Sewage spill

heidi08 City Reports December 14, 2008

Got a call yesterday from beaver friend JD about the report in the times saying a manhole had overflowed some 1800 gallons of raw sewage into the creek near Highland Holiday Hills park. The overflow was reported on wednesday but it’s possible the leak had been ongoing since monday.

District manager David Contreras said the agency learned at noon Wednesday that a manhole on Fig Tree Lane, east of Morello Avenue and north of Highway 4, was overflowing, and that raw sewage was running into the creek in Holiday Highlands Park. Initially, the agency estimated about 1,800 gallons of sewage had run into creek, but Contreras said that figure could rise because the manhole may have been overflowing since Monday.

For those of you following your watershed maps at home, this creek is an upper feeder that may go to Alhambra Creek, home of the beavers. It poured sewage for two days before it was stopped. We should all be curious why this wasn’t reported sooner, or how it was eventually reported at all. I wonder why the report says it “might have been leaking since Monday”. Why monday? Do you mean that’s when the initial phone call was retrieved from the message machine and sat in an untended pile until wednesday when the followup call made you think it was really worth investigating? Maybe its been leaking since saturday?I don’t want to hear a single complaint if someone eventually finds giardia in a water test at the beaver dam, when us humans put gallons of raw sewage into their creek. The outraged satirist in me loved this part of the article especially

A staff biologist at the scene did not see any dead fish, and live crawdads were visible in the creek, Contreras said.

The Crawdad and Deadfish Test? Really? Is that the subtle biological indicator you learned in water quality testing school? Aren’t crawdads like lobsters and shrimp which eat animal waste? Aren’t they often found in sewers? So would they really be a sensitive tool for identifying sewage problems?

This comes two days after the water district reported a “spill” with high coliform bacteria levels in 1.3 gallons released near the bridge. This was later declassified as a condition rather than a spill, and the results haven’t been repeated in subsequent testings.

He said the sanitary district performs a total coliform bacteria test three times per week. Under the district’s permit, the “most probable number” of total coliform bacteria in any single sample can’t exceed 10,000 per 100 milliliters of the sample water during the winter. Usually, that number is less than two, Contreras said. But the Tuesday sample, the district confirmed Thursday, exceeded 16,000 coliform bacteria per 100 milliliters. The preliminary results from the Wednesday test show the bacteria level fell back to below two, according to Contreras. “We’re currently investigating what caused this (high testing) number or if it was sampling error and we will provide that to the regional board in five days,” he added.

I can hear the false sympathy now. “The poor things. This just proves why beavers don’t belong in a city creek.” Maybe. Maybe its bad for HUMANS if sewage dumps into the water where children play and bacteria pours into the bay. Maybe filtering dams are the only defense we have left against spreading our germs all through the entire water system.

Maybe we humans should be more careful and beavers can remind us why.

Where would we be without you?

heidi08 Video December 13, 2008

Happy Birthday to Cheryl Reynolds, our intrepid photographer and VP of wildlife. If you like the photos in the video, stop by and see her display starting Jan 8th, at EBAG in pleasant hill.

The Case of the Missing Trees

heidi08 Uncategorized December 12, 2008

Beaver friend WK sends this ecological detective story from tuesday’s Christian Science Monitor. Seems like there were some environmental do-gooder types that were upset by a stolen forest and ready to blame the loggers. Lots of woodchips all around and trees marked for future removal too. Hmm, sounds familiar.

Guys, no permit is required

There is indignation, and then there’s what happens when environmental activists see something that offends their sensibilities. A proposed new oil refinery, for instance. Or commercial whaling operations. Or, in a case that came to light the other day, an apparent illegal logging operation in northern Poland. It seems that some activists were out hiking when they spotted – to their horror – 20 neatly toppled tree trunks on the banks of a stream flowing through a nature reserve near the city of Subkowny. What’s more, there were rings of wood chips on the ground around other trees that were still standing – an obvious indication that they’d been marked for harvesting, too. Of course, the matter was reported immediately to local police, who dutifully investigated. But now we learn that there will be no arrests, no one will be fined or do jail time, and the felled trees won’t be confiscated. That’s because although the evidence was still there when the police arrived, plus a fresh trail left by a tree that had been dragged away, the culprits turned out to be beavers that needed the wood for a dam they were building in the stream for winter. Disdaining tact, a police department spokesman told reporters that the environmentalists “are feeling pretty stupid” right about now. “There’s nothing more natural,” he opined, “than a beaver.”

I don’t usually appreciate these “crazy tree hugger” stories (for obvious reasons), but I like how this ends. “There’s nothing more natural than a beaver” spoken by a member of the force no less. Pay attention Martinez finest! Beavers are as natural to the landscape as the people who gather to watch them.

And if think the beaver bloom is off the Martinez rose, go read Stephen’s comments in the recent sightings section about his visit last night to the dam. He met a certain videographer with a night light and got a great viewing with narration. We actually had lots of discussions amongst Worth A Dam members over whether or not to open the comment section on the blog. Some of us have heard and read so many crazy mean things about beavers we were afraid to try it. I made the executive decision to risk it last week, and the first fish we catch in our net is a beauty! Thanks for the encouragement, Stephen. We appreciate it.

Muskrat Madness

heidi08 Recent Sightings December 11, 2008

Last night’s beaver visit featured a new display by one of our larger muskrats. We might call it an “aggressive dive”. He would approach very close and then hurl his furry body into the water making as much noise as possible. I’m guessing that he was thinking “so what you can slap your tail? I can slap my whole body!”

We are starting to see more of a muskrat population return, which isn’t surprising. Did you know muskrats are such prodigious breeders they can produce 20 off spring a year? Check out this photo of baby muskrats in a nest of reeds.

In addition to sharing territory with their beaver neighbors, muskrats share some characteristics as well. They are great swimmers and divers and can hold their breath for up to 15 minutes. While their appetite is more egalitarian than the beavers, they are happy to eat willow and cattail. As we head into the winter months we will likely see more of the muskrats and less of the beavers, leading to the common confusion between the two.

This video guide to telling them apart was one my first efforts and the first time I really saw how fun making a video could be.

[youtube:http://youtube.com/watch?v=fEsaXZoXnCw]

We’re Looking for a Few Good Wo(men)

heidi08 City Reports December 10, 2008

December 31st will mark the penultimate First Night celebration of the decade. This downtown event often brings out-of-towners to visit, and on their way to hear music or have their face painted many stop off at the beaver dam. Last year Worth A Dam didn’t yet exist, but beaver supporters had a presence on the bridge for the duration of the evening, with volunteer beaver docents to explain sightings and behavior.

Our presence is even more important this year. People want to know if the beavers are still in residence, and if the flow device (soon celebrating its first birthday) is still working. They will need to be reminded that the city of Martinez still hasn’t voted on their fate. We have a new generation to keep safe from people’s mischief and curiosity.

The beavers could use your help during this event. Look at your party calendar and see if there’s an hour or two you could be on hand between 5:30 and midnight. Why should you bother? It was first night last year where we met FRO, who became our resident artist and children’s project coordinator. It was also first night where we met our kindly benefactor who helped our legal defense. New potential supporters are drawn by the event, and they might make a difference in how we move forward.

Man, woman, or teen, we’d love to have you onboard. If you would like to volunteer to help out contact us or just come by that night. We’ll give you information, coffee and encouragement; you’ll give our beavers a safe night with some new friends.