Conservationists believe an invasion may be coming that could change the ecology of Lake Tahoe forever.
Quagga and zebra mussels, which cluster onto boats, piers, old boots, beer cans, or anything else that lingers in the water, have infested lakes and reservoirs in California and across the West. A single quagga or zebra mussel lays 1 million eggs a year, so once one creature gets into the lake, "it's all over," said Michael Donahoe, conservation co-chair at the Tahoe Area Sierra Club. The mussels clog boat engines and gobble up fish food, and their razor-sharp shells can cut the feet of unsuspecting beachgoers.
Conservation groups filed an injunction on Thursday against additional pier and boat ramp construction on the lake, saying that increased boating would drive up the number of potential hosts for the menacing mussels.
No quagga or zebra mussels have been spotted in the lake, said Sierra Club's Ron Grassi, a volunteer boat inspector. But Grassi said he believes a contaminated boat will likely get past inspectors this summer. The mussels latch onto boats, kayaks, wet suits, and other gear, so recreationists could unknowingly transport them.
Boat inspectors check motor boats at launch sites for the tiny larvae, but Grassi says illegal launchers and non-motorized boats escape inspection.
On the busy Fourth of July weekend, Grassi said Friday, boats are lining up 30-deep to get into the water at designated launch points.
Fearing the invasion, the Los Angeles Department of Water and Power banned recreational watercraft on Klondike Lake in the Owens Valley in May.
But the Tahoe Regional Planning Agency is expanding the lake's boating capacity by permitting the construction of 128 private piers and six boat ramps as part of the Shorezone ordinance passed in October 2008.
-- Amy Littlefield
Photo: A paddle steamer carries tourists across Lake Tahoe's Emerald Bay. Credit: Christopher Reynolds/Los Angeles Times
Santa Monica has held itself up as a model of innovative energy policies, but now the city may be moving to hide away some of its solar technology.
Solar equipment must be installed "in the location that is least visible from the street" on certain properties, according to a 4-1 decision by the city council on Tuesday. The measure provides exceptions for when energy production would be decreased by more than 10% or the cost would go up significantly. It passed as part of an ordinance specifying standards for solar permits.
"From my perspective, the ordinance will simplify permitting for the installation of solar panels, and it still respects reasonable aesthetic concerns," said Mayor Ken Genser in a phone interview Thursday.
But Mary Luevano, policy director for Global Green, a Santa Monica-based advocacy group, said: "It creates what we think is unnecessary bureaucratic red tape. There are cities outside the state that are looking at Santa Monica, because they have been a leader for years."
Ozone can produce breathing problems and lead to smog production. One thing it doesn't do is clean up people's houses.
Despite the known health risks of ozone, manufacturers of indoor "air cleaners" have intentionally marketed devices that produce high levels of ozone, saying they will improve air quality, according to the California Air Resources Board. These manufacturers are the "snake-oil salesmen of the new millennium," Dimitri Stanich, a spokesman for the board, said today.
"We're encouraging consumers to recognize the absurdity of trying to use ozone to protect air quality," Stanich said. "It's putting a noxious chemical in the air to remove noxious chemicals."
In 2007, the Air Resources Board -- backed by Assembly Bill 2276 -- called for manufacturers to keep ozone emissions from air purifiers at under 50 parts per billion. Today, the board announced that it has certified 34 models of indoor air purifiers as safe.
Some models, such as ionic air purifiers, may produce small amounts of ozone, while models that use filters produce no ozone.
But manufacturers can still sell the old models until October 2010. To identify which models are certified as safe, some manufacturers may put a sticker on the box saying it meets state standards. Consumers can find a list of the certified models on the ARB website.
"These models are safe for sustained indoor use," ARB Chairman Mary D. Nichols said in a statement. "Consumers should be aware that distributors have until late 2010 to sell uncertified models. Some distributors are still pressing the absurd notion that ozone cleans the air and is safe for humans to breathe. Look for 'ARB Certified' labels on packaging and know that certification means no harmful amounts of ozone."
California will spend up to $2,911.1 billion on fossil fuels such as oil and coal between 2010 and 2030, according to a new study released Tuesday by the advocacy group Environment California. Using Department of Energy projections, the group found that the total amount spent on fossil fuel between 2010 and 2030 will amount to almost three times the total earnings of all California workers in 2007.
