CURRENT DIGEST
OF LOCAL ENVIRONMENTAL NEWS
Aug 25-31, 2008
Click on a story title below and you will be linked to the original story at the newspaper's web site. Note: Occasionally a story becomes unavailable online after the original publication date.
- Toll road hearing speakers must apply ahead
Monday, Aug 25, 2008, Orange County Register, by Pat Brennan
Federal officials will hold a public hearing, on the proposed Foothill South toll road Sept. 22 at the Del Mar Fairgrounds , although people wishing to speak must submit a written request 10 days earlier to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.
The 16-mile Foothill South, a proposed extension of the 241 toll road, would cut through San Onofre State Beach park and across wild land in southern Orange County. Toll road builders say it is the last link in the county's network of toll roads, and is needed to relieve future traffic congestion. Opponents, including environmental groups, say the road would take too great a toll on wildlife and natural habitat and shatter the atmosphere of a popular campground.
After a marathon public hearing in February that drew thousands the state Coastal Commission rejected the project, saying it would violate the state Coastal Act. But the toll road agency appealed the commission's ruling under the federal Coastal Zone Management Act. The decision now rests with the U.S. Secretary of Commerce, and the hearing will be held by NOAA, a branch of Commerce. If the secretary finds that the road is in the national interest or needed for national security, it can override the state commission's decision.
The agency won't accept requests by email, fax or phone. And not all requests will be granted. The agency will sort through them to choose a representative sampling of different viewpoints. Written comments can be dropped off at the hearing itself. Written comments also can be submitted to the agency between Aug. 27 and Oct. 2. - Land trust
Monday, Aug 25, 2008, Los Ångeles Time, by Jack Eidt, Director of Planning, Wild Heritage Planners, Anaheim
LETTER5 TO THE EDITOR – Re "O.C. gives 1,200 acres to trust backed by developer," Aug. 20. A developer claims to preserve an ecological gem in exchange for construction of suburban sprawl. Later, a public-private toll road agency proposes to plow a toll road through it to access the developer's condos and mini-malls. Then, county supervisors, who also sit on the toll road board, cede the land back to the developer for their convenience, allowing for no public input or oversight. Future generations get polluted streams and despoiled hillsides, and they can kiss educational nature programs goodbye.
I suggest an alternative universe in which the Orange County supervisors and Rancho Mission Viejo conservators agree to preserve the 1,200-acre conservancy and its public educational component, or replace its priceless habitat in kind, with complete public oversight. Open space given to the citizens of Orange County should be preserved in perpetuity, period. - Increase alternative transit options
Monday, Aug 25, 2008, Los Angeles Times, By Peggy Delach, a Covina City Councilwoman and president of the Foothill Transit board.
OPINIONS – Public transportation has entered into an exciting time - demand has never been higher for transportation alternatives that save money and the environment. But just as the demand is skyrocketing, our ability to provide and expand upon those services is severely threatened by the proposed state budget cuts.
Current proposals from Sacramento divert $1.4 billion away from the Public Transportation Account this year. That's money for establishing new routes, building or improving park and rides, and purchasing newer, more fuel efficient buses. To take this money at this time flies in the face of the will of the people. Instead of being able to provide transit service to adequately support our communities, we'll be lucky to maintain current service levels and may even be forced to eventually cut service. - Forest Service diverts money to pay for wildfires
Monday, Aug 25, 2008, Orange County Register, by Matt Gouras, Associated Press Writer
HELENA, Mont. (AP) – The cost of fighting large fires in California and elsewhere is forcing the U.S. Forest Service to divert hundreds of millions of dollars set aside for work including roads, trails, recreational improvements - even fire prevention. In a memo this month to regional foresters, Forest Service Chief Abigail Kimbell said spending on fires could reach $1.6 billion this year, about half the agency's budget. The agency started transferring money in the middle of August and expects to take a total of $400 million from other areas through the rest of the fiscal year, which ends Sept. 30. Money will be coming from restoration projects, building maintenance, land acquisition plans, research and other areas. In South Dakota, the Forest Service has closed a visitor center in the Black Hills National Forest early to save money.
