2-10-09

 
2-10-09
Merced Sun-Star
Budget crisis may quiet Merced County roadway projects
Billion-dollar shortfall could halt construction across state, county...SCOTT JASON
http://www.mercedsunstar.com/167/v-print/story/682311.html
Merced County's highway projects delicately hang in the balance as state legislators negotiate a deal to solve the budget fiasco.
For the time, construction crews continue to widen and rebuild Highway 99 north of Atwater, a $43 million project that will add an interchange and finish in 2010.
They will also add another north and south lane from Mission Avenue south to the Madera County line.
The bulldozers may go quiet if a budget isn't approved soon.
The two projects were among others in the state cleared to keep moving because it'd be too difficult and costly to halt them.
Nonetheless, those projects -- as well as 274 other in the state that kept moving -- may be frozen if the state doesn't approve a new budget to solve the $40 billion shortfall.
"(State lawmakers) are at a very sensitive part of negotiations," Department of Finance spokesman H.D. Palmer said Monday.
"We have not made a no-go call."
Yet it could come soon if a compromise between Republicans and Democrats isn't in sight. A budget vote is set for later this week.
Halting a highway project is not like turning off a light, he explained.
There are legal issues that may arise since the state would be breaking contracts. Crews also just can't pack up and leave because the project may be dangerous to the public if it's not fenced off.
Despite offering a reprieve to some projects, the state in December halted or canceled 5,600 others in the pipeline because the state can't sell the bonds needed to finance the work.
Caltrans Director Will Kempton sent out a letter Thursday warning that all other Proposition 1B projects could grind to a halt this week.
Merced leaders were told the $9 million for the G Street underpass is frozen. Work designing a railroad underpass will continue with the city covering the bills, spokesman Mike Conway said.
"Last year, they promised us $9 million and we want to make sure they live up to their promise," Conway said.
Construction is a year away, so the project may not see any actual delays.
The city still received state money for three other projects that will move forward.
It will use $2.5 million to rebuild Olive Avenue from Highway 59 to G Street. Work should start in the spring.
In the summer or fall, two sections of North Parsons Avenue will be connected behind Ada Givens Elementary School with $800,000.
After that, $400,000 will be used to resurface G Street from Park Avenue to 26th Street.
Modesto Bee
Study: Warming climate to hurt Calif bird species...JASON DEAREN, Associated Press Writer
http://www.modbee.com/state_wire/v-print/story/594377.html
SAN FRANCISCO -- Since 1967, birder and teacher Gene Cardiff has trekked with students to California's mountains and deserts to catch a glimpse of the white-headed woodpecker, or other rare sights.
But Cardiff, an ornithologist who lives near San Bernardino, said the state's drought conditions over the past few years have devastated bird food sources in his area's forests and deserts, leading to fewer birds to watch.
"I can't do a good job teaching my class because there are no birds to see," said Cardiff. "It's a sinking feeling."
A new Audubon California study released Tuesday finds that the state will lose significant numbers of its native birds as climate change quickly shrinks the range and habitat of more than 100 species.
The state predictions are based on models of future climates, and serve as a companion to a national Audubon Society study, also released Tuesday. That study, using data collected over the past 40 years, determined that 177 bird species in the U.S. are spending the winter farther north because of a warming world.
In California, scientists worry that the quickly warming climate might not only force certain species to move northward, but wipe out others that are not quick to adapt.
"Major climate variables influencing species' distributions are expected to change so quickly that even highly mobile species like birds will be unable to keep pace," the report states.
Still, the news is not all dire: The study also suggests that significant curbs on greenhouse gas emissions and investment in conservation can greatly reduce the damage.
The California study presents scenarios for 313 native-Californian bird species using models that predict different future climates based on low-to-high reductions of greenhouse gas emissions.
The news is most alarming for birds like the yellow-billed magpie, which only exist in California. The study found that the species would lose about 75 percent of its range in coming decades under a high emission scenario, but only about 9 percent if pollution is reduced significantly.
"For years, people have made big conservation investments with their fingers crossed that their good work won't simply be erased by climate change in a few years," said Bill Monahan, senior scientist at Audubon California who co-authored the state study. "Having a sense of what the landscape actually will look like 50, or even 100, years into the future will allow us to make much better conservation investments today."
Other factors contributing to the shift in bird range include urban sprawl and the increase in backyard bird feeders. But the researchers say global warming will continue to be the most significant factor for decades to come.
The Audubon researchers hope their report will help state leaders lessen climate change's effects by identifying the areas and species most in need of attention. The study also lauds California's plan to implement a landmark 2006 law that has made the state a global leader in combating climate change.
"Birds are showing us how the heavy hand of humanity is tipping the balance of nature and causing ecological disruption in ways we are just beginning to predict and comprehend," said Greg Butcher, a co-author of the national report and Audubon director of bird conservation.
Fresno Bee
Activist quits water group's board after farmworker comments
His comments sparked dispute, Fresno protest rally...Paula Lloyd
http://www.fresnobee.com/local/v-print/story/1187969.html
A deputy attorney general and environmental activist whose comments about farmworkers sparked a protest rally Monday has resigned from the board of the California Water Impact Network.
Mike Jackson, who serves on the same board, said Lloyd Carter submitted his resignation during a conference call among board members Monday morning.
"His statement is not us, and he was speaking for us," Jackson said. "We thought we had to take some steps."
Carter's comments were made to a KMPH (Channel 26) reporter before a debate on water policy at California State University, Fresno, on Wednesday.
Carter said farmworkers who would lose jobs if west-side Valley farmers don't receive water from the California Delta this year are "not even American citizens for starters. Do you think we should employ illegal aliens?"
He also said the children of farmworkers are among the least-educated people in the southwest corner of the Valley. "They turn to lives of crime. They go on welfare. They get into drug trafficking and they join gangs."
