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"content": "\u003cp>California’s fire season has roared back to life in September after settling down somewhat during a cooler-than-average August, and forecasters warn that new powerful \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/wildfires\">wildfires could\u003c/a> still come before the winter rains.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In Lake County, \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/science/1994265/fire-weary-lake-county-again-faces-a-tough-recovery-and-questions-over-rebuilding\">the Boyles Fire\u003c/a> exploded Sunday afternoon amid hot, dry conditions and quickly destroyed scores of homes. Firefighters have stopped its spread as crews continue to assess the damage, but the conditions that fueled the fire are being felt around the state, as grass and brush are kept critically dry and primed to burn.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/11834132/see-where-wildfires-are-burning-in-california\">Several powerful wildfires\u003c/a> now burning out of control in Northern and Southern California, forcing thousands of people from their homes, closing schools and causing power outages.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad fullwidth]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In Southern California, three major fires — the Line, Bridge and Airport fires — threaten thousands of structures and leave populations swathed by deep smoke. Meanwhile, the region is at the tail end of a heat wave that has broken several records, with an excessive heat warning for multiple counties.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Gov. Gavin Newsom has \u003ca href=\"https://www.gov.ca.gov/2024/09/07/governor-newsom-proclaims-state-of-emergency-in-san-bernardino-county-secures-federal-assistance-to-support-response-to-line-fire\">proclaimed\u003c/a> a state of emergency in San Bernardino County in response to the Line Fire, which has burned over 26,000 acres and threatens over 65,000 structures, \u003ca href=\"https://www.fire.ca.gov/incidents/2024/9/5/line-fire\">according to Cal Fire\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[aside postID=news_11834132 hero='https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/06/FireMapCap.jpg']\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In Northern California, fire officials forecast above-normal conditions for bad fires between now and October.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Although the Bay Area in the next few days can expect a relaxing of the heat and low humidity that fed blazes like the Boyles Fire, it will come with the tradeoff of higher winds.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“We’re seeing that ridge that was responsible for the hot and dry conditions break down,” said Nicole Sarment, a meteorologist with the National Weather Service. It’ll be replaced by a pool of cold air sweeping into the upper atmosphere.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Our main concern that we’re really trying to hammer home is wind,” Sarment said. “People should take precautions, secure objects, trash cans, etc.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>While this will welcome the cooler, moister marine layer, windy conditions could still pose a problem. If fires do get started, Sarment said, they will burn through fuels that are still critically dry and could be carried by the winds.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n",
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"content": "\u003cp>Scientists have linked declining bat populations to an uptick in child mortality, research that underscores a cause-and-effect relationship between wildlife and human health that could have potentially serious consequences for \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/tag/california\">California\u003c/a>’s numerous agricultural communities.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The cascading effects start with \u003ca href=\"https://www.science.org/content/article/white-nose-syndrome-has-almost-completely-wiped-out-some-north-american-bat-colonies\">white-nose syndrome\u003c/a>, a disease caused by an invasive fungus that can devastate bat populations. With fewer predators like bats, insect populations grow, which prompts farmers to use more pesticides to keep them at bay. \u003ca href=\"https://www.science.org/doi/10.1126/science.adg0344\">Research published Friday in the journal Science\u003c/a> shows that in counties where this took place, infant mortality rose by 8%.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Study authors link that increase in child deaths to the uptick in insecticide use, which can be harmful to \u003ca href=\"https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/books/NBK582900/\">developing fetuses\u003c/a> and \u003ca href=\"https://www.epa.gov/sites/default/files/2015-12/documents/pest-impact-hsstaff.pdf\">infants\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad fullwidth]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The fungus at the heart of the study, called Pseudogymnoascus destructans, was first detected in California in 2019.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Now that the fungus that causes white-nose syndrome has been detected in California, I think there is room for concern that similar patterns of substitution towards insecticides will happen and lead to off-farm exposure,” said Eyal Frank, lead author of the study and assistant professor at the University of Chicago Harris School of Public Policy.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Fortunately, the state has not seen a single case of the disease in bats (the fungus that causes it is not known to hurt people or common house pets).\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[aside postID=news_12002977 hero='https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/09/BakersfieldClockTowerGetty1-1020x680.jpg']\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Winifred Frick, chief scientist at Bat Conservation International and adjunct professor in ecology and evolutionary biology at UC Santa Cruz, is not sure why California has so far been spared, but she noted that the disease kills during bats’ winter hibernation.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“There’s some optimism that maybe because we have milder winters in California, we might see less mortality, but it’s basically too soon to tell,” Frick said. “We need to do everything we can to protect our bat populations. Especially given how important bats are to agriculture.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Many scientists and researchers are working to reduce contact between the fungus and bats to prevent an outbreak of white-nose disease in California and nationally. This can be done, for example, by asking tourists to step onto a mat that can kill any fungal spores on their shoes before exploring popular cave sites where bats hibernate in the winter.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Other researchers are working to develop a vaccine to prevent bats from developing the disease.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Frick said the new research linking child mortality and bat population decline also underscores the connection between healthy biodiversity and healthy humans.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“People think that conservation is this sort of altruistic exercise of trying to protect wildlife for wildlife’s sake, but [this research] really shows that we’re all connected, and protecting bats also protects our agricultural production and ourselves,” she said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>White-nose disease has killed more than 6 million bats in North America since it was first discovered in New York in 2006. The hardest-hit areas have been Pennsylvania, New York and elsewhere in the Northeast.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The fungus at the heart of the study, called Pseudogymnoascus destructans, was first detected in California in 2019.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Now that the fungus that causes white-nose syndrome has been detected in California, I think there is room for concern that similar patterns of substitution towards insecticides will happen and lead to off-farm exposure,” said Eyal Frank, lead author of the study and assistant professor at the University of Chicago Harris School of Public Policy.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Fortunately, the state has not seen a single case of the disease in bats (the fungus that causes it is not known to hurt people or common house pets).\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cp>Some of the largest living animals on the planet eat the tiniest food. For humpback whales, it’s krill — small shrimp-like animals floating in the ocean. Capturing enough krill can take a lot of work, like if your morning bowl of cereal were spread out across a football field.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>So humpbacks have developed a solution: bubbles.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The 50-foot whales blow circles of bubbles underwater, creating a net of air that entraps the krill. A \u003ca href=\"https://royalsocietypublishing.org/doi/10.1098/rsos.240328\">\u003cu>new study\u003c/u>\u003c/a> shows that humpbacks can do this with remarkable precision to corral their prey, even tailoring the bubble nets for the type of food they’re eating.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“You realize how much control the animals are exerting over this,” says Andy Szabo, biologist and director of the Alaska Whale Foundation, who worked on the research. “It is not a random behavior. It’s a very structured, choreographed behavior.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The researchers say it’s an example of tool-use by animals, something that few other animals are known to do, like \u003ca href=\"https://www.npr.org/2024/05/20/1252214990/sea-otters-tool-use-favorite-foods-disappearing\">\u003cu>sea otters\u003c/u>\u003c/a>, \u003ca href=\"https://www.npr.org/sections/health-shots/2023/03/10/1161652099/monkey-stone-flakes-early-humans-tools\">\u003cu>monkeys\u003c/u>\u003c/a>, and \u003ca href=\"https://www.npr.org/2020/10/23/927088859/crows-are-they-scary-or-just-super-smart\">\u003cu>crows\u003c/u>\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad fullwidth]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“These whales are actually manufacturing these tools,” Szabo says. “And so we think that really elevates these animals, or it should elevate these animals in our own consciousness, in terms of their cognition.”\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>Casting a net of bubbles\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>Getting a whale’s eye view of dinnertime isn’t easy. To do it, Szabo and researchers from the University of Hawaiʻi at Mānoa used special suction-cup cameras with motion sensors that stick to the whale’s back. Attaching it requires \u003ca href=\"https://www.hawaii.edu/news/2024/08/21/humpback-whales-wield-tools/\">\u003cu>a 20-foot pole and a bit of finesse\u003c/u>\u003c/a>. They also used drones for an aerial view.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure class=\"wp-block-image size-large\">\u003cimg decoding=\"async\" src=\"https://npr.brightspotcdn.com/dims3/default/strip/false/crop/3326x2218+0+0/resize/1200/quality/75/format/jpeg/?url=http%3A%2F%2Fnpr-brightspot.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fdf%2Fdc%2F0a6dda1a43c3b83cbdc5b94c4bd9%2Fpl23-anim2490.jpg\" alt=\"Using bubble nets helps humpbacks consolidate krill, reducing the amount of energy they need to catch them.\">\u003cfigcaption>Using bubble nets helps humpbacks consolidate krill, reducing the amount of energy they need to catch them. \u003ccite>(Christin Khan | NOAA)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>In all, they documented more than 80 bubble nets in high detail in the waters of southeast Alaska.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The netting works like this: first, a humpback swims into a cloud of krill. Then, it starts swimming in a circle, blowing bubbles from its blowhole. The bubbles rise, creating a cylindrical shape with walls of air.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The krill avoid the bubbles, becoming trapped inside the net. The humpback keeps blowing bubbles but in tighter circles.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“The circle is getting smaller and smaller and smaller, so it’s creating a series of rings inside the net,” Szabo says. “They’re perfect nested rings within each ring.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Finally, the humpback lunges upwards, gulping the krill in one big bite. The technique confines the krill into a much smaller space, increasing the density of the prey by about seven times, Szabo says.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“That translates to seven fewer mouthfuls that the whale needs to take to get the same amount of prey, so that seems to be where the big advantage is,” Szabo says. Humpbacks in Alaska don’t use bubble nets every time they feed on krill, suggesting they only use them when they need to.\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>For fish, humpbacks bubble net in groups\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>To catch fish, humpbacks deploy a different kind of bubble net. Herring are small schooling fish that are much faster swimmers than krill. So, to corral them, humpbacks use teamwork.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>One humpback blows a large bubble net around the herring. Then, a second whale makes a feeding call.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“It’s a loud, trumpeting sound, and you can hear it through your boat hull,” says John Moran, a biologist at NOAA’s Alaska Fisheries Science Center. “If you hear a feeding call, it’s time to move away because they’re going to come up somewhere close to you.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Then, a group of whales all lunge upwards at the same time, scooping up the herring with gaping mouths. Humpbacks generally position themselves in the same order each time, sometimes as many as 15 whales at once.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“They’re basically doing the same thing that fishermen are doing,” Moran says. “They’re being smart about it. They’re making it more energetically efficient to forage that way.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Getting the most calories per gulp is a key survival strategy for humpbacks who spend their summers in Alaska. Afterward, they migrate thousands of miles to their breeding grounds in Hawaii or Mexico, where humpbacks don’t feed much. Packing on the pounds is crucial for that journey.\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>Climate change upsets the food chain\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>The flexibility that humpback whales use in bubble-netting is an example of tool use, Szabo says, which biologists define as when animals use something external to purposefully manipulate their environment.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“It really suggests that these whales have a toolkit,” Szabo says. “They’re trading out the net for whatever it is they’re targeting on that day, which is a pretty remarkable thing when you stop to think about it.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>It also shows that humpbacks are adaptable to their environment, tailoring their feeding techniques for different conditions. That seems to have helped humpback populations recover from the era of whaling faster than other whales.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Still, adaptability has its limits. In 2014, “the blob” hit the Pacific Ocean, where a marine heat wave dramatically increased ocean temperatures for several years. The entire food chain was affected, making it harder for humpbacks to feed.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“The prey was gone,” Moran says. “It cost them more to make a living. And we saw skinny whales, and the calf production dropped.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Humpback whales in the North Pacific Ocean \u003ca href=\"https://www.npr.org/2024/02/29/1234718984/humpback-whale-decline-pacific-climate-change\">\u003cu>declined by 20%\u003c/u>\u003c/a> from 2012 to 2021. With marine heat waves expected to become more frequent and intense with climate change, understanding how whales feed and the nuances of how they maximize their bubble nets could be crucial for conservation.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“It really starts to change our perception of these animals,” Szabo says. “That is very powerful when trying to convince people that there are remarkable animals out there and most of these animals are in jeopardy, unfortunately.”\u003c/p>\n\n",
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"excerpt": "To target the tiny prey they depend on, humpbacks have developed a way of trapping them with nets made out of bubbles. A new study shows exactly how they do it.",
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"headline": "Humpback Whales Make Custom Fishing Nets — Out of Bubbles",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003cp>Some of the largest living animals on the planet eat the tiniest food. For humpback whales, it’s krill — small shrimp-like animals floating in the ocean. Capturing enough krill can take a lot of work, like if your morning bowl of cereal were spread out across a football field.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>So humpbacks have developed a solution: bubbles.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The 50-foot whales blow circles of bubbles underwater, creating a net of air that entraps the krill. A \u003ca href=\"https://royalsocietypublishing.org/doi/10.1098/rsos.240328\">\u003cu>new study\u003c/u>\u003c/a> shows that humpbacks can do this with remarkable precision to corral their prey, even tailoring the bubble nets for the type of food they’re eating.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“You realize how much control the animals are exerting over this,” says Andy Szabo, biologist and director of the Alaska Whale Foundation, who worked on the research. “It is not a random behavior. It’s a very structured, choreographed behavior.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The researchers say it’s an example of tool-use by animals, something that few other animals are known to do, like \u003ca href=\"https://www.npr.org/2024/05/20/1252214990/sea-otters-tool-use-favorite-foods-disappearing\">\u003cu>sea otters\u003c/u>\u003c/a>, \u003ca href=\"https://www.npr.org/sections/health-shots/2023/03/10/1161652099/monkey-stone-flakes-early-humans-tools\">\u003cu>monkeys\u003c/u>\u003c/a>, and \u003ca href=\"https://www.npr.org/2020/10/23/927088859/crows-are-they-scary-or-just-super-smart\">\u003cu>crows\u003c/u>\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“These whales are actually manufacturing these tools,” Szabo says. “And so we think that really elevates these animals, or it should elevate these animals in our own consciousness, in terms of their cognition.”\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>Casting a net of bubbles\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>Getting a whale’s eye view of dinnertime isn’t easy. To do it, Szabo and researchers from the University of Hawaiʻi at Mānoa used special suction-cup cameras with motion sensors that stick to the whale’s back. Attaching it requires \u003ca href=\"https://www.hawaii.edu/news/2024/08/21/humpback-whales-wield-tools/\">\u003cu>a 20-foot pole and a bit of finesse\u003c/u>\u003c/a>. They also used drones for an aerial view.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure class=\"wp-block-image size-large\">\u003cimg decoding=\"async\" src=\"https://npr.brightspotcdn.com/dims3/default/strip/false/crop/3326x2218+0+0/resize/1200/quality/75/format/jpeg/?url=http%3A%2F%2Fnpr-brightspot.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fdf%2Fdc%2F0a6dda1a43c3b83cbdc5b94c4bd9%2Fpl23-anim2490.jpg\" alt=\"Using bubble nets helps humpbacks consolidate krill, reducing the amount of energy they need to catch them.\">\u003cfigcaption>Using bubble nets helps humpbacks consolidate krill, reducing the amount of energy they need to catch them. \u003ccite>(Christin Khan | NOAA)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>In all, they documented more than 80 bubble nets in high detail in the waters of southeast Alaska.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The netting works like this: first, a humpback swims into a cloud of krill. Then, it starts swimming in a circle, blowing bubbles from its blowhole. The bubbles rise, creating a cylindrical shape with walls of air.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The krill avoid the bubbles, becoming trapped inside the net. The humpback keeps blowing bubbles but in tighter circles.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“The circle is getting smaller and smaller and smaller, so it’s creating a series of rings inside the net,” Szabo says. “They’re perfect nested rings within each ring.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Finally, the humpback lunges upwards, gulping the krill in one big bite. The technique confines the krill into a much smaller space, increasing the density of the prey by about seven times, Szabo says.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“That translates to seven fewer mouthfuls that the whale needs to take to get the same amount of prey, so that seems to be where the big advantage is,” Szabo says. Humpbacks in Alaska don’t use bubble nets every time they feed on krill, suggesting they only use them when they need to.\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>For fish, humpbacks bubble net in groups\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>To catch fish, humpbacks deploy a different kind of bubble net. Herring are small schooling fish that are much faster swimmers than krill. So, to corral them, humpbacks use teamwork.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>One humpback blows a large bubble net around the herring. Then, a second whale makes a feeding call.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“It’s a loud, trumpeting sound, and you can hear it through your boat hull,” says John Moran, a biologist at NOAA’s Alaska Fisheries Science Center. “If you hear a feeding call, it’s time to move away because they’re going to come up somewhere close to you.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Then, a group of whales all lunge upwards at the same time, scooping up the herring with gaping mouths. Humpbacks generally position themselves in the same order each time, sometimes as many as 15 whales at once.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“They’re basically doing the same thing that fishermen are doing,” Moran says. “They’re being smart about it. They’re making it more energetically efficient to forage that way.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Getting the most calories per gulp is a key survival strategy for humpbacks who spend their summers in Alaska. Afterward, they migrate thousands of miles to their breeding grounds in Hawaii or Mexico, where humpbacks don’t feed much. Packing on the pounds is crucial for that journey.\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>Climate change upsets the food chain\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>The flexibility that humpback whales use in bubble-netting is an example of tool use, Szabo says, which biologists define as when animals use something external to purposefully manipulate their environment.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“It really suggests that these whales have a toolkit,” Szabo says. “They’re trading out the net for whatever it is they’re targeting on that day, which is a pretty remarkable thing when you stop to think about it.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>It also shows that humpbacks are adaptable to their environment, tailoring their feeding techniques for different conditions. That seems to have helped humpback populations recover from the era of whaling faster than other whales.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Still, adaptability has its limits. In 2014, “the blob” hit the Pacific Ocean, where a marine heat wave dramatically increased ocean temperatures for several years. The entire food chain was affected, making it harder for humpbacks to feed.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“The prey was gone,” Moran says. “It cost them more to make a living. And we saw skinny whales, and the calf production dropped.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Humpback whales in the North Pacific Ocean \u003ca href=\"https://www.npr.org/2024/02/29/1234718984/humpback-whale-decline-pacific-climate-change\">\u003cu>declined by 20%\u003c/u>\u003c/a> from 2012 to 2021. With marine heat waves expected to become more frequent and intense with climate change, understanding how whales feed and the nuances of how they maximize their bubble nets could be crucial for conservation.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“It really starts to change our perception of these animals,” Szabo says. “That is very powerful when trying to convince people that there are remarkable animals out there and most of these animals are in jeopardy, unfortunately.”\u003c/p>\n\n\u003c/div>\u003c/p>",
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"slug": "the-pajaro-flood-forced-them-to-flee-californias-high-rents-forced-them-to-return",
"title": "The Pajaro Flood Forced Them to Flee. California's High Rents Forced Them to Return",
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"headTitle": "The Pajaro Flood Forced Them to Flee. California’s High Rents Forced Them to Return | KQED",
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"content": "\u003cp>[dropcap]C[/dropcap]arla Escutia fled with her three kids to the second story of an apartment building across the street when a storm burst an infamously weak levee outside their town of Pajaro in March 2023.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>They huddled and watched in horror as chocolate milk-colored flood water swamped their beige home and rendered their cars inoperable. When the California National Guard rescued her family, crammed into military vehicles, they swore they’d find a new place to live on higher ground.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>That was the beginning of what would turn into a 16-month odyssey to find an affordable two-bedroom apartment, which can cost more than $3,000 in the area around Monterey County. The family cycled through a shelter, a trailer, group homes, rentals and couches at other family members’ houses. Escutia, a custodian at UC Santa Cruz, encountered landlords who wouldn’t accept applicants from single parents like her with little kids and teenagers.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad fullwidth]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“They said little kids would destroy the property,” Escutia explained. Some of the apartments cost as much as $4,000. “It was difficult. The prices were really high, and I couldn’t pay that much.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c!-- iframe plugin v.4.3 wordpress.org/plugins/iframe/ -->\u003cbr>\n\u003ciframe loading=\"lazy\" frameborder=\"0\" height=\"200\" scrolling=\"no\" src=\"https://playlist.megaphone.fm?e=KQINC3448175992&light=true\" width=\"100%\" class=\"iframe-class\">\u003c/iframe>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The only affordable option Escutia, 42, could find was an apartment back in Pajaro, but she did not want to put her kids through that trauma again. “I wanted to find something far away,” she said. Authorities have reinforced the crumbled section of the levee, but they admit it is still too small to protect Pajaro, a community of many lower-income earners and farmworkers who harvest strawberries and other crops near Watsonville and Monterey County. The Army Corps of Engineers, along with the state and the local flood agency, plan to build a new levee, but that project won’t be completed until at least 2031.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“We left because we don’t want the same thing to happen again,” said her oldest daughter, Denia Escutia, who KQED profiled for the third season of its Sold Out podcast. The 19-year-old \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/science/1984643/reluctant-retreat-one-familys-fight-against-climate-induced-flooding\">deferred her dream of studying at UCLA\u003c/a> to help her mom, choosing to enroll in community college and working to help pay bills instead.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In April, the Escutias landed a spot for $1700 in a shared house with 12 people in Castroville, about 20 minutes from Watsonville. The family hated the cramped quarters and quickly resented their housemates who raided their bathroom for toilet paper.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_1994210\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\" style=\"max-width: 2500px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-1994210\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2024/09/Pajaro-Diptych-1.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"2500\" height=\"833\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2024/09/Pajaro-Diptych-1.jpg 2500w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2024/09/Pajaro-Diptych-1-800x267.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2024/09/Pajaro-Diptych-1-1020x340.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2024/09/Pajaro-Diptych-1-160x53.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2024/09/Pajaro-Diptych-1-768x256.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2024/09/Pajaro-Diptych-1-1536x512.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2024/09/Pajaro-Diptych-1-2048x682.jpg 2048w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2024/09/Pajaro-Diptych-1-1920x640.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2500px) 100vw, 2500px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Left: Denia Escutia stands for a portrait outside her mud-coated bedroom in Pajaro, on March 24, 2023. Right: Denia Escutia sits in her new bedroom in Pajaro on Aug. 20, 2024. \u003ccite>(Left: Kori Suzuki/KQED; Right: Beth LaBerge/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>“One family had a daughter who would go into our refrigerator and grab stuff,” said Denia Escutia, with shoulder-length chestnut brown hair and pearl-colored long acrylic nails. “We didn’t have our own space, and I was uncomfortable.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In July, reality set in; Escutia wanted to get her three kids out. Beaten down by the reality of living in one of the most expensive areas in the country for rentals, she called the landlord in Pajaro and accepted the apartment.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The family would return to the floodplain.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Their nearly year-and-a-half-long housing search concluded right across the street from their old home in the same apartment complex where they had found refuge from the flood.