Crews to clean up dumping ground along Petaluma River
Lori Carter
The Press Democrat
05/02/2011
Wildflowers dancing in the breeze along the Petaluma River belie the dangers lurking in the water.
On the river Monday, the fresh sense of the renewal of spring gave way to evidence of chemicals, oils and other hazardous substances that could be damaging the river ecosystem. Other more visible hazards — abandoned boats, huge splintered railroad ties, rotting old docks, discarded tires, 50-gallon drums — dot the inlets off the river.
“This has just been a dumping ground and it needs to go away,” said Rich Martyn, an emergency coordinator with the federal Environmental Protection Agency. “Those things are dangerous and are navigational hazards.”
In its first such effort, the EPA is assessing potential environmental damage from abandoned vessels and associated junk on the river from downtown Petaluma south to the Highway 37 bridge.
About 10 wrecks — both on and under the water — are suspected of containing hazardous materials that may affect the water, sediment and ecological health of the river, he said.
The wrecks could contain pollutants including oil, gas and diesel fuel, asbestos, mercury, batteries, zinc, copper, chromium and lead paint.
The joint federal, state and local assessment is part of a Sonoma County clean-up of commercial vessels, which are under federal jurisdiction as opposed to state-registered private vessels, which the state will help clean up, said Sonoma County Sheriff's Sgt. Ed Hoener.
Participating Monday were the EPA, the U.S. Coast Guard's Pacific strike team, the sheriff's boating unit, the Petaluma Police Department and CalRecycle, part of the state Natural Resources Agency.
Hoener said Deputy Matt Parlato's hard work over the past year brought federal authorities into the fold. The sheriff's deputies also worked with the EPA in Bodega Harbor to remove abandoned commercial vessels there.
In Petaluma, once the hazards sampled this week are analyzed, the agencies will return, probably next month, and remove the junk from the river. The EPA will handle environmental hazards and CalRecycle will remove and recycle any physical hazards.
Monday, officials collected samples to determine the extent of any pollutants. In looking for a correlation between derelict marine wreckage and the environment, the EPA hopes to establish guidelines for future assessments.
The Petaluma River, enjoyed by paddlers, canoers, boaters and nature enthusiasts, is a slough that collects freshwater runoff from various streams around Petaluma and feeds into the saltwater San Pablo Bay, part of the Pacific Ocean. A variety of wildlife exists in and around the river, inlets and marshy areas surrounding it.
“The ecosystem here is a really beautiful place,” Martyn said. “And a lot of this hazardous stuff is right below the surface.”
Martyn and Hoener pointed out a 60-foot wooden barge, maybe six decades old, whose owner is dead. It looks like a floating junkyard: hoses, barrels, tires, a truck camper, complete truck engines, two wheeled trailers and a small boat attached to its wheeled trailer partially suspended by a crane, which was also sitting atop the barge.