Carter said Monday afternoon, "I've apologized. I don't know what else people want from me. People who know me know I'm not a racist."
Carter issued a written apology on his Web site, www.lloydgcarter.com.
An apology also was broadcast on Channel 26.
"My comments were directed at the exploitation of farmworkers in the southwest corner of the Valley, which is the poorest place in America," Carter's apology reads in part.
"I now realize I made a terrible mistake in the way I expressed myself and I humbly apologize to all who were offended," he wrote.
The California Water Impact Network has issued apologies for Carter's comments, Jackson said. "We're very, very sorry and are busy apologizing -- as is Lloyd -- to everything that moves."
Jackson said he doesn't know why Carter made the comments.
"There is nothing in Lloyd Carter's career, background or experience that explains what he was trying to say. We don't believe he has any of those feelings," Jackson said.
Carter is a deputy attorney general in the criminal division of the California Attorney General's Office and is a former Fresno Bee reporter.
He serves on the boards of California Save Our Streams Council and Revive The San Joaquin, and he is a director of the Underground Gardens Conservancy, a preservation group for the Forestiere Underground Gardens in Fresno.
About 250 farmworkers, farmers, politicians and community activists attended the rally in front of Fresno City Hall. Some called for Carter's resignation.
"His remarks do not represent our environmental community. He needs to go," said Debbie Reyes of the Central California Environmental Justice Network. The group organized the rally.
Assembly Member Juan Arambula, D-Fresno, told the audience, "I'm not here to attack Lloyd Carter, but I disagree in no uncertain terms with what he said."
Farmworkers are "good people who don't deserve to be insulted," said Arambula, who as a child worked in the fields with his parents.
The crowd applauded when Fresno County Supervisor and farmer Phil Larson said, "The most important thing I have on my farm today are those who do the work."
Mendota Mayor Robert Silva said the diverse mix of farmworkers, farmers, government leaders and environmentalists "presents a united front."
Such coalitions are not common, said Don Villarejo of Davis, former executive director of the California Institute for Rural Studies.
"That's broader than is usually thought of," he said of those at the rally. "It takes a major external threat" like the drought of 1982 to bring people with diverse interests together.
Words sting; real problem is deeper...Bill McEwen...2-9-09
http://www.fresnobee.com/columnists/mcewen/v-print/story/1187967.html
Crusading environmentalist Lloyd Carter, a state deputy attorney general and former Fresno Bee reporter, should know the importance of words.
But in a television interview last week with KMPH (Channel 26) about California's endless fight over water, Carter stereotyped farmworkers as illegal aliens and said that their children typically become high school dropouts and drug-dealing gang-bangers.
Public reaction to his remarks rightfully was swift, loud and condemning.
Much of the outrage was genuine, but some of it surely was corporate agriculture and its friends seizing a chance to flog an opponent.
I've known Carter a long time and never thought him racist. He has spent much of his life sticking up for farmworkers and decrying the often tough conditions in which they labor.
Carter has apologized for what he said. Wrote Carter on his Web site: "My remarks were intended to focus on the social costs of exploiting an immigrant worker population which is denied adequate pay, housing and education."
Even with the apology, I don't know that Carter will reclaim his status as the Valley's best-known environmentalist, water expert and thorn in the side of corporate farming. There are lines a public figure can't cross -- even unintentionally -- and Carter has crossed one of them.
Now here's a challenge for everyone angered by Carter's words: Focus your energy on improving life for those people Carter disparaged.
Southern and western Fresno County are mired in poverty. Jim Costa's congressional district is the poorest in the nation. Last week at a meeting of county leaders -- convened to talk about paying for local services -- one west-side official said that the unemployment rate there is about 40%.
County statistics offer a glimpse at the drain on taxpayers caused by our broken economy, rampant crime and undereducated work force.
In November of last year, nearly 59,000 families received food stamps, 27,000 people were enrolled in CalWORKS -- the state's welfare-to-work program -- and 88,000 people received Medi-Cal health benefits.
For the year ending May 2008, the Fresno County District Attorney's Office filed about 91,000 charges -- 27% of them felonies.
Fresno County's population: 931,098.
Gang activity is so bad that Fresno Police Chief Jerry Dyer declared war against the Bulldogs, and cities throughout the county are using gang injunctions to try and
keep their citizens safe.
What more can be said about the dismal graduation rates of many Valley schools?
Finally, there's the water battle consuming the Valley and the entire state. If water were as abundant as outrage, we'd have plenty to go around.
Instead of fighting to save what's left of the west side's farm economy, we should focus on what experts have been saying for a decade: transition to knowledge- and technology-based industries.
Getting mad at Carter is easy. Fixing what ails us will be a long, hard road.
Ban urban development in SE Fresno Co., study suggests...Russell Clemings
http://www.fresnobee.com/local/v-print/story/1186877.html
Most of southeastern Fresno County should be placed off-limits to urban development so that the county’s dwindling supply of farmland won’t be swallowed up by sprawl, a state-sponsored study suggests.
Citing statistics showing that one-fifth of all the farmland ever lost to urban use in Fresno County has been consumed since 1990, the report also proposes new restrictions on how much land cities can hold in reserve for future annexation.
The Model Farmland Conservation Program report used factors such as soil quality and water availability to identify more than a half-million acres of the county’s remaining farmland as its most valuable. Almost all of that land is in the heavily populated eastern half of the county.
As a result, urbanization in this region now poses the same threat that overran southern California farmland in the last century, said Ed Thompson, California director for the American Farmland Trust, which prepared the report.
“It’s no secret here that development is actively consuming the most strategic farmland,” Thompson told local leaders in late January. About 2 square miles a year is being consumed, he said.
One major remedy proposed in the report is creating a 559,000-acre “strategic agriculture reserve” that would encompass all of that most-valuable farmland. Inside the reserve, development would be banned unless there were no reasonable alternative, as in highway or other transit routes.
