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Scoop.it!
25 days rafting through the Grand Canyon meant no access to the news — and a new reality when the trip ended. 
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Scoop.it!
A documentary exploring the past, present, and visions for the future of Taylor Yard
PIRatE Lab's insight:
A big piece of the LA River Restoration puzzle.
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Scientists uncover clues about how green sea turtles are adapting to life in the San Gabriel River's murky flows
PIRatE Lab's insight:
Left out of this article is the fact that we now have evidence that there is connectivity between our San Diego and Long Beach populations (a tagged individual from this San Gabriel River site just was located in southern San Diego Bay in early June).
While the video is correct to say we need continued improvement in the ecological condition of this waterway, the main reason the turtles are hear is the heat plume from the local power plant's discharge which elevated the water temperature to something more comfortable to the more semi-tropical and tropical species.
Scoop.it!
When we look at areas impacted by natural disasters (or "natural" disasters as some would say), a natural reaction by those from afar runs the gamut from...
PIRatE Lab's insight:
Here is a lecture proving an overview of the Oroville Dam situation in the context of hazards and risk. There have been many parallels with responses to other natural disasters such as wildfires in California and the flooding of New Orleans post Katrina.
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Take a flight in the Luscombe over the Oroville Spillway just prior to overtopping.
PIRatE Lab's insight:
Climate change is giving us both increased droughts and increased rainfall events in climate crazy California. Both of these situations have been long predicted, driven by the unprecedented anthropogenic greenhouse gas build-up in our atmosphere. Oroville is the tallest dam in the United States and (thanks to the intense precipitation this year) the focus of national attention and concern over infrastructure in the wake of a climate changed world. The most recent estimate pegs the repair of the eroding concrete channel at perhaps $100-200 million (and we are only in early February). See also these refs: nice overview/explanation of the current conditions at the dam: https://youtu.be/jIzldNLv8ww erosion video: https://youtu.be/d56oKCmjMHM Agency update: https://youtu.be/P87mjrohSpk Construction of the Oroville Dam: https://youtu.be/p_5udzKfLQM
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State regulators said Duke Energy, a utility already under a federal investigation for pollution, may have illegally released wastewater last week from a second site upriver of Raleigh.
PIRatE Lab's insight:
Nothing to see here. Move along.
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A recent report by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency concluded that 55 percent of U.S. rivers and streams are in poor condition. Many of us might not realize just how many rivers and streams there are in the United States. This map gives you an idea of how many there are; visit the link to see many beautiful different visualizations of rivers in the U.S., as well as an interactive map that you can play with and zoom in and out of to see the rivers in your area. All river data comes from the NHDPlus dataset, a geo-spatial, hydrologic framework dataset envisioned by the US Environmental Protection Agency. Via Lauren Moss
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Excess phosphorus can run off into streams and lakes and become an ecological disaster.
PIRatE Lab's insight:
A great discussion of one of the many "hidden" downsides of the Green Revolution. Nitrogen is the classic "limiting nutrient" (side note: I hate the whole "limiting" element line of argument/thought...although that is a story for another day) for terrestrial ecosystems (particularly agricultural systems). Phosphorus is the classic "limiting nutrient" for aquatic systems.
Those of us working on coastal estuaries and water bodies are the "bottom of the drain" if you will and so have taken the heaviest hit in terms of the dark side of our new normal of meat production post-WWII.
Anyone interested can check out our first attempt to inventory 30 coastal estuaries in the Mediterranean climate region of the Southern California Bight (here and here).
There really is not that much we can do to mitigate this pollutant once it gets into the waterbody itself. Hence the focus on reducing inputs and (among other things) modifying how we produce meat.
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BUENOS AIRES, Argentina (AP) â€" An attack by a school of carnivorous fish has injured 70 people bathing in an Argentine river, including seven children who lost parts of their fingers or toes.
PIRatE Lab's insight:
I wonder if "Parana River" might have been a clue?
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The state Department of Toxic Substances Control has issued an emergency order directing a Vernon battery recycler to clean up lead and other metals that have been deposited near the Exide Technologies plant.
PIRatE Lab's insight:
As I have posted before, this particular situation in Boyle Heights (a traditionally poor, hispanic neighborhood in Los Angeles) appears to be a pretty clear example of environmental injustice.
Having worked on instances of materials/waste stored too close to a waterway/floodplain, I can say that the potential water contamination issue is a relatively simple one to remedy and should be something correctable over the course of a few days/weeks. The aerial emissions is a different story and is a case of needing to expend much money and enact various engineering/design modifications. That is likely to be a substantial cost to Exide and take on the order of many, many months (if not a year or more) to complete.
I am very sensitive to the regulatory burdens our heavy industries here in California are subjected to. They are often onerous and not necessarily the most efficient/effective wayd to achieve an environmental or public health benefit. And regulators not infrequently turn a deaf ear to the plight of heavy industries in a global marketplace. But having said that, this case does indeed appear to be an example where regultory enforcement should proceed forthwith. The apparent foot dragging here by the company is disappointing.
