Posted on December 31st, 2007 — in Growth, Development & Infrastructure :: Resources and Environment :: State Disasters and Emergencies
The final report of the governor’s Delta Vision Blue Ribbon Task Force was recently released. It recommends several immediate measures to protect the Delta and the Suisun Marsh areas and to prepare for potential natural disasters involving those areas. Some of the significant recommendations:
- The state should protect critical areas from further development by acquiring title or easements to floodplains and taking other action to actively discourage further development on “land that could provide flood protection.”
- The state should set appropriate standards for levee improvements and use available bond funds “to address strategic levee and floodplain improvements.”
- “State government should embark upon a comprehensive series of emergency management and preparation actions within a few months.”
The report warns, “A two-in-three chance of a major earthquake within the next few years in or near the Delta make its levees vulnerable to sudden collapse. In addition, increased urbanization poses an imminent threat to the Delta by placing more residents and their property in a floodplain.”
The full report is available here.
Posted on November 30th, 2007 — in Resources and Environment
The Cosco Busan spill on November 7 dumped over 58,000 gallons of bunker fuel into the San Francisco Bay and surrounding waters and prompted a state ban on fishing in regional waters on November 13. The ban was lifted (except at the Berkeley Marina and Rodeo Beach in the Marin Headlands) yesterday but resulted in significant economic loss for the local fishing industry.
Net Loss: Overfishing off the Pacific Coast [Environment California]
Meanwhile, a report recently released by Environment California says that one in seven federally managed West Coast fish stocks are now overfished (with the term “overfished” being defined as the population of the fish being reduced to below 20-25% of its original size). Some of the species affected include bocaccio, darkblotched and yelloweye rockfish, cowcod, and Pacific Ocean perch.
Posted on August 16th, 2007 — in Resources and Environment
A new report is out from the UC Davis Tahoe Environmental Research Center about Lake Tahoe. It observes that the climate of the lake the area around it has shown a noticeable warming trend.
The fraction of snow in the area’s total precipitation has dropped from 52% to 34%. The number of days with average temperatures below freezing has decreased by 30 days a year. The nightly low temperatures in Tahoe City have increased by an average of 4 degrees Fahrenheit. In addition, the average lake surface water temperature has risen by at least 1 degree Fahrenheit in the past 35 years.
Posted on July 26th, 2007 — in Politics :: Resources and Environment
A new report from the Public Policy Institute of California indicates that environmental issues are increasingly shifting to the front burner of concerns for voters in the state. 54% of likely voters now say that a candidate’s positions on the environment will be “very important” in deteremining how they vote. Compare that percentage to July 2004, when only 37% of likely voters said the same thing.
More specifically, Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger has some cause for concern, if the PPIC survey is to be believed. Only 47% of all adults statewide approve of the job Schwarzenegger is doing on the environment. In January, that figure was 55% (among likely voters, that figure is 51%, down from 57% in January). More broadly, Schwarzenegger’s overall job performance approval ratings have also dropped, from 58% to 52% among all adults, and from 61% to 59% among likely voters.
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Posted on May 11th, 2007 — in Resources and Environment :: State Disasters and Emergencies
The New West Notes blog notes that snowpack levels are at their lowest in 20 years (the statewide average snowpack level is currently 26%). Meanwhile, the state’s fire season seems to have already begun in earnest (although fire declarations haven’t been formally issued yet, the fires aren’t waiting for them), with a 4000-acre blaze on Santa Catalina Island forcing the evacuation of nearly 4000 residents off the island, another fire burning up nearly a quarter of Griffith Park in Los Angeles, and a third set of fires in the Central Valley town of Clovis stretching the town’s firefighting resources to their limits.
New West Notes points to the recent tornado disaster in southern Kansas and observes that the outflow to Iraq of National Guard equipment and resulting shortage of that equipment for use in disasters is not limited to the Sunflower State.
Meanwhile, the governor proclaimed this week Wildfire Awareness Week, and Assemblyman Kevin Jeffries (R-Murrieta) is trying to move AB 791, which would put several state agencies, including CAL FIRE, under a coordinated umbrella agency to be called the California Public Safety Agency (CPSA).
Weekly Statewide Fire Statistics [California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection]
Posted on April 13th, 2007 — in Immigration :: Polls and Surveys :: Resources and Environment
Two new Field Polls touch on issues at the fore of California politics these days — global warming (as witness the governor’s multiple media appearances and speeches on the subject this past week) and illegal immigration.
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Posted on April 10th, 2007 — in Growth, Development & Infrastructure :: Resources and Environment
A Public Policy Institute of California report in February detailed the ongoing collapse of the infrastructure of the Sacramento/San Joaquin Delta. In addition to the unreliability of the Delta’s 1100 miles of aging levees, the report described other crises facing the region, including heavy seismic risk, increased land subsidence, declining freshwater fish populations, and a chronic lack of funding for CALFED, the state agency responsible for managing the Delta. “By several key criteria,” the report emphasized, “the Delta is now widely perceived to be in crisis.”
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Posted on March 28th, 2007 — in Growth, Development & Infrastructure :: Resources and Environment
The California State Parks Foundation released its 2007 State of Our State Parks report this week, and the picture isn’t pretty, according to the Kentfield-based advocacy group.
The report spotlights the fact that the governor’s January budget reverts to the general fund $160 million of $250 million promised to the 278-park state system last year. According to the report, “Given that the total price tag for improvements in the state park system, including deferred maintenance and capital improvements, exceeds $2 billion,
this reversion will only further the growth of the huge financial needs of the state parks system.”
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Posted on January 29th, 2007 — in Growth, Development & Infrastructure :: Resources and Environment
According to a new report from the Legislative Analyst’s Office, California and transportation problems are inextricably linked.
Most Californians drive where they need to go — mostly because they have no other choice. Public transit systems in most major urban areas are good if not great, but ridership is either flat or falling (except in the Bay Area). California’s population growth is legendarily explosive, but highway use outpaces even population growth. California highways are notoriously bottlenecked and traffic-jammed.
Voters approved Proposition 1B in November to infuse $20 billion into the state’s aging and overtaxed transportation infrastructure network. The LAO report addresses how best to allocate those funds, concluding commonsensically that funds “should be allocated to effective projects that can be constructed and open to users in a timely manner.”
California Travels: Financing Our Transportation [Legislative Analyst's Office]
Posted on November 28th, 2006 — in Resources and Environment
Environment California Research and Policy Center summarizes what it sees as the evidence of global warming.
Feeling the Heat: Global Warming and Rising Temperatures in the United States