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LA Bans Plastic Bags – Stockton Should Follow!

Los Angeles to become largest US city banning plastic bags

The Los Angeles City Council has voted to move forward with a controversial ban on single-use plastic grocery bags – a move designed to reduce landfill waste and debris in local waterways.

Los Angeles will become the largest city in the United States to impose a plastic-bag ban, with some 7,500 affected stores and nearly 4 million residents. The city council vote, which took place Wednesday, sets in motion a months-long process including an environmental review, enactment of an ordinance, and a phase-in period that affects larger stores first, according to news reports.

Click here to read more at CSMonitor.com

 

Brown Administration to push through Peripheral Canal say Delta groups

Gov. Jerry Brown has decided to push through a plan to build a peripheral canal around the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta to siphon fresh water out of the Sacramento River before it enters the Delta and ship it to San Joaquin Valley farmers and Los Angeles, says the group Restore the Delta.

The outline of the plan was relayed Thursday in a phone call by Natural Resources Agency Secretary John Laird and on Wednesday by Department of Water Resources Deputy Director Jerry Meral in a phone call to the Five Delta County Coalition, according to Restore the Delta.

But a spokesman for Mr. Meral says he knows nothing about such a call and a spokesman for Mr. Laird flatly denies any decision has been made.

Click here to read more at Central Valley Business Times

 

China turns 630-acre mining dump into paradise

China’s Landscape Architects Undo the Damage of Development

Chinese landscape architects are buffeted by two trends changing the planet: the information technology revolution coming out of the U.S. and one of the largest mass migrations in history, the current process of urbanization in China, said Liang Wei, PhD, a landscape architect and professor at the Beijing Tsinghua Urban Planning & Design Institute (THUPDI), at the American Institute of Architects convention in Washington, D.C. Liang said 10  million new residents are moving into Chinese cities each year, with one billion new square feet being built to accomodate the influx. By 2020, China will be 65 percent urban, which means landscape architects, planners, and architects have an unbelievable amount of work to do to make these new cities more livable, sustainable, and scalable while also undoing the worst environmental damages.

One example of this is the new 680-hectare Beijing Olympic Forest Park, designed by Hu Jie, ASLA, head of the landscape architecture department at THUPDI. The project, which has picked up an ASLA professional award among others, was a team effort led by Hu that included some 200-300 experts from many disciplines. A new mountain, Yangshan Hill, was built out of the reclaimed debris from the new Beijing subway and Olympic stadium construction projects. In the same way, the new 20-hectare lake was filled with reclaimed water. The lake water, which is residential grey water, as well runoff, rain, and flood water, is cleansed through a man-made 4-acre wetland, where it’s then used to maintain the landscape.

Click here to read more and see cool pictures at thedirt.org

The ability of the Chinese landscape architects and community to transform this dump into a paradise is truly inspiring… and it makes the idea of developing a series of river parkways and connecting them throughout the the Calaveras River Watershed seem that much more feasible! – Jeremy

 

California Fish and Game sues U.S. Army Corps over levee trees

The state of California sued the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers on Wednesday to fight rules that could eliminate trees on levees in Sacramento and statewide.

The Department of Fish and Game filed the suit in federal court in Sacramento, alleging the Corps’ levee maintenance policy violates the Endangered Species Act and other laws. Fish and Game initially sought to join a similar lawsuit filed last year by Friends of the River and other environmental groups, but was denied on technical grounds.

Click here to read more at Sacbee.com

 

 

Brown slashes budget while promoting $14 billion canal

In an interview with Charlie Rose on “CBS This Morning” May 18, Governor Jerry Brown called for tax hikes to bring down a budget deficit of nearly $16 billion – while promoting the construction of a budget-busting $14 billion peripheral canal or tunnel.

Brown’s estimate of the cost of the canal at $14 billion is up from the “over $10 billion” estimate he made in January.

However, the real cost of the canal, proposed under the Bay Delta Conservation Plan (BDCP) to divert more water from the California Delta to corporate agribusiness and Southern California, is much larger. Economist Jerry Kasower in 2009 estimated that the actual cost of the project would range from $23 billion to $53.8 billion, depending on whether a canal or tunnel is chosen.

Click here to read more at Indybay.org

 

Kohl School Students Experience a Contaminated Calaveras River

By: Nan Ballot, FLCR Steering Committee     

Friday, April 20, 2012 - Kohl School students from John Niemi’s K/1 class and Desiree Forsberg’s 4, 5,and 6 class along with Dr. Dirt, aka Dale Sanders, walked to the Calaveras River to engage in scientific studies of the fauna and flora found on the north side of the river, an annual event.

