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Pollution-threatened Bays Need to be Marine Sanctuaries
Part II — San Luis Bay, CA

See Part I Here

by Carol Georgi and Karl Kempton,
Former Energy Planner for San Luis Obispo County,
Lead Author of Proposed Central Coast National Marine Sanctuary, 1990

Introduction

Hanalei Bay, Hawaii (HI) and San Luis Bay, California (CA) are popular tourist destinations thousands of miles apart across the Pacific Ocean from each other. The communities bordering these bays could become "sister communities," working together to improve and preserve the health and beauty of their bays by developing coastal health plans and forming marine sanctuaries.

Both bays are at risk of environmental deterioration and eventual ecocide (the destruction of ecosystems) because both bays are impacted by decades of pollution. Sources of pollution are from farming, sewer discharge (from chemicals water treatment plants are not designed to capture and from waters not treated to safe drinking levels), and other industrial operations.

Pollutants can be carried from watersheds into bays and from streams, creeks, urban and drainage pipes and ditches, and rivers containing toxic chemical runoff, wastewater outfall, and polluted sediment. Also, high-impact development along rivers can cause serious problems to ecosystem health when large quantities of mud flow into bays. The time has come for a paradigm shift away from the destruction and pollution of the environment toward restoration and appreciation of the environment.

The Hanalei and San Luis Obispo communities could request Marine Sanctuary Designation to have the needed "boots on the ground" science to bring back and preserve the health of the marine ecosystems for the needs of the natural world and of human communities.

Also, both Hanalei and San Luis Obispo communities have cultural histories of indigenous peoples who cared for and were in harmony with the ocean and the land. Focusing on indigenous cultural heritage and today's relatives of those cultures is important to national marine sanctuaries.

Our May, Part I of this article describes the coral disease crisis in Hanalei Bay. This, Part II, gives an update to the research on White Coral Disease in Hanalei Bay and describes the environmental threats, especially from pesticides to San Luis Bay.

Update on Hanalei Bay, Hawaii

Chris D'Angelo in "The Garden Island News," reported that the team of scientists from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, (NOAA) led by NOAA coral disease specialist Bernardo Vargas-Angel, completed their surveys of the dying coral reef along Kauai's North Shore in May 2013. The scientists plan to return in the summer to measure how much the disease has spread and how many corals it has killed.

Coral Wadeout Kauai - Photo by Chris D'Angelo/The Garden Island

D'Angelo further reported that Dr. Thierry Work, head of infectious disease for USGS, stated the environmental conditions on reefs need to be improved, "There is a general consensus among coral biologists globally that land use patterns, degradation of coastal wetlands, and overfishing contribute to reef degradation. Perhaps these factors should be considered as part of a comprehensive coastal health management plan for the islands." Dr. Work stated, "It's up to the local community to make the hard decisions about what it wants for the future of its reefs. When you insult an ecosystem enough, it will go south, but, it can be reversed."

Terry Lilley, marine biologist of Hanalei Bay, sent an email update with these photos of coral disease in Waipa.

Lilley stated in his May 16, 2013 email:

I just did a snorkel on the left side of Hanalei Bay in the shallow water taking video of the reef. It was disgusting!! This shallow lagoon at Waipa had over 2500 beautiful corals in 2006 when I started to take video there. It also had hundreds of healthy fish.

Today the seawater smelled. It was pee yellow. The few remaining live corals were covered in mud and ready to die! The white corals are bleached which is the first step to dying. The dark brown corals are near death covered in mud! The grey on the coral is the cyanobacterial infection. This whole reef ecosystem is now a total loss!! 

I only found a hand-full of live fish and they had what looks like black skin infections. 

Anyone can see this destruction!! The water is only 2 to 5 feet deep. Just go snorkel and look for yourself. People may not care much about coral reefs in Hawaii, but I would think they would not want to swim in water filled with millions of dead corals floating around! Coral polyps are animals and when they die they rot just like other animals. A bay full of dead animals is just not the picture to have of beautiful Hanalei Bay!

Someone needs to enforce the Clean Water Act and Endangered Species act in Kauai before we lose all of our reefs! 

Lilley stated that Kauai's new Congresswoman, Tulsi Gabbard, will snorkel and look at this coral disease with Greta Aeby, from the University of Hawaii on May 21, 2013.

