ESTUARY 1 SCIENCE • RESTORATION • WATERSHED • POLITICS SPECIES BAY San Francisco Estuary Partnership

Prepping for a Hotter San Joaquin Valley

Derelict San Francisco Shipyard Goes Soft

Committee Approves 32-Action Plan for Estuary

Nervy Merger

EBMUD Experiments with Pipe Replacement

Mixed News from Eggs

Local Ocean Response to Climate Change

John Hart Reviews the Estuary’s Divided Heart NE WS

JUNE 2016 VOL. 25, NO. 2 SJ Valley Change ...... 2 India Basin ...... 4 CCMP Approved ...... 5 ABAG Merger ...... 6 Pipelines ...... 15 Bird Egg Contaminants . . . . . 17 Point Buckler ...... 18 Ocean Climate Summit . . . . . 19 SPECIAL: Estuary History . . .7-14 2 JUNE 2016 3 ESTUARY NEWS

RIVERS climate change will be intrinsically lived there first. “Native Americans different in the two regions. Here were constantly burning and thinning on the edges of the Bay, a big worry forests,” Selmon says. “But, thinking is that rising seas will swamp the it was a better way to manage them, Getting Ahead marshes that protect against floods, we did nothing except put fires out.” and push salt water so far into the According to a recent study led by Delta that water near the pumps will Christopher Dolanc of UC Davis, fire be undrinkable. suppression has crammed the Sierra of Change in the Valley Nevada with small trees, more than For Valley ecosystems, the worst doubling their density in some places. On a hot day in a dry year in the thousands of Chinook salmon that then nightmare is rising temperatures. Dense forests catch snow in their San Joaquin Valley, water is already so Warming does a double whammy spawned upstream. Now, more than branches, where it skips melting into scarce that there isn’t enough to meet on the Sierra Nevada snowpack that half a century later, the San Joaquin liquid water. Instead, it evaporates all needs. And it will only get worse supplies water through the long dry River Restoration Project is finally into water vapor and floats away. as climate change makes summers rebuilding the historic salmon runs season: the mountains get more there even hotter and drier. This vast and giving them back a bit of water. rain and less snow, shrinking the Thinning a crowded forest lets arid valley, stretching from Stockton to snowpack; and the snow that does fall more snow fall to the ground, building Bakersfield and bounded by mountains This restoration will also benefit melts earlier, diminishing the water up the snowpack and swelling runoff to the east, west and south, is drained wildlife and people in the valley the supply in the summer when the need into the headwaters of San Joaquin by the San Joaquin River, which flows river traverses, as well as in the is greatest. River. A team led by Roger Bales of hundreds of miles from high in the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta it flows UC Merced estimates that thinning into. And it’s just one of the things Selmon points out that this is already Sierra Nevada to the lowlands of the happening: “California has warmed overgrown forests could yield up to Delta. Along the way, people dam that can be done today to prepare for 16% more water and extend snowmelt tomorrow’s climate change. “It’s all almost 1.5 °F over the last century and and divert water for communities and the snowpack has declined 10% — by precious weeks, calling thinning agriculture, sometimes taking so much connected, it’s quite a complicated “one of the few ways that California puzzle,” says Tom Harmon, a climate we’ve already lost 1.5 million acre-feet that hardly any is left for salmon and of water.” That’s enough for 3 million can address the negative impacts of researcher at UC Merced. other wildlife. households for a year. climate change on water yield and Even so, this puzzle can be solved. storage in the Sierra Nevada.” “One of the biggest threats of climate And temperatures continue to go up. “We need to integrate planning for change is that we will have even less The US Bureau of Reclamation projects Another way is restoring mead- climate change with planning for water water,” says Michelle Selmon, a state that by the end of this century, the ows, which can keep snowmelt from Department of Water Resources climate and other resources, and we all need Central Valley will be nearly 5 °F hotter. rushing down to the Valley too early. change specialist based in Fresno. to work together,” Selmon says. “Most That may not seem like a big deal but Meadows are like sponges, soaking people have no idea how challenging up water fast and releasing it slowly, “San Joaquin ecosystems are already it’s enough to tip the balance from snow Biologists capture first fall run adult Chinook salmon in November 2012 at the confluence of the San stressed. There are only pockets of this is.” to rain at Sierra Nevada elevations even into September. But the Sierra Joaquin and Merced Rivers. They transported the fish around barriers and then released them again native habitat left.” Nevada’s nearly 200,000 acres of Warming will bring more intense where the snowpack begins. “The in the upper San Joaquin River. Fish passage barriers will be fixed as part of upcoming restoration snow-rain transition zone is gradually meadows are “one of the most altered, efforts. Photo: Monty Schmitt After the Friant Dam went in on the rainstorms and more severe floods to impacted and at-risk landscapes in San Joaquin River near Fresno during California. But just as the San Joaquin hiking its way upslope,” UC Merced’s Harmon explains. “California depends the range,” say Joshua Viers and col- Resources Defense Council. By into the ground, where it is banked the 1940s, nearly 60 miles downstream Valley can feel like a different world leagues of UC Davis. Half the mead- shifting storms in the Sierra Nevada for dry times to come in the San ran dry, cutting off the hundreds of from the Bay Area, other effects of on snowpack and it’s not a very cold snowpack — that’s why the state is so ows there have been so degraded from snow towards rain, warming Joaquin Valley. “Even 10,000 acre feet sensitive to climate change.” by livestock grazing, diversions and will bring bigger floods in the future at the right time can make a world of ditching that the streams running from storms of a given size. “For a difference,” Schmitt says. Today, runoff from the snowpack through them are deeper than the 200-year event, climate change will Restoring the San Joaquin River can last until July. But with the smaller floodplains — so they fail to capture increase peak runoff into the San will benefit the Bay Area as well. snowpack and earlier snowmelt much water. Reconnecting the stream Joaquin River by 20%,” he says. “Now, virtually no water from this caused by warming, this welcome and floodplain can reverse that, restor- Levees along two long stretches part of the river gets to the Delta,” replenishment of icy streamflow ing a meadow’s capacity to hold water that are bottlenecked—increasing the Schmitt says. Returning some of during the Valley’s scorching summer and release it down to the San Joaquin flood risk—will be set back. Besides the river’s water means more will may dwindle to just a trickle. River through the summer. giving flood water a safe place to go, ultimately make its way downstream There’s already so much extra After the Sacramento River, the setting back the levees will make to the Delta, where lack of freshwater carbon dioxide in the air that it’s too San Joaquin River is California’s sec- room for thousands of acres of the imperils smelt and other at-risk fish. late to halt climate change. “There are ond longest at 350 miles and its res- floodplains that nurture young salmon As Schmitt points out, every drop is unavoidable impacts already in the toration spans the 150 miles between migrating to the sea. welcome. RM pipeline so we need to adapt,” Selmon Friant Dam and the confluence with The river’s restoration will also CONTACT Tom Harmon says. There’s not much that can be the Merced River. While driven by at- help ease the impact of future [email protected]; done about the temperature rise, at risk salmon, the restoration will also droughts—which climate change Monty Schmitt [email protected]; least in California alone; warming help counteract the effects of climate will likely exacerbate—by recharging Michelle Selmon is worldwide so curbing it is an change—especially flooding. international undertaking. some much-needed groundwater. As [email protected] This part of the river is largely de- part of the restoration effort, the river But plenty can be done about the fenseless against large flood events. gets back an average of 17% of its consequences of warming. “Protection wasn’t set up because historical flows before the Friant Dam High in the Sierras, researchers are the river is so dry much of the time,” went in, or about 300,000 acre feet. So says Monty Schmitt, senior scientist far, about 40% of the water that has Lower San Joaquin River near its confluence with the Merced River. Photo: Monty Schmitt testing a snowpack-boosting method that dates back to the people who and project manager with the Natural been restored to the river has gone 4 JUNE 2016 5 ESTUARY NEWS ADAPTATION PARTNERSHIP A Softer Shoreline for San Francisco? Committee Approves 32-Action Plan A derelict shipyard, an proposals came out for After two and a half years work in the first place. The Partnership’s IC member Jessica Davenport of the underused park, and a this site, one of the things by 70 organizations, the Estuary 1992 plan had 144 actions. “As part Delta Stewardship Council. has a new Comprehensive Conservation of the overhaul, we really asked remnant wetland are the that really stood out was “The great thing about the CCMP is raw ingredients in a new the community’s love for and Management Plan. “It builds on our ourselves, given the reality of peoples’ attention spans and workloads, is that it takes a broad view of Estuary, conceptual design for a the shoreline, the birds past work but is a new plan with a and includes our local watersheds, climate-adaptive park on and wildlife there, and strong focus,” says Caitlin Sweeney, there a different way we can still be comprehensive and address the entire the Delta, wetlands, green San Francisco’s southeast protecting that.” director of the San Francisco Estuary infrastructure, legacy pollutants, shoreline. The design — by Partnership, which is championing the Estuary system?” says Valiela. Jackie Omotalade, with water supply, and many other issues,” Gustafson Guthrie Nichol new plan. The plan sets four broad goals for says the Coastal Conservancy’s Amy (GGN) — won a design the SF Parks Alliance, The 2016 CCMP, due for public 2050 aimed at sustaining habitats Hutzel, who has also chaired the IC ideas contest sponsored concurs. She says the release in early fall, is much more and species, bolstering resilience in for several years. by the SF Recreation & project also has an succinct than the 1992 and 2007 the face of climate change, improving Parks Department, SF environmental justice Over the years, the atmosphere versions produced by the Partnership. water quality and quantity, and Parks Alliance, Trust for aspect since residents surrounding Bay and Delta planning, The 2016 plan has four broad goals, building strong public support for Public Land, and Build Inc.: have had to live next to once very contentious, has changed 12 objectives, and 32 actions. Estuary protection and restoration. the charge was to “re- polluting industries for according to early participants. Each CCMP action includes tasks, Actions to be accomplished within the imagine” India Basin as many years, something that “The success of the CCMP is that measurable milestones, and a list of next five years, meanwhile, touch on part of a 1.5-mile network is now changing as many we’ve steered ourselves away “owners” and collaborating partners. everything from creating a regional of shoreline parks known of the old manufacturing from adversarial science to joint sites along the shoreline “It clearly documents what we and stream monitoring program and as the Blue Greenway — sequestering carbon in wetlands fact-finding, and we now have green for the parks and Section of Blue Greenway plan around India Basin. Map: SF Parks Alliance are transformed into our partners will do to implement to managing predators, increasing mechanisms in place to be agile in blue for the water trail that housing and parks. “[This tasks, and who will help them,” says the use of recycled water, improving acting as needed, when needed,” says follows alongside. GGN’s and uplands while balancing cut and project] will finally give Sweeney. through-system fresh water flows, IC member Tom Mumley of the SF Bay proposal would transform the site fill so significant amounts of soil people the opportunity to connect to The Partnership’s CCMP and integrating nature-based Regional Water Quality Control Board. with a “big soft edge,” restoring tidal wouldn’t have to be hauled in or out.” the waterfront—that’s important in Implementation Committee (IC) infrastructure into shoreline planning, Mumley is particularly proud that wetlands and uplands and possibly any neighborhood but particularly in greenlighted the plan at a meeting While the project is still in a very to name only a few actions. so much has been accomplished in including a horizontal levee, all neighborhoods with such a strong on May 18. The committee currently early stage, creating a horizontal levee pollution prevention and reduction: designed to create new habitat and legacy of contamination.” She says includes more than 30 members from Framers of the new CCMP also is very much a possibility, says Nichol. add resilience. The plan also gives the residents are also very interested in diverse public agencies and NGOs, as