Department of Water Resources California Water News: Water Quality 1/12/10

Stronger controls urged on chemicals in water

S.F. Chronicle-1/12/10

By Carolyn Jones

 

Citing the decline in frogs and rise of "frankenfish," a Bay Area environmental group filed a legal petition Monday for tighter federal standards on pollutants that disrupt the hormones of humans and wildlife.

 

The Center for Biological Diversity petitioned the U.S. Environmental Agency to beef up criteria under the Clean Water Act for pesticides, pharmaceuticals and other endocrine disruptors that leak through the water-treatment process and contaminate groundwater and drinking-water supplies.

 

"We've found that a very small concentration of these chemicals can have profound reproductive effects," said Jeff Miller, a conservation advocate for the Center for Biological Diversity in San Francisco.

 

Over the past two decades or so, scientists have found increasing amounts of endocrine disruptors in the groundwater, and they have seen corresponding effects in wildlife, particularly frogs, fish and other aquatic animals. Almost every native frog species in California is threatened, and scientists are finding fish with both male and female characteristics, Miller said.

 

The chemicals are found in dozens of household and industrial products, including sunscreen, birth control pills, herbicides, antibiotics, bug spray and painkillers. Miller's organization says the chemicals interfere with hormone production in people and wildlife, leading to infertility, birth defects and other problems.

 

The EPA, under the new administration, has recently launched several programs to look more closely at endocrine disruptors and other water pollutants, said Betsaida Alcantara, EPA deputy press secretary.

 

EPA administrator Lisa Jackson has called for a comprehensive overhaul of federal toxics laws, which could include tighter restrictions on endocrine disruptors, Alcantara said.

 

Of particular concern is atrazine, the second most common herbicide in the world, said UC Berkeley biology professor Tyrone Hayes, who specializes in endocrine disruptors and their effect on frogs.

 

Atrazine, which is banned in Europe, appears to affect estrogen production in frogs and other creatures, leading to fertility problems, cancer and birth defects, he said.

 

"Frogs are telling us atrazine is something we all have to be worried about," Hayes said. "We should be smart and follow Europe's lead and get rid of it."#

 

http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2010/01/12/BA9C1BGPEK.DTL&feed=rss.bayarea

 

 

Santa Monica Bay water is improved

L.A. Daily News-1/11/10

By Kristin S. Agostoni

 

The Santa Monica Bay's dry-weather water quality record has improved and some habitats have rebounded since the release of a report five years ago on the bay's environmental health.

 

But the latest analysis of the waters off the South Bay coastline points to some lingering problems, including contaminated seafood, threatened fish populations and pollution caused by wet weather discharges.

 

Those are among the highlights in the 2010 State of the Bay Report, a comprehensive document prepared by the Santa Monica Bay Restoration Commission, and that this year offers a mix of good and bad news. Updated every five years, the report will be discussed at length Wednesday at an all-day conference at Loyola Marymount University in Westchester.

 

"The bay is cleaner, the beaches are safer for swimming, and some key habitats ... are protected now," said Shelley Luce, the commission's executive director.

 

Luce said improved water quality conditions can be attributed in part to the installation of low-flow diversion devices that are designed to keep contaminated runoff from entering storm drains.

 

The equipment sends the low flows of dry weather days - such as runoff from people washing cars or watering lawns - into sanitary sewers for treatment. While the report notes that the devices haven't worked everywhere and "poor water quality in wet weather is a chronic problem," they are credited with helping to improve the bay's health on dry days at many sites.

 

Luce also pointed to the benefits of wastewater treatment efforts started several years ago for both the Hyperion plant near Playa del Rey and the Los Angeles County Sanitation Districts' outfalls off the Palos Verdes Peninsula. Both have moved to full secondary treatment, a process that kills bacteria and viruses in water being discharged, she said.

 

The improvements were in place when the 2005 State of the Bay Report was released, Luce said, but it is clear now to scientists that ocean habitats have improved around the facilities' outfalls.

 

"They both had dead zones at the end of the pipes," she said. "Now we see healthy, biological communities at the end of these pipes. That's really, really exciting. In five years, eight years, we can see a huge difference."

 

But at the same time, the report also addresses larger problems that have been around for years, including contaminants found in fish off White Point.

 

The ocean floor there contains sediment contaminated with DDT and PCB, chemicals the EPA years ago traced to local industries, including the former Montrose Chemical Corp. factory in Harbor Gateway.

 

The Environmental Protection Agency has said it plans to place a sediment cap over the contaminated area - a project studied and discussed for years.

 

But Certain fish remain unsafe. State officials recently updated safe-eating guidelines to expand the number of local species that consumers should avoid. (In addition to white croaker, the advisory now extends to topsmelt and barred sea bass, and includes other guidelines, including warnings for pregnant women.

 

"That problem has not been solved," Luce said. "(But) the good news is a lot of effort has been given to education programs" aimed at getting the message out to local fishermen.

 

In addition, the report points out that certain Santa Monica Bay fish populations remain at risk, including kelp bass, California halibut and barred sand bass.

 

"We have not protected the area where these fish need to breed," Luce said. "We haven't protected these rocky reefs."

 

Just recently, the state Fish and Game Commission advanced a long-debated set of recommendations for closing or restricting fishing off the Southern California coast, including waters southwest of the Palos Verdes Peninsula.

 

But Luce said she hopes those boundaries will be revisited in five years, and that consideration will be given to setting aside even a small area off the Peninsula's Rocky Point. After much debate between anglers and environmental groups, those waters were left open under the new marine reserve guidelines.

 

"That's the real source of biodiversity in the bay," she said of Rocky Point.

 

Presenters on Wednesday will include members of the Santa Monica Bay Restoration Commission's governing board and technical advisory committee, as well as a keynote speaker, environmental justice advocate Majora Carter.#

 

http://www.dailynews.com/search/ci_14168612?IADID=Search-www.dailynews.com-www.dailynews.com

 

 

 

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