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>They moved in early August and now pay $1,900 for a freshly painted three-bedroom apartment. They knew the landlord and said he gave them a deal based on their relationship, and because of the flood risk, Escutia explained as she stirred sizzling chorizo and flipped homemade corn tortillas on a comal in her new thin galley kitchen.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“There were no options but this one,” Escutia said, her brown hair tied with a big black bow. “I am happy that I have my room and my kids have privacy.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Her new address is just one number different from her previous home.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“I am scared the flooding might happen again, but I try to put it in the back of my head, telling myself it won’t happen for a few years and in a few years, we will probably not live here,” said Escutia, as she served her daughter a guava Jarritos soda.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Daily, she’s reminded of the flood and the toll on her family. From her upstairs bedroom window, she can see her former landlord slowly repairing the gutted tan house across the street.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“I miss that house,” she said. “When I see it, I feel sad they’re rebuilding the house, and it’s not for us.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_1994204\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-1994204\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2024/09/240820-PajaroFolo-60-BL_qed.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1333\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2024/09/240820-PajaroFolo-60-BL_qed.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2024/09/240820-PajaroFolo-60-BL_qed-800x533.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2024/09/240820-PajaroFolo-60-BL_qed-1020x680.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2024/09/240820-PajaroFolo-60-BL_qed-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2024/09/240820-PajaroFolo-60-BL_qed-768x512.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2024/09/240820-PajaroFolo-60-BL_qed-1536x1024.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2024/09/240820-PajaroFolo-60-BL_qed-1920x1280.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">The house that Carla Escutia lived in for 19 years, which flooded in March 2023, can be seen from her bedroom window in the new apartment where she and her family live in Pajaro on Aug. 20, 2024. \u003ccite>(Beth LaBerge/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003ch2>‘We’re taking that chance’\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>The family now lives in a constant state of déjà vu, dwelling in the apartment complex they fled to when the debris-laden water ran up the walls of their home.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“If it floods again, where will we go when we just settled down? We’re taking that chance,” said Denia Escutia, who is in her third semester at Cabrillo Community College in Aptos.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The family’s choice — to return to the floodplain — is one other Californians will face as future storms intensify due to human-caused climate change. Thousands of miles of levees pen in rivers and streams across the state; much of that infrastructure, including the levee that protects Pajaro, is aging and is not built for these storms, which could cause major flooding in any given year. A \u003ca href=\"https://www.washingtonpost.com/weather/2024/08/19/connecticut-floods-nyc-nj-rain-weather/\">1-in-1000-year storm flooded the Connecticut area last month\u003c/a>, and a similarly rare storm \u003ca href=\"https://laist.com/news/climate-environment/atmospheric-river-la-storm-evacuations-damage-los-angeles-orange-riverside-san-bernardino-santa-barbara\">flooded parts of Los Angeles last February\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_1994207\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 1024px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-1994207\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2024/09/GettyImages-1248040358.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"1024\" height=\"615\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2024/09/GettyImages-1248040358.jpg 1024w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2024/09/GettyImages-1248040358-800x480.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2024/09/GettyImages-1248040358-1020x613.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2024/09/GettyImages-1248040358-160x96.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2024/09/GettyImages-1248040358-768x461.jpg 768w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1024px) 100vw, 1024px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">An aerial view shows people making their way around a flooded neighborhood in the unincorporated community of Pajaro in Watsonville, Santa Cruz County on March 11, 2023. \u003ccite>(Josh Edelson/AFP via Getty Images)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>“Climate change is affecting these probabilities,” said Noah Diffenbaugh, professor of Earth system science at the Stanford Doerr School of Sustainability. “What is clear is that the probability of extreme wet conditions is going up.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The storms that doused the region in 2023 were a small example of what Californians can expect, and they still oversaturated the system.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The 2023 Pajaro flood \u003ca href=\"https://hazards.colorado.edu/quick-response-report/toward-equitable-recovery-for-unincorporated-areas\">damaged 273 homes and destroyed five\u003c/a>. Most of the damaged homes were single-story, single-family residences, like the Escutias’, according to an assessment by Danielle Zoe Rivera, assistant professor of landscape architecture and environmental planning at UC Berkeley. She reviewed an early assessment of damaged structures from the Cal Fire Damage Inspection Program.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Rivera is trying to determine how many people moved back after the water receded. The Pájaro Valley Unified School District lost 2,043 of its 17,963 students between the 2022–23 and 2023–24 school years, which she said is a “hint at the scale of the displacement” but might not be due to the storm.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>She also reviewed the U.S. Postal Service records and found very few people moved from Pajaro after 2023. She said residents, facing the high cost of housing, appear to have chosen to “live through flooding” instead of finding a new place to live.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Maybe some people did leave, but the need for housing was so great in the region that people just instantly repopulated those flooded homes,” Rivera said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_1994211\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 2500px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-1994211\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2024/09/Pajaro-Diptych-2.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"2500\" height=\"833\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2024/09/Pajaro-Diptych-2.jpg 2500w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2024/09/Pajaro-Diptych-2-800x267.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2024/09/Pajaro-Diptych-2-1020x340.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2024/09/Pajaro-Diptych-2-160x53.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2024/09/Pajaro-Diptych-2-768x256.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2024/09/Pajaro-Diptych-2-1536x512.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2024/09/Pajaro-Diptych-2-2048x682.jpg 2048w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2024/09/Pajaro-Diptych-2-1920x640.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2500px) 100vw, 2500px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Left: An aerial view of the broken levee in Pajaro on March 13, 2023. Right: A construction project is underway to stabilize and add height to the Pajaro levee on Aug. 20, 2024, after a breach in the levee flooded the community of Pajaro in March of 2023. \u003ccite>(Left: Jennifer Cain/Getty Images; Right: Beth LaBerge/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003ch2>‘An undersized levee system’\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>Under pressure from lawmakers, the local flood agency quickly rebuilt the 400 feet of levee that ruptured. The restored section has the same amount of flood protection as the levee that failed, leaving Pajaro vulnerable.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Residents still need to be a bit concerned because we are still living in a situation where we have an undersized levee system,” said Mark Strudley, executive director of the Pajaro Regional Flood Management Agency. “My hope is that if water starts touching this part of the levee system, we’re going to see less damage.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Tommy Williams, chief of project management at the Army Corps in San Francisco, said the positive news is that the newly repaired section is “no longer the weakest link.” The bad news is that while crews frequently inspect the mostly earthen structure, the exact strength of the entire aging levee is nearly impossible to tell.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_1993960\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-1993960\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2024/08/240820-PAJAROFOLO-33-BL-KQED.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1333\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2024/08/240820-PAJAROFOLO-33-BL-KQED.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2024/08/240820-PAJAROFOLO-33-BL-KQED-800x533.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2024/08/240820-PAJAROFOLO-33-BL-KQED-1020x680.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2024/08/240820-PAJAROFOLO-33-BL-KQED-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2024/08/240820-PAJAROFOLO-33-BL-KQED-768x512.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2024/08/240820-PAJAROFOLO-33-BL-KQED-1536x1024.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2024/08/240820-PAJAROFOLO-33-BL-KQED-1920x1280.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Mark Strudley, Executive Director of the Pajaro Regional Flood Management Agency, stands on the Pajaro levee on Aug. 20, 2024. A breach in the levee flooded the Pajaro community in March of 2023. \u003ccite>(Beth LaBerge/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>The Corps expects to break ground later this fall on a project to raise and widen nearly 14 miles of levee to strengthen it against future storms. Flood authorities won’t widen the main section that failed for several years, although Williams said the design work has started. They want to set the new levee back 100 feet from where it is today to give the river room to expand during storms.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Years before the recent flood, the Corps had officially rated the levee along the Pajaro River a “moderate” risk of flooding. The truth is that for decades, officials knew it needed repair but didn’t act. They determined that the town wasn’t worth protecting because property values were too low, according to levee records and interviews with several officials.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The Corps’ plan will prepare the most populated areas for a 1-in-100-year flood — some experts believe that is only half the needed protection. With that level of protection, \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/science/1982513/experts-call-for-doubled-levee-protection-to-battle-climate-change-in-california\">a house has a 25% chance of flooding\u003c/a> during a typical Pajaro homeowner’s 30-year mortgage.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Living behind a makeshift levee scares residents and leaders of community groups like Regeneración – Pájaro Valley Climate Action.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“It’s a ticking time bomb,” said Nancy Faulstich, director of the community group. “We all know there are vulnerabilities here, and with the acceleration of climate change, all bets are off.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_1993958\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-1993958\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2024/08/240820-PAJAROFOLO-12-BL-KQED.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1333\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2024/08/240820-PAJAROFOLO-12-BL-KQED.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2024/08/240820-PAJAROFOLO-12-BL-KQED-800x533.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2024/08/240820-PAJAROFOLO-12-BL-KQED-1020x680.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2024/08/240820-PAJAROFOLO-12-BL-KQED-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2024/08/240820-PAJAROFOLO-12-BL-KQED-768x512.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2024/08/240820-PAJAROFOLO-12-BL-KQED-1536x1024.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2024/08/240820-PAJAROFOLO-12-BL-KQED-1920x1280.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">A construction project is underway to stabilize and add height to the Pajaro levee on Aug. 20, 2024, after a breach in the levee flooded the community of Pajaro in March of 2023. \u003ccite>(Beth LaBerge/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003ch2>‘I fear we’ll have to leave this one, too’\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>A Pajaro where all bets are off is a future the Escutias hope to escape. Denia Escutia wants to become a doctor and eventually buy “a big house or ranch where I can have my mom retire from her work.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Unless the family’s financial situation changes, that could prove difficult. \u003ca href=\"https://nlihc.org/oor\">The Santa Cruz-Watsonville region is the most out-of-reach metropolitan area in the country for rental homes\u003c/a>, according to the latest report by the National Low Income Housing Coalition.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[aside label=\"Related Stories\" postID=\"science_1984643,news_11961759,news_11944295\"]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The 2024 study found a family like the Escutias would need a household hourly wage of $77.96 to afford a modest two-bedroom rental in this area without spending more than 30% of their income on housing.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Most people would have to work nearly five full-time jobs, with a minimum wage of $16 an hour, to afford just a regular rental in our county,” said Miriam Greenberg, professor of sociology at UC Santa Cruz and co-director of the Center for Critical Urban and Environmental Studies.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Greenberg studies the intersection of housing and climate catastrophes. She said when a wildfire burns through a community, it displaces families and, in turn, can raise the rent price. She said the same thing happens when floods eliminate the number of rentals in a community and “compound an already dire situation for housing.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Denia Escutia finds herself replaying the fear of flooding and displacement, even as she lays on her new trundle bed covered in lavender sheets surrounded by K-Pop posters and scissor-cut photos of her girlfriends.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“We were forced to leave one house, and now we have another house,” she said. “I fear we’ll have to leave this one, too, and we might not find anything.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad floatright]\u003c/p>\n",
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"excerpt": "KQED followed the Escutia family after they fled Pajaro following ferocious winter flooding. After struggling to find a place to live, they're back behind the levee — which won't be rebuilt for years. ",
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"title": "The Pajaro Flood Forced Them to Flee. California's High Rents Forced Them to Return | KQED",
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"headline": "The Pajaro Flood Forced Them to Flee. California's High Rents Forced Them to Return",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003cp>\u003cspan class=\"utils-parseShortcode-shortcodes-__dropcapShortcode__dropcap\">C\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\u003cp>arla Escutia fled with her three kids to the second story of an apartment building across the street when a storm burst an infamously weak levee outside their town of Pajaro in March 2023.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>They huddled and watched in horror as chocolate milk-colored flood water swamped their beige home and rendered their cars inoperable. When the California National Guard rescued her family, crammed into military vehicles, they swore they’d find a new place to live on higher ground.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>That was the beginning of what would turn into a 16-month odyssey to find an affordable two-bedroom apartment, which can cost more than $3,000 in the area around Monterey County. The family cycled through a shelter, a trailer, group homes, rentals and couches at other family members’ houses. Escutia, a custodian at UC Santa Cruz, encountered landlords who wouldn’t accept applicants from single parents like her with little kids and teenagers.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“They said little kids would destroy the property,” Escutia explained. Some of the apartments cost as much as $4,000. “It was difficult. The prices were really high, and I couldn’t pay that much.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c!-- iframe plugin v.4.3 wordpress.org/plugins/iframe/ -->\u003cbr>\n\u003ciframe loading=\"lazy\" frameborder=\"0\" height=\"200\" scrolling=\"no\" src=\"https://playlist.megaphone.fm?e=KQINC3448175992&light=true\" width=\"100%\" class=\"iframe-class\">\u003c/iframe>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The only affordable option Escutia, 42, could find was an apartment back in Pajaro, but she did not want to put her kids through that trauma again. “I wanted to find something far away,” she said. Authorities have reinforced the crumbled section of the levee, but they admit it is still too small to protect Pajaro, a community of many lower-income earners and farmworkers who harvest strawberries and other crops near Watsonville and Monterey County. The Army Corps of Engineers, along with the state and the local flood agency, plan to build a new levee, but that project won’t be completed until at least 2031.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“We left because we don’t want the same thing to happen again,” said her oldest daughter, Denia Escutia, who KQED profiled for the third season of its Sold Out podcast. The 19-year-old \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/science/1984643/reluctant-retreat-one-familys-fight-against-climate-induced-flooding\">deferred her dream of studying at UCLA\u003c/a> to help her mom, choosing to enroll in community college and working to help pay bills instead.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In April, the Escutias landed a spot for $1700 in a shared house with 12 people in Castroville, about 20 minutes from Watsonville. The family hated the cramped quarters and quickly resented their housemates who raided their bathroom for toilet paper.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_1994210\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\" style=\"max-width: 2500px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-1994210\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2024/09/Pajaro-Diptych-1.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"2500\" height=\"833\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2024/09/Pajaro-Diptych-1.jpg 2500w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2024/09/Pajaro-Diptych-1-800x267.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2024/09/Pajaro-Diptych-1-1020x340.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2024/09/Pajaro-Diptych-1-160x53.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2024/09/Pajaro-Diptych-1-768x256.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2024/09/Pajaro-Diptych-1-1536x512.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2024/09/Pajaro-Diptych-1-2048x682.jpg 2048w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2024/09/Pajaro-Diptych-1-1920x640.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2500px) 100vw, 2500px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Left: Denia Escutia stands for a portrait outside her mud-coated bedroom in Pajaro, on March 24, 2023. Right: Denia Escutia sits in her new bedroom in Pajaro on Aug. 20, 2024. \u003ccite>(Left: Kori Suzuki/KQED; Right: Beth LaBerge/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>“One family had a daughter who would go into our refrigerator and grab stuff,” said Denia Escutia, with shoulder-length chestnut brown hair and pearl-colored long acrylic nails. “We didn’t have our own space, and I was uncomfortable.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In July, reality set in; Escutia wanted to get her three kids out. Beaten down by the reality of living in one of the most expensive areas in the country for rentals, she called the landlord in Pajaro and accepted the apartment.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The family would return to the floodplain.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Their nearly year-and-a-half-long housing search concluded right across the street from their old home in the same apartment complex where they had found refuge from the flood.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>They moved in early August and now pay $1,900 for a freshly painted three-bedroom apartment. They knew the landlord and said he gave them a deal based on their relationship, and because of the flood risk, Escutia explained as she stirred sizzling chorizo and flipped homemade corn tortillas on a comal in her new thin galley kitchen.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“There were no options but this one,” Escutia said, her brown hair tied with a big black bow. “I am happy that I have my room and my kids have privacy.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Her new address is just one number different from her previous home.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“I am scared the flooding might happen again, but I try to put it in the back of my head, telling myself it won’t happen for a few years and in a few years, we will probably not live here,” said Escutia, as she served her daughter a guava Jarritos soda.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Daily, she’s reminded of the flood and the toll on her family. From her upstairs bedroom window, she can see her former landlord slowly repairing the gutted tan house across the street.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“I miss that house,” she said. “When I see it, I feel sad they’re rebuilding the house, and it’s not for us.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_1994204\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-1994204\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2024/09/240820-PajaroFolo-60-BL_qed.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1333\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2024/09/240820-PajaroFolo-60-BL_qed.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2024/09/240820-PajaroFolo-60-BL_qed-800x533.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2024/09/240820-PajaroFolo-60-BL_qed-1020x680.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2024/09/240820-PajaroFolo-60-BL_qed-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2024/09/240820-PajaroFolo-60-BL_qed-768x512.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2024/09/240820-PajaroFolo-60-BL_qed-1536x1024.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2024/09/240820-PajaroFolo-60-BL_qed-1920x1280.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">The house that Carla Escutia lived in for 19 years, which flooded in March 2023, can be seen from her bedroom window in the new apartment where she and her family live in Pajaro on Aug. 20, 2024. \u003ccite>(Beth LaBerge/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003ch2>‘We’re taking that chance’\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>The family now lives in a constant state of déjà vu, dwelling in the apartment complex they fled to when the debris-laden water ran up the walls of their home.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“If it floods again, where will we go when we just settled down? We’re taking that chance,” said Denia Escutia, who is in her third semester at Cabrillo Community College in Aptos.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The family’s choice — to return to the floodplain — is one other Californians will face as future storms intensify due to human-caused climate change. Thousands of miles of levees pen in rivers and streams across the state; much of that infrastructure, including the levee that protects Pajaro, is aging and is not built for these storms, which could cause major flooding in any given year. A \u003ca href=\"https://www.washingtonpost.com/weather/2024/08/19/connecticut-floods-nyc-nj-rain-weather/\">1-in-1000-year storm flooded the Connecticut area last month\u003c/a>, and a similarly rare storm \u003ca href=\"https://laist.com/news/climate-environment/atmospheric-river-la-storm-evacuations-damage-los-angeles-orange-riverside-san-bernardino-santa-barbara\">flooded parts of Los Angeles last February\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_1994207\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 1024px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-1994207\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2024/09/GettyImages-1248040358.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"1024\" height=\"615\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2024/09/GettyImages-1248040358.jpg 1024w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2024/09/GettyImages-1248040358-800x480.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2024/09/GettyImages-1248040358-1020x613.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2024/09/GettyImages-1248040358-160x96.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2024/09/GettyImages-1248040358-768x461.jpg 768w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1024px) 100vw, 1024px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">An aerial view shows people making their way around a flooded neighborhood in the unincorporated community of Pajaro in Watsonville, Santa Cruz County on March 11, 2023. \u003ccite>(Josh Edelson/AFP via Getty Images)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>“Climate change is affecting these probabilities,” said Noah Diffenbaugh, professor of Earth system science at the Stanford Doerr School of Sustainability. “What is clear is that the probability of extreme wet conditions is going up.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The storms that doused the region in 2023 were a small example of what Californians can expect, and they still oversaturated the system.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The 2023 Pajaro flood \u003ca href=\"https://hazards.colorado.edu/quick-response-report/toward-equitable-recovery-for-unincorporated-areas\">damaged 273 homes and destroyed five\u003c/a>. Most of the damaged homes were single-story, single-family residences, like the Escutias’, according to an assessment by Danielle Zoe Rivera, assistant professor of landscape architecture and environmental planning at UC Berkeley. She reviewed an early assessment of damaged structures from the Cal Fire Damage Inspection Program.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Rivera is trying to determine how many people moved back after the water receded. The Pájaro Valley Unified School District lost 2,043 of its 17,963 students between the 2022–23 and 2023–24 school years, which she said is a “hint at the scale of the displacement” but might not be due to the storm.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>She also reviewed the U.S. Postal Service records and found very few people moved from Pajaro after 2023. She said residents, facing the high cost of housing, appear to have chosen to “live through flooding” instead of finding a new place to live.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Maybe some people did leave, but the need for housing was so great in the region that people just instantly repopulated those flooded homes,” Rivera said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_1994211\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 2500px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-1994211\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2024/09/Pajaro-Diptych-2.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"2500\" height=\"833\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2024/09/Pajaro-Diptych-2.jpg 2500w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2024/09/Pajaro-Diptych-2-800x267.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2024/09/Pajaro-Diptych-2-1020x340.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2024/09/Pajaro-Diptych-2-160x53.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2024/09/Pajaro-Diptych-2-768x256.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2024/09/Pajaro-Diptych-2-1536x512.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2024/09/Pajaro-Diptych-2-2048x682.jpg 2048w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2024/09/Pajaro-Diptych-2-1920x640.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2500px) 100vw, 2500px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Left: An aerial view of the broken levee in Pajaro on March 13, 2023. Right: A construction project is underway to stabilize and add height to the Pajaro levee on Aug. 20, 2024, after a breach in the levee flooded the community of Pajaro in March of 2023. \u003ccite>(Left: Jennifer Cain/Getty Images; Right: Beth LaBerge/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003ch2>‘An undersized levee system’\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>Under pressure from lawmakers, the local flood agency quickly rebuilt the 400 feet of levee that ruptured. The restored section has the same amount of flood protection as the levee that failed, leaving Pajaro vulnerable.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Residents still need to be a bit concerned because we are still living in a situation where we have an undersized levee system,” said Mark Strudley, executive director of the Pajaro Regional Flood Management Agency. “My hope is that if water starts touching this part of the levee system, we’re going to see less damage.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Tommy Williams, chief of project management at the Army Corps in San Francisco, said the positive news is that the newly repaired section is “no longer the weakest link.” The bad news is that while crews frequently inspect the mostly earthen structure, the exact strength of the entire aging levee is nearly impossible to tell.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_1993960\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-1993960\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2024/08/240820-PAJAROFOLO-33-BL-KQED.