worked hard to make sure it was well “We no longer have any large adjacent community good access to “To do a horizontal levee here doesn’t how climate change will affect their well as from educational, community coordinated with other important pollutant red flags, and the heart and the Bay for the first time. require as much manipulation of the community. “They understand the and scientific organizations. “I really regional plans and efforts, and filled soul of future action has to be turning Bay floor as areas that have been importance of passive open space necessary gaps (see also page 7). grey hardscape into sustainable “The big soft edge idea is coupled like how approachable and digestible dredged deeply.” A 50-foot stretch of — the wetlands — as an adaptation “We are hopeful that the CCMP will greenscape. We’ve had pockets and with the idea of bringing people down this document is,” says US EPA’s original wetlands remains on the site. measure for climate change.” provide a way for policy makers, pilots of green infrastructure before, to experience the water. It’s an unusual Luisa Valiela, an IC member who managers and scientists working in but the CCMP calls for turning up the place along the edge of the Bay in that “This is a really special opportunity Could the softer shoreline approach also represents the federal agency the Bay and Delta to see connections volume on this several notches.” you have this very shallow, gradual because things have been preserved be used elsewhere along this urbanized that launched the National Estuary among their efforts and find more gradient bathymetry in a protected here frozen in time,” says Nichol. The shoreline? The Port of San Francisco’s Program, and its requirement for One of the newest members of ways to work together and learn basin,” says Shannon Nichol with boat yard was in use until the late David Beaupre says it might be possible the development of comprehensive the IC comes from a single-issue from each other in the future,” says GGN. “We softened the edge, removing 1990s; rails that were used to slide at Warm Water Cove and Crane Cove management plans for estuaries, focused agency but says but he’s riprap and fill and restoring wetlands boats down into the Bay can still be Park. At Heron’s Head Park, he says, also learned a lot about other issues seen in the ground. While boats will a living shoreline/horizontal levee sitting in IC meetings. “Working no longer be launched on the decaying approach could be used to deal with an on this made me realize what a rails, a new kayak launch will give erosion problem. “The challenge for wide variety of issues face the Bay people access to the water trail, and us is that, if you look at sea level rise, today, and how we can’t achieve our part of the boatyard may be used for a in 20 to 30 years, a significant amount overall CCMP goals unless we break community program teaching how to of Heron’s Head could be under water. down our programmatic silos,” says build small boats and repair bicycles. What’s the cost/benefit?” Matt Fabry, who works for the San Mateo Countywide Water Pollution Noreen Weeden of Golden Gate Despite those concerns, says Prevention Program. “The CCMP Audubon says India Basin offers one Beaupre, the city, led by the Planning helps us tie what some people are of the few remaining opportunities Department, plans to hold a Bay Area trying to do in the watersheds with to do full ecological restoration on Resiliency By Design challenge for what others are doing at the edge of San Francisco’s shoreline. “It has the sections of the Bay shoreline next the Bay,” he says. potential to have even more birds than year. LOV Heron’s Head and greater diversity In the meantime, national support CONTACT [email protected], of wildlife because it includes open for the new plan and its legacy was [email protected], water, wetlands, and uplands.” She reaffirmed this May when President [email protected], hopes the kayak launch will be built Barack Obama signed into law the [email protected] in a way that minimizes impacts to first reauthorization of the National Photo: GGN Photo: Rick Lewis wildlife. “When all of the different continued on back page 6 JUNE 2016 7 ESTUARY NEWS IN-DEPTH FEATURE climate REGION CHANGE ESTUARY asked well-known writer John Hart to investigate and comment on how well the region has succeeded in managing the Bay and Delta as Hope and Anxiety one Estuary since the 1970s, and where the new CCMP, to be released in fall Prioritizing Biological 2016, fits in (see also p. 5). Integrity in Merger’s Wake With never enough money but plenty Will the upcoming transfer historically provided to ABAG for land of uncertainty about climate change, of the Association of Bay Area use planning support. MTC intended Two Hearts Beating Not Quite as One how can planners and resource Government’s staff to the to take on those planning functions Metropolitan Transportation to itself, arguing that the agencies’ managers best prepare the Estuary We’re waiting now for the short plan the conversation turned to subtler Commission be the first step toward to adapt? Perhaps with the help of joint work developing Plan Bay Area was Downstream: toxics like heavy metals, and to “non- a single body that can boost the with the long name: The Comprehensive CADS, aka Climate Adaptation Decision hampered by “dysfunction.” However, point source” pollution dribbling out integration of estuary-related issues Conservation and Management Plan for the Road to the First CCMP Support for San Francisco Bay. following protests from local of whole watersheds, including oil into regional planning? Or will these San Francisco Estuary. That word “When we try to pick out anything governments, labor unions, non- and other fluids shed onto roads, CADS is an analysis and modeling priorities be sidelined? These are “comprehensive” stakes quite a claim. by itself,” John Muir famously said, profit organizations and others, MTC pesticides and nutrients applied effort led by the San Francisco Bay among the many questions raised “we find it hitched to everything else postponed the action and, together If the CCMP, the work of the San in gardens and on farms, and the Joint Venture to try to prioritize by the move, which will reshape Bay with ABAG, retained consultant Francisco Estuary Partnership, is the in the universe.” The issue that led how resources (funding, staff, and ubiquitous plastic bag. Area planning in the years ahead. Management Partners to study the closest thing we have to a master to a “comprehensive” planning effort equipment) might be allocated under policy, financial, management and vision for the future of these waters for the lower Estuary was not, as you During this same period, scientists two very different climate change Many of the objectives identified legal issues associated with the in the era of climate change, it is might imagine, bay fill, dealt with at the U. S. Geological Survey were scenarios. CADS built on a 2011 in the SF Estuary Partnership’s new integration of ABAG and MTC. also just one in swarm of plans and very effectively by the San Francisco doing their first real studies of the workshop sponsored by the California Comprehensive Conservation and Management planning efforts purporting to shape Bay Conservation and Development Bay-Delta system. They were coming Landscape Conservation Cooperative Plan for the Bay and Delta call for regional The consultant analyzed seven that future. How do they all get along? Commission from 1969 on. It was to grasp the unity of these waters in which stakeholders recommended integration, and MTC’s assimilation options, including ABAG’s preferred water pollution. and sharing what was then startling that climate change adaptation of ABAG staff could, in theory at option, a full merger of the two How does the CCMP fit with the Bay news: that the health of the Bay agencies. However, MTC declined In 1972, the Clean Water Act made strategies be better incorporated into least, facilitate them. “This is an Plan and the Bay-Delta Water Quality Control depended on flows out of the Delta. the preexisting San Francisco Bay tidal wetland restoration efforts. CADS opportunity to integrate land use, to support that option, and the “It’s amazing how little we knew Plan and the Delta Plan, not to mention the Regional Water Quality Control Board a also addresses climate-adaptation water resources and transportation agencies compromised on Option 7, about the Bay in the late ‘60s,” says Delta Land Use and Resource Management Plan? franchise of the national pollution con- recommendations from the 2015 planning into one place,” says the which calls for them to enter into a biologist James Cloern, still a leader Is it on the same page with Plan Bay Area trol effort—and poured in $1.2 billion Bayland Ecosystem Habitat Goals Update. Coastal Conservancy’s Amy Hutzel, contract to consolidate staff functions on the scientific scene. He and his under MTC’s executive director and and the San Francisco Bay Basin Plan? How in federal funds over the next fifteen adding that water quality, urban colleagues proposed an unfamiliar During 2014 and 2015, the simultaneously enter into an MOU to do the Bay Area Integrated Regional Water years to upgrade sewage treatment greening, wetlands restoration and name for the waters from the Golden Joint Venture held workshops and explore the creation of a new regional Management Plan and the California Water plants and police industrial discharges. coastal protection objectives in Gate to Stockton: the San Francisco webinars with about 50 scientists governance body at a future — Action Plan fit in? What about California particular stand to benefit from Together with the advent of the Estuary. The word spread. and managers in the North Bay, unspecified — date. such integration. WaterFix and California EcoRestore? San Francisco Bay Conservation Suisun, Central Bay, and South Bay. For the non-initiate, the contours of In 1981, a new group, The Among the first steps in the and Development Commission, this To develop conservation goals and The staff transfer, which will Bay Institute, joined the ranks of transition will be the development the cause can disappear in a cloud investment changed the Bay. The recommendations for each region occur in early 2017, is the result of advocates alongside the older Save of a plan to integrate ABAG’s work of organizations and acronyms and sewage and industrial outflows that in the face of climate change, they months of negotiations between San Francisco Bay Association. While into MTC’s organization. “As we put abstractly titled calls to action. had been killing fish and fouling divided the Estuary into six types of ABAG and MTC that were prompted Save the Bay stayed on guard against together the work plan it will be shorelines dwindled. As the cleanup ecosystems: sub-tidal and intertidal by MTC’s 2015 decision to withdraw In the following I’ll attempt a sort Bay encroachments, TBI looked important that all of ABAG’s programs, of gross pollution visibly progressed, mudflats; tidal marsh; managed/diked $4 million in annual funding it has of genealogy of players and plans, eastwards toward the Delta and including the SFEP, the Bay Trail marsh and ponds; upland transition and try to answer my own questions: whole Central Valley and the Water Trail, continue to be zone; and upland ecosystems, Are these people talking to one watershed. “Save a supported,” says ABAG President including migration space and another? Do their ideas add up to River for the Bay,” it Julie Pierce, “I have every intention watersheds. one way forward, or tug in opposing proclaimed. that they will be.” directions? Is there authority Participants agreed that the Two strands — the The devil is in the details and money to match all the good overarching objective for all ecosystems estuary concept and the however, and some observers intentions? Do the pieces fit? should be that the biological integrity need to control a wider worry that the institutional support of the ecosystem as a whole be stable It didn’t take me long to confirm one range of pollutants — for SFEP and the CCMP may falter or increase in both the near and long basic split. The effort to grapple with came together in the under the new arrangement. “I’m term. Indicators of integrity were the future of the San Francisco Estuary 1987 amendments a little concerned because I don’t chosen: birds were the most popular, has always really been two efforts: to the Clean Water think that the future of the SFEP followed by plants, fish, and indicators one centered on the lower Estuary Act. Besides adding a and the CCMP are front and center that integrate disparate attributes and, by necessity, reaching upstream; section on non-point for the staff and elected officials of the ecosystem. Each group then one centered on the upper and, by source pollution, negotiating the merger,” says predicted how factors like sediment, necessity, reaching down. The two Congress created Hutzel. “We need to make sure storms, and sea level rise might affect tracks influence each other, intertwine, a National Estuary that the SFEP and the CCMP aren’t biological integrity, and decided on come to share a vocabulary, but never Program singling out afterthoughts, that they aren’t six different categories of actions that really merge. They diverge, too, in that certain areas for special pushed to the side during the could be taken to improve integrity. the “upstream” issues involve powerful attention. San Francisco discussions.” CHT Photo: Rick Lewis interests the whole length of California, Bay, in its extended continued on page 18 as the “downstream” issues do not. Real estate in the Bay, circa 1960s. Photo: BCDC sense, was one of these. 8 JUNE 2016 9 ESTUARY NEWS

