A wrap-up of posts published on Maven’s Notebook this week …
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In California water news this week …
Pineapple Express to soak western US with rain, snow
“Days of rain are forecast to hit portions of the Northwest and California, bringing the risk of flooding and landslides. While the rain may subside a little more quickly in some locations, snow is expected to take its place and bring a new set of challenges, AccuWeather meteorologists warn. “A major weather event, known as an atmospheric river, is forecast to unfold Friday and continue into the middle of next week, sending waves of moisture to the West Coast,” said AccuWeather Senior Meteorologist Adam Douty. An atmospheric river is a phenomenon that occurs when moisture consolidates and travels a long distance only to be deposited someplace else. This can happen anywhere in the globe but is often noticed along the West Coast of the United States. The funneling of tropical moisture, specifically from the central Pacific, near Hawaii, into the U.S. is known as the Pineapple Express. … ” Read more from AccuWeather.
State Water Project allocation increased to 20%
“Today, the Department of Water Resources (DWR) announced an update to the State Water Project (SWP) allocation forecast for 2025. The allocation has increased to 20 percent of requested supplies, up from 15 percent in December. The SWP provides water to 29 public water agencies that serve 27 million Californians. While January has been incredibly dry across California, storm runoff into the state’s reservoirs came in higher than forecasted at the end of December allowing for a modest allocation increase. Storms in late November and early December had a positive impact by saturating the ground, allowing for storms through December to more efficiently runoff into reservoirs. More storms are needed, and the long-range forecast does hint at a return to wet conditions in early February that could bring much-needed rain and snow. … ” Read more from DWR News.
SEE ALSO: EXPLAINER: Understanding the State Water Project Allocation, from the Department of Water Resources
Another casualty of a bone-dry winter: LA won’t take less water from Mono Lake
“Los Angeles will take most or all of its allotment of water from Mono Lake through March, disappointing local environmentalists and conservation experts after raising hopes that more water would be left in the iconic alpine lake. The Los Angeles Department of Water and Power had indicated last spring that it might, in a rare move, substantially reduce the amount taken from Mono Lake. The Eastern Sierra lake has provided water to Los Angeles since 1941, when DWP began diverting its tributaries to city taps. Known for its unique tufa rock towers, migratory birds and stunning Sierra Nevada backdrop, the salty lake has been the focus of environmental battles for more than 80 years between the city, conservationists and the local Kutzadika’a tribe. Mono Lake’s surface levels have plunged over the decades because of the city’s aqueduct, hitting historic lows in the 1980s and increasing the lake’s salinity, which jeopardizes the tiny shrimp that are the major source of food for birds. … ” Read more from Cal Matters.
California farms fail as land values plunge amid groundwater crisis
“There was a time when the water under Nick Sahota’s Terra Bella farm was free and abundant, supporting tidy rows of pistachio trees and table grapes to supply Bay Area groceries like Costco, Food 4 Less and SaveMart. Now water costs on his Tulare County farm have soared to about $1,500 an acre due to pumping restrictions created by California’s historic Sustainable Groundwater Management Act. A decade after the law was adopted after great controversy, implementation is ramping up — and farmers’ anxieties are mounting, fearing bankruptcies are on the horizon. With outstanding loans of over $15 million, Sahota’s family lives in fear that it could lose the farm that took decades to build and was once proudly profitable. The value of his orchards has plummeted to one-quarter of what they were worth only four years ago. “How are we going to pay the loans? It’s impossible,” said Sahota, 50, who farms with his 83-year-old father on the flat sandy soils of eastern Tulare County, where summer temperatures rise well into triple digits. … ” Read more from the San Jose Mercury News.
Districts lob more lawsuits at Friant Water Authority, now point finger at feds
“The legal tug of war between Friant Water Authority and three small Tulare County irrigation districts continues to expand, after the districts filed two more lawsuits in the last week. That brings the lawsuit tally from the Porterville, Terra Bella, and Saucelito irrigation districts against Friant to three filed in the last three months. The latest two lawsuits include one filed in federal court seeking relief from Friant’s demand the districts pay $95 million to help pay to fix the sinking Friant-Kern Canal; and another filed in Tulare County Superior Court alleging Friant failed to comply with the California Environmental Quality Act (CEQA) when it began construction on the canal repair project. “My districts will continue to pursue all efforts needed to force compliance with applicable federal and state law,” said Sean Geivet, manager of the districts. “I think Friant Water Authority is being very disingenuous on this matter.” … ” Read more from SJV Water.
