The State - News from July 6, 1988

The state water board in Sacramento approved a revised Kesterson National Wildlife Refuge cleanup plan 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. 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.