Reviving a river: Making a stream come
true
By JEANINE GORE
Wednesday, May 11, 2005
There's one way to save Pilarcitos Creek: Put more water in it.
But this simple plan is surprisingly complex.
The withered
waterway and its threatened fish populations have suffered from decades of
unrelenting abuse, pollution and overconsumption.
Turning the situation
around will take years of work, millions of dollars and most importantly, a
groundswell of support from a variety of local agencies - public bodies that
don't always get along.
Recycled water is largely seen as the solution,
a way to decrease dependence on stream sources.
As usual, the devil is
in the details.
Dozens of stakeholders depend on Pilarcitos Creek.
Locally, the water is used to irrigate crops and golf courses, minimize dust at
Ox Mountain Landfill and quench the thirst of Coastside residents. A prime
resource for the San Francisco Public Utilities Commission, Pilarcitos water
also sustains many parts of the Peninsula.
Each of those users is
hesitant to give up water, unless there is a steadfast guarantee that their
concessions will leave more water in the stream.
Above all, they want
oversight. They want assurance the additional flow will not be usurped by other
users - one of which already has its eye on the increased creek water.
"The attitude has always kind of been, well, you guys have all the
water, you solve all the problems," said Joe Naras,
of the SFPUC, which owns Pilarcitos reservoir. The
reservoir withholds millions of gallons of water from
flowing downhill into Pilarcitos Creek.
"We're saying well, no, that's
not good watershed management," he said. "If it's just
a simple matter of releasing water, we'd like to see
that it's actually going to fish restoration and not
to all those people - all those straws - that use that
water for pumping."
Coastside County Water District, however, is interested
in a piece of any additional flow - as long as there
is a "net gain for the creek," said CCWD President
Chris Mickelsen.
He called the potential for more
water in Pilarcitos Creek a "win-win" situation.
NOAA wants to increase
streamflow by at least two cubic feet per second. The agency intends to meet
that goal by bringing recycled water to the Coastside, so that Ocean Colony Golf
Links will stop pumping from the ground beneath the creek.
The way CCWD
sees it, if that happens, there will be ample leftover water.
CCWD could
cut costs to its ratepayers by pumping more water from the creek and lessening
its dependence on expensive Hetch Hetchy sources, Mickelsen said. The district
reportedly charges some of the highest water rates in the state, in part because
of the expense from pumping and treating Hetch Hetchy water.
The
National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration Fisheries Service, which is
driving the discussion, wants Ocean Colony Golf Links to decrease is dependence
on groundwater wells.
That Ocean Colony well water is relatively
inexpensive; however, there is one primary incentive for the golf course to curb
pumping. Well water runs low during the summer and fall - a problem for golf
course owners wanting to keep their greens verdant year-round.
Ocean
Colony Golf Links pumps an estimated million gallons of water annually from the
ground beneath lower Pilarcitos Creek.
Bruce Russell, CEO of Kenmark, a
real estate firm which manages Ocean Colony, said the company is open to the
idea of recycled water, pointing to the fact that many of the best golf courses
in California rely on water reclamation.
"It's the right thing to do,"
Russell said. "The reclaimed water could be a more
stable long-term water source for us, one that's more
environmentally sound.
"The real issue there is
whether the reclaimed water is good enough for us to use seven days a week on
the golf course," Russell continued, alluding to water
quality problems that reclaimed sources present.
Often, recycled water is high in salt and
manganese, both of which are troublesome to grass, sometimes leaving it more
yellow than green.
It is unlikely Ocean Colony would stop pumping from
Pilarcitos altogether. Instead, the groundwater would be a secondary source to
dilute the saltiness of recycled water and serve as emergency backup if the
recycling plant were somehow impaired.
For Ocean Colony, a secure,
reliable, safe source of water is enticing.
"Water is the lifeblood of a
golf course," Russell said. "Obviously, we wouldn't
have a business if we didn't have water."
Sewer Authority Mid-coastside is currently conducting a
study to assess that water quality, and how much it would cost to filter it to
suit the golf course. Sewer officials expect to have that report in hand within
two months.
It may be possible for Ocean Colony to carry the recycled
water to its golf courses using the existing well-water pipeline, a move that
would likely cut the price of reclaimed water dramatically.
If a deal
could be worked out with Ocean Colony and tertiary water could be used to
supplement or replace those million gallons of well water every year, then comes
the daunting task of restoring the crumpled banks of the creek, replenishing its
natural habitat and making the creek accessible once again to steelhead trout.
With recycled water, the possibilities seem almost limitless, said Pat
Rutten of NOAA Fisheries Service.
He gave a nod to the neighboring city
of Pacifica, 13 miles and a mountain away, where recycled water was used to
revitalize dried up Calera Creek.
A decade ago, the creek was little
more than a dusty brown streambed.
Now its gushing with recycled water
and home to thriving wetlands with 100 bird species and more than 10,000
endangered California red-legged frogs, said Scott Holmes, Pacifica's public
works director.
Citing a number of scientific unknowns surrounding
recycled water, Coastside officials are reticent to mimic Pacifica by putting
the reused water directly into Pilarcitos Creek. But they do plan to use
Pacifica as a template.
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