The 1987 law is the source of that exports from the project pumps near Next Steps on Pollution mouthful, “Comprehensive Conservation Byron, to do so. Everyone, more or and Management Plan.” Each region’s less, sued, and it took a few years If the Estuary Project had little CCMP was to “restore and maintain even to establish the principle that support in Sacramento, it was the chemical, physical, and biological the federal Central Valley Project was downright chummy with the San integrity of [its] estuary, including in fact subject to state rules. Francisco Bay Regional Water Quality restoration and maintenance of Control Board (which has hosted its water quality, a balanced indigenous offices since 1993). Having almost population of shellfish, fish and The First Estuary won the war against gross pollution wildlife, and recreational activities.” Mind Meld and twice revised its Water Quality In short, it could cover just about Control Plan, San Francisco Bay Basin, the everything — by no means limited, How did these efforts interface board was ready to make its move for the Bay, to waters west of the with the emerging Estuary Project? on heavy metals and synthetic Carquinez Strait. Not very much or very well. The state chemicals: the invisible toxins that, was slow to adopt the new language piling up in the food chain, keep us The preparation of this plan of estuarine connectedness, and its from eating too much bay-caught was the charge of a “management agencies participated in the Estuary fish. But action was frustrated, as the conference,” which promptly named Project only on condition that their CCMP noted, by skimpy information itself the San Francisco Estuary authority over the rivers not be called about the sources and travels of Project (later Partnership). Federal into question—as, under the Clean these pollutants. watershed funding was routed through EPA Water Act, it and the Association of Bay Area valley might have Governments. Offices were first at been. EPA, then at ABAG, and finally at the Regional Water Quality Control Board. The first Comprehensive Conservation and Upstream Management Plan In the Delta, meanwhile, biologists nevertheless were belatedly examining the effects proceeded. of a huge decision made a decade When the CCMP earlier: the launch of the State Water appeared in Project. In the late 1960s, the SWP 1993, it held an joined the federal Central Valley aspirational list Project in shipping water southwards of 144 action from the Delta. Might the combined items, mostly clustered UPPER withdrawals of fresh water harm fish? Might they suck salt water in around the ESTUARY from the west? In 1970, four water lower bays but delta and wildlife agencies formed an also reaching far up the valley Interagency Ecological Program to weigh these effects. Its field of vision inland rivers. LOWER A lasting Fish kills were fairly common around the Bay before pollution controls was at first limited to two resources: gathered steam. Photo: BCDC ESTUARY striped bass, a favorite game fish; and contribution bay the brackish duck marshes north of was to Suisun Bay, perhaps to be threatened introduce to the world the indicator In 1992, the board set out to fill by saltwater intrusion. In an ever- called X2: the point, measured in the gap with a Regional Monitoring Golden shifting landscape of agencies and kilometers inland from the Golden Program, collecting more data, on MIDDLE Gate studies, the IEP has been a hardy Gate, at which salinity at depth has more substances, at more points, than had hitherto been possible. ESTUARY OUTER perennial, though of course its focus dropped to two parts per thousand. Suisun has broadened. For various reasons, it was already Dischargers would pay the bills; ESTUARY clear, the estuary is healthier when the sampling would be done by Pacific The State Water Resources Control X2 lies well west, that is, when fresh a new entity, the San Francisco Board, which unites pollution control water flows through and out of the Estuary Institute. In the decades responsibilities with oversight of Delta are strong. Though the plan since, the RMP has provided the the state’s crazy-quilt water rights only called for further study, the mere basis for regulations on well-known system, was also trying to catch up to mention of the topic drew indignant toxic substances, like mercury, events. In 1978, the board issued the dissents from water agencies and a selenium, and PCBs, and on new first of a series of momentous and demurrer from Governor Pete Wilson. or newly understood ones, like the hard-fought decisions governing the The Governor nonetheless signed off chemicals in flame retardants and operation of the two water projects. on the CCMP, and within a few years stain repellents. SFEI, meanwhile, Decision 1485 required that the X2 was recognized as the best single has outgrown its initial task to N operators maintain certain salinity measure of adequate seaward flows. become one of the major sources levels at various points along the Bay- of information about the state and Delta gradient, releasing water from evolution of the Estuary. Photo: Amber Manfree upstream reservoirs, or curtailing 10 JUNE 2016 11 ESTUARY NEWS

