New Kesterson Plan OKd

The state water board approved a revised Kesterson National Wildlife Refuge cleanup plan Tuesday that requires the federal government to fill six seasonal ponds with dirt by next winter and gives it until December to study whether microorganisms will eat selenium.

The Water Resources Control Board also voted 5 to 0 to reject the federal Bureau of Reclamation’s proposed new cleanup plan that would have stressed keeping Kesterson dry and wildlife out.

“Although the board finds that certain components of the bureau’s recommended cleanup plan hold promise, the board concludes that the recommended plan, as a whole, is an unacceptable alternative” to the previous disposal plan, the board said.

Kesterson, in western Merced County, is contaminated with selenium, an element needed in minute amounts by animals and humans, but toxic in larger amounts. Scientists have blamed bird deaths and deformities at Kesterson on selenium drained from farmlands.

The state water board in 1987 approved a plan for the bureau to scrape the top six inches of soil from ponds in the refuge and build a 45-acre landfill on the site to contain the contaminated soils, sediments and vegetation. The bureau was supposed to complete the landfill by Aug. 14.

However, the bureau last April asked the board to reconsider and modify the order, saying research had shown that the landfill would exacerbate the threat to wildlife.

The state board Tuesday ordered the bureau to fill six seasonal pools in the southern part of the refuge with dirt up to six inches above the ground water level by Jan. 1. The board also ordered the bureau to submit a report by Dec. 1 on whether “microbial volatilization”--converting selenium to different, less toxic compounds--would clean up the refuge. If it works, the bureau will have until Oct. 1, 1991, “to fully achieve cleanup goals using this technique.”