Health Warning in Delta

[garne2t]

By the way noshuzbluz,

Might be time to change your signature:

The Time a Person Spends Windsurfing is not Deducted from their Lifespan...

[purple]

Rob,

Regarding your Memorial Day expeience, the Microcystis blooms progressively increase over the summer with a peak in August & September. May is pretty early for this particular blue-green alga to have been a problem. However, there are lots of other water quality issues in the Delta!

So...why didn't you hear about this earlier?

1) Bloom location: In previous years, most of our data was showing that the blooms were concentrated in the central and south Delta. To my knowledge, Microcystis had never been abundant near Sherman Island. As a windsurfing, this caught my attention....and prompted my posting to this forum.

2) Bloom magnitude: Dr. Lehman is still working up the data, but most of us believe the blooms have increased since previous years. Hence, this was the first year that Dr. Lehman contacted the counties.

BTW, Dr. Lehman tells me that San Joaquin County has already posted hazard signs at the marinas warning against all body contact with Delta water. Has anyone seen these signs yet?

[purple]

Dude, don't trust me because I have a PhD! There are way too many PhD's who haven't a clue about much of anything. Trust me because I spend my spare time planing over sharky waters, clinging to the sides of cliffs, and carving virgin powder! And yes...I spend the rest of my time trying to figure out what is going wrong with the Delta ecosystem.

[isobars]

[fearlu]

I have definitely seen the green corn flakes in the water at Sherman. Up by the islands is where the density was greatest I believe, but I have seen them right at the launch (by the kite area) as well.

[bonjo]

Dr. Ted,
Is this alge related to the nasty "green stuff" found in the ONEILL forebay?

[tsokat]

What measures are public health authorities, either the State, Contra Costa County or Sacramento County doing to monitor the water quality of the Sac River between The Access and Powerlines? Are regular water samples taken on that stretch of river? And what triggers a duty to warn according to the standards of these entities? It sounds like the counties totally rely upon the State to monitor the water and then make their own call on warning us. I am concerned that no one is competently looking out for our health in this regard. We are lucky that one of our own just happened to have inside info as part of a scientific study and share this with us. Water quality for watersports participants should be monitored on a regulr basis and any risk should be conveyed to us so we can make out own decisions. These are not open and obvious risks. Only government can find out about them and government has a duty to warn us about them. Tom

[coachg]

And what about the hundreds of fisherman? Are they at a greater risk eating fish from there?

Coachg

[purple]

Basic water quality monitoring (salinity, temperature, oxygen, etc) occurs at quite a few locations in the Delta. Much of the data is available at the following website:

http://www.iep/data.html

However, this isn't the type of data that is the focus of public health. That type of monitoring tends to be much sparser--concentrated at water diversions (Tracy pumping plant, Contra Costa's Rock Slough diversion) or wastewater discharge locations (e.g. Sacramento). For Sherman Island, consider contacting Rio Vista or Antioch Departments of Public Works to see what data they have:

http://www.rio-vista-ca.com/pub_works.htm
http://www.ci.antioch.ca.us/CityGov/PublicWorks/Water/

Unfortunately, the really important microbiological data often aren't available on the internet. The cities and counties usually don't have the budgets to do a big data management and outreach program. So...they tend to only post information when there is a specific problem. Microcystis monitoring is relatively new & toxins are hard to test for, so this is not something that is regularly done.

The irony in all this is that we are spending a fortune on "home land security", when the stuff that affects us the most like water quality is chronically underfunded. I totally agree that we need a better monitoring and warning system to protect windsurfers, water skiers, swimmers & fishermen!

Regarding fishermen, they are also at risk, particularly if they eat tainted fish. Microcystins biomagnify up the food web, so big fish like striped bass or largemouth bass may have high levels. Note, however, that I also don't recommend eatting these resident fish because of high mercury and selenium levels, a problems in the estuary for many decades. Their risks can be reduced by fishing catch-and-release & washing their hands regularly.

Before everyone gets completely scared away from the Delta, let me reemphasize that the toxic algae problem is focused on the San Joaquin side of the Delta, and at the confluence of the San Joaquin and Sacramento Rivers (i.e. Sherman Lake and tip). Windy Cove is a bit questionable because SJR water sloshes into it at ebb tide via 3 Mile Slough. The upstream Sacramento River should be OK, including the channels of the Mokelumne, Steamboat Slough, etc. The other thing to keep in mind is that the blooms are highly seasonal. The problems are concentrated in August and September. Again, the rest of the year should be relatively safe. A good rule of thumb is that if you see green "cornflakes" in or around your launch site, drive somewhere else!

Regarding O'Neil Forebay, I am not sure, but I seem to remember that there are Microcystis blooms there as well. This makes sense since all of the water in the forebay comes from the lower San Joaquin region!

Cheers,

Ted

[boggsman1]

Allow me to state the obvious. Power Lines 30kt wind , nice EBB, warm weather, shorty, 75 ltr board with 4.0, blowing all day, cold beers waiting in car, cool people hanging out, camping, partying, waking up at 6am drinking coffee, jump in water do it again.

Stinky smelly water just downwind from Pittsburg, Antioch smokestacks, tiny little river with giant ships cruising up and down, nasty Sturgeons floating around dead in the water, garbage floating around.

I dont need DR Ted to tell me the obvious.