If such a reserve were created, a method of enforcement would have to be worked out. But effectively, cities would have to turn future growth inward.
That may not be as difficult as it sounds. The report also says that most of the county’s cities already have far more land than they need in their spheres of influence, the zones around a city that are legally designated for future development and annexation.
Even with housing densities at current levels, some cities have enough land in their spheres of influence to accommodate 50 years or more of growth, the report said. If housing densities rise as expected, the excess capacity also would rise.
The report proposes cities be barred from expanding their spheres unless they can show less than 20 years of capacity remains. Such a move could hold back sprawl in southeastern Fresno County cities like Reedley, Selma and Sanger, where vineyards and orchards still cover the landscape between the growing towns. But it may also make those cities fearful that they will have to turn away new residents and businesses that would otherwise boost their tax collections.
The report was funded by the state through the $5 million California Partnership for the San Joaquin Valley, which made a $200,000 grant to the Council of Fresno County Governments, a local planning agency representing the county and its 15 cities. Thompson’s group was retained to produce the report and its recommendations after a series of public meetings.
Similar conclusions about the need to preserve farmland are being reached separately in the eight-county San Joaquin Valley Blueprint planning effort, which is trying to define a vision of the region by 2050. As part of that, Fresno County leaders already have endorsed increasing average housing densities on new development from less than four homes per acre to about eight.
Once the farmland report is accepted by the council of governments, county planning officials hope to fold its recommendations into an update of their general plan, the county’s master blueprint for zoning and development.
Lynn Gorman, the county’s deputy planning director, said she thinks that a key to implementation will be winning support from the county Local Agency Formation Commission, an independent board that oversees annexation and sphere expansions.
“The cities are going to have to take the responsibility of documenting their need to grow” when their requests are heard by the commission, Gorman said.
Meanwhile, in coming weeks the report’s sponsors will make presentations to leaders in each affected city, including Selma, which is scheduled for Feb. 17. City Manager D-B Heusser said he is reserving judgment but suspects his council members will oppose the proposal for limits on sphere expansion.
“To be honest with you, I don’t think we’re going to be happy with it,” he said.
In any event, whether those who support farmland preservation can make their case well enough to sway doubters is likely to determine whether the new report becomes policy or just gathers dust.
“The ultimate recommendation here is that you summon the political will — and that’s what it’s going to take — to adopt actions that will be truly effective at conserving this land,” Thompson said.
Central Valley Business Times
Nunes calls for Obama to ‘turn the pumps on...TULARE...February 9, 2009 1:07pm
•  Says a national edemergy needs to be declared
•  Predicts doubling of Valley’s unemployment
http://www.centralvalleybusinesstimes.com/templates/print.cfm?ID=11097
President Obama should declare a national emergency to force the Central Valley Project and the State Water Project to provide enough water for farming in the Central Valley this year, says U.S. Rep. Devin Nunes, R-Visalia.
Court orders to protect endangered fish in the San Joaquin-Sacramento Delta, coupled with a third year of drought, may result in little or no irrigation water being provided.
“This year we get to watch the fall of modern civilization in the San Joaquin Valley,” says Mr. Nunes. “We’re paying for bad policies over the past three decades and we’re going to have half a million acres dry up.”
The congressman says this could result in tens of thousands of people losing their jobs – both on far and in businesses that support agriculture.
“You’re looking at 20 percent unemployment” if the irrigation water is not supplied, he says.
“President Obama could step in right now and say this is a national emergency,” he says.
Go to http://www.centralvalleybusinesstimes.com/stories/001/?ID=11097 and  Click here to listen or download (nunes.mp3, 1.61 MB)
Sacramento Bee
El Dorado water district puts drought plan at the ready...Cathy Locke
http://www.sacbee.com/ourregion/v-print/story/1612469.html
El Dorado Irrigation District is preparing to declare a Stage 1 drought March 9, barring significant increases in snow and rainfall in the next four weeks.
Customers would be asked to voluntarily cut back on water use, with the goal of reducing demand by 15 percent districtwide. The staff also would step up public awareness campaigns and enforcement of water-waste regulations.
The district serves about 100,000 customers on the county's western slope.
Jenkinson Lake near Pollock Pines, which supplies 50 percent of the district's water, was at 64 percent of capacity Feb. 3, said David Witter, natural resources director.
The district expects a reduction in the water it will be allowed to draw from Folsom Lake, which is at 25 percent of capacity, Witter told board members Monday.
Director Harry Norris said he would rather start voluntary conservation measures in March than wait until May and have to go immediately to mandatory cutbacks.
Bottom is predicted for region's home prices...Jim Wasserman
http://www.sacbee.com/business/v-print/story/1612291.html
Home prices in El Dorado, Placer, Sacramento and Yolo counties will likely bottom out in the final three months of 2009, national forecaster Moody's Economy.com reported Monday.
It will take longer for Yuba and Sutter counties: Look for improvement in the second quarter of 2010, Pennsylvania-based Moody's reported in a national survey of metro areas and their fallen housing values.
By the end of this year, the report said, home prices will have fallen 54.2 percent in the four-county region from a fourth quarter 2005 peak.
Prices will have fallen 49.6 percent from a first quarter 2006 peak in Yuba and Sutter counties, it said.
Others touching bottom alongside Sacramento in the fourth quarter of 2009 include Stockton, Merced, Fresno and Bakersfield, Moody's predicted. Modesto will follow in the second quarter of 2010, it said.
Viewpoints: New wave of foreclosures threatens state...Kevin Stein and Howard Lawrence
http://www.sacbee.com/opinion/v-print/story/1611978.html
California's budget crisis is directly tied to the deepening recession driven by the housing market's collapse. Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger and Democratic leaders in the Legislature are attempting to deal with foreclosure relief as part of the state budget package. It's important to get any foreclosure legislation done right – if not in this budget, then later in the legislative session.
