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waste and are toxic to fish, wildlife and humans. Rain water reacts with sulfur in the exposed ore to create sulfuric acid. Acidic mine drainage can be as caustic as battery acid, and leaches the metals into streams - causing conditions toxic to fish in hundreds of foothill streams. Researchers also are concerned about the sublethal concentrations of metals - which are thought to suppress fish reproduction and induce disease - and for the potential for metals trapped in stream sediments to periodically repollute rivers for decades to come. Timber har\'est.'i have been lOll!!, recognized as a SO/liTe of serious water quality problems in 1n0011llainOliS parts of the slate. These difficult chemical and biological problems are compounded by political and economic ones. With many of the mines abandoned by owners who are now dead or bankrupt, clean up costs - often in the tens of millions of dollars - fall to the taxpayers. And after some controversial efforts to clean up abandoned sites, some officials are leery of accepting the liability that results from taking any actions. One of the best known cases is that of Penn Mine on the Mokelumne River. Efforts by East Bay Municipal Utility District (EBMUD) and the Central Valley Regional Water Quality Control Board to control the waste with a series of ponds were challenged by a citizen suit. The federal court found that both agencies violated the CWA because it created a point source discharge for which they did not have a permit. The court required them to comply with an EPA order that will significantly curtail the pollution. EBMUD and Regional Board officials say they removed over 98 percent of the metal discharge at the mine, and that their loss in court illustrates the need to amend the CWA. 10 TIMBER HARVESTS Timber harvests have been long recognized as a major source of serious water quality problems in mountainous parts of the state. Forested areas usually are steep, the soil is loose, the disturbances to the watershed by timber operations can be significant, and rainfall is abundant. Sediment washed into rivers can cover the spawn- ing gravel of salmon and trout, smother stream- bottom organisms and load the water with nutrients and organic debris. Algae grow and the debris rots, depleting the oxygen in the water needed by fish and other organisms. In some ravines and earlier times, so much debris was washed into streams that pools were filled and the passage of migrating fish blocked. The water quality problems created by timber operations have contributed to economic problems for fishery-dependent communities downstream, particularly in the northwest corner of the state. As a result, water quality officials have developed a multi-disciplinary approach to controlling timber operations - calling on fish biologists, hydrologists, geologists and foresters to craft timber harvest plans intended to reduce environmental damage. Despite these improvements, in many places the damage has been done and it is costly to undo. It takes time for forests and streams to recover. URBAN RUNOFF Urban development extensively changes the volume and pace of runoff, as well as exposing runoff to a wide variety of pollutants. And because the state continues to grow rapidly, the problems created by urban runoff are expected to increase if recently implemented programs are not effective. Motor vehicles - and the streets, parking lots and highways they travel on - are perhaps the biggest sources of urban pollution. Oil drips from engines or is iltegally dumped into drains. According to the Worldwatch Institute, nearly halt of all of the oil that pollutes the oceans comes from automobiles and heavy machinery. The grinding of engine parts and brake linings yields tiny pieces of heavy metals, such as copper. The rubber from tires adds to the road dust that researchers suspect to be foxic to fish and wildlife.