Friends of Gualala River Protecting the Gualala River watershed and the species living within it
Exporting water from the Mad River as proposed would bring a whole host of environmental problems, posing a danger to the Mad River and its estuary, Humboldt Bay, and points all along the coast that would be passed while the water is in transit. Many of these environmental problems are foreseeable, but given the untested nature of this proposal, there are undoubtedly many more that cannot be contemplated at this time.
As a result of excessive logging and gravel extraction, the Mad River currently suffers from severe degradation, and was recently listed as “impaired” under section 303(d) of the Clean Water Act by the North Coast Regional Water Quality Control Board because excessive temperature pollution prevents the attainment of its designated beneficial uses. [The Mad River is also listed under § 303(d) due to excessive sediment pollution as well.] 33 U.S.C.A. § 1313(d). Given the current degraded conditions of the Mad River, any additional impacts are significant and cannot be tolerated. This proposal would do just that, however, removing a substantial amount of water from a nine mile stretch of the Mad River and its estuary. Nonetheless, the Water District is attempting to disguise this withdrawal as a neutral or benign proposal, playing a shell game with semantics to claim the withdrawal would consist of “excess industrial” water. To the contrary, nature does not consider this water to be “excess industrial” water, as it currently flows down the river and into its estuary. The listing of the Mad River under § 303(d) of the Clean Water Act occurred while this “excess” water was not being withdrawn from the river. Thus, even with that quantity of water being left in the river, the water in the Mad River is considered impermissibly impaired under the Clean Water Act. It is beyond doubt that resuming the withdrawal of that water would further degrade water quality in the Mad River and cause other undue environmental effects.
The Mad River estuary is also seriously degraded today, although it provided critical spawning, rearing, and feeding habitat for a myriad of species not very long ago. Indeed, as recently as the mid-1980s, the river and its estuary supported thriving salmon and steelhead fisheries. The proposed water withdrawal would add to the negative impacts existing in both the Mad River and its estuary, impeding their recovery and otherwise harming numerous native species. These include many species listed under the federal Endangered Species Act, such as the coho salmon, chinook salmon, steelhead, tidewater goby, western snowy plover, and bald eagle. [There is some evidence that the cessation of this water diversion has benefited some species. For example, chinook salmon populations have declined precipitously in the Mad River, but a slight upward trend in its population has been noted in the Mad River in recent years, 64 FR 50405, while the “excess” water in question here was not being withdrawn from the river.] Many other species would also suffer harm, including the coastal cutthroat trout, green sturgeon, osprey, and numerous migratory birds. There is growing momentum to restore the Mad River and its estuary to a healthy state. This water bagging proposal would undermine and effectively preclude those restoration efforts.
Humboldt Bay also would be severely impacted. This is one of the most biologically important estuaries on the West Coast, hosting 141 invertebrate species, 110 fish species, and 251 bird species. More than two-thirds of the oysters harvested for human consumption in California originate in Humboldt Bay, and it is also heavily utilized for fishing, crabbing, water sports, and other activities that rely on clean water.
The proposal would put these resources at great risk, with oil spills and other potential impacts looming in the project proposal. Humboldt Bay is well known for being one of the most perilous passageways on the West Coast, regularly presenting extremely dangerous waters to shipping traffic. Two large oil spills have already occurred in just the last six year, both having profound negative impacts on Humboldt Bay and the species it harbors, including marbled murrelets, coho salmon, brown pelicans, and other species that perished in these tragic events. The proposal includes one shipment per day of 13.2 million gallons of Mad River water at all times of year, something that would be impossible to accomplish safely due to the rough nature of Humboldt Bay and the north Pacific’s coastal waters. Despite the risks, the tremendous pressure to make the project cost effective would likely force the project proponent to operate at times when it was not safe to do so.
It should be remembered that the large 6500 horsepower tugs used in the waterbagging operation would carry a great deal of diesel fuel. It is virtually certain that at some point heavy seas will result in one or more of these tugs being run aground or up on the rocks, and when that occurs a massive quantity of diesel fuel will spill into the Bay and coastal waters. Thus, even without throwing caution “to the wind,” there is a great likelihood that this operation would cause an oil spill, and that is a gamble not worth taking.