We can't afford to miss this golden opportunity to provide real help to hundreds of thousands of Californians whose homes can be saved. And none too soon – the next round of mortgage resets is coming, and combined with rising unemployment, new waves of borrowers will be in trouble if policymakers don't act quickly.
Lawmakers have been under pressure to close a deal with the governor, but shortcuts leading to a weak foreclosure bill would do more harm than good. That would allow loan servicers to keep on claiming that they are doing all they can to prevent unnecessary foreclosures, when that is not the case.
According to the California Reinvestment Coalition's statewide survey of nonprofit housing counselors in November 2008, foreclosure remains the most common outcome for the majority of borrowers in trouble. Many of these borrowers are working families, seniors, immigrants and people of color who were targeted by unscrupulous mortgage lenders and brokers with fraudulent and predatory loans. The foreclosure crisis now impacts all Californians as public schools, city services, small businesses and other sectors feel the effects of an economic riptide.
What's needed is real action, not window dressing. Policy and industry initiatives have relied on voluntary participation and compliance for a year, with little to show for it. Without adequate standards required, most loan modifications end up neither affordable nor sustainable. Counseling agencies report that many loan modifications are not modifications at all, but poorly designed repayment plans that often increase borrower payments and ensure that they will later default.
Guarantees are needed to make sure that servicers don't hike up interest rates and payments in coming years, leading to the same effect as the option adjustable-rate mortgages that triggered the foreclosure crisis in the first place.
A real solution must focus on transparency, accountability and enforceability. In order to truly stem the rate of foreclosures and defaulting mortgages, any bill should include these three key components:
• Real loan workouts: Servicers should be required to consider borrowers for loan modifications that are affordable and sustainable, as proposed by the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation. Loan principal reductions should also be encouraged where borrowers owe more than their homes are worth.
• Transparency: Servicers should report data on whether they are helping borrowers and be required to record loan modification agreements so public agencies can keep track of how they're doing.
• Accountability: There must be consequences when servicers fail to follow standards. Borrowers should be protected from foreclosure if they have been victims of unfair and irresponsible servicing practices, and servicers should be subjected to a six-month moratorium on foreclosures if they fail to follow legislative requirements.
Religious congregations across the country have been responding to the devastating impacts of foreclosure on families and neighborhoods, and PICO California members are working with thousands of families who are struggling to stay in their homes. In November 2008, hundreds of faith leaders in the PICO National Network rallied in Washington, D.C., to call for a systematic solution. In California, PICO groups have mobilized thousands of families to rallies in hard-hit cities like Stockton, San Jose and Antioch, calling for meaningful action from the state Legislature.
More than a year has passed with little done to help homeowners and their communities – and in turn stem the bleeding in the state economy. The foreclosure crisis that lies at the heart of California's budget mess must not be given short shrift with half measures and political compromises.
Stockton Record
Delta bill rekindles debate on exports...Alex Breitler
http://www.recordnet.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20090210/A_NEWS14/902100316/-1/A_NEWS
A group of lawmakers says the government should be allowed to bypass endangered species law and export Delta water to farms and cities during times of devastating drought.
Republican George Radanovich of Mariposa, who introduced a bill to this effect last week, called the Endangered Species Act a "horrendous" law and said that pumping restrictions to protect Delta smelt and other species at the expense of farmers amounts to "economic eco-terrorism."
That is strong language, his spokesman, Spencer Pederson, acknowledged Monday.
"He is very serious," Pederson said. "This is his No. 1 priority, and we'll be looking at any way possible in the future to get this or something like this moving."
Rep. Dennis Cardoza, D-Atwater, is among seven sponsors of the bill. "Between the environment and our need for food, we must find a balance," Cardoza said.
California's natural drought is compounded by a regulatory one. Court orders restrict how much water can be pumped from the Delta.
That's because the giant pumps near Tracy are so powerful they can reverse the flow of two south Delta rivers, sucking in fish to a likely demise.
Giving the state and federal governments a pass around the Endangered Species Act is hardly the answer, one environmental group said Monday. Strict water conservation and recycling strategies - and eliminating water uses that don't make sense - would alleviate pressure on the Delta and spare sensitive species, said Jeff Miller, a spokesman for the Center for Biological Diversity in San Francisco.
"We have a fundamental problem with prioritizing (water) deliveries to agriculture at the expense of species that are on their way to extinction," he said.
The 35-year-old act requires the government to save, "to the extent practicable," species faced with extinction. The law has survived repeated attempts to alter it.
Next week, the federal Bureau of Reclamation is expected to tell its contractors, mostly farmers, how much water may be delivered in 2009. No one expects good news; barring a hefty supply of rain and snow in February and March, it's likely no water at all will be delivered by the bureau.Westlands Water District could see 40,000 jobs lost, according to a University of California, Davis, analysis last month. A spokeswoman for the district said a permanent fix in the Delta is needed, a common cry from water users seeking a peripheral canal to siphon water around rather than through the estuary.
"It's fair to say we appreciate what the congressmen are doing to alleviate the pressure," Westlands spokeswoman Sarah Woolf said. "But that doesn't get us to the end result."
Stockton environmentalist Bill Jennings said the contracts for farmers south of the Delta do not guarantee water.
"In some years it just might not be available," he said. "There's a crisis going on because people have built their lives around water that isn't available at times."
On the Web: Read the text of HR856, the California Drought Alleviation Act of 2009, at http://thomas.loc.gov.
In hot water...Alex Breitler's blog...2-9-09
http://blogs.recordnet.com/sr-abreitler
It wasn't what he said during last week's water forum, but what he said afterward, that landed a San Joaquin Valley environmentalist in hot water.
Lloyd Carter, former newspaper reporter and longtime enviro and foe of Westlands Water District, was talking with a television reporter about the expectation that 40,000 farmworker jobs could be lost if Westlands gets no water this year.