SEE ALSO: Tulare water districts sue Friant, Feds over cost-sharing for Friant-Kern Canal repairs, from the San Joaquin Valley Sun
Trump issues broad Executive Order targeting CA water policy; Stakeholders, enviro groups respond
By the authority vested in me as President by the Constitution and the laws of the United States of America, it is hereby ordered: Section 1. Policy. For weeks, residents of the Los Angeles area have watched raging fires consume their homes, belongings, beloved pets, and childhood memories. Almost immediately, firefighters were unable to fight the blaze due to dry hydrants, empty reservoirs, and inadequate water infrastructure. Today, at least 28 people have lost their lives and thousands more have lost everything else, with some damage estimates calculating hundreds of billions of dollars in damage. This tragedy affects the entire Nation, so it is in the Nation’s interest to ensure that California has what it needs to prevent and fight these fires and others in the future. Therefore, it is the policy of the United States to provide Southern California with necessary water resources, notwithstanding actively harmful State or local policies. And it is the policy of the United States to assist Americans in disaster areas through responsive policies that more effectively empower them to rebuild and regain their livelihoods. … ” Continue reading this Executive Order.
Trump orders more Central Valley water deliveries — claiming it would help LA fires
“President Donald Trump signed a sweeping executive order Sunday that told federal agencies to “immediately take action” to deliver more Central Valley water and eliminate rules that stand in the way, including endangered species protections. In the new order, Trump cited the Los Angeles fires, even though the actions he is ordering — primarily delivering more water from the federal Central Valley Project — would primarily serve farms. About 75% of Central Valley Project water is used for agriculture, while much of the rest goes to cities and towns in the San Joaquin Valley, including Sacramento and Fresno. “In particular, the Secretary of the Interior and the Secretary of Commerce shall immediately take actions to override existing activities that unduly burden efforts to maximize water deliveries,” Trump’s order reads. At stake are the rules that guide two massive Delta water systems, the federal Central Valley Project and a state-operated system, the State Water Project. These networks of reservoirs, pumps and canals deliver water to millions of acres of farmland and 30 million people. They draw water from rivers that flow into the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta and San Francisco Bay, which imperils Chinook salmon, smelt and sturgeon that are protected by the federal Endangered Species Act. … ” Read more from Cal Matters.
Trump looks to seize control of California water
“The Trump administration is weighing how to take control of water in California — including setting aside endangered species protections — framing its mission in a new executive order as necessary to prevent future wildfires like those that recently swept across Los Angeles. President Donald Trump issued the order titled “Emergency Measures to Provide Water Resources in California and Improve Disaster Response in Certain Areas,” following his visit Friday to see fire-damaged areas and meet with local, state and federal elected officials. “I’m signing an executive order to open up the pumps and valves in the north. We want to get that water pouring down here as quickly as possible and let hundreds of millions of gallons of water flow down into Southern California, and that’ll be a big benefit to you,” Trump said during his meeting with officials. The order was not published by the White House until Sunday. … ” Read more from E&E News.
Trump has vowed to pump more water. Government data show pumping was down for maintenance
“When President Trump visited Los Angeles last week, he pledged to “open up the pumps and valves in the north” and “get that water pouring down here.” But records show that the day he made that announcement, the federal government’s pumping facility in Northern California was delivering less water than usual, apparently because managers had reduced pumping for several days of routine maintenance. The records indicate that the day after Trump’s announcement, on Saturday, the federally managed pumping plant resumed regular levels of water deliveries from the Sacramento-San Joaquin River Delta into the aqueducts of the Central Valley Project. … ” Read more from the LA Times.
