I interviewed Jennifer Kalt of Humboldt Baykeeper last year while walking with her at the Arcata Marsh. My conversation with her touched on cleaning up Humboldt Bay, the Clean Water Act, and preparing for sea level rise in part one of two parts. I found her very informative and devoted to her work.Dana Utman: When it comes to sites around the Humboldt Bay that need to be cleaned up, do you have any idea how many there might be? Jennifer Kalt: There are dozens. There used to be over 100 lumber mills around the bay. For example, further up was a plywood mill, then there’s Beaver Lumber, and it just keeps going along Butcher Slough. There’s a lot of really complex site history. A lot of the mills changed hands many times and they reused the sites for different things, such as plywood, studs for building frames, or milling logs throughout different eras. But between the 1940s and the 1980s a lot of them used a wood preservative called pentachlorophenol or penta for short. It's still used it on power poles. There have been some recent lawsuits about that, and PG&E has agreed to stop using it. Luckily, the Clean Water Act has a citizen provision. If the government isn’t pursuing the laws, an organization can sue to enforce the laws that protect the waterways. A plaintiff in a lawsuit under the Clean Water Act can only collect attorney’s and expert fees. The money doesn’t actually go to the organization. People believe we oftentimes get all this money pursuing lawsuits, but we don’t. We get changes on the ground. It’s a big effort. Lawyers oftentimes do it on contingency, so they’re volunteering until you settle the case, and then they get paid after that. But the plaintiff doesn’t get any money. There’s incentive to do good, that’s why we do it. There is often a penalty, or SEP. It’s basically the money that goes to remedy some of the damage that was done, and that money will go off into another environmental group working in the watershed or it will go to a foundation, like Humboldt Area Foundation, that gives grants to other organizations working in the same watershed. But the plaintiff can’t apply for those grants.Dana Utman: How do you think the system can be improved?Jennifer Kalt: There could be a huge improvement in terms of other types of lawsuits and other types of environmental laws. Ultimately, what would be best, is if the government agencies would enforce their own regulations.
A gray whale carcass was found earlier this week on the beach at Bunkers, a popular surf spot in the Samoa Dunes Recreation Area.Researchers from Cal Poly Humboldt Marine Mammal Stranding Program responded to the scene Tuesday to collect samples, and according to Director Dawn Goley, this particular Eschrichtius robustus was a male juvenile measuring 27 feet long.“It was emaciated but showed no additional signs consistent with a ship strike or fatal killer whale attack,” Goley said in an email to the Outpost.Gray whales on the West Coast have had a rough few years. Since the start of 2019 they’ve experienced an elevated number of deaths and strandings, a trend that NOAA Fisheries has designated an Unusual Mortality Event. Between January 1, 2019 and February 8 of this year, 613 stranded gray whales were found between Puerto Vallarta, Mexico, and the Chukchi Sea in northern Alaska, according to Humboldt Baykeeper.Read More
Nordic Aquafarms announced a switch to yellowtail kingfish at the company’s proposed facility in Humboldt Bay. Formerly, the company was planning to farm Atlantic salmon.The company anticipates the aquafarm will “start smaller” than what was projected for Atlantic salmon, and the farm will use less freshwater and energy than previous designs.This is following years of permitting work to get the project off the ground and a number of concerns raised from environmental groups.“From the Baykeeper perspective, this is an improvement — partly just based on the sheer size of the thing, but also a lot of the concerns with Atlantic salmon will go away with this new species,” said Jennifer Kalt, executive director of Humboldt Baykeeper.Questions have been raised about bringing Atlantic salmon to the region, which is not native to California. Kalt noted there has never been a permit in California to raise Atlantic salmon. Competition with local salmon fishermen and a lack of state-approved egg sources are no longer considerations for the farm, which would grow a species of fish eaten as sashimi.Local environmental groups have yet to see updated plans that detail these changes.The company still needs permits from the regional water board for discharge and intake, one from the California Coastal Commission, and one from the Army Corps of Engineers.“A lot of people are really concerned about the nutrient discharge into the ocean. It would give a lot of people a lot more confidence that it can be done without harming the ocean and environment if they start on a small scale and we can see how it operates,” said Kalt.Read More
The California Department of Fish and Wildlife (CDFW) Director Charlton H. Bonham has closed the recreational razor clam fishery in Humboldt County (PDF) following a recommendation from state health agencies determining that consumption of razor clams in the area poses a significant threat for domoic acid exposure.Pseudo-nitzschia, a naturally occurring, single-celled marine alga, produces the potent neurotoxin domoic acid under certain ocean conditions. Bivalve shellfish, like clams and mussels, accumulate the toxin without being harmed. In fact, razor clams are known to bioaccumulate domoic acid, meaning it may not clear their system until long after the ocean conditions that caused it have abated.Sampling of razor clams from Clam Beach in Humboldt County in early April found clams exceeding the current federal action level for domoic acid of greater than or equal to 20 parts per million.Read More
The Elk River Wastewater Treatment Plant needs to be retrofitted. This came out of a Eureka city report that sparked a change in permit classification. The report found that not all of the effluent the plant releases leaves the bay.When the plant was originally built in the 1980s, it was classified as one that releases the treated wastewater into the open ocean. The plant now has to meet inland surface water plant requirements.Michael Hansen, deputy director of public works, said the plant wasn’t really designed to meet the new permitting limits.“We’re only allowed to release twice a day when the tide is outgoing. We release into the middle of the shipping channel, out there in the bay,” said Hansen.
The treatment plant receives about 3,500,000 gallons of flow per day. This is the waste from all of Eureka and the surrounding areas. During storm events, inflow and infiltration can push it up to the plant’s capacity of 32 million gallons. Stormwater influx is caused by leaky pipes throughout the district, something the city has been trying to fix.Charles Reed, supervisor of point source control and groundwater protection division at the North Coast Regional Water Quality Control Board, said the Eureka plant could either find a way to release the effluent to the ocean or add some kind of wetland enhancement like Arcata did. He noted Eureka has less available space for wetland enhancement than Arcata does.Reed said the city has until 2042 to meet the classification.Read More
