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This year marks the 40th anniversary of the federal Clean Water Act--a landmark in environmental and community health legislation. The Clean Water Act (CWA) established benchmark legislation to "protect and restore" our nations waters. In doing so, it set a goal of ensuring that our waters would be fishable, swimmable, and drinkable by 1983--a goal we are still trying to accomplish to this day. The need for this monumental legislation was preceded by the Cuyahoga River disaster in Ohio. The industrial river had become so polluted that it caught fire. This event provided the impetus for Congress to pass legislation recognizing the federal responsibility for the care of our nation's waters and the right of the people themselves to ensure that their waters are clean. 

When the Clean Water Act first became law, two-thirds of our nation's lakes, rivers, and coastal waters were unsafe for fishing, drinking, or swimming, and untreated sewage and industrial waste was routinely dumped into waterways. Under the CWA, the newly created EPA implemented programs to control the discharge of pollutants to our waters, as well as set standards for the quality of waters themselves, and the EPA has moved us towards the CWA's original goals. We have a long ways to go still. 

Humboldt Baykeeper is part of the international Waterkeeper Alliance, a network of clean water advocacy organizations, and together we are celebrating all that clean water and the CWA represents with the 40th Anniversary of the CWA. Locally, Humboldt Baykeeper is taking time in 2012 to celebrate the North Coast's beautiful watersheds in honor of the Clean Water Act and its worthy goal. 

Dioxin Listing and Humboldt Bay's Industrial Legacy 

Humboldt Baykeeper was launched in October 2004 to safeguard coastal resources for the health, enjoyment, and economic strength of the Humboldt Bay community. Local community members recognized a need to have an organization specifically focused on Humboldt Bay and its surrounding tributaries after strong community resistance defeated a proposed Liquefied Natural Gas Terminal on its shores. Humboldt Bay's historical industrial uses have resulted in many contaminated sites that continue to impact water quality today. Dioxin, heavy metals, petroleum products, and other contaminants persist in areas where they were used in the industrial era, and these contaminants continue to impact Humboldt Bay through storm water, ground water, and other discharges. 

The past use of wood preservatives such as pentachlorophenol (also known as "penta") at the dozens of lumber mills that once lined the shores of the Bay and its sloughs have led to the release of contaminants such as dioxins and furans. In 2006, Humboldt Baykeeper successfully petitioned the State Water Resources Control Board to add Humboldt Bay to California's Threatened and Impaired Waters list under Section 303(d) of the Clean Water Act due to the presence of dioxin in the tissue of fish and shellfish in the Bay. As a result, Humboldt Bay is now listed as impaired by dioxin, a legal status that continues to facilitate action and clean-up. 

Cleaning up Humboldt Bay and Monitoring Development 

Humboldt Baykeeper had long known that dioxin from past industrial uses around Humboldt Bay was plaguing water quality in our community. In 2006, along with Californians for Alternatives to Toxics, Humbold Baykeeper filed a CWA suit against the Simpson Timber Company for the continued discharge of contaminants including dioxin into the Bay at their former plywood mill site. Located at the foot of Del Norte Street in Eureka, the former mill site and an adjacent tidally influenced channel were discharging superfund levels of dioxin directly into Humboldt Bay.

Through Humboldt Baykeeper's Toxic Initiative Program, this ongoing threat to Humboldt Bay was identified, and in accordance to the 2008 settlement, Simpson Timber has removed the source of the contamination and restored the wetland channel. Humboldt Baykeeper continues to monitor the results of the completed cleanup at Simpson Timber Company's former bayside mill. Recent sampling at the site shows continuing success of the remediation work in the tidal channel adjacent to the property. 

Fishable, Drinkable, Swimmable Waters--Moving Towards our Goal 

While the CWA provides a legal framework for citizens to combat pollution, direct watershed-stewardship is equally important for fishable, drinkable, and swimmable waters. 