The focus of their studies quickly changed upon arrival at the levee where a sign had been posted that morning warning of contaminated river water(see photo).

What event had occurred to cause this warning to be posted?

The morning newspaper, The Record, had reported that a 3 alarm fire, which required 12 fire vehicles, had destroyed a nearby strip mall which housed a nail shop, a Laundromat and a water depot early Thursday morning. Water poured on the flames by the firemen, became highly toxic, washed directly to the storm drain on the street.

The pipes direct the waste water to the pumping station near Kohl School on Brookside Road, from there it was pumped to the Calaveras river. The pumps turn on automatically when water, generally from storms, pours in. Workmen at the pumping station indicated the sludge water had caused the pumps to malfunction. They were rerouting the waste water through hoses to the sewer pipes where the destiny of the polluted water is to the waste water treatment plant before final release, now cleaned, into the river.

Storm drains dump directly into the river without any treatment, in this case highly polluted water was pumped into the Calaveras River.

 

Prestigious panel agrees: Delta is stressed, with no easy fix

Matt Weiser,  Sac Bee

A comprehensive new study on the Delta’s environmental problems concludes there is no easy fix, only hard choices, if California wants to restore fish species and still satisfy its water demands.

The study by the National Research Council,released Thursday, was conducted at the request of members of Congress and the Obama administration. The 17 participating scientists, from various disciplines and regions of the country, took two years to complete the report.

Those experts say Californians must accept “scarcity” as a new watchword for its statewidewater supplies. That doesn’t mean doing without, but recognizing everyone can’t always have all the water they want.

Click here to read more at Sacbee.com

 

A Vision for the Calaveras River Parkway Trust

One of the latest ideas FLCR Coordinator Jeremy Terhune is exploring  with the community is the concept of  forming  a Calaveras River Parkway Trust.

The Calaveras River watershed begins at California Big Trees State Park. The upper reaches are mostly on private land; the river is dramatically altered as it passes Bellota Wei and Stockton and eventually reaches the San Joaquin River.The Calaveras River may look like nothing more than an irrigation ditch as it passes through underserved neighborhoods in Stockton, but it is a vitally important waterway for farmers, residential and recreational users and wildlife.

From Calaveras County to San Joaquin County, the Calaveras River there are myriad opportunities to enhance native riparian vegetation and provide public access  to educate community members of all ages about the Calaveras River and the natural values of the historic riparian corridor.

University of the Pacific, Friends of the Calaveras River, and River Partners have received $40,000 in funding from the National Fish and Wildlife Foundation to kick-start restoration efforts with a 3 acre native grass restoration Project along the banks of the Calaveras in the heart of the City of Stockton.

Developing a series of parkway from Stockton to Big Trees will provide a much needed opportunity for families and youth to get outdoors, improve their health, and learn about the River!

To engage a wide network of public, private, and  partners to develop safe places along Calaveras River Watershed where wildlife thrives and    families and individuals can relax, recreate, and enjoy the beauty of nature.

 

Monitoring the Health of your Watershed? There’s an App for that!

Creek Watch is an iPhone application that enables you to help monitor the health of your local watershed. Whenever you pass by a waterway, spend a few seconds using the Creek Watch application to snap a picture and report how much water and trash you see. We aggregate the data and share it with water control boards to help them track pollution and manage water resources. You can use the map on the left to explore the data that people have contributed, or see recent contributions as a table.

The Creek Watch App uses four pieces of data:

1. The amount of water: empty, some, or full.
2. The rate of flow: still, moving slowly, or moving fast.
3. The amount of trash: none, some (a few pieces), or a lot (10 or more pieces).
4. A picture of the waterway.

Click here to visit the CreekWatch website and to download the App

 

Worries mount for Sierra, water supply Worries mount for Sierra, water supply

Alex Breitler, Record

Even an extra day of February – and a rainy one, at that – could not salvage another dismally dry month in Stockton and the rest of California.

Stockton remains in danger of having its driest winter since 1975-76, depending on what March and April have to offer.

“It ain’t over yet,” said walnut farmer Tom McGurk, whose orchards may not have the soil moisture they need this summer if Mother Nature does not deliver.

In 20 years of farming east of Linden, the least amount of rain McGurk ever got was 10 inches. The most was 21 inches.

Right now he is at 4.5 inches, with time running out.

Click here to read more at Recordnet.com