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It’s BEC’s Birthday Bash!It’s that time of year again--the leaves are falling, the ducks are quacking as they head south in the increasingly early darkness...Nature is winding down and we are working hard, anticipating the winter holidays as a time to rest. Even in the midst of our busy Fall work, we need to celebrate our community and each other--so kick up your heels at Butte Environ-mental Council’s Birthday Bash and Silent Auction!The NEW date is Thursday, October 27th at 5:30; it runs until 9:00. The Birthday Bash will be at a NEW location this year--the Arc Pavilion at 2020 Park Ave. We will have a delicious catered dinner from Woody Guzetti, great live music by Dylan’s Dharma, Aubrey Debauchery & Mandalyn May, and a silent auction with all kinds of interesting & useful items from local businesses. What a painless way to get friends and family gifts for the holidays while supporting a worthy local non-profit! And get something special for yourself while you’re at it, because we’ve all been working hard.

Annie B’s Giving: Thank You!

The Annie B’s totals are in, and they reflect the continuing dedication and generosity

of our supporters.

Donations from members and the com- •munity totaled $3,403.49The additional money from Annie B’s/ •North Valley Community Foundation was 8%, or $272.28For a grand total of $3675.77 •

WOW! Thank you Annie B’s, and all of you who leveraged your donations this way.

A special thank you to our Angels and members who gave through Annie B’s. Your creativity and

desire to help locally are truly wonderful!

Dear BEC Members, We want to thank all of our BEC members and an-gels for their generous donations and contribution to the progression of our organization. With members like you, we are able to provide Butte and surrounding counties educational information regarding the environment and social responsibility, while protecting our earth’s natural resources and educating the public on the importance of sustainable living. We have had an outstanding year so far with a success-

ful Endangered Species Faire, the Park & Creeks Cleanup, continuation of our California Wellness Foundation grant work on alternatives to toxics and numerous tabling op-portunities passing out informative literature. We also had closure on our three-year long legal battle with the State of California over the need for environmental reviews when proposing water transfers under the State’s Drought Water Bank (DWB). This summer, the parties were able to agree on final settlement terms following our court victory last spring. We currently have two Chico State interns, Alex & Sarah, who have been wonderful additions to the BEC team. We look forward to celebrating our successes with you at the 36th Birthday Bash to be held Thursday October 27, 2011. Please join us! We’d like to express how much BEC appreciates all those who have been a part of our success. We could not do it without the continued support from all the wonderful, caring people in our community. Thanks for lending your voice to the voiceless: our precious environment.

October/November 2011

Butte Environmental Council116 W. Second St., Suite 3Chico, CA 95928(530) 891-6424

ADDRESS SERVICE REQUESTED

Non ProfitOrganization

U.S. Postage PAIDPermit No. 118

Chico, CA 95928

Join the BEC Angels

The earth gives us so much.Help us give back.

• BEC’s Angels are the lifeblood of our organization! Angels are members that replace their annual donations

with monthly or quarterly contributions.

• Every single Angel donation allows us to spendmore time leading the effort to protect our region’s

wildlands by insisting on sustainable planning and forestry practices, urban growth

boundaries, surface and ground water protection, increased public transportation, and clean air and water.

Our earth is still threatened and fragile.

Please become an Angel to the land that is our home and our children’s future.

BEC Birthday BASHThursday, October 27th

5:30 - 9:00pmARC Pavilion

(2020 Park Ave Chico, CA)

$25

Individual $45Couple

36CELEBRATING

Y E A R SO F SERVICE

Butte Environmental Council116 W 2nd St, Ste 3, Chico, CA 95928

(530) 891-6424 www.becnet.org Office Hours: M, T, Th 10:00-5:00 & W 10:00 to 3:30

2011 Park & Creeks Cleanup BEC’s annual cleanup fell on a beautiful day this year. Two hundred and seventy-two volunteers turned out and to-gether we pulled over 2 ½ tons of garbage and recycling out of the creeks! Of the total 5,332 pounds of material that we picked up from the park and creeks, 3,400 of it was trash; 1,394 pounds was recyclables (cardboard, glass, plastic, etc.), and 538 pounds was scrap metal. To leave this garbage in the creek when the rains start can seriously impact the riparian environment, especially when hazard-ous materials like spray paint or car care products are left in the creeks—yes, we found all that stuff, and more.

We would like to thank some key people who worked hard alongside us to make the Cleanup a success; Mark Gailey, Ken McDonald and the CCCs, Casey Courtney, OJ and Gene Anna MacMillan, and the City of Chico staff, to name but a few. A huge and special thank-you to Wakefield&Sons (and Daughter!) Glass, for taking a leap of faith and letting us use their parking lot for our South Side staging lo-cation. Check out their website www.wakefieldglass.comand see WIllard and Milton’s original store, circa 1936!

From the Board By Mark Stemen, Board Chairman

While BEC has long been engaged in struggles to protect the land air and water, this summer saw BEC struggle as an organization when declining revenue forced the Board to lay off two valuable directors. Adversity can bring forth new strength, and our members responded to the challenge this past election. For the first time in a long while, BEC has a full, nine-member Board of Directors. Joining John Scott, Crystal Durham and Mark Stemen (Chair), are new board members Amanda Freeman, Carolyn Scott (Secretary), Dave Garcia, Grace Marvin, and Michael McGinnis (Trea-surer). Working together, the new BOD hopes to quickly address the leadership vacuum.

