Pacifica Riptide

Opinion: Pacifica Must Revisit Oddstad Project Decision

Please turn out for the Tuesday, February 14 Pacifica City Council meeting (Agenda Item #7—Oddstad Project) and request additional EIR analysis and recirculation for additional public comment. In short:

1. There is significant new information that appeared only in the Final EIR. The Final EIR must be recirculated for another round of public comment and city response. Only in the Final EIR was the public told that the middle fork of San Pedro Creek was spawning and rearing habitat for threatened steelhead or that the project site includes such suitable steelhead habitat. This is significant new information that the public deserves the right to comment on.

2. The EIR fails to discuss the feasibility of the proposed mitigation measure of “bioswales.”An EIR must discuss the feasibility of proposed mitigation measures. This is particularly important because here the EIR admits that the project could generate stormwater runoff that could cause/contribute to water quality standard violations, provide substantial additional polluted runoff sources, and substantially degrade San Pedro Creek water quality. In addition, the EIR admits that project runoff could cause substantial erosion, siltation and contribute to stream channel impacts. Despite acknowledging such impacts, the EIR fails to discuss the feasibility of the mitigations in reducing these impacts.

3. Increased erosion potential exposes the city to significant financial liability.  The project conflicts with the Clean Water Act requirement that stormwater discharges not cause ANY increase in erosion. The EIR admits that this project will cause erosion from stormwater runoff and water quality violations from graywater for landscape. Clean Water Act violations are punishable by fines of up to $32,500 per day per violation. The Oddstad project, as currently proposed, will expose the city to significant Clean Water Act liability.

Three groups have filed appeals to the City Council: San Pedro Creek Watershed Coalition, Neighbors Concerned About Pacifica, and Protectors of San Pedro Creek. Please lend your voice.

Brian Gaffney
Neighbors Concerned About Pacifica

Bayer's Common Garden Pesticide Linked to Bee Colony Collapse

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Our Beautiful Coastside's Rosy Afterglow

Sunset @ La Costanera Peruvian Restaurant, Montara, Calif. (Dave Yuhas photo)

The Lighted Desert

Saguaro cactus in holiday lights, Scottsdale, Arizona (Sherri Shafer)

San Bruno Mountain Watch Events and Volunteer Opportunities

CLICK HERE FOR INFORMATION on San Bruno Mountain Watch stewardship programs and upcoming events. We have volunteer opportunities for everyone from students to grandparents. Our wetlands restoration group meets every Tuesday from 10:30 a.m. to 12:30pm at the end of Cypress Lane. Mission Blue Nursery volunteers meet every Wednesday  from 10 a.m. to 12 p.m. We also have two grassland restoration groups. The Weed Rangers meet every Saturday from 10 a.m. to 12:30 p.m. Join the Weed Warriors for fresh air and exercise, and help weed San Bruno Mountain's south slope, which has grasslands critical to resident butterflies. Work days are on the fourth Friday and Saturday of each month from 9 a.m. to 12 p.m. You're welcome either day. Gloves provided. Wear long pants, layers, and sturdy shoes. Bring water. For information, email lorettaandchuck@sbcglobal.net or call 415-467-6631. Meet behind Mills Montessori School at 1400 Hillside Boulevard, South San Francisco.

Team Gearhead Cleans Up San Pedro Creek

Daniel Blake, Justin Olsen, Michael Olsen, John Dolan, Anders Chippendale, Liam Miller, and Matt McPhail show off their haul.

Michael Olsen carries debris from San Pedro Creek.

North Fork of San Pedro Creek as it is today.
 
STORY AND PHOTOS BY IAN BUTLER
 
San Pedro Creek in Linda Mar drains Pacifica’s most extensive watershed. Clean water runs off the pristine slopes of Montara Mountain, creating ideal steelhead spawning habitat in San Pedro Valley Park on the middle and south forks. Fingerling rainbow trout still swim in the Sanchez fork behind St. Edmund's Church. But the neglected north fork is the creek's abused stepchild.
 
Paved over decades ago to build homes, streets, and schools, this steelhead paradise was reduced to a hidden network of concrete tunnels. The water now passes through miles of these tunnels before finally being exposed to dirt and daylight in the dense thicket behind Park Mall, adjacent to the site of the proposed assisted-living facility.
 
Recently, while Councilmember Mary Ann Nihart was given a tour of the area, a tremendous amount of litter and debris was found clogging the creek where it emerges from the tunnels. Matt McPhail, owner of nearby Gearhead Bicycles, offered to organize a cleanup with a group of kids from Team Gearhead.
 
