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<DIV><FONT face=Verdana size=2>USGS critiques feds' water deals with
farmers<BR><BR>By GARANCE BURKE, The Associated Press<BR>2008-06-12
02:09:16.0<BR>Current rank: # 445 of 8,995<BR>FRESNO, Calif. -<BR><BR>A new
report by the U.S. Geological Survey suggests the federal government's plans to
clean up acres of polluted croplands where thousands of birds died in the 1980s
could, if poorly managed, put shore birds at risk again.<BR><BR>Sen. Dianne
Feinstein has been brokering negotiations over the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation's
proposals, which are intended to fix a botched federal drain project that left
fields in California's San Joaquin Valley too salty to grow crops.<BR><BR>Two
weeks ago, Feinstein met behind closed doors in San Francisco's Ferry Building
with bureau officials and the two USGS scientists who wrote the internal report
the senator requested.<BR><BR>A copy obtained by The Associated Press Wednesday
critiques a proposal previously floated by the bureau. That plan would give a
group of wealthy farmers a perpetual contract for irrigation water if they took
on the cost of the clean up, which is estimated at more than $2.6
billion.<BR><BR>The bureau is considering using a new technology - a solar
evaporation system - to separate harmful selenium concentrations from the
runoff.<BR><BR>"However, at this concentration there still may be a potential
for selenium risk to wildlife, if performance does not meet specific criteria,"
the report said.<BR><BR>Feinstein's staff said on Wednesday the Democratic
senator had since written the bureau's Sacramento director to ask how the agency
planned to reduce threats to birds.<BR><BR>She cited data in the report showing
that eggs of two shore birds collected in 2006 at a pilot facility that recycles
the runoff contained more than nine times the level of selenium the government
says represents a high risk for deformity.<BR><BR>"The USGS presents data that
pilot projects ... have caused instances of selenium in bird eggs substantially
above the 10 parts per billion threshold for substantive risk," Feinstein wrote
in a letter dated Tuesday. "This is a very serious concern."<BR><BR>Mike
Finnegan, an area manager for the bureau's central California area office, said
he could not comment on concerns about the contaminated eggs.<BR><BR>Once
managers at the Panoche Drainage District discovered the eggs, they immediately,
permanently closed the open drains where avocets and stilts were nesting, state
officials said.<BR><BR>Finnegan said the agency was developing a flexible
approach to safeguard waterfowl in its official proposal, as well as in a
second, competing proposal drawn up by the Westlands Water District, a coalition
of giant lettuce, citrus and tomato growers in the fertile valley.<BR><BR>The
pilot recycling projects are slated to be expanded in both, and designs are
still being finalized.<BR><BR>"We want be responsive to ensure we have an
effective, adaptive approach and make sure we're not causing undue damage to the
environment," he said. "We also acknowledge that treatment at this scale has not
be totally tested or proven."<BR><BR>Westlands' general manager and general
counsel Tom Birmingham said Wednesday that the agency was prepared to spend the
$700 million he estimated it would cost the private sector to fix the vexing
problem, and would keep a close watch to ensure wildlife was
protected.<BR><BR>"These techniques can work to manage drain water in an
environmentally responsible way," Birmingham said. "With adaptive management, if
you discover a problem you can take immediate action to correct
it."<BR><BR>Farmers and the federal government have been fighting over the
drainage mess since the 1980s, when thousands of birds died and were born
without limbs after nesting in ponds of contaminated irrigation
water.<BR><BR>After the disaster, land managers at the Kesterson Wildlife
Refuge, some 80 miles northeast of Fresno, covered up the evaporation ponds with
dirt, and wild birds flocked back to the region, a popular stopover on the
Pacific flyway.<BR><BR>Powerful agribusinesses sued, claiming the federal
government was responsible for cleaning up the cropland polluted by the
runoff.<BR><BR>Decades later, the bureau - which runs a massive irrigation
complex that makes farming possible in the arid Central Valley - remains under a
federal court order to dispose of the tainted water.<BR><BR>Biologists, water
districts and growers alike have tried dozens of innovative approaches to get
rid of the runoff that collects after farmers irrigate their crops.<BR><BR>In
May, Feinstein requested that the USGS comment on the contractors' proposal, but
didn't publicly release the results until the AP's story.<BR><BR>Growing crops
on fewer acres of land is one option explored in the USGS report.<BR><BR>But
growers say fallowing fields would rob them of their livelihoods and cause major
job losses throughout the region. Given the huge expense required to fix the
drainage problem, farmers say they need a permanent water contract to ensure
their financial viability, and to keep growing the fruits and vegetables the
nation relies on.<BR><BR>Westlands and other water districts propose to fix the
problem by shooting the polluted runoff through a sprinkler system that would
allow the salts to solidify and be collected.<BR><BR>The report critiqued that
proposal, and another to build the solar evaporation systems, calling them
untested options that had not been proven to work at the scale
required.<BR><BR>If necessary, Finnegan said the government would complete
additional environmental reviews of the reuse projects, the sprinklers and other
new techniques.<BR><BR>The study also suggested farmers boost the water they
draw from underground aquifers to lower the amount of selenium brought into the
environment.<BR><BR>Several retired federal scientists and environmental groups
excluded from the San Francisco meeting hailed the report as an important step
toward broadening the scientific debate.<BR><BR>"The science doesn't add up.
They government doesn't have the answers," said Edgar Imhoff, a former top
drainage official at the Department of Interior who also served as a hydrologist
at the USGS. "If they go ahead with their plan, this report shows there are a
lot of uncertainties that it will ever work out."<BR>Copyright 2008 The
Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published,
broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.</FONT><BR><BR></DIV></BODY></HTML>