The environmental impacts of the proposal would not stop there. For example, it would also have negative impacts on the geomorphology of Humboldt Bay, and runs the risk of creating a large underwater “explosion” if one of the giant “bladder” bags were punctured. Such an explosion would create a range of potential problems and would threaten to disrupt the natural balance of Humboldt Bay by suddenly introducing a massive amount of freshwater into its waters and creating other negative impacts.
The Aqueous Proposal Is Unviable as a Business Proposition
Apart from the exacting, layered regulatory review processes through which it must navigate, and the serious economic and environmental problems it raises, the Aqueous water bagging proposal simply is not a viable business enterprise for two discrete reasons. First, the physical and economic requirements of the actual operations have been badly underestimated. Second, Aqueous itself has neither the track record nor the wherewithal to actually implement the project.
To begin with, there is no existing U.S. manufacturer, as required by the Jones Act, of the water bags needed for the project. The only company that has explored the possibility of making these water bags is Albany International, but Albany International stopped even test manufacturing such bags some time ago. To start manufacturing these enormous bags from scratch for this project alone will entail staggering unit costs up front, something for which Aqueous has no financial resources.
Similarly, the rare U.S. built and owned 6500 horsepower tugs that would be required for this project are extremely costly to buy or lease, and none of them are found on the West Coast. Indeed only very few exist even on the East Coast. Finding and arranging for the purchase or lease of an adequate number of these vessels would be logistically difficult and very expensive. In addition, our research indicates that Aqueous likely will not be able to obtain the necessary insurance for its unwieldy, and thus risky, tugboat-and-waterbag combinations. Thus, it appears that even the most basic requirements for this proposal – the waterbags and the tugboats to tow them – will be completely uneconomical to provide.
Further, an initial review of the barest costs of loading the bags, operating the boats, and towing the waterbags to and from potential delivery points in central and southern California shows that these costs will far outstrip any even remotely plausible price Aqueous could hope to obtain for the water it seeks. Indeed, conservative estimates of fuel, crew, and equipment requirements for the proposed operations indicate that the cost of delivering Mad River water to the potential markets Aqueous has mentioned would be two to three times as expensive as the current cost of desalination. (Remember, too, that there are other competing alternative sources of water, such as agricultural transfers, that could undercut the cost by an even greater margin.) In view of the staggering costs and the unmet logistical requirements of the proposed water bagging operations, Aqueous’s “conceptual” claims about the viability of its proposal and the financial benefits that HBMWD would reap from approving the project are simply implausible.
Aqueous has no customers lined up. It has claimed to be in negotiations with San Diego and Monterey dating back to its failed water bagging project on the Gualala and Albion rivers. However, representatives from those two potential markets have both indicated that they have not engaged in serious, concrete discussions with Aqueous or Mr. Davidge. Apparently, he has pitched his idea to them just as he has to you, but they have been skeptical and have waited to see if there is any substance to his imaginings. In particular, they have been dubious about Mr. Davidge’s ability to secure the necessary rights and regulatory approvals to provide them with a reliable source of water – doubts which we think you will agree are well founded.
You should also assess your proposed business partner with a dispassionate, critical eye. Only months ago Aqueous, Inc., went by the name Alaska Water Exports, Inc., and was pushing an equally ill-conceived version of the same water bagging proposal down the coast on the Gualala and Albion rivers. Regardless of their name changes, Mr. Davidge’s business entities lack meaningful revenues, assets, or a significant number of employees. The same is true of the foreign corporate shell he has created for Alaska Water Exports and Aqueous – World Water, S.A. None of these corporate entities has any apparent track record of successfully implementing or carrying out any operation even remotely like this one. Indeed, they appear not to have engaged in any concrete water transactions at all.
