1 ESTUARY

How the Great Flood of 1862 Inspired Measure AA

A 1901 Ferry Crash

The Legacy of Sediment from the Gold Rush and Water Wealth Concentrated in Old Irrigation Districts

Girl Ranger Saves Watershed from Fire

A Duck Rare in the 1920s Now Common

Reporters Ask What Happened Next? Following Up on 11 Past Stories

WATER ENVIRONMENT CLIMATE EQUITY

DECEMBER 2020 NEWS MAGAZINE VOL. 29, NO. 4 ONLINE FEATURES WWW.SFESTUARY.ORG/ ESTUARY-NEWS 2 ESTUARY DECEMBER 2020

EDITOR’S DESK You will also notice how short this issue is. As men- tioned above, we don’t want to load you up with weighty This year has been so uncertain and reading material. But we are also sorely short of pub- so unpleasant in so many ways, Estuary lication funding as partners come and go or juggle News decided to lighten up a bit for the shrinking budgets. As such, this issue will only appear December 2020 issue. We looked into online (though we are printing paper copies on demand, some long-ago disasters and missteps email me your address if you’d like one). for historical touchstones, and delved a little into how this colorful history Hang tight, we are looking forward to a fresh start and relates to present times. It is from yes- reset next year. In the meantime, thank you to all of our terday’s floods, fires, crashes, and even partners and supporters, especially those who’ve been human prejudice, now seen at a dis- able to increase their support this year to cover the gap. tance, that we gain perspective beyond Perhaps you’d like to join them? the Zoom meets and 275-character tweets of today. Stay well and visit the water often! Then instead of cute kittens we find solace in the local Ariel Rubissow Okamoto birds—bringing you good news as cormorants and terns expand nesting, and as waterfowl continue to stop over on [email protected] their migrations, with some rarities now more common Thank You than in centuries past, and vice versa. Finally, because we www.sfestuary.org/estuary-news/magazine-funders/ are reporters with long attention spans, and because news in an estuary ecosystem is often an ever-changing story, we offer you updates on some of our past stories.

Virtual RMP Annual Meet The format was not the only departure from business Shows Real-Life Success as usual; event organizers mixed things up by featuring expert speakers from beyond the Bay Area, who shared Instead of a fancy room with plush seats, a catered lessons from monitoring in Puget Sound and Chesapeake lunch, and speakers at a podium sharing their PowerPoints Bay. Attendees also heard about monitoring coronavirus on a big screen, attendees at the 27th Annual Meeting of and disinfectant chemicals in wastewater, managing sedi- the Regional Monitoring Program experienced the report- ment quality and supply, and monitoring CECs in stormwa- out entirely virtually on their own computer screens, ter and PFAS in the Bay, among other topics. The biennial thanks to the Covid pandemic. Nevertheless, and despite RMP Update report, which provides a summary of RMP Zoom burnout, the October event was a success, with many activities over the past two years, was released on the day attendees voicing a preference for the virtual format. of the meeting. The presentations and resources are avail- “I think they did a great job of pulling the whole program able on the Annual Meeting web page. together,” says RMP science advisor Maggie Dutch of the Washington State Department of Ecology. “The only thing DEEPER DIVE I missed out on is the face-to-face conversations that you have afterwards, which are always really valuable.” For a more detailed version of this story... www.sfestuary.org/estuary-news-virtual-RMP-meet/

NEW PODCAST the placement of wave-absorbing “coarse beaches.” She also addresses the problem of scale. While individual local Putting Nature, Not People, governments like cities are typically too small to grapple in the Path of Sea Level Rise with shared flooding problems, a unified regional vision is an elusive dream. Beagle urges cooperation at a middle Science-in-Short Series Interview with Julie Beagle level, organized around logical reaches of shoreline called In this podcast, Estuary News reporter John Hart draws Operational Landscape Units. The concept is gaining ac- out Julie Beagle, ceptance. The Institute maintains an online Adaptation a lead scientist at Atlas, suggesting a menu of treatments suited to each the San Francisco specific stretch of shore. Along the way, Beagle describes Estuary Institute, on how her own focus widened from natural systems alone to ways of defending the people likely to be displaced by rising tides and other Bay shores in the effects of climate change. “These are wicked scary prob- era of sea level rise. lems when it’s people’s lives on the line,” she says. After Beagle describes 10 years with SFEI, Beagle moves to a new position with several kinds of the Army Corps of Engineers early in 2020. “nature-based” treatments that can delay and soften Podcast: the onslaught; her www.sfestuary.org/science-in-short-podcast-julie-beagle- special interest is in sea-level-rise/ 3

