A New Water Source That Could Make Drought a Thing of the Past

By Ellen Brown : scheerpost – excerpt

Oceans of water are beneath our feet, and new technologies are extracting it economically without ecological damage.

Lack of fresh water is now a global crisis. Water shortages mean food shortages, with hunger creating death tolls substantially exceeding those of the current Covid-19 crisis. According to the United Nations, some 800 million people are without clean water, and 40% of the world’s population is impacted by drought. By one measure, almost 100 percent of the Western United States is currently in drought, setting an all-time 122-year record. Meanwhile, local “water wars” rage, with states, cities and whole countries battling each other for scarce water resources. 

The ideal solution would be new water flows to add to the hydrologic cycle, and promising new scientific discoveries and technologies are holding out that possibility. But mainstream geologists have long contended that water is a fixed, non-renewable resource —and vested interests are happy to profit from that limiting proposition. Declaring water “the new oil,” an investor class of “Water Barons” —including wealthy billionaire tycoons, megabanks, mega-funds and investment powerhouses — has cornered the market by buying up water rights and water infrastructure everywhere. As Jo-Shing Yang, author of “Solving Global Water Crises,” wrote in a 2012 article titled “The New ‘Water Barons’: Wall Street Mega-Banks are Buying up the World’s Water”:…(more)

Housing justice relies on a strong CEQA

By Ashley Werner, Special to CalMatters

For generations, public agencies have directed highways, landfills, meat processing plants, warehouses and other polluting facilities to South Fresno neighborhoods, an area of the San Joaquin Valley that is predominantly populated by lower income households and people of color.

This activity has turned South Fresno into one of the most environmentally burdened neighborhoods in the state. Every day, thousands of trucks rumble past homes and schools. Domestic wells have run dry as warehouse landscaping springs up around them.

2020’s devastating hardships brought important truths about the enduring legacy of structural racism and inequity in California to the forefront of public awareness. Some recognized for the first time that many communities suffer from a lack of access to clean air, reliable drinking water, quality housing, safe parks and other basic amenities due to this legacy.

It does not need to be this way...(more)

New Power Plants Are California’s Latest Effort To Avoid Rolling Blackouts

By syndicated Sacramento : msn – excerpt

ROSEVILLE (CBS13) — The State of California is flexing a new muscle to strengthen the power grid in the fight to stop Northern California’s devastating rolling blackouts.

State grid operators say we currently face a 3,500-watt energy shortfall this year—and next summer looks even worse.

So now Roseville Electric and other utilities are doing what they can to increase supply.

New power plants are California’s latest effort to help keep the lights on.

“These units were specifically brought on to address some of what we’ve seen in the last two years with the heat-related emergencies,” said Erin Frye with Roseville Electric…(more)

No mention of what the source of the power is for these emergency power plants.

Bring Your Own Brigade. There is light and hope for the western states.

Enjoy and open to a new way of seeing threat of fire. 

This is an important film helping us to shift our relationship with fire.It is a must see for those in harm’s way.And for those who love them. Please watch. 

Two-time Oscar-nominated filmmaker Lucy Walker captures the horror and heroism of the deadliest week of wildfires in California history and explores the causes of what she calls a “global fire crisis” in the CBSN documentary “Bring Your Own Brigade.”
Aug 20, 2021

WATCH HERE:   https://www.cbsnews.com/video/bring-your-own-brigade/
reviews:
https://www.rogerebert.com/reviews/bring-your-own-brigade-movie-review-2021
https://www.thewrap.com/bring-your-own-brigade-film-review-camp-fire-malibu-wildfires-documentary/

317-house development in Redlands delayed by these concerns

By Jennifer Iver : redlanddailyfacts – excerpt

Issues were raised with the lack of a secondary access, possible conflicts with voter-approved Measure U, and more.

A vote on a plan to build hundreds of houses on a field and groves north of Citrus Valley High School in Redlands has been pushed back to give the developer more time to secure a secondary access point and address other concerns.

The City Council on Tuesday, Sept. 21, voted 4-0 with Councilman Paul Foster absent to continue the public hearing on the Bergamot plan for 317 houses on 58.6 acres on the north side of Domestic Avenue, east of the 210 Freeway…

In a letter to the council, former Mayor Bill Cunningham wrote that the “proposal directly violates the intent and express provisions of Measure U because it will convert agricultural and citrus producing property to residential use.”…(more)

The people of Redland may want to know more about the state amendment proposed to strengthen their local authority over development decisions and the lawsuit against SB10, the bills that may override the results of public ballet initiatives.

San Francisco will build dozens of tiny homes for homeless

By staff : therealdeal – excerpt

The shelters — each 64 sf — will be installed on two parking lots city leases

Tiny homes have not put a dent in the housing and homeless crises across the U.S. as some had predicted, but after resisting for years, San Francisco will install the shelters at two parking lots the city leases.

Seventy of the units — 64 square feet each — will be built at 33 Gough Street, the San Francisco Chronicle reported. The lots have been a city-sanctioned “safe sleeping village” since December, holding 44 tents for homeless people.