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1333\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2024/08/240820-PAJAROFOLO-33-BL-KQED.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2024/08/240820-PAJAROFOLO-33-BL-KQED-800x533.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2024/08/240820-PAJAROFOLO-33-BL-KQED-1020x680.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2024/08/240820-PAJAROFOLO-33-BL-KQED-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2024/08/240820-PAJAROFOLO-33-BL-KQED-768x512.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2024/08/240820-PAJAROFOLO-33-BL-KQED-1536x1024.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2024/08/240820-PAJAROFOLO-33-BL-KQED-1920x1280.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Mark Strudley, Executive Director of the Pajaro Regional Flood Management Agency, stands on the Pajaro levee on Aug. 20, 2024. A breach in the levee flooded the Pajaro community in March of 2023. \u003ccite>(Beth LaBerge/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>The Corps expects to break ground later this fall on a project to raise and widen nearly 14 miles of levee to strengthen it against future storms. Flood authorities won’t widen the main section that failed for several years, although Williams said the design work has started. They want to set the new levee back 100 feet from where it is today to give the river room to expand during storms.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Years before the recent flood, the Corps had officially rated the levee along the Pajaro River a “moderate” risk of flooding. The truth is that for decades, officials knew it needed repair but didn’t act. They determined that the town wasn’t worth protecting because property values were too low, according to levee records and interviews with several officials.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The Corps’ plan will prepare the most populated areas for a 1-in-100-year flood — some experts believe that is only half the needed protection. With that level of protection, \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/science/1982513/experts-call-for-doubled-levee-protection-to-battle-climate-change-in-california\">a house has a 25% chance of flooding\u003c/a> during a typical Pajaro homeowner’s 30-year mortgage.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Living behind a makeshift levee scares residents and leaders of community groups like Regeneración – Pájaro Valley Climate Action.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“It’s a ticking time bomb,” said Nancy Faulstich, director of the community group. “We all know there are vulnerabilities here, and with the acceleration of climate change, all bets are off.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_1993958\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-1993958\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2024/08/240820-PAJAROFOLO-12-BL-KQED.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1333\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2024/08/240820-PAJAROFOLO-12-BL-KQED.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2024/08/240820-PAJAROFOLO-12-BL-KQED-800x533.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2024/08/240820-PAJAROFOLO-12-BL-KQED-1020x680.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2024/08/240820-PAJAROFOLO-12-BL-KQED-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2024/08/240820-PAJAROFOLO-12-BL-KQED-768x512.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2024/08/240820-PAJAROFOLO-12-BL-KQED-1536x1024.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2024/08/240820-PAJAROFOLO-12-BL-KQED-1920x1280.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">A construction project is underway to stabilize and add height to the Pajaro levee on Aug. 20, 2024, after a breach in the levee flooded the community of Pajaro in March of 2023. \u003ccite>(Beth LaBerge/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003ch2>‘I fear we’ll have to leave this one, too’\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>A Pajaro where all bets are off is a future the Escutias hope to escape. Denia Escutia wants to become a doctor and eventually buy “a big house or ranch where I can have my mom retire from her work.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Unless the family’s financial situation changes, that could prove difficult. \u003ca href=\"https://nlihc.org/oor\">The Santa Cruz-Watsonville region is the most out-of-reach metropolitan area in the country for rental homes\u003c/a>, according to the latest report by the National Low Income Housing Coalition.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The 2024 study found a family like the Escutias would need a household hourly wage of $77.96 to afford a modest two-bedroom rental in this area without spending more than 30% of their income on housing.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Most people would have to work nearly five full-time jobs, with a minimum wage of $16 an hour, to afford just a regular rental in our county,” said Miriam Greenberg, professor of sociology at UC Santa Cruz and co-director of the Center for Critical Urban and Environmental Studies.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Greenberg studies the intersection of housing and climate catastrophes. She said when a wildfire burns through a community, it displaces families and, in turn, can raise the rent price. She said the same thing happens when floods eliminate the number of rentals in a community and “compound an already dire situation for housing.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Denia Escutia finds herself replaying the fear of flooding and displacement, even as she lays on her new trundle bed covered in lavender sheets surrounded by K-Pop posters and scissor-cut photos of her girlfriends.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“We were forced to leave one house, and now we have another house,” she said. “I fear we’ll have to leave this one, too, and we might not find anything.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"slug": "bay-area-dances-on-the-edge-of-a-heat-wave-fire-danger-looms",
"title": "Bay Area Dances on the Edge of a Heat Wave, Fire Danger Looms",
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"content": "\u003cp>Homes in \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/tag/san-francisco\">San Francisco\u003c/a>’s sunnier neighborhoods, like the Mission District, aren’t known for having air conditioning, so with temperatures expected to peak up to 85 degrees over the next few days, forecasters said residents should open windows and let down their blinds — or escape the heat altogether by heading to Fort Funston to cool off.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“If it gets really hot inside, go find a local park where you can sit under a shade tree or head west to find that breeze at Ocean Beach,” said Brian Garcia, the National Weather Service’s Bay Area warning coordination meteorologist. “It’s going to be a lot cooler out there, and it’s going to keep you a lot safer.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Across the city by the bay, Garcia said temperatures could sneak above average in neighborhoods along the bay shore and only slightly cool off at night. That’s why he said the weather service issued a heat advisory for Tuesday for the entire city, which he calls a “rare event.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad fullwidth]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“It’s going to take some time for these places to cool off,” he said. “We’re crossing some thresholds in the city that put us outside the norm, with minimum temperatures only dropping into the low 60s.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Through Friday, temperatures in inland cities like Healdsburg, Concord, Livermore and Morgan Hill could spike into the triple digits. A heat advisory will be in effect on Wednesday and Thursday for temperatures ranging 10 to 20 degrees above average for inland areas, according to the weather service’s daily forecast discussion for the Bay Area.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>https://twitter.com/NWSBayArea/status/1831016323754926568\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Farther inland in the Central Valley, the weather service has issued a moderate to major heat risk advisory with triple-digit temperatures from Redding to Sacramento.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“We expect about 10 to 15 degrees above the climatological normal in many of these cities,” said Katrina Hand, meteorologist with the weather service in Sacramento. “We expect high temperatures in the triple digits up to 107 degrees.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c!-- iframe plugin v.4.3 wordpress.org/plugins/iframe/ -->\u003cbr>\n\u003ciframe loading=\"lazy\" src=\"https://kqedsf.maps.arcgis.com/apps/instant/basic/index.html?appid=bf643abda876496db0b74dacc2620b53\" width=\"1000\" height=\"700\" frameborder=\"0\" style=\"border:0\" scrolling=\"yes\" class=\"iframe-class\">\u003c/iframe>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The warming trend in the Bay Area doesn’t quite equate to a heat wave, but Garcia said such conditions — mainly a spike from average temperatures for several days — are “teetering right on the edge” of becoming a reality.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Garcia also expects nighttime lows, especially at high elevations around the region, to remain relatively warm. Combined with wind gusts of 20 to 30 mph and ample dry grass and brush, that makes for the perfect conditions for igniting wildfires.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Fire danger is widespread across the Bay Area now,” he said. “Essentially, what we’re looking at right now is a tinderbox of dry fuels at elevation. If a spark occurs, it could expand quickly into flames and spread rapidly.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Electricity grid operators also worry that several days of heat could increase the risk of power outages. In a heat bulletin issued late last week, the California Independent System Operator \u003ca href=\"https://www.caiso.com/about/news/heat-forecasted-for-much-of-the-western-united-states\">cautioned utility companies to defer maintenance scheduled between Wednesday and Friday to ensure enough generation\u003c/a>. Meanwhile, the Bay Area Air Quality Management District has issued a Spare the Air Alert for smog for Tuesday and Wednesday.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003cp>Homes in \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/tag/san-francisco\">San Francisco\u003c/a>’s sunnier neighborhoods, like the Mission District, aren’t known for having air conditioning, so with temperatures expected to peak up to 85 degrees over the next few days, forecasters said residents should open windows and let down their blinds — or escape the heat altogether by heading to Fort Funston to cool off.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“If it gets really hot inside, go find a local park where you can sit under a shade tree or head west to find that breeze at Ocean Beach,” said Brian Garcia, the National Weather Service’s Bay Area warning coordination meteorologist. “It’s going to be a lot cooler out there, and it’s going to keep you a lot safer.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Across the city by the bay, Garcia said temperatures could sneak above average in neighborhoods along the bay shore and only slightly cool off at night. That’s why he said the weather service issued a heat advisory for Tuesday for the entire city, which he calls a “rare event.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“It’s going to take some time for these places to cool off,” he said. “We’re crossing some thresholds in the city that put us outside the norm, with minimum temperatures only dropping into the low 60s.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Through Friday, temperatures in inland cities like Healdsburg, Concord, Livermore and Morgan Hill could spike into the triple digits. A heat advisory will be in effect on Wednesday and Thursday for temperatures ranging 10 to 20 degrees above average for inland areas, according to the weather service’s daily forecast discussion for the Bay Area.\u003c/p>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\n\u003cp>Farther inland in the Central Valley, the weather service has issued a moderate to major heat risk advisory with triple-digit temperatures from Redding to Sacramento.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“We expect about 10 to 15 degrees above the climatological normal in many of these cities,” said Katrina Hand, meteorologist with the weather service in Sacramento. “We expect high temperatures in the triple digits up to 107 degrees.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c!-- iframe plugin v.4.3 wordpress.org/plugins/iframe/ -->\u003cbr>\n\u003ciframe loading=\"lazy\" src=\"https://kqedsf.maps.arcgis.com/apps/instant/basic/index.html?appid=bf643abda876496db0b74dacc2620b53\" width=\"1000\" height=\"700\" frameborder=\"0\" style=\"border:0\" scrolling=\"yes\" class=\"iframe-class\">\u003c/iframe>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The warming trend in the Bay Area doesn’t quite equate to a heat wave, but Garcia said such conditions — mainly a spike from average temperatures for several days — are “teetering right on the edge” of becoming a reality.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Garcia also expects nighttime lows, especially at high elevations around the region, to remain relatively warm. Combined with wind gusts of 20 to 30 mph and ample dry grass and brush, that makes for the perfect conditions for igniting wildfires.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Fire danger is widespread across the Bay Area now,” he said. “Essentially, what we’re looking at right now is a tinderbox of dry fuels at elevation. If a spark occurs, it could expand quickly into flames and spread rapidly.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Electricity grid operators also worry that several days of heat could increase the risk of power outages. In a heat bulletin issued late last week, the California Independent System Operator \u003ca href=\"https://www.caiso.com/about/news/heat-forecasted-for-much-of-the-western-united-states\">cautioned utility companies to defer maintenance scheduled between Wednesday and Friday to ensure enough generation\u003c/a>. Meanwhile, the Bay Area Air Quality Management District has issued a Spare the Air Alert for smog for Tuesday and Wednesday.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003c/div>\u003c/p>",
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"title": "California Needs to Pull Carbon From the Air to Meet Its Climate Goals. This Bill Lays Out a Plan",
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"headTitle": "California Needs to Pull Carbon From the Air to Meet Its Climate Goals. This Bill Lays Out a Plan | KQED",
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"content": "\u003cp>To achieve its ambitious climate goals, California will likely need to not only slash emissions but also remove huge amounts of carbon dioxide from the atmosphere using technology that’s new and very expensive.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003ca href=\"https://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/billTextClient.xhtml?bill_id=202320240SB308\">A newly introduced bill\u003c/a> making its way through the state Legislature aims to push the carbon removal industry to be able to pull 75 million tons of carbon dioxide — the amount created by \u003ca href=\"https://ww2.arb.ca.gov/sites/default/files/2022-11/2022-sp.pdf\">roughly 200 gas-fired power plants\u003c/a> — from the air every year by 2045.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But that plan is not without controversy. Its critics include big oil, business associations and some environmental justice groups.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>State Sen. Josh Becker (D-Menlo Park) said he authored the \u003ca href=\"https://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/billTextClient.xhtml?bill_id=202320240SB308\">bill\u003c/a> — SB 308 — to show companies that California is committed to carbon dioxide removal.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“We need to let these entrepreneurs know that there’s a long-term market for carbon removal so they can continue to work,” Becker said. “Investors will invest, and we can bring down the cost of these solutions, just like we’ve done with wind and solar.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad fullwidth]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>There are already several California-based carbon dioxide removal companies, but none of them are yet able to remove the planet-warming gas from the atmosphere in a cost-effective way, according to industry experts, who argue it should cost close to $100 per ton of carbon dioxide removed — a fraction of the current estimates.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Becker’s bill would require the California Air Resources Board, the state agency tasked with reducing air pollution, to set targets to scale up the amount of carbon dioxide removed annually and report on that progress. Becker thinks this will also help assure carbon-removal companies that they will have a robust market.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[aside postID=\"science_1982049\" hero='https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/35/2023/03/image5-2-1020x702.jpg']\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The legislation would also establish guardrails for the carbon-removal industry, including how long the pulled carbon dioxide must be stored for — whether that be in deep underground wells, concrete, the ocean or other locations. It would also mandate that companies directly involve communities who live near project sites. Additionally, it would require that the efforts be focused on true carbon dioxide removal rather than projects used to extract oil from an existing well — a process known as enhanced oil recovery.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Carbon removal means pulling the gas out of the atmosphere through either nature-based approaches — like conserving existing wetlands — or through technological engineering methods that speed the process of carbon dioxide absorption using air, rocks, land and oceans and then sequester it.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Carbon removal is different from \u003ca href=\"https://www.c2es.org/content/carbon-capture/\">carbon capture\u003c/a>, which involves trapping greenhouse gasses at their source of emissions — like smokestacks — a process environmentalists have criticized as allowing fossil-fuel companies to continue burning gases that warm the planet.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Supporters of Becker’s bill, including carbon-removal companies and some environmental groups, emphasize that first and foremost, California must reduce emissions, like the pollution that comes from smokestacks and tailpipes. However, they argue that the gas must also be pulled from the atmosphere to meet the state’s goal of carbon neutrality by 2045. Realizing that goal means the state will have to\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> remove as many carbon emissions from the atmosphere as it emits.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“This is a strategy that is necessary,” said Katelyn Roedner Sutter, California state director of the Environmental Defense Fund. “We have to design good rules now so we can start developing and scaling up these projects.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>However, a number of influential business groups, like the California Chamber of Commerce, oppose the bill, arguing it would be redundant and \u003ca href=\"https://advocacy.calchamber.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/10/Alert-10-20-23.pdf\">add unnecessary regulations\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Environmental justice groups, like the Central Valley Air Quality Coalition, also oppose the bill but for entirely different reasons. They say carbon dioxide removal projects are popping up across the Central Valley, directly impacting low-income communities there, and that the money would be better spent on cutting emissions in the first place.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“We accept that direct air capture is a part of California’s climate strategy,” said Katie Valenzuela, the coalition’s senior policy advocate and a Sacramento City Council member. “But we have deep concerns about potentially replicating some of the same harms that we see from traditional industrial processes.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Valenzuela said she worries about how the projects might negatively impact local air quality and how the chemicals used in the process will be disposed of. The way the captured carbon will be transported through those communities and the consequences of the gas potentially leaking out of storage areas are also major concerns, she adds.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Think about long term: Say there’s a leakage at a carbon storage site in 50 years. Whose job is it going to be to monitor that?” she asked. “Whose job is it going to be to pay for that?”\u003c/p>\n\n",
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"description": "To achieve its ambitious climate goals, California will likely need to not only slash emissions but also remove huge amounts of carbon dioxide from the atmosphere using technology that’s new and very expensive. A newly introduced bill making its way through the state Legislature aims to push the carbon removal industry to be able to pull 75 million tons of carbon dioxide — the amount created by roughly 200 gas-fired power plants — from the air every year by 2045. But that plan is not without controversy. Its critics include big oil, business associations and some environmental justice groups. State",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003cp>To achieve its ambitious climate goals, California will likely need to not only slash emissions but also remove huge amounts of carbon dioxide from the atmosphere using technology that’s new and very expensive.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003ca href=\"https://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/billTextClient.xhtml?bill_id=202320240SB308\">A newly introduced bill\u003c/a> making its way through the state Legislature aims to push the carbon removal industry to be able to pull 75 million tons of carbon dioxide — the amount created by \u003ca href=\"https://ww2.arb.ca.gov/sites/default/files/2022-11/2022-sp.pdf\">roughly 200 gas-fired power plants\u003c/a> — from the air every year by 2045.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But that plan is not without controversy. Its critics include big oil, business associations and some environmental justice groups.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>State Sen. Josh Becker (D-Menlo Park) said he authored the \u003ca href=\"https://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/billTextClient.xhtml?bill_id=202320240SB308\">bill\u003c/a> — SB 308 — to show companies that California is committed to carbon dioxide removal.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“We need to let these entrepreneurs know that there’s a long-term market for carbon removal so they can continue to work,” Becker said. “Investors will invest, and we can bring down the cost of these solutions, just like we’ve done with wind and solar.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>There are already several California-based carbon dioxide removal companies, but none of them are yet able to remove the planet-warming gas from the atmosphere in a cost-effective way, according to industry experts, who argue it should cost close to $100 per ton of carbon dioxide removed — a fraction of the current estimates.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Becker’s bill would require the California Air Resources Board, the state agency tasked with reducing air pollution, to set targets to scale up the amount of carbon dioxide removed annually and report on that progress. Becker thinks this will also help assure carbon-removal companies that they will have a robust market.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The legislation would also establish guardrails for the carbon-removal industry, including how long the pulled carbon dioxide must be stored for — whether that be in deep underground wells, concrete, the ocean or other locations. It would also mandate that companies directly involve communities who live near project sites. Additionally, it would require that the efforts be focused on true carbon dioxide removal rather than projects used to extract oil from an existing well — a process known as enhanced oil recovery.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Carbon removal means pulling the gas out of the atmosphere through either nature-based approaches — like conserving existing wetlands — or through technological engineering methods that speed the process of carbon dioxide absorption using air, rocks, land and oceans and then sequester it.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Carbon removal is different from \u003ca href=\"https://www.c2es.org/content/carbon-capture/\">carbon capture\u003c/a>, which involves trapping greenhouse gasses at their source of emissions — like smokestacks — a process environmentalists have criticized as allowing fossil-fuel companies to continue burning gases that warm the planet.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Supporters of Becker’s bill, including carbon-removal companies and some environmental groups, emphasize that first and foremost, California must reduce emissions, like the pollution that comes from smokestacks and tailpipes. However, they argue that the gas must also be pulled from the atmosphere to meet the state’s goal of carbon neutrality by 2045. Realizing that goal means the state will have to\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> remove as many carbon emissions from the atmosphere as it emits.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“This is a strategy that is necessary,” said Katelyn Roedner Sutter, California state director of the Environmental Defense Fund. “We have to design good rules now so we can start developing and scaling up these projects.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>However, a number of influential business groups, like the California Chamber of Commerce, oppose the bill, arguing it would be redundant and \u003ca href=\"https://advocacy.calchamber.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/10/Alert-10-20-23.pdf\">add unnecessary regulations\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Environmental justice groups, like the Central Valley Air Quality Coalition, also oppose the bill but for entirely different reasons. They say carbon dioxide removal projects are popping up across the Central Valley, directly impacting low-income communities there, and that the money would be better spent on cutting emissions in the first place.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“We accept that direct air capture is a part of California’s climate strategy,” said Katie Valenzuela, the coalition’s senior policy advocate and a Sacramento City Council member. “But we have deep concerns about potentially replicating some of the same harms that we see from traditional industrial processes.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Valenzuela said she worries about how the projects might negatively impact local air quality and how the chemicals used in the process will be disposed of. The way the captured carbon will be transported through those communities and the consequences of the gas potentially leaking out of storage areas are also major concerns, she adds.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Think about long term: Say there’s a leakage at a carbon storage site in 50 years. Whose job is it going to be to monitor that?” she asked. “Whose job is it going to be to pay for that?”\u003c/p>\n\n\u003c/div>\u003c/p>",
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"slug": "rising-seas-already-flood-some-bay-area-schools-the-risk-will-only-get-worse",
"title": "Rising Seas Already Flood Some Bay Area Schools. The Risk Will Only Get Worse",
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"headTitle": "Rising Seas Already Flood Some Bay Area Schools. The Risk Will Only Get Worse | KQED",