"They're not even American citizens for starters," Carter told KMPH-TV. "Do you think we should employ illegal aliens? What parent raises their child to be a farm worker? These kids are the least educated people in America or the southwest corner of this Valley. They turn to lives of crime. They go on welfare. They get into drug trafficking and they join gangs."
Perhaps enviros should stick to water and air and lay off the socioeconomic angle just a tad.
Anyway, a rally was held at Fresno City Hall today and Carter has apologized. "My comments were directed at the exploitation of farmworkers in the southwestern corner of the valley, which is the poorest place in America but, as worded, implied that ALL farmworkers turn to lives of crime or gangs, which is obviously not true. My remarks were intended to focus on the social costs of exploiting an immigrant worker population which is denied adequate pay, housing and education.
"I now realize I made a terrible mistake in the way I expressed myself and I humbly apologize to all who were offended.... It will not happen again. I am sick about this."
The Fresno Bee reports this afternoon that Carter resigned from the board of the California Water Impact Network, an environmental group based in Santa Barbara.
Environmental impact retort
Critics tee off on Calaveras County's review of Trinitas golf course...Dana M. Nichols
http://www.recordnet.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20090210/A_NEWS/902100320/-1/A_NEWS
SAN ANDREAS - In November 2007, Calaveras County's board of supervisors ordered county planning staff to figure out how much environmental damage already had been caused by construction of the Trinitas golf course on the far western edge of the county, and what reasonable steps should be taken to mitigate for that damage.
The long-awaited final environmental impact report that was supposed to answer that question was released Monday. The answer it gives: Ask someone else.
Shaelyn Strattan, the planner who worked on the report, said Monday that the county government simply "lacked expertise" to analyze the state of the environment before golf course owner Mike Nemee paved stream beds with cobblestones, moved earth to make putting greens, removed oak trees and constructed almost eight miles of concrete golf cart paths.
And while Strattan's report acknowledges that legally she has to assume that this construction caused damage, she said that various state and local agencies must consult with Nemee and work out appropriate ways to "repair the damage to the extent it can be repaired."
That's an answer that already has drawn fire from local golf course critics and state wildlife officials, and which critics say could leave the county open to a lawsuit if the Calaveras County Planning Commission approves the final environmental impact report at its Feb. 19 meeting.
"Requiring the applicant to consult with resource agencies does not constitute mitigation," California Department of Fish and Game Environmental Program Manager Kent Smith wrote in a September letter. State officials said California Environmental Law requires that proposed mitigation measures be included in environmental impact reports so members of the public have a chance to review them and comment on them. Working out the details later defeats that public review.
Letters from state and federal agencies suggested that county staff use facts such as historic aerial photos to help calculate how much habitat such as vernal pools, stream beds and trees was lost to the golf course construction.
Nemee said Monday that he's pleased the final environmental impact report is done. He also said he's comfortable with the requirement that he consult later with state and federal agencies rather than working out all the mitigations with county planners.
"I am meeting or exceeding all the requirements," Nemee said. "And we look forward to bringing our family's project to fruition and getting the community back to work."
Strattan said she's confident that her approach is legally solid. She said the Trinitas case is unusual because the environmental report came after damage already happened.
Normally, studies and proposals on how to handle any environmental impacts are complete before a project is built. And even in the case of Trinitas, that is true for parts of the report that cover the impacts of the not-yet-built lodge, clubhouse and luxury homes that are part of the project.
But Nemee built a world-class 18-hole golf course in an agricultural preserve from 2001 to 2005 without environmental review.
At the time, Nemee still was receiving a California Williamson Act tax break on part of the land in return for keeping it in agricultural production.
County leaders are generally eager to have the jobs and tax revenue that the golf course would bring.
A number of business and government groups have endorsed the Trinitas project, including the union that represents Calaveras County Sheriff's deputies.
At the same time the course faces opposition from a local group, Keep it Rural Calaveras, and from regulatory agencies. In a letter written in August, Peter A. Cross, a deputy assistant field supervisor for the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, said that Nemee and county officials should immediately start on "remediation," such as removing the cobblestone pavement in Trinitas stream beds.
In an Aug. 7 letter, Smith said the California Fish and Game wouldn't issue an after-the-fact permit for alteration of stream beds, which means the county's post-EIR consultation approach may not be viable.
As it stands, the final EIR would require Nemee to show that he has all such permits, including the one from state Fish and Game, 30 days before he begins construction on the other Trinitas facilities such as the luxury homes and the lodge.
Lew Mayhew, a leader of Keep it Rural Calaveras, said he was only beginning to read the report Monday, but that it failed to address questions he and others raised.
"This is a stunningly inadequate final EIR. I would have expected meaningful responses," Mayhew said.
Strattan said that Trinitas has generated so much comment by members of the public, government agencies and advocacy groups that it was simply not possible to note a response to every question.
Press Democrat
Nearly 1,700 people turn out in Santa Rosa to blast septic tank requirements...BLEYS ROSE
http://www.pressdemocrat.com/article/20090209/articles/902090241
One by one on Monday, rural landowners condemned the state’s proposed septic system rules during hearings in Santa Rosa and excoriated state officials for what they viewed as trespassing on their property rights.
“The state deserves a beating on this one,” said Rich Middleton of rural Sebastopol. “This smells like a bad government idea that was created by city folks.”
About 1,100 people attended a 4-hour afternoon hearing of the state Water Resources Control Board at the Wells Fargo Center. An evening session drew another 550 people. Of 44 people who spoke during the first hearing, only one demonstrated any sympathy whatsoever for the proposed septic tank regulations. The pattern was similar the second time around.
Ted Walker, a retired Sonoma County environmental health official who now works as a private consultant on septic issues, chided state officials for engaging in regulatory overkill by requiring all 1.3 million homeowners in California to test their septic tanks, which would net them “a lot of worthless data.” Instead, Walker suggested state regulators focus their rules on the six counties in Southern California where testing has already determined that leaking septic tanks have contaminated surface water.