U.S. Sen. Max Baucus, chairman of the Senate Finance Committee, said he was not pleased to hear of the cuts and is pushing for a special account to pay for firefighting costs. Chris Mehl of The Wilderness Society said he likes the idea of Congress setting up separate budgets - one for fires and one for normal Forest Service operations. - Artificial turf saves water, but is it safe?
Tuesday, Aug 26, 2008, Orange County Register, by Melanie Hicken
Dana Point resident Marnie Brow and her husband loved the idea of the synthetic turf their new home's former owner had blanketed the back yard with. But after several months of headaches caused by the "tire smell" from the turf's crumb rubber fill, they decided the fake grass had to go. Along with the smell, they hated that the turf often became sweltering to the touch. Such issues will be discussed as the Garden Grove City Council – as well as other cities in the county – start to consider allowing the use of the fake grass.
While synthetic turf continues to grow in popularity, covering sporting fields and residential yards, the debate over its safety and environmental effects is getting louder. Experts are concerned about the possible environmental side effects these artificial lawns may bring – lead levels, high temperatures, chemicals released by the crumb rubber infill used in some turf and a possible increased spread of certain types of bacterial infection. - Solar tax break has a tinge of irony
Tuesday, Aug 26, 2008, Long Beach Press Telegram, By Dan Walters, The Sacramento Bee
OPINIONS – Assemblyman Mark Leno, D-San Francisco, is carrying legislation that would extend a potentially huge property tax exemption for solar power installations on the rationale that without it, energy companies would build vast new solar panel farms in Arizona or Nevada, rather than in the California desert. Leno's bill, which won final legislative approval Monday on a 66-2 Assembly vote, is drawing opposition from poverty-stricken Imperial County, which says it stands to lose tens of millions of dollars in property taxes from pending solar projects.
There are as many as 10 such projects in various stages of development in Imperial County, with investment estimates ranging up to $5 billion. "We would like to be able to embrace your legislation, but we are not able to support a complete and total exemption from property taxes of this magnitude that will create corresponding new demands for services from the county and our schools," county supervisors told Leno in a letter about Assembly Bill 1451.
Actually, the disputed tax break in Leno's bill is not a new one. It's been in effect for many years but is scheduled to "sunset" next year. Except for a couple of large-scale projects, however, solar power has been pretty much restricted to rooftop installations for homes and business, and the tax break has amounted to just a few million dollars. That would change, however, if dozens of large-scale projects now being proposed are built, driven by high fuel prices, concerns about global warming and requirements on utilities to make renewable energy a larger portion of their supply portfolios. - Utility fees sought for environmental research center
Tuesday, Aug 26, 2008, Los Angeles Times, By Marc Lifsher, Los Angeles Times Staff Writer
SACRAMENTO – Lawmakers Monday unveiled a bill mandating new fees from electricity ratepayers to fund a University of California-run global warming research center. The surcharge, amounting to $37 million a year for up to a decade, would be paid by customers of regulated utilities such as Southern California Edison Co. and publicly owned ones, including the Los Angeles Department of Water and Power. The fees would partially fund an $87-million-a-year Climate Change Research and Workforce Development Institute, whose location has yet to be decided. If it becomes law, the bill would add an average of 10 cents a month to electricity bills statewide, backers said.
The bill is backed by the University of California, the California State University system and the University of Southern California, which could benefit from sharing nearly $900 million in research grants in the first 10 years. The institute is expected to focus its academic work on four areas, with the aim of bolstering California's drive to reduce greenhouse gas emissions 25% by 2025. Ratepayer advocates say they don't oppose the Perata bill. - Schwarzenegger says he'll sign rail ballot measure
Tuesday, Aug 26, 2008, Orange County Register, by Steve Lawrence, Associated Press Writer
SACRAMENTO (AP) – Backing off his pledge to sign no bills before lawmakers adopt a state budget, Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger has decided to approve legislation designed to strengthen wording of the high-speed rail measure on the Nov. 4 ballot. The Republican governor announced Aug. 6 that he would sign no bills sent to him before lawmakers approved an overdue budgetBut on Monday night, Schwarzenegger sent legislative leaders a letter urging them to immediately send him four bills so he could sign them in time to put them on the November ballot.