to the agency — the Bay Plan had A compounding problem is the not actually a plan, if that word The Suisun Bay mentioned it since 1989 — but he overall lack of sediment from the implies any element of coercion. asked his staff for a fresh examination. much-dammed feeder rivers. Bay It is rather an ambitious work Overlap It soon became apparent that even waters are growing clearer, which program, a to-do list for 28 partners Suisun Bay and the extensive a moderate rise would be very bad is now understood to be a bad thing. labeled as task “owners” and brackish-water marshes north magic for the shoreline zone and The shortage means that every gooey dozens of other “collaborators.” of it have been a border region, its people and wildlife alike. The bucketful dredged from a shipping As for comprehensiveness, this sometimes aligned with the lower Commission published maps showing lane or flood-prone creek is precious. version actually narrows the focus Estuary, sometimes with the upper. areas at risk, and was accused of Yet finding good homes for displaced geographically, as compared to The area is in the jurisdiction both of scheming to expand its jurisdiction. sediments is not so easy. The first the 1992 plan, and it focuses on BCDC and of the Delta Stewardship Plan amendments in 2011 dropped the round of big restorations is about a shortened list of perhaps more Council; it is covered by both Baylands maps but kept the relevant language. over; only the Montezuma Wetland achieveable ambitions. Compared Ecosystem Habitat Goals and At about the same time, the agency Restoration project in Solano County is to prior versions,“there are fewer EcoRestore; it is split on complicated launched its program “Adapting still taking mud. And ocean dumping, ornaments on the tree,” says Sam lines between the Bay Area Joint to Rising Tides,” a kind of floating the Army Corps complains, is almost Ziegler of EPA Region 9. Venture and its inland counterpart planning conference, introducing local mandated by federal rules requiring Endangered Ridgway’s rail, with chicks, in tidal marsh habitat. Photo: Rick Lewis On some pages the draft CCMP the Central Valley Joint Venture. “We governments and other “stakeholders” disposal in “the least cost and environmentally acceptable manner.” reads like a prologue to something share Suisun, that’s a good thing,” to possible responses. says Josh Collins of SFEI. Marshland Mission diked-off lands had lost several feet “That standard,” says Amy Hutzel of more committing. Many of the 32 of soil due to the decomposition of Among these responses was the the Coastal Conservancy, “is the nut specified “Actions” consist largely of Keeping salt water out of The CCMP’s most striking and bay-bottom mucks exposed to the buffering of naked urban shorelines we have to crack.” Hope is waning that setups for concrete steps to come. these marshes, mostly diked and implementable proposal was the air. Reintroducing water to overly and levees with entirely new marshes. Congress will change it in this session. There are calls for further studies, managed for ducks by hunting wholesale restoration of the Bay’s subsided fields would yield deep Unlike prior wetland projects, these conferences, the formulation of best clubs, was an early focus of the historic ring of marshes. Many of ponds, not shallow, shifting waters would require building a substrate for practices. There are research projects Interagency Ecological Program. these had not been actually filled where cordgrass and pickleweed wetland plants by placing fill in open The New CCMP to be completed, reports to be dis- Urban encroachment was the but only diked off, for salt ponds, could thrive. water. The thought of deliberately The CCMP underwent a tuneup seminated, tools to be refined, grants other recognized threat. In 1977, agriculture, or hunting clubs, and Here another late-century dumping material in the Bay, after in 2007, but, with the clear onset of to be targeted. the Suisun Marsh Preservation Act were recoverable. For the next fifteen problem-solving effort intersected decades of struggle to keep it out, climate change, a major revamp was added the area to jurisdiction of years, much of the Project’s energy Yet the plan has a hidden power neatly with marsh restoration. The has required an adjustment on the in order. In the last several years, BCDC. The commission would guard would flow down this channel. in the form of its authorship. Thirty- Army Corps of Engineers, responsible several building blocks have been put the area’s existing land uses; the regulators’ part. What once might odd members of the Management for maintaining shipping channels, landowner-based Suisun Resource In aid of the great project, the San have been decried as “bay fill” is now in place. The Subtidal Habitat Goals Report Committee, including agencies with had been accustomed to dumping Conservation District, assisted Francisco Estuary Institute set out welcomed as “shallowing.” And in-bay of 2010 looked at the scientifically very real authorities, have signed off on most of the dredged sediment inside neglected world of underwater by DWR and the U. S. Bureau of to build a detailed picture of what disposal of muck is looking like a not- this program. As the record of the last the Bay, at sites where tidal currents habitats, especially eelgrass beds Reclamation, would see to water the bay’s margins had once been so-bad idea, if just the right locations decades shows, this kind of consortium were supposed to take it out to sea. and native oyster reefs. In 2015, along management. This arrangement like. This “historical ecology” work can be found. can function surprisingly well. ABAG, was reflected in the blueprint titled They didn’t. In 1982 it was discovered with a Habitat Goals revision entitled codified the duck-centered status The restorers of historic marshes the Water Quality Control Board, the Baylands Ecosystem Habitat Goals (1999). that a great underwater mound The Baylands and Climate Change: What quo, despite murmurs from also find themselves in a race against Bay Commission, the Army Corps This called for some 100 square miles had accumulated at the favorite We Can Do, the Partnership produced biologists who wanted to see more sea level rise. Marshes established in of Engineers, the state and federal areas restored to tidal action — and of former marshes, about one third of dumpsite near Alcatraz. The Corps the latest of three State of the Estuary the next few years will, with luck, have Environmental Protection Agencies, in the face of the mounting physical the total that once existed west of the joined with BCDC and the state and Reports, reflecting decades of work on time to adapt, thickening themselves the Coastal Conservancy — these have pressures of soil subsidence (due to Delta, to be reconnected to the tides. regional water boards to look for a how to take the system’s ecological in response to rising tides and also worked matters out, in thousands of oxidation during the months when Another 45 to 60 square miles were to better way. In 1999, they agreed that, temperature. Now comes the shifting inland where undeveloped hours of meetings, with little publicly managed marshes are dry) and be restored as non-tidal wetlands. after a transition period, no more Comprehensive Conservation and Management than 20% of the sediment would be land adjoins. But wetlands begun after visible jostling. “It’s easy to take the heretofore gradual sea level rise. Plan 2016. The claim was staked. At the dumped inside the Bay; at least 40% about 2030, scientists fear, may not be helm,” says Caitlin Sweeney, the new Since then a slow rethinking has center of the effort to carry it out is would be used in marsh restoration able to keep pace with sea level, and The CCMP is not well represented director of the Estuary Partnership, occurred, given a sharp nudge by the another made-to-order umbrella and other habitat projects; and the will be overwhelmed. by its legally mandated title. It is “when there is so much trust built up federal agency Biological Opinions of body, the San Francisco Bay Joint remainder would be barged out to over the years.” 2008-2009. In 2014, the stakeholders, Venture. Organized in 1995 under the sea. Looking back in 2013 at this led by the federal agencies, adopted In one respect this CCMP opens new authority of the U. S. Fish and Wildlife Long-Term Management Strategy, territory. Several of its proposals apply a Suisun Marsh Habitat, Restoration and the agencies could report that in-bay Service, this partnership links nearly to near-shore urban zones outside the Management Plan raising the targets for discharge had declined on schedule, all the public agencies and private jurisdiction of BCDC. It also focuses tidal restoration to some 6,000-7,000 and that 44% of sediments had gone organizations with an interest in attention on the creeks and small acres in Suisun alone. Threats to the to “beneficial use.” restoration projects around the Bay. rivers that drain to the lower Estuary. peace and quiet of the marsh remain Since it published its Implementation (see Buckler, p.18). The very first action is to develop a Plan in 2001, the SFBJV has received The Sea Level Challenge “watershed approach” to Bay issues. steady, if modest, federal funding. True, this is cast in terms of process, Unlike other joint ventures, which A remarkable record. But, as so framework, criteria, pilot projects. focus solely on migratory waterfowl often happens with environmental But in even broaching this subject, the or at most on birds in general, this matters, the problems were evolving plan confronts an interest as potent one explicitly covers all animal life. as fast as the solutions, if not faster. as the California water establishment: As marsh restoration projects In 2005, BCDC Executive Director the territoriality of the region’s one stepped up from tens of acres to New Yorker hundred and ten local governments. As Will Travis read a article The Water Board’s Tom Mumley chairs a meeting with SFEP staff Marcia Brockbank and Joan Patton, as hundreds to thousands, a problem about the prospect of dramatic sea well as EPA’s Luisa Valiela and others on the 2007 revision of the CCMP. Marc Holmes of The Bay Institute puts became apparent. Many of the level rise. The topic was not new it, “This is the last taboo.” 12 JUNE 2016 13 ESTUARY NEWS