Members have asked how else they can help. We strongly encourage anyone interested in a partic-ular issue or with fundraising to join the advocacy or development committee. The committees meet once a month. Contact the BEC office for times and dates of the meetings.

Nou Vang, a BEC volunteer and student at CSU Chico, tabled with Wellness staff at the Hmong New Year on October 1st. It was the second year that BEC has had a table at the New Year Celebration and it is awesome!

We are always looking for new ways to engage and serve more of our community, as well as strengthen our current connections. If you’re interested in finding out more about our Wellness workshops, call the office at 891-6424 or email staff@becprotects.org; put “Well-ness” in the subject line.

Bidwell Park & Chico Creeks Cleanup

Total Garbage & Recyclables Picked Up on September 17th, 2011

Trash: 3,400 lbs.Scrap Metal: 538 lbs.

Glass: ~ 780 poundsAluminum: 36 poundsCardboard: ~ 350 pounds

Mixed Plastic: 95 poundsTin & other small

metal:150 pounds

Total Debris 2.6 Tons!

Now Accepting E-Waste for Recycling!

BEC has been active during the County’s process of updating its Surface Mining and Reclamation Or-dinance. Butte County currently has 22 permitted mines, 4 metal ore and 18 aggregate mines – 16 of the later process historic dredger tailings. The small-est operation is approximately 3 acres in size and the largest disturbs an area of approximately 122 acres. Companies based outside the county operate twelve of the mines. Many of us are familiar with the recent New Era Mine debacle, due to the negligent vote of approval by two of our current Supervisors. Many of us have forgotten or never knew about the problems at Carr Mine near Philbrook Lake in the 70’s and 80’s; the minewasfinallyclosedinthemid90’sduetoenviron-mental concerns that were not mitigated or abated. To ourknowledge,theCountyhasnevercollectedafinefrom mine operators who have broken many of the laws pursuant to the State Surface Mining and Recla-mation Act (SMARA) or who have committed acts that result in environmental degradation. At the end of September, the County approved a Negative Declaration (Neg Dec) for the ordinance update initial study performed under CEQA. The Neg Dec asserts that no physical activities are associated with the update that could result in a direct or indi-

rect impact on the environment. The ordinance itself went back to Staff for further revisions. BEC hopes toseeearlynotificationofallentities inawatershedthat may potentially be impacted by a mining opera-tion; open and transparent procedures surrounding all mining operations throughout the life of a permit; bet-ter cost estimates for reclamation bonds; and stronger enforcement against operators who break any law or regulation pursuant to SMARA and the County ordi-nance. The County’s Department of Development Ser-vices has done a commendable job during this effort, listening and responding to comments and input from BEC as well as concerned citizens.

185 Humboldt Ave, Chico

AdvocacyWellness

Dioxin Testing Reveals Wide Range

By Mary Muchowski, BEC StaffPreliminary results indicate that dioxin levels are still high in some areas of south Oroville 24 years after the large fire at the Koppers Wood Treatment Facility. The Environmental Health Investigations Branch (EHIB) of the California Department of Public Health (CDPH) conducted dioxin tests on backyard chicken eggs in 1988 and 1994, triggering an advisory against eating eggs from free-range chickens in the south Oroville area. The Butte Environmental Council (BEC) initiated the testing of back-yard chicken eggs funded by a grant from The California Wellness Foundation after learning that the CDPH did not intend to conduct any follow-up testing. Although the geometric mean of dioxin levels has gone down from 2.2 ppt (parts per trillion) after the 1988/1994 tests to 0.616 ppt (2005 WHO TEQ) in July 2011, the range was between 0.004 ppt and 14.7 ppt (compared to 0.62 ppt to 18 ppt in the earlier testing). There is no set limit for the amount of dioxin allowed in chicken eggs; but the United States government has pulled commercial eggs off of the shelves at 1.0 ppt and the European Union has set the maximum allowable level at 0.33 ppt. This first round of testing conducted by BEC was a small sample size of only seven tests from 6 sites within a 1.25 mile buffer of the Koppers Superfund Site.

With the wide range of dioxin levels, we plan to test within a larger buffer distance from Koppers. The next round of testing may include some soil tests as well as more chicken egg tests. The prohibitive cost of testing eggs and soil for dioxins (which includes 17 different compounds) limits the amount of tests we can afford, so we will be weighing several dif-ferent options, hoping to increase our knowledge with the limited funds we have left. We have been in contact with EHIB and one of their scientists who conducted the first two studies, and we will be consulting with them before we de-cide what our next steps will be. We will keep our members updated as we proceed.

Shamo Chickens in South Oroville

Don’t Get Depressed - Get Active!Together we can have a bigger impact. Join BEC’s Advocacy Committee and learn how to help us create sustainable community that will protect our environment. Don’t have time for meetings? Join BEC’s Action Alerts -- send us your email address and ask to be added.

Call us at 891-6424 or email us at staff@becprotects.org;

put “Action Alerts” in the subject line.

of Contamination