The aim of the Lower Watershed Assessment and Outreach Program was to identify and eliminate sources of pollution entering Sausal Creek below MacArthur Boulevard in Oakland, and to increase awareness amongst community members in the lower watershed of the condition of Sausal Creek and how to protect it. To do this, The Friends of Sausal Creek are collaborating with The Unity Council, a community development corporation based in the Fruitvale District.

Goals

• Establish collaboration with the Unity Council, a community development organization
  
  
• Learn about the Sausal Creek watershed through a watershed assessment, participating in oyster monitoring and visiting the near pristine upper watershed
  
  
• Monitor water quality through monthly monitoring and 5 weeks of bacterial sampling
  
  
• Identify Sources of Pollution Entering Sausal Creek
  
  
• Outreach to the community
  
  
• Participate in the Peralta Creek Restoration Project

Lessons Learned and how we'll Share Them

The work of the Friends of Sausal Creek (FoSC) has been based primarily in the upper watershed-most of the group's active members live there, and most of the public open space which the Friends have been restoring is in the upper watershed. One of the lessons that the Lower Watershed Program brought home is that for the Friends to be effective in the lower watershed, our work will have to be different. Ecological restoration is not possible per se, nor is it very meaningful to lower watershed residents. Access to the creek and public open space is a main issue, and where there is access, safety is a primary concern. The creek is essentially a dumping ground and a place to do illicit business.

On the other hand, the FoSC were able to see positive results from the program. The Lower Watershed Program was a good one, both for the FoSC and for the residents of the lower watershed. It brought the FoSC into the lower watershed in an appropriate way-in collaboration with the Unity Council and working with local youth to explore the creek environment and do outreach to raise awareness. It introduced community members to the creek and taught youth of all ages about the creek and the watershed.

Establish collaboration with the Unity Council, a community development organization

To help the FoSC establish broad-based community relationships throughout the entire watershed, the Youth Environmental Advocates (YEA) were brought on board to assist with assessing the creek, monitoring water quality, and doing public outreach. YEA is an environmental education program for high school students sponsored by the Unity Council, with support from the Alameda County Waste Management Authority.

Through the program, six youths make presentations about the 4 Rs:

• reduce,
  
• reuse,
  
• recycle,
  
• rot (compost)
  

During the course of the program this year, information about Sausal Creek and water quality protection was added to the information that the students share with community members.

Working with the YEAs ensured that the FoSC collaborated with the Unity Council-the Lower Watershed Assessment and Outreach Program became, in effect, a joint program.
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Learning about the Sausal Creek watershed through a watershed assessment, participating in oyster monitoring and visiting the near pristine upper watershed.

The YEA students were educated about the history of Sausal Creek and the various changes the creek has undergone due to human impacts.

• The students took two creek walk assessments in the lower Sausal Creek watershed, starting at William Wood Park and ending on East 27th Street. All accessible sites between William Wood Park and E. 27th were evaluated during the creek walk. YEA students visited 6 locations on Sausal Creek and characterized the creek's water and riparian zones by doing a visual analysis and taking notes at each site. A second creek walk was also conducted which focused on choosing water quality monitoring sites.
  
  
• They participated in the oyster monitoring project at the mouth of the creek. This was an on-going monthly effort lead by FOSC volunteers as part of a Bay Area-wide project led by the Save San Francisco Bay Association. The goal of the project was to research the abundance and health of native oysters and to restore oyster populations in the bay. YEA participated in oyster monitoring by counting and recording the number of native oysters that had settled on shell substrates placed in the bay by FOSC volunteers. In the process, YEA students saw first-hand how conditions of Sausal Creek can affect conditions in the bay.
  
  
• Finally, the YEA students took a tour of near-pristine areas in the upper watershed. YEA took a tour of Joaquin Miller Park in the upper Sausal Creek watershed, where, with support from the City of Oakland, the FoSC have built a native plant nursery. During the tour, YEA participated in two main activities-plant propagation and diary reflections. YEA transplanted buckeye seedlings from dee pots to one-gallon pots. The activity educated YEA students about the significance of native plants and also gave them an opportunity to make a contribution to the Friends of Sausal Creek's efforts to restore native plant communities in the watershed. In addition, the YEA students also wrote about how they feel about social equity and environmental justice issues that are apparent and need to be addressed throughout the entire watershed. In their reflections, the students expressed their concerns regarding the disparities between the easy accessibility that higher income people living in the upper watershed have to healthy, safe, and pleasurable creek sites and riparian trails and the in-accessibility lower-income populations in the lower watershed have to such creek locations in their neighborhoods.