PPIC: Unpacking the Trump administration’s proposal to boost water for Southern California
“Recent presidential actions aim to boost water supplies for Southern California—but how would they actually work? We spoke with our adjunct fellow Greg Gartrell to better understand the orders and their potential impact. What is the Trump administration proposing? A: There are two orders now in play. A January 20 memorandum directs the Secretary of Commerce and the Secretary of the Interior to “route more water from the Sacramento–San Joaquin Delta to other parts of the state.” In practice, this means that the National Marine Fisheries Service and the US Fish and Wildlife Service will take the lead in revising federal rules to allow increased pumping of water from the Sacramento–San Joaquin Delta by the federal Central Valley Project (CVP) and the State Water Project (SWP). The January 24 executive order goes much further and directs the secretaries to “immediately take actions to override existing activities that unduly burden efforts to maximize water deliveries.” … ” Read more from the PPIC.
Study finds skyrocketing cost of regulatory compliance for California lettuce growers
“During the past seven years, the cost to California lettuce growers of complying with the state’s environmental, labor and food safety regulations has increased by a whopping 63.7%, according to a study commissioned by the Monterey County Farm Bureau and prepared by Cal Poly, San Luis Obispo, professors Lynn Hamilton, Ph.D., and Michael McCullough, Ph.D. As of last year, increased regulations brought the total cost of compliance for lettuce growers to $1,600 per acre, the researchers found, accounting for more than 12% of total production costs. The regulatory burden has tightened margins for farmers, who saw farmgate values for lettuce rise by less than 1% from 2017 to 2024. Increased regulatory mandates during that time have come from California’s Sustainable Groundwater Management Act, Irrigated Lands Program, equipment emissions regulations, and minimum wage and workplace mandates. … ” Read more from Ag Alert.
Dairies decry draft waste discharge rules
“To reduce nitrates and ensure that people have access to safe drinking water, the state has proposed tighter water quality requirements for all California dairies that collect dairy waste and apply it to land. The dairy general waste discharge requirements regulate only existing milk-cow dairies in the Central Valley region. But the draft order, if adopted as proposed, establishes new precedential groundwater quality protection requirements that would apply to all California dairies that apply their dairy waste to land, said Kari Fisher, senior director and counsel of legal advocacy at the California Farm Bureau. “The state is looking at manure differently from other fertilizer sources that agriculture uses and more as a point waste source rather than a beneficial material for the crop and the dairy operations,” she said. The California State Water Resources Control Board released the draft dairy order regulation last fall to address issues raised by environmental groups, which petitioned the state to revise the 2007 regional dairy general waste discharge requirements. … ” Read more from Ag Alert.
New evidence links heavy metal pollution with wildfire retardants
“Wildfire retardants, the hot-pink mix of water and chemicals sprayed from airplanes by the U.S Forest service to combat wildfires, are under scrutiny after a recent study found they’re a serious source of heavy metal pollution in the U.S. The research, conducted by a team from the University of Southern California and published in Environmental Science & Technology Letters, found that between 2009 and 2021, wildfire retardant application in the U.S. released at least 380,000 kg (more than 400 tons) of at least four toxic metals into the environment. Toxic metals — like cadmium, chromium and vanadium — accumulate in ecosystems and organisms and are linked to organ damage, cancer and neurological disorders. “The heavy metals report from [the University of Southern California] has been a catalyst. It has created internal discussions about using these retardants,” Andy Stahl, the executive director of the nonprofit watchdog group Forest Service Employees for Environmental Ethics (FSEEE), who was not involved with the study, told EHN. … ” Read more from Environmental Health News.
This city wants to expand. Critics worry it’s how California Forever will take root
“California Forever, the new Solano County city proposed by a group of Silicon Valley tycoons, was technically not on the agenda at the packed Suisun City council meeting on Tuesday night. But the controversial billionaire-backed plan was on the top of everybody’s mind. After a heated three-hour hearing, Suisun City’s City Council voted 4-1 to give City Manager Bret Prebula the green light to explore whether the 4.2-square-mile, cash-strapped city could expand its tax base by annexing unincorporated land to the west or east of the current municipal borders. While there is just a sliver of land available to the west because most of it is undevelopable marshland, the property to the east is owned by California Forever, which is hoping to build a transit-oriented city of 400,000 in east Solano County. … ” Read more from the San Francisco Chronicle.
