Environmental and Policy Focus
San Diego Union-Tribune - Sep 19 Governor Jerry Brown on Monday signed into law Senate Bill 1383, authored by Sen. Ricardo Lara, D-Bell Gardens, which sets caps on so-called “super pollutants” – methane emissions from landfills and dairies, hydrofluorocarbons from refrigerants, and black carbon (soot) from diesel trucks. This category of greenhouse gases can be hundreds or even thousands of times more potent than carbon dioxide and accounts for about 15% of all greenhouse gas emissions in the state, according to the California Air Resources Board (ARB). The law requires that, by 2030, annual methane and hydrofluorocarbon emissions must be slashed by 40 percent, and human-caused black carbon by 50 percent, below 2013 levels. Forest fires, which emit large amounts of black carbon, are not factored into the target. In coming months, ARB is expected to hold a series of public workshops as it begins to draft rules aimed at meeting the emissions reduction targets set by SB 1383.
SFGate - Sep 21 The Benicia City Council on Tuesday unanimously rejected a controversial plan by petroleum giant Valero to build a $70 million train depot at its Bay Area refinery to receive trains filled with crude oil from as far away as Canada and North Dakota. The City Council’s decision came amid mounting outcry that delivering oil by train could expose local residents and businesses to risk of an oil spill or fire. The company proposes the project as a way to keep gasoline prices down in the absence of a major oil pipeline serving the West Coast. Valero and others in the petroleum industry have asserted that local officials lack authority to limit oil trains because railroad issues are matters of interstate commerce that fall within the exclusive purview of the federal government. Shortly before Tuesday’s meeting, city officials received a letter from the U.S. Surface Transportation Board stating that Valero, based in Texas, was not a railroad company and that the proposed rail terminal fell under city jurisdiction.
Sacramento Bee - Sep 15 California regulators last Thursday proposed a stark set of cutbacks to cities and farms that receive water from the San Joaquin River and its tributaries. To protect endangered fish at critical parts of their life cycle, the State Water Resources Control Board (SWRCB) is proposing revisions to the water quality requirements for salinity that would require anywhere between 288,000 and 485,000 acre-feet of additional water to be left in the San Joaquin River system. As little as 20 percent of the river now flows unimpeded to the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta, and regulators said they want the so-called “natural” flow raised to at least 30 percent and perhaps as high as 50 percent. SWRCB staff estimates the plan would curb agricultural production by $64 million per year, representing 2.5 percent of the annual farm production in the affected areas. The five-person board will gather input from farmers, environmentalists, and others before voting on a plan, likely early next year.
San Bernardino Sun - Sep 17 Day and night, tiny microbes are working to clean up perchlorate and nitrates from contaminated groundwater in the Rialto-Colton water basin. After years of testing, Rialto’s West Valley Water District will begin shipping the cleaned up water directly to customers from a $23 million specialized treatment plant at its headquarters. The plant has the capacity to provide the water needs for about 16,000 of West Valley’s 66,000 customers. The basin’s perchlorate plume is from a military, industrial, and agricultural legacy that was discovered in the Rialto-Colton groundwater basin in 1997, according to U.S. Geological Survey studies. In 2005, the water district installed ion exchange systems on some wells with low concentrations of perchlorate. However, the district elected to use perchlorate-eating microbes to clean water with higher contamination levels and developed a small pilot project to test that technology before moving onto building a full-scale plant. The final permit for the plant was granted in May.
San Jose Mercury News - Sep 22 A federal judge has ruled against environmentalists who sued the U.S. Forest Service claiming the agency was letting Nestlé pipe water out of the San Bernardino National Forest on an expired permit. U.S. District Judge Jesus Bernal found that the permit held by Nestlé Waters North America “is still valid,” noting that Nestlé’s predecessor contacted the Forest Service to renew the permit before the old one expired in 1988, but never heard back from the agency. Environmental groups sued the federal government last year to halt the piping of water unless a new permit is obtained. They estimated that Nestlé siphoned 98,000 gallons of water a day from springs in the forest last year, bottling it as Arrowhead Mountain Spring Water.