Besides the high-speed rail bill, he asked for passage of a $9.3 billion water bond and bills to implement his plans to increase state lottery revenue and create a special reserve fund as a way to avoid future budget deficits. The high-speed rail bill is the only one of the four that's anywhere close to going to the governor's desk. The 700-mile system is projected to cost $40 billion to complete. - South Los Angeles project at former garden site to get broader study first
Tuesday, Aug 26, 2008, Los Angeles Times, By David Zahniser, Los Angeles Times Staff Writer
The company that hopes to build a warehouse on a former 14-acre community garden has agreed to prepare an environmental impact report, delaying a decision on the project for at least a year, Los Angeles officials said Monday. Activists who have been hoping to stop the project -- sending city officials hundreds of e-mails in protest -- said Monday that they were ecstatic to receive more time to wage their fight.
The 14-acre garden was ripped up in 2006, just as Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa was trying to find a nonprofit group to buy the land. Since then, he has received nearly $1.3 million in contributions and pledges from Forever 21, the retail chain that hopes to occupy theproject. Forever 21 has given to such Villaraigosa initiatives as the U.S. Conference of Mayors, the election of three school board members and his effort to plant 1 million trees. Councilwoman Jan Perry, who supports the Forever 21 project, said the extended environmental review would not derail the proposal. - Hurricane recovery confronts low literacy rate
Tuesday, Aug 26, 2008, Orange County Register, by John Moreno Gonzales, Associated Press Writer
NEW ORLEANS (AP) – Three years after Katrina, residents of New Orleans are still buried in a blizzard of government paperwork. But for thousands of storm victims seeking federal aid, the challenge is made more difficult by a little-known obstacle: More than 40 percent of the city's adults lack the literacy skills to comprehend basic government forms. And recovery programs have done little to ease the burden.
Rachel B. Nicolosi, program director for the Literacy Alliance of Greater New Orleans, estimates that as many as 100,000 people from New Orleans may have had assistance delayed, or they never applied for help at all, because they could not read the documents. Nicolosi and others have asked for government rebuilding agencies to write aid forms in a "plain language" format that is already used for some federal health and safety documents. But some government officials say too much plain language can leave out vital information.
The National Adult Literacy Survey indicates that 25 percent of U.S. adults read at the lowest functional level, meaning, for example, that they can locate an expiration date on a driver's license but cannot fill out most motor-vehicle forms. - Bush proposes protections for Pacific islands, atolls and reefs
Tuesday, Aug 26, 2008, Los Angeles Times, By Kenneth R. Weiss, Los Angeles Times Staff Writer
President Bush on Monday signaled his intention to protect some of the Pacific Ocean's most remote and unspoiled islands, atolls and coral reefs from fishing and deep-sea mining. In a memo to three Cabinet secretaries, the president asked for a plan that would protect parts of the Mariana Trench, the deepest place on the planet, as well as waters around Rose Atoll in American Samoa and various islands and reefs in the central Pacific that are under U.S. jurisdiction. The proposal, expected to be finalized before Bush leaves office, could establish marine sanctuaries or national monuments extending as far as 200 miles from each island or emergent reef that breaks the surface of the water.
Two other candidates for increased protection –a stretch of deep-water corals off the coast of the Carolinas, Georgia and Florida and areas especially rich in marine life in the Gulf of Mexico – were knocked out of consideration because of opposition from the fishing and oil and gas industries. The proposed monuments in the Pacific are expected to also face resistance from commercial and recreational fishing interests. Joshua S. Reichert, managing director of the Pew Environment Group, cautioned that merely designating the areas as sanctuaries would not necessarily protect them from destructive fishing or mining. If Bush actually bans those things, he said, "it would be one of the most significant environmental achievements of any U.S. president." - Need O.C. waterfront land? Pay $26.5 million
Wednesday, Aug 27, 2008, Orange County Register
A potential building site for a hotel or for dozens of luxury homes has gone up for sale in Seal Beach. The 10.7-acre parcel at First Street and Marina Drive, which is listed for $26.5 million, is currently vacant. It's zoned for a 150-room hotel, although the lot is big enough for a 300-room hotel or for 65 to 80 luxury homes. It abuts the San Gabriel River, including the river bike path with access rights to the water. The property currently is owned by a group of investors, who bought it at auction in 2000 from the Los Angeles Department of Water and Power for about $5.5 million, - Battle begins over 1,375 coastal homes in Newport
Wednesday, Aug 27, 2008, Orange County Register, by Jeff Overley
The latest big fight – and perhaps one of the last big fights – over coastal open space in Orange County has officially begun. A developer has turned in plans outlining its vision for Banning Ranch, a 400-acre patch of gullies, degraded wetland and oil drilling fields with ocean views. The proposal calls for 1,375 homes, a small resort and a modest amount of retail. Environmentalists say the development would mar one of the few remaining plots of coastal terrain not already blanketed with homes or explicitly spared from development.