California has no coal plants within its borders, but utilities such as Los Angeles' Department of Water and Power purchase electricity from coal-fired power plants outside the state. The group's report highlights growing concern over U.S. dependence on foreign oil and over the health and environmental risks of fossil fuels. Fossil fuels are the leading contributors to both toxic air emissions and greenhouse gas pollution, it noted.
“Every additional dollar we spend on fossil fuels just buys us more global warming pollution, more smog, and more asthma attacks," said Jennifer Kim, a spokeswoman for Environment California.
The group released the study in the wake of the U.S. House of Representatives' passage of the massive Waxman-Markey Clean Energy Bill, to spur the use of renewable energy from the wind and sun, as well as curb planet-heating carbon dioxide gases which result from burning fossil fuels. But the legislation may have tough sledding in the U.S. Senate, where coal-dependent states wield more power.
-- Amy Littlefield
Photo: A California oil field. Credit:
Annie Wells/Los Angeles Times
The rest of the country may be catching up to California when it comes to limiting emissions of the air toxin nitrogen dioxide.
The EPA last Friday proposed to strengthen the limits on nitrogen dioxide (NO2), an air toxin that the agency says can lead to respiratory illnesses. Nitrogen dioxide is found in emissions from traffic and industrial facilities such as power plants. Even short-term exposure can increase the risk of respiratory effects, particularly among children, the elderly, and people with asthma, according to the EPA.
California already limits NO2 emissions to 30 parts per billion on average annually, while the federal limit would stay at 53 ppb per year under the new regulations.
However, California's hourly average limit for NO2 emissions is 180 parts per billion, while the EPA has proposed hourly limits of 80-100 parts per billion, and is taking comments on hourly limits as low as 65 ppb and as high as 150 ppb. The EPA is also proposing the use of a different format for calculating hourly averages.
The hourly limits are meant to curb the concentrated short term exposures that communities near highways might experience during peak traffic hours. Concentrations of NO2 are 30%-100% higher near major roads, according to Cathy Milbourn, a spokeswoman for EPA.
The federal proposal would also require states to implement monitoring devices for NO2 emissions particularly targeted at measuring emissions around major roads in areas with large urban populations -- a key issue for Los Angeles, where dense housing and schools are crowded close to freeways.
Representatives of more than 500 businesses -- including solar panel installers, venture capitalists and green janitorial services -- crowded into the Los Angeles Business Council's Sustainability Summit at the Getty Museum today, attesting to a growing surge of corporate interest in save-the-planet issues.
Green-washing? Well, some of the interest may be attributable to image-building. But the message from business leaders on several panels was that conserving energy and conducting environmentally friendly business is good for the bottom line.
Kevin L. Ratner, president of Forest City Residential West, a unit of the $10.9-billion Forest City development firm, acknowledged that building structures to meet the U.S. Green Building Council's standards of the Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) can add 1% to 2% to construction costs -- or up to 5% if one seeks the highest LEED "platinum" certification. But LEED buildings rent for 6% to 10% more, and tenants are less likely to leave, he said. Building green "enhances our public image and the image of those who occupy our buildings, and increases productivity of the occupiers.... It also saves you money."
With buildings responsible for 71% of electricity use nationwide, and 38% of planet-heating carbon dioxide emissions, it was no wonder that much of the summit focused on the built environment. Joseph Pettus, senior vice president of Safeway Inc., which owns Vons groceries, boasted that "we are putting solar panels on our roofs as fast as we can." He added that the company on Jan. 1 converted its fleet of vehicles to B20, a biodiesel fuel blend, but recently suspended the experiment "to take a look at it."
Michael Mahdesian, chairman of the Culver City janitorial firm, Servicon Systems, said using cleaning products that are less toxic, thus improving indoor air quality, can boost the points leading to a LEED certification by 26%. His firm, which cleans 70 million square feet a day in hospitals, aerospace factories and high rises, cleans "completely green," he said. "There are chemicals that are less harmful but can get the same job done.... We limit the use of water and chemicals.... We use paper that is post-consumer recycled." And even a small issue such as providing doorway mats will limit the dirt and moisture tracked into buildings, and limit inside air pollutants, he said.