Senator Hurtado introduces bill to tackle California’s water crisis
“Senator Melissa Hurtado (D-Bakersfield) introduced Senate Bill 224, the Preventing Artificial Water Shortages Act. The bill addresses California’s ongoing water mismanagement crisis by confronting the Department of Water Resources (DWR) ‘s systemic reliance on outdated data and forecasting. Sen. Hurtado says the forecast data results in artificial shortages, increased costs, and significant impacts on families and farmers. “The fight for water is not about one president’s executive order. Water in California is a national security issue that affects every Californian and every American,” said Senator Hurtado. … ” Read more from Fox News.
California congressmen propose new water legislation to combat groundwater sustainability issues
“Over the last few years, California’s water crisis has grown. Congressman David Valadao recently announced two new water acts aimed at addressing these challenges.That’s why Congressman David Valadao says he’s addressing California’s water crisis by introducing two bills in Congress. One is the Groundwater Technical Assistance Act, and the other is the Every Drop Counts Act. The Every Drop Counts Act is aimed at modifying small storage to increase the cap size for groundwater recharge projects. Meanwhile, the Groundwater Technical Assistance Act aims to provide funding under the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law that allows the Bureau of Reclamation to provide technical and financial assistance for groundwater recharge projects. … ” Read more from Channel 23.
Senator Anna M. Caballero introduces SB 72, California Water for All, to modernize water planning
“Senator Anna M. Caballero (D-Merced) introduced SB 72, California Water for All, to modernize the California Water Plan to drought proof California and establish long-term water supply targets. This legislation addresses the state’s intensifying climate challenges and ensures high-quality water for urban, agricultural and environmental needs. “A reliable and sustainable water supply is critical to California’s economy and to the quality of life for all Californians. While intermittent storms can give California a reprieve; prolonged droughts, aging infrastructure, more frequent and severe wildfires, population and economic growth, antiquated state policies and climate change impacts present unique challenges that threaten the survival of entire communities and sectors of the economy. Despite decades of work to improve California’s water system, our infrastructure remains woefully inadequate to meet present and future needs. … ” Read more from Senator Caballero.
In commentary this week …
A shared lifeline: Ensuring water and food security for California
William Bourdeau is executive vice president of Harris Farms, owner of Bourdeau Farms, director of the Westlands Water District, and more, writes, “California’s water challenges are as complex and dynamic as the state itself. From its agricultural heartlands to its sprawling urban centers, the tug-of-war over this precious resource shapes much of our policy debates and future prospects. Recent developments in water management and distribution, particularly those impacting agriculture and the environment, demand close scrutiny and bold action. California’s efforts to secure its most vital resource often provoke debates that pit countless stakeholders against one another. Yet anyone who has lived through the state’s extreme droughts and devastating wildfires understands that water is more than a convenient talking point, it’s a shared lifeline. My work in the San Joaquin Valley has underscored how water scarcity ripples through every facet of life. When communities run dry, families face higher bills. When farmland loses a consistent supply, planting slows, and jobs disappear. And when pollutants flow into the Delta, endangered fish suffer, alongside everyone else who relies on that ecosystem. … ” Read more from the San Joaquin Valley Sun.
Newsom’s tunnel vision protects SoCal & corporate farms from climate change while destroying the Delta
Dennis Wyatt, editor of the Manteca Bulletin, writes, “It was in that decade that the idea of constructing a bypass of the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta first surfaced. The object was to take water runoff from the Sacramento River basin that was flowing into the sea — boosters would say wasted on the assumption the forces of nature would be imbeciles if they were human — and divert it into basins south of the Delta. Basins, such as in the southwest San Joaquin Valley, so farmers can farm even more land that their own water basin can support. That’s where irresponsible farming practices that took Tulare Lake — once the biggest body west of the Mississippi River until the late 1880s — made it vanish. … ” Read more from the Manteca Bulletin.