FLOOD How the Great Flood of 1862 Inspired Measure AA ROBIN MEADOWS, REPORTER Bay, and a mind-boggling volume collapsed freeways. “This made the When Hurricane Sandy hit New shot through the Strait. economic case for Measure AA,” Co- York City in 2012, it was a wake-up call The city of San Francisco was already vert says. “You can do a lot to decrease for Bay Area Council members, who drowning under the 34 inches of rain the risk for $500 million.” Measure AA, were glued to coverage of the devasta- that fell there during the Great Flood. which Bay Area voters passed in 2016, tion from their tenth floor offices near Much of the land ringing the Bay was will raise half a billion dollars over 20 San Francisco’s Ferry Building. “We under water, and roads and bridges years to restore the tidal marshes that were watching the subways fill up with were swept away. Flooding was even protect against flooding. water,” recalls Adrian Covert, vice worse in president of public policy for the busi- Sacramento, ness-backed nonprofit, which helped so the state lead the 2016 Measure AA campaign capitol tem- that will fund flood protection projects porarily relo- associated with habitat restoration. cated to San “We all looked out the window and saw Francisco’s all that water in the Bay.” They asked Merchants themselves if the disaster unfolding Exchange 3,000 miles away could strike here too. Building at the corner of Covert and his colleagues real- Battery and ized the answer was yes when they Washington learned about the Great Flood of 1862, streets. the worst in ’s recorded history. Heavy rains fell statewide on A similar Christmas Day 1861, and kept pour- scenario ing through January 1862, “just shy of played out in the proverbial 40 days and 40 nights,” a US Geo- wrote meteorologists Jan Null and logical Survey Joelle Hulbert in California Washed model called Away: the Great Flood of 1862. The rain ARkStorm, was so warm it melted the snowpack which posits in the Sierra , pushing the a 1,000-year snow line up thousands of feet. atmospheric river event. Flood of 1861-62 in Sacramento. Between the rain of biblical pro- An ARkStorm could inundate the Bay Photo: Eugene Walter Hepting, portions and the unseasonable snow Area, other coastal communities, and Courtesy Calisphere. melt, “every creek and rivulet became the Central Valley, at a cost up to $725 a rushing torrent, sweeping the hopes billion in damages—nearly triple that We’re well on our way. A few de- of men and everything destructible of a major earth- cades ago, the Bay was down to about before it,” according to eyewitness quake in the USGS ShakeOut scenario. 38,000 acres of tidal wetland, barely accounts reported in a January 1862 In Atmospheric Rivers (Springer 2020), over one-third of the 100,000-acre California Farmer and Journal of Use- former USGS hydroclimatologist Mike goal. Since then another 18,000 acres ful Sciences editorial. The Sacramento Dettinger and colleagues detail the have been restored to tidal action, and River topped its low water mark by 24 intense precipitation and consequent an additional 18,000 acres are current- feet, and the rose even flooding from these extreme rain- ly in the planning or acquisition stages, higher, topping its low water mark by storms. according to the latest State Coastal 60 feet. The Central Valley, surrounded Conservancy figures. Altogether, that In 2015, the Bay Area Council’s on all sides by mountains, rapidly puts us on track for 74,000 acres—al- Economic Institute modeled the re- filled with water. “The whole country, most exactly three-quarters of the gional impact of a storm that drops 12 as far as the eye could reach, was one total salt marsh we need to weather inches of rain over seven days, which vast surging sea, covered with drifting the next great flood. debris and struggling animals,” the is considerably smaller than either editorial continued. “This desolation the Great Flood or an ARkStorm. The CONTACT: [email protected]; extended over an area of 300 miles resulting report, Surviving the Storm, [email protected] long by 40 or 50 broad.” put the cost at more than $10 billion in damages. This is similar to the cost The only outlet to the ocean for of the 1989 Loma Prieta earthquake, all that water was the San Francisco which fractured the Bay Bridge and 4 ESTUARY DECEMBER 2020

CRASH Slow Bells Could Not Prevent Ferry Disaster ALETA GEORGE, REPORTER had been to the matinees. Steaming The crews acted quickly. They tied Today’s ferryboat commuters and against a strong ebb tide, the cap- the boats together and laid a plank recreational passengers can relax tains of the two ferries plowed their so that the passengers on the sinking and enjoy the expansive views of usual routes across the Bay under San Rafael could board the Sausalito. the , trusting that slow bells, a go-easy signal rung During the 20-minute rescue, the technology will keep them safe from from a device on the bridge known majority of the 250 passengers on the collision with other vessels. In addi- as an engine order telegraph that keeling boat stepped safely onto the tion to traveling in designated lanes, communicated the desired speed Sausalito, but about 80 souls fell into modern ferryboat captains can rely of a vessel to the engine room. By the icy water, either upon impact or on radar, electronic chart plotters, an necessity, captains and their crews because they jumped in panic. were fluent in the language of bells, automatic identification system, and The ferries launched rescue and just as important, the meaning backup from the U.S. Coast Guard’s boats and lowered lanterns to pluck of whistles blasted from other ves- vessel traffic service that monitors swimmers out of the dark water as sels that told of a boat’s location and the Bay. “These safeguards reduce the ebb tide pulled the rescue boats, a pilot’s intentions. chances of a collision to as close to those in the water, and the disabled zero as you’re going to get,” says In the thick fog, the pilothouses Sausalito towards the open ocean. One Jim Swindler of the ferry division of were dark, as was the custom at man was close to losing conscious- Highway and night. Crew members were stationed ness before he was rescued. Another Transportation District. on deck, their ears strained to hear wasn’t so lucky. His life-jacketed body These technologies were absent other vessels. Somewhere near was found on Angel Island a few days during the ferryboat heyday when as , with both ferries later. Without a detailed passenger many as 25 ferry companies criss- blasting their whistles, the Sausalito list, the number of casualties could crossed the Bay transporting people, and San Rafael were upon each other. only be estimated, with up to five goods, livestock, and even railroad Both ferries ordered three reverse people reported dead. bells, but it was too late. The Sausalito cars. In Harold Gilliam’s classic 1957 The beloved San Rafael went down book, San Francisco Bay, he proposed rammed into the side of the San Rafael, with her lights still burning, but the fatally pinning a waiter in the restau- that ferries went beyond a mere Sausalito returned to work. Four years rant beneath crushed timber. Another mode of transportation. “To the ferry after the collision Jack London trans- passenger, who lost an ear from a commuters the Bay was more than a formed the infamous ferry boat acci- felled post, later said he’d still have fragmentary glimpse of blue water in dent into a dramatic opening for one two ears if he had been in the bar the distance; it was a direct experi- of his bestselling novels, The Sea Wolf. ence, a working part of their lives.” where he belonged. And when a crossing was made in In 1934, a year after the bridges rough weather—be it fog or opened, the Sportsmen Yacht Club storm—passengers felt “bound moved the retired Sausalito to Antioch together.” where the ravaged-by-time beauty now serves as a place where water From the 1850s until the lovers can hold parties. Golden Gate and San Francis- co-Oakland Bay bridges were Although the popularity and use built, in fair or foul weather, a of ferries is nowhere near what it captain relied on a compass and was in its heyday, usage will likely his senses, skills that proved increase due to the passage of inadequate to prevent the worst Regional Measure 3 in 2018, which ferryboat collision on the San calls for an expanded regional Francisco Bay. ferry system. And when the fog rolls in, as it inevitably will, Golden In tule fog denser than anyone Gate’s Swindler says that even remembered having seen, the with all the layers of advanced 1766-ton Sausalito left its Marin technology, ferryboat captains County slip 90 minutes after will continue to put staff on the sunset on Saturday, November bridge to “look and listen.” 30, 1901. Five minutes later, the 692-ton, jewel-box San Rafael cast off from San Francisco with an unusu- ally large number of children who 5

