A Clean Water Future For California: How California’s Water Boards Can Clean Up Nine of the State’s Biggest Polluted Rivers, Lakes And Bays
2006-02-02
Executive Summary
To restore nine of the largest polluted waterways in the state to
health, legally mandated cleanup plans drafted by California’s water
boards must be strengthened. To put the state on a path to a clean
water future, the plans should stop new pollution from entering the
waterways, clean up existing contamination, ensure flows sufficient to
maintain healthy water quality and restore essential habitat.
California’s
waterways are at a crossroads. On our current path lies a future filled
with great bays too polluted to swim in much of the year, signature
rivers emptied of salmon, and vital drinking water sources polluted by
pesticides and other chemical pollutants.
This future, however, is not inevitable.
Under
a 1997 U.S. EPA policy and several court orders, California’s water
boards are required to establish cleanup plans called Total Maximum
Daily Loads, or TMDLs to clean up the state’s most polluted waterways
in the next decade. Through a series of straightforward measures in
these legally mandated plans, the water boards have the potential to
make Santa Monica Bay safe for swimming throughout the year, return
salmon to the San Joaquin and protect the clarity of Lake Tahoe.
While
current state and federal law provide the authority needed to adopt
strong clean-up plans, many plans that have already been drafted do not
fully use this authority to ensure that nine of the largest polluted
waterways in the state will be cleaned up.
Without a change in
direction, cleanup plans for the waterways profiled in this report may
simply codify the status quo and miss the historic opportunity to clean
up many of California’s largest polluted bays, rivers and lakes.
California’s
State Water Board and Regional Water Boards should shift course. To
fulfill their legal mandate, cleanup plans they draft should include a
series of straightforward measures that
• Require dramatic reductions in new pollution such as agricultural and stormwater runoff reaching our largest waterways •
Establish a renewed California Superfund program to clean up existing
toxic contamination, which is paid for by polluting industries
• Compel dam operators to allow river flows sufficient to maintain healthy waterways and
• Increase funding for habitat restoration
With
the adoption of such measures in cleanup plans, California’s water
boards can put the state on a path to a clean water future.
The Bays: Santa Monica Bay, Humboldt Bay and San Francisco Bay
California’s
great bays collect large amounts of contamination such as grease, trash
and toxic pesticides from inland areas and highly developed coastal
cities. The destruction of local habitat exacerbates this problem by
weakening nature’s ability to filter out the pollution before it
reaches the bays. Wastewater treatment plants also discharge a range of
toxic constituents which, while less in volume than the pollution
contained in urban runoff, can be highly concentrated.
Air
pollution is also a significant source of contamination in the
waterways. A consequence of this contamination is mercury and
Polychlorinated biphenyl (PCB) pollution that coats bay floors in many
areas and builds up in marine life, threatening the health of
subsistence fishermen.
Cleanup plans for Santa Monica Bay
contain several strong requirements to limit trash entering the
waterway, redirect stormwater to treatment plants and reduce toxic
chemical pollution. Plans to clean up PCBs and dioxin pollution,
however, have yet to be established for Humboldt Bay and a proposed
cleanup plan for mercury in San Francisco Bay was recently rejected by
the State Water Board as insufficient to address the pollution.
To bring California’s largest bays back to health, California’s water boards should ensure that cleanup plans:
Stop New Pollution:
Cleanup plans should require the full enforcement of existing clean
water laws and commit to specific inspection schedules and other
measures that will ensure mandated pollution reductions are met. Plans
should also require that stormwater polluters adhere to the same strong
pollution reduction standards as other sources of pollution. Such an
effort would include strong permits that contain numeric limits for
stormwater pollution. Cleanup plans should also require that wastewater
treatment plants reduce the pollution they discharge into the bays to
the maximum extent possible. The North Coast Regional Water Board
should also recognize Humboldt Bay as seriously polluted with the
extremely toxic chemical dioxin and pursue the polluters responsible to
immediately clean up sources of contamination.
Clean Up Existing Pollution:
To ensure cleanup of toxic mercury and PCB ‘hot spots’ in the bays,
cleanup plans should establish a renewed California Superfund program,
paid for by polluting industries. Regional water boards should also
pursue polluters directly responsible for legacy PCB pollution in the
bays for cleanup funds.
Restore Habitat:
Where feasible, cleanup plans should require restoration of coastal and
watershed habitat for creeks, estuary and streams that naturally filter
water entering the bays and shelter wildlife. Specifically, cleanup
plans should support local restoration efforts around San Francisco and
Humboldt Bay and recommend genuine stewardship of the Ballona Wetlands
and threatened lagoons that line Santa Monica Bay.