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"content": "\u003cp>The Bay Area will become much wetter in the coming decades as rising sea levels push water into shoreline communities, putting highways, homes and \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/science/1993783/schools-in-deep-water-bay-area-faces-uphill-battle-against-climate-change\">schools\u003c/a> in the path of flooding.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>A new analysis from KQED and Climate Central, a nonadvocacy science and newsgroup, found that more than 50 public schools are so close to the bay’s high-tide line that \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/science/1993798/see-which-bay-area-schools-are-at-risk-from-rising-seas\">they’re already in danger of being inundated with ocean and groundwater\u003c/a> — and the risk will grow as seas continue to rise from the effects of climate change.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>While many major sea-level rise solutions could indirectly protect schools, our analysis alerts the public to areas that may flood and gives school districts around the Bay Area agency to prepare for what’s to come.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad fullwidth]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>The big picture: \u003c/strong>Human-caused climate change is raising seas around the globe, and Bay Area scientists believe that will wreak havoc on the region in the coming decades. We’ve known that unless action is taken, much of the 400-plus miles of bay shore will be inundated and shallow groundwater will be pushed up to the surface, flooding property and potentially damaging underground infrastructure. Our new analysis shows how schools are already being affected by flooding due in part to sea-level rise.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_1993889\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-1993889\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2024/08/20240604_FloodedSchool-19_qed.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1333\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2024/08/20240604_FloodedSchool-19_qed.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2024/08/20240604_FloodedSchool-19_qed-800x533.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2024/08/20240604_FloodedSchool-19_qed-1020x680.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2024/08/20240604_FloodedSchool-19_qed-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2024/08/20240604_FloodedSchool-19_qed-768x512.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2024/08/20240604_FloodedSchool-19_qed-1536x1024.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2024/08/20240604_FloodedSchool-19_qed-1920x1280.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Richardson Bay, the body of water next to Mill Valley Middle School, is seen on Tuesday, June 4, 2024. In October 2021, Mill Valley Middle School closed down for two days due to flooding and storm damage caused by rain-induced flooding and high tides. \u003ccite>(Gina Castro/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>The context: \u003c/strong>The high-tide line in the San Francisco Bay has risen by 8 inches over the last century as heat trapped by pollution has melted ice and heated and expanded the world’s oceans. As human-caused climate change accelerates, scientists expect floods to become more regular because about 250 square miles of the Bay Area sit just above — and in some cases below — that line.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Warning signs: \u003c/strong>Three Marin County schools already cope with routine floods: Redwood High School has installed a pump to keep its parking lot dry during high tides, Mill Valley Middle School’s drop-off zone floods multiple times a year, and Tamalpais High School’s parking lot sits below the bay’s high tide levels, causing the storm drains to sometimes run backward from the bay onto campus.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">[aside postID=science_1993783 hero='https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2024/08/20240604_FloodedSchool-13_qed-1020x680.jpg']\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Zoom in: \u003c/strong>Flooding is a significant reason parents are upset that the district plans to rebuild the aging Mill Valley Middle School in the same spot it’s been in for more than 50 years rather than find a new site on safer ground. The Mill Valley School District shares the concerns about flooding, and board members said they’re determined to rebuild the school in a way that will keep its students safe, using bond dollars to modernize it.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But even if the district raises the school above the area that will likely flood in the coming decades, climate scientists said it won’t take much more sea-level rise to turn the school periodically into an “island.” The school’s sea-level rise solution might protect the property, but the district’s choice to raise the school doesn’t fix the parents’ woes of getting kids to class on flooded streets.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Zoom out: \u003c/strong>Across the Bay Area, 52 schools are already at risk of groundwater floods linked to sea-level rise, and seven also face coastal flooding. By 2050, 16 schools will face both risks. San Mateo, Alameda, and Marin are the counties with the most flood-prone schools.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">[aside postID=science_1993798 hero='https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2024/08/FloodMap.jpg']\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Solutions: \u003c/strong>School districts can rebuild schools at elevations above flood zones or move them entirely away from risky areas. But there’s an equity issue for school districts that may want to address the rising sea level independently.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Districts in less economically privileged communities may not have the funds or ability to move a school and must rely on community or region-wide efforts — sea walls, levees, or out-of-the-box solutions — to protect schools. That means city, county, and state leaders must come alongside communities to develop plans for a wetter future.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>What’s new: \u003c/strong>While seawalls and levees are the usual options to protect communities from floodwaters, they come with a sizable price tag. Plus, sea-level rise scientists behind a new paper published in Scientific Reports suggest that \u003ca href=\"https://news.uark.edu/articles/70841/barriers-designed-to-prevent-saltwater-intrusion-may-worsen-inland-flooding?utm_source=arkansas-news&utm_medium=email_2024-07-31&utm_campaign=news_headlines&utm_content=barriers-designed-to-prevent-saltwater-intrusion-may-worsen-inland-flooding\">sea walls or other shoreline barriers “can backfire,” leading to more groundwater flooding inland\u003c/a>, said Xin Su, a research assistant professor at the University of Memphis. As a result, the researchers suggest any solution with a barrier in mind needs a secondary plan — like pumps — to deal with the extra water inland.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>The bottom line: \u003c/strong>The Bay Area needs to develop large-scale sea-level rise solutions — for schools, highways, homes, major infrastructure, etc. — in the coming decades as the pace of flooding increases. It will \u003ca href=\"https://abag.ca.gov/sites/default/files/documents/2023-07/SLR_Framework_Final_Report.pdf\">cost as much as $110 billion\u003c/a> to protect the entire bay shore from nearly a foot and a half of sea-level rise and a 100-year storm, according to a funding report from last summer by various Bay Area governments. Failing to do so could push the cost of preparing the region for rising tides to over $230 billion, the authors note. The good news is that the Bay Area Conservation and Development Commission is working on \u003ca href=\"https://www.bayadapt.org/regional-shoreline-adaptation-plan/\">a regional sea-level rise plan with a draft due at the end of the year\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n",
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"title": "Rising Seas Already Flood Some Bay Area Schools. The Risk Will Only Get Worse | KQED",
"description": "More than 50 Bay Area public schools are already at risk of flooding as seas continue to rise. Here’s what to know about a new analysis from KQED and Climate Central.",
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"headline": "Rising Seas Already Flood Some Bay Area Schools. The Risk Will Only Get Worse",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003cp>The Bay Area will become much wetter in the coming decades as rising sea levels push water into shoreline communities, putting highways, homes and \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/science/1993783/schools-in-deep-water-bay-area-faces-uphill-battle-against-climate-change\">schools\u003c/a> in the path of flooding.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>A new analysis from KQED and Climate Central, a nonadvocacy science and newsgroup, found that more than 50 public schools are so close to the bay’s high-tide line that \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/science/1993798/see-which-bay-area-schools-are-at-risk-from-rising-seas\">they’re already in danger of being inundated with ocean and groundwater\u003c/a> — and the risk will grow as seas continue to rise from the effects of climate change.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>While many major sea-level rise solutions could indirectly protect schools, our analysis alerts the public to areas that may flood and gives school districts around the Bay Area agency to prepare for what’s to come.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>The big picture: \u003c/strong>Human-caused climate change is raising seas around the globe, and Bay Area scientists believe that will wreak havoc on the region in the coming decades. We’ve known that unless action is taken, much of the 400-plus miles of bay shore will be inundated and shallow groundwater will be pushed up to the surface, flooding property and potentially damaging underground infrastructure. Our new analysis shows how schools are already being affected by flooding due in part to sea-level rise.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_1993889\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-1993889\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2024/08/20240604_FloodedSchool-19_qed.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1333\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2024/08/20240604_FloodedSchool-19_qed.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2024/08/20240604_FloodedSchool-19_qed-800x533.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2024/08/20240604_FloodedSchool-19_qed-1020x680.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2024/08/20240604_FloodedSchool-19_qed-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2024/08/20240604_FloodedSchool-19_qed-768x512.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2024/08/20240604_FloodedSchool-19_qed-1536x1024.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2024/08/20240604_FloodedSchool-19_qed-1920x1280.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Richardson Bay, the body of water next to Mill Valley Middle School, is seen on Tuesday, June 4, 2024. In October 2021, Mill Valley Middle School closed down for two days due to flooding and storm damage caused by rain-induced flooding and high tides. \u003ccite>(Gina Castro/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>The context: \u003c/strong>The high-tide line in the San Francisco Bay has risen by 8 inches over the last century as heat trapped by pollution has melted ice and heated and expanded the world’s oceans. As human-caused climate change accelerates, scientists expect floods to become more regular because about 250 square miles of the Bay Area sit just above — and in some cases below — that line.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Warning signs: \u003c/strong>Three Marin County schools already cope with routine floods: Redwood High School has installed a pump to keep its parking lot dry during high tides, Mill Valley Middle School’s drop-off zone floods multiple times a year, and Tamalpais High School’s parking lot sits below the bay’s high tide levels, causing the storm drains to sometimes run backward from the bay onto campus.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Zoom in: \u003c/strong>Flooding is a significant reason parents are upset that the district plans to rebuild the aging Mill Valley Middle School in the same spot it’s been in for more than 50 years rather than find a new site on safer ground. The Mill Valley School District shares the concerns about flooding, and board members said they’re determined to rebuild the school in a way that will keep its students safe, using bond dollars to modernize it.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But even if the district raises the school above the area that will likely flood in the coming decades, climate scientists said it won’t take much more sea-level rise to turn the school periodically into an “island.” The school’s sea-level rise solution might protect the property, but the district’s choice to raise the school doesn’t fix the parents’ woes of getting kids to class on flooded streets.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Zoom out: \u003c/strong>Across the Bay Area, 52 schools are already at risk of groundwater floods linked to sea-level rise, and seven also face coastal flooding. By 2050, 16 schools will face both risks. San Mateo, Alameda, and Marin are the counties with the most flood-prone schools.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Solutions: \u003c/strong>School districts can rebuild schools at elevations above flood zones or move them entirely away from risky areas. But there’s an equity issue for school districts that may want to address the rising sea level independently.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Districts in less economically privileged communities may not have the funds or ability to move a school and must rely on community or region-wide efforts — sea walls, levees, or out-of-the-box solutions — to protect schools. That means city, county, and state leaders must come alongside communities to develop plans for a wetter future.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>What’s new: \u003c/strong>While seawalls and levees are the usual options to protect communities from floodwaters, they come with a sizable price tag. Plus, sea-level rise scientists behind a new paper published in Scientific Reports suggest that \u003ca href=\"https://news.uark.edu/articles/70841/barriers-designed-to-prevent-saltwater-intrusion-may-worsen-inland-flooding?utm_source=arkansas-news&utm_medium=email_2024-07-31&utm_campaign=news_headlines&utm_content=barriers-designed-to-prevent-saltwater-intrusion-may-worsen-inland-flooding\">sea walls or other shoreline barriers “can backfire,” leading to more groundwater flooding inland\u003c/a>, said Xin Su, a research assistant professor at the University of Memphis. As a result, the researchers suggest any solution with a barrier in mind needs a secondary plan — like pumps — to deal with the extra water inland.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>The bottom line: \u003c/strong>The Bay Area needs to develop large-scale sea-level rise solutions — for schools, highways, homes, major infrastructure, etc. — in the coming decades as the pace of flooding increases. It will \u003ca href=\"https://abag.ca.gov/sites/default/files/documents/2023-07/SLR_Framework_Final_Report.pdf\">cost as much as $110 billion\u003c/a> to protect the entire bay shore from nearly a foot and a half of sea-level rise and a 100-year storm, according to a funding report from last summer by various Bay Area governments. Failing to do so could push the cost of preparing the region for rising tides to over $230 billion, the authors note. The good news is that the Bay Area Conservation and Development Commission is working on \u003ca href=\"https://www.bayadapt.org/regional-shoreline-adaptation-plan/\">a regional sea-level rise plan with a draft due at the end of the year\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003c/div>\u003c/p>",
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"content": "\u003cp>Fifty-two Bay Area public schools sit so close to the bay’s high-tide line that they’re already at risk of being inundated with ocean and ground water, and their risk will grow as seas continue to rise, according to an analysis by KQED and Climate Central.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Some schools already cope with routine floods, like Marin County’s Redwood High School, which has installed a pump to keep its parking lot dry during high tides, and \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/science/1993783/schools-in-deep-water-bay-area-faces-uphill-battle-against-climate-change\">Mill Valley Middle School, where the drop-off zone floods multiple times a year\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“The biggest risk to these schools is that they’re in areas with high groundwater, and they get flooding when it’s a combination of a high tide and a heavy rain,” said Kristina Hill, director of UC Berkeley’s Institute of Urban and Regional Development.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad fullwidth]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The high-tide line in the San Francisco Bay has risen by \u003ca href=\"https://oehha.ca.gov/climate-change/epic-2022/impacts-physical-systems/sea-level-rise#:~:text=Sea%20levels%20have%20increased%20over,mm%20or%200.03%E2%80%B3%20each%20year.\">8 inches\u003c/a> as heat trapped by pollution has melted ice and heated and expanded the world’s oceans over the last century. As that creep accelerates scientists expect floods to become more regular because about \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/11799297/large-parts-of-the-bay-area-are-built-on-fill-why-and-where\">250 square miles\u003c/a> of the Bay Area sits just above — and in some cases below — that line, on former wetlands that were drained and piled up with rocks, rubble and soil for development.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>By 2050, moderate projections show seas rising \u003ca href=\"https://opc.ca.gov/wp-content/uploads/2024/01/SLR-Guidance-DRAFT-Jan-2024-508.pdf\">an additional 7 inches (PDF)\u003c/a>, at which point floods will become even more common at most of the schools, our analysis found. By 2100, the projections show the bay rising 3 feet above today’s levels, at which point the number of flood-risky schools will multiply.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>We aimed to identify Bay Area schools with flood risk today, and those likely to have problems by the middle of the century. We looked at two types of floods, both of which will become more common with sea level rise: coastal floods, where high tides and storm surges push the ocean up onto dry land; and groundwater floods, where saltwater saturates the soil under the shore, driving up the layer of freshwater floating above it so much that it emerges and inundates properties.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The KQED and Climate Central analysis found:\u003c/p>\n\u003cul>\n\u003cli>Fifty-two schools are already at risk of groundwater floods linked to sea level rise.\u003c/li>\n\u003cli>Seven of them also carry the risk of coastal floods, compounding the likelihood of inundation. By 2050, 16 will carry both risks.\u003c/li>\n\u003cli>By 2050, another school — Design Tech High in Redwood City — will be at risk of flooding.\u003c/li>\n\u003cli>The bulk of the flood-risky schools are located in San Mateo, Alameda and Marin counties.\u003c/li>\n\u003c/ul>\n\u003cp>\u003c!-- iframe plugin v.4.3 wordpress.org/plugins/iframe/ -->\u003cbr>\n\u003ciframe loading=\"lazy\" src=\"https://kqedsf.maps.arcgis.com/apps/instant/basic/index.html?appid=ba558582b94c47f3b683552282c70ef4\" width=\"1000\" height=\"700\" frameborder=\"0\" style=\"border:0\" scrolling=\"yes\" class=\"iframe-class\">\u003c/iframe>\u003cbr>\n\u003cem>(Map produced by Matthew Green/KQED) \u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>\u003cstrong>Data sources and methodology\u003c/strong>\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>To identify flood-risky schools, KQED and Climate Central pulled location data for more than 1,700 public schools in the Bay Area’s nine counties from the \u003ca href=\"https://gis.data.ca.gov/datasets/61a4260e68b14a5ab91daf27d4415e7d_0/explore?location=0.036826%2C-119.081787%2C0.00\">California State Geoportal\u003c/a>. Using QGIS, we mapped those schools onto flood risk data from the U.S. Geological Survey’s \u003ca href=\"https://ourcoastourfuture.org/hazard-map/\">Our Coast Our Future hazard map\u003c/a>, focusing on the risk as it stood in 2010, the model’s baseline, and with a moderate sea level rise \u003ca href=\"https://opc.ca.gov/wp-content/uploads/2024/01/SLR-Guidance-DRAFT-Jan-2024-508.pdf\">projected (PDF)\u003c/a> by 2050.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>We added a radius of 150 meters for each school, to capture flooding impacts outside the single point location coordinates provided by the state. That’s about a 17.5 acre circle, about the size of the median school campus of 10 acres, according to a \u003ca href=\"https://www.californiaschoolcampusdatabase.org/\">database\u003c/a> of California school sizes.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[aside postID=science_1993783]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Our analysis likely underestimates the real-life flood risk, according to flood experts we spoke with, because it doesn’t capture other factors, like intensifying rainfall and localized land subsidence.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>For the coastal flood analysis, we considered the risk of inundation during a 100-year-storm, which state law requires all schools to be constructed to withstand.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>We did not include four schools in Foster City and seven schools in San Mateo from the results, because those cities have recently built flood-protective levees not accounted for by the database.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_1993803\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-1993803\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2024/08/20240604_FloodedSchool-17_qed.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1333\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2024/08/20240604_FloodedSchool-17_qed.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2024/08/20240604_FloodedSchool-17_qed-800x533.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2024/08/20240604_FloodedSchool-17_qed-1020x680.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2024/08/20240604_FloodedSchool-17_qed-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2024/08/20240604_FloodedSchool-17_qed-768x512.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2024/08/20240604_FloodedSchool-17_qed-1536x1024.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2024/08/20240604_FloodedSchool-17_qed-1920x1280.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Flood warning signs are posted at the Mill Valley Middle School parking lot on Tuesday, June 4, 2024. \u003ccite>(Gina Castro/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003ch2>\u003cstrong>Groundwater floods\u003c/strong>\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>Unlike coastal inundation, groundwater floods depend on underground, out-of-sight factors like topography, soil composition and the water table. In the absence of a detailed subsurface geology map for the region, the model uses a range of plausible geologies based on the research that does exist. We limited our results to campuses that the USGS model indicates already have emergent water, at or above the surface of the land.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The model requires an assumption of soil permeability: In highly permeable soil, water drains quickly, limiting the likelihood of a flood. In the least permeable soil, groundwater drains slowly, increasing that likelihood. Research by UC Berkeley’s Hill on groundwater floods in the Bay Area has shown that the least-permeable assumption best matches up with real-life flood risk.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>To zero in on schools whose groundwater flood risk is related to sea level rise, we consulted with Hill and Patrick Barnard, research director for USGS’ Climate Impacts and Coastal Processes Team. We constrained our results to campuses under 10 feet of elevation, which we determined with \u003ca href=\"https://www.usgs.gov/3d-elevation-program\">this USGS tool\u003c/a>, and within a half-mile of the bay or a tidally influenced river, which we determined using Google Maps’ \u003ca href=\"https://support.google.com/maps/answer/1628031?hl=en&co=GENIE.Platform%3DDesktop\">distance calculator\u003c/a> and by researching rivers’ head of tide.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Barriers like levees don’t protect against rising groundwater, so in this case, we did not eliminate the schools in Foster City or San Mateo.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cem>This story was produced by KQED and Climate Central, a nonadvocacy science and news group.\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003cp>Fifty-two Bay Area public schools sit so close to the bay’s high-tide line that they’re already at risk of being inundated with ocean and ground water, and their risk will grow as seas continue to rise, according to an analysis by KQED and Climate Central.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Some schools already cope with routine floods, like Marin County’s Redwood High School, which has installed a pump to keep its parking lot dry during high tides, and \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/science/1993783/schools-in-deep-water-bay-area-faces-uphill-battle-against-climate-change\">Mill Valley Middle School, where the drop-off zone floods multiple times a year\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“The biggest risk to these schools is that they’re in areas with high groundwater, and they get flooding when it’s a combination of a high tide and a heavy rain,” said Kristina Hill, director of UC Berkeley’s Institute of Urban and Regional Development.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The high-tide line in the San Francisco Bay has risen by \u003ca href=\"https://oehha.ca.gov/climate-change/epic-2022/impacts-physical-systems/sea-level-rise#:~:text=Sea%20levels%20have%20increased%20over,mm%20or%200.03%E2%80%B3%20each%20year.\">8 inches\u003c/a> as heat trapped by pollution has melted ice and heated and expanded the world’s oceans over the last century. As that creep accelerates scientists expect floods to become more regular because about \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/11799297/large-parts-of-the-bay-area-are-built-on-fill-why-and-where\">250 square miles\u003c/a> of the Bay Area sits just above — and in some cases below — that line, on former wetlands that were drained and piled up with rocks, rubble and soil for development.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>By 2050, moderate projections show seas rising \u003ca href=\"https://opc.ca.gov/wp-content/uploads/2024/01/SLR-Guidance-DRAFT-Jan-2024-508.pdf\">an additional 7 inches (PDF)\u003c/a>, at which point floods will become even more common at most of the schools, our analysis found. By 2100, the projections show the bay rising 3 feet above today’s levels, at which point the number of flood-risky schools will multiply.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>We aimed to identify Bay Area schools with flood risk today, and those likely to have problems by the middle of the century. We looked at two types of floods, both of which will become more common with sea level rise: coastal floods, where high tides and storm surges push the ocean up onto dry land; and groundwater floods, where saltwater saturates the soil under the shore, driving up the layer of freshwater floating above it so much that it emerges and inundates properties.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The KQED and Climate Central analysis found:\u003c/p>\n\u003cul>\n\u003cli>Fifty-two schools are already at risk of groundwater floods linked to sea level rise.\u003c/li>\n\u003cli>Seven of them also carry the risk of coastal floods, compounding the likelihood of inundation. By 2050, 16 will carry both risks.\u003c/li>\n\u003cli>By 2050, another school — Design Tech High in Redwood City — will be at risk of flooding.\u003c/li>\n\u003cli>The bulk of the flood-risky schools are located in San Mateo, Alameda and Marin counties.\u003c/li>\n\u003c/ul>\n\u003cp>\u003c!-- iframe plugin v.4.3 wordpress.org/plugins/iframe/ -->\u003cbr>\n\u003ciframe loading=\"lazy\" src=\"https://kqedsf.maps.arcgis.com/apps/instant/basic/index.html?appid=ba558582b94c47f3b683552282c70ef4\" width=\"1000\" height=\"700\" frameborder=\"0\" style=\"border:0\" scrolling=\"yes\" class=\"iframe-class\">\u003c/iframe>\u003cbr>\n\u003cem>(Map produced by Matthew Green/KQED) \u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>\u003cstrong>Data sources and methodology\u003c/strong>\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>To identify flood-risky schools, KQED and Climate Central pulled location data for more than 1,700 public schools in the Bay Area’s nine counties from the \u003ca href=\"https://gis.data.ca.gov/datasets/61a4260e68b14a5ab91daf27d4415e7d_0/explore?location=0.036826%2C-119.081787%2C0.00\">California State Geoportal\u003c/a>. Using QGIS, we mapped those schools onto flood risk data from the U.S. Geological Survey’s \u003ca href=\"https://ourcoastourfuture.org/hazard-map/\">Our Coast Our Future hazard map\u003c/a>, focusing on the risk as it stood in 2010, the model’s baseline, and with a moderate sea level rise \u003ca href=\"https://opc.ca.gov/wp-content/uploads/2024/01/SLR-Guidance-DRAFT-Jan-2024-508.pdf\">projected (PDF)\u003c/a> by 2050.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>We added a radius of 150 meters for each school, to capture flooding impacts outside the single point location coordinates provided by the state. That’s about a 17.5 acre circle, about the size of the median school campus of 10 acres, according to a \u003ca href=\"https://www.californiaschoolcampusdatabase.org/\">database\u003c/a> of California school sizes.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Our analysis likely underestimates the real-life flood risk, according to flood experts we spoke with, because it doesn’t capture other factors, like intensifying rainfall and localized land subsidence.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>For the coastal flood analysis, we considered the risk of inundation during a 100-year-storm, which state law requires all schools to be constructed to withstand.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>We did not include four schools in Foster City and seven schools in San Mateo from the results, because those cities have recently built flood-protective levees not accounted for by the database.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_1993803\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-1993803\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2024/08/20240604_FloodedSchool-17_qed.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1333\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2024/08/20240604_FloodedSchool-17_qed.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2024/08/20240604_FloodedSchool-17_qed-800x533.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2024/08/20240604_FloodedSchool-17_qed-1020x680.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2024/08/20240604_FloodedSchool-17_qed-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2024/08/20240604_FloodedSchool-17_qed-768x512.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2024/08/20240604_FloodedSchool-17_qed-1536x1024.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2024/08/20240604_FloodedSchool-17_qed-1920x1280.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Flood warning signs are posted at the Mill Valley Middle School parking lot on Tuesday, June 4, 2024. \u003ccite>(Gina Castro/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003ch2>\u003cstrong>Groundwater floods\u003c/strong>\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>Unlike coastal inundation, groundwater floods depend on underground, out-of-sight factors like topography, soil composition and the water table. In the absence of a detailed subsurface geology map for the region, the model uses a range of plausible geologies based on the research that does exist. We limited our results to campuses that the USGS model indicates already have emergent water, at or above the surface of the land.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The model requires an assumption of soil permeability: In highly permeable soil, water drains quickly, limiting the likelihood of a flood. In the least permeable soil, groundwater drains slowly, increasing that likelihood. Research by UC Berkeley’s Hill on groundwater floods in the Bay Area has shown that the least-permeable assumption best matches up with real-life flood risk.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>To zero in on schools whose groundwater flood risk is related to sea level rise, we consulted with Hill and Patrick Barnard, research director for USGS’ Climate Impacts and Coastal Processes Team. We constrained our results to campuses under 10 feet of elevation, which we determined with \u003ca href=\"https://www.usgs.gov/3d-elevation-program\">this USGS tool\u003c/a>, and within a half-mile of the bay or a tidally influenced river, which we determined using Google Maps’ \u003ca href=\"https://support.google.com/maps/answer/1628031?hl=en&co=GENIE.Platform%3DDesktop\">distance calculator\u003c/a> and by researching rivers’ head of tide.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Barriers like levees don’t protect against rising groundwater, so in this case, we did not eliminate the schools in Foster City or San Mateo.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cem>This story was produced by KQED and Climate Central, a nonadvocacy science and news group.\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003c/div>\u003c/p>",
