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Common Trona bird: An exhausted Common Loon encrusted in 10 pounds of salt was captured at a Trona, CA chemical plant's lake. With warm water the salt dissolves and the bird can be treated and released. (IBRRC photo) |
By Jay Holcomb
IBRRC Executive Director
Following journalist Susan Sward’s recent two-part series in the San Francisco Chronicle about worker's health concerns at a Trona, CA chemical plant and the on-site bird deaths, I want to provide some background on IBRRC’s involvement in this important bird rescue project.
I'm happy that more information is finally coming out about the impact to migrating birds that land in the remote and expansive wastewater lakes at Searles Valley Minerals. Since 1999, IBRRC has worked with IMC Chemicals, now Searles Valley Minerals, to help reduce the impact of the plant’s effects on birds that mistakenly land in area lakes.
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Cleaned of 10 pounds of salt, this Common Loon can be returned to the wild. (IBRRC photo) |
It has been rewarding but difficult, discouraging and extremely sad work for all those that have worked on the project. Our reasons for taking on this project were three fold:
First, I wanted to have IBRRC provide expert care for these birds and prove that they could be rehabilitated.
Secondly, it was my reasoning that if we maintained a presence at the site and documented everything about the area’s affect on birds, it could eventually lead to reasonable outcome and correct the chemical plant’s open lakes on the birds.
Thirdly, I wanted it to be known that IBRRC believes these animals are valuable and, although seemingly unimportant to many, are deserving of attention and care. It is the “attitude” behind their demise and the acceptance of the situation out there that I and IBRRC have been at war with. Although this project taxed IBRRC’s time and its staff greatly, we knew that it is only when we “show up” and demonstrate our commitment on a daily basis that things would eventually change.
To be honest, we were laughed at, sabotaged and even threatened in the early days of our involvement with IMC Chemicals. But that eventually gave way to reasonable work relationships with the employees of IMC Chemicals. The credit for much of this is due to the work of Mark Russell, IBRRC’s Trona Project Manager, who worked with IMC Chemicals to make sure that all the plant staff knew our goals and purpose for being involved.
IBRRC has never been in agreement with the “level of take” that California State Fish & Game has allowed the company to have when it came to these birds. We have always believed that this property can be managed in a way that will discourage birds from landing on the water by changing the shape and look of the lakes and doing some other adjustments. When we discussed this with IMC Chemical personnel early on they all told me it was too expensive and was out of the question.
To me the problem lies in that statement. “It’s too expensive” to change the way they are doing business so therefore it is acceptable to kill birds at a level that we all know is higher – more than 4,000 by our counts – than we have been able to document . That is the “attitude” that needs to be changed and although we are understanding and sensitive to the costs of doing business, it is just unacceptable to allow a large number of wild birds to die due to our human practices – especially when there is something that can be done about it.
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Deadly water beckons: Searles Lake at Trona, CA is attractive to migrating birds. (IBRRC photo) |
Background: IBRRC’s Trona Bird Rehabilitation Project
The town of Trona is located near Death Valley National Park about 24 miles east of Ridgecrest, CA and 170 miles north of Los Angeles. It’s in the southern part of the Owens Valley, south of Mono Lake and Owens Lake and north of the Salton Sea. Millions of birds use the Owens Valley and the surrounding lakes in the area during migration seasons and at all other times of the year.
Searles Valley Minerals uses a once dry pre-historic lake bed on their property as an evaporation lake to harvest chemicals such as borax and salt. The company pumps 20 million gallons of fresh water a day into the lake to evaporate or percolate back into the ground. There are actually 2 lakes and many smaller ponds on the property. The largest lake is called Searles Lake. Searles Lake has a surface area of approximately 3 square miles and the other smaller adjacent lake called the Perk Pond is about 2 miles of surface area. Both of these lakes attract migratory and local birds and have become death traps for thousands of the birds attempting to use them to feed and rest in.
The unnecessary impact on the wild bird population was discovered by IBRRC and our state partner in oil spill response, the Oiled Wildlife Care Network (OWCN), when the plant leaked oil into its perk pond that contaminated about 30 birds. We were activated and on the site as part of the OWCN. We were advised that some of the oiled birds that had already been captured were being held at a local veterinary hospital in Ridgecrest. We immediately discovered that there were also dozens of other birds, coots, red head ducks and grebes that were being held at the clinic but were receiving only minimal care as the clinic staff was busy with paying clients. Upon further investigation and questioning, we discovered that these non-oiled birds were brought to the clinic throughout the year and suffered what seemed to be salt ingestion, massive dehydration and feather contamination.
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Mummified duck: One of the many mummified animals IBRRC staff found along the shores of Searles Lake used by a Trona chemical plant in a remote region near Death Valley National Park. (IBRRC photo) |
More investigation by staff from IBRRC and OWCN unearthed many more dead birds and skeletons along the shores of the plant’s lakes. Our constant questioning exposed bizarre stories from IMC Chemicals staff about birds dying in great numbers since at least the 1950s. Some of the plant staff also explained that they would often take bird’s home to “rinse off” and then turn them loose. One older woman at one of the guard shack’s told us that she had been taking bird’s home for over 50 years and trying to help them.