Lilley is providing weekly programs on the rampant coral disease threatening Kauai’s coastline on the Jeff Davis’ Talk Radio AM 760 Show, aired from Honolulu, HI. All of Lilley’s radio shows are posted on the website, Terry Lilley's Underwater 2 Web. 

Part II – San Luis Bay, California

Boat Tour of the Northern San Luis Bay—Video by Neilyu1

San Luis Bay, Point Sal to Point Buchon—Photo by Google Earth

San Luis Bay stretches from Point Sal in Santa Barbara County to Point Buchon in San Luis Obispo County. The bay is located between the Channel Islands National Marine Sanctuary and the Monterey Bay National Marine Sanctuary. San Luis Bay is a special place within a larger area that has qualified for national marine sanctuary designation since 1990. San Luis Bay contains major kelp forest habitats where marine life flourishes, similar to the coral reefs of Hawaii.

Californa Central Coast Kelp Forest - -Video by Terry Lilley

Now, more than 20 years later, the communities around the bay are becoming aware of the decades of pollution affecting the health of the marine ecosystem in the bay. Similar to Hanalei Bay, San Luis Bay receives pollution from two main sources. First, the bays receive incoming water carrying pollution from the watershed. Both watersheds contain farms with decades of high pesticide use, resulting in agriculture run-off finding its way into the marine ecosystems. Second, the bays receive wastewater from waste-treatment plants that do not clean the wastewater to non-damaging levels. This section will focus on pesticides in agricultural runoff.

Pesticides as Pollutants

The National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences defines pesticide as: ". . . any substance used to kill, repel, or control certain forms of plant or animal life that are considered to be pests. Pesticides include herbicides for destroying weeds and other unwanted vegetation, insecticides for controlling a wide variety of insects, fungicides used to prevent the growth of molds and mildew, disinfectants for preventing the spread of bacteria, and compounds used to control mice and rats.

Pesticides are of particular concern to those who desire clean water in streams, rivers, lakes, and ocean ecosystems. Pesticides become pollutants when they enter either underground drinking water sources, or above ground lakes and oceans, and the food chain. Pesticides can last for decades.

Both Hanalei Bay and San Luis Bay have received decades of pesticide runoff from farming. Once considered "miracle" chemicals that would provide farmers with ways to eliminate pests and increase food crops, pesticides not only cause immediate and long-term health problems, but also result in increased hidden financial costs to communities. Many health problems diagnosed as biologically caused have been caused by toxic exposures to pesticides.

The Aroian Lab at the University of San Diego (UCSD) gives an historical overview of the use of synthetic pesticides in the US that began in the 1930s. By 1950, the increase in farm yield led farmers to depend on pesticides (as well as chemical fertilizers) to control insects. However, UCSD's Aroian Lab states, "the use of synthetic pesticides in agriculture comes with a cost for the environment and to the health of animals and humans. Two examples of once widespread pesticides that are now banned in the US due to unacceptable health risks are DDT and Dursban.

Decades of Pesticides in Oso Flaco Lake, San Luis Obispo County

Oso Flaco Lake is located near the ocean amid large sand dunes in the southern part of San Luis Obispo County. From the parking area there is a walking trail to the lake and a wood boardwalk over the lake and over the sand dunes to the ocean. The lake is now managed by CA State Parks.   "The Guadalupe-Nipomo Dunes Center" is located in Guadalupe, California. Oso Flaco Lake is about three miles north of Guadalupe at the end of Oso Flaco Lake Road, off of California route One.

Camillia Lanham reports in her article, "Don't Eat the Fish" in the April 18, 2013 Santa Marina Sun Times that there is no fishing posted in Oso Flaco Lake in San Luis Obispo County because the fish are polluted with DDT. Lanham reports the amount of DDT found in the lakes fish is 10 times higher that the amount found in fish from Watsonville's Pinto Lake, which tested for DDT at the second highest level found in California. In fact, a posted sign states: "WARNING: PESTICIDE CONTAMINATED FISH."

Lanham states, "DDT takes years to break down and is found all over the Santa Maria Valley. The California State Water Resources Control Board has recorded high quantities of it in places like the Santa Maria River bed, Orcutt Creek, the Bradley Channel, and Oso Flaco Creek. The insecticide latches onto sediment. Big storms stir up that sediment, and then it goes with the water down into Oso Flaco Lake, where it settles."