Canadians must prepare for threats to shared water bodies from Trump’s second administration
lan Shapiro, principal at environmental consultancy Shapiro & Company, writes, “President Donald Trump’s second administration has brought with it an uncertain geopolitical future, and as far as the environment is concerned, the cards aren’t looking promising. Trump’s track record to date is clear, from weakening environmental protections to pulling the United States out of the Paris Agreement on climate change. A measure of comfort may be found in the market forces underlying the energy transition, but for water, which lies at the heart of the climate crisis, the silver lining is harder to find. Trump’s first term was marked by deregulation and underfunding of water resources and systems. His administration was quick to roll back the Obama-era Clean Water Rule, which extended federal protections to smaller bodies of water such as wetlands and streams. This reduced the government’s jurisdiction over many water bodies, leaving them vulnerable to pollution and degradation. Concurrently, Trump’s first administration allowed water-intensive resource, manufacturing and agricultural sectors to operate with fewer restrictions on water use and pollution. … ” Read more from Corporate Knights.
Trump’s Executive Order on Delta smelt ignores the law, science and water equity
“President Donald Trump characterized his recent executive order to override U.S. Endangered Species Act protections and “route more water” from the embattled Sacramento-San Joaquin River Delta to Southern California as a matter of prioritizing people over a tiny and worthless fish – the endangered Delta Smelt, according to a press release from the California Water Impact Network (C-WIN). “But nothing could be farther from the truth,” C-WIN stated. “Trump’s order will punish a broad array of stakeholders and devastate the largest and richest estuary in the western continental United States – all for the benefit of a few powerful agribusiness enterprises in the Central Valley.” … ” Read more from Dan Bacher at the Daily Kos.
In the era of Donald Trump and wildfires, do environmental rules even matter?
Opinion columnist Tad Weber writes, “The catastrophe of wildfire is creating some interesting politics in Sacramento and Washington, D.C. Gov. Gavin Newsom, a Democrat and the former mayor of San Francisco, America’s liberal center, has waived environmental reviews and permitting requirements to allow Los Angeles wildfire victims to rebuild their homes with less oversight and regulation. On Monday he issued a new executive order suspending the Coastal Commission from regulating the rebuilding projects for homes in the coastal zone that were destroyed. “We will not let over-regulation stop us from helping the LA community rebuild and recover,” Newsom said in a statement aimed at a state agency known for being challenging. … ” Read more from the Fresno Bee.
President Trump versus the mismanagement of California
Opinion columnist Susan Shelley writes, “You have to say this for the Trump administration. It’s not boring. On Monday night at 11:12 p.m. Eastern Time, President Donald Trump announced in a post on Truth Social, “The United States Military just entered the Great State of California and, under Emergency Powers, TURNED ON THE WATER flowing abundantly from the Pacific Northwest, and beyond. The days of putting a Fake Environmental argument, over the PEOPLE, are OVER. Enjoy the water, California!!!” Two hours later, the California Department of Water Resources responded, “The military did not enter California. The federal government restarted federal water pumps after they were offline for maintenance for three days. State water supplies in Southern California remain plentiful.” If it’s not clear that California was “entered” by the U.S. military on Monday night, it’s also not clear that state water supplies in Southern California remain “plentiful.” Maybe it’s true if you’re a cactus, but certainly not if you’re an LADWP customer living under “Save the Drop” conservation directives. … ” Read more from the LA Daily News.
Are Trump’s lies about California calculated political genius? Or is he flying blind?
Opinion writer Tom Philp writes, “When President Donald Trump posted on social media Monday that the military had arrived in California and “turned on the water,” a wholly false statement in every way, it raised an obvious question: What is Trump doing? “I am as puzzled by this as anyone,” said Sacramento-based political consultant Matt Rexroad, who assisted Republican Steve Garvey in his unsuccessful bid for the U.S. Senate. “I have no idea.” It begins to make sense, however, if Trump has seized on California water as some kind of a challenge, a game if you will. But how does Trump ultimately seek to “win?”In real-world planning, game theory is a long-accepted tool for meticulously analyzing future scenarios to help make a reasoned decision. In political game theory, what comes out of a politician’s mouth can be a pre-calculated decision that has already anticipated the outcome. … ” Read more from the Sacramento Bee.