The developer, though, is making a powerful public-relations push in hopes of convincing locals that the property isn't all that special. Earlier this year, it mailed 35,000 fliers replete with images of corroded wells chugging away amid tall weeds. Forty miles of pipeline crisscross the landscape, one part of an entrenched oil operation that will require a cleanup estimated at $30 million or more, the developer says. Company executives tout their concept as a compromise in that 65 percent of the site would be preserved as parks and natural open space, at no cost to the public.
Activists say that's misleading since more than half the property is off-limits to development anyway because of environmental restrictions. An in-depth study of the plan will take about a year. In the long run, it might be that a scaled back project similar to Bolsa Chica's Brightwater development or the Strand project at the Dana Point Headlands is what ultimately passes muster.. - Arctic sea ice drops to 2 nd lowest level on record
Wednesday, Aug 27, 2008, Long Beach Press Telegram, By Borenstein and Dan Joling, Associated Press
WASHINGTON - More ominous signs Wednesday have scientists saying that a global warming "tipping point" in the Arctic is happening before their eyes: Sea ice in the Arctic Ocean has melted to its second lowest level since satellite observations began.
The National Snow and Ice Data Center in Boulder, Colo., reported that the extent of sea ice in the Arctic is down to 2.03 million square miles. The lowest point since 1979 is 1.65 million square miles set last September. With about three weeks left in the Arctic summer, this year could wind up breaking the previous record, scientists said. Within a few years — "five to less than 10 years" — the Arctic could be free of sea ice in the summer, said NASA ice scientist Jay Zwally. Other scientists, including James Hansen, director of NASA's Goddard Institute of Space Studies in New York, agreed.
The melt in sea ice has kicked in another effect, long predicted, called "Arctic amplification," said center senior scientist Mark Serreze. That's when the warming up north is increased in a feedback mechanism and the effects spill southward starting in autumn, he said. Over the last few years, the bigger melt has meant more warm water that releases more heat into the air during fall cooling, making the atmosphere warmer than normal. - Santa Barbara County panel OKs offshore oil drilling
Wednesday, Aug 27, 2008, Los Angeles Times, By Maria L. La Ganga, Los Angeles Times Staff Writer
A divided Santa Barbara County Board of Supervisors voted Tuesday in support of offshore drilling. The supervisors agreed to send a letter to Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger urging him to change state policy and "allow expanded oil exploration and extraction" off the county's coast. Representatives of the liberal coast lost out to their more conservative inland colleagues in the symbolic action.
Santa Barbara's 1969 oil spill – in which more than 3 million gallons blackened beaches, killed wildlife and gave birth to the modern environmental movement – overshadowed the lengthy proceeding. The supervisors repeatedly prodded speakers about improvements in industry standards, technology and oversight, seeking assurances from oil industry representatives that history would not repeat itself. In the end, however, the supervisors' action Tuesday probably will have limited effect. The local body has no power to approve new offshore drilling. Schwarzenegger has already come out against it. - Whittier council takes first step toward drilling for oil
Thursday, Aug 28, 2008, Whittier Daily News, By Mike Sprague, Staff Writer
WHITTIER - The City Council took its first step Tuesday about drilling for oil in the hills when it approved the leasing documents and agreed to seek bids. City officials say they believe that it could be possible to drill in the hills without affecting wildlife and the open space. "We estimate the same 1,300 acres of oil deposits could be developed from approximately three surface sites of two to three acres each (less than 1 percent of the land)," stated David Pelser, director of Public Works, in a written staff report.
