Point Reyes Light - December 19, 2002

Tomales Bay cleanup report debated

By Ivan Gale

Pollution in Tomales Bay can be reduced, says a new report drafted by the San Francisco Regional Water Quality Control Board, although the report acknowledges some of the "pollution" could be coming from wildlife as easily as human activities.

The draft recommends "voluntary" actions homeowners, ranchers, and boaters can take but notes that regional board staff have the regulatory muscle to enforce their recommendations.

Although county government last summer briefly posted warnings at several recreational spots around the bay, county staff later acknowledged the warnings were aimed more at securing cleanup grants than in protecting people and that the bay was still safe for swimming.

The draft report, while referring to recreational use of Tomales Bay, focuses on ensuring the bay is safe for shellfish growing.

In their report, regional board staff say Tomales Bay is impaired for the following reasons:

• There have been instances when areas of the bay failed to meet standards for shellfish harvesting or for recreation,

• The fact that Tomales Bay in 1994 was designated as "threatened" as defined by the State’s Shellfish Protection Act.

• The state Department of Health Services prohibits commercial-shellfish harvesting during or after heavy rains to ensure polluted runoff doesn’t carry into the bay.

• A 1997 outbreak of gastro-intestinal problems among more than 100 people ate shellfish contaminated with a Norwalk-like virus. The source of the virus is believed to be a boater who vomited and had diarrhea over or near oyster-growing racks.

Regional board staff in their report say "actual and potential" sources of pollution in the bay are agricultural runoff, faulty septic systems, discharges from boats, urban runoff, and wildlife.

The staff want homeowners and ranchers to be held to state and county regulations. However, some of county regulations are themselves under attack in West Marin.

Supervisor Steve Kinsey, Community Development Director Alex Hinds, EPA liaison Rebecca Tuden, and Environmental Health Director Phil Smith have all said changes are needed in the county’s septic regulations. Kinsey has said he had to spend much of his life’s savings to build an expensive mound-style septic system to replace a non-failing septic system, which he installed several years earlier without a permit.

Marshall’s septic systems

The impetus for regulating septic systems comes from a voluntary monitoring program in Marshall last year that found 24 percent of the septic systems on the town’s waterfront, where there is little space for a leachfield, were failing.

These septic systems notwithstanding, Paul Elmore, president of Marshall’s East Shore Planning Group, in May noted, "A majority were found to be functioning in an adequate manner. Most of the minority found to be in a failing condition have already been moved to a ‘non-failed’ condition."

Vote set for summer

The regional board won’t vote on a final version of the report until the summer of 2003. If the staff recommendations are adopted, homeowners and ranchers will have to come up with a plan and begin implementing the staff recommendations by the following year.

The report outlines a call for a 30 percent reduction in pathogen concentrations by 2005 and a 75 percent reduction by 2007.

But determining who or what is responsible for any contamination and what to do about it should be known before anything is done, says a biologist carrying out fecal-coliform studies.

Professor Mark Moline of Cal Poly said any study that failed to identify the specific sources of contamination in Tomales Bay would be merely "guessing."

Birds may be the culprits

In a report on Morro Bay contamination co-authored by Dr. Moline, researchers using DNA testing determined that farms, humans, and birds contribute equal amounts of e. coli bacteria. However, his report added, "The oysters appear to be more impacted by bird sources."

The professor noted that Tomales and Morro bays have many similarities. Both are home to oyster cultivation, ranching throughout their watersheds, nearby homes, and abundant wildlife.

Commenting on his study, Dr. Moline noted, "There was a lot of handwaving beforehand, saying, ‘It’s the cattle. It’s the birds...

"[In fact], it’s a lot more complex than blaming one source." Although Dr. Moline said he had expected cows to be the worst polluters, his research bestowed that dubious honor on birds.

An emphasis on risk

The regional board’s research on Tomales Bay measured fecal coliform levels in the bay and its tributaries, using coliform levels to indicate the presence of potentially harmful bacteria and viruses. Dyan Whyte, an engineering geologist with the regional board, noted, "The less we have of that, the less risk we have to human health."

Rather than taking the chance of a dangerous parasite spreading, she explained, regional board staff have come up with a broad-based plan. "When we have a large [fecal coliform] load via a tributary, I’m not sure how doing a DNA test on a single sample is going to help us," she said.

However, Nancy Scolari, executive director of the Point Reyes Station-based Resource Conservation District, said the regional staff may be "putting the cart before the horse."

Could ruin ranches

For one of the few remaining dairies struggling to remain in business, she said, these proposed measures may be perceived to be heavy-handed and unfair. "They’re not equipped to make improvements so quickly, and may start to question what they are being asked to do," Scolari said.

"It is unknown what is ‘desired water quality.’ To a certain degree, there’s a natural amount of sediment that comes through a watershed.

"These measures," she added, "could be one of the many things to make ranches go out of business."

Dr. Christopher Kitts, a microbial ecologist and lead author of the Morro Bay report, confirmed that measures based on general fecal coliform tests have the power to unfairly punish certain groups.

"I think there are flaws with just doing fecal coliform tests because we don’t know where that’s coming from. You’re going to make some generalizations, and somebody gets screwed one way or another."

The value of DNA tests

Like Dr. Moline, he pointed out birds, not humans or cattle, were the source of "huge numbers of e. coli" affecting Morro Bay shellfish.

DNA analysis, for example, might help determine how much e. coli in Tomales Bay comes from birds, how much comes from septic systems, and why low-density residential areas of the San Geronimo Valley is the second highest source of fecal coliform in the bay.

If enforced to the maximum, the regional board’s recommendations could result in a moratorium on building homes with septic systems, enforcement actions against horses, cattle, and sheep facilities, limits on development in areas not complying with the county’s stormwater-management plan, and a prohibition on boaters in Tomales Bay, the staff report notes.

Point Reyes Light Cover | News | Coastal Traveler