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"slug": "schools-in-deep-water-bay-area-faces-uphill-battle-against-climate-change",
"title": "Schools in Deep Water: Bay Area Faces Uphill Battle Against Climate Change",
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"headTitle": "Schools in Deep Water: Bay Area Faces Uphill Battle Against Climate Change | KQED",
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"content": "\u003cp>\u003cem>This story was produced by KQED and Climate Central, a nonadvocacy science and newsgroup. Climate Central’s Sirui Zhu contributed. \u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Even on a good day, Miranda O’Connell finds it stressful to drop her children off at Mill Valley Middle School: There’s only one road in and out of campus, and to turn onto it requires crossing over a busy artery perennially clogged with traffic.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But every time the road in and out of the school floods, she said the kids are in danger.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad fullwidth]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Cars can’t reach the school, traffic backs up, and harried parents pull creative U-turns in a rush to get to work. “It just causes a huge safety mess,” O’Connell said. Her daughter recently graduated, and her son starts sixth grade at the school later this month. “The kids kind of end up jumping out at random spots on a very busy road.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Nestled at the edge of Richardson Bay with Mount Tamalpais glowering to its north, the campus is abutted on two sides by a marsh, a creek and human-made channels meant to drain water away. Water in the channels flows in the wrong direction — from the bay toward the school — several times a year, inundating the drop-off zone, along with a parking area with permanent yellow and black signs posted above them warning parents to “PARK AT YOUR OWN RISK.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_1993788\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-1993788\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2024/08/20240604_FloodedSchool-16_qed.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1333\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2024/08/20240604_FloodedSchool-16_qed.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2024/08/20240604_FloodedSchool-16_qed-800x533.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2024/08/20240604_FloodedSchool-16_qed-1020x680.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2024/08/20240604_FloodedSchool-16_qed-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2024/08/20240604_FloodedSchool-16_qed-768x512.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2024/08/20240604_FloodedSchool-16_qed-1536x1024.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2024/08/20240604_FloodedSchool-16_qed-1920x1280.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Flood warning signs are posted at the Mill Valley Middle School staff parking lot on Tuesday, June 4, 2024. \u003ccite>(Gina Castro/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>“There are whole areas where you cannot pass a car or ride a bike,” she said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>This flooding is a major reason parents like O’Connell are upset that the district plans to rebuild the aging school in the same spot it’s been in for more than 50 years rather than finding a new site on safer ground.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Mill Valley Middle School is one of 52 Bay Area public kindergarten through 12th-grade schools that a KQED and Climate Central analysis found already face flood risks, as the effects of human-caused climate change raise water levels in the bay. The bulk of the at-risk schools are in Alameda, Marin and San Mateo counties, and most sit on low-lying land that was once marshland. \u003ca href=\"https://oehha.ca.gov/climate-change/epic-2022/impacts-physical-systems/sea-level-rise#:~:text=Sea%20levels%20have%20increased%20over,mm%20or%200.03%E2%80%B3%20each%20year.\">Assuming\u003c/a> moderate sea-level rise projections, the bay’s high tide line will rise precipitously by the end of the century, as will the number of flood-prone schools.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_1993789\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-1993789\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2024/08/20240604_FloodedSchool-41_qed.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1333\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2024/08/20240604_FloodedSchool-41_qed.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2024/08/20240604_FloodedSchool-41_qed-800x533.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2024/08/20240604_FloodedSchool-41_qed-1020x680.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2024/08/20240604_FloodedSchool-41_qed-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2024/08/20240604_FloodedSchool-41_qed-768x512.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2024/08/20240604_FloodedSchool-41_qed-1536x1024.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2024/08/20240604_FloodedSchool-41_qed-1920x1280.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">An inlet of Richardson Bay, the body of water next to Mill Valley Middle School, on Tuesday, June 4, 2024. \u003ccite>(Gina Castro/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Unlike most schools, Mill Valley Middle School leaders must decide how to address the problem now. In 2022, Mill Valley voters passed the $194 million \u003ca href=\"https://www.mvschools.org/Page/8736\">Measure G\u003c/a> to modernize the city’s schools, and the district plans to use as much as $130 million to rebuild its middle school.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>It won’t take much more sea-level rise to convert the school into an “island,” said Kevin Befus, assistant professor at the University of Arkansas Department of Geosciences who has extensively studied the hydrogeology of the Bay Area. “Administrators will have to be keeping track of king tides and the size of storms coming through,” Befus said, and perhaps institute “high-water days,” where students learn remotely or take the day off entirely.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The Mill Valley School District shares the concerns about flooding, and board members said they’re determined to rebuild the school in a way that will keep its students safe.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Climate scientists like Befus said the ability to plan for the school’s future as seas rise is a preventative measure — or a luxury — that most schools lack.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_1993790\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-1993790\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2024/08/20240604_FloodedSchool-37_qed.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1333\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2024/08/20240604_FloodedSchool-37_qed.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2024/08/20240604_FloodedSchool-37_qed-800x533.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2024/08/20240604_FloodedSchool-37_qed-1020x680.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2024/08/20240604_FloodedSchool-37_qed-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2024/08/20240604_FloodedSchool-37_qed-768x512.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2024/08/20240604_FloodedSchool-37_qed-1536x1024.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2024/08/20240604_FloodedSchool-37_qed-1920x1280.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">The entrance to Mill Valley Middle School on Tuesday, June 4, 2024. \u003ccite>(Gina Castro/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003ch2>\u003cstrong>Mapping flood risk\u003c/strong>\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>To identify schools at risk of flooding, KQED and Climate Central compared the locations of more than 1,700 public and public charter schools in the Bay Area with flood risk data maintained by the U.S. Geological Survey. The analysis showed seven Bay Area schools currently have a high risk of coastal flooding, in which the ocean laps over the shoreline, with 10 more expected to run that risk by 2050.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The analysis also considered groundwater flooding, in which rising sea levels force salt water up into the soil, pushing the shallow groundwater to the surface, flooding property and potentially damaging underground infrastructure. Fifty-two schools already face this risk, and by 2050, the threat will be heightened at most of those schools.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone size-full wp-image-1993792\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2024/08/240801-School-Flood-Risk-V1-MD-KQED.gif\" alt=\"\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1132\">\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>At that time, 16 schools — including Mill Valley Middle — carried both risks.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The danger of floods will be amplified by an additional threat that the analyses do not capture: \u003ca href=\"https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S2212094722000275#abs0010\">intensifying rainfall\u003c/a>. As pollution has trapped heat within the atmosphere, rainstorms have been dumping more rain on average per hour, overwhelming storm drains built for lighter rain and lower seas.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The Bay Area suffers from unique vulnerability to coastal flooding, a legacy of 19th- and 20th-century developers, including public agencies, farmers and investors. They piled rubble, rocks and dirt onto some \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/11799297/large-parts-of-the-bay-area-are-built-on-fill-why-and-where\">250 square miles\u003c/a> of the bay’s wetlands to create more solid ground upon which new neighborhoods and other buildings went up. In addition to being low-lying, infilled land tends to sink or subside.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The “razor-thin margin” between dry land and the bay will become even slimmer as seas rise, said Patrick Barnard, a research director for the USGS. “If it floods five times a year now, it’s probably going to be 20 times in 2050.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>For instance, Mill Valley Middle’s chronic flooding woes currently plague its access road and part of its parking lot. By the end of the century, major storms coinciding with king tides could inundate more of the campus.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_1993810\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\" style=\"max-width: 1703px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-1993810\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2024/08/FloodedSchoolLot.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"1703\" height=\"1118\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2024/08/FloodedSchoolLot.jpg 1703w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2024/08/FloodedSchoolLot-800x525.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2024/08/FloodedSchoolLot-1020x670.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2024/08/FloodedSchoolLot-160x105.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2024/08/FloodedSchoolLot-768x504.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2024/08/FloodedSchoolLot-1536x1008.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1703px) 100vw, 1703px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">In December 2023, high-tide flooding from Richardson Bay near Mill Valley Middle School flooded part of the campus parking lot and the main road into campus. \u003ccite>(Courtesy of Juliette Hart)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>At least two other schools within five miles of Mill Valley Middle also routinely fight off flood water.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>A parking lot at Larkspur’s Redwood High School ponds with water so frequently that the school has installed pumps to keep it dry, said David O’Connor, the district’s senior director of maintenance and operations. Tamalpais High’s parking lot sits below the bay’s high tide levels, causing the storm drains to sometimes run backward from the bay onto campus, O’Connor said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Experts point out that protecting public schools against rising tides and other climate hazards could offer \u003ca href=\"https://www.climateandcommunity.org/_files/ugd/d6378b_cc4acbe032604498a666f10f4795b11a.pdf\">community-wide benefits\u003c/a>: gymnasiums could serve as neighborhood shelters, fields as retaining ponds for flood water, and surrounding roads safe evacuation routes.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Turning such a vision into reality would require systematic, significant updates to at-risk schools. However, no state or federal entity is charged with tracking flood-prone schools or providing them with adaptation funds.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c!-- iframe plugin v.4.3 wordpress.org/plugins/iframe/ -->\u003cbr>\n\u003ciframe loading=\"lazy\" src=\"https://kqedsf.maps.arcgis.com/apps/instant/basic/index.html?appid=ba558582b94c47f3b683552282c70ef4\" width=\"1000\" height=\"700\" frameborder=\"0\" style=\"border:0\" scrolling=\"yes\" class=\"iframe-class\">\u003c/iframe>\u003cbr>\n(\u003cem>Map produced by Matthew Green/KQED)\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>That leaves districts to fend for themselves, which works out better for some than others. In California, money for school improvements almost always comes from local bond measures matched with state funds, a system that \u003ca href=\"https://calmatters.org/education/2018/10/california-school-bonds-favor-richer-communities/\">favors\u003c/a> wealthy communities over poor ones.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>For schools without resources to protect themselves, flooding will likely become a way of life. “Those who can afford to protect themselves will, and those who can’t end up with the extra water,” Befus said of districts that can’t rebuild a school above future floodwaters.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Take Bahia Vista Elementary, in San Rafael’s Canal neighborhood, just five miles north of Mill Valley. It counts among the most flood-risky schools in the Bay Area and also the most economically disadvantaged: 98% of its students qualify for free and reduced lunch, compared to 7% of Mill Valley Middle’s students, according to \u003ca href=\"https://www.cde.ca.gov/ds/ad/filessp.asp\">state data\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_1993795\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-1993795\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2024/08/20240604_FloodedSchool-21_qed.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1333\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2024/08/20240604_FloodedSchool-21_qed.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2024/08/20240604_FloodedSchool-21_qed-800x533.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2024/08/20240604_FloodedSchool-21_qed-1020x680.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2024/08/20240604_FloodedSchool-21_qed-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2024/08/20240604_FloodedSchool-21_qed-768x512.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2024/08/20240604_FloodedSchool-21_qed-1536x1024.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2024/08/20240604_FloodedSchool-21_qed-1920x1280.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Mill Valley Middle School on Tuesday, June 4, 2024. \u003ccite>(Gina Castro/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Over the last 15 years, Mill Valley and San Rafael have raised the same amount of bond dollars for their elementary and middle schools, even though Mill Valley has fewer schools and about half the enrollment of its northern neighbor.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>It’s not lost on O’Connell what a fortunate economic position her town is in.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“We’re a very well-resourced community. We have the means to take the time to plan, to think about where the right place for this is,” O’Connell said. “And if we can’t do it, how do we expect under-resourced communities to do it?”\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>‘It’s a challenging site’\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>For the concerned parents at Mill Valley Middle, the obvious solution is to rebuild the school on a less vulnerable site. But the Mill Valley School District Board ruled this option out, said Board President Sharon Nakatani, because the district doesn’t own a large enough parcel to accommodate a new school.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The other option, moving the middle school to an existing school site, would displace hundreds of other students and require updating schools not in the district’s current plan.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>District officials acknowledge that rebuilding Mill Valley Middle School at its current site won’t be simple. Their own research warns of major flooding on campus in the coming decades if no action is taken to protect it.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Adding to the complexity, the 1970s-era school sits on top of a former city dump where some refuse was burned. Before the school was built, a 2-to-3-foot cap of soil was poured over the waste to keep toxic contaminants — primarily heavy metals — from escaping, and the school monitors methane levels under the campus.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_1993794\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-1993794\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2024/08/20240604_FloodedSchool-22_qed.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1333\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2024/08/20240604_FloodedSchool-22_qed.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2024/08/20240604_FloodedSchool-22_qed-800x533.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2024/08/20240604_FloodedSchool-22_qed-1020x680.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2024/08/20240604_FloodedSchool-22_qed-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2024/08/20240604_FloodedSchool-22_qed-768x512.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2024/08/20240604_FloodedSchool-22_qed-1536x1024.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2024/08/20240604_FloodedSchool-22_qed-1920x1280.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Sharon Nakatani, Mill Valley Unified School District Board president, poses for a photo at Mill Valley Middle School on Tuesday, June 4, 2024. \u003ccite>(Gina Castro/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Still, district officials insist it’s possible to rebuild the school in a safe way where it sits. The district has contracted an \u003ca href=\"https://www.lionakis.com/\">architectural firm\u003c/a>, a project lead, a builder and an \u003ca href=\"https://aecom.com/\">engineering\u003c/a> firm to evaluate, design and construct a school that protects students and faculty.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Simultaneously, Nakatani said, the school district has begun an environmental review of the plans, scrutinizing the risks of sea-level and groundwater rise. Because the site was once a landfill, the California Department of Toxic Substances Control must also evaluate the project.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“It’s a challenging site, and we knew that from day one,” Nakatani said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[aside label=\"Related Stories\" postID=\"news_11981787,forum_2010101895331,science_1983106\"]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Nakatani said the idea is to elevate the school buildings 5 feet above the 100-year-flood line. The plan will likely include new on-site parking and a drop-off loop raised above current flood levels, though “actual elevations are to be determined.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The school’s main access road, Sycamore Avenue, and the area that floods may remain at current elevations, though it’s too early in the design phase to know.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“We are doing everything we can on our property to address sea-level rise,” she said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Nakatani recently met with some parents concerned about the site’s hydrology and said she is “taking their concerns seriously.” She also said the district knows it won’t be able to please everyone. The district hopes to open the new school in fall 2027.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Raising the campus alone may not be enough to protect its students, faculty and staff: If the campus is raised but the low-lying streets around it are not, it could be difficult or impossible to evacuate in an emergency.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The streets aren’t the district’s domain, however — the City of Mill Valley would have to raise them. City Manager Todd Cusimano declined an interview request, saying it “would be inappropriate for the city to comment on the middle school.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Nakatani argued that while solutions for future sea-level rise are hyper-local, it shouldn’t be the schools’ responsibility alone to resolve them. “We need to figure this out together because it’s not just one jurisdiction’s problem,” she said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_1993796\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-1993796\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2024/08/20240604_FloodedSchool-6_qed.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1333\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2024/08/20240604_FloodedSchool-6_qed.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2024/08/20240604_FloodedSchool-6_qed-800x533.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2024/08/20240604_FloodedSchool-6_qed-1020x680.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2024/08/20240604_FloodedSchool-6_qed-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2024/08/20240604_FloodedSchool-6_qed-768x512.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2024/08/20240604_FloodedSchool-6_qed-1536x1024.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2024/08/20240604_FloodedSchool-6_qed-1920x1280.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Juliette Hart has a sixth grader who will attend Mill Valley Middle School this fall and her daughter graduated from the school. She stands near the parking lot on Monday, June 3, 2024. \u003ccite>(Gina Castro/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>This sentiment was echoed by a Marin County Civil Grand Jury \u003ca href=\"https://www.marincounty.gov/departments/grand-jury/civil-grand-jury-reports/2023-2024-civil-grand-jury-reports/sea-level-rise\">report released in May, titled, in part, “We Cannot Run — We Cannot Hide.”\u003c/a> It advises Marin County to establish an agency to require sea-level rise adaptation across the county because “the water has already arrived.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Coordinated planning could also ward off the problem of individual properties or communities armoring themselves at the expense of their neighbors. Seawalls and levees can cause water to flow toward less protected areas. Hydrogeology researcher Befus noted that these barriers \u003ca href=\"https://arkansasresearch.uark.edu/barriers-designed-to-prevent-saltwater-intrusion-may-worsen-inland-flooding/\">can also worsen groundwater flooding\u003c/a>, preventing it from draining. “So then you have to pump that water out somehow,” he said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The bay’s high tide line has already crept upward by \u003ca href=\"https://oehha.ca.gov/climate-change/epic-2022/impacts-physical-systems/sea-level-rise#:~:text=Sea%20levels%20have%20increased%20over,mm%20or%200.03%E2%80%B3%20each%20year.\">8 inches over the past century, and moderate projections \u003c/a>show it climbing another \u003ca href=\"https://opc.ca.gov/wp-content/uploads/2024/01/SLR-Guidance-DRAFT-Jan-2024-508.pdf\">3 feet\u003c/a> by the end of the century, inundating the region’s lowest-lying land unless it’s protected.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Parents like O’Connell argue that rebuilding the middle school elsewhere in town would be the best way to help future generations of parents during emergencies and protect the welfare of children inheriting a warming world.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“The kids are massively losing out, and for what?” O’Connell said. “To rebuild a building on a site where it shouldn’t be rebuilt. It just doesn’t make sense.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>What ultimately happens at Mill Valley could prove instructive to the dozens of other Bay Area schools that have just begun to cope with floods. “It would be a powerful thing if this became a case study and an example to other places on how to plan for sea-level rise,” Befus said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad floatright]\u003c/p>\n",
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"excerpt": "More than 50 Bay Area public schools already face flood risk as the effects of human-caused climate change raise water levels in San Francisco Bay. ",
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"title": "Schools in Deep Water: Bay Area Faces Uphill Battle Against Climate Change | KQED",
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"nprByline": "\u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/author/eromero\">Ezra David Romero\u003c/a>, KQED; \u003ca href=\"https://twitter.com/katieworth\">Katie Worth\u003c/a>, Climate Central",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003cp>\u003cem>This story was produced by KQED and Climate Central, a nonadvocacy science and newsgroup. Climate Central’s Sirui Zhu contributed. \u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Even on a good day, Miranda O’Connell finds it stressful to drop her children off at Mill Valley Middle School: There’s only one road in and out of campus, and to turn onto it requires crossing over a busy artery perennially clogged with traffic.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But every time the road in and out of the school floods, she said the kids are in danger.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Cars can’t reach the school, traffic backs up, and harried parents pull creative U-turns in a rush to get to work. “It just causes a huge safety mess,” O’Connell said. Her daughter recently graduated, and her son starts sixth grade at the school later this month. “The kids kind of end up jumping out at random spots on a very busy road.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Nestled at the edge of Richardson Bay with Mount Tamalpais glowering to its north, the campus is abutted on two sides by a marsh, a creek and human-made channels meant to drain water away. Water in the channels flows in the wrong direction — from the bay toward the school — several times a year, inundating the drop-off zone, along with a parking area with permanent yellow and black signs posted above them warning parents to “PARK AT YOUR OWN RISK.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_1993788\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-1993788\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2024/08/20240604_FloodedSchool-16_qed.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1333\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2024/08/20240604_FloodedSchool-16_qed.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2024/08/20240604_FloodedSchool-16_qed-800x533.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2024/08/20240604_FloodedSchool-16_qed-1020x680.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2024/08/20240604_FloodedSchool-16_qed-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2024/08/20240604_FloodedSchool-16_qed-768x512.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2024/08/20240604_FloodedSchool-16_qed-1536x1024.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2024/08/20240604_FloodedSchool-16_qed-1920x1280.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Flood warning signs are posted at the Mill Valley Middle School staff parking lot on Tuesday, June 4, 2024. \u003ccite>(Gina Castro/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>“There are whole areas where you cannot pass a car or ride a bike,” she said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>This flooding is a major reason parents like O’Connell are upset that the district plans to rebuild the aging school in the same spot it’s been in for more than 50 years rather than finding a new site on safer ground.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Mill Valley Middle School is one of 52 Bay Area public kindergarten through 12th-grade schools that a KQED and Climate Central analysis found already face flood risks, as the effects of human-caused climate change raise water levels in the bay. The bulk of the at-risk schools are in Alameda, Marin and San Mateo counties, and most sit on low-lying land that was once marshland. \u003ca href=\"https://oehha.ca.gov/climate-change/epic-2022/impacts-physical-systems/sea-level-rise#:~:text=Sea%20levels%20have%20increased%20over,mm%20or%200.03%E2%80%B3%20each%20year.\">Assuming\u003c/a> moderate sea-level rise projections, the bay’s high tide line will rise precipitously by the end of the century, as will the number of flood-prone schools.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_1993789\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-1993789\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2024/08/20240604_FloodedSchool-41_qed.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1333\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2024/08/20240604_FloodedSchool-41_qed.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2024/08/20240604_FloodedSchool-41_qed-800x533.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2024/08/20240604_FloodedSchool-41_qed-1020x680.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2024/08/20240604_FloodedSchool-41_qed-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2024/08/20240604_FloodedSchool-41_qed-768x512.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2024/08/20240604_FloodedSchool-41_qed-1536x1024.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2024/08/20240604_FloodedSchool-41_qed-1920x1280.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">An inlet of Richardson Bay, the body of water next to Mill Valley Middle School, on Tuesday, June 4, 2024. \u003ccite>(Gina Castro/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Unlike most schools, Mill Valley Middle School leaders must decide how to address the problem now. In 2022, Mill Valley voters passed the $194 million \u003ca href=\"https://www.mvschools.org/Page/8736\">Measure G\u003c/a> to modernize the city’s schools, and the district plans to use as much as $130 million to rebuild its middle school.