Retail gasoline prices fell in California and nationally for the first time in several weeks, the Energy Department said Monday, but not deeply or early enough to stem what is expected to be another decline in local holiday driving over the Fourth of July weekend. The relief might also be short-lived as renewed violence in oil-rich Nigeria sent crude prices back above $71 a barrel.
At this time last June, the average cost of a gallon of self-serve regular gasoline was $4.573 in California and $4.095 nationally. Both were within range of the all-time record high fuel prices that were recorded last July.
It was the more recent past, however, that seemed to be bothering motorists Monday. California’s average price dropped 2.1 cents a gallon over the last week to $2.984, according to the Energy Department’s weekly survey of filling stations. But that small decline was the first drop since March 23 in a year in which California fuel prices have soared by more than 65%. They ended the year at just $1.81 a gallon.
"They go up like a rocket and come down like they are on a parachute," said Lloyd Haines, an auto repair mechanic as he filled up on $2.85-a-gallon gasoline at a Chevron station on his way to work Monday morning.
That might be one reason why the Auto Club of Southern California was reporting that fewer Southern Californians will travel for the Fourth of July holiday weekend, despite the availability of many travel bargains.
California will trade incentives for clunkers in a new effort to get smog-emitting cars off the road. An older state program only accepted cars made after 1976 that had failed a smog check. On Friday, the Air Resources Board decided to accept all cars, regardless of the year and whether they've failed a check.
UPDATE: You'll have to wait though. The state will start taking cars April 2010.
"It will encourage people to dump their old clunkers and purchase cleaner cars," said Karen Caesar, a spokeswoman for the ARB. "If you've had a car just sitting around that you seldom drive, it would be an opportunity for you to think about acquiring a new car, and it will help you make that choice."
Under the Enhanced Fleet Modernization Program, part of AB 118*, the state will now provide a $1,000 incentive if drivers turn their old cars over to dismantlers. Lower-income drivers could get $1,500.
Students from seven Southern California high schools have embraced a simple idea for bridging science and art to protect a species under siege: use digital cameras to document the life and times of California desert tortoises in their natural habitats.
The results are striking portraits of Gopherus agassizii -- peering out from dusty burrows, lumbering up steep ravines, cooling off their scuffed carapaces in the shade of creosote bushes -- that will be placed on exhibit in February in the Mojave National Preserve's historic Kelso Depot Desert Light Gallery.
Under the auspices of the Tortoises Through the Lens program, the students from Barstow High School, Needles High School, Desert High School, Excelsior Education Center, Victor Valley High School, Pete Knight High School, the Academy for Academic Excellence and a home-school program also developed a keen appreciation for tortoise conservation.
The California desert tortoise, whose population has fallen to an estimated 45,000 on public lands in the western Mojave, is protected under state and federal endangered species acts. But the tortoises, which can live for a century, are extremely sensitive and have complex social lives.
California cars may soon become the coolest in the country.
On Thursday, the Air Resources Board mandated that new cars sold starting in 2012 must feature windows that reflect or absorb the sun's heat. The board estimates the measure will prevent 700,000 metric tons of carbon dioxide from entering the atmosphere in the year 2020 by reducing the need for air conditioning. Such a reduction would be "roughly the equivalent of taking 140,000 cars off the road for a year," said a statement released by the ARB.
Despite groans from the industry, the board passed the measure at Thursday's meeting. The technology used to produce the new sun-deflecting glass will include applying a glass coating with tiny reflective bits of metal to car windows and windshields. The new windows will cost an estimated $70 on average for each car for the 2012 standard, and they will save the driver about $16 a year on gas.
Though the 2012 standard requires that windows block 45% of the sun's heat, a more stringent standard for 2016 will require that windows block 60%. The 2016 windows would cost $250 but would save the driver about $20 a year on gas.
This measure is one of many pieces of "low-hanging fruit" that the board will take care of before it digs into the next phase of its comprehensive climate plan, according to ARB spokesman Stanley Young. The board has focused on the transportation sector because vehicles produce the majority of greenhouse gas emissions in California. The state has already adopted groundbreaking measures to require tire checks from engine maintenance facilities and to implement technology that reduces the amount of refrigerant that escapes from "do-it-yourself" air-conditioners.
The Air Resources Board made headlines months ago amid rumors that it was considering banning heat-absorbing black cars. The board confirmed in March that is was not going to ban the popular car color.