This situation was immediately reported to California Fish and Game who then required the company to reduce the number of impacted birds by developing and maintaining an aggressive hazing program and to provide resources to care for birds that were impacted and required rehabilitation. This included Zon guns that used a noisy propane charge to scare birds away from landing in the lakes.
Soon IMC Chemicals contracted with IBRRC to assist in hazing and overseeing capture and rehabilitation of impacted birds. Our staff worked to capture birds that were unable to leave the site and successfully rehabilitate them back to the wild. We recorded the location, time found, and condition of birds. We also stabilize all live birds according to established care protocols for the Trona project. We coordinate their transport to one of IBRRC’s rehabilitation facilities to complete the rehabilitation process. Birds were driven to our Fairfield or San Pedro bird centers, depending on the patient load of each center.
Additionally we documented and also collected all dead birds found on-site. We found many mummified birds, dogs and other animals. It is our job to maintain chain of custody for all live birds, dead birds and any samples collected for Fish & Game authorities. We also kept daily reports of all bird observations. This was all reported to IMC Chemicals and the state Fish & Game. We also provided monthly reports detailing all daily activity and any updates in bird care or on site bird usage of certain areas.
Why do the birds insist on landing in Trona?
Many water birds using the pacific flyway during migration may fly near the site and land on one of the lakes in Trona as a resting and feeding stop before resuming their journey. Millions of birds use the Owens Valley and Mono Basin as migratory stopovers. Most water birds migrate during the night and try to find suitable places to rest during the day. From above, the shimmering ponds probably look like normal lakes that may provide food and shelter. They are unable to assess all of these things from the air and once they have landed are reluctant to leave until the following evening as the lakes do provide safety from land predators. Migration patterns are subject to change from year to year depending on the weather, and some birds may be found moving around in non-migration times just looking for food and new habitat.
What happens to birds that land on Searles Lake?
Salt Toxicity
The extremely high salinity is 600 parts per thousand (ppt) at the Trona lakes compared to typical ocean water that is 35.5 ppt. The Great Salt Lake in Utah is 100-280 ppt. The high saline affects birds in two different ways:
First, the heat and high evaporation make the lake very warm and very saline. Birds are attracted to the lake and when they land they begin to drink the water. They quickly show severe signs of dehydration and eventually succumb to the effects of the salt. On the hottest day during the summer they dehydrate and start wandering around the area deliriously only to be fed on by coyotes and ravens.
During the winter a second scenario comes into play when the temperatures get below a certain level, the salt quickly builds up on their feathers weighing them down and often drowning the birds. During one Thanksgiving week, IBRRC staff rescued 6 white pelicans that had flown into the lakes and their feathers had become so encrusted with a salty covering they couldn’t flap their wings.
Heat Stress
During the hot summer months the lack of vegetation or any other shade combined with the extreme heat produces extremely high air and water temperatures. Heat stress has been observed in many of the birds on site. Birds are regularly seen shaking their heads when they attempt to drink water, a possible sign of heat stress or perhaps a reaction to high salinity. Very warm water may be the reason that birds are sometimes observed standing along the shoreline in shallow water holding most of their bodies out of the water. There is no access to fresh water anywhere on site.
Birds that are captured alive typically exhibit signs of heat stress during the summer months and are extremely dehydrated. Birds will often have sunken eyes, mucousy tacky mouths and very wrinkly skin, with poor blood circulation. The birds are often seen panting or their breathing may be labored. The birds also seem to have difficulty regulating body temperature, which is often below or above normal parameters.
If the birds become stable following emergency treatment many of these symptoms disappear within 24 hours and the birds slowly return to normal. Birds have been observed having seizures within the first day of care and all of those birds die while seizing. Birds observed seizing for these reasons are euthanized (put to sleep).
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Encrusted: Saved from certain death at Searles Lake, this Bufflehead duck was encased in a crystallized salt at Searles Valley Minerals. (IBRRC photo) |
Salt Encrustation!
Birds that are captured in winter also show signs of dehydration but not heat stress. They are not usually seen with labored breathing nor do they seizure. These birds are generally encrusted with large quantities of salt that limits their ability to move. Many birds in the winter have sub-normal body temperatures from being weighted down in the water by salt build-up.
The weather conditions appear to play a role in the likely hood of receiving birds from the site. If large numbers of birds are observed during episodes of extremely hot weather or extremely cold weather we seem to collect more birds than during mild weather.
Once the birds have been stabilized their chances for successful rehabilitation are good. Some birds do come down with respiratory infections that are treated with antibiotics. Though many of these birds survive some do not recover from this condition and are euthanized.
Very few birds we encountered at the Trona site that are oil contaminated. The vast majority of birds only have salt residue on them and do not need to be washed. To date no birds transferred to Fairfield have needed to be washed.
Additionally, we do everything possible to release healthy birds as soon as they are strong and ready.
More information:
Ex-worker on crusade against chemical plant: San Francisco Chronicle
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