The greatest claim to potential substance that World Water, and thus Aqueous, seem to have is the presence on its board of directors of representatives from transnational entities based in Saudi Arabia, Japan, and Norway, which do have financial resources and may be interested in investing in a viable water export project. It seems clear, however, that these potential international backers have not committed to any investment and are waiting to see if any of Aqueous’s proposals prove to be viable. This is hardly an adequate financial foundation on which to erect so chancy and speculative a project as Aqueous’s Mad River water bagging proposal. We suggest that you would not be well advised to offer the HBMWD and the local area up as guinea pigs for Aqueous’s experimentation.
The Promised Economic and Job Benefits are Illusory
The only company that can manufacture the kind of bags needed for the proposal has withdrawn from even test manufacturing of such bags. Further that company is based on the East Coast and already has West Coast facilities, which it would almost certainly use if it even decided to manufacture the bags on the West Coast. Thus, the assertion that the Humboldt Bay area could gain jobs from a bag manufacturing plant is misleading.
Similarly, Aqueous’s suggestion that its proposal would lead to many new jobs in the area for tugboat crew members is misleading. The heavy duty tugboats that would be required for the water bagging and towing operation do not currently exist on the Pacific Coast and few exist on the East Coast. A review of their requirements indicates that the most reasonable home port for them on the Pacific Coast would be the Puget Sound – not Humboldt Bay. True to this logic, Mr. Davidge has said that Aqueous has been scouting for tugboat operators in the Seattle/Puget Sound area, not Humboldt Bay. Tugboat captains based in the Puget Sound are almost certain to crew their boats with sailors they know from their home port. Accordingly, you must take Aqueous’s loose suggestions that its proposal would create local jobs in your area with a grain of salt.
We think the apparent lack of substance to the promise of job creation from this water bagging proposal ought to make you doubt the likelihood of such benefits from the proposal. Should you proceed with Aqueous’s proposal in part on the expectation that it could lead to a significant increase in local jobs, you and the working people of the Humboldt Bay area would be bitterly disappointed.
Conclusion
Given all of the above considerations, there is scant reason for the Humboldt Bay Municipal Water District or its customers to give Aqueous’s proposal any serious consideration. Aqueous’s reason for pursuing the project is obvious: if the proposal succeeds it would amount to a boondoggle for Aqueous and its potential international financiers, access to cheap water from the Mad River that they can then sell for enormous profit on the world market.
You should reject this deceptive overture from an unqualified and apparently uninformed business partner because: (1) it could result in your losing control over vital local water resources; (2) it could cause serious local economic and environmental harms; (3) it will not pass muster under the considerable state and federal regulatory reviews that it must face; and (4) it could lead to liability for the HBMWD.
Sincerely,
Simeon Herskovits
Western Environmental Law Center
Taos, New Mexico
Cynthia Elkins
Environmental Protection Information Center (EPIC)
Garberville, California
Ken Miller
Humboldt Watershed Council
McKinleyville, California
Diane Beck
Sierra Club, Redwood Chapter – North Group
Arcata, California
Tim McKay
Northcoast Environmental Center
Arcata, California
Nadananda
Executive Director
Friends of the Eel River
Redway, California
Thomas Cochrane
President
Friends of the Gualala River
Gualala, California
Linda Perkins
Chair
Albion River Watershed Protection Association
Albion, California
Jane Kelly
Director, California Office
Public Citizen
Oakland, California
Nancy Price
National Co-Chair
Alliance for Democracy
Davis, California
Mike Sandler
Program Coordinator
Community Clean Water Institute
Occidental, California
Toben Dilworth
Beth Robinson
Town Hall Coalition
Occidental, California
cc:
Dan Hauser, Manager, City of Arcata
Sherman Weirsig, Interim City Manager, City of Blue Lake
Dave Tyson, Manager, City of Eureka
Neal Carnam, Manager, Fieldbrook Community Service District
Tom Cooke, Manager, Humboldt Community Service District
Wiley Buck, Manager, Manilla Community Service District
Tom Marking, Manager, McKinleyville Community Service District
Honorable Wes Chesbro, California State Senate
Honorable Patricia Wiggins, California State Assembly
Honorable Patty Berg, California State Assembly
Honorable Mike Thompson, U.S. House of Representatives