MUD Slickens and Shoals Thicken the Estuary DANIEL MCGLYNN, REPORTER and excess mercury—would wash out came known as Steamboat Slough. An Shortly after the new year began of the sluice box and downstream, account of what the slough was like in 1848, a carpenter was working beginning a journey that would end, survives in the travel book Scenes of on a saw mill at Sutter’s Mill on the eventually, in San Francisco Bay and Wonder and Curiosity in California, published South Fork of the American River. its main arteries. in 1862. “As we pass through Steam- He noticed a few gold pickers in the So efficient were hydraulic moni- boat Slough, we are impressed with calm reaches of the river. And then a tors at blasting earth that according the narrowness of the channel for few more. to a massive (and still often cited) such large vessels, the luxuriant foli- age of the trees that adorn its banks, At first, the find was kept to a whis- 1917 study of the impacts of the called Hydraulic and the snug little cabins, nearly shut per mainly for reasons of self interest. out from sight by wild vines and trees, Eventually word got out, and news of Mining Debris in the , an estimated 1,146,000,000 cubic that are seen at intervals on its mar- the discovery—and of the bounty of gin. Indeed the scenery, as you steam California’s rivers—was broadcast yards of sediment was deposited into the San Francisco Bay System up or down the river, is picturesque in around the world. By 1849, people no slight degree. Here and there, as from all corners of the planet began between 1849 and 1914, mainly be- cause of mining activity. you turn with the sudden windings of securing passage on ships bound the stream, you come upon the little for Monterey and San Francisco, the By the 1860s, people’s chief con- boats of fishermen, and sloops, with two main jumpoff points for the gold cern about the increasingly noticeable their sails furled like the folded wings fields that lay on the shoulders of the sedimentation was its impact on the of a sea-bird, waiting for the wind.” Sierra Nevada. By the time it had run navigability of the . its course, the California Gold Rush After all, the Sacramento River was continued on back page would trigger one of the largest hu- the region’s highway. Early in the Gold man migrations in history. Rush, sailing ships The fortune seekers brought with would arrive at them new ideas about how to make a what would become living—and created the ethos of Cali- the city of Sacra- fornia as a forward-thinking land of mento’s waterfront opportunity long before Silicon Valley. with people and But the leap into a future paved with cargo. The ships gold came with consequences. There would be stripped was conflict, and in some cases, dis- of sailcloth, hard- placement of people who had arrived ware, and anything earlier. The Gold Rush also had dra- else valuable or matic environmental impacts, many useful in the pursuit of which linger today. of gold, and then converted to hotels, By 1853, the idea that a prospec- shops, and in one tor could pick nuggets out of Califor- case, a prison. In nia’s rivers and streams had all but short order, and in vanished. Plenty of gold remained, part to deal with the but as fine flakes—gold mixed with shoals of sediment alluvial material washed down out popping up along of the Sierra over the thousands of the twists and turns years. To extract the dust-like mate- of the Sacramento rial at scale, miners developed new River, sailing ships techniques. High pressure water were replaced cannons, called hydraulic monitors, by shallow draft replaced hand panning to quickly steamers. strip sandy overburden and get to paydirt—a layer of gold-laden gravel. Because it To enhance efficiency, miners added was the shortest flasks of mercury to long sluice boxes route and a popu- built next to rivers and creeks. The lar choice among mercury would chemically bind to captains, the Middle the finest flecks of gold, helping trap Fork of the Sacra- the gold in the sluice’s riffles. The mento River be- rest of the material—both sediment tween Rio Vista and (called “mining slicken” at the time) Sutter Island be- 1880 political cartoon of Sacramento River of the future. Source: SF Illustrated Wasp 6 ESTUARY DECEMBER 2020 BIRDS Tallying Waterfowl Then and Now