Non-threatening though it strives At two points, the CCMP hitches bolder thought is once again being to be, at a couple of points the CCMP cars to this controversial engine. In heard: that regional powers should does hint at something more than response to the “rising tides” problem, be vested in a multi-purpose regional sunny cooperation. It does so by Action 15 urges that shoreline government with a popularly elected invoking Plan Bay Area. protection be accomplished with board (see Merger Anxiety, p. 6). marsh buffers or in other ways that are In climate change legislation At the May 6 Spring Summit of the good for wildlife. To this end, the Plan passed in 2008, the Association of Bay business-oriented Bay Planning Coali- Bay Area update should have a section Area Governments and the Metropoli- tion, speaker after speaker complained on shoreline resiliency, and “lay the tan Transportation Commission were that existing governmental setups are groundwork for a more comprehensive instructed to write a regional plan not going to do the job in the era of sea resiliency effort.” Action 23 calls aimed at cutting carbon emissions level rise. “In the Bay Area our chal- for improved water management — from vehicles by concentrating devel- lenge is of governance and funding,” conservation, recycling, stormwater opment and beefing up transit. First said SFEI’s Warner Chabot. “We’re management — and suggests covering published in 2013, Plan Bay Area speci- going to have to have a real plan,” said these matters, too, in Plan Bay Area. fies zones that are favored for growth Allison Brooks of the Bay Area Regional and others to be kept free of building Plan Bay Area draws fire not least Collaborative. “Somebody’s going to altogether. While local governments do because it is the work of boards that, have to take the lead.” “The only solu- not have to amend their own plans to while appointed largely from the tion is to create a vision for the whole match, those that don’t will miss out ranks of county supervisors and city bay,” said landscape architect Kevin on certain subsidies. Plan Bay Area is due council members, are not directly Conger. Just who would do these things for a second edition next year. chosen by the public. Even as these remained unclear. For all its strengths, two agencies flirt with a merger, a the CCMP is not such a plan or vision. The question is: Can the great Liberty Island in the Delta. Photo: Bird’s Eye View metropolis wrapped around the lower the State Water Resources Control Regional Land-Use Rules in Action Estuary respond to the challenges On Beyond CALFED the U. S. Fish and Wildlife Service, Board and now also the Delta it faces in the era of climate change In 2006, on the ruins of CALFED, Regional, rather than strictly local, mounted. In 1992, the Legislature cre- joined assorted others in a consortium Stewardship Council. with the balkanized governance the familiar roster of water supply and land-use controls are always contro- ated a Delta Protection Commission known as CALFED. It promised a system it now has? wildlife agencies launched the Bay In 2009, the Legislature directed versial. But it’s interesting to note that with the authority to overturn devel- fresh start, and an infusion of federal the State Water Board to get moving One of the virtues of the June Delta Conservation Program. One of the entire San Francisco Estuary is opment approvals in a large region money, to accomplish two things at on another review of flow standards, 2016 Measure AA parcel tax to fund a its two thrusts was to improve water now enveloped in zones of limited but mapped as the Primary Zone. Unlike once: the steadying of California water essentially unchanged since 1995, restoration authority was the training it export plumbing by constructing an real regional control. BCDC, the Commission does not review supply and the ecological restoration when the Delta had seemed much all projects in its area, but acts following afforded us in larger-scale thinking. As “isolated conveyance facility”; this BCDC, of course, came first. Its ju- of the Delta and, indeed, the entire healthier. As a preliminary, the board appeal. The lines set in the Commission’s Save the Bay’s David Lewis remarks, became Jerry Brown’s “twin tunnels.” risdiction extended to tidal waters west estuarine system. “Getting Better was asked to determine what flows the firstLand Use and Resource Management Plan, “We never before had a chance to a get a At the same time, it promised to do of the Delta and to a shoreline strip one Together” was the slogan of the day. ecosystem actually needed. Completed published in 1996, have held. In a region region-wide vote on a regional matter.” wonders for the ecosystem, both by hundred feet wide. Later, Suisun Marsh on schedule in 2010, this report gave that powerful agencies seem to regard For quite a while, all bets were on eliminating the distorted flows that was added to its purview. It is an odd the board’s weighty blessing to a as an object to be fought over, the Com- CALFED, which was institutionalized have helped to decimate the fish side-effect both of sea-level rise and familiar conclusion: that fish need mission has also functioned as a voice Delta Deadlock as the Bay Delta Authority in 2002 and by embarking on vast wetland of marsh restoration that the agency’s much more water, especially in the for the Delta in itself. and blessed by Congress in 2004. A restorations and other ecosystem jurisdiction creeps landward. Some If the Lower Estuary community is spring and summer, than they are scrambling, perpetually but with some swarm of pilot habitat improvements, repairs, a sort of Habitat Goals voices have proposed that BCDC be In 2013, similar controls were East. These solutions were to form getting now. given responsibility for the whole zone extended to the rest of the Delta, the success, to adjust to a changing world, mostly in the Delta but also some their upper Estuary counterparts often downstream, were carried out. A one grand package, meeting the That was a benchmark. Now the threatened with inundation — an idea peripheral Secondary Zone, where the requirements of both state and federal from which the agency itself recoils. pressure to build has been highest. seem stuck in an endless loop of old science branch became the locus process moves on to the weighing of controversies, revisited but not re- Endangered Species Acts for a long Under the Delta Plan, the Delta Steward- of much important research. In this interests that will result in enforceable In the 1980s, as cities on the edge solved, as physical challenges grow. era the Water Board succeeded in time to come. rules. As ever, this has proved a slow of the Delta expanded into it, concern ship Council can block development promulgating a new water rights In 2014, however, the Fish and business. A new Bay-Delta Water Quality about development of this flood-prone approvals on land not already firmly As the water projects increased decision, D-1641, in 1999, and new Wildlife Service declared that it Control Plan was scheduled for 2011, then and agriculturally valuable landscape committed to urbanization. their draws and the biotic health of the Delta began an obvious decline, the salinity rules, in 1995 and 2006. lacked enough information to issue 2014; it has now been delayed to 2018, a State Water Resources Control Board The Delta, however, continued to the requested 50-year permit under target date the new CCMP endorses. the Endangered Species Act. As a continued its struggle to set rules for founder, undergoing what scientists This delay has an odd effect. Long result, the program was split into river flows, a process again and again call an aquatic regime change. CALFED before adopting the new flow standards, two parts. The tunnels plan went on begun and again and again derailed. itself was not far behind. It had no the Water Board will be called upon to to review as California WaterFix; a real power over its strong-willed decide the fate of WaterFix, applying the In 1993, on petition by more modest habitat improvement constituent agencies, and its initially older rules. “Completion of the Board’s environmental groups, the Delta plan, emphasizing actions doable in generous funding waned. The Little [flow] work is essential for fully informed smelt was listed as Threatened under the short term, became California Hoover Commission complained of decisions on the BDCP,” the federal the federal Endangered Species Act. EcoRestore. This brought the federal authorities “a governance system that cannot . . . EPA opined in 2012. Yet there is no legal thundering onto the Delta scene. In withstand the hurricane-force political The WaterFix planning process requirement for “plan before plumbing,” 1994, the two big water agencies, pressures of water policy in California.” is grinding forward, with the initial and Steve Moore, a member of what the Department of Water Resources A reboot in 2005 was unsuccessful. The decision expected this fall. If adopted by is generally considered the “greenest” and the U. S. Bureau of Reclamation, program limped on for a time, a sort of the Department of Water Resources, water board in history, insists that his Early meeting concerning the formation of the Delta Stewardship Council and the origins of the Delta and the two big wildlife agencies, the Holy Roman Empire of the water map, the lead agency, the plan will have to colleagues will not hesitate to tighten the Plan. Photo: DSC Department of Fish and Game and before it quietly dissolved. run a gauntlet of approvals including rules after a construction start. 14 JUNE 2016 15 ESTUARY NEWS INFRASTRUCTURE back to biological Water Action Plan of 2014. All of these opinions issued in ideas are reflected in the CCMP. They 2008 and 2009 by also take their place in the San Francisco the National Marine Bay Area Integrated Water Management EBMUD Experiments Fisheries Service Plan, a set of goals and grant-making and the Fish and guidelines adopted by local water Wildlife Service. agencies and partners (including Each endorses SFEP) and last updated in 2013. with Pipe Replacement more work on one of the few aquatic Even if the current drought should On average, underground water with aging, sometimes neglected habitat successes ease, the long-term need to move distribution pipes can last about 100 infrastructure. Water and sewer in the region: the toward what is being called One years. The East Bay Municipal Utility agencies of all sizes nationwide find Cache Slough Water — the management of fresh District (EBMUD) owns and maintains themselves in similar straits. Just complex in the water, stormwater, groundwater, and roughly 4,200 miles of them. And it consider Flint, Michigan, and all the northwestern Delta, highly treated wastewater as a single, replaces about ten miles per year. attention it has drawn to the potentially including flooded inseparable flux — can only intensify. dangerous lead pipes still coursing At that rate it would take four Prospect and through many of our cities and towns centuries to replace the whole system: Photo: Rick Lewis Liberty Islands and — or the recent gas leak in Southern the Yolo Bypass. Do the Pieces Fit? an approach one could charitably call California. And that’s to say nothing unsustainable even if all the pipes Let’s give (and accept) some credit: of our nation’s crumbling roads and The Delta Reform Act of 2009 also Both plans take up the huge problem were brand-new today. But parts of A great deal is being done, by a great unsafe bridges. brought into