
with economic, environmental and technical problems, according to a U.S.
Environmental Protection Agency memo released today by Public Employees for
Environmental Responsibility (PEER). Rather than retire the land producing the
drainage contamination, Reclamation is pushing an expensive scheme for
agribusiness to assume control and continue irrigation.</P>
<P>One danger is a repeat of an ecological disaster from the early 1980s that
went by the name Kesterson. Tens of thousands of grotesquely deformed and dead
birds littered the Kesterson National Wildlife Refuge, poisoned by selenium and
other toxics that accumulated in irrigation drainage water from the Westlands
Water District, the nation’s largest and most influential irrigator. </P>
<P>In 1985, the Bureau of Reclamation closed the drainage conduits to Kesterson,
and Westlands pledged to solve the drainage problem. Twenty years later, that
solution still appears elusive. Reclamation’s latest plan relies upon untested
technology and an unprecedented privatization of federal water power. In
exchange for the San Luis Contractors (which includes Westlands) finally
addressing drainage problems, Reclamation proposes increasing water deliveries,
forgiving Central Valley debt repayment worth tens of billions of dollars over
the next 60 years, and ceding the contractors control of public water
facilities.</P>
<P>In an August 21, 2007 memo, EPA Regional Administrator Carolyn Yale outlined
several concerns to Reclamation Mid-Pacific Regional Director Frederico Barajas,
including –</P>
<UL>
<LI>The “current proposal assumes unproven feasibility for complete
management, treatment and disposal of drainage on a regional scale”;
<LI>Likelihood of “unacceptable environmental impacts” such as “continued
generation of high volumes of contaminated drainage without the assurance of
effective and economic treatment and disposal” and “the potential to yield
biologically available organic forms of selenium”; and
<LI>Significant taxpayer liability since irrigators will not “assume
responsibility for the full cost of generating, managing and disposing of
agricultural drainage” based upon “cost estimates provided by the
districts…substantially below the Reclamation’s calculations” of what is
required. </LI></UL>
<P>“The Bureau of Reclamation seems to be peddling selenium snake oil,” stated
California PEER Director Karen Schambach, noting that Reclamation historically
backs irrigator preferences. “The Bureau selenium bio-treatment scenario is
simply wishful thinking, unsupported by a shred of credible science.”</P>
<P>The San Joaquin River already suffers from severe selenium effects and is an
impaired water body for a 130-mile stretch, reaching down to its delta, Suisun
Bay and adjacent marshes. The impacts also extend to the salmon and steelhead of
the Sacramento, American, Trinity and Klamath Rivers.</P>
<P>“Left to its own devices, the Bureau of Reclamation will embrace a hugely
expensive boondoggle that may result in the mother of all Kestersons,” Schambach
warned. “It would be far more effective and ten times less expensive to retire
the land and shut off the irrigation pumps.”<BR></P>
<P align=center>###</P>
<P align=center><A href="http://www.peer.org/docs/ca/07_30_8_epa_memo.pdf"><FONT
color=#0000ff>Read the EPA memo</FONT></A> <BR><BR><A
href="http://www.peer.org/docs/ca/07_30_8_economic_analysis_summary.pdf"><FONT
color=#0000ff>See the economic comparison of retiring the land versus other
options</FONT></A></P>
<P align=center><A href="http://www.usbr.gov/mp/sccao/sld/index.html">Find out
more about Bureau of Reclamation’s plans</A> <BR></P>
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href="http://www.sfgate.com:80/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2007/08/30/BAHVRRMP6.DTL&hw=selenium&sn=001&sc=1000">http://www.sfgate.com:80/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2007/08/30/BAHVRRMP6.DTL&hw=selenium&sn=001&sc=1000</A></P>
<P><SPAN style="FONT-SIZE: 12px"><BR></SPAN><FONT face=Verdana size=5><SPAN
style="FONT-SIZE: 18px"><B>E</B></SPAN></FONT><FONT size=5><SPAN
style="FONT-SIZE: 18px"><B><FONT face=Arial>PA questions toxics cleanup proposal
in exchange for water rights<BR></FONT></B></SPAN></FONT><FONT
color=#008080><FONT face="Verdana, Helvetica, Arial"><SPAN
style="FONT-SIZE: 11px">P</SPAN></FONT></FONT><FONT
face="Verdana, Helvetica, Arial"><SPAN style="FONT-SIZE: 11px"><FONT
color=#0c565f>eter Fimrite, Chronicle Staff Writer<BR></FONT>Thursday, August
30, 2007<BR>T</SPAN></FONT><FONT size=5><FONT
face="Georgia, Times New Roman"><SPAN style="FONT-SIZE: 15px">he U.S.