JOE EATON, REPORTER 300,000 in the 1911-12 season alone. to reservoirs. Canada geese, once How many ducks and geese used The practice was banned in 1915, present only in winter, now thrive the Estuary before the Gold Rush? although “duckleggers” continued to year-round in Bay Area cities, graz- The numbers are beyond conjecture, operate for decades afterward. Three ing in urban parks, sports fields, but they must have been mind- years after the ban, Joseph Grinnell, and corporate campuses. Christmas boggling. Observers writing about the first director of the University of Count data from land-based observ- a hundred years ago noted major California’s Museum of Vertebrate ers and boat parties document some decreases during the era of market Zoology, wrote that waterfowl had of these trends. hunting, when waterfowl were shot “decreased by fully one-half during Midwinter Surveys began in 1953, to supply the restaurants and stores the past forty years.” Habitat loss but US Geological Survey biologist of California’s emerging cities, but also contributed, as tidal and fresh- Susan De La Cruz says the quality offered no hard numbers. However, water wetlands were filled or con- of the data improved in the 1980s. they recorded their observations of verted to agricultural use. In 2018, the total duck tally was the abundance and seasonal pres- 282,447, not including geese, swans, ence of different species. coots, and grebes. De La Cruz cau- Since then, government surveys, tions that year-to-year variations in Audubon Society Christmas Bird weather conditions and the timing Counts, and sport hunting records of migration complicate interpret- show a mix of change and continu- ing short-term trends. Some spe- ity, with some duck species either cies are declining in the Estuary but scarce or common in the last century stable or increasing in the Central and now, and other common species Valley. One clear trend: scoters as a becoming rare or vice versa. The US group showed a significant decline Fish and Wildlife Service’s (USFWS) in the Estuary between 1981 and Midwinter Waterfowl Survey has 2012. Factors may include mortality been the most authoritative source due to oil spills or fishery bycatch, on the state of the Bay’s ducks, contaminants in the mollusks they informing restoration planning. But eat, or climate change — or they may be wintering farther north, in waters the survey may be in jeopardy due to Gadwall. Photo: Rick Lewis shifting priorities and safety con- that aren’t surveyed. Scoter numbers cerns; its loss would mean a return were unusually high in 2018; whether to the era of guesswork. Grinnell and assistant curator that’s a hopeful sign or a fluke is Margaret Wythe co-authored Direc- anyone’s guess. The closest we have to a pre-Gold tory to the Birdlife of the San Francisco Bay Rush baseline are anecdotes like As important as these monitor- Region (1927). Looking through my pioneer George Yount’s description ing efforts are in forming a broad battered copy of the gray paperbound of in 1854: “The wild picture of Estuary health, the Mid- book, I’m struck by the incongruity geese and every species of water foul winter Survey has encountered some between past and present statuses [sic] darkened the surface of every challenges. USFWS has shifted its of some waterfowl species. White- bay…When disturbed, they arose to priorities, focusing more on spring winged scoter an “abundant winter fly the sound of their wings was like breeding area surveys, and concerns visitor?” This duck’s presence in distant thunder…” In another mid- have been raised about the safety the Bay is now worthy of a Rare 19th-century account, settlers com- of low-level survey flights in urban Bird Alert mention. Gadwall a “rare plained of being “greatly annoyed by areas. After having to skip 2019, winter visitant” to a few North Bay the almost deafening, tumultuous, federal biologists managed the 2020 marshes? It’s now a year-round Bay- and confused noises of the innumer- survey with supplemental state fund- wide resident. Grinnell and Wythe able flocks of ducks and geese…at ing. No survey is planned for 2021. reported wood ducks as “not known times blackening the very heavens in a wild state in any part of the Bay CONTACT: [email protected] with their increasing numbers.” region in recent years;” today they’ve By the 1850s, those multitudes made a remarkable comeback, nest- DEEPER DIVE were already being reduced by com- ing in most Bay Area counties, and mercial hunting. Before poultry and aren’t hard to find if you know where Read the more detailed version online! other livestock were raised for food to look. in California, deer, elk, waterfowl, LINK: www.sfestuary.org/estuary- Not all human changes to the shorebirds, quail, even songbirds, news-tallying-waterfowl/ landscape have been bad for water- turtles, and frogs were harvested fowl: diving ducks like canvasback for sale. One indicator of the impact and scaup congregate in managed of market hunting is the number wetlands, and gadwall are partial of waterfowl sold in San Francisco: 7

FIRE recreation. The City of San Francisco acquired the company in 1930, as well as more than 38,000 acres of East Bay watersheds. Since then keepers have A Century of been tasked with everything from checking dams and opening valves to guiding firefighters, police, and more First Responders recently Bay Area Ridge Trail hikers, into remote backcountry. ARIEL RUBISSOW OKAMOTO, REPORTER It was 2:00 a.m. Lenz checked the Aiming her hose at the two pine When the August 16 lightning lightning strike map on her phone. “I trees this past August, Lenz soon ran strikes started forking from the sky to could see in real time where they were out of water and radioed the dispatch- the ground in the Bay Area, Sarah Lenz hitting,” she says. She also checked ers she was heading out for more. was driving back from the scene of a wind speeds and humidity at the “We are responsible for any initial at- vehicle accident and fire. It was pitch Spring Valley weather station. Then tack on the fires, we know the layout, dark in the 23,000-acre Crystal Springs she donned her fire retardant Nomax the roads, where the water sources watershed in San Mateo County where suit and climbed in her patrol truck, and fire hose bibs are. We have all she is a watershed keeper and super- which carries a fire pumper and 110 this stuff set up strategically for fire- visor, or what you might think of as a gallons of water. She chose a road to fighting,” she says. water ranger — something like a park a high spot where she could see what As the night waned, her co-keep- ranger protecting source watersheds was going on in the watershed. ers came on duty and began to pitch for drinking water, not parks. A few minutes later Lenz changed in, finding four other fires. Two “street Lenz’s main responsibility is to be direction to respond to a radio call engines” from a nearby city respond- fully present in the watershed when about a fire on the golf course. “As I ed to the Sawyer Ridge fire, Lenz something happens—a first respond- came up from the valley around the recalls. Later she brought a Cal-Fire er to crashes, fires, slides, floods, crest of the hill there was a wall of crew to the golf course fire, where suicides, and trespassers. Crews fire. I was surprised I didn’t know they all cut a line with hand tools. coming in from the outside would just there was fire sooner, but the moun- “We had eight lightning strikes in take too long to get to such events— tain just hid it, flames up at the tops our Peninsula watershed that night, opening locked gates, getting lost on of two pine trees. I checked to see if but thanks to Sarah and other keep- branching fire roads, not knowing the scene was safe. I drove around ers and responding fire agencies the lay of the land. “It’s always fun at the trees to see if the fire was on both none of them merged into a big fire night when I turn on the lights of the sides, but it was only on one. I let like the SCU complex in our East Bay patrol vehicle, you might see a fox,” dispatch know I was on Sawyer Ridge. watershed,” says SFPUC’s Natural says Lenz, who just turned 50. Then fired up my pumper, knocked Resources Director Tim Ramirez. down the flames in the crown of the Lenz grew up in the Midwest, where trees, and kept the fire contained to “Our watershed keepers don’t thunderstorms are nothing special, one side of road,” says Lenz. need to run the drinking water system so the flashes of light on the horizon anymore, but they do need to live on on her drive back to the 100-year-old Fire response is one thing that the property and patrol it — eyes and keeper cottage she now inhabits as hasn’t changed about the job since boots on the ground.” part of her job didn’t worry her. But the first watershed keepers were In his last 15 years overseeing the when she got home she only took her hired by Spring Valley Water Company watersheds, Ramirez has expanded boots off. “It started storming, not just in the late 1800s. Early keepers spent keeper roles to embrace more typical flashes but really intense wind gusts a lot of their time shooting “var- park ranger roles, such as working and lightning strikes. Just as I was ty- mints,” ejecting poachers, and stock- with trail docents and sharing natu- ing my shoelaces again so I could drive ing lakes with the favorite fish of the ral history with visitors. But it’s their to higher ground, Cal-Fire called me to water company’s directors, who used finely tuned sense of the local land- get out of there,” she recalls. the Crystal Springs area for private scape and conditions that remains most valuable of all. “Watching the ridge of the coast range, sometimes it’s hard to tell the difference between smoke and fog around here,” says Lenz. Lenz put away her Nomax after the November rains. When winter storms hit her terrain, she’ll be on the look out for flash floods and downed trees. Eyes and ears on the ground year- round. CONTACT: [email protected]

