Project will need state approval

6/7/12

The Eureka City Council approved the redirection of $1.2 million in fund­ing from the defunct Waterfront Drive Extension project to a waterfront trail from Del Norte to Truesdale streets at its Tuesday meeting.



The city had secured more than $4.6 million for a project to extend Water­front Drive but abandoned the project in April in the face of strong and ongo­ing opposition by the California Coastal Commission.



In a 4-1 vote Tuesday, Councilman Lance Madsen dissenting, the council directed staff to work with Caltrans and the Humboldt County Association of Governments to use funds from the project for construction of the trail and the remaining balance for other road­way improvements.



The funds were originally allocated to the city in conjunction with the water­front drive extension, and the stand­alone trail will have to go before the Cal­ifornia Transportation Commission for approval. The funds carry stipulations to improve the safety of the U.S. High­way 101 corridor.



Madsen praised the idea of the trail but said he didn’t think the project fit the conditions for which the funds were designated.



“There seems to be some confusion about what these non-freeway funds were designated for,” Madsen said.



He said he had not seen any findings that the trail would improve safety on Broadway, and expressed concern that the trail will increase traffic crossings on Broadway.



“There’s also a reasonable expectation that an increase in traffic will increase accidents,” Madsen said. “Public safety is the express priority of this council.” Councilwoman Linda Atkins predict­ed the project would have a positive effect.



“Taking bicycles and pedestrians off Broadway I think is a really good way to increase the safety there,” Atkins said.



Representatives from the Audobon Society, Redwood Community Action Agency, Humboldt Baykeeper and other organizations spoke during pub­lic comment, saying the trail would benefit local businesses, tourism and access to the waterfront.

Westside Improvement Association member Richard Evans said waterfront access would transform the Westside.

“The most successful coastal towns have embraced their waterfronts,” Evans said.

Councilwoman Marian Brady praised the project, adding that it was important to have law enforcement and public safety access to the area which she described as currently less than family-friendly.

“There are weird, strange people out there that jump out at you,” Brady said. Assistant City Manager Mike Knight said staff was aware of the need for pub­lic safety access, and was confident that $1.2 million would be enough to com­plete the project as the city envisions it. Knight said the project has Humboldt County Association of Governments support and believed that the project would be acceptable under the funds’ stipulations.

“I was hoping that if all of us in this area are in agreement about how this money should be spent, that should go a long ways in front of the Califor­nia Transportation Commission,” Knight said.

In other business, the council voted unanimously to direct staff to imple­ment a mandatory commercial recy­cling program which will affect 1,100 businesses and could start as soon as the end of the year.

The program will mean a increase in both commercial and residential rates, and will help Eureka move toward waste reduction, according to Deputy Public Works Director Miles Slattery.

Slattery said average residential cus­tomers will see a $1.30 per month increase. Commercial customers will see an increase of $8.50 per month, but Slattery said that many businesses will see reduced recycling costs as they move away from voluntary recycling pro­grams that can be more costly.

Slattery said the program will double the amount of recycling done by the city and generate $30,000 per year.

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6/1/12

Humboldt County con­tractor Dennis Wendt of Wendt Construction resolved a federal lawsuit today with the Environmental Protec­tion Agency and Department of Justice following the con­struction company’s unper­mitted dumping of the equivalent of 200 large dump truck loads of material into federally protected wetlands crucial to neighboring salmon populations.



According to an EPA news release, the illegal fill activities took place between 2005 and 2008 at two Fortuna develop­ment sites — the Strongs Creek Plaza Site and the East Littlefield Property — and impacted four acres of wet­lands. Wendt Construction will pay a $170,000 penalty for dumping fill material into wetlands connected to Strongs Creek, a tributary to the Eel River.



As part of the settlement, the company will spend an additional $150,000 on a multi-year project to restore the damaged wetlands, including the creation of a vegetated pond that will sup­port wildlife.



Restoration will allow the creek to provide movement corridors for wildlife and habitat for the northern red­legged frog, a threatened species in California.