The classic proverbial environmental justice question here is; "Would Exide be allowed to be operating this way in L.S.'s tonier locales of Santa Monica, Malibu, or Pacific Palisades?"
It is also important to note that I like the Exides of the world operating here in the U.S. and California in particular. I believe it is the height of hypocracy to allow this work to happen in Inda, China, Nigeria, etc. when the users/consumers of these products are in the developed, affluent world. We should bear the burden of these industries and assure that they operate under our laws and pass on the cost to we the consumers, not our poorer friends around the world least able to manage such industrial activities. The goal here should be justice both for responsible industries and the airshed/people/ecosystems where they operate. Beware the siren song of the folks who would simply have us drive this producer permanental away, out of sight and out of mind.
PIRatE Lab's curator insight,
December 19, 2013 3:11 AM
As I have posted before, this particular situation in Boyle Heights (a traditionally poor, hispanic neighborhood in Los Angeles) appears to be a pretty clear example of environmental injustice.
Having worked on instances of materials/waste stored too close to a waterway/floodplain, I can say that the potential water contamination issue is a relatively simple one to remedy and should be something correctable over the course of a few days/weeks. The aerial emissions is a different story and is a case of needing to expend much money and enact various engineering/design modifications. That is likely to be a substantial cost to Exide and take on the order of many, many months (if not a year or more) to complete.
I am very sensitive to the regulatory burdens our heavy industries here in California are subjected to. They are often onerous and not necessarily the most efficient/effective wayd to achieve an environmental or public health benefit. And regulators not infrequently turn a deaf ear to the plight of heavy industries in a global marketplace. But having said that, this case does indeed appear to be an example where regultory enforcement should proceed forthwith. The apparent foot dragging here by the company is disappointing.
The classic proverbial environmental justice question here is; "Would Exide be allowed to be operating this way in L.S.'s tonier locales of Santa Monica, Malibu, or Pacific Palisades?"
It is also important to note that I like the Exides of the world operating here in the U.S. and California in particular. I believe it is the height of hypocracy to allow this work to happen in Inda, China, Nigeria, etc. when the users/consumers of these products are in the developed, affluent world. We should bear the burden of these industries and assure that they operate under our laws and pass on the cost to we the consumers, not our poorer friends around the world least able to manage such industrial activities. The goal here should be justice both for responsible industries and the airshed/people/ecosystems where they operate. Beware the siren song of the folks who would simply have us drive this producer permanental away, out of sight and out of mind. |
Scoop.it!
From
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The only way to access the towns, which are under mandatory evacuation, is by boat.
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To halt the illegal flow of raw sewage into Nova Scotia’s LaHave River, it took a determined 11-year-old with water samples and a Facebook page.
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The ironically-named New River, whose putrid brown water runs like a primordial stew, spans from Mexico's city of Mexicali through California's Imperial Valley.
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Toxic chemicals from illegal marijuana farms hidden deep in California's forests are showing up in rivers and streams that feed the state's water supply, prompting fears that humans and animals may be at risk, data reviewed by Reuters show.
PIRatE Lab's insight:
Yet another reason to bring these operations in the sunshine of legality and under the constraints of rational environmental regulation.
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Officials said the bedrock beneath the Oroville spillway would withstand massive release of water. They were wrong.
PIRatE Lab's insight:
We are seeing more great pieces about the risks and engineering problems with both Oroville Dam and the other dams and water management projects across California and the U.S. A few of these include: Clear engineering/design troubles with Oroville: A piece on folks "fighting" flooding: http://www.latimes.com/local/california/la-me-ln-feather-river-20170220-story.html Flooding elsewhere in California: Oroville's most recent timeline:
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Any dam engineer would be terrified of this nightmare scenario — the possible collapse of a retaining wall in California’s second largest reservoir. That’s the prospect officials faced when they ordered more than 100,000 people evacuated downstream of the nation’s tallest dam Sunday. I
PIRatE Lab's insight:
Undercutting at the base of an engineered wall/dam/levee = New Orleans all over again.
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Some streets in Imperial Beach were flooded over the weekend with sewage-contaminated water after the mouth of the Tijuana River that opens into the ocean was blocked due to sand creating an overflowing, stagnant pool of water that killed some wildlife and endangered others.
PIRatE Lab's insight:
You may have heard that the Tijuana River Mouth closed to tidal circulation on around March 28th, 2016. The last time a closure happened was during the 1983 El Niño year. Storm surges and currents deposited sand from the north to block the mouth of the river again this year. Many of the other lagoons in the County close every year because their rivermouths are restricted by the coast highway and railroad.
