By Warren Lutz,
Record Staff Writer
Monday, February 6, 2006
STOCKTON - Some say Carrie McNeil has big shoes to fill, but she doesn't have time to worry about that now.
Within of week of starting her new job, McNeil was at a state water board meeting, advocating on behalf of a 1,000-square-mile estuary that she's still getting to know.
"I hit the ground running," she said. "Right off the bat, I was representing the Delta."
Since December, McNeil has been director of DeltaKeeper, arguably the staunchest and most recognized environmental group in the Central Valley. Her task: protecting Delta waterways from pollution through advocacy, science, education and - when necessary - lawsuits.
Over the years, the group and its network of volunteers forced the cleanup of Penn Mine, pressured state officials to regulate water pollution that drains from farms and successfully sued several local companies for Clean Water Act violations.
The group is part of Waterkeeper's network of local groups protecting watersheds across the country. Many local environmentalists and DeltaKeeper opponents identified the group with Bill Jennings, a white-bearded, pipe-smoking fisherman who founded the group 12 years ago.
In court or in the press, Jennings ran a constant and, critics charged, inflammatory campaign against polluters and the agencies responsible for holding them accountable. When Jennings left last summer, many wondered whether DeltaKeeper was going kaput.
"A lot of us felt very uneasy," said Nancy Ballot, chairwoman of the Sierra Club's Delta-Sierra chapter. "We have some big-time polluters, and to go after them it's going to take a strong person."
McNeil admits she doesn't have Jennings' encyclopedic knowledge of the Delta. What she does have is experience as a legislative analyst and degrees in veterinary science and biology. Most recently, McNeil worked as a legal consultant on lawsuits involving massive oil spills and toxic poisoning in Ecuador.
McNeil considers leading DeltaKeeper her dream job.
"For me, it's perfect because I get to work in the two worlds I'm most passionate about - science and advocacy," she said.
McNeil is likely to receive a cool reception from Valley farmers, who are being targeted for polluting Delta water with irrigation runoff. DeltaKeeper led the fight to get state officials to crack down on farmers, who are now required to self-monitor runoff or pay hefty fines.
"You always fear the unknown," said Al Brizard, a retired Patterson farmer and member of the Central Valley Regional Water Quality Control Board, which rules on such issues. "Except for what they read in the newspapers, they're going to fear the worst."
McNeil graduated from the University of California, San Diego, and has worked for the state Assembly speaker pro tem and the state Senate Natural Resources and Wildlife Committee, where she helped developed laws involving abandoned mine cleanup, storm water pollution, metal contamination and nuclear waste.
Sen. Sheila Kuehl, D-Los Angeles, said she knows one thing about McNeil: She's tenacious.
McNeil worked in Kuehl's office when the lawmaker was Assembly speaker pro tem. One of Kuehl's fondest memories of McNeil involved an effort to require training for crews responding to radioactive waste spills. McNeil wrote the bill, explaining the little-known practice of transporting radioactive waste and tying it to local agencies that could be stuck cleaning it up. The bill failed to pass.
"(McNeil) had to bring together state law enforcement with sort of a secretive group of people who didn't want to share information," Kuehl said. "Ultimately, that was what tubed the bill.
"But she went above and beyond. She worked so hard trying to get these shadowy radioactive waste people to the table," Kuehl said.
McNeil last month participated in settlement talks in a lawsuit over toxic leaks from Nevada County's Empire Mine and is now working with San Francisco Baykeeper on setting mercury standards in state waterways.
Health officials place limits on eating Delta fish because they contain mercury, which causes nerve damage and other health problems.
She's also leased space for a new DeltaKeeper office in Stockton's Waterfront Warehouse and is recruiting for a second-in-command position. And Jennings, now chairman of the California Sportfishing Protection Alliance, is helping McNeil get up to speed on the group's cache of lawsuits and policy battles.
"(They) left an amazing volunteer base," she said. "I think we're really rounding a corner."
Contact reporter Warren Lutz at (209) 546-8295 or wlutz@recordnet.com
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