Focus
A new plan seeks to protect California’s coast against a rising ocean. And it doesn’t require sea walls.
The Mercury News – August 12
Recent raging winter storms have caved in streets, wrecked piers, collapsed homes and apartment buildings, and submerged property up and down California’s coastline. As sea levels continue to rise from climate change, scientists are working on a real-world experiment that could help reduce the impacts. At a 247-acre property near the Santa Cruz-Monterey county line, crews are planning to protect against flooding — not by trying to hold back the ocean with larger sea walls — but by converting flood-prone and low quality farmland into tidal wetlands, similar to what existed a century or more ago. By creating wetlands, the project aims to create a buffer where flood waters can move in and settle, losing their energy, and thereby protecting nearby farmland and property.
News
Air Force bucks EPA order to clean up PFAS in Arizona, citing Supreme Court Chevron doctrine ruling
Military.com – August 12
Air Force lawyers are fighting an emergency order from the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) requiring the service to clean contaminated drinking water in Arizona, pointing to a recent Supreme Court ruling that restricts judicial deference to regulatory agencies – referred to as “Chevron deference” – as justification to dodge the EPA mandate. In a letter issued last month, lawyers for the Air Force argued that a landmark June decision by the court in Loper Bright Enterprises v. Raimondo that reduced regulatory agencies’ powers by pushing authority to the courts to interpret ambiguous laws makes EPA’s order moot. EPA issued an order to the Air Force and Air National Guard on May 26 citing the Safe Drinking Water Act and requiring the service abate the imminent and substantial threat to human health presented by the presence of PFAS in groundwater underlying the Tucson International Airport and surrounding areas.
California seeks Biden administration approval for controversial diesel truck ban
CalMatters – August 14
California Air Resources Control Board Chair, Liane Randolph, California’s top air quality regulator, this week urged EPA to “immediately” approve the state’s regulation phasing out diesel trucks. More than 250 people signed up to speak at a virtual EPA hearing on Thursday, focusing on whether EPA should grant California a waiver that allows the state to enact its regulation. Adopted in 2023, California’s mandate is the first in the world to ban new diesel trucks and force a switch to zero-emission big rigs, garbage trucks, delivery trucks and other medium and heavy-duty vehicles. No new fossil-fueled medium-duty and heavy-duty trucks would be sold in the state starting in 2036. Large trucking companies also must convert fleets to electric or hydrogen models by 2042. The diesel ban is one of the most far-reaching and controversial rules that California has enacted in recent years to reduce air pollution and greenhouse gases.
Richmond drops bid for Chevron refinery tax in $550 million deal with company
KQED – August 14
The Richmond City Council has terminated a November ballot measure that would have imposed a new oil-refining tax on Chevron, voting unanimously this Wednesday to approve a $550 million settlement with the company instead. Under the settlement, which was the product of a week of intensive negotiations, Chevron has agreed to pay the city $50 million a year for the next five years and $60 million a year for the five years after that. Richmond officials said the agreement, confirmed in a 7–0 council vote, represents a victory in a long battle to get Chevron to compensate the community for the effects of its pollution on the city’s 114,000 residents. Despite the settlement, the City Council and Richmond residents retain the right to impose new taxes on the company. Chevron is Richmond’s largest employer and taxpayer.
State water board scolds IBWC for not fixing sewage treatment plant
The San Diego Union-Tribune – August 14
The International Boundary and Water Commission, the binational agency that operates an aging wastewater treatment plant at the U.S.-Mexico border that is allowing Tijuana sewage to foul South County shorelines, said it won’t meet this week’s deadline to bring the broken system into compliance with federal water quality standards. IBWC Commissioner Maria-Elena Giner told the San Diego Regional Water Quality Control Board on Wednesday that continuing equipment failures and political challenges made it impossible to get three of the five primary treatment tanks online by Thursday, as had been promised. In 2021, the water board issued a cease-and-desist order requiring the IBWC to fix the plant, but the plant has remained out of compliance.
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