Environmental and Policy Focus
Sacramento Bee - Oct 5
Californians continued to backslide on water conservation during the hottest summer on record, worrying regulators and frustrating environmentalists critical of a new policy enacted this spring that allows most urban water districts to avoid mandatory cuts in water use. On Wednesday, the State Water Resources Control Board announced that statewide water consumption rose by about 10 percent in August of this year compared with 2015. It was the third straight month that water usage increased compared with a year earlier. In May, the water board retreated from the mandatory statewide urban conservation program it had adopted in 2015 by order of Governor Jerry Brown, doing away with the monthly conservation targets that had been set for each urban water district. Under the 2015 program, more than 400 urban water suppliers were ordered to cut usage by an average of 25 percent compared with 2013.
Western Farm Press - Sep 29
The California Department of Pesticide Regulation (DPR) wants to further restrict pesticide use near schools and day-care centers. If approved, the move will standardize procedures across the state that currently vary by county. The regulation would affect about 3,500 schools and child day-care facilities, and involve approximately 2,500 growers in California. The proposed regulation would require annual notification by the grower as to the types of pesticides to be used during the upcoming year, and application-specific 48-hour notifications as to the timing for the pesticide applications, which will be restricted to certain days and times to minimize any impacts on the schools and day-care centers. A final regulation is expected to become effective September 2017.
Ventura County Star - Sep 29
A design change in NRG Energy’s proposed Puente Project power plant at an Oxnard beach is expected to delay the approval process before the California Energy Commission. NRG decided to redesign the project and reroute the water discharge from the power plant to the beach, which would translate into greater beach access for the public. The new power plant, which would not use ocean water for cooling, is being proposed to replace old power plants that state law requires be retired due to their use of ocean water for cooling. Opponents say that without needing ocean water, a new power plant doesn't need to be on the beach. Residents who oppose the project say the matter is one of environmental justice, claiming that such a facility would never be considered in affluent and predominantly white coastal communities such as Santa Monica and Santa Barbara.
New York Times - Oct 1
For more than a century, water from a spring at the base of Mount Shasta has been piped to the homes in the city of Weed. For the past 50 years, Oregon-based Roseburg Forest Products has charged Weed, a town of 2,700 residents, $1 a year for use of water from the Beaughan Spring, located in a pine forest owned by Roseberg. As of July, Roseburg began charging the city $97,500 annually. A contract signed this year directs Weed to look for alternative sources for its water supply. Roseburg’s plans for the water currently being provided to the city have not been made public, but it already sells water to Crystal Geyser Alpine Spring, which bottles it in Weed and ships it as far away as Japan. Weed residents claim they have documentation that the prior owner of the timber company, International Paper, conveyed water rights to the city in 1982. The city could file a lawsuit against Roseburg or, alternatively, drill a new well at a cost of around $2 million, though there are concerns that the proposed new well site would be impacted by contaminated groundwater nearby. A measure on the November ballot in Siskiyou County, where Weed is located, would for the first time require that companies obtain permits to export water.
Reuters - Oct 6
The United Nations' International Civil Aviation Organization approved a landmark accord on Thursday to curb aviation pollution. The global carbon offseting plan, the first such scheme for a single industry, is expected to slow the growth of emissions from commercial flights, costing the industry less than 2 percent of revenues. The system will be voluntary from 2021 to 2026 and mandatory from 2027 for countries with larger aviation industries. Airlines will have to buy carbon credits from designated environmental projects around the world to offset growth in emissions. The U.S. Department of State, which long pushed for a deal, said it "puts the industry on a path toward sustainable, carbon-neutral growth." Environmentalists argue the scheme would not meet its own goals because of the voluntary phase and exceptions protecting smaller markets.