Decades of Pesticides in San Luis Creek, San Luis Obispo County

Avila Beach Kayak Run (San Luis Creek) video by Ratlab2012

San Luis Creek is one of the original California Critical Coastal Areas (CCA) identified by the California Coastal Commission (CCC) in 1995.

San Luis Creek into San Luis Bay photo by David Georgi

San Luis Creek is consistently polluted and is posted with a permanent sign warning of health risks. The signage is small and poorly placed, so most people do not see the signs warning individuals to stay out of the estuary. This is a location where many parents unknowingly bring children to play during weekends and vacations.

Photo by David Georgi

Flowing through both rural and urban areas, the San Luis Creek is vulnerable to degradation from many sources, including irrigated crop production, agricultural, urban runoff, storm runoff, wastewater from treatment plants, and unknown sources. Therefore, everyone needs to become part of the effort to heal the creek. San Luis Obispo County Flood Control and Water Conservation District Zone 9 meets June 9, 2013.

Pesticide Pollution from Spraying and Drift

Pesticides can be mixed with other chemicals and water to be sprayed by ground rigs, helicopters, and planes. During spraying, pesticides can drift for miles. The danger from drift continues, in some instances, up to forty-eight hours due to 'off gassing' or evaporation. On the coastal areas during fog season, the evaporated toxins become entrained and are moved for miles in the fog. Pesticide pollution drift is an ignored problem. Many homes and schools are near pesticide-sprayed farm fields.

Pesticide application permits are regulated by the counties. However, the pesticide guidelines are controlled by the state of California. Since the late 1980's, California has failed to substantially update the testing of the toxic impacts of pesticides on humans and ecosystems adjacent to agriculture. Damage to organisms can be caused by parts per billion, not parts per million (as the outdated regulations currently stand). Also, there is the new problem of crops designed to withstand increased pesticide doses, thereby increasing the opportunities for these toxins to enter the water ecosystems.

Independent scientific oversight and review essentially disappeared years ago due to agriculture's and chemical manufactures' lobbying efforts. Also, as the data below show, the number of applications are so high, that the pesticide appliers are basically being asked to follow the guidelines when inspectors are occupied elsewhere in their impossible oversight positions.

Researchers and critics of governmental oversight (finding pesticides in parts per billion causing damage) point out that if you can smell drift, you are being exposed. San Luis Obispo County agricultural inspectors have denied this fact.

Increased use of Pesticides in San Luis Obispo County

San Luis Obispo County's top two money-making crops — grapes and strawberries — use high levels of pesticides and require large amounts of water. It should be pointed out that both crops are nonessential foods. San Luis Obispo County can be said to be exporting large amounts of precious ground water, by wine barrel or bottle, grape by grape and strawberry by strawberry. 

Between 2005 and 2011, the acres of grape cultivation increased by slightly more than two thousand, or 6.7 %. Most of the grape vines are planted within the Salinas River watershed, that drains into the Monterey National Marine Sanctuary. Some vines are planted in watersheds draining into San Luis Creek, Pismo Creek, Arroyo Grande Creek, or the Santa Maria River. Santa Barbara County vineyards are found in the Santa Maria and Santa Yenz River watersheds. Toxins from these areas flow into San Luis Bay.

The acres for strawberries increased from 938 in 2005 to over 3,000 acres by 2011 — over 300% increase. This increase of strawberry cultivation is explained by the fact that San Luis Obispo County is the only county in California where methel bromide, the fumigant that depletes the stratospheric ozone layer, is permitted for use on strawberry fields prior to planting. The purpose of methel bromide is to kill all living organisms in the soil. The soil is turned from a rich ecosystem into an industrial agricultural flooring — dirt.

The amount of pesticides applied to strawberries increased 36% between 2009 and 2010, while the cultivated acreage of strawberries increased by 27%. Most of the strawberry crops are planted within the Santa Maria River watershed. These residual toxins drain or drift into San Luis Bay.

Countywide applications of pesticides on all crops between 2007 and 2010 increased by more than 60%. More current numbers are not available.

The raw numbers themselves seem to indicate actual toxins sprayed into the environment, but this is not the case. All pesticides are a combination of 'active' and ‘inert' ingredients. Active is defined as the agent being applied. The ‘inert' ingredients are, in most cases, equally or more toxic but are not listed because they are ‘trade secrets.'

