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Brentwood Press - AntiochPress_08.22.08 - Index

12A | brentwoodpress.com commUnItY august 22, 2008
Concerns surface over marsh project
by Dave Roberts
staff Writer
A plan to convert the old Emerson
dairy and nearby properties into a tidal
marsh might become a vital step in saving
endangered Delta fish and would
provide a large waterfront park, but it
also has the potential to increase salinity,
carbon and toxic mercury in local
drinking water.
That was the mixed news in a report
to the Oakley City Council last week by
Patty Quickert, who is heading up the
Dutch Slough Restoration Project for
the California Department of Water Resources
(DWR).
Council members are looking forward
to the 65-acre park with trails
along the Delta, ball fields, boat launching
and other recreation. But they are
concerned about the potential mercury
toxicity that could result from breaching
the levee and flooding much of the
1,166-acre property south of Dutch
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“ We will do a phased approach. If we breach one
parcel and there’s a problem, we would probably do
something different with the other parcels.
”
Patty Quickert,
California Department of Water Resources
Slough between Big Break and Jersey
Island Road.
“As you all probably know, there’s
a great deal of mercury in the Delta
system,” Quickert told the council on
Aug. 12. “It washed downstream during
the Gold Rush. And it comes from the
mines in the area that are leeching it to
the system.
“Most of that mercury is elemental
mercury – it’s fairly inert. Mercury
is mostly harmful to people when you
breathe the gas, like when you break a
fluorescent tube. That’s mercury vapor,
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and it’s really harmful. Most of the mercury
that’s in the sediments of the Delta
is not harmful in the state that it’s in.
“However, when you have a tidal
marsh project, an area that is under water,
the mercury in the sediments can react
with bacteria and it can form methyl
mercury, which can be toxic. That’s
when you hear these warnings about eating
fish – it’s because the fish contains
mercury, and when you eat the fish the
mercury stays in your body and can be
potentially toxic.
“The Dutch Slough area has actually
one of the lowest levels of mercury
in the Delta area. We don’t know how
the tidal marsh will affect the methylation
and the potential toxicity of the
mercury. Tidal marshes do export methyl
mercury.
“But in some cases they are also
known to decrease the amount of mercury.
Because not only do bacteria create
the methyl mercury but other bacte-
ria can break it down back into mercury.
This is something that we will be monitoring
very closely to see how much mercury
is being exported from the site.”
Councilman Brad Nix said that after
the council approved the Dutch Slough
project several years ago, scientists expressed
concerns “about how serious the
mercury problem was with this type of
restoration. We’ve been sort of waiting
for somebody to come back to us and
tell us that the problem has been solved
here and a consensus reached. Are the
… scientists now on board saying it’s
OK and it’s safe?”
Quickert responded, “The most recent
research shows that tidal marshes
are not a primary producer of methyl
mercury. Some tidal marshes actually
reduce the amount of mercury. There
are studies being done to try to figure
out what aspects of the different areas
make it have less mercury or more mercury.
But none of the tidal marshes have
produced toxic levels of methyl mercury.
They do produce some but not nearly as
much as flood plains do.”
Nix replied, “Well, some poison
may not be good.”
“It’s definitely a very difficult problem,”
acknowledged Quickert. “We at
the Department of Water Resources
are being told from many different di-
see Concerns page 13A