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>It won’t take much more sea-level rise to convert the school into an “island,” said Kevin Befus, assistant professor at the University of Arkansas Department of Geosciences who has extensively studied the hydrogeology of the Bay Area. “Administrators will have to be keeping track of king tides and the size of storms coming through,” Befus said, and perhaps institute “high-water days,” where students learn remotely or take the day off entirely.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The Mill Valley School District shares the concerns about flooding, and board members said they’re determined to rebuild the school in a way that will keep its students safe.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Climate scientists like Befus said the ability to plan for the school’s future as seas rise is a preventative measure — or a luxury — that most schools lack.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_1993790\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-1993790\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2024/08/20240604_FloodedSchool-37_qed.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1333\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2024/08/20240604_FloodedSchool-37_qed.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2024/08/20240604_FloodedSchool-37_qed-800x533.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2024/08/20240604_FloodedSchool-37_qed-1020x680.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2024/08/20240604_FloodedSchool-37_qed-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2024/08/20240604_FloodedSchool-37_qed-768x512.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2024/08/20240604_FloodedSchool-37_qed-1536x1024.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2024/08/20240604_FloodedSchool-37_qed-1920x1280.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">The entrance to Mill Valley Middle School on Tuesday, June 4, 2024. \u003ccite>(Gina Castro/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003ch2>\u003cstrong>Mapping flood risk\u003c/strong>\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>To identify schools at risk of flooding, KQED and Climate Central compared the locations of more than 1,700 public and public charter schools in the Bay Area with flood risk data maintained by the U.S. Geological Survey. The analysis showed seven Bay Area schools currently have a high risk of coastal flooding, in which the ocean laps over the shoreline, with 10 more expected to run that risk by 2050.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The analysis also considered groundwater flooding, in which rising sea levels force salt water up into the soil, pushing the shallow groundwater to the surface, flooding property and potentially damaging underground infrastructure. Fifty-two schools already face this risk, and by 2050, the threat will be heightened at most of those schools.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone size-full wp-image-1993792\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2024/08/240801-School-Flood-Risk-V1-MD-KQED.gif\" alt=\"\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1132\">\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>At that time, 16 schools — including Mill Valley Middle — carried both risks.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The danger of floods will be amplified by an additional threat that the analyses do not capture: \u003ca href=\"https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S2212094722000275#abs0010\">intensifying rainfall\u003c/a>. As pollution has trapped heat within the atmosphere, rainstorms have been dumping more rain on average per hour, overwhelming storm drains built for lighter rain and lower seas.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The Bay Area suffers from unique vulnerability to coastal flooding, a legacy of 19th- and 20th-century developers, including public agencies, farmers and investors. They piled rubble, rocks and dirt onto some \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/11799297/large-parts-of-the-bay-area-are-built-on-fill-why-and-where\">250 square miles\u003c/a> of the bay’s wetlands to create more solid ground upon which new neighborhoods and other buildings went up. In addition to being low-lying, infilled land tends to sink or subside.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The “razor-thin margin” between dry land and the bay will become even slimmer as seas rise, said Patrick Barnard, a research director for the USGS. “If it floods five times a year now, it’s probably going to be 20 times in 2050.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>For instance, Mill Valley Middle’s chronic flooding woes currently plague its access road and part of its parking lot. By the end of the century, major storms coinciding with king tides could inundate more of the campus.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_1993810\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\" style=\"max-width: 1703px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-1993810\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2024/08/FloodedSchoolLot.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"1703\" height=\"1118\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2024/08/FloodedSchoolLot.jpg 1703w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2024/08/FloodedSchoolLot-800x525.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2024/08/FloodedSchoolLot-1020x670.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2024/08/FloodedSchoolLot-160x105.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2024/08/FloodedSchoolLot-768x504.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2024/08/FloodedSchoolLot-1536x1008.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1703px) 100vw, 1703px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">In December 2023, high-tide flooding from Richardson Bay near Mill Valley Middle School flooded part of the campus parking lot and the main road into campus. \u003ccite>(Courtesy of Juliette Hart)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>At least two other schools within five miles of Mill Valley Middle also routinely fight off flood water.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>A parking lot at Larkspur’s Redwood High School ponds with water so frequently that the school has installed pumps to keep it dry, said David O’Connor, the district’s senior director of maintenance and operations. Tamalpais High’s parking lot sits below the bay’s high tide levels, causing the storm drains to sometimes run backward from the bay onto campus, O’Connor said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Experts point out that protecting public schools against rising tides and other climate hazards could offer \u003ca href=\"https://www.climateandcommunity.org/_files/ugd/d6378b_cc4acbe032604498a666f10f4795b11a.pdf\">community-wide benefits\u003c/a>: gymnasiums could serve as neighborhood shelters, fields as retaining ponds for flood water, and surrounding roads safe evacuation routes.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Turning such a vision into reality would require systematic, significant updates to at-risk schools. However, no state or federal entity is charged with tracking flood-prone schools or providing them with adaptation funds.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c!-- iframe plugin v.4.3 wordpress.org/plugins/iframe/ -->\u003cbr>\n\u003ciframe loading=\"lazy\" src=\"https://kqedsf.maps.arcgis.com/apps/instant/basic/index.html?appid=ba558582b94c47f3b683552282c70ef4\" width=\"1000\" height=\"700\" frameborder=\"0\" style=\"border:0\" scrolling=\"yes\" class=\"iframe-class\">\u003c/iframe>\u003cbr>\n(\u003cem>Map produced by Matthew Green/KQED)\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>That leaves districts to fend for themselves, which works out better for some than others. In California, money for school improvements almost always comes from local bond measures matched with state funds, a system that \u003ca href=\"https://calmatters.org/education/2018/10/california-school-bonds-favor-richer-communities/\">favors\u003c/a> wealthy communities over poor ones.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>For schools without resources to protect themselves, flooding will likely become a way of life. “Those who can afford to protect themselves will, and those who can’t end up with the extra water,” Befus said of districts that can’t rebuild a school above future floodwaters.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Take Bahia Vista Elementary, in San Rafael’s Canal neighborhood, just five miles north of Mill Valley. It counts among the most flood-risky schools in the Bay Area and also the most economically disadvantaged: 98% of its students qualify for free and reduced lunch, compared to 7% of Mill Valley Middle’s students, according to \u003ca href=\"https://www.cde.ca.gov/ds/ad/filessp.asp\">state data\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_1993795\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-1993795\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2024/08/20240604_FloodedSchool-21_qed.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1333\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2024/08/20240604_FloodedSchool-21_qed.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2024/08/20240604_FloodedSchool-21_qed-800x533.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2024/08/20240604_FloodedSchool-21_qed-1020x680.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2024/08/20240604_FloodedSchool-21_qed-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2024/08/20240604_FloodedSchool-21_qed-768x512.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2024/08/20240604_FloodedSchool-21_qed-1536x1024.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2024/08/20240604_FloodedSchool-21_qed-1920x1280.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Mill Valley Middle School on Tuesday, June 4, 2024. \u003ccite>(Gina Castro/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Over the last 15 years, Mill Valley and San Rafael have raised the same amount of bond dollars for their elementary and middle schools, even though Mill Valley has fewer schools and about half the enrollment of its northern neighbor.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>It’s not lost on O’Connell what a fortunate economic position her town is in.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“We’re a very well-resourced community. We have the means to take the time to plan, to think about where the right place for this is,” O’Connell said. “And if we can’t do it, how do we expect under-resourced communities to do it?”\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>‘It’s a challenging site’\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>For the concerned parents at Mill Valley Middle, the obvious solution is to rebuild the school on a less vulnerable site. But the Mill Valley School District Board ruled this option out, said Board President Sharon Nakatani, because the district doesn’t own a large enough parcel to accommodate a new school.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The other option, moving the middle school to an existing school site, would displace hundreds of other students and require updating schools not in the district’s current plan.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>District officials acknowledge that rebuilding Mill Valley Middle School at its current site won’t be simple. Their own research warns of major flooding on campus in the coming decades if no action is taken to protect it.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Adding to the complexity, the 1970s-era school sits on top of a former city dump where some refuse was burned. Before the school was built, a 2-to-3-foot cap of soil was poured over the waste to keep toxic contaminants — primarily heavy metals — from escaping, and the school monitors methane levels under the campus.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_1993794\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-1993794\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2024/08/20240604_FloodedSchool-22_qed.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1333\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2024/08/20240604_FloodedSchool-22_qed.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2024/08/20240604_FloodedSchool-22_qed-800x533.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2024/08/20240604_FloodedSchool-22_qed-1020x680.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2024/08/20240604_FloodedSchool-22_qed-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2024/08/20240604_FloodedSchool-22_qed-768x512.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2024/08/20240604_FloodedSchool-22_qed-1536x1024.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2024/08/20240604_FloodedSchool-22_qed-1920x1280.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Sharon Nakatani, Mill Valley Unified School District Board president, poses for a photo at Mill Valley Middle School on Tuesday, June 4, 2024. \u003ccite>(Gina Castro/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Still, district officials insist it’s possible to rebuild the school in a safe way where it sits. The district has contracted an \u003ca href=\"https://www.lionakis.com/\">architectural firm\u003c/a>, a project lead, a builder and an \u003ca href=\"https://aecom.com/\">engineering\u003c/a> firm to evaluate, design and construct a school that protects students and faculty.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Simultaneously, Nakatani said, the school district has begun an environmental review of the plans, scrutinizing the risks of sea-level and groundwater rise. Because the site was once a landfill, the California Department of Toxic Substances Control must also evaluate the project.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“It’s a challenging site, and we knew that from day one,” Nakatani said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Nakatani said the idea is to elevate the school buildings 5 feet above the 100-year-flood line. The plan will likely include new on-site parking and a drop-off loop raised above current flood levels, though “actual elevations are to be determined.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The school’s main access road, Sycamore Avenue, and the area that floods may remain at current elevations, though it’s too early in the design phase to know.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“We are doing everything we can on our property to address sea-level rise,” she said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Nakatani recently met with some parents concerned about the site’s hydrology and said she is “taking their concerns seriously.” She also said the district knows it won’t be able to please everyone. The district hopes to open the new school in fall 2027.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Raising the campus alone may not be enough to protect its students, faculty and staff: If the campus is raised but the low-lying streets around it are not, it could be difficult or impossible to evacuate in an emergency.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The streets aren’t the district’s domain, however — the City of Mill Valley would have to raise them. City Manager Todd Cusimano declined an interview request, saying it “would be inappropriate for the city to comment on the middle school.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Nakatani argued that while solutions for future sea-level rise are hyper-local, it shouldn’t be the schools’ responsibility alone to resolve them. “We need to figure this out together because it’s not just one jurisdiction’s problem,” she said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_1993796\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-1993796\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2024/08/20240604_FloodedSchool-6_qed.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1333\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2024/08/20240604_FloodedSchool-6_qed.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2024/08/20240604_FloodedSchool-6_qed-800x533.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2024/08/20240604_FloodedSchool-6_qed-1020x680.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2024/08/20240604_FloodedSchool-6_qed-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2024/08/20240604_FloodedSchool-6_qed-768x512.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2024/08/20240604_FloodedSchool-6_qed-1536x1024.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2024/08/20240604_FloodedSchool-6_qed-1920x1280.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Juliette Hart has a sixth grader who will attend Mill Valley Middle School this fall and her daughter graduated from the school. She stands near the parking lot on Monday, June 3, 2024. \u003ccite>(Gina Castro/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>This sentiment was echoed by a Marin County Civil Grand Jury \u003ca href=\"https://www.marincounty.gov/departments/grand-jury/civil-grand-jury-reports/2023-2024-civil-grand-jury-reports/sea-level-rise\">report released in May, titled, in part, “We Cannot Run — We Cannot Hide.”\u003c/a> It advises Marin County to establish an agency to require sea-level rise adaptation across the county because “the water has already arrived.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Coordinated planning could also ward off the problem of individual properties or communities armoring themselves at the expense of their neighbors. Seawalls and levees can cause water to flow toward less protected areas. Hydrogeology researcher Befus noted that these barriers \u003ca href=\"https://arkansasresearch.uark.edu/barriers-designed-to-prevent-saltwater-intrusion-may-worsen-inland-flooding/\">can also worsen groundwater flooding\u003c/a>, preventing it from draining. “So then you have to pump that water out somehow,” he said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The bay’s high tide line has already crept upward by \u003ca href=\"https://oehha.ca.gov/climate-change/epic-2022/impacts-physical-systems/sea-level-rise#:~:text=Sea%20levels%20have%20increased%20over,mm%20or%200.03%E2%80%B3%20each%20year.\">8 inches over the past century, and moderate projections \u003c/a>show it climbing another \u003ca href=\"https://opc.ca.gov/wp-content/uploads/2024/01/SLR-Guidance-DRAFT-Jan-2024-508.pdf\">3 feet\u003c/a> by the end of the century, inundating the region’s lowest-lying land unless it’s protected.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Parents like O’Connell argue that rebuilding the middle school elsewhere in town would be the best way to help future generations of parents during emergencies and protect the welfare of children inheriting a warming world.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“The kids are massively losing out, and for what?” O’Connell said. “To rebuild a building on a site where it shouldn’t be rebuilt. It just doesn’t make sense.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>What ultimately happens at Mill Valley could prove instructive to the dozens of other Bay Area schools that have just begun to cope with floods. “It would be a powerful thing if this became a case study and an example to other places on how to plan for sea-level rise,” Befus said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"title": "The Public Health Concern Over California’s Hydrogen Hubs Explained",
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"content": "\u003cp>\u003cem>This article was originally published by Public Health Watch, a nonprofit investigative news organization. Find out more at \u003ca href=\"http://publichealthwatch.org/\">publichealthwatch.org\u003c/a>.\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Billions of dollars in federal money are flowing to seven “hydrogen hubs” around the country — including in California. A public-private partnership called ARCHES recently negotiated a $1.2 billion agreement with the Department of Energy to build out hydrogen power plants, pipelines and other energy projects around the state.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Federal and state officials are celebrating the award, part of a risky and ambitious national bet on a potentially clean fuel that could someday rival renewables and cut carbon from the atmosphere. Backed by pots of money created by federal laws, California and six other hubs will serve as regional nerve centers, steering hydrogen-producing projects that can qualify for an uncapped federal tax credit – anticipated to be worth at least a hundred billion dollars.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>However, producing hydrogen energy can be expensive and complicated, and if that process relies on fossil fuels, it could actually prolong climate pollution. When even clean hydrogen is blended with methane and burned, it can still dirty the air with toxic byproducts that contribute to lung-irritating smog.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Researchers and local advocates warn that unless the so-called hydrogen \u003ca href=\"https://www.energy.gov/articles/doe-releases-first-series-reports-highlighting-pathways-toward-clean-hydrogen-earthshot\">earthshot\u003c/a> has adequate safeguards, it could harm health and climate – even in California, a state that has declared a commitment not only to ambitious climate goals but also to environmental justice.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad fullwidth]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“The people got left behind in this conversation,” said Fatima Abdul-Khabir, the Energy Equity Program manager at Oakland-based Greenlining Institute, an advocacy group. “It’s a massive step backwards.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Founded by the Governor’s Office of Business and Economic Development (GO-BIZ), the University of California, the state building and trades unions and a nonprofit called Renewables 100, ARCHES says it aims to develop hydrogen sustainably. Federal funding, GO-BIZ’s Tyson Eckerle has said, is “the pebble that launches the avalanche.” Partners are working quickly: To qualify for the federal tax credit, shovels have to be in the ground by 2032.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[aside postID=\"science_1993714\" label=\"Related coverage\"]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>However, little has been made public about ARCHES’ top projects, their locations, or their potential health impacts. To fully participate in the hub, partners – including utilities like PG&E, companies like Amazon, and fossil fuel giants like Chevron – had to sign a nondisclosure agreement. Environmental advocates call it an “iron wall” and say that, as projects pop up in marginalized or already-polluted communities around the state, they’re playing “Whac-A-Mole” trying to keep up.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>ARCHES also has rejected rules the federal government has proposed for the tax credit, a position directly contrary to that of experts who say the rules would guarantee that this huge investment leads to a sustainable hydrogen economy.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Clean hydrogen could be the angel of decarbonizing the energy sector, but Earthjustice analyst Sasan Saadat said poorly defined hydrogen could be the devil.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“The fossil fuel industry knows this, and they can blur the lines,” Saadat said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>So far, the message from ARCHES is: Trust California to do what is right with the $1.2 billion it has been awarded for its hub.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“There’s reason to trust California,” said Dan Kammen, an energy professor at the University of California, Berkeley. “But only if California continues to follow the rules that California created.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Read the full report here: \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/science/1993714/as-california-hydrogen-hubs-receive-billions-public-health-concerns-grow\">As California Hydrogen Hubs Receive Billions, Public Health Concerns Grow.\u003c/a>\u003c/p>\n\n",
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"excerpt": "Billions of dollars are flowing to seven “hydrogen hubs” around the country — including in California. However, producing hydrogen energy can be expensive and complicated, and if that process relies on fossil fuels, it could actually prolong climate pollution.",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003cp>\u003cem>This article was originally published by Public Health Watch, a nonprofit investigative news organization. Find out more at \u003ca href=\"http://publichealthwatch.org/\">publichealthwatch.org\u003c/a>.\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Billions of dollars in federal money are flowing to seven “hydrogen hubs” around the country — including in California. A public-private partnership called ARCHES recently negotiated a $1.2 billion agreement with the Department of Energy to build out hydrogen power plants, pipelines and other energy projects around the state.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Federal and state officials are celebrating the award, part of a risky and ambitious national bet on a potentially clean fuel that could someday rival renewables and cut carbon from the atmosphere. Backed by pots of money created by federal laws, California and six other hubs will serve as regional nerve centers, steering hydrogen-producing projects that can qualify for an uncapped federal tax credit – anticipated to be worth at least a hundred billion dollars.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>However, producing hydrogen energy can be expensive and complicated, and if that process relies on fossil fuels, it could actually prolong climate pollution. When even clean hydrogen is blended with methane and burned, it can still dirty the air with toxic byproducts that contribute to lung-irritating smog.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Researchers and local advocates warn that unless the so-called hydrogen \u003ca href=\"https://www.energy.gov/articles/doe-releases-first-series-reports-highlighting-pathways-toward-clean-hydrogen-earthshot\">earthshot\u003c/a> has adequate safeguards, it could harm health and climate – even in California, a state that has declared a commitment not only to ambitious climate goals but also to environmental justice.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“The people got left behind in this conversation,” said Fatima Abdul-Khabir, the Energy Equity Program manager at Oakland-based Greenlining Institute, an advocacy group. “It’s a massive step backwards.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Founded by the Governor’s Office of Business and Economic Development (GO-BIZ), the University of California, the state building and trades unions and a nonprofit called Renewables 100, ARCHES says it aims to develop hydrogen sustainably. Federal funding, GO-BIZ’s Tyson Eckerle has said, is “the pebble that launches the avalanche.” Partners are working quickly: To qualify for the federal tax credit, shovels have to be in the ground by 2032.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>However, little has been made public about ARCHES’ top projects, their locations, or their potential health impacts. To fully participate in the hub, partners – including utilities like PG&E, companies like Amazon, and fossil fuel giants like Chevron – had to sign a nondisclosure agreement. Environmental advocates call it an “iron wall” and say that, as projects pop up in marginalized or already-polluted communities around the state, they’re playing “Whac-A-Mole” trying to keep up.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>ARCHES also has rejected rules the federal government has proposed for the tax credit, a position directly contrary to that of experts who say the rules would guarantee that this huge investment leads to a sustainable hydrogen economy.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Clean hydrogen could be the angel of decarbonizing the energy sector, but Earthjustice analyst Sasan Saadat said poorly defined hydrogen could be the devil.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“The fossil fuel industry knows this, and they can blur the lines,” Saadat said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>So far, the message from ARCHES is: Trust California to do what is right with the $1.2 billion it has been awarded for its hub.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“There’s reason to trust California,” said Dan Kammen, an energy professor at the University of California, Berkeley. “But only if California continues to follow the rules that California created.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Read the full report here: \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/science/1993714/as-california-hydrogen-hubs-receive-billions-public-health-concerns-grow\">As California Hydrogen Hubs Receive Billions, Public Health Concerns Grow.\u003c/a>\u003c/p>\n\n\u003c/div>\u003c/p>",