Photos courtesy SFPUC. 8 ESTUARY DECEMBER 2020 WATER in position to govern the future of California’s groundwater (see also Estuary News, September 2020). The Persistent Legacy Not every GSA was created equal. Some, like North Kings GSA, accord- ing to University of California small farms advisor Ruth Dahlquist-Wil- of Irrigation Districts lard, made efforts to account for the MICHAEL ADAMSON, REPORTER Critical to the competitiveness of myriad needs of a diverse population. Within the North Kings GSA, the City In “Hydraulic Society in Califor- California’s farmers with industrial- ized agriculture elsewhere in the of Fresno “built two surface water nia: An Ecological Interpretation,” drinking plants in Fresno to treat published in Agricultural History, envi- nation was the irrigating farmer’s access to a cheap and self-replacing snowmelt from the Sierra Nevada ronmental historian Donald Worster mountains,” says Dahlquist-Willard. writes that an irrigation district was immigrant workforce. “They kept those laborers firmly under control This enabled them to better provide essentially “a public corporation drinking water for Fresno citizens, brought into being by a majority of decade after decade,” writes Worster. “California’s polyglot, wage-based “reducing groundwater pumping and landowners and often coercing a overall demand for groundwater.” recalcitrant minority to share the ex- version of the Egyptian corvées [un- paid labor].” North Kings also has collaborated pense.” While these districts enabled with local nonprofit and extension the transformation of California into partners in outreach to an agricultural powerhouse, they users such as disad- also precipitated the concentration of vantaged communities water wealth into the hands of few. and small farms. With the state now grappling with drought and critically-overdrafted Other GSAs repre- groundwater basins, the very agen- sent a far narrower cies tasked with addressing these range of interests. The crises may be perpetuating the New Stone Water Dis- historical legacy they were designed trict GSA, in western to address. Madera County, ap- pears to be the politi- The conception of the irrigation cal body of a single rai- districts began with the 1887 Wright sin maker called Lion Act. Faced with increasing numbers Raisins (all members of farmers and dwindling tractable of the GSA’s board are land in a dry landscape, the Wright in the Lion family). Act enabled localities to set up de- Nonetheless, they have facto governing bodies (the districts) had an outsized impact to create public irrigation infrastruc- on the fate of the ture and to fund their projects by Kern County well circa 1890. Photo Carleton Madera subbasin. New Stone refused taxing the local populace. Watkins, Library of Congress to sign a Coordination Agreement Irrigated Californian farmers “Hydraulic Society” was published with the other GSAs in the Madera enjoyed a steady consolidation of in 1982, but Worster’s prediction subbasin. Their refusal temporarily wealth into the 1930s, when the for California’s farming future rings cost Madera County a $500,000 grant introduction of federal funding for true: “The most likely prospect for for development of domestic wells ambitious engineering projects set major historical change at this point and forced a mediation effort. the stage for, as Worster describes, comes...directly and indirectly from It remains to be seen whether “the establishment of concentrated nature.” With California wracked by California’s local control of water private hegemony over publicly fire and drought, the state passed wealth is sustainable, let alone developed engineering works...the the 2014 Sustainable Groundwater equitable. If the history of other individual farmer and small com- Management Act (SGMA) to ad- once-great hydraulic societies is munity have become less than ever dress the latter’s effect (including any guide, then a new approach to masters of their fate.” increased groundwater reliance from water management may be neces- Access to irrigated water and the big farming operations) on critically sary. As Worster surmises, “It seems corresponding decision-making pow- overdrafted aquifers. unlikely, in any case, that a massive, er came at a high price. Says Nataly Just as the 1887 Wright Act placed intricate irrigated agriculture, es- Escobedo Garcia, water programs control of irrigation works in lo- pecially one tied to an expansionary policy coordinator with the Lead- cal hands, SGMA placed the fate of marketplace engine, can save itself ership Counsel, “Native peoples, California’s groundwater basins in forever from self-destruction, though Mexican and Chinese farmers were the hands of locally-formed Ground- it may be that the trap’s closing could heavily excluded from purchasing water Sustainability Agencies. Many be evaded for a long while yet.” land and farming it. Smaller farms of these GSAs formed around the CONTACT: generally don’t have the capacity to irrigation districts, putting those [email protected]; purchase expensive sorts of water.” in control of California’s irrigation [email protected] 9