The Rivers: The Sacramento, San Joaquin and Klamath
New
pollution continues to enter three of the largest polluted rivers in
the state.Agricultural operations leak farm waste that can contain
pesticides, salt, toxic metals and nutrients into the waterways. Urban
runoff also carries numerous pollutants into the rivers and legacy
mercury pollution leaked into the San Joaquin and Sacramento rivers
from old mine sites threatens the health of local communities and river
ecosystems. Low flows from dams and water diversions in the Klamath
River and San Joaquin River have devastated local fish populations and
degraded water quality. The destruction of wetlands and forests that
lined the waterways removed important buffer zones that can filter out
pollution before it reaches river waters.
Despite their
degraded state, a cleanup plan for the Klamath River has yet to be
drafted and existing cleanup plans for the Sacramento and San Joaquin
Rivers do not require dramatic reductions in agricultural pollution, a
comprehensive plan to clean up toxic contamination, safeguards against
increased use of more dangerous pesticides or ensure water flows
necessary to protect water quality.
To return these rivers to health, California’s water boards should ensure that cleanup plans:
Stop New Pollution: Cleanup
plans should require dramatic reductions in the amount of agricultural
pollution entering the Klamath, San Joaquin and Sacramento rivers.
Officials can do this by issuing strong clean water permits that
require significant and measurable reductions in agricultural
pollution, overall reductions in pesticide use and agricultural water
conservation measures that reduce the amount of irrigation water
released into the waters. In addition, the state should order mining
operations in the Klamath River that degrade water quality to
immediately cease operation.
Clean Up Existing Pollution: Cleanup
plans should establish a renewed California Superfund Program, paid for
by polluters, which will clean up pollution from mines. Until
contamination is fully addressed, plans should also establish
aggressive risk reduction programs to protect the health of surrounding
communities from exposure to toxic pollution.
Ensure Sufficient Flows: Cleanup
plans should require that dams on the Sacramento, San Joaquin and
Klamath are operated in a manner that ensures the water quality of the
river downstream is healthy enough to sustain vibrant fish populations
and larger ecosystems. Specifically, plans should withdraw water rights
and withhold Clean Water Act certification for dams that degrade
downstream water quality. In addition, the Central Valley Regional
Water Board should establish limits on salt pollution for the entirety
of the San Joaquin River and require increases in water releases from
Friant Dam to meet these limits.
Restore Habitat:
Cleanup plans should require, where feasible, funding for the
establishment of protective vegetative buffer zones along the waterways
that will further protect them from further pollution.
The Lakes: Clear Lake, Eagle Lake, and Lake Tahoe
Despite
strong measures to curtail urban runoff into Lake Tahoe, a lack of
development around Eagle Lake and a cleanup plan for mercury pollution
in Clear Lake, three of the largest polluted lakes in California face
several remaining challenges on the road back to health. New pollution
continues to enter Lake Tahoe and Clear Lake. Nitrogen and phosphorous
deposited by urban runoff and air pollution fuel the growth of algae
that chokes off oxygen and clouds Lake Tahoe. Fine particles of dirt
pollution, called sediment, are carried into the lakes by runoff and
erosion of streams and further threaten its clarity. The pollution of
the lakes is exacerbated by the destruction of local wetlands that can
filter out pollution. Eagle Lake and Clear Lake also face a set of
unique challenges: Non-native Eastern brook trout interferes with the
ability of native Eagle Lake rainbow trout to reproduce naturally.
Mercury pollution from an inactive mine on its banks seriously impairs
Clear Lake.
Despite the seriousness of the issues facing the
lakes profile din this report, cleanup plans for Lake Tahoe and Eagle
Lake have yet to be drafted and the cleanup plan for mercury pollution
in Clear Lake does not guarantee ongoing funding for continued cleanup
efforts.
To bring these lakes back to health, cleanup plans should:
Stop New Pollution: Cleanup
plans should restrict development that contributes to the runoff of
nitrogen, phosphorous and fine particle pollution and strengthen runoff
controls on existing development. In addition, working with state and
local air quality officials, the plans should limit air pollution that
deposits nitrogen contamination into Lake Tahoe. Finally, cleanup plans
should stop new pollution entering the waterways from septic tanks.
Clean Up Existing Pollution:
Cleanup plans should establish a renewed California Superfund program,
paid for by polluters, which will ensure funding for cleanup of
pollution caused by old mine sites.
Restore Habitat:
Where feasible, cleanup plans should require the restoration of
wetlands habitat and the establishment of buffer zones along lakeshores
and lake tributaries that will revive ecosystems, filter pollution and
prevent the erosion of streams into the lakes. The Lahontan Regional
Water Board should also list Eagle Lake as seriously polluted with
non-native fish species and take steps to control nonnative fish
species that hinder the natural life-cycles of native fish populations.
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