In 2012, approximately 30 acres -three feet tall- of sand were deposited on the beaches in Imperial Beach north of the estuary as part of the SANDAG 2012 Regional Beach Sand Project. This material contributed to the mouth closure. According to our data logger near the end of Seacoast Drive in Imperial Beach (see below), the level of dissolved oxygen in the water, critical for fish to breathe, started to decrease around April 7th. That happened because no oxygenated ocean water was entering the marsh. Then the estuary became flooded with polluted water from runoff from the watershed. This water started to flood the south end of Seacoast Drive during the evening of April 10th. The river mouth was reopened on April 11th, using heavy equipment to move enough sand to let the perched water flow out to sea (see above). This closure resulted in poor water quality conditions as over 1000 acres -one foot tall- of sewage contaminated water flooded the estuary with runoff from the watershed. This caused the dissolved oxygen (DO) in the water to drop to zero (milligrams per liter) (see DO graph below) and a widespread die off of fishes and invertebrates in the estuary followed including several leopard and smoothhound sharks and shovel-nosed guitar fish. After only 19 days, however, the river mouth was blocked off again on April 30th (see the Depth graph leveling off) so Refuge staff is staying on top of it to attempt to keep it open.
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SEATTLE -- Now that the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency has begun the yearlong process that could lead to halting construction on the controversial Pebble Mine, stakeholders in Alaska’s bountiful Bristol Bay are weighing in.
PIRatE Lab's insight:
I very much like this piece. It nicely and (in my opinion) fairly outlines the positions of advocates on various sides of this issue. Nice and clean.
If you would like a more in-depth story to give you more context, see this associated, more traditional news story which uses most of these same quotes: http://www.latimes.com/nation/la-na-pebble-mine-20140301,0,1991162.story#axzz2upeG9ttM
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The head of the Environment Agency has admitted dredging is likely to go ahead in the Somerset Levels to prevent further flooding, amid claims the region has become a “disaster area” due to decades of under-investment.
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David Rumsey scanned and uploaded 11,502 maps and cartographic artifacts from his magnificent collection in 2013. They included this neato comparative view of the world's rivers originally published in London in 1817. The accompanying text describes the Missouri River, recently navigated by Lewis and Clark, as "extremely devious."
PIRatE Lab's insight:
I love old, historical maps like this. The artwork itself is often awesome. But even more interesting to me is the suite of insights you can gleam from these slightly off kilter (sometimes better than now, sometimes worse than now) takes on the world we are used to thinking of thanks to photos or high resolution aerial images.
Playing around on this website is way more fun than random web searching: try California to find neat things like this cool graphic...
http://www.davidrumsey.com/luna/servlet/detail/RUMSEY~8~1~245287~5514285:Southern-California-Borderland-?sort=Pub_List_No_InitialSort%2CPub_Date%2CPub_List_No%2CSeries_No&qvq=q:California;sort:Pub_List_No_InitialSort%2CPub_Date%2CPub_List_No%2CSeries_No;lc:RUMSEY~8~1&mi=18&trs=5444
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A new grant from the National Science Foundation (NSF) will help CSU Channel Islands (CSUCI) students study the effects of wildfire on the area’s ecosystem. The grant funds a collaborative research partnership between CI, UC Santa Barbara and University of Colorado Denver to systematically examine the impacts of wildfire on chaparral and watersheds. Linda O’Hirok, a lecturer in CSUCI’s Environmental Science & Resource Management program, is leading six students in the project this semester. A main focus of their investigation is Big Sycamore Canyon, which burned during the May 2013 Springs Fire that scorched 24,000 acres and threatened the CSUCI campus. They’re comparing the resilience of the recently-burned landscape with three similar sites in the region: a tributary of Matilija Creek that burned during the July 1985 Wheeler Fire, a tributary of Malibu Creek that burned in 1993, and an unburned tributary in Wildwood Canyon. “The growing danger of wildfires has increased our need to understand the way watersheds respond,” said O’Hirok. “By studying and measuring the post-fire runoff and erosion at four different sites in four different stages of recovery, we can piece together a compelling story of the short- and long-term effects of wildfire in chaparral environments. This could help us better predict dangers from erosion and flooding after wildfire and guide emergency planning.”
PIRatE Lab's insight:
Great work here by my colleage Linda O'Hiok. This highlights the value of long-term, often under- or non-funded, "unsexy" monitoring work. The decades-long monitoring of the geomorphology of this coastal stream is poised to help us better predict how and when coastal watershed will mobilize debris post burn...as soon as our winter starts...any day now...I hope!
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For the first time since the Los Angeles River was channelized in the 1930s, the public will be welcomed to walk, fish, and kayak on a 2.5 mile portion of the L.A. River in Elysian Valley.
PIRatE Lab's insight:
This is a great program that we have been foster for the last couple of years. It has built up momentum each year and is finally all grown up. Folks interested should sign up early as openings have filled quickly in recent years.
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