WHATEVER HAPPENED TO…..? Derelict Ships Still a Hazard Reporters Check Up on Old Stories In 2019, the California State Lands Commission compiled a report Mercury in Trout Diet? ers were terrestrial isopods. Also studying a chronic derelict vessel known as roly polies, these non-native issue in the five-county region that While studying steelhead at the invertebrates eat only leaf detritus University of California’s Landels-Hill makes up the Sacramento-San Joa- and were the most abundant terres- quin Delta. The left-for-dead boats Big Creek Reserve, a protected can- trial prey in older fish. The fact that yon habitat in Big Sur, Dave Rundio of present a number of issues ranging animals so low on the food chain are from releasing environmental toxins NOAA’s Southwest Fisheries Science accumulating mercury suggests the Center found that terrestrial insects and presenting navigational night- toxin is being deposited by the area’s mares, to acting as points of refuge that fell into the creek comprise about heavy coastal fog. “Mercury has a way half of the diet of larger, older fish. for people looking to get off the map, of slithering its way into surprising as reported in Estuary News in April This reliance on land-based foods locations,” Weiss-Penzias says. made Rundio wonder just how unsul- and June 2012. lied these trout were. He recalled Is eating terrestrial food worth the Dealing with the headache of UC Santa Cruz atmospheric scientist risk for trout? The mercury levels abandoned ships in the Delta and the Peter Weiss-Penzias had found that delivered by invertebrates falling San Francisco Bay is nothing new. fog can deliver mercury upwelled by into the creek aren’t high enough Harbor masters and local marine the ocean to shoreside food webs, to kill the fish. And terrestrial prey law enforcement have been mak- as reported in Estuary News, March are an important source of calories, ing visits to illegal and unregistered 2015. The two scientists teamed up especially in spring, when aquatic liveaboards for decades. Accord- to analyze mercury levels in the prey are scarce after winter storms ing to the State Lands Commission invertebrates commonly eaten by and floods. However, studies in other report, in 2018 there were 670,000 steelhead at Big Creek, as well as fish indicate the pollutant could be registered vessels in California. But the fish themselves. causing changes in gene and hor- there were another 470,000 that mone expression, behavior, growth, had expired registration (candidates “The values that we’re finding or reproductive success. in Big Creek trout are higher than for abandonment). Using an aerial values reported in fish from most The discovery of so much mercury survey, the report documented 250 other streams and rivers across the in fish is a reminder that when it recreational vessels and 55 commer- West Coast,” Rundio says. The older comes to airborne pollutants, “there cial sized abandoned vessels — the and larger the fish, the higher the is no ‘away,’” says Weiss-Penzias. worst offenders in terms of toxins body burden of mercury they tended KMW and navigational blockages — in the to carry. The stream insects that five-county region of the Delta. younger fish relied on were relatively CONTACT: [email protected] Historically, one of the challenges mercury free. Not so for land-based of dealing with abandoned vessels arthropods. Among the worst offend- is that they are found in areas that are jurisdictionally-ambiguous. And, even if the responsibility is clear, the next issue has always been how to pay for their removal and demolition. The State Lands Commission Report creates a framework on how to tackle the issue. “We hoped the report would be a springboard for funding and resources, and then Covid happened,” says Sheri Pem- berton, chief of external affairs for the State Lands Commission. “So in the context of a lot of competing interests, our hope is that we can continue to have conversations with stakeholders.” DM

CONTACT: [email protected]