In regional water news this week …
Ruling: Federal contract controls non-federal Klamath water diversions
“The U.S. Bureau of Reclamation can restrict a non-federal water diversion under its contract with the Klamath Drainage District, according to a federal appeals court. The 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals has ruled that Reclamation can control the district’s withdrawal of water from the Klamath River, even if it’s through the district’s own canal. “KDD had a contractual duty to adhere to Reclamation’s allocations and not divert water from the Klamath River, which KDD does not dispute it disregarded,” the ruling said. Under a 1946 contract, the district can divert water through the Klamath Irrigation Project, which was built by Reclamation along the Oregon-California border and is subject to Endangered Species Act restrictions for fish. … ” Read more from the Capital Press.
Clear Lake water quality report recommends rehabilitation strategy
“The water quality of Clear Lake — California’s largest natural freshwater lake — suffers from low-to-no-oxygen conditions that contribute to harmful algal blooms (HABs) and other issues, according to a report from the UC Davis Tahoe Environmental Research Center and the U.S. Geological Survey. Clear Lake has long suffered from environmental challenges associated with mercury contamination, high nutrient levels, low dissolved oxygen and HABs, which threaten aquatic and human health and the community’s cultural, recreational and economic activities. The report, submitted to the Blue Ribbon Committee for the Rehabilitation of Clear Lake, outlines the primary causes of deteriorating water conditions at the 63-square-mile lake. It also applies newly developed predictive tools to test restoration strategies and offers actionable recommendations. These include installing a hypolimnetic oxygenation system, a technology that has been used nationwide and in California to enhance oxygen levels at the lake bottom. … ” Read more from UC Davis.
Marin water managers favor pipeline over reservoir expansion
“Marin Municipal Water District managers appear to be placing a controversial reservoir expansion proposal on the back burner. District staff said Tuesday that constructing a pipeline to convey water from Sonoma County would be the most efficient way to boost supply with minimal disturbances to the environment and residents. Staff said the plan to raise the Soulajule Reservoir in northwestern Marin would yield great water gains, and it offers the district flexibility and resilience. However, the loss of farmland and homes would be a big impact on the ranching community, staff said. The board took no vote Tuesday, but members tended to agree. “I wouldn’t take anything off, but in terms of focus in the short term, I believe that the conveyance has both regional and local impact, and I think there’s a lot that we can do there,” said board member Jed Smith. … ” Read more from the Marin Independent Journal.
Coho salmon remain afloat four years after CZU fire
“Landslides. Falling trees. Scorched forests. These are just a few ways the 2020 CZU Lightning Complex Fire transformed habitats in the Santa Cruz Mountains. But scientists are finding that the blaze’s effects on the region’s coho salmon have been small. “Fire is part of the natural landscape here,” says NOAA research ecologist Joe Kiernan. “And these fish have evolved with fire.” The blaze consumed nearly all of the Scott Creek watershed north of Santa Cruz, but surveyors in 2022 counted more baby coho in that creek than in any year since 2002. Groups of coho salmon swim upstream from the ocean every winter to breed, a journey that has delivered fresh seafood to generations of Californians. But in recent decades their numbers have collapsed. “I have been fishing the San Lorenzo [River] for 30-40 years,” says Curtis Smith of Felton. At first, the catch limit was ten, he says. Now scientists see less than ten spawning coho there in an entire year. … ” Read more from Knee Deep Times.
Monterey County battery fire linked to surge of heavy metals in nature reserve’s soil
“After a massive fire at a Monterey County energy storage facility this month, scientists at San José State University have found heightened levels of heavy metals in the nearby Elkhorn Slough Reserve, they said Monday. Unusually high concentrations of nickel, manganese and cobalt were detected in soils within 2 miles of the lithium battery storage site, according to field surveys conducted by the university’s Moss Landing Marine Laboratories, which has monitored the area for years. Despite initial reports from the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency and local authorities that the Jan. 16 fire did not release toxins, local environmental groups have warned of the potential for dangerous levels of particulate matter and other chemicals and have pushed for more testing of nearby soil and water. … ” Read more from KQED.
