Stockton Standing Up -

You CAN make a difference	Please support us. Click here to donate.

Stagnant action also makes for stagnant water

Published in the Stockton Record on 07/19/04

Stagnant action also makes for stagnant water

Published Monday, July 19, 2004

The Stockton Deep Water Channel looks like the Chicago River as it winds through the Windy City on St. Patrick's Day.

Get used to it.

The oxygen-depleted, fish-killing channel will stay green for now -- continuing to wait for human intervention. Only autumn's cooling temperatures and life-giving rains will restore it to health.

Until then, it'll be as green as the oxygen-sucking algae that's decomposing 30 feet below the surface.

There are plenty of reasons for this long-standing and deplorable situation. There's plenty of blame to go around, too.

Most recently, it was the Central Valley Regional Water Quality Control Board that failed to act. After five years of planning, board members found reason to wait another six months.

They want to further tweak a proposal that calls for shared responsibility in rejuvenating the slow-moving waterway that dead-ends at the western edge of downtown Stockton.

Plans call for the city, Port of Stockton and various other agencies that take water from the San Joaquin Delta to work together to elevate the oxygen levels.

In the past, each entity has found reason to blame the others, causing constant delays. The problem has persisted for
30 years.

Other factors contribute to the green-
colored waters most summers: the deepening of the channel, the dumping of upstream agricultural pollutants, high levels of ammonia, sewer-plant discharges and sluggish water flow.

Water-quality board members will talk again in either December or January about the long-overdue fix.

They're stuck, trying to make certain responsibility is shared equally and to give the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers a chance to develop effective methods of pumping more oxygen into the water.

So, for a few more months Stockton residents can just pretend the city is Chicago West. And every day is St. Patrick's Day.

That fantasy beats reality: Stockton is more like Rome as its water bureaucrats act like Nero fiddling away the time while the Deep Water Channel dies a slow, toxic death.

Use your browser BACK button to return, or click on a link below.