Others, like Gloria Ball, a leader of the Sonoma County Land Rights Coalition, criticized the state’s proposed rules for requiring landowners to report septic system test results without establishing public health standards. Ball said property rights advocates fear that reporting requirements will eventually lead to more intrusive government regulations on septic and water well usage.
“There will be situations in Monte Rio or Bodega Bay or Camp Meeker where you will just never be able to build on the property,” Ball said. “People will come to a brick wall where they will not be able to use their property and not be able to sell it.”
Monday’s hearing before board members and staff of the state Water Resources Control Board was a make-up session of a Jan. 27 hearing that had to be cancelled because too many people showed up at a venue that could seat 400 people.
This was the last opportunity for Californians to comment in person on proposed regulations brought about by the Legislature’s passage of AB 885 in 2000. The public written comment period closes on Feb. 23.
However, state water board officials have already said that the proposed rules will be modified and resubmitted for at least one more public hearing in Sacramento.
“We will take a crack at revising the regulations and send it out again,” said Tam Doduc, board chairwoman. “I can’t tell you how, but they will be revised.”
Doduc told the crowd that the board does not have a timetable for coming out with revised regulations.
Water board staffer James Giannopoulos encountered hostile catcalls from the audience when he attempted to explain that only six areas around Los Angeles contained streams, lakes or rivers that would meet the regulation’s definition of “impaired” surface water that would trigger requirements that property owners retrofit their leaking septic tanks.
“I am sorry to break the news to you, but septic systems pollute the groundwater,” he said.
In North Coast counties, he said, only the North Coast Water Quality Control Board could declare surface water “impaired,” thus requiring retrofits that could costs as much as $45,000.
Critics dismissed that provision of local control as being insufficient.
“You created an adversarial relationship with the property owners,” said Lynn Wheelwright, an electrical engineer who has septic and well service on his home on Porter Creek Road near Santa Rosa. “The problems caused by less than one percent of septic systems do not justify the cost of this regulation.”
The state’s draft environmental review estimates that septic system owners across the state would pay about $39 million annually to comply with the new regulations. Well and septic system companies would get most of that money to perform tests and inspections that would be required every five years at cost of about $325 each.
Several speakers criticized the proposed rules for focusing on the septic and leach field systems used by rural residents to handle human waste instead of aging sewage lines and treatment plants in urban areas that affect a higher density population.
“Singling out of rural areas is unconstitutional, why are we guilty (of polluting groundwater) until proven innocent and having to prove it again every five years?” asked John Lynch, who owns property in rural Santa Rosa. “That’s like saying every homeowner would have to undergo a search of their house for drugs or sex offenders every five years, along with leaky septic systems.”
Key Documents: Text of AB 885 (PDF - 9kb)
San Francisco Chronicle
Pollution case settled for $7.59 million...Kelly Zito
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2009/02/10/BA2B15QN9A.DTL&type=printable
(02-09) 18:52 PST AMERICAN CANYON -- A subsidiary of the Coca-Cola Co. has agreed to pay a $7.59 million settlement to American Canyon after city officials accused the bottling company of discharging polluted water since at least 2005.
Supervisors at the city's water treatment plant said in 2007 they noticed higher-than-normal levels of pollutants in the water released by AMCAN Beverages, Inc., which produces Arizona Iced Tea and other drinks. A city investigation indicated minerals and other substances may have been illegally discharged going back to 2005, city officials said.
Instead of litigation, the city and company elected to negotiate a settlement that was ultimately approved by the City Council on Friday.
The company, American Canyon's largest user of water, admitted no wrongdoing as part of the settlement.
Birds wintering farther north - warming blamed...Dina Cappiello, Associated Press
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2009/02/10/MNV115Q96P.DTL&type=printable
When it comes to global warming, the canary in the coal mine isn't a canary at all. It's a purple finch.
As the temperature across the United States has risen, the purple finch has been spending its winters 430 miles farther north than it used to. And it's not alone.
An Audubon Society study to be released today found that more than half of 305 bird species in North America, a hodgepodge that includes robins, gulls, chickadees and owls, are spending the winter about 35 miles farther north than they did 40 years ago.
The purple finch was the biggest northward mover. Its wintering grounds are now roughly along the latitude of Milwaukee, instead of Springfield, Mo.
Bird ranges can expand and shift for many reasons, among them urban sprawl, deforestation and the supplemental diet provided by backyard feeders. But researchers say the only explanation for why so many birds over such a broad area are wintering in more northern locales is global warming.
Over the 40 years covered by the study, the average January temperature in the United States climbed by about 5 degrees Fahrenheit. That warming was most pronounced in northern states, which already have recorded an influx of more southern species and could see some northern species retreat into Canada as ranges shift.
"This is as close as science at this scale gets to proof," said Greg Butcher, the lead scientist on the study and the director of bird conservation at the Audubon Society. "It is not what each of these individual birds did. It is the wide diversity of birds that suggests it has something to do with temperature, rather than ecology."
Previous studies of breeding birds in Great Britain and the eastern United States have detected similar trends. But the Audubon study covers a broader area and includes many more species.
The study of migration habits from 1966 through 2005 found about one-fourth of the species have moved farther south. But the number moving northward - 177 species - is twice that.
The study "shows a very, very large fraction of the wintering birds are shifting" northward, said Terry Root, a biologist at Stanford University. "We don't know for a fact that it is warming. But when one keeps finding the same thing over and over ... we know it is not just a figment of our imagination."
The research is based on data collected during the Audubon Society's Christmas Bird Count in early winter.
