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Dan Berman Resigns MBNEP Positionby Jack McCurdyDan Berman, program director for the Morro Bay National Estuary Program, an agency created in 1987 by the federal government to protect and restore the Morro Bay and other estuaries throughout the nation, announced on February 23 that he plans to resign by the end of March and move to northern California. Berman has been program director since 2003. He said he has accepted a position overseeing a fisheries/watershed monitoring program near Trinidad in Humboldt County where he and his family plan to live. In announcing his pending departure to supporters and volunteers with the Estuary Program, Berman said he is "proud of the progress we have made" since joining the agency. But daunting challenges remain from continuing sedimentation of the Estuary, resulting in a loss in water volume, as well as pollution and contamination of its waters from urban runoff, discharges from vessels, and waste released intermittently into Chorro Creek from the Califiornia Men's Colony upstream, which flows into the Estuary. In addition, the Morro Bay Power Plant continues to withdraw water from the Estuary to cool its remaining two operational generating units, killing crab and fish larvae carried into the plant in the water. During the California Energy Commission's 2000-2004 review of Duke Energy's application to build a new and larger Morro Bay Power Plant, the Commission's staff report on the proposed project said the Estuary "is already impaired and in ecological decline" from a variety of factors, including the killing of billions of fish and crab larvae by the existing plant, whose four units were operating at or near capacity then. The new plant proposed by Duke would have increased the amount of Estuary water to be withdrawn and would have killed more larvae, according to Commission staff reports. Duke sold the plant and did not pursue the new plant project, and there are no publicly-known plans to build a new plant at this time. In fact, the present plant owner, Dynegy, has publicly stated that it plans to close the plant in 2012. The Morro Bay National Estuary Program is a collaborative organization that brings local citizens, local government, non-profits, agencies, and landowners together to seek to protect and restore the physical, biological, economic, and recreational values of the Estuary, according to its web site. The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency provides financial and technical support to such federal estuary programs. The program staff members have responsibilities for public education, the Volunteer Monitoring Program, watershed protection and restoration and managing grant programs, the web site states. The National Estuary Program holds a State of the Bay conference every three years to assess the condition of the Estuary, and the next one is scheduled May 14-15 at a location to be announced. "Estuary Tidings 2010," a series of eight key indicators of the Estuary's health, will be distributed at the conference, the agency's web site says.
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