continued on next page

Photo: NOAA 10 ESTUARY DECEMBER 2020

Sticking to it with Spartina Covid Complicates Buckler Brouhaha Boils On Despite a year full of hurdles, Encampment Cleanups In the continuing legal combat the groundbreaking Invasive Spar- In 2016 the City of San Jose be- over Point Buckler island, first tina Project (ISP) has managed to came the first Bay Area municipality reported in Estuary News in June move forward on track, says Marilyn to get credit for homeless encamp- 2016 and later in spring 2018, Chief Latta of the Coastal Conservancy. For ment cleanups under its stormwater Judge Kimberly Mueller of the US nearly two decades, the ISP has been permit, as reported in Estuary News District Court for the Eastern Dis- working to eradicate invasive species in December 2016. So far, the city trict of California ruled in September of Spartina within the San Francisco has exceeded the permit’s annual 2020 that owner John Sweeney and Bay’s marshlands, reported in depth requirements, most recently remov- co-defendant Point Buckler Club, in Estuary News in September 2019. ing 446 tons of rubbish — more than LLC violated the federal Clean Water double its Act (CWA) by excavating and dumping goal — from thousands of cubic yards of soil into encamp- the 39-acre island’s tidal channels ments along and marsh without a permit in the waterways. process of converting a disused duck But Co- hunting club at the edge of Suisun vid-19 has Bay into a kite-sailing resort. The US complicated Department of Justice acted for the this effort. US Environmental Protection Agency To help in bringing the case against Sweeney. contain the Judge Mueller, an Obama appoin- pandemic, tee, considered testimony by wetlands the Centers restoration expert Stuart Siegel, for Disease wetlands ecologist Peter Baye, and Control and ISP staff raise their hands to affirm they com- fish biologist Bruce Herbold, among pleted the daily Covid safety checklist before Prevention stipulates against dis- others. She held that Point Buckler coming to Marin’s Creekside Park. Photo: ISP persing the homeless. island “has ceased functioning as a “Shelter in place includes people tidal marsh ecosystem” after Swee- This year, the team had to quickly who are unsheltered too,” says Jeff ney’s actions. In finding that Sweeney develop robust Covid-19 safety proto- Scott, a spokesperson for the City of had discharged pollutants in the form cols — and adapt to weeks of work- San Jose’s Housing Department. The of fill into waters of the United States, ing in choking wildfire smoke, amid city stopped dismantling encamp- the judge rejected arguments that a late-summer heat wave. But the ments in March and, not surprisingly, the discharges were exempt from team carried on — some in special they have since mushroomed along the CWA, that the prosecution vio- facemasks designed and 3D-printed creeks as well as in parks and wood- lated the Takings Clause of the Fifth specifically for their use, to offer more ed areas. Now that abatement is no Amendment and was vindictive, and comfort under strenuous conditions. longer an option, San Jose is taking that terms such as “wetlands” were unconstitutionally vague. When treatment began in 2005, a new tack: the city provides garbage there were about 800 acres of invasive service in the form of bags and dump- Judge Mueller will issue a sepa- Spartina dotted across 70,000 acres of sters at large encampments. rate opinion on the penalty for Swee- marsh. This year, the team found a This approach had previously been ney’s violations of the CWA, including total of only 33.4 acres. 2020 project adopted by nonprofits, including restoration of the island’s wetlands. highlights include herbicide treat- Downtown Streets Team in Oakland A hearing on this phase was held in ment of a new area — Citation Marsh as well as the Clean River Alliance October. Sweeney’s attorney had previ- in San Leandro — which holds one of in the Russian River watershed, as ously contended that his client couldn’t the Bay’s largest current infestations. Estuary News reported in December afford to pay for the restoration and The greatest progress was made in 2019. In addition, San Jose has got- didn’t have the necessary equipment. the Hayward Region (the invasive ten more than 3,000 people — about Meanwhile, on a parallel track, coverage reduced by more than three half of the unsheltered population in the San Francisco Bay Regional acres) and Dumbarton South Region the 2019 homeless census — off the Water Quality Control Board and the (about half an acre). Additionally, the streets and into temporary emer- Bay Conservation and Development project was awarded a $4 million gency shelters and motel rooms. Commission continue their appeal of Restoration Authority grant, under “It feels good to do some good for a 2017 Solano County Superior Court the umbrella of the California Invasive people,” Scott says. He’s uncertain decision voiding the $3.6 million in Plant Council. JC whether these new services will fines and the restoration require- continue post-pandemic, though, ments that the two agencies imposed because they are funded partly by the on Sweeney. “Our focus is to un- Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Econom- derstand how the beneficial uses of ic Security (CARES) Act. RM the site can be restored,” says Keith Lichten, chief of the Regional Board’s CONTACT: [email protected] Watershed Management Division.

continued on back page 11

Corte Madera Makes a Start Tern Turnover Catching Up with Mycelium The Marin town of Corte Madera is Estuary News wrote about the Youth Network nearing the end of a two-year process effort to attract Caspian terns to the A July 2019 story about Mycelium to develop its first Climate Adapta- San Francisco Bay in June 2017. To Youth Network in Estuary News tion Plan. Like Caesar’s Gaul, Corte reduce the tern population on East explored the organization’s work Madera has three parts, each with its Sand Island in the to train youth of color in climate character and risks. In extensive hilly Estuary where the terns were feast- adaptation and mitigation. Pre-Covid neighborhoods, the big concern is fire ing on endangered salmonids, the programming in their “Water is Life” safety. In the central area of the city, US Army Corps of Engineers devel- curriculum included workshops rising groundwater and stormwater oped a plan to reduce habitat in that on rainwater catchment systems, flooding are the focus. Then there’s estuary and create nesting habitat water filtration, and identifying native the Bayshore itself, where houses within the terns’ breeding range, plants around local water bodies in and shopping areas on low-lying including at Don Edwards San Fran- East Oakland. Now the organization former marshland—together with cisco National Wildlife Refuge. has moved education online. extensive marshes that remain—are On five modified islands in ponds When many organizations balked at risk from the definitive challenge, A16 and SF2, they successfully used sea level rise. Here the precious band at the prospect of going virtual, artificial social attraction (decoys Mycelium leaned into it. At their of intact and restored marshes is and bird noise) to establish nesting beginning to erode. Behind it a large November conference, “Apocalyp- colonies. In 2015, the first year of the tic Resilience: An Afro-Indigenous levee protects, among other things, a project, USGS biologists counted 224 railroad right of way and the shopping Adventure,” Mycelium gamified the pairs of breeding birds with 174 fledg- educational experience, aiming to center that generates much of the ling chicks. In 2016, they counted 317 town’s enviable wealth. A preliminary make it more interactive for over breeding pairs. The final USGS report 140 youth and adult attendees alike. estimate places the cost of raising stated that terns made 664 nests and and improving this barrier at $14 Cosplay and avatars were highly fledged at least 239 chicks in 2017, encouraged, and participants gained million. Improvements would include the final year of the project. “nature-based” options to buffer the abilities and skills with each confer- rising tides. “Caspian terns nested when ence session attended, equipping social attraction was in use and have them for a closing virtual Dungeons The Climate Adaptation Plan continued nesting without its use in and Dragons game. Conference groups measures under the headings the years following,” says USFWS content spanned Indigenous fire Protect, Accommodate, and Retreat. wildlife biologist Rachel Tertes. In a management practices, how to write Some preliminary polling showed May 2019 Waterfowl Survey, USGS environmental legislation, herbal- little public appetite for the latter. counted 139 Caspian terns at Pond ism and plant first aid, channeling “Should we defend everything?” A16 and 241 at SF2, says biologist somatic focus for resilience, and live asked town public works director Alex Hartman. Due to pandemic musical performances. R. J. Suokko at a Zoom meeting on restrictions, the counts in 2020 were Youth not only populated the November 19. “Yes, you say. It’s based on a one-day observation. almost unanimous.” audience, they also took the virtual Tertes observed at least center stage as keynote speakers. Reading 297 Caspian tern adults “Too often in the climate movement, the emerging and 30 chicks at SF2, youth are tokenized as symbols of plan closely, and at least 200 adults hope,” says Lil Milagro Henriquez, though, at A16. Mycelium’s Founder. Isha Clarke, a ghostly The effort to reduce a youth climate justice activist who handwriting habitat on East Sand gave a keynote, is all too familiar glimmers Island in was with adultism. She hopes the climate on the wall. perhaps too success- justice coalition will expand, and After listing ful. The colony was not more adults will join the youth lead- many cave- monitored in 2020, says ing the movement. “We need adults ats, the text Art: Adaptation International Daniel Roby, a retired Department of to recognize their responsibility for continues, “It Fisheries and Wildlife professor at fighting this fight with us,” Clarke is still essential to begin the difficult Oregon State University, but he heard says. AMYB conversation with Corte Maderans.” the colony was much smaller and One step offered is to mandate failed to produce any young Caspian MORE FOLLOW UP STORIES ONLINE disclosure of the risk when property terns. “Now my concern is more for changes hands. Another is to place the future of the East Sand Island Plus extended content, links and a Floodplain Frontline Zone on the tern colony, because it was formerly photos! most threatened areas, discouraging the largest and most productive Dams Coming Down further improvements. A Floodplain breeding colony for the species in the for Sure Accommodation Zone at slightly Pacific Flyway,” Roby says. AG Cormorants on Alcatraz higher elevation would allow building LINK: www.sfestuary.org/estuary- with safeguards. Gently, gently. This @ CONTACT: rachel_tertes fws.gov news-whatever-happened-report- process will take time. JH ers-follow-up/ San Francisco Estuary Partnership 375 Beale Street, Suite 700 San Francisco, California 94105 PRESORTED STANDARD San Francisco Bay and the Sacramento- U.S. POSTAGE Delta comprise one of 28 “estuaries of national significance” P A I D recognized in the federal Clean Water Act. The San Francisco Oakland, CA www.sfestuary.org Estuary Partnership, a National Permit No. 2508 Estuary Program, is partially funded by annual appropria- tions from Congress. The Partnership’s mandate is to pro- tect, restore, and enhance water quality and habitat in the Estuary. 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 DECEMBER 2020, Vol. 29, No. 4