In 2005, Humboldt Baykeeper initiated a Citizen Water Quality Monitoring Program that has since expanded from 9 to 35 monitoring sites ranging from the Elk River to the Little River. The program utilizes over 30 volunteers to monitor the health of local waterways. Sampling events are primarily used to identify hotspots, trends, and changes in current conditions that could prompt additional investigation. The program educates Citizen Monitors about water pollution and how to reduce such pollution through individual actions. The program was recently strengthened with input from scientific experts at Pacific Watershed Associates, and with those recommendations, we now have an improved sampling protocol for local waterways for 2012 and beyond. 

Creating a community of clean water advocates is one of Humboldt Baykeeper's main goals. In 2009, Humboldt Baykeeper initiated an internship program in conjunction with Dr. Alison Purcell O'Dowd, Assistant Professor and Environmental Science Program Coordinator at Humboldt State University. Humboldt Baykeeper student interns study riparian and instream conditions in Widow White Creek, a tributary of the Lower Mad River in McKinleyville. Widow White Creek has been impacted by urbanization of 25% of its watershed, as well as logging and low-density residential development in the upper watershed. It historically supported coho salmon, steelhead trout, cutthroat trout, three-spine stickleback, and sculpins. First Flush monitoring, monitoring during the first big storm event of the year with a half an inch or more rainfall, over several years identified extremely high levels of fecal coliform in the creek, particularly at monitoring sites near residential and commercial areas. 

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4/14/12

The controversial Waterfront Drive extension project is coming back before the Eureka City Council on Tuesday, and it's time to fish or cut bait, according to a city staff report.

Eureka city staff are asking the city council to either direct staff to continue working on the project by completing an environmental impact report, or stop the project and funnel the state transportation funding into another project.

The project -- a two-lane extension of Waterfront Drive from Del Norte Street to Hilfiker Lane -- has been on hold for nearly two years. The city began the project's environmental review process in 2004 but came to a standstill in 2010 due to opposition from environmental groups and the California Coastal Commission, an agency that would eventually review the project's permits. Commission staff were concerned the project is inconsistent with the California Coastal Act, and would negatively impact surrounding wetlands.

According to a staff report, $153,000 remains in the project fund for environmental work, but if the council decides to continue environmental review, it is likely the city will need to request more transportation dollars from the Humboldt County Association of Governments to complete the EIR.

”Given the amount of time that has passed since work has been done on the (draft environmental impact report), there will be additional costs with resuming work on the project and updating documentation that has been prepared thus far,” Environmental Planner Lisa Shikany wrote in a memo.

Additionally, staff recommends consulting with Caltrans to ensure the city does not have to repay the funding if the city can't complete the EIR, or can't get it certified.

”To date, Caltrans has taken the position that due to Coastal Commission's opposition and our perceived inability to permit the project, the city will not be required to repay funds expended to date,” the staff report said.

The project aims to reduce traffic on Broadway, improve access to businesses in the area and provide public access through multi-use trails. The proposed roadway would connect to Broadway at Truesdale Avenue and may have possible connections at McCullens Avenue and Bayshore Way.

Shikany's memo states the city “will face many challenges” if it moves forward, but identifies four primary concerns over the project: issues with filling in the wetlands, impacts to environmentally sensitive habitats and possible conflicts with the Bayshore Mall parking area and the Coastal Conservancy. The conservancy has funded enhancements for the PALCO Marsh, which would be adjacent to the new roadway.

The staff report also included a list, dated March 21, 1997, of projects that are eligible for the transportation funds if the council decides to abandon the project. The projects include other improvements on Broadway, Fourth and Fifth streets; improving the route to the Humboldt County Library; adding bike routes to certain areas and closing some streets between Fourth and Fifth streets for pedestrian use only. 

Original Article 

Dan Berman, con­servation director for the Humboldt Bay Harbor, Recreation and Conser­vation District, will describe efforts to improve kayak access at the Woodley Island Marina, Samoa Campground and Arcata Marsh at the 6 p.m. Monday meeting of Explore North Coast, at the Hum­boldt Bay Aquatic Center, 921 Waterfront Drive. He will share the draft plans and talk about how the district, Explore North Coast and other partners can work together to improve recreational boating opportunities on Humboldt Bay.