The wetlands are associat­ed with Strongs Creek, which flows approximately 1.3 miles west to the Eel River, a resource for maintaining cold, freshwater habitat for salmon and steelhead. The Lower Eel River is considered impaired under the Clean Water Act due to excessive sediment loads, low dis­solved oxygen and high tem­peratures, according to the press release.



The Clean Water Act pro­tects the nation’s coasts, rivers, lakes, streams, and wetlands, which are vital to the protection of human health and the environment. The act requires anyone who proposes to fill and alter pro­tected waterways, including wetlands, to first obtain a permit from the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers.



The proposed consent decree for the settlement is subject to a 30-day comment period and final court approval. A copy of the pro­posed decree is available on the Justice Department web­site online at www.justice.gov/ enrd/Consent_Decrees.html.

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See also EPA Dings Fortuna Construction Firm More Than $300,000 for Wetlands Dumping

The Hiksari Trail from Truesdale Street to the Herrick Avenue Park and Ride is the newest segment of the Eureka Waterfront Trail

The City of Eureka and Redwood Community Action Agency (RCAA) held a community celebration of the Elk River Access Area and Hiksari Trail, a new segment of the Eureka Waterfront Trail that has been in the planning stages for years. Heavy equipment work is scheduled to begin Tuesday.

Above: 4th District Supervisor Virginia Bass and Eureka Mayor Frank Jager wield cremonial Golden McClouds to break ground at the Truesdale Vista Point on Saturday.

On Tuesday, June 5, the Eureka City Council will consider reallocating State Transportation funding to the next segment of the trail, from Truesdale Street north to Del Norte Street.

5/28/12

New findings from the first statewide study of contaminants in fish caught off the California coast show that methylmercury, a toxin that damages the nervous system of humans, was found in high concentrations in more than a third of the locations that researchers sampled.

The report, released Tuesday by the state's water quality agency, yields new information for anglers and consumers on which species of fish tend to accumulate the substance. It also indicates that older, predatory fish have higher levels of methylmercury regardless of where they're caught.

Seven species popular with recreational fishermen had high concentrations of methylmercury: leopard sharks, brown smoothhound sharks, spiny dogfish, copper rockfish, rosy rockfish, china rockfish and striped bass, the report stated, so children and pregnant women should not eat them.

The analysis also found a higher rate of contamination in fish caught on the Northern Coast than those caught in the Bay Area.

Since there are not significant sources of mercury pollution to the north, the findings indicate that faraway sources can affect local fish, said Jay Davis, leader of the study produced by the Surface Water Ambient Monitoring Program of the State Water Resources Control Board.

”It suggests there's enough mercury coming into these aquatic ecosystems from global sources in the atmosphere to drive significant accumulations in the species that are prone to high accumulations,” said Davis, senior scientist with the San Francisco Estuary Institute.

The higher rates to the north are also due to the age and types of fish caught there. They tend to be longer-lived predators, and mercury levels increase with age and among fish higher up the food chain.

Methylmercury is produced by bacteria that convert mercury pollution, from sources including gold mines and coal-burning power plants, into an organic form.

Children are particularly vulnerable to the toxin, which is why the state Office of Environmental Health Hazard Assessment recommends stronger limitations on eating certain species of fish for children and women of childbearing age.

Overall, the study found that 37 percent of the 68 locations where fish were sampled along the coast produced at least one species with high concentrations of methylmercury.

The study also measured polychlorinated biphenyls, or PCBs, and other toxins. Just 7 percent of the sites where fish were sampled had a species in the high-contamination category for PCBs. San Francisco Bay and San Diego Bay were among them.

To read the report, visit www.waterboards.ca.gov/swamp and scroll down to “California Coastal Contamination Study in Sport Fish.”

To view fish consumption guidelines, go to www.oehha.ca.gov and click on “Fish” at the top of the page.

For information on fishing locations, visit www.cawaterquality.net.

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