The knowledge they gained from these experiences later helped them to formulate awareness presentations for local community groups.
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Monitor water quality through monthly monitoring and 5 weeks of bacterial sampling

The three water-quality monitoring sites were chosen in the lower watershed based on access-there are few places in the lower watershed where the creek is accessible. The final site, at East 22nd Street, is the last accessible above-ground stretch of Sausal Creek. The water quality was tested between November 2001 and May 2002. Data was collected on weather conditions, water and air temperature, creek depth, water color, dissolved oxygen (D.O.), pH, and ammonia levels. All results met the water quality standards given in the Volunteer Monitoring Protocols. We found:

• no high water temperatures,
• no unusual water color,
• no sources of ammonia;
• D.O. levels were consistent with the water's temperature and adequate to sustain aquatic invertebrates and salmonids;
• pH standards were suitable for the "largest variety of animals," including mayfly and stonefly nymphs, caddis fly larvae, and trout (SFEI 1996). Our monitoring techniques and standards are based on the San Francisco Estuary Institute's (SFEI) Volunteer Monitoring Protocols.

An additional component of the Watershed Assessment Program involved bacteria testing at sites where high levels of E. coli and fecal coliforms were detected in 1999. The testing was conducted over a period of five weeks, from October 31, 2001 through November 28, 2001 to determine whether there is any more bacteria contamination where the original sewer leak was discovered or further downstream. The bacteria tests were conducted at five sites, upstream of, at, and downstream of the site that was previously contaminated. Samples were taken to the Environmental Protection Agency's Region Nine Laboratory, in Richmond, and analyzed by staff members there. Five weeks of bacterial monitoring at five sites in the lower watershed indicated, unfortunately, that bacteria levels are well above acceptable levels. In its operating procedures, the EPA says that E. coli is a reliable indicator of fecal contamination because "these bacteria are produced only in the digestive tracts of warm-blooded animals and humans."

The EPA bases its Ambient Water Quality Criteria on Enterococci and E. coli. Acceptable levels of E. coli for all waters is 126 mg/L. With the exception of one site (which will be discussed separately), the lowest level on Sausal was 870 mg/L. Total coliform levels, which the State of California uses to set its Water Quality Objectives, were equally high. Where maximum acceptable levels are 10,000 parts per 100 milliliters; the Sausal sites (again, with one exception) ranged from 15,000 to 23,000.

Where we found an exception, we found another source of contamination. During the last three weeks of the study, samples from our second site, next to MacArthur Boulevard, showed abnormally low levels of bacteria (on one day, for example, E. coli levels measured 1). So the EPA ran tests for total residual chlorine and free chlorine on one week's samples, and the results suggested "a drinking water source disinfected with chloramine."

The FoSC have not yet taken action to address the issue of bacterial contamination. The continued findings of sewer leaks along the creek suggest that short of replacing the entire sewer line, starting in Dimond Park, there may not be that much that can be done. And while we have not hidden the results, we have not widely publicized them either. In the presentations the Unity Council youth made, the focus was on raising awareness of the creek and preventing litter and dumping.

We have, however, taken steps to repair the drinking water leak. In the spring of 2002, the FoSC called William Madison, Environmental Program Specialist with the City of Oakland's Environmental Services Division, who tested the site and confirmed the presence of drinking water in the creek. He found three sources-(1) a pipe just north of MacArthur Boulevard at 38th and Everett Streets, (2) groundwater, and (3) a pipe leading from Fruitvale Avenue to the culvert under MacArthur Boulevard.

The first site was repaired by the East Bay Municipal Utility District. The second leak cannot be repaired directly, as it originates in the groundwater (there is clearly a leak somewhere that is resurfacing here, but finding it would be like finding the proverbial needle in the haystack). The third site remains to be taken care of; in a phone conversation on July 25, 2002, Mr. Madison said that in order to resolve the problem, he needs to open manholes along MacArthur Boulevard to see where the flow is coming from, and to test the water to see if it is drinking water. The FoSC will continue to work with Mr. Madison to see that the problem is resolved.

The EPA ran one other test on the waters of Sausal Creek. The first week's samples were screened for diazinon, a pesticide that is often found in the Bay Area's creeks. Fortunately, the results were negative. Diazinon was not detected.
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Identify Sources of Pollution Entering Sausal Creek

The sources of pollution identified through the Lower Watershed Program were three

1. bacterial contamination,
2. drinking water contamination,
3. dumping.