So on Saturday, January 14, the kids arrived by car, bike, and unicycle, three even decking themselves out in full wetsuits, complete with abalone knives hanging from their belts. They quickly went to work, some scouring the creek for debris, others rigging up a rope system for pulling larger items up the steep bank. A few hours later they had hauled up an impressive collection of junk, including a mattress, two shopping carts, an old car tire, and—ironically—a rusted bicycle. Parents who knows what it’s like to get their kids to clean their rooms would have to be impressed with the effort these kids put into cleaning up a neglected waterway.
 
The north fork’s problems remain, including unnaturally high water flows, erosion, and pollution from paint, oil, detergent, and coliform bacteria, but on this day it was the beneficiary of hard work by an enthusiastic group of kids learning to care for the environment.

The Calm Before the Storm: Sundown @ Linda Mar Beach

SCOTT ANTHONY

Gray Lodge Wildlife Refuge: Winter's Waterfowl Wonderland

Geese in flight over Gray Lodge at sunset, January 8 (Leslie Davidson photo)

Sunset at Gray Lodge, January 8 (Leslie Davidson photo)

Winter is peak bird-watching time at Gray Lodge state wildlife refuge east of Colusa and north of the mighty Sutter Buttes. All over this Central Valley region, rice farmers used to burn the stubble after harvesting their crops. Now they spare the air, flood their fields, and welcome migrating geese and ducks, which stop off there to rest, feed on the leftover rice, and then move on, leaving behind their soil-enriching waste. It’s a win-win for farmers and birds. In another important way, it is also a win-win for hunters and bird-watchers, who both benefit from the abundance of bird life in the refuge and surrounding area, including several other state and federal wildlife refuges. Duck hunters are restricted to designated areas of Gray Lodge on weekends and Wednesdays. Their license fees help pay for refuge management by California Fish and Game. Bird-watchers pay $4 per person to drive into the viewing area, where is a hiking trail on the levee around the refuge, a viewing platform with a telescope, and a separate loop road for viewing only from your car. On non-hunting days (Monday, Tuesday, Thursday, Friday) it is very quiet and peaceful. All you hear is the birds and the wind. At sundown, you may even see and hear a mass flyout of geese, as wave after wave of them head east in honking, squawking V formations. If you go, be sure to look up Gray Lodge online for further information. If you want a comfortable place to stay nearby, check out Feather Falls Resort south of Oroville (reasonably priced rooms, heated swimming pool, hot tub, sauna, exercise room, gambling casino, restaurant, campground). Bonus find: Doering’s Mandarins, Highway 99 at Highway 162 west of Oroville – most delicious Satsuma Mandarin oranges I have ever tasted, plus a whole fruit stand selling kiwis, persimmons, pomegranates, nuts, and local honey. Mail order: phone 530-882-4361 or email dmandarins@yahoo.com

JOHN MAYBURY

Sharp Park Vote: SF Supervisors Fail to Overturn Mayor Lee Veto

Environmentalists failed again January 10 to close San Francisco's Sharp Park Golf Course, which is in Pacifica. The S.F. Board of Supervisors needed eight votes to override S.F. Mayor Ed Lee’s December 19, 2011 veto of an ordinance to transfer management of Sharp Park to the National Park Service—which has a no-golf policy. That ordinance had passed the board on December 13 on a narrow 6-5 vote. On January 10, the ordinance’s author, Supervisor John Avalos, moved to override the veto, but he could muster only six votes—falling two shy of the eight votes needed to override. So Mayor Lee’s veto stands. “The anti-golf activists just keep losing,” said San Francisco Public Golf Alliance cofounder Richard Harris, whose pro bono grassroots group has galvanized public support for the historic golf course. “And they should keep losing. This is historic property, designed by Alister MacKenzie, the world’s greatest golf architect, for the benefit of the public. And 80 years later, it is still affordable, and being enjoyed by people of all colors, genders, ages, persuasions, and social classes. This is the kind of historic property and public legacy that San Franciscans have always fought to preserve.” Voting to save the golf course (and against the override) were Supervisors Sean Elsbernd, Carmen Chu, Malia Cohen, Scott Wiener, and Scott Farrell. Voting to override the veto (and close the golf course) were Supervisors John Avalos, David Campos, Eric Mar, Jane Kim, Board President David Chiu, and newly appointed Supervisor Christina Olague. The landmark golf course, opened in 1932, continues to be in jeopardy. A trial is scheduled for July 2012 in U.S. District Court in San Francisco, on a close-the-golf-course lawsuit brought by environmental activists. Federal Judge Susan Illston in November 2011 rejected the environmentalists’ motion to enjoin golf operations on 10 holes, for allegedly killing endangered frogs and snakes. In denying the motion, Judge Illston found, among other things, that the property had more frogs in 2011 than at any time in the past 20 years.

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Bad Moon Rising

Stagnant air full of smoke and fog distorts moonlight over Gray Lodge north of Sutter Buttes, January 8, 2012 (John Maybury).