Birds wintering farther north - warming blamed...Map
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/object/article?f=/c/a/2009/02/10/MNV115Q96P.DTL&o=1&type=printable
The 20 bird species that moved the farthest north...The Associated Press
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/n/a/2009/02/09/national/w210823S45.DTL&type=printable
The following 20 birds moved the most north of all 305 species studied by the Audubon Society. For five of the birds on the list — Wild Turkey, Marbled Murrelet, Ring-billed Gull, House Finch and "Rufous-sided" Towhee (lumped) — climate change is probably not the main reason for the northward shift.
Rank, Species, Estimated miles moved north 1966-2005
1. Purple Finch, 433.0
2. Wild Turkey, 407.6
3. Marbled Murrelet, 361.9
4. Ring-billed Gull, 355.8
5. Red-breasted Merganser, 316.9
6. Spruce Grouse, 316.1
7. Pine Siskin, 288.2
8. Fox Sparrow, 286.8
9. Boreal Chickadee, 279.4
10. House Finch, 269.8
11. Pygmy Nuthatch, 265.5
12. Steller's Jay, 264.4
13. Red-breasted Nuthatch, 244.4
14. Virginia Rail, 231.6
15. Varied Thrush, 229.9
16. Ring-necked Duck, 219.2
17. American Goldfinch, 219.1
18. Snow Goose, 217.1
19. "Rufous-sided" Towhee (lumped), 215.0
20. American Robin, 206.0
Source: Audubon Society
State list of birds becoming more, less common...The Associated Press
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/n/a/2009/02/09/national/w210908S46.DTL&type=printable
A state-by-state list of birds that are becoming more common and less common, perhaps because of shifts related to climate change, and the estimated miles the birds have moved north over the last 40 years, according to the Audubon Society...
CALIFORNIA
Less common species:
_ White-winged Scoter, 130.3
_ Rough-legged Hawk, 178.7
_ Dunlin, 71.1
_ Rock Sandpiper, 93.9
_ Townsend's Solitaire, 99.2
More common species:
_ Gadwall, 148.9
_ Osprey, 10.7
_ Least Bittern, 179.5
_ Common Yellowthroat, 109.3
_ Cinnamon Teal, 159.4
Source: Audubon Society
Mercury News
City wants Stanford to project long-term growth…Will Oremus, Daily News Staff Writer
http://www.mercurynews.com/peninsula/ci_11669646
Stanford University should be required to lay out longer-term projections for its own growth in order to continue developing its campus, Palo Alto officials said Monday.
The city council voted unanimously to recommend to Santa Clara County that it hold up approval of a key Stanford planning document until the university extends its growth predictions through the year 2050 or beyond. As written, the university's Sustainable Development Study projects growth through 2035.
Stanford agreed to the study in 2000, when it was applying to the county to build more than 2 million square feet of classrooms, laboratories and other non-residential projects by 2025. Under the agreement, the study has to be approved before the university can surpass 1 million square feet.
It's fast approaching that threshold, Provost John Etchemendy told the council Monday. This week, the university will apply for a new building for its law clinics and a new concert hall, bringing its total academic growth within the county's jurisdiction to 915,000 square feet since 2000. Next in the pipeline is a 160,000-square-foot building to house the nascent Bioengineering Department. Stanford can't apply for that until the sustainability study is approved.
It appeared to be on the fast track when the county planning commission unanimously recommended approval in November. The county board of supervisors was to vote on final approval Dec. 9, but Palo Alto asked it to hold off so the city's own commissions and council could weigh in first.
Palo Alto does not have direct authority over the study, since the growth would be outside its borders, on land that lies in unincorporated Santa Clara County. It can, however, try to influence the county's decision.
That's what the council decided to do Monday, after hours of debate in City Hall. It directed City Manager Jim Keene to write a letter urging the county supervisors to call for additional study of Stanford's growth potential through "2050 and beyond." The letter will also ask for some other, minor improvements to the study, including a clearer definition of sustainability and criteria for measuring the university's performance on key sustainability goals.
The council stopped short of asking for hard limits on growth or exact estimates of square footage past 2035. Several council members, including Pat Burt, agreed with Stanford officials that it would be virtually impossible to make accurate projections so far into the future.
Others, led by Mayor Peter Drekmeier and Vice Mayor Jack Morton, said such projections were precisely what the university agreed to when it agreed to conduct the study. In fact, they said, the university should have studied permanent growth limits. They pointed to language in the agreement calling for estimates of "maximum buildout" of the core academic campus.
"The intention was, 'How big is this university going to be?'" Drekmeier said. "A lot of people lobbied hard for a maximum buildout plan so we would know where we're going. We thought we got that." Instead, he said, the university basically just tacked on another 15 years of growth estimates to its application — suggesting it could continue to grow at that rate indefinitely.
Aside from the long-term growth projections, Palo Alto officials were near-unanimous in their praise of Stanford's progress on environmental issues. Drekmeier noted that the university has slashed its water use by hundreds of thousands of gallons per day, making it a conservation leader in that regard.
Los Angeles Times
Los Angeles mayor seeks water restrictions, rate hike
Despite recent rain, the ongoing drought and dwindling water sources prompt Villaraigosa to seek drastic action. The DWP will vote on his proposal next week...Phil Willon
http://www.latimes.com/news/science/environment/la-me-water-restrictions10-2009feb10,0,3415932,print.story
Even with the recent batch of rainstorms, the ongoing drought has grown so severe that Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa on Monday called for increased citywide water restrictions and the adoption of a tiered water rate that would punish Department of Water and Power customers who fail to conserve.
Sprinkler use would be restricted to two days a week under the proposal and, by summer, could be cut to one day a week if the drought continues, Villaraigosa said. The restrictions -- the first of six levels have been in place for more than a year -- and rate changes could be enacted by spring if approved by the City Council and DWP.
"The level of severity of this drought is something we haven't seen since the early 1970s. We have to move quickly to address this problem," Villaraigosa said at a news conference at City Hall.
