Suit Asks Immediate Halt of Discharge Into Wildlife Refuge

Two groups filed a lawsuit Tuesday that seeks an immediate halt to the dumping of selenium-laden agricultural waste water into the Kesterson National Wildlife Refuge.

The suit, filed in Superior Court here by the Natural Resources Defense Council and the Consumers Union of the United States, said selenium leaking into Kesterson posed “an imminent threat to human health” and “drinking water supplies.”

Named in the lawsuit is the state Water Resources Control Board, which the suit contends acted illegally when it said the wildlife refuge could remain open during a state-ordered federal cleanup of the land.

The two groups seek an immediate halt to the discharge of irrigation waste water into the west San Joaquin Valley wildlife refuge near Los Banos.

Thousands of birds have been killed and deformed because of high levels of selenium in the agricultural waste water draining into the refuge, according to scientists. Selenium is a trace element that is known to cause birth defects at relatively low levels.

If the court agrees to ban the discharge, there would be an immediate shutdown of 42,000 acres of irrigated land, mostly in western Fresno County, according to David Houston, western regional manager for the Bureau of Reclamation.

A ban would put the affected landowners out of the business of raising irrigated crops, such as vegetables or cotton, and would probably force them back to livestock grazing or dry farming. The value of the land would fall sharply.

In San Francisco Tuesday, attorneys representing the environmentalists said residents of Los Angeles and Santa Clara counties drink water from the San Joaquin River that may be contaminated by selenium seeping from Kesterson.

“Kesterson is a Bhopal waiting to happen,” said Consumers Union attorney Harry Snyder, referring to the gas leak at a Union Carbide facility that killed 2,500 people in Bhopal, India.

The attorneys said that half of the Metropolitan Water District’s 13 million customers and 25% of Santa Clara County residents drink water from the San Joaquin River.

Selenium-laced water flows into the refuge from the San Luis Drain, which collects waste water from irrigated farmland on the west side of the San Joaquin Valley.

Earlier this month, the state Water Resources Control Board ordered Kesterson be cleaned up by the federal Bureau of Reclamation, which operates the San Luis Drain.