--Amy Littlefield
Photo: Traffic on the Ventura Freeway. Credit: Al Seib / Los Angeles Times
It looks like L.A. air could be killing us in more ways than one.
Two studies released Wednesday have linked toxic air pollution in Southern California to cancer and complications with birth.
Exposure to local traffic-generated pollution increased the risk of major complications and preterm birth, concluded a report published online in Environmental Health Perspectives. Local scientists studied the relationship of traffic pollution, preterm birth and a complication called preeclampsia that can lead to maternal and perinatal morbidity.
By measuring pregnant women's exposure to chemicals emitted by local traffic (nitrogen oxides and particulate matter), the researchers concluded that the risk for preeclampsia increased by as much as 42% at the highest exposures. The risk for "very preterm delivery" (meaning delivery when the fetus is less than 30 weeks old) increased by as much as 128% for women exposed to the highest levels.
The study was the first to look at the connection between preeclampsia and air toxics. It focused on births in Los Angeles and Orange counties.
Meanwhile, an Environmental Protection Agency study found that Los Angeles has some of the highest levels of cancer-related toxic air pollutants in the country. For residents of Cerritos, located at the heart of the L.A. basin, the EPA estimated the cancer risk due to air toxics at 1,200 in 1 million, the highest in the country and more than 33 times the national average. The statistic represents the expected number of additional deaths per million people, based on a lifetime exposure to the chemicals.
Californians will have to wait until next month to see whether the state will approve the nation's first statewide carbon fee. In a meeting Thursday, the California Air Resources Board determined that more time was needed to iron out the details of the new regulations, which would be used to generate revenue for AB 32, California's groundbreaking climate legislation.
Under the new regulations, the state's biggest greenhouse gas polluters would pay a fee toward funding the estimated $36.2 million annual administrative cost of implementing the California Global Warming Solutions Act of 2006 or AB 32. Revenue generated by the fee would also be used to repay money that the EPA and ARB borrowed to implement the legislation over the last few years.
About 250 major polluters that contribute 85% of the state's greenhouse gases would bear the brunt of the financial burden under the new regulations. The cost to polluters would range from tens of thousands to hundreds of thousands of dollars a year depending on carbon output, according to the ARB's Stanley Young.
The industries affected by the new regulations include large natural gas distributors and users, refineries, plants that burn coal,
producers and importers of gas and diesel, cement manufacturers, and importers of out-of-state electricity, the ARB said. The board estimates that the added cost to consumers would be about $4 a year in increased fuel and utility costs for an
average household, and less than a penny per tank of gasoline.
Industry representatives and health and environmental advocates argued their case before the board on Thursday. The Sierra Club, Natural Resources Defense Council, American Lung Assn. and Planning and Conservation League announced their support for the bill. Industry representatives expressed concern over the issue of electricity that passes through but is not used in California. Citing that and other concerns, Chairman Mary D. Nichols moved to delay a decision until the board's next meeting in San Diego on July 23.
Opponents of the measure have also complained about a perceived lack of transparency from the Air Resources Board. An alliance of 16 taxpayer and commercial associations has filed a lawsuit against the ARB, alleging that the board has not heeded their request to produce records related to spending. Last week, the board released a document containing more than 5,000 pages. At Thursday's meeting, a representative said the groups had not had sufficient time to read the documents.
"We haven't even adopted the regulation, and we're already being sued," Nichols said.
Is whale-watching a recreational activity or a form of protest against commercial whaling? Environmentalists say it can be both.
Whale-watching generates $82 million a year in California alone, according to a new report by the International Fund for Animal Welfare. The profitability of whale-watching provides ammo in the philosophical battle against whale hunting countries like Japan, said Patrick Ramage, IFAW Whale Program Director.
"We should be shooting whales with cameras, not harpoons," Ramage said.
"Clearly, living whales in their environment are worth a lot more to us
than they are dead.
In California, more than 1.3 million people went on whale- or dolphin-watching expeditions in 2008, according to the report. On the sale of tickets for whale-watching boats alone, California generates more than $14 million a year. The number rises to $82 million when IFAW adds in expenses like hotel stays and food. Whale-watching expeditions now sally forth from shores in 119 countries worldwide, employing 13,500 people, Ramage said.