Environmental Protection Agency has concerns about a proposal to have a group of
San Joaquin Valley farmers clean up a toxic farm-water drainage problem in
exchange for promises of water and debt relief from the federal government,
according to an EPA memo provided to The Chronicle on Wednesday.<BR><BR>The
proposed deal, which is still subject to extensive environmental review and
congressional approval, would ensure water rights for landowners in the
Westlands Water District for 60 years - more than double the length of a normal
water contract. In return, the sprawling water district would assume
responsibility for cleaning up a polluted mess created 20 years ago when
naturally occurring salt and selenium drained off irrigated farmland, killing
and deforming wildlife.<BR><BR>The Aug. 21 memo written by EPA Regional
Administrator Carolyn Yale, expresses reservations about the feasibility of
management, treatment and disposal of the contaminants by agricultural interests
without government assistance and oversight.<BR><BR>"We are concerned about the
possibility of implementing a drainage plan which allows continued generation of
high volumes of contaminated drainage without the assurance of effective and
economic treatment and disposal," states the memo, which was addressed to
Frederico Barajas, the regional director for the U.S. Bureau of
Reclamation.<BR><BR>It urges the bureau to implement extensive monitoring of the
cleanup program and testing of drainage water.<BR><BR>The U.S. government has
calculated it would cost $2.6 billion to clean up the mess. Westlands officials
believe they can do it for less than $1 billion, according to government
sources.<BR><BR>The water agency and its farmers owe the federal government
nearly $500 million. The farmers would have that debt forgiven under the latest
proposal. That debt has lingered since the 1930s, when the Bureau of Reclamation
advanced the money to build the massive water distribution system known as the
Central Valley Project. That system pumps water out of the Sacramento-San
Joaquin River Delta and redistributes it to cities and farms in the San Joaquin
Valley.<BR><BR>The high-stakes negotiations pit the politically connected
farmers with vast tracts of cropland against conservationists who are opposed to
giving away precious drinking water. Several environmental groups have already
expressed some of the same concerns outlined in the EPA memo.<BR><BR>The
Westlands Water District is a coalition of agribusinesses in the San Joaquin
Valley that use water from the Central Valley Project, which in addition to
supplying irrigation water also delivers drinking water to about 1 million
households. Much of the food in California, including lettuce and tomatoes, is
grown with the project's water.<BR><BR>Karen Schambach, the California director
of the Public Employees for Environmental Responsibility, said turning cleanup
over to the farmers is asking for another mishap like the one at the Kesterson
National Wildlife Refuge, where thousands of dead and deformed birds were linked
to the runoff. The group gave the memo to The Chronicle.<BR><BR>"The Bureau of
Reclamation seems to be peddling selenium snake oil," Schambach said. "It would
be far more effective and 10 times less expensive to retire the land and shut
off the irrigation pumps."<BR><BR>Given the financial interests at stake, the
pumps are not likely to be shut down completely, according to experts, but the
complex negotiations are far from over. They are going on at a time when
jurisdictional battles over water rights are becoming more contentious after a
dry winter. Predictions of more frequent droughts as a result of global warming
have not helped matters.<BR><BR>The Bureau of Reclamation and the Westlands
Water District could not be reached fo</SPAN></FONT><SPAN
style="FONT-SIZE: 15px"><FONT face=Arial><B>r comment.<BR><BR>Online
resource<BR><BR>Read th</B></FONT><FONT color=#0c565f><FONT
face="Georgia, Times New Roman">e EPA memo<BR><BR>links.sf</FONT></FONT><FONT
face="Georgia, Times New Roman">g<I>ate.com/ZRC<BR><BR>E-mail Pete<FONT
color=#0c565f>r Fimrite at pfimrite@sf</FONT></I>c</FONT></SPAN></FONT><FONT
color=#555555><FONT size=4><FONT face="Verdana, Helvetica, Arial"><SPAN
style="FONT-SIZE: 13px"><I>hronicle.com<BR><BR><BR><BR>This article
ap<B>peare</B>d on page B - 1 of the San
Franc</I></SPAN></FONT></FONT></FONT><FONT
face="Verdana, Helvetica, Arial"><FONT size=5><SPAN style="FONT-SIZE: 16px">isco
Chronicle<BR><BR></SPAN></FONT></FONT></P></DIV></FONT></DIV></BODY></HTML>