being a formal successor of land subsidence in the western and EBMUD’s system, cast-iron pipes many good people, to improve the to CALFED: The Delta Stewardship central Delta (vastly more dire than at inherited from forgotten, now-defunct “We’re very good at engineering outlook for the San Francisco Estuary. Council. This body inherits the double points downstream), and recommend water agencies, date to the late 1800s. and construction, but we sort of Many problems would be far worse charge of stabilizing water supply and “tule farming” as a way of reversing it forget as engineers that things, once today if timely actions had not been restoring ecosystem health, while (and sequestering atmospheric carbon), After EBMUD formed in 1923, it they’re in the built environment, EBMUD feeds Aqua-Pipe sleeve liner from taken in decades past. paying due attention to the value of specifying similar acreages. Both continued installing cast-iron pipes require maintenance and someday trailer into pipe, then injects resin while a through the 1950s, then switched to the Delta as a place in its own right. Its urge completion of a study of Delta Yet decades future are looking even replacement. That’s something winch pulls from the other end. The sleeve predominately asbestos-cement for installed at Glenn Avenue in San Pablo was firstDelta Plan, published in 2013, is part levees (without mentioning the painful perilous indeed, and we have to step that I think we as a country are going the next three decades. Newer pipes pulled 525 feet through a 12-inch asbestos local study and part statewide water proposition that some Delta islands up our game. to learn in the next ten years,” says cement pipe. Photos: EBMUD policy manifesto. Unlike its predecessor may be indefensible in the climate- are made of plastic or steel. Today Margo Schueler, construction and (and unlike the Estuary Partnership), change future). Both look to the Water For the lower Estuary, there is the agency’s oldest 2,400 miles of maintenance superintendent at EBMUD. the Stewardship Council has certain substantial agreement about what cast-iron and asbestos-cement pipes one end of the targeted segment to Board to resolve the issue of flows; “We’ve got some catch-up work to real though artfully delimited powers. needs doing. What is slowing things account for the vast majority of its the other in order to pull out the old neither ventures an opinion on the do,” adds David Katzev, senior civil Actions that violate 14 specified down is the fragmentation of re- leaks, which last year numbered 1,156, pipe and install the new. Simply put, issue of conveyance. (If the Governor’s engineer. “We the industry, we the policies — for land use, for ecosystem WaterFix should go off the rails, the sponsible agencies and the need to far surpassing an industry benchmark it’s disruptive. force practically any significant action of 20 leaks per 100 miles per year. nation, we the society need to think restoration, for flood control, and also latter question will land squarely in the EBMUD is trying to find a better through the fine mesh of local inter- differently about asset management.” for some water matters outside but lap of the Delta Stewardship Council.) approach, in part by learning from est and, often enough, local inertia. “We have a lot of pipe. About half of related to the Delta — can theoretically it is old. And it’s leaking,” says district The City of Los Angeles, for one, what other agencies have done well be appealed to the Council. A WaterFix When power is dispersed and money spokesperson Andrea Pook. recently accelerated its water pipe — and perhaps not so well. “We want go-ahead will certainly draw such an scarce, it is hard to get people to pay The Big Water Picture replacement rate by two and a half to do it differently, be more efficient, appeal. Whatever the Council decides, attention. Hence the endless calls Serving 1.4 million people in times. It’s doing this largely through Maybe the most interesting overlap more environmentally friendly, and the game will end in the courts. for coordination; the task forces and Alameda and Contra Costa counties, the use of open trenches, which is just between the plans, though, is in the more collaborative with the public,” “partnerships”; the multiplicity of EBMUD is far from alone in contending how it sounds: dig up the street from way they seek to influence water sparsely attended meetings. says Schueler. The Plans Compared thinking in general. Discovering what that means is The Delta Plan and the new CCMP For the upper Estuary, the One of the goals of the Delta Reform the goal of its new Pipeline Rebuild are certainly the two broadest visions challenge is a bit different. Here Act of 2009, and of the Delta Plan, is to program. Officially launched this for the Estuary. Each is centered in its the obstacle is deep disagreement take some pressure off the Delta by own realm, but each radiates to the about fundamentals: the allocation past January, the effort includes a lessening the state’s reliance on it other. While the CCMP’s provisions of available river flows, the shape of series of short-term pilot projects for water supply. All water agencies are directed mainly at the Bay, it also future water supply plumbing, even designed to test alternative materials tapping the Delta or the rivers in its endorses certain actions in the upper the physical future of the Delta itself. and construction techniques that watershed are supposed to show that Estuary. The Delta Plan, for its part, makes Stasis seems likely to persist until may allow the agency to catch up on they are on track to take less, either no claim to cover the lower Estuary, yet some painful and deeply controversial its backlog of deferred maintenance, in absolute terms or as a percentage its language on water supply actually decisions are made. and eventually prescribe a more of their total supply. This mandate implicates much of California, including manageable path forward. absolutely extends to the Bay Area, The machinery grinds on. We learn. the zone downstream. where the biggest water suppliers all We do some things. We solve some At various locations in Richmond, Comparing the actions and draw either from the Delta or from problems, shy away from others. The San Pablo, Lafayette, and Walnut milestones of the CCMP with the the mountain streams that feed it. The Delta deteriorates. The water rises. Creek, for example, EBMUD will spend performance measures of the plan promotes regional self-reliance the summer testing a technology Do the pieces fit? Sometimes. In through conservation, stormwater known as cured-in-place pipe — Delta Plan, it is clear that the lines of some places. Better than once they capture, better groundwater manage– specifically a product called Aqua Pipe communication have been open. did. But not yet nearly well enough. Each plan, for example, calls for the ment, and wastewater recycling: a JH Marina Park in Richmond, where installation of Aqua-Pipe avoided the disruption to park services of that’s widely used in Canada and a restoration of 8,000 acres of tidal package widely endorsed these days, extensive trenching. Photo: EBMUD handful of American cities. wetland in the Delta, a number going notably in the Governor’s California continued on next page 16 JUNE 2016 17 ESTUARY NEWS UP KEEP EBMUD, cont’d from page 15 MONITORING NANOGRAMS PER GRAM OF LIPID It’s essentially an interior liner that crews use to construct a new pipe within an old, failing one. Because An Eggfull of Estuary Santa Clara excavation isn’t necessary, Aqua Pipe can be installed at a rate of up to Birds’ eggs don’t lie. Just as concentrations in the most recent Tracks Leaks 2,000 feet per day. thinning eggshells once revealed how sampling were lower than in previous and Creaks DDT was affecting peregrines and years, suggesting a possible decline, Later this fall, EBMUD will launch pelicans, the eggs themselves are now the levels found are still worrisome, If many of EBMUD’s water pipelines a separate pilot to evaluate another telling scientists how long-lived some says Davis. “Cormorant eggs sampled are at or near the end of their lifespan, trenchless technique known as pipe- contaminants are in the Estuary and in one year were above the ‘no-effect’ the Santa Clara Valley Water District’s bursting, in which cast-iron pipes where they are the most problematic. level, reaching a level where we start are merely approaching middle age. are broken from within by pulling a to be concerned.” But its managers are already prepar- conical metal “head” through the pipe A report just published by the Re- ing for the inevitable: more leaks in and chasing it with a new pipe. This gional Monitoring Program for Water Mercury, a legacy pollutant from the short term and replacement in technique is widely used for sewers, Quality in San Francisco Bay (RMP) the mining industry, has decreased the long term. but more challenging for water lines. summarizes contaminant concen- in cormorant eggs from the South trations in eggs collected between Bay (Don Edwards National Wildlife The water wholesaler delivers A third pilot in Richmond will 2002 and 2012 from two fish-eating Refuge) over time. On the other hand, drinking water through 125 miles of involve using restrained-joint species high in the Estuary food it has increased in eggs from the large-diameter pipelines measuring up connections between pipe sections, chain, double-crested cormorants Richmond Bridge. to ten feet across to a dozen private and as opposed to the more common and Foster’s terns. Double-crested Forster’s tern eggs tell a differ- municipal retailers throughout Santa bell-and-spigot push-together cormorants are considered a senti- ent story about mercury. These terns Clara County, who themselves serve fittings, which can offer additional nel species for open water; Forster’s Bay cormorant eggs are less contaminated as a forage primarily in wetlands along the result of the PBDE phase out. Source: RMP approximately two million people. terns for shallow-water habitats on stability during minor seismic fringes of the Estuary, where methyl- disturbances and the opportunity to the Estuary’s margins, including wet- In stark contrast to EBMUD’s mercury, the toxic form that biomagni- lands and managed ponds. the birds begin to “de-methylate” or predicament, Santa Clara’s oldest employ narrower trenches, saving fies, is produced. High mercury con- de-toxify some of the mercury in their pipes date to roughly the Summer of time, money, and materials. “Many of the contaminants centrations were found in eggs from livers, using valuable metabolic energy Love — not the invention of the light we studied can affect the birds’ both North and South Bay sites. This is Carol Mahoney, an integrated in the process. Ackerman has found a bulb. They have an average age of rates of survival,” says SFEI’s Jay of huge concern to researchers. planning manager for the Zone 7 strong correlation between tern eggs about 40 years. Davis. “Many are toxic to embryos Water Agency in Livermore, says “Forster’s terns are by far the most collected from around the Estuary EBMUD could also partner with cities if concentrations are high enough “Since our pipelines are relatively — just like in humans, the early contaminated species of bird breed- and embryos “mal-positioned” in the new, in the ‘90s and prior to 2000 the to make street-level improvements ing locally,” says Josh Ackerman with egg, meaning that it is harder for the and add green infrastructure like developmental stages in birds are