Only Japan, Iceland, and Norway still permit whale hunting. Their practices are currently under discussion at the International Whaling Commission meeting, which ends Friday in Portugal. More than 80 countries are meeting to determine the future of the commission, which was founded to promote commercial whaling in 1946. Whale advocates will present the IFAW study to the commission and make a case for watching whales over killing them.
Whales today face indirect threats from military sonar, which can cause the animals to panic and bolt to the surface, and from entanglement in fishing gear. Whale-watching expeditions generally don't harm the whales, Ramage said, unless operators are careless and collide with the whales with their boats.
Conservation groups are challenging a proposal by the National Marine Fisheries Service to allow the long-line swordfish industry near Hawaii to kill or injure almost three times as many loggerhead sea turtles as it currently ensnares in fishing lines. Swordfish lines, which stretch up to 60 miles, can ensnare and injure sea turtles and other marine creatures as they trail through the open ocean.
Fewer turtles will reach the U.S. West Coast, as a result, environmentalists warn. Loggerhead sea turtles, which journey from nests in Japan, are sometimes seen off the Southern California coast, where they feed on mollusks and crustaceans, says Andrea Treece, an attorney with San Francisco-based Center for Biological Diversity.
Leatherback sea turtles journey thousands of miles from their nesting places in Indonesia to feed on the plentiful jellyfish supply along the coast of Oregon and Northern and Central California, says Treece.
"These are turtles that we all kind of share, and root for, and care about," Treece says.
The proposal marks the next chapter in a struggle between conservation groups and long-line fishermen to sway the National Marine Fisheries Service. A lawsuit waged by environmental groups in 1999 led the Hawaii fishery to close down from 2001 to 2004. At the time, the fishery was trapping hundreds of sea turtles a year in their lines, according to Earthjustice attorney Paul Achitoff.
In 2004, the fishery reopened with new turtle-protecting regulations in place, Achitoff says. Fishermen used circular hooks and were limited in the number of times they could cast out their lines. Under the 2004 regulations, the fishery had to shut down if it caught 16 leatherbacks or 17 loggerheads. Now, proposed changes would allow the fleet to catch 46 loggerheads before shutting down, and would do away with the limit on the number of times boats could cast lines. The number of leatherbacks that could be caught would stay at 16.
Both loggerheads and leatherbacks are protected under the Endangered Species Act. Loggerheads are classified as threatened, and leatherbacks are classified as endangered.
The public has until Aug. 3 to comment on the proposed changes online here. (Note: An earlier version of this post said the deadline was Aug. 10.)
-- Amy Littlefield
Photo: A baby leatherback sea turtle crawls for the water on the Costa Rican shore. Credit: Ken Weiss/Los Angeles Times
A day after Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger was scolded in Fresno for not doing enough about this summer's farm-water shortages, he went to Mendota to issue yet another drought-related disaster declaration.
This one doesn't do much. It activates the California Disaster Assistance Act to help local government and nonprofits with food banks. It also waives the one-week waiting period to apply for jobless benefits.
But it gave the governor a chance to tramp around unplanted fields in the Central Valley, where drought and environmental restrictions have amped up the perennial "fish vs. farmers" rhetoric.
It turns out the Beijing Olympics were smoggier than we thought. Even Los Angeles on a bad day couldn't compete.
Chinese environmental experts under-reported levels of particle pollution by about 30%, according to scientists at Oregon State and Peking universities. New research shows that levels of particle pollution, which enters the lungs and can cause serious health problems, consistently surpassed what the World Health Organization would call "excessive."
Scientists said particulate matter pollution was twice as high as the Olympics in Athens, three times as high as Atlanta and three-and-a-half times higher than Sydney, Australia.
And compared with smoggy Los Angeles? The levels exceeded the L.A. average by about two to four times.
To give the Chinese government credit, Beijing had a big decrease in particle pollution leading up to the Games because of limits placed on driving ahead of time, according to the study. Still, it seems shifting winds and fortuitous rains had more impact in scaling back pollution than government restrictions.
The study was jointly funded by the U.S. and Chinese National Science Foundations.
--Amy Littlefield
Photo: Beijing's smog surpassed Los Angeles' levels by two to four times. Credit: Jean Chung / For The Times
A new study shows that 2007 diesel engines are belching out 90% less pollution than 2004 models when it comes to many toxic emissions.