The proposed lease will require the successful bidder to pay $5,000 a month as a management fee to the Puente Hills Landfill Native Habitat Preservation Authority. That will increase to $7,000 monthly after drilling begins. The lease also requires payment of $100,000 annually as an habitat enhancement fee when drilling begins. Also included in the lease is a minimum bid for the royalties of 20 percent on the first $1.5 million in market price. That will increase by 1.5 percent for each increment of $250,000 up to 50 percent. - California bill attacks sprawl
Thursday, Aug 28, 2008, Los Angeles Times
EDITORIAL – Not only does urban sprawl put upward pressure on gasoline prices, it creates freeway gridlock, worsens air pollution and makes fighting global warming next to impossible. SB 375 from Sen. Darrell Steinberg (D-Sacramento), who last week was elected the next president pro tem of the state Senate, marks the first time any state has attempted to tie greenhouse gas reduction to transportation funding and regional land-use planning.
The bill would direct metropolitan planning organizations to meet targets set by state air regulators to reduce greenhouse gas emissions. To hit these targets, they would have to draw up transportation and land-use plans that encourage smart growth. The bill has been passed by both houses of the Legislature and now awaits a housekeeping vote in the Senate. Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger should sign it once it lands on his desk. - Utility towers protested in Santa Clarita
Thursday, Aug 28, 2008, Los Angeles Daily News, By Jerry Berrios, Staff Writer
SANTA CLARITA — From his home in the Belcaro senior housing development, Brian Smith can see the 200-foot-plus steel tower from his backyard, from inside his home and outside his garage. Smith is one of more than 100 seniors who are fighting with Southern California Edison to have the towers removed and replaced with smaller, less obtrusive poles. But it's a request Edison says it can't fill because the smaller tubular steel poles just aren't feasible in the area.
The project — called the Antelope-Pardee Transmission Line Project — will eventually transmit power generated by wind and solar projects from Tehachapi to the Inland Empire. Hunt Braly, an attorney for the Belcaro residents, says the California Public Utilities Commissions staff approved the towers with no peer review and no independent engineering study. - Forest Service sealing entrances to mine where 2 died
Thursday, Aug 28, 2008, Orange County Register, by Mark Eades
A mine in the Cleveland National Forest that was the site of two deaths in 2002 will have its entrances gated off. Two Orange County brothers lost their lives while exploring the abandoned Blue Light Mine, in Pine Canyon above Silverado Canyon in the Cleveland National Forest. The Forest Service announced this week it would gate off the remaining tunnel entrances into the mine. The project includes removing debris and contaminated soils associated with mining for high value metals such as silver. Three of the eleven tunnels were closed off eight months before the men died, but lack of funding prevented the Forest Service from closing the remaining entrances at the time. - Los Angeles Unified School District warehouse in Pico Rivera to be solar powered
Friday, Aug 29, 2008, San Gabriel Valley Tribune, By Airan Scruby, Staff Writer
PICO RIVERA - Los Angeles Unified School District leaders unveiled plans to go solar in a partnership with SunPower Corporation at the LAUSD Stores and Food Warehouse, a 400,000- square-foot building. About one megawatt of renewable solar power will be installed at the warehouse, enough to save the district about $1.3 million in energy costs over the next 20 years.
District officials said plans are in the works to take "going green" even further in the district, to schools slated for completion in the 2012-13 academic year. According to Chief Facilities Executive Guy Mehula, LAUSD is building those 132 new schools to "sustainable standards," and plans are in the works to eventually add solar panels not just to the warehouse, but to schools and administrative buildings as well. - Arroyo Seco project finished
Thursday, Aug 28, 2008, Pasadena Star News, By Dan Abendschein, Staff Writer
PASADENA - The city celebrated the completion of a $2.5 million project to restore the native environment of the Arroyo Seco stream on Wednesday. The project transformed a muddy, overgrown, garbage-strewn stretch of the arroyo into a clear-watered fish habitat with natural vegetation. The Arroyo Seco Foundation, which administered the project, introduced 300 native arroyo chub fish, and planted 240 native trees, including sycamores and oaks. They also removed 60 non-native trees. The short stretch of stream between the Rose Bowl and Brookside Park also has newly-stabilized trails for walkers and horseback riders.
Most of the Arroyo Seco was turned into a concrete channel in the 1930s, along with the other rivers in the Los Angeles area, because of flooding concerns. Areas above and below the newly restored stretch are still channelized.
