Weekly Green: August 10, 2015

In recent headlines:

• Jerry Brown’s climate message: “California’s burning: What the hell are you going to do about it?”;
• Yellow sludge in Colorado river continues spread, reaches New Mexico;
• Texas Pipeline Company Admits Santa Barbara Oil Spill Was 40 Percent Larger Than Estimated;
• California lawmakers raise more than $24 million in first half of 2015;
• ... and much more!

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TOP NEWS

Jerry Brown’s climate message: “California’s burning: What the hell are you going to do about it?”
Gov. Jerry Brown, appearing at the site of a wildfire that has charred nearly 70,000 acres in Lake, Yolo and Colusa counties since last week, said Thursday that the ferocity of fires raging across drought-stricken California should serve as a “wake-up call” to climate change skeptics.
http://www.sfgate.com/bayarea/article/Jerry-Brown-says-California-is-burning-and-6429417.php

Yellow sludge in Colorado river continues spread, reaches New Mexico
Federal officials scrambled Saturday to contain a spreading environmental disaster that began after a million gallons of contaminated water spilled from an old gold mine, flooding the Animas River and threatening crucial waterways throughout the Southwest.
http://www.latimes.com/nation/la-na-river-spill-20150808-story.html

Texas Pipeline Company Admits Santa Barbara Oil Spill Was 40 Percent Larger Than Estimated
Texas-based Plains All American Pipeline previously estimated 101,000 gallons of crude oil, or 2,400 barrels, were spilled at Refugio State Beach. But it now admits the leak could have been 1,000 barrels higher, for a total of 143,000 spilled gallons. That's roughly a 40 percent increase - and the company stressed that the amount could change as more data is made available.
https://news.vice.com/article/texas-pipeline-company-admits-santa-barbara-oil-spill-was-40-percent-larger-than-estimated

California lawmakers raise more than $24 million in first half of 2015
Recently filed campaign-finance reports show that, during one of the quieter stretches on the political calendar, members of the California Legislature raised more than $24 million from January through June.
http://www.sacbee.com/news/politics-government/capitol-alert/article30462003.html

CALIFORNIA NEWS

Thousands of Mines With Toxic Water Lie Under the West
Abandoned mines fill up with groundwater and snowmelt that becomes tainted with acids and heavy metals from mining veins which can trickle into the region's waterways. Experts estimate there are 55,000 such abandoned mines from Colorado to Idaho to California, and federal and state authorities have struggled to clean them for decades.
http://abcnews.go.com/US/wireStory/thousands-mines-toxic-water-lie-west-32976405

EPA orders more air quality tests for homes near Superfund sites
The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency has ordered a new round of air quality tests for a South Bay neighborhood after detecting a variety of contaminants inside homes near two federal cleanup sites.
http://www.latimes.com/science/la-me-del-amo-superfund-20150810-story.html

California water officials seek penalties in Santa Barbara oil spill
California water quality regulators have asked Attorney General Kamala Harris to consider enforcement action against the owner of an oil pipeline that ruptured near Santa Barbara in May, spilling petroleum onto beaches and the Pacific Ocean.
http://www.reuters.com/article/2015/08/03/us-usa-california-oilspill-idUSKCN0Q81XD20150803?feedType=RSS&feedName=domesticNews

California bans trapping of bobcats amid protests over cruelty
The 3-2 vote caps years of debate on trapping, which animal rights activists say is cruel.
http://www.latimes.com/local/lanow/la-me-ln-california-bans-trapping-of-bobcats-amid-protests-over-cruelty-20150805-story.html

Cecil the lion’s killer paid California $45,000 at auction to bag trophy elk
Six years before Minnesota dentist Walter Palmer ignited a global firestorm when he killed an African lion named Cecil, he posed for a photo beside the carcass of another trophy – one he killed 60 miles from Sacramento.
http://www.sacbee.com/news/local/environment/article30464943.html

Lone gray wolf sighted in Siskiyou County
The state Department of Fish and Wildlife announced Monday that evidence points to the presence of a male wolf in the far northern area of the state, although DNA testing on scat collected failed to show conclusively that the animal, captured on camera, was a gray wolf.
http://www.sfgate.com/bayarea/article/Trail-camera-catches-2nd-gray-wolf-in-California-6422502.php

Gov. Jerry Brown signs law targeting illegal marijuana grows
Gov. Jerry Brown on Friday signed into law a measure allowing steep civil fines against marijuana farms that damage the environment by dumping wastewater and chemicals, removing trees and killing wild animals.
http://www.latimes.com/local/political/la-me-pc-gov-brown-signs-law-targeting-illegal-marijuana-grows-20150807-story.html

L.A. maps out sweeping transportation overhaul
Council members are on the verge of approving a sweeping new transportation policy, one that calls for hundreds of miles of new bus-only lanes, bicycle lanes and "traffic calming" measures over the next 20 years.
http://www.latimes.com/local/california/la-me-mobility-debate-20150809-story.html#page=1

Will California’s GOP presidential primary really count?
It may be 16 months before voters select the next president of the United States, but the presidential campaign has been underway for more than a year.
http://capitolweekly.net/california-gop-presidential-primary-count/

Climate change: Future Bay Area weather will be more like San Diego's
A glimpse into our future reveals a Bay Area whose weather feels a lot like California's balmy border city. Seattle could feel like present-day San Jose, forcing hipsters to shed their beards and knit beanies. A future Sacramento may have armpit stains the size of small nations.
http://www.mercurynews.com/science/ci_28605346/climate-change-future-bay-area-weather-will-be