www.sfestuary.org/estuary-news/ MANAGING EDITOR Ariel Rubissow Okamoto SENIOR EDITOR Cariad Hayes Thronson ASSISTANT EDITOR Lisa Owens Viani WRITERS Audrey Brown, Jacoba Charles, Joe Eaton, Aleta George, John Hart, Daniel McGlynn, Robin Meadows, Kathleen Wong

DESIGNER Darren Campeau

COVER PHOTO Courtesy Wikimedia Commons DUE TO COVID CONSTRAINTS WE ARE NOT PRINTING AND MAILING THIS ISSUE OF ESTUARY NEWS 1862 flood in downtown Sacramento EXCEPT ON DEMAND (email [email protected] your address)

SLICK AND THICK, cont’d from page 5 gold mining in California. The legisla- the face of rising seas. Now, more than a tion also created a new regulator—the century and a half after water monitors But because of the sediment situation, California Debris Commission—which first started stripping earth to get to gold, the bucolic river scene—and its utility as was responsible for making sure that the people are realizing the value of what a major transportation corridor—was in sediment loads created by gold mining was flushed down the watershed. “Sedi- jeopardy. In 1880, a political cartoon ap- stayed in retaining ponds and behind ment was considered a nuisance for a peared in the San Francisco Wasp, an il- specially built catchments and out of the really long time,” says Maureen Down- lustrated satirical magazine. The cartoon state’s creeks and rivers. ing-Kunz, a research hydrologist with the depicted the future of the Sacramento For most of the 1900s, sediment in USGS. “Only recently has sediment been River if the heavy loads of fine mining looked at as a resource.” tailings kept washing through it, and was the watershed was viewed as a prob- published as the backdrop to an increas- lem. Sediment began accumulating CONTACT: [email protected] ingly public debate over what to do about behind the dams that were built along the mining slickens. The illustration the tributaries of the Central Valley shows steamers being pulled over a dry watershed. Flood control districts were BUCKLER, cont’d from page 10 riverbed of dirt by teams of draft horses. created to deal with sediment dredging Although not a party to either suit, Meanwhile, points that used to show up and removal. In 1935, Steamboat Slough has been on navigational charts, like Hogsback and the main Sacramento River channel following the cases. Staff attorney Shoal in Steamboat Slough, started were dredged for navigation for the first Nicole Sasaki welcomed Judge Muel- collecting so much sediment that they time. The combination of hydraulic min- ler’s decision: “The violations on Point became connected to land as peninsulas. ing and mercury extraction continued, in parts of the San Francisco Bay water- Buckler Island were both brazen and By 1884, a judge named Lorenzo Saw- shed, until 1950. unapologetic, and inflicted severe yer issued what became known as the damage on 30 acres of wetland.” She Sawyer Decision, which was an injunc- Eventually, things changed. In the also commented on the role of the tion halting hydraulic mining in Califor- latter half of the century, scientists federal agencies: “It is heartening that nia. The California Mining Association ap- began to notice a decrease in sediment EPA and DOJ diligently prosecuted the pealed the decision to federal authorities, concentration. case, and there was no sign of undue writing that in part, it was the gold from Today, researchers are looking at a va- political interference.” JE California in the Union’s treasury that riety of potential causes of reduced sedi- CONTACT: helped decide the outcome of the Civil ment transport including how invasive [email protected]; War, and that erosion and sedimentation aquatic plants in the Delta are slowing [email protected] were part of the dynamism of Califor- the sediment flows that remain. There is nia’s natural ecology. In 1893, Congress also a concern that without enough new passed the Caminetti Act, which, among sediment delivery, marshes and other other things, allowed limited hydraulic critical wetlands will get annihilated in