The city of Pasadena has been a partner in the project, working to install garbage catchers in storm drains all over the city. That should eventually reduce garbage in the river by 90 percent, according to the foundation. The city has already completed a project in the Rose Bowl Aquatics Center parking lot that will catch oil run-off and filter it so it does not end up in the river. The foundation is in the midst of a study to see what other parts of the river could be restored to a natural habitat. - Orange County judge keeps storm-drain runoff standards in place for now
Friday, Aug 29, 2008, Los Angeles Times, By Jean Merl, Los Angeles Times Staff Writer
A judge ruled Thursday that water quality standards designed to protect the region's beaches from polluted storm-drain runoff will remain in place, at least for the time being. Orange County Superior Court Judge Thierry Patrick Colaw granted a request from a coalition of environmental groups that sought to keep the standards in place while the Los Angeles Regional Water Quality Control Board complied with the judge's order to review its runoff standards.
This summer, Colaw had ruled in favor of a consortium of local inland cities and a building industry association that had filed a lawsuit – against the state Water Resources Control Board and the local board – seeking to overturn the regulations. The local board said the ruling, which applied to most cities in Los Angeles and Ventura counties, left regulators without a major tool to deal with storm water runoff into the ocean. Builders could not get the necessary permits from the state board because the standards had been frozen.
The disputed standards were imposed to try to end bacterial contamination at local beaches, some of which are among the most polluted in the state. - Input sought on Monrovia Wilderness Preserve plan
Saturday, Aug 30, 2008, Pasadena Star News, By Nathan McIntire, Staff Writer
MONROVIA - The 30-day public comment phase has begun on a draft of a Resource Management Plan for the city's hillside Wilderness Preserve. The plan lays out the proposed management terms for the city-owned preserve, which sits on 1,366 acres of hillside and recreational land in the Monrovia foothills.
The preserve is bounded by the Angeles National Forest to the north, the Monrovia-Bradbury border to the east, hillside properties to the south and the Monrovia-Arcadia border to the west. A 40-acre, privately-owned property sits in the middle of preserve. The city made an offer to purchase the undeveloped plot but was rebuffed.
City Manager Scott Ochoa said fire safety, allowing more open access, educational uses and habitat restoration, including the removal of non-native species, are the four main goals set forth by the plan. The draft plan recommends four main access points to the preserve: both ends of Clamshell Motorway, an entrance on Highland Place and a passageway on Norumbega Drive. Several makeshift hiking trails already exist within the boundaries of the preserve. - Environmental report on proposed NFL stadium to be released
Saturday, Aug 30, 2008, Pasadena Star News, By Jennifer McLain, Staff Writer
INDUSTRY - Residents worried about gridlock from a proposed National Football League stadium will soon get a chance to look at cold, hard facts. A report analyzing the environmental impacts of an NFL stadium in Industry. will be released to the public Wednesday for a 45-day review period, officials said.
Billionaire developer and Majestic Realty Co. owner Ed Roski Jr. hopes to break ground next year on the $800 million stadium and retail complex on 600 acres of hills northwest of the 57 and 60 freeways. Roski hopes to bring an NFL team to play in the Rose Bowl in 2009 and 2010 and then move it to his new Los Angeles Stadium in 2011.
Some living near the site have worried that a stadium would cause more traffic at the already crowded freeway intersection. However, Majestic Realty Vice President John Semcken said the stadium project would cause less traffic than a larger commercial center approved by the City Council in 2004 but never built.
Industry is a city of fewer than 700 residents with a daytime population of 80,000 people. It is also home to Majestic Realty. The report will be available in all local public libraries, and in Industry's City Hall. - CSUN is leading the charge in mapping of the wetlands
Saturday, Aug 30, 2008, Los Angeles Daily News, By Connie Llanos, Staff Writer
PORT HUENEME - Just a century ago, this swath of coastal land was teeming with small creeks and streams, moist soil and dozens of animal species. But today, a large section of Ormond Beach's wetlands is more dry than wet.