Contaminated Carson neighborhood braces for messy environmental cleanup
In a notoriously contaminated Carson neighborhood where homeowners have been waiting for years for someone to neutralize the toxic goo beneath their homes and yards, relief is finally within sight.
http://www.presstelegram.com/article/20150808/NEWS/150808182

How a dam’s destruction is changing environmental landscape
Like a giant cookie disappearing bite by bite, a massive and once-mighty concrete dam is quickly disappearing in a tucked-away corner of Monterey County.
http://www.sfchronicle.com/bayarea/article/How-a-dam-s-destruction-is-changing-6430111.php?t=94d30ceec400af33be&cmpid=twitter-premium

San Jose Sues Monsanto over Pollution in San Francisco Bay
Filed a month ago in the U.S. District Court in California’s Northern District, the suit lists defendants as Monsanto, its chemical manufacturing offshoot Solutia Inc. and Pharmacia Corporation, another Monsanto spinoff now owned by Pfizer.
http://www.sanjoseinside.com/2015/08/06/san-jose-sues-monsanto-over-pollution-in-san-francisco-bay/

Suit over air pollution at East Bay refinery settles for $4 million
Texas-based oil manufacturer Tesoro Corp. has agreed to pay $4 million to settle a lawsuit claiming the company spewed smog- and ozone-producing pollutants at its refinery in Martinez.
http://www.sfgate.com/bayarea/article/Suit-over-air-pollution-at-East-Bay-refinery-6427224.php

How bad was L.A.'s smog when Barack Obama went to college here?
President Obama attended Occidental College in Los Angeles from 1979 to 1981. His memories are full of smog. So how bad was it? According to historic ozone data collected by the South Coast Air Quality Management District, it was pretty bad.
http://www.latimes.com/local/lanow/la-me-ln-obama-smog-20150803-htmlstory.html

CALIFORNIA WATER, DROUGHT & WILDFIRES

Many snags ahead for California water bills -- Publicly and privately, California lawmakers are pushing to get a big water bill off its current glacial pace. But history cautions that California legislation this ambitious always takes time, and plenty of it.
http://www.sacbee.com/news/state/california/water-and-drought/article29887015.html

Fearing Fire, Mountain Residents Try Desperately to Get Rid of Dead Trees
Hudson Fisk’s Tree and Excavating Service is under a lot of pressure these days. A deadly mix of drought and beetle infestation has killed millions of Ponderosa pines in the southern Sierra Nevada. And mountain residents are practically begging for Fisk’s help.
http://ww2.kqed.org/news/2015/08/08/fearing-fire-mountain-residents-try-desperately-to-get-rid-of-dead-trees

Some who fled California wildfire find their home destroyed
Several hundred of the thousands of people driven from their homes by a massive Northern California wildfire began to trickle back to their neighborhoods Thursday, and some saw what they most feared: nothing.
http://customwire.ap.org/dynamic/stories/U/US_CALIFORNIA_WILDFIRES_CAOL-?SITE=CASON&SECTION=STATE&TEMPLATE=DEFAULT&CTIME=2015-08-06-22-36-55

Price, risk weigh heavily on farmers who would draw from Delta water tunnels
Grape and pistachio farmer Mike Stearns is something of a big deal in California water circles, leader of a regional agency that operates a critical piece of the state’s man-made plumbing system.
http://www.sacbee.com/news/state/california/water-and-drought/article30511836.html

Drought could hurt endangered fish caught in water fight
The delta smelt lives in the Sacramento-San Joaquin River Delta, the West Coast's largest estuary that supplies water to Central Valley farms and millions of Southern California residents.
http://customwire.ap.org/dynamic/stories/U/US_CALIFORNIA_DROUGHT_ENDANGERED_FISH_CAOL-?SITE=CASON&SECTION=STATE&TEMPLATE=DEFAULT&CTIME=2015-08-04-01-22-45

River that runs through downtown San Jose goes dry; fish and wildlife suffer
The Guadalupe River, which runs through America's 10th-largest city, has dried up, shriveling a source of civic pride that had welcomed back trout, salmon, beavers and other wildlife after years of restoration efforts.
http://www.mercurynews.com/drought/ci_28607817/california-drought-river-that-runs-through-downtown-san

Frank Gehry is helping L.A. to redevelop the Los Angeles River
Renowned architect Frank Gehry is working with Los Angeles officials in the public and private sector to draft a new master plan for the redevelopment of the Los Angeles River.
http://www.latimes.com/local/lanow/la-me-ln-la-river-frank-gehry-20150807-story.html

Innovation is blooming at water-wise urban farms
As California moves through its fourth summer of drought, cutting back on water use means shorter showers, fuller dishwashers and drier lawns for most people living in urban areas.
http://www.latimes.com/local/california/la-me-urban-farming-drought-20150810-story.html

Southern California turf rebate program paid out nearly $57 million
Revealing a widespread transformation of the region's landscape, data released late Friday by the Metropolitan Water District of Southern California show the wholesaler has paid millions to residents and businesses to rip out turf from Oxnard to San Diego.
http://www.dailybulletin.com/article/20150808/NEWS/150809571

Odds of wet El Niño winter jump for San Francisco, but not for farther north
Only recently did the U.S. Climate Prediction Center say the Bay Area was about a third more likely to be wet than dry come winter, and it’s yet to say anything about the state’s far northern reaches.
http://www.sfgate.com/bayarea/article/Odds-of-wet-El-Ni-o-winter-jump-for-S-F-but-6428681.php

Treasures revealed as California drought drains lakes
The Lakeview Motel's name is false advertising these dry days. The same thing is true for the Paradise Cove Lodge down California 178.
http://www.latimes.com/local/california/la-me-0806-drought-submerged-20150806-story.html#page=1

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