For example, Chloropicrin, an agriculture soil fumigant and a lung damaging agent that has been used in chemical warfare, is only 2% active and 98% inactive. Chloropicrin, like many other pesticides, can be absorbed systemically through inhalation, ingestion, and the skin. It is severely irritating to the lungs, eyes, and skin.

Another example is Captin, a pesticide toxic to fish and aquatic invertebrates that ranges from 10% to 50% active, depending on the crop. The active ingredient with its inert chemicals are mixed in water to be sprayed from a ground rig or helicopter. Usually, however, three to five pesticides are mixed together and sprayed.

The problem of these toxic pesticide-mixed cocktails is that they have never been studied for their synergistic effects or interaction among themselves during mixing or after spraying or in interactions with chemical fertilizers. Since these are water-soluble and have a designed delivery system as well as neurotoxins, considerable unintended damage to the micro and macro fauna occurs.

The synergetic interactions of active and inert chemicals within their mixed cocktails and the later interaction with other agricultural chemicals already in the soil is a huge potential problem. Of concern is the wind-born chemically-laced dust lifted off the industrial agricultural fields during the windy season dropping into waterways that eventually flow into the marine environment. Also, of considerable concern is the impact on human health, especially for school children whose schools are close to pesticide sprayed agricultural fields.

An important source for more information can be found by reading the article, "Unidentified Inert Ingredients in Pesticides: Implications for Human and Environmental Health, by Caroline Cox and Michael Surgan, published in the 2006 December "Envoron Health Perspective."

Another understudied problem is the chemical interactions and breakdowns of pesticides and chemical fertilizers. These chemicals, including nitrates
which contribute to algae blooms, also find their way into the marine food chain, causing unknown damage. Nitrate pollution of drinking wells has been known since the 1970's, but has remained ignored until recently when the problem became too large to disregard.

San Luis Obispo County is the only county in the state where methel bromide remains in use. It is banned elsewhere and its use is being phased out, except in critical use exemptions.

Commercial non-organic strawberry crops require a lot of pesticides. Since San Luis Obispo County successfully lobbied to be the area where the last of the methel bromide stocks can be applied, the acreage of this crop has greatly increased. With this increase come not only the continued use of methel bromide, but all the other pesticides required by this type of production. So, with these additions to our county agriculture production come the consequences of an increase in chemicals finding their way into the ocean, groundwater, and wells.

Most of this strawberry crop increase is located within the Santa Maria River drainage. The Davidson Current within San Luis Bay is a pole-bound current strong enough to be called a river by the fishermen. The pesticides, their residues and those of chemical fertilizers that pour into the ocean at the Santa Maria River south of San Luis Obispo County become entrained in this current and move north not only into the shell fish, fish and nurseries, but also into the recreational beach waters.

Conclusion

The health of the marine ecosystems in both Hanalei Bay and San Luis Bay are seriously threatened by decades of pollution from many sources, including compounded years of pesticides from agricultural runoff. The health of the bays may be reaching their "tipping point" from ecosystem health to ecocide. The time has come for a paradigm shift away from destruction and pollution of the environment toward restoration and appreciation of the environment.

The communities need to become educated as to how to improve the health of the bays. Requesting national marine sanctuary designation is an excellent way to bring all of the local stakeholders together with federal National Marine Sanctuary Assistance and funding to improve the health of the bays, the environment, and the people.

According to the CCC, California's 1,100-mile coast has polluted runoff generated by a variety of land use activities, including urban development, agriculture, and forestry." Many of our coastal waters are degraded or threatened by polluted runoff — also known as Nonpoint source (NPS) pollution — which harms aquatic ecosystems, public health, and the local economy." (See: CCA Project)

Studying the polluted bays needs to result in action. Doing nothing will result in the death of the bays and, like Oso Flaco Lake, signs will be posted: "WARNING: PESTICIDE CONTAMINATED FISH." You can look, but do not enter the water or eat anything grown in the water because the water has become a pollution-laden contaminated cesspool for the runoff of the agriculture industry.

Lanham states, "DDT takes years to break down and is found all over the Santa Maria Valley. The California State Water Resources Control Board has recorded high quantities of it in places like the Santa Maria River bed, Orcutt Creek, the Bradley Channel, and Oso Flaco Creek. The insecticide latches onto sediment. Big storms stir up that sediment, and then it goes with the water down into Oso Flaco Lake, where it settles."

Banner Image of Otter & Pup by Cleve Nash