The wetlands' poor condition only makes Shawna Dark, a geography professor at California State University, Northridge, and her students more determined to complete their mission. The group is working on CSUN's Southern California Wetlands Mapping Project, to produce the Southland's first comprehensive map of the rapidly disappearing marshy plots of land that Dark says are vital to the region's ecology. About two dozen inmates-turned-scientists from Mule Creek State Prison have partnered with the CSUN students, through the state's Prison Industry Authority, to input raw data collected from the field into the mapping system. Supported by California Proposition 50 funds, the CSUN project will map out small and large wetlands from Point Conception down to the San Diego/Mexico border.
Southern California has lost 95 percent of its wetland areas. Groups such as the California Coastal Commission and the Nature Conservancy, working with the CSUN group, have ramped up efforts to buy plots of wetlands in an effort to conserve and restore these areas over the past few decades. Francine Diamond, chairwoman of the L.A. Regional Water Quality Control Board, said that until now agencies have relied on outdated federal maps and databases of regional wetlands, making it difficult to determine how many wetlands actually exist and how the law is being enforced. - Sea turtles explore new, urban frontier
Saturday, Aug 30, 2008, Los Angele Times, By Louis Sahagun, Los Angeles Times Staff Writer
In the foamy chop of the warm-water discharge flowing into the San Gabriel River from a Long Beach power plant, a green sea turtle, wide as a manhole cover, materialized. A few minutes later, an even larger sea turtle surfaced in the murky water s. Green sea turtles usually have tropical haunts, but these chunky titans live more than a mile upstream in one of Southern California's most ecologically degraded rivers.
Little is known about the colony of at least six urban sea turtles. But a joint study by the National Marine Fisheries Service and the Aquarium of the Pacific aims to determine, among other things, what they're doing in there. Scientists also want to know how the federally endangered animals are adapting to the unique challenges they face in the 100-yard-wide river channel at the Los Angeles County-Orange County line, next to the Los Angeles Department of Water and Power's Haynes Generating Station.
A colony of sea turtles was discovered in the late 1970s near the warm-water discharge of a San Diego Gas & Electric Co. power plant in San Diego Bay The San Diego Bay colony includes at least 100 turtles, all of them permanent residents. Green sea turtles can grow to 5 feet long and weigh more than 500 pound. - L.A. River fish deaths under investigation
Saturday, Aug 30, 2008, Long Beach Press Telegram, By Paul Eakins, Staff Writer
LONG BEACH - About 1,000 fish died this week from unknown causes at the south end of the Los Angeles River in Long Beach.The dead fish were mostly carp and some smelt. Carol Singleton, spokeswoman for the California Department of Fish and Game, said, Fish often die in Los Angeles County waterways this time of year because of low water levels and vegetation decay, she said. "It could be a natural cause, or it could be a pollution event," Singleton said. - John Muir Charter works with the California Conservation Corps to help wayward students
Saturday, Aug 30, 2008, Los Angele Times, By Mitchell Landsberg, Los Angeles Times Staff Writer
FRENCH GULCH, CALIF. – Alex Gowan was a high school dropout whose quest to finally get a diploma had led him to the edge of the Motion Fire after weeks of firefighting. The same was true for most of the 18 other California Conservation Corps members with him, a weary, slap-happy bunch who had been pulling 16- and even 24-hour shifts working backup behind firefighters from the California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection and the U.S. Forest Service.
In addition to being members of the Conservation Corps, many of these young people were students or recent graduates of one of the most unusual schools in California: John Muir Charter, a program that offered a last chance to defy the odds and succeed. John Muir was chartered in 1998, primarily to provide education to participants in the Conservation Corps. The corps had been established more than 20 years earlier by then-Gov. Jerry Brown to turn around wayward youth through projects that would benefit the state's environment. About half its members are high school dropouts. Muir now serves about 1,200 students at 43 sites around the state. Most of its programs are associated with the California Conservation Corps, but Muir also works with local conservation corps in Los Angeles and Sacramento, as well as with some other community service programs. - Arcadia pushes to conserve water
Saturday, Aug 30, 2008, Pasadena Star News, By Alfred Lee, Staff Writer
ARCADIA - In response to a statewide drought and a local water-supply shortage they say is "imminent," city officials have adopted a voluntary water conservation program that aims to reduce annual water consumption by 10 percent. If voluntary measures do not achieve the 10 percent goal, or if the statewide drought worsens, officials will consider re-implementing a mandatory conservation program adopted by the city in 1991. The city's mandatory conservation plan from 1991 came in two phases, the first featuring a series of prohibitions - such as on hosing sidewalks and watering during daytime hours - followed by mandatory percentage cuts reinforced by fines.