Explore North Coast is a nonprof­it association of paddlers that holds regular paddling events and pro­motes paddling safety and educa­tion. Club paddles are scheduled at a variety of North Coast locations throughout the year. The club meets the second Monday of each month and meetings are free to the general public. For more information, email This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.. 

Or will be, if the Harbor District can open more of the bay for mariculture

4/5/12 

The oyster farmer stands in the stern of the small gray skiff, clear-eyed, a bit of smile on his wind-nipped, broad face. Weather’s supposed to turn nasty, but he’s just wearing waders over his jeans, a black cotton sweatshirt under his orange life vest, and a tan ball cap that doesn’t cover his ears.

With one hand on the tiller, the other in his jeans pocket, the farmer guides the skiff up a shiny channel between slick mudflats in North Bay, the northern bulbous extension of Humboldt Bay that nudges against Arcata. Low tide. He tips his chin at the sights: a flock of black brandts, flying in low across the bay to land in a dark-green eelgrass patch and begin nibbling. Earlier, the loon by the dock, an uncommon, speckled apparition; must be migrating through.

He slows the skiff, gently nudges its prow into a mudflat, and water clinks against the metal hull. Spread out on the exposed bay bottom before the skiff is one of his company’s oyster farms: rows upon rows of long ropes strung between short PVC pipes about a foot above the bay mud, with clumpy oblong shells woven into them every few inches. Algae and mud have coated everything in brown-green-gold, though here and there wink glimmers of pearly shell. It looks like a squat, murky vineyard. These were “planted” last fall, during a low tide, the farmer says. Though you can’t see them from the boat, each of the shells attached to the ropes has tiny oysters growing all over it; the little oysters are called “spat,” the big empty shell they’ve cemented themselves onto is called “cultch,” and together they make “oyster seed.” It’ll be two years, about, before harvesters can come in here, during a high tide, and haul the ropes in to collect the heavy adult oyster clusters.

Back in the open water, the skiff heading deeper into the middle of the bay, rain replaces sun and a rising wind whips the water into an alarming chop. The farmer, still standing, looks unperturbed. In command of his world.

Surely, this is the life. Following the rhythm of the tides, the ocean flowing in, flowing out, in, out. Inhabiting a world of birds and seals. Producing a food for th“It’s not the 1950s anymore; you don’t get to do whatever you damned well please,” says the farmer, whose name is Greg Dale.

As the southwest operations manager for Coast Seafoods, the biggest oyster grower on Humboldt Bay (and in California), Dale speaks from experience: Over a period of 10 years ending in 2007, in response to environmental concerns and increased regulatory pressures, Coast was forced to completely alter its harvest methods. It spent more than $1 million on permits and environmental reviews from at least nine local, state and federal agencies.

Coast could weather the expense. But smaller operators generally can’t — which is why, farmers say, there are only five growers on the bay using just 325 acres out of several thousand that could potentially support shellfish culturing.

The Humboldt Bay Harbor, Conservation and Recreation District has a plan to change that — to create a business park, of sorts, for oyster farmers by identifying a host of new sites, vetting them as a group for environmental compliance and pre-permitting them for the same culture methods currently used on the bay. The district would take on the regulatory risk, in other words. Once it completes that work, probably by 2014, the new sites would be leased out through a bidding process. Last year, the Headwaters Fund awarded the district a $200,000 grant for the spendiest part of this project — the permitting and review. It also had the district add a provision: a fee on top of the lease rate to squirrel away for future permitting costs. Now the district has to go identify those suitable sites.

The project has evoked cautious optimism from conservationists and created ripples of excitement among shellfish farmers and regulators alike — locally, regionally, nationally. Oh, and listen. Hear that? It’s the well-heeled, banging their empty plates on elegantly clothed tables, demanding more Humboldt Kumamotos.e sort of folks who care about where it comes from and how it’s grown — heck, not even able to keep up with their hunger.

A dream.

A dream, apparently, that few can afford. To hear this oyster farmer and others tell it, if you want to set up a new oyster farm on the bay — or expand an existing one — you’ll need buckets of money and the perseverance of a gull choking down a starfish to complete the slow-going, complex multi-agency permitting and environmental review process.

Not that current or prospective farmers necessarily disagree with the regulations, he says.