maintenance program was preventative very sensitive.” USGS, who has studied mercury in chick to break out of the egg. “We have maintenance: exercising valves, going plantings and swales in some cases Estuary birds for over a decade and some evidence that mercury may be in vaults and making sure everything where pipeline repairs require tearing Some of the egg data in the new published numerous studies on his influencing parental behavior, including looks good, and replacing things as up the roadway. This piggybacking report — from 2006, 2009, and findings. “Seventy-nine percent of nest attendance. We’ve also found that needed,” says engineering manager of benefits could bring additional 2012 — has never been published tern eggs sampled in the Estuary have tern eggs that fail to hatch have higher Erin Baker. “As pipes got older, we did funding opportunities, too. before. The report also includes mercury concentrations over toxicity mercury levels than randomly sampled data collected annually as part of benchmarks. That puts the terns at eggs that are still viable.” LOV start seeing some leaks, so we started Other initiatives of the Pipeline a more comprehensive inspection and a Coastal Intensive Site Network high risk for reproductive impairment.” Rebuild program, which will run four (CISNET) study in 1999-2001. CONTACT [email protected]; rehabilitation program in the early 2000s.” years and should lay the foundation When mercury levels in birds reach [email protected] Since then the district has inspected for the utility’s maintenance regime The good news, says Davis, is that a toxic level, explains Ackerman, — often by draining and climbing for decades to come, include GPS concentrations of PBDEs, a flame re- right inside — nearly 90 percent of the mapping of underground pipes, tardant, in cormorant eggs collected system, averaging eight miles per year. streamlining collaboration between from multiple locations around the “What we really want to work toward is design and construction teams, and Estuary have decreased over time, as getting a better idea, as the pipelines staffing work crews more flexibly to have DDT and dioxins. are aging and getting closer to end improve efficiency. Top: Pocket in Aqua-Pipe sleeve made up The news about PCBs is not as of life, of when we’re going to have to of two layers of fire hose-like material, the good. “PCBs are lingering at a level Together, these technological and inner impermeable and the outer permeable. start replacing them,” Baker explains. procedural improvements should where they could be affecting the sur- Because whether that’s 20 years away A water-safe resin is injected between the help the district dig itself out of the two layers, allowing the sleeve to be fused vival of embryos,” says Davis. “The or 50, it’s coming. NS hole in which it finds itself, once and against the inner walls of an existing pipe. Richmond Bridge cormorant eggs had high concentrations.” Yet the CONTACT Marty Grimes, for all. “Our point is that we need to Middle: Sleeve liner being pulled by winch highest concentrations, a legacy of [email protected]; do it now,” Pook says. “If we don’t, it through middle of three short trenches dug past industry, were found in the South Erin Baker, [email protected] will be worse later.” NS for the Glenn Avenue installation (a tech- Bay. PCBs were used in transformers nique similar to using a safety pin to rethread CONTACT Andrea Pook, a drawstring). It took over an hour to pull the and other electrical equipment from [email protected]; Margo sleeve through 525 feet, and ensure even the 1930s through the 1970s, as well Schueler, [email protected] distribution of the resin. as in building materials. Bottom: Finished lined pipe. The stain repellant chemical PFOS was also higher in cormorant Photos: EBMUD eggs from the South Bay than Forster’s tern nest. Photo: Josh Ackerman from the North Bay. While PFOS 18 JUNE 2016 19 ESTUARY NEWS REGULATION EDUCATION with nature than against it. Breaks between sessions included PRIORITIZATION, cont’d from page 6 opportunities for attendees to provide input on various climate adaptation Next, they considered how Buckler Brouhaha Deliquescent Summit strategies pasted on the walls with resources should be allocated in both blue tape. Highlights and take homes While Bay Area voters showed the near term (2015-2029) and long of all presentations over the course their support for wetlands by term (2030-2050). Each subregion of the day can be found in the online passing Measure AA, an ironically developed two allocation options for on Ocean Climate extended version of this story. different story has been playing out each time frame: one for a “rosy,” or at the edge of the Suisun Marsh: more optimistic, future scenario, and Walking in the door of the fourth of swimmers, kayakers, ferries, and At the close of the day, Maria Brown what longtime observers call the one for a more pessimistic situation. Ocean Climate Summit this May and tankers traversing the chop stirred up reiterated how much the community of finding Amy Hutzel, long-time chair of largest intentional loss of tidal by the breeze off the Pacific. climate-concerned people had grown, For the more optimistic scenario the committee in charge of implement- wetland in decades. evolved, and become more climate- in the short term, in general each ing a conservation plan for the San “The energy in this room, the col- savvy than climate-smart. Beginning in 2014, John Sweeney, subregion team gave the most re- Francisco Estuary, I asked her what laborative spirit, the solution oriented the new owner of a former duck- sources to tidal marshes, followed by she was doing out of her watershed? approaches, are just awesome,” said “In the eight years since our first managed wetlands, upland transition, hunting club site called Point Buckler “Dipping my toe in the Pacific, “ she the self-described “suit” from Wash- ocean climate summit, there’s been and migration space (with some sub- Island, rebuilt the levee around the said. “For a while now, we’ve been ington DC brought in to open the event. an amazing shift in knowledge and regional nuances and caveats). In the 51-acre island, drained the interior, working to build partnerships inland Speaking about how the Bay Area’s perspective,” said Brown. “After and dumped excavated soil on the pessimistic short term scenario, tidal and offshore. It’s all one estuary.” work has been recognized nationally, marsh and managed wetlands were hearing that in the last 50 years our marsh to create what he bills as even internationally, as a collaborative climate has warmed more than in the prioritized again for most sub-re- The water may be hotter in the Delta model, John Armor, acting director of a kitesailing resort for high-end last two millennia, any of us could have gions. Of the actions, protecting acres and colder in the Pacific, but scientists NOAA’s marine sanctuaries program, clients. In the process, habitat for thrown up our hands and walked away. of habitat and managing sediment continue to reveal strong relationships said: “We need to use these marine endangered wildlife and fish species But this summit tells me that if a small were given the most resources. and exchanges between the water- sanctuaries, as places in the public was destroyed or impaired. Although group becomes engaged and wants to the owner also calls it a duck club, shed, the estuary, and the ocean, and spotlight that people care about, to For the longer term, optimistic now, more than ever, with the atmo- think hard about something, they can there’s no visible evidence that he’s scenario, managed wetlands were communicate the need for solutions to sphere above them. Lots of things flow change our future. We’re not victims, managing it for waterfowl. the most popular in Suisun and the our climate crisis.” downriver and out the Golden Gate, or we’re allies.” ARO North Bay, with the Central Bay Fighting a phalanx of federal, state, His failure to go through the slosh back and forth between the Gulf Over the course of the day, four team allocating more resources to Extended story online: and regional agencies, Sweeney established permitting process could of the Farallones and San Francisco major panels presented topics rang- subtidal habitat, tidal marsh, and www.sfestuary.org/estuary-news claims Point Buckler’s history as result in a $4.6 million penalty from Bay: nutrients, fish food, sediment, ing from steps to climate-smart plans, upland transition, and the South Bay managed wetland allowed extensive the Regional Water Board and an parcels of deoxygenated water, plas- policies, and funding to why 100,000 Ocean Climate Summit Presentations: team fairly evenly dividing resources unpermitted work. The agencies additional $952,000 fine by the Bay tics, contaminants, juvenile crabs and Cassin’s auklets died of starvation http://climate.calcommons.org/ among all habitats, with just a bit to argue that the site had converted from Conservation and Development flatfish, to name a few hitchikers. Now in 2014 and how the Army Corps of aux/2016OceanClimateSummit/ watersheds. Under more dire condi- managed to tidal wetland through Commission. JE all these things loom larger for water Engineers is trying to engineer more products.htm the negligence of previous owners tions, the Suisun team allocated most Read the in-depth, extended and resource managers, and was therefore protected, and resources to tidal marsh and upland version of this story online at combined, followed by managed wet- as rising sea levels prom- that Sweeney’s actions undermined www.sfestuary.org/estuary-news lands; the North Bay team gave the ise to thrust the ocean years of effort to build trust among most to upland transition, followed by deeper than ever into the stakeholders in the marsh. migration space and managed wet- heart of California. lands; the Central Bay team allocated “What we’re do- the most resources to migration ing here is bringing the space, followed by upland transition different communities and tidal marsh; and the South Bay of practice together,” team fairly evenly to tidal marsh and said Maria Brown of the upland transition, followed by man- Greater Farallones Na- aged wetlands. tional Marine Sanctuary, Perhaps the most surprising primary sponsor of the result, according to the project’s final summit, in remarks at report, was that even with all of the the all day May 17 event. uncertainty about climate change and The summit was at- resources, participants still recom- tended by141 resource mend that scientists and managers managers, scientists, plan as if there will be an increase in and activists concerned resources and that the worse-case about the impacts of climate change scenario won’t hap- climate change on the pen. The second phase of CADS will ocean outside the Golden show how recommendations from the Gate. The enthusiasm for subregions can inform local-scale learning and sharing was adaptation strategies. LOV palpable all day, even as http://climate.calcommons.org/cads attendees enjoyed brief lapses of attention star- Ceramic nest boxes from Año Nuevo near Santa Barbara that may provide a model for new nest boxes being tested ing out at a San Fran- for the warming Farallon Islands. On the Farallones, wooden next boxes have been used since the 1970s but get hot cisco waterfront view during high heat events. The project is supported by the Cosco Busan oil spill restoration funds and Point Blue donors. San Francisco Estuary Partnership 1515 Clay Street, Suite 1400 PRESORTED Oakland, CA 94612 STANDARD