In addition, the likelihood of pollution from urban runoff was observed throughout the lower watershed.
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Outreach to the community

March 20, 2002:

• YEA led a creek walk and a native willow planting activity with students enrolled in the Partners for Achieving School Success (PASS) learning center at the Cesar Chavez Library. Most of the elementary school students (ages 5 to 10 years old) participating in the PASS program at Cesar Chavez are residents in the Sausal Creek watershed.
  

Even though it was a wet and dreary day, the PASS students were eager and excited to visit the creek. They walked three blocks from the library to an exposed section of Sausal Creek on East 22nd Street. As they were walking, the children learned about storm drains and how anything that ends up in the storm drain can make its way down to Sausal Creek. They stopped and looked to see if there was any pollution in the drains. They found some oil and grime, but little trash.

At the East 22nd Street site, YEA students shared with the PASS children their thoughts and experiences about studying and monitoring Sausal Creek. The PASS children also learned what a watershed is; what the creek was like when the Ohlone lived here; how Sausal Creek has undergone drastic changes and what those changes are, including channelization and other structural changes such as creek walls and houses abutting the creek; native versus invasive plants, and ways people directly and indirectly harm the creek.


• YEA students made a slide show presentation at the Friends of Sausal Creek community meeting. The audience was mostly adults who work on creek restoration in the upper watershed. At this meeting YEA students shared information about their monitoring efforts and talked about the work they have done to spread awareness about creek protection in the lower watershed. The YEA also expressed their feelings about the accessibility discrepancies to pleasurable creek sites amongst people living in the upper and lower watershed neighborhoods.

April 13, 2002:

• Community presentation to elementary students who participated in Hawthorne Elementary School's community service. Hawthorne is located in the lower watershed, approximately a half-mile from the mouth of the creek. Service day activities included painting murals of Sausal Creek to be permanently mounted on the school grounds, picking up trash on campus, and other campus beautification efforts, including planting in the school garden. YEA students participated in the event by helping to pick up litter and performing a skit about good and bad habits that help or hurt Sausal Creek for Hawthorne students, family members, and friends (see the enclosed photo).

April 20, 2002:

• YEA contributed to City of Oakland Earth Day efforts by planting trees on Fruitvale Avenue sidewalks, while FOSC volunteers collected trash at the monitoring site at East 27th Street. The Lower Watershed Program coordinator helped lead a neighborhood cleanup with elementary students from the Nicol Avenue neighborhood, also in the lower Sausal Creek watershed.

June 29, 2002:

• FoSC, YEA, and a Unity Council staff person conducted another cleanup, on East 17th and East 19th Streets. These were both dumping sites that had been identified during the creek assessments in October 2001. Residents were invited to participate, and in addition to collecting eighteen bags of trash, the youth handed out flyers along the street and explained to community members what we were doing and why.

Other forms of outreach that the FoSC used to promote the Lower Watershed Assessment and Outreach Program include running articles in the FoSC's newsletter and the MacArthur Metro.
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Participate in the Peralta Creek Restoration Project

As an extension of the Lower Watershed Assessment and Outreach Program the Friends of Sausal Creek, starting in August 2002, have collaborated with the Unity Council, Urban Creeks Council and the Environmental Services Division of the Public Works Agency of the City of Oakland on the Peralta Creek restoration project in the Fruitvale District of Oakland. The Y.E.A. students and the volunteers in the Friends of Fruitvale Parks and Open Spaces Alliance are the core volunteers in the planning, monitoring, revegetation and community outreach for this project.

The aim of our participation is to continue outreach amongst community members in the Sausal Creek's lower watershed on the condition of urban creeks and how to protect them and to further our parternership with the Unity Council.

The Peralta Creek Restoration will occur in Cesar Chavez Park the summer of 2003. Since August 2002, a FoSC representative has been attending the monthly planning meetings. We have also attended and helped advertise for the three public meetings, held on June 27, September 4 and December 4. During these meetings the Urban Creeks Council and the City of Oakland presented their designs for the restoration as well as receiving feedback from the community. In addition, at these meetings community members were encouraged to volunteer in the monthly field activities.

The FoSC also host the Peralta Creek Plant Propagation Group workdays at our native plant nursery in Joaquin Miller Park. We will donate the native plants needed for understory revegetation at the Peralta Creek project site in exchange for this volunteer labor. At the nursery we are educating community members about native plants, the habitats they live in and their lifecycles. In addition, by having community members propagate plants necessary for the restoration we are also encouraging stewardship of the restoration project after its completion.
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