Quick action is necessary, he said, because the Metropolitan Water District -- a major wholesale water supplier to the city and the rest of Southern California -- has warned that it may be forced to cut water deliveries by 15% to 25%.
At the same time, the Eastern Sierra snowpack, another major source of water for Los Angeles, is almost 30% below normal for this time of year.
"I know it is raining right now," meteorologist Elissa Lynn, of the state Department of Water Resources, said later Monday. "That's not going to entirely make up for this dry year or the past two dry years. And we don't know: Is it the third year of a three-year drought, or the third year of a six-year drought?"
Water restrictions are nothing new in California, but since the last major drought in the early 1990s the state's population has grown by 9 million. Court rulings to protect the delta smelt in the Sacramento Delta and a prolonged drought along the Colorado Basin also have reduced Southern California's water supplies from Northern California and the Colorado River.
"What is being delivered here today is grim news indeed. What is being announced is, in effect, water rationing for the first time in the history of the city of Los Angeles," H. David Nahai, DWP's general manager, said.
The rationing would be achieved by adopting "shortage-year rates" to encourage conservation by altering the DWP's billing method.
The exact effect on DWP customers is unclear for now. First the DWP board must decide how much it wants customers to conserve, which will determine how to set rates. Villaraigosa said DWP customers probably would be asked to cut water use "in the double digits and it could be as high as 15 to 20%."
"The vast majority of people will actually save money if they comply to reduce their water use . . . those who don't will be penalized," Villaraigosa said, adding that the DWP also will expand its financial aid program for low-income families.
Currently, the DWP has a two-tier rate system, a base of $2.92 per 100 cubic feet and a Tier II rate of $2.98. Single-family homeowners pay the base rate if their water use stays within 125% of the average amount of water consumed by homes on similar-sized lots and temperature zones.
The higher rate kicks in when a customer exceeds that.
For example, an owner of a 1,400-square-foot home in Van Nuys is now charged the base rate for the first 5,000 cubic feet of water consumed. If the DWP decided to impose shortage-year rates to cut consumption by 15%, that same homeowner would pay the base rate on 4,250 cubic-feet of water, and the Tier II rate on everything that exceeds it. And the Tier II rate would increase sharply, from $2.98 to $5.01 per 100 cubic feet of water.
The DWP commissioners will consider the proposal Feb. 17, Nahai said.
"We're going to have to do a great deal of outreach and education to the public. We don't want anybody to be caught unaware and suddenly see their bill go up," Nahai said. "Remember, the idea here is not to increase revenue to the department, it's to encourage conservation."
Still, even if the conservation measures are adopted, that might not prevent DWP customers from getting walloped by a separate water-rate increase later this year if the Metropolitan Water District -- which supplies more than half of the city's water -- raises its wholesale rates.
MWD General Manager Jeffrey Kightlinger said the drought and the reduction in water supplies have forced his agency to buy "more expensive water" from farmers and other sources.
"We have to charge what it costs, and we have to go out and get that water," Kightlinger said.
"We can't say, 'Sorry, we're not going to deliver water for the next few months because it's so expensive,' " he said.
Washington Post
Wal-Mart Cutting 700-800 Jobs at Headquarters...CHUCK BARTELS, The Associated Press
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/02/10/AR2009021001508_pf.html
LITTLE ROCK, Ark. -- Wal-Mart Stores Inc. will cut 700 to 800 jobs at its northwestern Arkansas headquarters as it builds fewer new stores this year and makes other operational changes, the world's largest retailer announced Tuesday.
The cuts are in Wal-Mart's real estate, apparel and health and wellness departments, spokesman David Tovar said. Wal-Mart would not say how many jobs will be cut in each segment.
Tovar said employees will be told of the cuts in the next couple of weeks and there was no immediate plan to make other positions within Wal-Mart available to them.
But he said the company also plans to add jobs at its New York apparel office and expects "to add thousands of jobs" at Wal-Mart stores and Sam's Club warehouses this year _ a figure that includes hires at new stores.
Last year, Wal-Mart opened 166 new stores, but this year that number will be between 125 and 140 _ leading to the cuts in the real estate unit.
"Obviously, we don't need as many people to do the work to site a new store, to build a new store," Tovar said. But since Wal-Mart is expanding its program to renovate and expand stores, it will hire more workers in that area, he said.
Tovar said Wal-Mart added 33,800 jobs last year from new stores. "We expect growth in the tens of thousands this year as well," he said. Worldwide, it has more than 2 million employees, and 14,000 work at the headquarters.
The company is moving positions in its apparel buying and planning group from Bentonville to New York.
"New York City is the fashion hub and we needed to have more people located there," Tovar said.
In health, Wal-Mart is consolidating three areas into one. Pharmacy, optical and in-store health clinics have operated as separate units. Combining them will result in job cuts.
Workers whose jobs are cut would be paid for 60 additional days and will receive health coverage for that time, he said. Those eligible will be given severance pay, based on their tenure. He said the company would waive its policy of not letting employees immediately take jobs with vendors, and outplacement services would be available.
Wal-Mart shares fell $1.61, or 3.3 percent, to $47.67 in an overall lower market Tuesday.
In July 2001, the company laid off 100 workers at its headquarters and kept 300 position unfilled, which Wal-Mart attributed to economic conditions after a review of its home office operations. Last year the company cut some positions in the apparel office.
In recent weeks, major retailers and manufacturers including Macy's Inc., Bon-Ton Inc. and Liz Claiborne Inc. have announced massive job cuts and other cost-cutting measures as they aim to preserve cash in the wake of an unprecedented pullback in consumer spending.
Wal-Mart was one of only a handful of merchants that reported a sales gain in January, while most others suffered deep declines. The overall industry sales decline marked the fourth consecutive sales drop since October.
Sam's Club rival Costco Wholesale Corp. has said its profit for the quarter ending in February will "substantially" miss Wall Street estimates due to poor sales and margins.