San Francisco Bay and the U.S. POSTAGE Sacramento-San Joaquin River Delta comprise one of 28 P A I D “estuaries of national significance” recognized in the federal Clean Oakland, CA Water Act. The San Francisco Estu- Permit No . 2508 www.sfestuary.org ary Partnership, a National Estuary Program, is partially funded by annual appropriations from Congress. The Partnership’s mandate is to protect, restore, and enhance water quality and habitat in the Estu- ary. To accomplish this, the Partnership brings together resource agencies, non-profits, citizens, and scientists committed to the long-term health and preservation of this invaluable public resource. Our staff manages or oversees more than 50 projects ranging from supporting research into key water quality concerns to managing initiatives that prevent pollution, restore wetlands, or protect against the changes anticipated from climate change in our region. We have published Estuary News since 1993.

ESTUARY News June 2016, Vol. 25, No. 2 www.sfestuary.org/estuary-news/

MANAGING EDITOR Ariel Rubissow Okamoto

CONTRIBUTING WRITERS Joe Eaton Lisa Owens Viani Cariad Hayes Thronson Nate Seltenrich Robin Meadows

DESIGN Darren Campeau COVER PHOTO Building material of the Bay’s future. Photo: Rick Lewis

helps to improve beautiful natural Finding NEMO places and key economic assets like This spring the California Depart- Rhode Island’s Narragansett Bay. The ment of Fish and Wildlife unveiled a program now stands on firmer footing new, searchable public database for for years to come.” tracking non-native species in the A couple of hoops remain for the new state’s coastal waters. California’s posi- CCMP to jump through– namely final tion as a hub of international trade and signoff by the San Francisco Estuary shipping leaves it especially vulnerable Partnership’s Executive Council and to invasive species, which often arrive in the US EPA. Once all the i’s are dotted ballast water or attached to the hulls of and the t’s crossed, the latest, most ships or recreational boats. Exotic marine amphipod that probably arrived in comprehensive plan for improving San Francisco Bay via ship’s ballast water or The California Non-Native Estuarine hull-fouling communities. the health of the entire Estuary will and Marine Organism (Cal-NEMO) debut to the public and provide useful database includes information about Non-Native Organism Database guidance on how to tackle the next big the biology, ecology, distribution, (CANOD), which had been collecting issue for one: rising sea levels. occurrence and impacts of more invasive species data since 2000. The This June, the CCMP’s habitat and than 200 introduced species. “The Cal-NEMO database can be found nature-based approach to climate new website is much more user- at: http://invasions.si.edu/nemesis/ change adaptation along the shoreline friendly than the old one,” says Fish calnemo/intro.html CHT got a big boost when voters approved and Wildlife’s Steve Foss, noting that Measure AA on June 7, with its $12 Bay it features detailed graphics and Area parcel tax. interactive maps. Although currently CCMP APPROVED, cont’d from page 5 limited to invertebrates and algae, Foss Estuary Program (NEP) since it expired “The CCMP foresees the creation of says Cal-NEMO will expand to include in 2010. His signature will allow the wetlands and other habitats along the fish and aquatic plants. Foss says Cal- US EPA and the 28 individual NEPs, Bay shoreline, along with other actions NEMO’s information on the Bay and including the San Francisco Estuary, to to increase resilience for the wide Delta is particularly robust. “We do continue to support the conservation variety of communities in the Bay Area. annual sampling there, so new data is of estuaries around the United States. This will require considerable funding added regularly.” from many sources, and the new funds Senator Sheldon Whitehouse (D- accruing to the Restoration Authority The new website, which was RI), who championed the bipartisan have the potential to serve as a great developed in collaboration with the legislation in the Senate, released the catalyst,” says the SF Bay Conservation Smithsonian Environmental Research following statement on the signing: and Development Commission’s Larry Center, replaces the California Aquatic “The National Estuaries Program Goldzband. “ ARO