EMERGENCY ROOM FOR ERROR

The Sonoma West Medical Center did not open last week, despite what the new management team had hoped would happen—and despite our regrettable cover headline, “West County Hospital Opens.”

The hospital did not pass a state inspection Aug. 31, and there’s work to be done before it opens. The Bohemian regrets jumping the gun. It will open soon, we’re told: Stay tuned.

COFFEE KLATCH

Last month a viral video of a Rohnert Park police officer engaged in questionable policing protocols—he pulled his gun on a man who was in his front yard working on his boat—was met with an admirable moment of self-scrutiny by Friendly City elected officials who promised a full, independent investigation. That’s ongoing. In the meantime, the dust-up threw a planned “Coffee with a Cop” event at a local McDonalds into sharp relief. The event was rescheduled.

Now Santa Rosa is hosting its own Coffee with a Cop event later this month. The program is part of a national push by the U.S. Department of Justice, which has provided funding for the event.

The police force here is still grappling with fallout from the 2013 shooting of 13-year-old Andy Lopez and subsequent efforts to shape-up community oversight of the police and sheriff’s departmernts.

The Santa Rosa event will also take place at a McDonald’s—the one at 2642 Santa Rosa Ave.—on Sept. 27 at 8:30am. All are welcome.

From the press release issued Sept. 4: “The majority of contacts law enforcement has with the public happen during emergencies or emotional situations. Those situations are not always the most effective times for relationship building with the community and some community members may feel that officers are unapproachable on the street. Coffee with a Cop breaks down barriers and allows for a relaxed, one-on-one interaction.”

“There will be more Coffee with a Cop events coming to a neighborhood near you,” the release announces. We’re not sure where the next one will be but if it’s Sebastopol, residents might instead anticipate Kombucha with a Cop. It’s the thought that counts.

ALGAE RHYTHM

Oh, that scary story about algae in the Russian River, the deadly algae that killed poor Posie the dog when he injested some water and was poisoned by neurotoxins. Very sad.

We saw that story last week and thought the Labor Day weekend was shaping up as a possible Jaws moment. You know: One of the biggest tourist weekends of the year, and one where you don’t want to be scaring people away from your beaches. Chief Brody, get those damned “Beach Closed” signs out of here!

Out of an abundance of caution, Sonoma County issued a health advisory that said keep your dogs away—and keep your kids from inhaling the water. A report in the Monday Press Democrat noted that people were at first wary about heading to the river, but—everyone in the water! It’s hot.

The Bohemian got a glimpse of the algae Saturday when we headed over the Russian River to the Taste of Sonoma event at the MacMurray vineyard in Healdsburg. Good times. There we spotted Sonoma County Supervisor Efren Carrillo and asked him, with some degree of cheek, if he’d lead the way and be the first to jump into the river. He laughed and said no.

Every summer, recreational oyster and shellfish harvesters brace themselves for the period from May through October when red tides prohibit recreational shellfish harvesting in coastal waters along the California coast.

“Red tides” (or “harmful algal blooms,” as scientists prefer to call them) occur when colonies of phytoplankton, a form of algae, begin to rapidly reproduce. The result: millions of cells per gallon of water. As the name implies, the bloom turns the water red because of a pigment present in each cell.

Phytoplankton is present in ocean waters throughout the year, but blooms occur only when ocean temperatures and salinity are favorable, usually May through October on the northern California coast.

But that may be changing.

The Pacific Ocean is a vast body of water whose relatively constant temperature moderates the climate and provides a stable habitat for marine life. But the coastal ocean in Marin and Sonoma counties is actually getting warmer.

The Bodega Ocean Observing Node at UC Davis’ Bodega Marine Laboratory in Sonoma County has been tracking ocean temperatures along our coast for decades. Ocean temperature at the lab in August 1988, as reported on its website, was 58.1 degrees. At the same location on Aug. 30 of this year, the temperature was 61.8 degrees.

A 3.7 degree gain is significant and troubling. In warmer waters, algal blooms will begin sooner and last longer, and with this longer growing season, they may begin to produce biochemicals not previously seen.

Dinoflagellates, a type of single-celled phytoplankton, produce a biotoxin called saxotoxin, which has been the primary concern during red-tide season. Saxotoxin accumulates in filter feeders such as mussels and oysters. Paralytic shellfish poisoning (PSP), which can be fatal to humans and marine life, is caused by the ingestion of saxotoxin.

According to the Alaska Division of Public Health, saxotoxin is 1,000 times more potent than cyanide. And PSP toxins are not destroyed by heating or freezing, so cooking contaminated shellfish does not make it safe to eat.

The California Department of Public Health (CDPH) ensures that, with thorough and regular testing, all commercially available oysters and other shellfish are safe for human consumption year-round. But recreationally harvested oysters and shellfish can be very high-risk.

Historically, PSP was the problem during red tide season. But in 1998, the Marine Mammal Center in Marin County diagnosed the first case of domoic acid poisoning in marine mammals. Domoic acid is a biotoxin produced by diatoms, another type of single-celled algae which blooms as seawater warms. Domoic acid causes amnesic shellfish poisoning as it accumulates in shellfish, sardines and anchovies, which may then be eaten by larger marine mammals.

On Aug. 26, the CDPH issued a warning to consumers in Humboldt and Del Norte counties to avoid eating bivalve shellfish because of dangerous levels of domoic acid. That warning was already in place in Santa Cruz, Monterey and Santa Barbara counties. According to John Largier, professor of coastal oceanography at the Bodega Marine Lab, the same warning may be issued for Marin and Sonoma counties in the next month.

“The Mendocino, Sonoma and Marin county coastal waters will become warmer in the next few weeks to a month as our cool ocean upwelling system weakens” says Largier, “and it is very likely that the diatoms will then begin to bloom and the same warning will be issued here as well.”

There may also be a third biotoxin, not previously present in significant concentrations on the north coast. “Okadaic acid, which causes diarrhetic shellfish poisoning, may become a problem as our coastal waters continue warming and we begin to see more temperature gradient stratification,” says Raphael Kudela, professor of ocean studies at UC Santa Cruz. Produced by several species of dinoflagellates, okadaic acid also accumulates in shellfish.

It’s possible red tides could last all year on the North Coast, and that could mean trouble for local shellfish lovers. Will there be a recreational shellfish harvest in Marin and Sonoma in 10 or 20 years?

The commercial oyster industry in Tomales Bay is already grappling with problems caused by ocean acidification. How will the industry cope with higher temperatures and the presence of multiple biotoxins in the coastal ocean environment?

As climatologist Nick Bond put it, “This may be a dress rehearsal for climate change.”