The voluntary program, approved by the Arcadia City Council on Aug. 5, follows a similar voluntary program in Pasadena. Pasadena officials will consider mandatory restrictions on Sept. 8, after struggling to meet their own reduction goal of 10 percent. - Karnette's Long Beach oil-drilling bill decried
Saturday, Aug 30, 2008, Long Beach Press Telegram, By John Canalis, Staff Writer
LONG BEACH - Harbor-area environmentalists came out in opposition Friday to a bill that would allow for new exploration and drilling in the Wilmington Oil Field and recalculate the way a private contractor, the city, port and state share production revenues.
The Coalition for a Safe Environment issued a statement saying the proposal could bring "toxic contamination along with oil revenue." "The most-impacted victims will continue to be the environmental justice neighborhoods, low-income and poverty-stricken communities in West Long Beach and the bordering community of Wilmington in the city of Los Angeles," the coalition's Jesse N. Marquez said. "They will see no benefits from the revenue raised, but bear all the burden of the project."
City, port and state officials disputed those assertions, saying the bill could lead to millions of dollars in new revenues and taxes - albeit not immediately - and would meet modern air- and water-quality regulations. The bill does not so much seek permission to drill anew, Henderson said, as much as it changes contractual language about assuming the financial risks and benefits of future exploration. Karnette spokesman Robert Simpson said the bill includes provisions guarding against pollution. - Italy mobsters block efforts to clean up toxic trash heaps
Saturday, Aug 30, 2008, Los Angeles Times, By Tracy Wilkinson, Los Angeles Times Staff Writer
SANTA MARIA CAPUA VETERE, ITALY – Raffaele del Giudice was a crusader. He roamed the illegal trash dumps of southern Italy, covering his nose against the stench and exposing what he considers the ecological crime of the century. Then people started being threatened. Ostracized. Killed. Del Giudice called off his crusade. Because when you go up against trash here in Campania province, you are going up against a powerful, vicious mafia known as the Camorra. The Naples-based Camorra controls the import, transport and disposal of millions of tons of rubbish, an extremely lucrative business in which the group follows its own rules, ignores regulations on toxic waste and contaminates once-fertile farmland, country fields, forests and rivers.
Beyond the ugliness of it all, evidence now suggests that the garbage is poisoning the food chain and may be causing cancer, birth defects and other health problems. The blighted condition of southern Italy has earned sanctions from the European Union and condemnation from international health organizations.
The Camorra has enthusiastically made Italy's poor south the trash dump to the world, or at least part of the world. Trucks transport the waste to the south day and night, year-round, and deposit it in mostly illegal and unregulated landfills. No trash is too foul: metallurgical dross, sludge from tanneries, tires, discarded refrigerators and stoves, rotting animal carcasses, medical waste -- a nauseating cesspool of crud.
Campania is home to buffalo herds whose milk is used to make the best mozzarella cheese. Unacceptably high levels of the cancer-causing agent dioxin were detected this year in some mozzarella, threatening the half-a-billion-dollar export business of one of Italy's top signature products.
But Campania is filling up. And so the Camorra has gone global. In one sting operation two years ago, customs agents seized 9,000 tons of waste that had been smuggled onto cargo ships, half of it destined for China. - Amazon deforestation on the rise
Sunday, Aug 31, 2008, Orange County Register, by Bradley Brooks, Associated Press Writer
RIO DE JANEIRO, Brazil (AP) – Amazon deforestation jumped 69 percent in the past 12 months - the first such increase in three years - as rising demand for soy and cattle pushes farmers and ranchers to raze trees, officials said Saturday.
"We're not content," Environment Minister Carlos Minc said. "Deforestation has to fall more and the conditions for sustainable development have to improve." Brazil's government has increased cash payments to fight illegal Amazon logging this year, and it eliminated government bank loans to farmers who illegally clear forest to plant crops.
The country lost 2.7 percent of its Amazon rain forest in 2007, or 4,250 square miles. Environmental officials fear even more land will be razed this year - but they have not forecast how much. The Amazon region covers about 1.6 million square miles of Brazil. About 20 percent of that land has already been deforested.