SAN FRANCISCO, California, February 5, 2009 (ENS) – Conservation and fishermen’s groups filed a lawsuit Wednesday in California Superior Court seeking to force state and regional water boards to implement existing clean water laws in the wild rivers and streams of the state’s North Coast region.

The groups argue that only cleaner waters will enable the recovery of endangered salmon species.

For decades, water quality in North Coast river and streams has been degraded by sediment, nutrients, high temperatures, low dissolved oxygen levels, and turbidity. These pollutants are the result of dam construction, water diversions, urban development, agriculture, logging, mining, and grazing.

The declining river and stream conditions have impacted the survival of regional salmon species, including chinook salmon, coho salmon, and Northern California steelhead, which are now listed under the federal Endangered Species Act.

Last year, the collapse of salmon stocks on the west coast caused the first ever complete shutdown of the commercial salmon fishing season.

“Regional and state officials have failed to develop realistic, workable action plans that protect water quality and provide habitat for endangered salmon that need cool, clean water to survive,” said George Torgun of the public interest law firm Earthjustice, who is representing the coalition in court.

“Without such plans, water quality in North Coast rivers and streams will not meet the standards that the state is obligated to achieve,” he said.

“We need abundant populations of salmon for long-term economic stability and for our future generations of fishermen,” said Glen Spain, northwest regional director of the Pacific Coast Federation of Fishermen’s Associations, a commercial fishing industry trade association that is a co-plaintiff in the suit.

Endangered salmon spawning in a California stream (Photo courtesy California Nature Tours)

“Providing the conditions necessary for salmon to survive could bring back tens of thousands of fishing jobs and a billion dollar industry to our region,” said Spain.

The action plans at issue are part of the Clean Water Act’s Total Maximum Daily Load, TMDL, program. A TMDL is the maximum amount of a pollutant that a waterbody can receive in 24 hours and still meet water quality standards.

The program first requires the agencies to identify and maintain a list of impaired rivers and streams and submit that list to the U.S. EPA for approval.

The agencies must then assess the sources of pollution causing the violations, set TMDL limits for these sources, and develop action plans to achieve the standards.

In 1995, many of the same organizations involved in the current legal action, sued the EPA for failure to address water quality problems under the TMDL program. That case resulted in a consent decree requiring the federal agency to set pollution limits for 17 listed water bodies within the region by 2007.

EPA has completed most of the work required by the consent decree and TMDLs have been established for Garcia River, Scott River, and Shasta River.

But except for those three rivers, the North Coast Regional Water Quality Control Board and the State Water Resources Control Board have failed to prepare action plans as required by the state Porter-Cologne Water Quality Control Act and the federal Clean Water Act.

In their complaint, the groups recognize that the North Coast Regional Water Quality Control Board, has suffered from deep cuts in staffing and funding for clean water programs.

“While the Regional Board appears to be making some progress, they have lost 60 staff members since 2001, leaving the agency unable to protect our wild rivers,” said Daniel Myers, representing Sierra Club’s Redwood Chapter, one of the plaintiff groups.

“The ecological collapse in our rivers is bad not just for fish, but also for the thousands of people and local communities that depend on the health of these rivers,” said Georgianna Wood of the plaintiff Northcoast Environmental Center. “These pollution problems may be complex, but the state and regional boards have the tools they need to act, and we urge them to do so.”

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OLYMPIA, Washington, November 10, 2008 (ENS) – Each year, 52 million pounds of toxic chemicals – nearly 150,000 pounds per day – inundate Puget Sound with contaminated runoff. This amounts to a toxic spill the size of Exxon Valdez every two years, according to the Puget Sound Partnership, a community effort of governments, tribes, scientists and businesses working together to restore and protect the Sound.

The toxic chemicals include oil and petroleum products, lead, and phthalates – and one million pounds of toxic metals such as zinc and copper. These metals, despite being released in lower concentrations than oil and petroleum, can harm threatened salmon species.

“These disturbing numbers are putting more than 40 species in Puget Sound at risk, including the Sound’s orca population, where we just saw a decline of nearly 10 percent in the past several months,” said the Partnership’s Executive Director David Dicks.

The Puget Sound Partnership Thursday released a draft Action Agenda for protecting, restoring and cleaning up Puget Sound, which encompasses the Seattle-Tacoma metropolitan area, home to about five million people.

Puget Sound as seen from the Seattle
Space Needle (Photo credit unknown)

The draft Action Agenda recommends using “a comprehensive and integrated approach to managing urban stormwater and rural surface water runoff.”

“By protecting the last remaining intact places, problems can be prevented before they occur, which is the best and most cost-effective approach to restoring ecosystem health,” the draft agenda states.

Among other measures, it would establish and maintain locally coordinated, effective on-site sewage system management to reduce pollutant loading to vulnerable surface waters.

It would prevent pollutants from being introduced into Puget Sound ecosystems in the first place, and to deal with contaminants already in the Sound it would prioritize and implement projects to clean up toxic contamination in water and upland areas.

If the draft agenda is adopted, it would protect and conserve stream flows for natural system and human uses and focus growth away from ecologically important and sensitive areas by encouraging dense, compact cities and vital rural communities.

“Human activities have vastly altered the ecosystem during the past 150 years,” the draft agenda states. “Restoration efforts need to bring large portions of river, wetland and marine systems back to life.”

Under the plan, the Partnership would implement and maintain priority ecosystem restoration projects for marine, nearshore, estuary, freshwater riparian and uplands.

It would revitalize waterfront communities while enhancing marine and freshwater shoreline environments and increase private landowners’ ability to undertake restoration projects.

New analysis supporting the draft Action Agenda identifies some “alarming” facts and trends related to the health of Puget Sound, said Dicks.

Two pollution reports, “Pollutant Loadings for Surface Runoff and Roadways” and “Improved Estimates of Loadings from Dischargers of Municipal and Industrial Wastewater,” confirm the state’s previous findings that surface runoff is the main pathway of the toxic chemicals getting into the Sound.

The primary sources of toxics to Puget Sound are the day-to-day activities of people, as the population grows and land gets more and more developed.

The estimates are based on current knowledge about toxic pollutants from surface runoff, air deposition, wastewater from discharge pipes, direct spills into the water and combined sewer/stormwater overflows only.

The reports, and a summary document, can be found online at www.ecy.wa.gov

The draft Action Agenda is subject to a public comment period that ends on November 20.

For convenience, an online “open house” has been added to the Partnership’s website for collecting comments: www.psp.wa.gov.

In addition, two public meetings, both beginning at 9 am, will be held this month to solicit feedback:

* Nov. 11: Embassy Suites Seattle-Tacoma International Airport, Triple Crown Ballroom, 15920 W. Valley Highway, Seattle
* Nov. 21: Edmonds Conference Center

The Partnership’s Leadership Council will adopt the final Action Agenda on December 1 at a Sound-wide celebration event in Seattle.

“The Action Agenda is the best chance we have to repair the damage to Puget Sound and ensure we leave a legacy of a clean and healthy Puget Sound for our children and grandchildren,” Dicks said. “Success truly depends on all of us coming together and being a part of the solution.”

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