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"content": "\u003cp>\u003cem>This article was originally published by Public Health Watch, a nonprofit investigative news organization. Find out more at \u003ca class=\"c-link\" href=\"http://publichealthwatch.org/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\" data-stringify-link=\"http://publichealthwatch.org\" data-sk=\"tooltip_parent\">publichealthwatch.org\u003c/a>.\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Billions of dollars in public money are beginning to flow to seven “hydrogen hubs” around the country — regional nerve centers for a potentially clean fuel that could someday rival solar and wind and cut carbon from the atmosphere. Earlier this month, California’s hub, a public-private partnership called ARCHES, became the first to negotiate an agreement with the Department of Energy to build out hydrogen power plants, pipelines and other projects.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But researchers and community advocates warn that unless the federal government’s so-called hydrogen \u003ca href=\"https://www.energy.gov/articles/doe-releases-first-series-reports-highlighting-pathways-toward-clean-hydrogen-earthshot\">earthshot\u003c/a> has adequate safeguards, it could worsen air pollution in vulnerable communities and aggravate a warming climate. They’re also concerned that specifics of the emerging efforts remain stubbornly secret from people who live near shovel-ready projects.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>That’s true even in California, a state that has declared a commitment not only to ambitious climate goals but also to environmental justice.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“The people got left behind in this conversation,” said Fatima Abdul-Khabir, the Energy Equity Program manager at Oakland-based Greenlining Institute, an advocacy group. “It’s a massive step backwards.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad fullwidth]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Hydrogen, a colorless, odorless gas, is the world’s most abundant chemical element. When it’s used in fuel cells or burned for energy, it generates no atmosphere-warming carbon emissions. That means it could power trucks and airplanes without spewing soot from a tailpipe or exhaust from an engine. Hydrogen could help steel plants and other heavy industries lower their carbon footprints.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>However, stripping hydrogen molecules from water or methane to use as fuel can be expensive and complicated, and if that process relies on fossil fuels, it could actually prolong climate pollution. That’s not the only health risk: When even cleanly-produced hydrogen is blended with methane and burned, it can still dirty the air with toxic byproducts that contribute to lung-irritating smog.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The nation’s hydrogen earth shot is a risky and ambitious bet. Congress created an $8 billion pot of money for the hub system. It also tucked nearly $18 billion in grants and incentives into the Inflation Reduction Act and the infrastructure bill. An uncapped federal tax credit for companies that produce hydrogen energy could cost the public at least another $100 billion.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“There’s so much hype right now for hydrogen because everybody wants a piece of the pie,” said Dan Esposito, an electricity policy analyst at the nonprofit firm Energy Innovation.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>To bring clean hydrogen to market as quickly as possible, the U.S. Department of Energy selected regional hubs based in part on their ability to quickly produce and find uses for clean hydrogen. The chosen hubs also \u003ca href=\"https://www.energy.gov/articles/biden-harris-administration-announces-7-billion-americas-first-clean-hydrogen-hubs-driving\">must\u003c/a> promise jobs and other community benefits that advance federal environmental justice \u003ca href=\"https://www.whitehouse.gov/environmentaljustice/justice40/\">goals\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_1993716\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\" style=\"max-width: 2880px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-1993716 size-full\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2024/07/Angelina-2.png\" alt=\"\" width=\"2880\" height=\"1800\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2024/07/Angelina-2.png 2880w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2024/07/Angelina-2-800x500.png 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2024/07/Angelina-2-1020x638.png 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2024/07/Angelina-2-160x100.png 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2024/07/Angelina-2-768x480.png 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2024/07/Angelina-2-1536x960.png 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2024/07/Angelina-2-2048x1280.png 2048w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2024/07/Angelina-2-1920x1200.png 1920w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 2880px) 100vw, 2880px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Angelina Galiteva is CEO of California’s hydrogen hub, which is the first in the country to negotiate terms with the U.S. Department of Energy for a billion-dollar award. \u003ccite>(California Hydrogen Leadership Summit)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>But California’s hub, a public-private partnership called ARCHES, is rejecting rules the federal government has proposed to help guard against the risk of rising pollution from incautious hydrogen projects. Along with the six other hubs, ARCHES signed a letter that warns of “far reaching negative consequences” if the rules are made permanent.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The position held by ARCHES is directly contrary to that of experts, who say such rules are the only guarantee that this huge investment will lead to a sustainable hydrogen economy.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“What our research has shown is that if we do this wrong from the start, either the hydrogen industry will fall apart, it’s going to lose a bunch of public support, or it will really significantly delay our ability to clean up the power grid,” Esposito said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003ca href=\"https://www.ethree.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/01/CPUC-Air-Quality-Report-FINAL.pdf\">Multiple\u003c/a>\u003ca href=\"https://engineering.princeton.edu/news/2022/12/20/without-guidance-inflation-reduction-act-tax-credit-may-do-more-harm-good\"> analyses\u003c/a> based on public data and modeling, including \u003ca href=\"https://energyinnovation.org/wp-content/uploads/2023/04/Smart-Design-Of-45V-Hydrogen-Production-Tax-Credit-Will-Reduce-Emissions-And-Grow-The-Industry.pdf?email=467cb6399cb7df64551775e431052b43a775c749&emaila=12a6d4d069cd56cfddaa391c24eb7042&emailb=054528e7403871c79f668e49dd3c44b1ec00c7f611bf9388f76bb2324d6ca5f3&utm_source=Sailthru&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=07.18.23%20-%20Energy%20%26%20Environment%20%E2%80%94%20RF\">Esposito’s own\u003c/a>, have concluded that hydrogen produced under the wrong circumstances could worsen air pollution instead of improving it.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>So far, the message from ARCHES is: Trust us. Trust California to do what is right with the $1.2 billion it has been awarded for its hub. Trust the hub’s projects to cut carbon and lung-searing emissions from the air.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“There’s reason to trust California,” said Dan Kammen, an energy professor at the University of California, Berkeley. “But only if California continues to follow the rules that California created.”\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>‘Pebble That Launches the Avalanche’\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>California’s hub began as an agreement among the Governor’s Office of Business and Economic Development, or GO-BIZ, the University of California, the state building and trades unions and a nonprofit called Renewables 100, founded by ARCHES CEO Angelina Galiteva. It has around 400 network partners, including Amazon, Cemex, Chevron and investor-owned utilities, including SoCal Gas and Edison International.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Building on the state’s development of the world’s first standard to cut the carbon intensity of fuel, ARCHES promises to develop zero-carbon hydrogen using solar, wind, biomass and other renewable sources.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“We came together to go after the federal funding, but that federal funding is just a start,” \u003ca href=\"https://www.verdexchange.org/news/unlocking-californias-hydrogen-future-insights-tyson-eckerles-arches-japan-california-hydrogen\">said\u003c/a> Tyson Eckerle, a senior adviser for GO BIZ, at an environmental think tank’s conference in the spring. “It’s the pebble that launches the avalanche.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But California argues that its progress will be slowed if hydrogen developers have to meet rules the U.S. Department of the Treasury has proposed for projects seeking the lucrative 45V tax credit.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Those rules are based on what energy experts refer to as the “three pillars” of clean hydrogen production. To make hydrogen clean and sustainable, it should be produced from a new source using carbon-neutral electricity. That electricity should be geographically close to where it’s needed, so delivering it isn’t costly. It should also be available when it’s needed, not traded or obtained through accounting from another time and place.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>California’s hydrogen leaders counter that the state already has a successful strategy — and numerous requirements — for getting clean energy on the grid. Complying with the federal rules would undermine that progress, ARCHES has said \u003ca href=\"https://archesh2.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/02/ARCHES-Letter.pdf\">in a public response\u003c/a>, making it “impossible” to integrate hydrogen “in a timely and cost-effect manner without disrupting our carefully calibrated energy system.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“We’re at almost 60%, 24/7 renewables across the board, which is a huge, huge step forward. We’re ahead of our goals in terms of meeting those obligations,” Galiteva told Public Health Watch.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>If these federal conditions “had been required for the nascent solar or battery or any other industry, those industries would never have taken off,” she said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Julie McNamara, a senior energy analyst at the Union of Concerned Scientists, called California’s position contradictory. Even if the state’s renewables-rich grid deserves freedom from constraining rules, why would California support a free-for-all that gives states that continue to depend on fossil fuels a pass?\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“ARCHES is trying to have it both ways,” she said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Fossil fuel-focused energy companies, including BP and Shell, have also argued for more leeway in qualifying for the federal money.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Clean hydrogen could be the angel of decarbonizing the energy sector, but Earthjustice senior research and policy analyst Sasan Saadat said that poorly defined hydrogen could be the devil because it might prolong the use of fossil fuels.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“You’ve taken this thing that is really dangerous and muddled it up with the world of climate solutions and clean energy and that’s why it’s so risky,” Saadat said. “The fossil fuel industry knows this and they can blur the lines.”\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>A ‘Black Box’ Begins to Open\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>ARCHES has prioritized 37 projects to spend its federal money, according to CEO Galiteva. This “tier one” investment reflects the hub’s vision for bringing clean hydrogen to California.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“We have another 33-plus projects … that can actually slide into a tier one project if a tier one project hits a bump on the road for any reason,” she said at a recent hydrogen trade conference in Sacramento. “So the economy and the scale is going to be pretty big once we start moving.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>There’s an incentive to move quickly: To qualify for the federal tax credit, shovels have to be in the ground by 2032.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_1993721\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\" style=\"max-width: 1920px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-1993721 size-full\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2024/07/ARCHES_Supported_Element_Resources_Project.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"1920\" height=\"1189\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2024/07/ARCHES_Supported_Element_Resources_Project.jpg 1920w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2024/07/ARCHES_Supported_Element_Resources_Project-800x495.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2024/07/ARCHES_Supported_Element_Resources_Project-1020x632.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2024/07/ARCHES_Supported_Element_Resources_Project-160x99.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2024/07/ARCHES_Supported_Element_Resources_Project-768x476.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2024/07/ARCHES_Supported_Element_Resources_Project-1536x951.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1920px) 100vw, 1920px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">In Los Angeles County, the Element Resources Project could be one of 37 projects granted money by California’s hub, ARCHES. The city of Lancaster’s project promises to produce hydrogen fuel with solar power. \u003ccite>(City of Lancaster)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>However, the criteria for what qualifies as tier one status aren’t public. Nor are the locations of most of ARCHES’ projects or their potential health and environmental impacts.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>To fully participate in the hub, partners had to sign a nondisclosure agreement. Environmental advocates call the NDA an “iron wall” that makes ARCHES a black box.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“This huge hydrogen thing is happening, and all anybody knows is that there’s a ton of money coming for it,” said Shana Lazerow, a lawyer with the nonprofit Communities for a Better Environment.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Even where hydrogen is produced without fossil fuels, enormous questions remain about where to prioritize its production and use so it doesn’t pollute or cost more.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“No one has found the killer app for green hydrogen yet,” UC Berkeley’s Dan Kammen said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_1993720\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\" style=\"max-width: 2560px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-1993720 size-full\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2024/07/Valley-Generating-IMG_0745-scaled.jpeg\" alt=\"\" width=\"2560\" height=\"1920\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2024/07/Valley-Generating-IMG_0745-scaled.jpeg 2560w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2024/07/Valley-Generating-IMG_0745-800x600.jpeg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2024/07/Valley-Generating-IMG_0745-1020x765.jpeg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2024/07/Valley-Generating-IMG_0745-160x120.jpeg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2024/07/Valley-Generating-IMG_0745-768x576.jpeg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2024/07/Valley-Generating-IMG_0745-1536x1152.jpeg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2024/07/Valley-Generating-IMG_0745-2048x1536.jpeg 2048w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2024/07/Valley-Generating-IMG_0745-1920x1440.jpeg 1920w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 2560px) 100vw, 2560px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">At Valley Generating Station in Sun Valley, the Los Angeles Department of Water and Power is demolishing four red-and-white striped stacks to make way for what it says will be renewable and possibly hydrogen projects. But the facility has a history of methane leaks, and neighbors are wary of the utility’s promises. \u003ccite>(Molly Peterson/Public Health Watch)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Projects that might scoop up the federal money are beginning to emerge from the shadows. In eastern Contra Costa County, where land along the Suisun Bay once served as a stopover for boats supplying gold miners, a company called H Cycle is proposing to heat municipal organic waste to transform it into hydrogen. Diverting waste from a landfill is a particularly attractive idea since overstuffed landfills release methane into the atmosphere.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>However, the draft environmental impact report for the project in the small city of Pittsburg is light on details. It’s not clear exactly what will be heated or what technology will be used to unlock the hydrogen. Under California’s regulations, organic waste can include some percentage of plastic and metal, which would emit toxins when burned. The report also references slag, a waste product that comes from burning material, not just heating it.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>All of that is troubling to a neighborhood \u003ca href=\"https://experience.arcgis.com/experience/11d2f52282a54ceebcac7428e6184203/page/CalEnviroScreen-4_0/\">whose residents are in the 93rd percentile statewide\u003c/a> for asthma risk. Charles Davidson, a Contra Costa resident and member of the Sunflower Alliance, points out that 25,000 people live near H Cycle. “It’s burning plastics and construction materials and other things with no limit, no specifications on what’s being incinerated next to people’s homes,” he said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>A news release says H Cycle “\u003ca href=\"https://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/h-cycle-positioned-for-funds-from-doe-hydrogen-hub-program-as-part-of-californias-arches-partnership-301956757.html\">is positioned\u003c/a>” for a piece of ARCHES’ billion-dollar pie. But whether it’s a tier-one project for the hub isn’t clear. H Cycle, as a partner in ARCHES, has signed the hub’s non-disclosure agreement, and the company did not respond to requests for comment.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>A letter local air regulators sent to Pittsburg’s planners warns of health risks from the project.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“This thermal conversion process represents a novel renewable hydrogen production strategy,” \u003ca href=\"https://www.baaqmd.gov/~/media/files/planning-and-research/ceqa-letters/2024/h-cycle-pitts-hydro-project-deir-air-district-ltr-pdf.pdf?rev=5a05cdb4b3804645b566cf9a68769bc0&sc_lang=en\">wrote\u003c/a> the Bay Area Air Quality Management District in March. “However, it will introduce additional air pollution into a community that is already overburdened.” The district recommended more consideration of residents – and more transparency.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>H Cycle’s engagement with vulnerable communities is limited at best, said Amelia Keyes, a lawyer with Communities for a Better Environment.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“It’s no coincidence that a polluting facility like this is being built here,” she said.\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>Playing Whac-A-Mole Around the State\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>At launch, ARCHES \u003ca href=\"https://www.energy.gov/sites/default/files/2024-07/H2Hubs%20ARCHES_Award%20Fact%20Sheet.pdf\">highlighted\u003c/a> 10 unnamed hydrogen production projects, “with most in the Central Valley.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Projects are popping up in marginalized or already-polluted communities around the state. Some involve producing the fuel; others will transport or use it. Keyes said advocates usually hear about these projects by word of mouth.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“I think it really illustrates the kind of Whac-a-mole that environmental justice groups have to play with these kinds of facilities,” Keyes said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>At the port of Stockton, there’s talk of a facility that would produce hydrogen by steaming it out of methane but could claim to be carbon neutral by using credits for reductions of pollution elsewhere. In a farmworker community in western Fresno County, a pilot project will blend hydrogen into gas lines that go directly into homes for 10,000 people. Southern California Gas is floating the idea of \u003ca href=\"https://www.socalgas.com/sustainability/hydrogen/angeles-link\">AngelesLink\u003c/a>. It’s billed as the nation’s largest clean hydrogen pipeline and could pipe the stuff into the Los Angeles basin. But little information is available yet about where clean fuel will come from in the first place.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Major environmental groups, including Communities for a Better Environment, complain they don’t know much about these projects because they didn’t sign the ARCHES NDA, fearing that the secrecy required would compromise their advocacy in public processes. They worry that health risks and the influence of fossil fuel companies are being waved away.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In a letter to federal energy officials, the California Environmental Justice Association called the NDA a “delay tactic that allowed ARCHES to move forward without needing to account for and include impacted communities in decision-making.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Why should we as the public be living in this poverty of information about a massive taxpayer-funded climate program?” Earthjustice’s Saadat said. “It’s really galling.”\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>Is Green Hydrogen’s Promise Real?\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>People in environmental justice communities are exactly who the California hub claims will benefit from the hydrogen boom. ARCHES says its overall proposal could help the state save nearly $3 billion by increasing “the economic value of health-related benefits” and creating 220,000 new jobs.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In a brief on its website, ARCHES attributes the potential health savings to cleaner air, based on \u003ca href=\"https://www.ethree.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/01/CPUC-Air-Quality-Report-FINAL.pdf\">a research paper\u003c/a> commissioned by the California Public Utilities Commission. That paper projects reductions in air pollution through the electrification of cars and trucks, ending the use of natural gas in buildings, and removing all emissions from natural gas power generation. It then models the anticipated public health benefits from each. But hydrogen is only glancingly mentioned.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>As for the jobs estimate, the independent think tank Rhodium Group \u003ca href=\"https://rhg.com/research/the-economic-benefits-of-hydrogen-hubs/\">offers a stark counter-estimate\u003c/a>. It suggests that California’s hub will create just 6,000 to 8,000 jobs during the construction phase and only several hundred long term.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Neighborhoods that might be affected by hydrogen development tend to be wary of promises of jobs or cleaner air. That’s particularly true in the Los Angeles basin, where people have long breathed fossil-fuel-driven pollution from refineries and natural gas plants. Now the L.A. Department of Water and Power plans to retrofit one of those plants, the Scattergood Generating Station, so it can run on methane mixed with hydrogen. The plant would produce power to serve the region when demand peaks, as it does on hot days. The estimated cost to \u003ca href=\"https://www.ladwp.com/sites/default/files/2023-10/Scattergood%20Modernization%20Project%20-%20IS.pdf\">retrofit\u003c/a> two of the plant’s three turbines is at least $800 million.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But hydrogen burned at high temperatures where oxygen is present, as in a gas plant, can create nitrogen oxides; those, in turn, contribute to ground-level ozone or smog. Emerging science \u003ca href=\"https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S0360319917319791\">suggests\u003c/a> that blending hydrogen into fossil gas could even increase those emissions unless pollution controls are added.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“We should not be shooting for extending the life of combustion technology,” Earthjustice analyst Saadat said. “We know that we need to stop burning fuel at the tailpipe and the smokestack.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>ARCHES and the Los Angeles Department of Water and Power plan to transition Scattergood to 100% hydrogen — “as soon as it is technically and practically feasible to do so.” In the meantime, state officials have acknowledged that the continuing transformation of California’s energy economy comes with tradeoffs.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Not everything is going to be zero all of the time in terms of emissions,” Rajinder Sahota, deputy executive officer for climate change at the California Air Resources Board, said at the hydrogen summit in Sacramento. “But making sure that, cumulatively, the exposure to harmful pollution is reduced is going to be important.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_1993722\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\" style=\"max-width: 1920px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-1993722 size-full\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2024/07/Miguel-Miguel-IMG_0759-scaled.jpeg\" alt=\"\" width=\"1920\" height=\"2560\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2024/07/Miguel-Miguel-IMG_0759-scaled.jpeg 1920w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2024/07/Miguel-Miguel-IMG_0759-800x1067.jpeg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2024/07/Miguel-Miguel-IMG_0759-1020x1360.jpeg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2024/07/Miguel-Miguel-IMG_0759-160x213.jpeg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2024/07/Miguel-Miguel-IMG_0759-768x1024.jpeg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2024/07/Miguel-Miguel-IMG_0759-1152x1536.jpeg 1152w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2024/07/Miguel-Miguel-IMG_0759-1536x2048.jpeg 1536w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1920px) 100vw, 1920px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Miguel Miguel, a policy adviser for Pacoima Beautiful, says neighbors to Valley Generating Station are wary of potential hydrogen projects in Los Angeles. \u003ccite>(Molly Peterson/Public Health Watch)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>The L.A. Department of Water and Power, or LADWP, is also “actively exploring” what happens next at its Valley Generating Station in Sun Valley. Valley notoriously leaked methane, which contributes to smog, for at least three years before officials notified anyone living nearby. The leak prompted a campaign by residents of the largely Latino neighborhood to shut Valley down, and water and power officials say demolition will soon begin. But the 12-acre property remains connected to gas infrastructure, and LADWP emphasizes that having dependable energy generated near where it’s needed in the L.A. basin is essential to a cleaner energy future.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>An LADWP spokeswoman said the utility “is actively evaluating hydrogen as well as other emerging technologies [at Valley] that will maximize environmental and equity benefits. We have consistently engaged the community and will continue to do so.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But residents aren’t reassured.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“So far it’s been hard to understand, Why this? Why this technology?” said Miguel Miguel, a policy adviser for the community advocacy group Pacoima Beautiful.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Miguel says the opaqueness about Valley’s future helped push California environmental justice advocates to \u003ca href=\"https://caleja.org/2023/10/environmental-justice-equity-principles-green-hydrogen-california/\">circulate principles\u003c/a> for an equitable energy transition to hydrogen last year. By their definition, green hydrogen relies on surplus water and renewable energy and doesn’t keep fossil fuels online. It also means communities are consulted respectfully from the start.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“There’s a possibility of green hydrogen as long as it doesn’t exacerbate problems,” Miguel said. “But for us, at Valley … in our opinion, it’s the natural gas industry’s last-ditch effort to say, ‘You still need us.’ And that’s the hardest pill to swallow.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Advocates like Miguel acknowledge that balancing Southern California’s energy sources responsibly to avoid brownouts or skyrocketing costs isn’t easy. That’s why they oppose dirty hydrogen — not all hydrogen.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But Martha Dina Arguello, the executive director of Physicians for Social Responsibility-Los Angeles, says talk of green hydrogen has left her frustrated.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“You realize that nobody wants to make green hydrogen, right? There’s no profit in making green hydrogen,” she said. “The political reality is that nobody’s building that right now.”\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>California’s Confidence, Confirmed\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>In the coming months, federal agencies will set policies that clarify the direction ARCHES and the other hydrogen hubs will take.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>When the Energy Department ARCHES funding, it also finalized the hub’s operating rules. The Treasury Department, too, must finalize guidelines for companies wishing to access hydrogen tax credits. The two agencies don’t always agree; Politico has \u003ca href=\"https://www.eenews.net/articles/doe-sides-with-industry-on-hydrogen-tax-rules/\">reported\u003c/a> that some in the DOE were advocating internally for weaker rules, as many industry leaders have sought.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Meanwhile, California lawmakers \u003ca href=\"https://digitaldemocracy.calmatters.org/bills/ca_202320240sb1420\">are considering legislation\u003c/a> that would streamline the state’s environmental review process for hydrogen projects. And some Democratic members of California’s congressional delegation \u003ca href=\"https://subscriber.politicopro.com/eenews/f/eenews/?id=00000190-989d-d892-a3db-bffd27970000\">are lobbying Treasury\u003c/a> for weaker rules.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>California’s hydrogen boosters seem confident about their strategy.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Frankly, if you want green hydrogen to succeed, you need California,” ARCHES CEO Galiteva said at the Sacramento summit. She told a story about how Gov. Gavin Newsom sold federal officials on the state’s capacity to advance clean fuel.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Galiteva said the governor emphasized California’s strong climate goals and its robust marketplace for clean energy. And his pitch didn’t stop there.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“You need us more than we need you,” Newsom, by her account, told the DOE. “So you’d better give us a hub.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Laughter erupted in a ballroom of industry representatives and public officials as Galiteva smiled. “I guess they listened,” she said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad floatright]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cem>Molly Peterson is a Los Angeles-based staff writer for \u003ca href=\"https://publichealthwatch.org/\">Public Health Watch\u003c/a>, a nonprofit investigative news organization that covers environmental health and health inequities. \u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\n",
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"excerpt": "California gets a big pot of federal funding for hydrogen projects. But community advocates worry some of the 'clean' energy projects could actually harm public health. \r\n",
