FORTY-FIFTH BIENNIAL REPORT 



43 



Although the department has clear authority to act 

 in cases of "one-shot" pollution which may be detri- 

 mental to fish and aquatic life, cases of chronic and 

 continuing pollution must be referred to the regional 

 boards for corrective action. 



While regional board actions have generally met 

 with co-operation on the part of waste dischargers, it 

 is the opinion of the department and other state agen- 

 cies that effective control action has in many cases 

 been hampered by certain inadequacies and incon- 

 sistencies in the law. 



At the end of the biennium an Assembly Interim 

 Committee on Bay and Water Pollution was estab- 

 lished to evaluate the statewide effectiveness of the 

 law. The Department of Fish and Game, acting in con- 

 junction with the Departments of Public Health, 

 Water Resources, Agriculture and Natural Resources 

 submitted to the committee a series of 15 recom- 

 mended changes in the law. It is anticipated that these 

 and other recommendations will be considered by the 

 committee for legislative action in tlie 1959 Session. 



The formation of the Assembly Subcommittee on 

 Bay and Water Pollution was largely motivated by 

 public indignation arising from a disastrous fish kill 

 in San Francisco Bay. The kill, occurring along the 

 Richmond Shore in Ma}-, 1957, destroyed an esti- 

 mated 2,000 legal-sized striped bass as well as tre- 

 mendous numbers of smaller fish and invertebrates. 

 After extensive field and laboratory investigation by 

 the department, sufficient evidence was gathered to 

 institute civil proceedings against a large manufactur- 

 ing firm. At the end of the biennium the case was still 

 awaiting court action. 



S. F. Bay Fish Kill 



Although the San Francisco Bay fish kill was tragic 

 in terms of the needless loss of fish life, it served the 

 purpose of graphically pointing out the need for re- 

 search on the effects of various pollutants on aquatic 

 life. Bioassays on the effluent in question could have 

 demonstrated the toxic components of the discharge, 

 the degree of toxicity, and could have revealed the 

 likelihood of a kill under certain predictable conditions 

 of dilution. 



Very simply, the bioassay test consists of exposing 

 fish or other test animals to a range of concentrations 

 of a toxic substance over a definite time period. On the 

 basis of the mortality rates in the various test solutions, 

 "safe" concentrations for long-term exposure can be 

 calculated. 



The value and applicability of such work is obvious. 

 It has also become obvious that the department will 

 be called upon with increasing frequency to provide 

 such technical data and assistance to Regional Water 

 Pollution Control Boards. During the biennium over 

 1,000 applications for waste discharges were filed with 

 the regional water pollution control boards. Many of 



these were of great significance to fish and aquatic life 

 and were investigated by department personnel. The 

 boards have generall>- shown a \v illingness to prescribe 

 discharge requirements which recognize the impor- 

 tance of fish and aquatic life. They are looking to the 

 department for the technical data necessary for the 

 writing of appropriate discharge requirements. 



In an effort to fulfill this obligation and get the 

 facts, the department has secured approval to set up a 

 new technical class of employee— pollution bioanalyst. 

 These people, trained to evaluate the effects of pollu- 

 tion on aquatic life will be assigned to Regions 3 (San 

 Francisco) and 5 (Los Angeles) early in 1959, and 

 other regions ma\' have this type of help in the near 

 future. In addition, the department is making plans 

 for laboratory facilities for both fresh water and 

 marine pollution investigations. 



Major Activities 



During the biennium the department, although se- 

 riously hampered by lack of manpower and facilities, 

 has increased its pollution investigation work. In addi- 

 tion to hundreds of smaller studies and actions the 



A square ioot area in a pocket that had been covered by the previous 

 high tide contained five dead shells, three with meal and two without, 

 an the beach at White Point near San Pedro. Tagging experiments 

 showed that it required just about a year in the polluted White Point 

 soup before all the abalones ended up in this condition. 



— Fish and Game Photo 



