NOVATO ADVANCE   -   May 23, 2001

Investigator Claims Poor Testing At Pacheco Pond
By David Sterkin

		Nestled between businesses and homes, Pacheco Pond may be the perfect candidate for toxic
contamination. While there have been many claims about the pond's health, officials from the Marin County Flood Control District, the pond's owner, say there has been no documented evidence of contamination

But the lack of testing is just problem according to Elena Belsky, an investigator with the watchdog organization San Francisco BayKeeper.

	"We're asking for agencies to step in and do comprehensive testing of this pond," she said.

Mass fish die-offs, "milky, white plumes" and the noxious sulfur odors wafting from the
pond are included in the list of Belsky's concerns. In addition, in November nine divers from the
Marin County Sheriff's Department reported symptoms ranging from burning skin to nausea and difficulty breathing 
after exposure to Pacheco Pond waters during a training exercise.

"They never tested the water after that incident," said Belsky, whose group has been lobbying various regulatory agencies to get the pond tested. "My bottom line is, you guys figure it out, but the pond needs to be tested. It shouldn't be (left to) non-profits to fund such testing."

But Liz Lewis, a creek naturalist with the flood district, says there has been testing and to date none of the tests reveals any type of contamination - although, she admits the timing of the tests has not always been ideal.

The pond, says Belsky, should be tested as soon as possible after any incident such as a fish die off, sulfur smell or visible plume.

The San Francisco Bay Regional Water Quality Control Board has tested the pond for a variety of substances, says Lewis, but she indicated those tests were not directly in line with any of the complaints or incident reports from the pond.

Belsky calls the existing testing "inconclusive" and states that by testing only the water and not the sediment, the regulatory boards have missed the point.

"Water testing is cheaper," she said. "But the only way you find out if anything is going on is by testing the sediment."

As a part of an on going sampling program, the flood district is gearing up to test the sediment from Pacheco Pond this summer, But the sediment testing will be limited to only a few types of contaminates. Belsky also says that the previously conducted tests have been very limited.

"When testing for an unknown, you really need to test for a  wide range of substances and then narrow it down," she said.

"Getting an answer to what happened to the dive team would be very difficult right now," said Lewis. But she attributes the white plume that many people observed to the inflow of muddy bay water from Novato
Creek when the flood gates between the creek and Pacheco Pond were recently opened.

Sulfur smells, she said, are "typical for a marsh area."

As for the fish die-off, Lewis said that since the incidents had not been reported to the flood district, the department has yet to document any of these occurrences.

However, it may be harder to convince Friends of Novato Creek Director Sue Lattanzio that there haven't been fish die-offs at the pond. During the last incident, Lattanzio pocketed some of the floating fish and froze them, hoping to someday convince some regulatory board to test the deceased fish for toxins.

"When there's a fish kill or an obvious problem, something should be done immediately, not six months after the fact," she said.