The report by the Coordinating Research Council, a nonprofit research group, found that emissions of fine particulate matter, a dangerous pollutant that can get into people's lungs, has decreased by 99%. That's 89% lower than 2007 EPA standards.
Smog-producing hydrocarbons and carbon monoxide emissions also passed EPA standards with flying colors, dropping more than 90%, according to the study. Nitrogen oxides, another culprit in smog production, went down 70%, or 10% below required levels.
EPA's standards apply only to new diesel engines. California remains the only state to force truckers to clean up existing diesel engines, through controversial rules adopted in December 2008.
-- Amy Littlefield
Photo: Diesel trucks have been major contributors to smog in Los Angeles. Credit:
Al Seib / Los Angeles Times
Will California ban bisphenol A, a controversial chemical linked to hormone disruption and cancer? The state Senate passed a ban on the chemical in food and drink containers for children under 3 on June 2, and a July 15 state EPA hearing in Oakland will examine whether BPA should be added to California's Proposition 65 list of chemicals known to cause cancer or reproductive toxicity.
"All eyes are kind of on California in terms of Proposition 65," said Shannon Coughlin of the Breast Cancer Fund.
Proposition 65, a 1986 ballot initiative, requires the governor to annually publish a list of suspect chemicals. If BPA is added to the list, all products containing the chemical would carry warning labels, although such products would not be banned under the measure.
Companies whose products contain BPA are focusing lobbying efforts on California, according to meeting minutes leaked in May.
Connecticut, Minnesota, the city of Chicago and New York's Suffolk County have passed bans on BPA in young children's food and drink containers. California's proposed ban now lies in the hands of the state Assembly.
Controversy over BPA heated up last month when environmental groups leaked a memo from an official of the North American Metal Packaging Alliance describing a strategy to recruit pregnant women to promote the benefits of BPA. [Updated at 11:33 a.m. June 22: The document was allegedly a set of meeting notes from someone who attended the alliance's meeting. The group's chairman, John Rost, and Kathleen Roberts, a lobbyist for the alliance, verified its content for two publications.] BPA has been of particular concern to mothers because of studies that say it is dangerous for children's developing brains and bodies.
Colleges across the nation don't just compete on academics and sports. They vie over who is greenest and how to become more sustainable.
On Sunday, June 21, representatives from 70 campuses of the University of California, California State University and California Community Colleges systems will gather for four days of workshops and speeches in Santa Barbara at the 8th annual California Campus Sustainability Conference.
Anyone can watch the live webcast online by signing up for free Web registration and choosing among the sessions, which cover such topics as energy efficiency for medical centers and labs, sustainable food programs, and initiatives to reach carbon neutrality and zero waste.
The conference, titled "Working Our Way to Zero," will honor standout programs in building retrofits and operations, efficient lighting, and environmentally friendly design.
The EPA declared a public health emergency in Libby, Mont., after decades of asbestos-related diseases and deaths in the tiny community. Hundreds of people there have died and thousands have been sickened by a poisonous legacy of mining. W.R. Grace & Co. and its officials were acquitted in May of charges that officials knowingly concealed the dangers of mining asbestos-contaminated vermiculite. The company supplied more than 70% of U.S. vermiculite, a mineral used for insulation, from 1919 to 1990.
The announcement marks the first time the EPA has declared a public health emergency under the Comprehensive Environmental Response, Compensation and Liability Act (CERCLA), commonly known as Superfund, which took effect in 1980. EPA Administrator Lisa P. Jackson made the announcement at a joint news conference with Montana Sens. Max Baucus and Jon Tester and Department of Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius. Sebelius announced a grant for short-term medical care in the towns of Libby and Troy. The EPA will also continue its efforts to remove asbestos from the area.
“This is a tragic public health situation that has not received the recognition it deserves by the federal government for far too long,” Jackson said. “We’re making a long-delayed commitment to the people of Libby and Troy. Based on a rigorous re-evaluation of the situation on the ground, we will continue to move aggressively on the cleanup efforts and protect the health of the people.”
-- Amy Littlefield
Photo: A former W.R. Grace & Co. mine worker protests outside
the trial against the company. Credit: Michael
Albans / Associated Press
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