Blogs

By Boutris Wittfogel

At a recent regularly scheduled meeting the State Water Board considered a revision to the list of impaired water bodies. Known as the “303d List,” a citation to the section of the Clean Water Act that requires the list be updated every two years, the list identifies the who’s who of polluted waterways and what they are polluted for. A cascade of consequences results from placement on (and de-listing from) the 303d List including restrictions(known as a “total maximum daily load” or “TMDL”) on what can be dumped into the waterway. Identifying an appropriate TMDL for each waterway is a time consuming and costly process, one the State Water Board is woefully behind in completing. In at least one case, the absence of a TMDL for a 303d List impaired waterway requires an outright ban in dumping anything into the waterway. Clearly, the bi-annual 303d List generates significant scrutiny and attention.

But that’s not how it went at the State Water Board meeting. Apparently, internal documents used to prepare Board Members for meetings indicated that the 303d List item was “uncontroversial.” Oops.

Then the calls came in. Prior to the meeting, alarms were sounded, calls were made, letters were drafted, backdoor channels were employed – Board members were embarrassed. This set the stage for an appalling and shameful display of rhetorical outrage by some State Water Board Members. Board Member Baggett stormed off the dais whilst Member Doduc chastised staff, the brunt of which was absorbed by a highly respected staff scientist staring down the barrel of minimum wage. It was a public drubbing of the shallowest order.

The State Water Board should be embarrassed for the way they treated staff, especially the staff scientist. All State Water Board members have been around long enough to know the 303d List is pretty important and going to engender lots of interest; there was no cause for surprise no matter what box was checked on those forms. All State Water Board members had the opportunity to question the internal forms indicating the item was “non-controversial.” Each Board member had ample time to identify the responsible parties and mete out appropriate retribution behind closed doors. But that’s not how it went at the State Water Board meeting.

If they have any sense of shame, the State Water Board should atone for these antics by offering the staff scientist a public apology. If they insist on blaming staff for the “Great 2010 303d List Blunder”, rather than accepting their own culpability, they should seek out the actual middle manager responsible for checking the “non-controversial” box on the internal form for discipline. But that’s not how it goes at the State Water Board.
 

BAKERSFIELD, Calif.— A coalition of farmers, sportfishing interests and environmentalists filed suit today seeking to have the Kern Water Bank returned to state control. The water bank, a massive underground reservoir in Kern County built by the state’s Department of Water Resources, was illegally gifted to powerful corporate agribusiness interests and real-estate speculators as part of the controversial "Monterey Plus Amendments" to the State Water Project system.  READ MORE »

Let's return for a moment to last spring, when doom and gloom descended on the San Joaquin Valley in the form of water-allotment reductions that, we were told, would bankrupt the farmers, idle the workers and turn the region into a modern dust bowl.

Perhaps you remember when TV commentator Sean Hannity, with ample PR help from the huge Westlands Water District, went on the air with a series of heart-tugging stories about how farms and jobs were being lost because wrongheaded environmentalists and federal officials were diverting "valley" water to protect insignificant smelt and salmon.

TO READ MORE CLICK HERE: http://www.montereyherald.com/editorials/ci_15383887
 

This is an article from thereeftank.com's website that did a feature on me. Follow the link here to read more:

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To read the attached pdf file click here:

1. The State Water Resources Control Board heard the Once-Through-Cooling Policy this past week. This was a big item, five years in the making and garnering upwards of 9,000 comment letters, including a form letter apparently replicated 7,000 times. The list of commentators was diverse, including a letter of concern from nine legislators.

2. In another controversial action, the Central Valley Regional Water Quality Control Board adopted a total maximum daily load for control of methylmercury and total mercury in the Delta. Mercury and its evil sibling, methylmercury are complex issues; only time will tell if this was a good decision by the Regional Board. I hope it was, but disturbing letters like this one do not bode well for my hopes.

3.  May 18 is the supposed deadline for wastewater plants to satisfy the California Toxics Rule, is imminent. Over the past few years, the Central Valley Regional Board instituted a parliamentary gimmick of splitting permits into two parts – a permit and a compliance schedule. It is, in part, meant to delay implementation of the May 18 deadline. Apparently, we will find out after May 18if the gimmick will withstand legal scrutiny. The guess here is that only a handful of wastewater plants in the state, half a dozen or fewer, could satisfy the California Toxics Rule on May 18 if administered without gimmicks. Sacramento Regional County Sanitation District’s wastewater plant is not one of them.

4. Comedian Paul Rodriguez on the California Water Commission? Now that is good for a laugh following news reports Gov. Schwarzennegger is considering Rodriguez for the commission. Rodriguez has been a front man/class clown for the Latino Water Coalition, a front group for large western San Joaquin Valley growers, but he has freely admitted on radio show interviews that he has little actual knowledge of California water issues other than he has bought – hook, line and sinker – the party line of western San Joaquin Valley agribusiness. He has also created the impression his small East Side farm near Orange Cove has been threatened with water cutbacks yet records show he had not been deprived of one drop of water from the San Joaquin River. Since much of California water politics is worth a good belly laugh, maybe putting Rodriguez on the Water Commission will lighten things up. But I doubt it. This appointment, if it happens, is a slap in the face of Delta/fishing/Northern California interests.

Subject: Frostbite Enforcement Action – All Bark: No “Real” Protection for Salmonid Species in Sight

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