Received: from hplms26.hpl.hp.com by opus.hpl.hp.com with SMTP (1.37.109.8/15.5+ECS 3.3+HPL1.1) id AA11963; Sat, 4 Jun 1994 18:28:43 -0700 Return-Path: <kenf@netcom.com-DeleteThis> Received: from netcom11.netcom.com by hplms26.hpl.hp.com with SMTP (1.36.108.4/15.5+ECS 3.3+HPL1.1S) id AA21197; Sat, 4 Jun 1994 18:30:30 -0700 Received: by netcom.com (8.6.8.1/SMI-4.1/Netcom) id SAA18138; Sat, 4 Jun 1994 18:26:23 -0700 From: kenf@netcom.com-DeleteThis (Ken Follosco) Message-Id: <199406050126.SAA18138@netcom.com-DeleteThis> Subject: PCB's in Bay To: wind_talk@opus.hpl.hp.com-DeleteThis (windtalk) Date: Sat, 4 Jun 1994 18:26:23 -0700 (PDT) X-Mailer: ELM [version 2.4 PL23] Content-Type: text/plain; charset=US-ASCII Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit Content-Length: 2813
FYI,
...don't swallow the water or eat the fish
===
From: clarinews@clarinet.com-DeleteThis (Bay City News)
Subject: SF Bay Study Finds High PCB Levels
Copyright: 1994 by Bay City News, R
Date: Tue, 31 May 94 17:00:31 PDT
A report issued today in a new cooperative monitoring program says
toxic PCBs throughout San Francisco Bay exceed levels believed by the
U.S. Environmental Protection Agency to cause fish contamination.
San Francisco Bay Region Water Quality Control Board Executive
Officer Steve Ritchie called the draft first annual report by the San
Francisco Estuary Regional Monitoring Program ``the single most
substantive report on trace contaminants'' in the estuary.
``The high levels of PCBs throughout the estuary are of particular
concern,'' Ricthie said. ``The data send a warning about the level of
contaminants we may find in fish tissue.''
PCBs, or polychlorinated byphenyls, are a group of synthetic
chlorinated hydrocarbon compounds, that generally don't dissolve in
water and tend to remain in the environment. The report said
concentrations of the compounds were highest in the South Bay and
lowest in San Pablo Bay.
Ritchie observed that the regional board is currently conducting a
study on the levels of PCBs and other pollutants in Bay fish. He said
that study should be complete by November.
The program looked into pollutant concentrations in water,
sediments and animal tissues using measurements taken at 16 locations
throughout the Bay-Delta estuary during periods of wet weather, high
river outflow and dry periods in 1993.
Aquatic Habitat Institute senior scientist Bruce Thompson hailed
the report as the first comprehensive treatment of Bay pollutants,
because even the most comprehensive reports in the past only
summarized existing data.
He said the cooperative effort among 61 private and public agency
participants ranging from the town of Yountville to Pacific Gas and
Electric is also a first, and he added the fact that the report will
be an annual production is also significant.
Ritchie said the participants joined the effort in response to a
carrot and stick approach by state regulators.
Ritchie said that although the Regional Board believes it is
legally capable of obtaining support for the monitoring program, he
said, regulators were also able to allow participants relief from
self-monitoring requirements that produced data the Board no longer
uses.
``I also believe this group is rather progressive,'' said Thompson.
``We all want the same thing. We want a clean estuary and no one wants
to be blamed for a problem they're not causing.''
-- ======================================================== = Ken Follosco kenf@netcom.com-DeleteThis ....Wind Warrior =8-) = ========================================================
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