President Bill Clinton by the end of this month is expected to sign a bill that would begin paying for hydrological studies of Bolinas Lagoon, but the amount of funding has disappointed local lagoon watchers.
"The congress has approved not $500,000, not $250,000, but $100,000," said county Open Space District planner Ron Miska at a meeting of the lagoon's Technical Advisory Committee on Friday. "That's pretty much final."
Not quite. Although the House of Representatives has passed the bill, the Senate has not yet voted. Patrick Kowalczyk, an aide to Congresswoman Lynn Woolsey, told The Light Tuesday, "It should go through [the Senate] as it did with the House."
Army Corps engineers will hold public hearings before making their recommendations, said engineer Arijs Rakstins at the meeting.
"The key is going to be the first workshop to see where the public wants to go on this thing," Rakstins said, adding the process should begin in October.
Sediment from hillsides around the lagoon and from eroding cliffs outside the mouth of the lagoon is thought to be silting up the estuary. Environmentalists want to preserve the lagoon, which is an important stop on the Pacific bird-migration route and a popular breeding spot for harbor seals.
The engineer told the Technical Advisory Committee that the initiative "alarmed" the Army Corps and aides in Congresswoman Woolsey's office.
Should the Army Corps elect to continue, the second step would be to decide on an option and do an environmental-impact study that satisfies both federal and state environmental-protection laws.
A formidable obstacle, however, will be a 1986 federal law that requires the cost of Army Corps projects to be split. In this case, Marin County - which owns the lagoon - would have to pay 25 to 50 percent of the costs of a project that could "run into the millions," Rakstins told the committee.
The floor of Bolinas Lagoon reportedly deepened by a foot as a result of the 1906 San Francisco Earthquake. The event increased tidal action in the lagoon and slowed sedimentation.
"The magnitude of this thing is so large that we would have to shut down the [county] Open Space District to fund it," said Miska.
Committee Chairman Skip Schwartz jokingly suggested the county require people to "pay money to drive on Highway 1 or take [away] a bucket of mud with you."
One possible savior may be the Committee to Save Bolinas Lagoon, an ad hoc group formed two years ago that has raised upwards of $300,000, "which," noted Ueber, "is triple what we've been able to get from the federal government."
He said that during the summer it was "not uncommon" to see large numbers of seals flushed into the lagoon by a kayaker on a "daily basis."
Frightening seals into the water is a federal crime. The mammals need to rest on sandbars for hours everyday to raise their body temperatures.
Tye told committee members that he would support closing the lagoon during harbor seal pupping season in spring. "With decreased flow [in the lagoon], decreased depth, and increased use, what's going to give?" he asked rhetorically after the meeting.
The committee asked Tye to convene a meeting of representatives from various kayak companies to discuss the problem.
"I think 200 is too many," Churchman said. "It used to be 35. It's 200 today." However, he insisted, "I'm not a seal hater."
The seals' very presence may be creating a public-safety hazard on Highway 1, acknowledged committee members.
Motorists often stop in the road to view the throng of seals sunning themselves or park in a turnout created for passing cars. Families often stroll across the busy highway to get a closer look. "They think it's Disneyland," said committee Chairman Skip Schwartz.
When Ueber told the minister to be careful, the official said he had lived near the ocean in China for 64 years, and in all that time, he had seen only two seals.
"He said he didn't care if he died," Ueber said.