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California’s Blue Resistance: Enforcing Water Laws in the Trump Era

California is pledging to defend its actions to tackle climate change and fund clean energy. But it should also be positioning itself as a leader on clean water.

1/26/17

Our new president said he was “committed to eliminating harmful and unnecessary policies” such as the Climate Action Plan and the Waters of the United States rule. He is already making good on that promise by removing all mentions of climate change from his new White House website. And Scott Pruitt, his pick to head the Environmental Protection Agency, has repeatedly protected industry from environmental policies.

California’s leaders have pledged to defend California values by holding our ground on climate change, clean energy and air-quality programs fundamental to our health and economy. But there has been considerably less focus on water, despite the enormous threats coming from Washington, D.C., and even within the state. Just as we lead the nation on climate action and renewable energy, we must lead on water.

Harbor District rejects Coast Seafoods oyster farming expansion

1/19/17

In a standing room only meeting Thursday evening, the Humboldt Bay Harbor, Recreation and Conservation District Board of Commissioners voted to reject an environmental impact report for Coast Seafoods Company’s proposed 260-acre oyster farming expansion project in Humboldt Bay.

The commission voted 2-1 — with 1st Division Commissioner Larry Doss dissenting — to approve the report, but the item was not passed due to it not gaining a majority vote from the five-member commission. Second Division Commissioner Greg Dale had recused himself from the meeting because his position as the southwest operations manager for Coast Seafoods was a conflict of interest. The 3rd Division seat is currently empty after Mike Wilson became a Humboldt County supervisor at the start of the year.

For Doss, the report did not adequately take into consideration impacts to the general public’s use of state lands — namely of hunters.

“The way I interpret it is if an entity of the public is not in favor of a permitting process or an action that we have to take strong heed to that and consider everyone’s use of the bay,” he said.

He also said that the project’s “cumulative effect” on the growth of other oyster producers in the bay needs to be assessed in greater detail, despite several local oyster farmers not associated with Coast Seafoods voicing their support for the expansion that evening.

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District to review shellfish proposal

Fishermen, birders, researchers question Coast Seafoods plan

1/19/17

The Humboldt Bay Harbor, Recreation and Conservation District is set to decide this evening whether to certify the environmental review of Coast Seafoods Company’s proposed 256-acre shellfish aquaculture expansion in Humboldt Bay.

The first phase of the expansion would add 165 acres of shellfish culture operations. The remaining 91 acres would be added after three to five years of monitoring by Coast Seafoods, which will have to implement an adaptive management plan to address any potential impacts to eelgrass beds.

Should the harbor district Board of Commissioners approve the plan, the expansion will still need to receive a water quality certification from the regional water quality control board, a permit from the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers and a coastal development permit from the California Coastal Commission, according to Dale. Dale said he hopes to begin the expansion this summer.

Several environmental advocates, bird hunters, fishermen and researchers state the project’s revised environmental impact report still does not address their concerns about the expansion’s impact on sensitive eelgrass beds in the bay and the wildlife that rely on them.

To address these concerns, Coast Seafoods reduced the size of the expansion and agreed to remove a quarter-acre of its existing long-line operations for every new acre added. More than 60 acres of existing operations will be removed if the plan is approved.

The full environmental review and other information about the proposed expansion can be found online at http://humboldtbay.org/coast-seafoods-company-humboldt-bay-shellfish-aquaculture-permit-renewal-and-expansion-project

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‘This is the wettest winter’ in decades

1/11/17

It’s been a wet, windy few days on the North Coast that have seen widespread flooding, power outages, land- and mudslides on roads, falling trees, high tides and now school closures.

“PG&E meteorologists today said this is the wettest winter that Humboldt County and Mendocino County have seen in 20 years. The last time this much rain fell in these areas was the winter of 1996-1997,” Pacific Gas and Electric Company representative Deanna Contreras said Tuesday.

It’s not just rivers flooding; Humboldt Bay broke a high tide record.

“Today’s high tide was 1.4’ higher than predicted, reaching 9.64’ — an all-time high for Humboldt Bay!” Humboldt Baykeeper tweeted Tuesday.

Changing waters in Humboldt Bay

12/22/16

Humboldt Bay’s clean yet productive waters are one of the main reasons it is home to both extensive eelgrass beds and an expanding shellfish aquaculture industry that generates more than $10 million in sales per year.

Yet the aquaculture industry must now contend with a new threat that is altering the chemistry of seawater: ocean acidification. The impact of intensifying ocean acidification on aquaculture in Humboldt Bay, and the extent to which eelgrass may reduce these impacts, is the focus of a new project by California Sea Grant Extension Specialist Dr. Joe Tyburczy and collaborators at Humboldt State University, with funding awarded by the Ocean Protection Council.

The team, which includes industry partner Terry Sawyer of Hog Island Oyster Company, will install a state-of-the-art monitoring instrument called a Burkolator to track Humboldt Bay’s carbonate chemistry at the company’s new oyster hatchery. The researchers will place additional sensors in coastal waters outside the bay and establish the first bay-wide monitoring program for eelgrass.

“Our goal is to provide the aquaculture industry and environmental permitting agencies with data and information that will help them develop win-win scenarios – ones that allow the aquaculture industry to expand, while at the same time minimizing impacts on eelgrass and the services it provides,” said Tyburczy.