By David Rolland
Just days after state health officials let two oyster farms in the Walker Creek delta resume harvesting, regulators shut them down again, this time because of Sunday night's rainfall.
Three oyster growers were ordered to stop harvesting on Oct. 9 after it was learned that for a week beginning Oct. 1, North Marin Water District had allowed one million gallons of treated sewage to spill into Walker Creek and flow into Tomales Bay.
Since then, tests on oyster meat from Hog Island Oyster Company and Point Reyes Oyster Company have shown a return to a safe level of fecal coliform bacteria. Bay Bottom Beds' oysters, however, have not yet reached a safe level.
In any case, all oyster farms in Tomales Bay were shut down Monday morning. Oyster farmers must automatically cease harvesting for five days when a half-inch of rain falls within 24 hours.
Greg Langlois, shellfish biologist for the state Department of Health Services, said he will be especially "conservative" when it comes time to reopen harvesting.
He said the three companies in the Walker Creek delta will have to undergo more testing to see what impact the rains have on the sewage-spill area. Bacteria has a way of surviving "by being buffered in sediment," he said.
"We're not dealing with normal circumstances right now," Langlois noted. "The rest of the growers not impacted by the spill... are operating under the normal rainfall scenario."
For his part, co-owner John Finger of Hog Island Oyster Company said the ordeal has hampered his operation, but hasn't seriously damaged it.
"We lost some momentum with our big wholesalers," Finger said, adding that some restaurants prefer smaller oysters, and the two-week ban allowed his shellfish to grow too big.
Even so, he said, "it's going well. We'll try to get back into a rhythm." Hog Island "pulled a bunch of oysters" and put them in their tanks in preparation for the coming of the winter rains, he said. "They'll all get moved eventually."