Southern Californians’ per person water use drops to lowest in 35 years
“Southern Californians have reduced their per person potable water use by 45% since 1990, a decline driven by Metropolitan’s nearly $1 billion investment in conservation rebates and programs, along with the region’s commitment to embracing a conservation ethic. The achievement was highlighted in a report chronicling Metropolitan’s investments in conservation and local water supplies submitted this week to the California Legislature. The 25th annual report also outlines the more than $750 million Metropolitan has invested in recycling, and groundwater recharge projects. “More than three decades ago, Metropolitan and other Southern California water agencies made a commitment to increase water reliability in Southern California by helping residents and businesses become more water efficient and by investing in more local water supplies. The reduction in water use highlighted today is the culmination of those efforts, and a measure of the success when programs, people, and purpose come together,” Interim General Manager Deven Upadhyay said. “I want to thank Southern Californians for their efforts lowering their water use.” … ” Read more from the Metropolitan Water District.
The L.A. wildfires left neighborhoods choking in ash and toxic air. Residents demand answers
“Nearly two weeks after the Eaton fire forced Claire Robinson to flee her Altadena home, she returned, donning a white hazmat suit, a respirator and goggles. The brick chimneys were among the few recognizable features of the quaint three-bedroom 1940 house neighboring Farnsworth Park. Nearly everything else was reduced to ashes. … “The screws were the only thing that didn’t vaporize,” Robinson said after she scoured through the debris. “Everything else is in the air. “How do we live in this highly toxic environment and make sure that people aren’t being sent back to their homes prematurely?” she said. “Families are just being told, ‘You’re clear to go in.’ They’re calling us and saying, ‘Is it safe?’ I’m like, ‘I don’t know.’” … ” Read more from the LA Times.
EPA says President Trump ordered agency to move quickly on Eaton fire’s toxic waste site in Azusa
“The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency moved quickly in setting up a site at a Los Angeles County park in Azusa for receiving hazardous debris from the mammoth Eaton fire — without notifying residents in nearby cities — because it was ordered to expedite the site by President Donald Trump, an official said on Tuesday, Jan. 28. When asked by L.A. County Supervisor Hilda Solis at the supervisor’s board meeting why local cities were not contacted or made aware of the pending action, EPA on-scene coordinator Celeste McCoy said she received an executive order by the president within the past 48 hours to hurry things up. “Under the new administration, we have received an executive order to expedite this process,” McCoy said, in response to a question from Solis on why local cities were not told until the site was ready. The EPA began taking hazardous materials from burned homes and businesses to the site on Monday, the agency reported. … ” Read more from the San Jose Mercury News.
‘We don’t want it!’ San Gabriel Valley rages against shipment of Eaton fire hazardous waste
“Hundreds of San Gabriel Valley residents confronted state and federal officials during a heated community meeting Wednesday, asking how a local recreation area had become a processing site for hazardous waste from the Eaton fire without community input. The Environmental Protection Agency began trucking hazardous waste 15 miles from the Altadena burn zone to Lario Park in Irwindale for sorting and storage on Monday. Officially known as the Lario Staging Area, the rocky area is owned by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers and was leased until this month to the Los Angeles County parks department. The 5-acre site is now home to workers in protective gear who are organizing potentially hazardous household items — which can include paint, bleach, asbestos and lithium-ion batteries — that cannot be sent to landfills. … ” Read more from the LA Times.
L.A. fires wreaked havoc on the land. Scientists are racing to learn what they’ve done to the sea
“The Reuben Lasker was about four miles off the coast of Manhattan Beach when ash began to rain upon the sea — first in delicate flurries, then in noxious clouds. The fisheries research vessel had set sail days earlier for a coastal survey. It was supposed to be a routine voyage, the kind that the California Cooperative Oceanic Fisheries Investigations (CalCOFI) program embarks upon four times a year as part of the world’s longest-running marine ecosystem monitoring effort. But when the Palisades and Eaton fires broke out, scientists aboard the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration ship inadvertently became the first investigators on the scene of a brewing disaster that could upend life underwater.The smoke that has choked Los Angeles, the debris piled up along decimated streets, the charred and toxic remnants of thousands of destroyed homes, businesses, cars and electronics — nearly all of it, eventually, will come to rest in the ocean. … ” Read more from the LA Times.
Announcements, notices, and funding opportunities …
NOTICE: Delta Conveyance Project Public Hearing Begins Feb 18
NOTICE: Public Comment Period Opens for Periodic Evaluations and Amendments of Groundwater Sustainability Plans