The tiny homes will be similar to the one set up in Oakland and San Jose, according to the report…(more)

High Density Transit Oriented Development Won’t Reduce Greenhouse Gases

By Bob Silvestry : marinpost – excerpt

The following white paper was originally published in 2013 in response to the release of the first Sustainable Communities Strategy, for the San Francisco Bay Area region as required under SB375. In light of the recent tsunami of California state housing legislation, the information and analysis in this study remain relevant and worth republishing, again, to continue to inform the public debate…(more)

A Recent Ruling Involving Unlined Landfills Highlights the Pitfalls of Relying on Categorical Exemptions under CEQA

By Hanson Bridgett :jdsupra – excerpt

Key Points

• As litigation under the California Environmental Quality Act (CEQA) continues to drive lengthier and costlier environmental reviews, the use of “categorical exemptions” can provide a quick and efficient path towards CEQA compliance – but only if the exemption is legally sound and defensible.
• California’s Fifth District Court of Appeal recently published Los Angeles Department of Water and Power v. County of Inyo (Cal. Ct. App., Aug. 17, 2021, No. F081389), which provides important guidance regarding the use of categorical exemptions under CEQA.
• The opinion invalidated the Class 1 exemption for unlined landfills, and the court provided important guidance on how to define “existing facilities” more generally.
• The court’s ruling on issue exhaustion highlights the importance of following CEQA’s procedural requirements, as non-compliance with CEQA’s public notice provisions will allow challenges to proceed that would otherwise be precluded if the issue was not raised with the lead agency prior to a project being approved…(more)

Groups voice opposition to ADU rules

By Dave Schwab, SDCNN : missiontimescourier – excerpt

The contention that Accessory Dwelling Units (ADUs) will alleviate the housing affordability crisis is disputed by opponents who argue pending legislation to make them easier to build will lead instead to unwanted densification and degradation in single-family neighborhoods.

State Sen. Pro Tem Toni Atkins and San Diego Council members Joe LaCava from District 1 and Sean Elo-Rivera from District 9 claimed at a July 29 Zoom Webinar that ADUs are one viable way to accommodate growth.

Otherwise known as granny flats, companion units, cottages, or casitas, ADUs are defined as a second rentable unit that a homeowner can build on their lot.

Two pending state bills, SB 9 by Senate Leader Toni Atkins (D-San Diego), and SB 10 by Sen. Scott Wiener (D-San Francisco), seek to streamline the statewide approval process for ADUs…

There are at least two groups actively opposing state legislation seeking to make it easier to build ADUs in single-family neighborhoods.

Livable California is a nonprofit advocating for empowerment of local governments to foster equitable, livable communities and truly affordable housing. The group endorses the “Californians for Community Planning Initiative, communitiesforchoice.org.

That initiative seeks to: Support housing as a basic right; fight for truly affordable housing; assure self-determination of local government; preserve quality of life in communities; achieve smart and balanced growth; and protect home ownership.

Another group, Neighbors For a Better San Diego (NFABSD), recently released a white paper analysis of San Diego’s ADU affordability incentives, which concluded that “ADUs won’t provide affordable housing. San Diego’s ADU affordability incentives miss the mark on affordable housing, primarily because so-called ‘affordable’ rent levels are comparable to market rates. Further, returns on investment to developers are particularly biased against building the two-plus bedroom units that are needed by low- and middle-income families, contrary to the city’s inclusionary housing goals.” The full report is at www.bit.ly/3zTzZbw.…(more)

Now that the state legislature has passed these bills to the Governor to sign, the only way to stop them is to follow the actions outlined here: https://www.discoveryink.net/wp/

What one thing do Republican recall candidates blame for California’s housing crisis?

By Manuela Tobias :calmatters – excerpt

What the candidates say or think is immaterial. What is interesting in the article is the following comments by the author. She describes why CEQA appeals rarely work to stop a project.

…CEQA is landmark legislation signed into law in 1970 by Republican Gov. Ronald Reagan. It requires public agencies to reduce or mitigate the environmental impacts of development wherever feasible. Essentially, the law tells developers to study a project to see how it could harm the environment and explain how they will lessen the damage. The law has been invoked by NIMBYs to block or delay multiple high-profile housing projects…(more)

This is why CEQA rarely works in the public’s favor.

It requires public agencies to reduce or mitigate the environmental impacts of development wherever feasible

Government is only required to take actions “WHEREVER FEASIBLE”. No actions are required where it is NOT FEASIBLE. CEQA only requirers them to study the possible effects and warn the neighbors what might happen. Their only option is to sell and move out if they don’t like it.

All CEQA appeals do is to slow the process and sometime it works to wear down the opponent, but usually it only postpones the inevitable, and in recent cases, the pending projects take advantage of the new density bonus laws and raising the height limits another 3 stories. It was 2 now it is 3.

The only solution is to elect new legislators and pass the ballot initiative to amend the constitution. Fighting these bad ideas one at a time is exhausting.

I suppose one option is to tie some of our “friends” in Sacramento to the corruption that is taking front stage in San Francisco, or any other past transgression.

Mari