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"title": "As California Hydrogen Hubs Receive Billions, Public Health Concerns Grow | KQED",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003cp>\u003cem>This article was originally published by Public Health Watch, a nonprofit investigative news organization. Find out more at \u003ca class=\"c-link\" href=\"http://publichealthwatch.org/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\" data-stringify-link=\"http://publichealthwatch.org\" data-sk=\"tooltip_parent\">publichealthwatch.org\u003c/a>.\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Billions of dollars in public money are beginning to flow to seven “hydrogen hubs” around the country — regional nerve centers for a potentially clean fuel that could someday rival solar and wind and cut carbon from the atmosphere. Earlier this month, California’s hub, a public-private partnership called ARCHES, became the first to negotiate an agreement with the Department of Energy to build out hydrogen power plants, pipelines and other projects.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But researchers and community advocates warn that unless the federal government’s so-called hydrogen \u003ca href=\"https://www.energy.gov/articles/doe-releases-first-series-reports-highlighting-pathways-toward-clean-hydrogen-earthshot\">earthshot\u003c/a> has adequate safeguards, it could worsen air pollution in vulnerable communities and aggravate a warming climate. They’re also concerned that specifics of the emerging efforts remain stubbornly secret from people who live near shovel-ready projects.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>That’s true even in California, a state that has declared a commitment not only to ambitious climate goals but also to environmental justice.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“The people got left behind in this conversation,” said Fatima Abdul-Khabir, the Energy Equity Program manager at Oakland-based Greenlining Institute, an advocacy group. “It’s a massive step backwards.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Hydrogen, a colorless, odorless gas, is the world’s most abundant chemical element. When it’s used in fuel cells or burned for energy, it generates no atmosphere-warming carbon emissions. That means it could power trucks and airplanes without spewing soot from a tailpipe or exhaust from an engine. Hydrogen could help steel plants and other heavy industries lower their carbon footprints.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>However, stripping hydrogen molecules from water or methane to use as fuel can be expensive and complicated, and if that process relies on fossil fuels, it could actually prolong climate pollution. That’s not the only health risk: When even cleanly-produced hydrogen is blended with methane and burned, it can still dirty the air with toxic byproducts that contribute to lung-irritating smog.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The nation’s hydrogen earth shot is a risky and ambitious bet. Congress created an $8 billion pot of money for the hub system. It also tucked nearly $18 billion in grants and incentives into the Inflation Reduction Act and the infrastructure bill. An uncapped federal tax credit for companies that produce hydrogen energy could cost the public at least another $100 billion.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“There’s so much hype right now for hydrogen because everybody wants a piece of the pie,” said Dan Esposito, an electricity policy analyst at the nonprofit firm Energy Innovation.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>To bring clean hydrogen to market as quickly as possible, the U.S. Department of Energy selected regional hubs based in part on their ability to quickly produce and find uses for clean hydrogen. The chosen hubs also \u003ca href=\"https://www.energy.gov/articles/biden-harris-administration-announces-7-billion-americas-first-clean-hydrogen-hubs-driving\">must\u003c/a> promise jobs and other community benefits that advance federal environmental justice \u003ca href=\"https://www.whitehouse.gov/environmentaljustice/justice40/\">goals\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_1993716\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\" style=\"max-width: 2880px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-1993716 size-full\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2024/07/Angelina-2.png\" alt=\"\" width=\"2880\" height=\"1800\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2024/07/Angelina-2.png 2880w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2024/07/Angelina-2-800x500.png 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2024/07/Angelina-2-1020x638.png 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2024/07/Angelina-2-160x100.png 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2024/07/Angelina-2-768x480.png 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2024/07/Angelina-2-1536x960.png 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2024/07/Angelina-2-2048x1280.png 2048w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2024/07/Angelina-2-1920x1200.png 1920w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 2880px) 100vw, 2880px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Angelina Galiteva is CEO of California’s hydrogen hub, which is the first in the country to negotiate terms with the U.S. Department of Energy for a billion-dollar award. \u003ccite>(California Hydrogen Leadership Summit)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>But California’s hub, a public-private partnership called ARCHES, is rejecting rules the federal government has proposed to help guard against the risk of rising pollution from incautious hydrogen projects. Along with the six other hubs, ARCHES signed a letter that warns of “far reaching negative consequences” if the rules are made permanent.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The position held by ARCHES is directly contrary to that of experts, who say such rules are the only guarantee that this huge investment will lead to a sustainable hydrogen economy.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“What our research has shown is that if we do this wrong from the start, either the hydrogen industry will fall apart, it’s going to lose a bunch of public support, or it will really significantly delay our ability to clean up the power grid,” Esposito said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003ca href=\"https://www.ethree.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/01/CPUC-Air-Quality-Report-FINAL.pdf\">Multiple\u003c/a>\u003ca href=\"https://engineering.princeton.edu/news/2022/12/20/without-guidance-inflation-reduction-act-tax-credit-may-do-more-harm-good\"> analyses\u003c/a> based on public data and modeling, including \u003ca href=\"https://energyinnovation.org/wp-content/uploads/2023/04/Smart-Design-Of-45V-Hydrogen-Production-Tax-Credit-Will-Reduce-Emissions-And-Grow-The-Industry.pdf?email=467cb6399cb7df64551775e431052b43a775c749&emaila=12a6d4d069cd56cfddaa391c24eb7042&emailb=054528e7403871c79f668e49dd3c44b1ec00c7f611bf9388f76bb2324d6ca5f3&utm_source=Sailthru&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=07.18.23%20-%20Energy%20%26%20Environment%20%E2%80%94%20RF\">Esposito’s own\u003c/a>, have concluded that hydrogen produced under the wrong circumstances could worsen air pollution instead of improving it.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>So far, the message from ARCHES is: Trust us. Trust California to do what is right with the $1.2 billion it has been awarded for its hub. Trust the hub’s projects to cut carbon and lung-searing emissions from the air.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“There’s reason to trust California,” said Dan Kammen, an energy professor at the University of California, Berkeley. “But only if California continues to follow the rules that California created.”\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>‘Pebble That Launches the Avalanche’\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>California’s hub began as an agreement among the Governor’s Office of Business and Economic Development, or GO-BIZ, the University of California, the state building and trades unions and a nonprofit called Renewables 100, founded by ARCHES CEO Angelina Galiteva. It has around 400 network partners, including Amazon, Cemex, Chevron and investor-owned utilities, including SoCal Gas and Edison International.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Building on the state’s development of the world’s first standard to cut the carbon intensity of fuel, ARCHES promises to develop zero-carbon hydrogen using solar, wind, biomass and other renewable sources.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“We came together to go after the federal funding, but that federal funding is just a start,” \u003ca href=\"https://www.verdexchange.org/news/unlocking-californias-hydrogen-future-insights-tyson-eckerles-arches-japan-california-hydrogen\">said\u003c/a> Tyson Eckerle, a senior adviser for GO BIZ, at an environmental think tank’s conference in the spring. “It’s the pebble that launches the avalanche.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But California argues that its progress will be slowed if hydrogen developers have to meet rules the U.S. Department of the Treasury has proposed for projects seeking the lucrative 45V tax credit.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Those rules are based on what energy experts refer to as the “three pillars” of clean hydrogen production. To make hydrogen clean and sustainable, it should be produced from a new source using carbon-neutral electricity. That electricity should be geographically close to where it’s needed, so delivering it isn’t costly. It should also be available when it’s needed, not traded or obtained through accounting from another time and place.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>California’s hydrogen leaders counter that the state already has a successful strategy — and numerous requirements — for getting clean energy on the grid. Complying with the federal rules would undermine that progress, ARCHES has said \u003ca href=\"https://archesh2.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/02/ARCHES-Letter.pdf\">in a public response\u003c/a>, making it “impossible” to integrate hydrogen “in a timely and cost-effect manner without disrupting our carefully calibrated energy system.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“We’re at almost 60%, 24/7 renewables across the board, which is a huge, huge step forward. We’re ahead of our goals in terms of meeting those obligations,” Galiteva told Public Health Watch.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>If these federal conditions “had been required for the nascent solar or battery or any other industry, those industries would never have taken off,” she said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Julie McNamara, a senior energy analyst at the Union of Concerned Scientists, called California’s position contradictory. Even if the state’s renewables-rich grid deserves freedom from constraining rules, why would California support a free-for-all that gives states that continue to depend on fossil fuels a pass?\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“ARCHES is trying to have it both ways,” she said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Fossil fuel-focused energy companies, including BP and Shell, have also argued for more leeway in qualifying for the federal money.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Clean hydrogen could be the angel of decarbonizing the energy sector, but Earthjustice senior research and policy analyst Sasan Saadat said that poorly defined hydrogen could be the devil because it might prolong the use of fossil fuels.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“You’ve taken this thing that is really dangerous and muddled it up with the world of climate solutions and clean energy and that’s why it’s so risky,” Saadat said. “The fossil fuel industry knows this and they can blur the lines.”\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>A ‘Black Box’ Begins to Open\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>ARCHES has prioritized 37 projects to spend its federal money, according to CEO Galiteva. This “tier one” investment reflects the hub’s vision for bringing clean hydrogen to California.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“We have another 33-plus projects … that can actually slide into a tier one project if a tier one project hits a bump on the road for any reason,” she said at a recent hydrogen trade conference in Sacramento. “So the economy and the scale is going to be pretty big once we start moving.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>There’s an incentive to move quickly: To qualify for the federal tax credit, shovels have to be in the ground by 2032.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_1993721\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\" style=\"max-width: 1920px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-1993721 size-full\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2024/07/ARCHES_Supported_Element_Resources_Project.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"1920\" height=\"1189\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2024/07/ARCHES_Supported_Element_Resources_Project.jpg 1920w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2024/07/ARCHES_Supported_Element_Resources_Project-800x495.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2024/07/ARCHES_Supported_Element_Resources_Project-1020x632.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2024/07/ARCHES_Supported_Element_Resources_Project-160x99.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2024/07/ARCHES_Supported_Element_Resources_Project-768x476.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2024/07/ARCHES_Supported_Element_Resources_Project-1536x951.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1920px) 100vw, 1920px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">In Los Angeles County, the Element Resources Project could be one of 37 projects granted money by California’s hub, ARCHES. The city of Lancaster’s project promises to produce hydrogen fuel with solar power. \u003ccite>(City of Lancaster)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>However, the criteria for what qualifies as tier one status aren’t public. Nor are the locations of most of ARCHES’ projects or their potential health and environmental impacts.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>To fully participate in the hub, partners had to sign a nondisclosure agreement. Environmental advocates call the NDA an “iron wall” that makes ARCHES a black box.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“This huge hydrogen thing is happening, and all anybody knows is that there’s a ton of money coming for it,” said Shana Lazerow, a lawyer with the nonprofit Communities for a Better Environment.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Even where hydrogen is produced without fossil fuels, enormous questions remain about where to prioritize its production and use so it doesn’t pollute or cost more.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“No one has found the killer app for green hydrogen yet,” UC Berkeley’s Dan Kammen said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_1993720\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\" style=\"max-width: 2560px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-1993720 size-full\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2024/07/Valley-Generating-IMG_0745-scaled.jpeg\" alt=\"\" width=\"2560\" height=\"1920\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2024/07/Valley-Generating-IMG_0745-scaled.jpeg 2560w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2024/07/Valley-Generating-IMG_0745-800x600.jpeg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2024/07/Valley-Generating-IMG_0745-1020x765.jpeg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2024/07/Valley-Generating-IMG_0745-160x120.jpeg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2024/07/Valley-Generating-IMG_0745-768x576.jpeg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2024/07/Valley-Generating-IMG_0745-1536x1152.jpeg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2024/07/Valley-Generating-IMG_0745-2048x1536.jpeg 2048w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2024/07/Valley-Generating-IMG_0745-1920x1440.jpeg 1920w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 2560px) 100vw, 2560px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">At Valley Generating Station in Sun Valley, the Los Angeles Department of Water and Power is demolishing four red-and-white striped stacks to make way for what it says will be renewable and possibly hydrogen projects. But the facility has a history of methane leaks, and neighbors are wary of the utility’s promises. \u003ccite>(Molly Peterson/Public Health Watch)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Projects that might scoop up the federal money are beginning to emerge from the shadows. In eastern Contra Costa County, where land along the Suisun Bay once served as a stopover for boats supplying gold miners, a company called H Cycle is proposing to heat municipal organic waste to transform it into hydrogen. Diverting waste from a landfill is a particularly attractive idea since overstuffed landfills release methane into the atmosphere.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>However, the draft environmental impact report for the project in the small city of Pittsburg is light on details. It’s not clear exactly what will be heated or what technology will be used to unlock the hydrogen. Under California’s regulations, organic waste can include some percentage of plastic and metal, which would emit toxins when burned. The report also references slag, a waste product that comes from burning material, not just heating it.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>All of that is troubling to a neighborhood \u003ca href=\"https://experience.arcgis.com/experience/11d2f52282a54ceebcac7428e6184203/page/CalEnviroScreen-4_0/\">whose residents are in the 93rd percentile statewide\u003c/a> for asthma risk. Charles Davidson, a Contra Costa resident and member of the Sunflower Alliance, points out that 25,000 people live near H Cycle. “It’s burning plastics and construction materials and other things with no limit, no specifications on what’s being incinerated next to people’s homes,” he said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>A news release says H Cycle “\u003ca href=\"https://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/h-cycle-positioned-for-funds-from-doe-hydrogen-hub-program-as-part-of-californias-arches-partnership-301956757.html\">is positioned\u003c/a>” for a piece of ARCHES’ billion-dollar pie. But whether it’s a tier-one project for the hub isn’t clear. H Cycle, as a partner in ARCHES, has signed the hub’s non-disclosure agreement, and the company did not respond to requests for comment.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>A letter local air regulators sent to Pittsburg’s planners warns of health risks from the project.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“This thermal conversion process represents a novel renewable hydrogen production strategy,” \u003ca href=\"https://www.baaqmd.gov/~/media/files/planning-and-research/ceqa-letters/2024/h-cycle-pitts-hydro-project-deir-air-district-ltr-pdf.pdf?rev=5a05cdb4b3804645b566cf9a68769bc0&sc_lang=en\">wrote\u003c/a> the Bay Area Air Quality Management District in March. “However, it will introduce additional air pollution into a community that is already overburdened.” The district recommended more consideration of residents – and more transparency.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>H Cycle’s engagement with vulnerable communities is limited at best, said Amelia Keyes, a lawyer with Communities for a Better Environment.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“It’s no coincidence that a polluting facility like this is being built here,” she said.\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>Playing Whac-A-Mole Around the State\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>At launch, ARCHES \u003ca href=\"https://www.energy.gov/sites/default/files/2024-07/H2Hubs%20ARCHES_Award%20Fact%20Sheet.pdf\">highlighted\u003c/a> 10 unnamed hydrogen production projects, “with most in the Central Valley.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Projects are popping up in marginalized or already-polluted communities around the state. Some involve producing the fuel; others will transport or use it. Keyes said advocates usually hear about these projects by word of mouth.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“I think it really illustrates the kind of Whac-a-mole that environmental justice groups have to play with these kinds of facilities,” Keyes said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>At the port of Stockton, there’s talk of a facility that would produce hydrogen by steaming it out of methane but could claim to be carbon neutral by using credits for reductions of pollution elsewhere. In a farmworker community in western Fresno County, a pilot project will blend hydrogen into gas lines that go directly into homes for 10,000 people. Southern California Gas is floating the idea of \u003ca href=\"https://www.socalgas.com/sustainability/hydrogen/angeles-link\">AngelesLink\u003c/a>. It’s billed as the nation’s largest clean hydrogen pipeline and could pipe the stuff into the Los Angeles basin. But little information is available yet about where clean fuel will come from in the first place.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Major environmental groups, including Communities for a Better Environment, complain they don’t know much about these projects because they didn’t sign the ARCHES NDA, fearing that the secrecy required would compromise their advocacy in public processes. They worry that health risks and the influence of fossil fuel companies are being waved away.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In a letter to federal energy officials, the California Environmental Justice Association called the NDA a “delay tactic that allowed ARCHES to move forward without needing to account for and include impacted communities in decision-making.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Why should we as the public be living in this poverty of information about a massive taxpayer-funded climate program?” Earthjustice’s Saadat said. “It’s really galling.”\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>Is Green Hydrogen’s Promise Real?\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>People in environmental justice communities are exactly who the California hub claims will benefit from the hydrogen boom. ARCHES says its overall proposal could help the state save nearly $3 billion by increasing “the economic value of health-related benefits” and creating 220,000 new jobs.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In a brief on its website, ARCHES attributes the potential health savings to cleaner air, based on \u003ca href=\"https://www.ethree.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/01/CPUC-Air-Quality-Report-FINAL.pdf\">a research paper\u003c/a> commissioned by the California Public Utilities Commission. That paper projects reductions in air pollution through the electrification of cars and trucks, ending the use of natural gas in buildings, and removing all emissions from natural gas power generation. It then models the anticipated public health benefits from each. But hydrogen is only glancingly mentioned.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>As for the jobs estimate, the independent think tank Rhodium Group \u003ca href=\"https://rhg.com/research/the-economic-benefits-of-hydrogen-hubs/\">offers a stark counter-estimate\u003c/a>. It suggests that California’s hub will create just 6,000 to 8,000 jobs during the construction phase and only several hundred long term.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Neighborhoods that might be affected by hydrogen development tend to be wary of promises of jobs or cleaner air. That’s particularly true in the Los Angeles basin, where people have long breathed fossil-fuel-driven pollution from refineries and natural gas plants. Now the L.A. Department of Water and Power plans to retrofit one of those plants, the Scattergood Generating Station, so it can run on methane mixed with hydrogen. The plant would produce power to serve the region when demand peaks, as it does on hot days. The estimated cost to \u003ca href=\"https://www.ladwp.com/sites/default/files/2023-10/Scattergood%20Modernization%20Project%20-%20IS.pdf\">retrofit\u003c/a> two of the plant’s three turbines is at least $800 million.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But hydrogen burned at high temperatures where oxygen is present, as in a gas plant, can create nitrogen oxides; those, in turn, contribute to ground-level ozone or smog. Emerging science \u003ca href=\"https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S0360319917319791\">suggests\u003c/a> that blending hydrogen into fossil gas could even increase those emissions unless pollution controls are added.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“We should not be shooting for extending the life of combustion technology,” Earthjustice analyst Saadat said. “We know that we need to stop burning fuel at the tailpipe and the smokestack.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>ARCHES and the Los Angeles Department of Water and Power plan to transition Scattergood to 100% hydrogen — “as soon as it is technically and practically feasible to do so.” In the meantime, state officials have acknowledged that the continuing transformation of California’s energy economy comes with tradeoffs.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Not everything is going to be zero all of the time in terms of emissions,” Rajinder Sahota, deputy executive officer for climate change at the California Air Resources Board, said at the hydrogen summit in Sacramento. “But making sure that, cumulatively, the exposure to harmful pollution is reduced is going to be important.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_1993722\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\" style=\"max-width: 1920px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-1993722 size-full\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2024/07/Miguel-Miguel-IMG_0759-scaled.jpeg\" alt=\"\" width=\"1920\" height=\"2560\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2024/07/Miguel-Miguel-IMG_0759-scaled.jpeg 1920w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2024/07/Miguel-Miguel-IMG_0759-800x1067.jpeg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2024/07/Miguel-Miguel-IMG_0759-1020x1360.jpeg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2024/07/Miguel-Miguel-IMG_0759-160x213.jpeg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2024/07/Miguel-Miguel-IMG_0759-768x1024.jpeg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2024/07/Miguel-Miguel-IMG_0759-1152x1536.jpeg 1152w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2024/07/Miguel-Miguel-IMG_0759-1536x2048.jpeg 1536w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1920px) 100vw, 1920px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Miguel Miguel, a policy adviser for Pacoima Beautiful, says neighbors to Valley Generating Station are wary of potential hydrogen projects in Los Angeles. \u003ccite>(Molly Peterson/Public Health Watch)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>The L.A. Department of Water and Power, or LADWP, is also “actively exploring” what happens next at its Valley Generating Station in Sun Valley. Valley notoriously leaked methane, which contributes to smog, for at least three years before officials notified anyone living nearby. The leak prompted a campaign by residents of the largely Latino neighborhood to shut Valley down, and water and power officials say demolition will soon begin. But the 12-acre property remains connected to gas infrastructure, and LADWP emphasizes that having dependable energy generated near where it’s needed in the L.A. basin is essential to a cleaner energy future.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>An LADWP spokeswoman said the utility “is actively evaluating hydrogen as well as other emerging technologies [at Valley] that will maximize environmental and equity benefits. We have consistently engaged the community and will continue to do so.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But residents aren’t reassured.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“So far it’s been hard to understand, Why this? Why this technology?” said Miguel Miguel, a policy adviser for the community advocacy group Pacoima Beautiful.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Miguel says the opaqueness about Valley’s future helped push California environmental justice advocates to \u003ca href=\"https://caleja.org/2023/10/environmental-justice-equity-principles-green-hydrogen-california/\">circulate principles\u003c/a> for an equitable energy transition to hydrogen last year. By their definition, green hydrogen relies on surplus water and renewable energy and doesn’t keep fossil fuels online. It also means communities are consulted respectfully from the start.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“There’s a possibility of green hydrogen as long as it doesn’t exacerbate problems,” Miguel said. “But for us, at Valley … in our opinion, it’s the natural gas industry’s last-ditch effort to say, ‘You still need us.’ And that’s the hardest pill to swallow.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Advocates like Miguel acknowledge that balancing Southern California’s energy sources responsibly to avoid brownouts or skyrocketing costs isn’t easy. That’s why they oppose dirty hydrogen — not all hydrogen.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But Martha Dina Arguello, the executive director of Physicians for Social Responsibility-Los Angeles, says talk of green hydrogen has left her frustrated.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“You realize that nobody wants to make green hydrogen, right? There’s no profit in making green hydrogen,” she said. “The political reality is that nobody’s building that right now.”\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>California’s Confidence, Confirmed\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>In the coming months, federal agencies will set policies that clarify the direction ARCHES and the other hydrogen hubs will take.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>When the Energy Department ARCHES funding, it also finalized the hub’s operating rules. The Treasury Department, too, must finalize guidelines for companies wishing to access hydrogen tax credits. The two agencies don’t always agree; Politico has \u003ca href=\"https://www.eenews.net/articles/doe-sides-with-industry-on-hydrogen-tax-rules/\">reported\u003c/a> that some in the DOE were advocating internally for weaker rules, as many industry leaders have sought.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Meanwhile, California lawmakers \u003ca href=\"https://digitaldemocracy.calmatters.org/bills/ca_202320240sb1420\">are considering legislation\u003c/a> that would streamline the state’s environmental review process for hydrogen projects. And some Democratic members of California’s congressional delegation \u003ca href=\"https://subscriber.politicopro.com/eenews/f/eenews/?id=00000190-989d-d892-a3db-bffd27970000\">are lobbying Treasury\u003c/a> for weaker rules.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>California’s hydrogen boosters seem confident about their strategy.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Frankly, if you want green hydrogen to succeed, you need California,” ARCHES CEO Galiteva said at the Sacramento summit. She told a story about how Gov. Gavin Newsom sold federal officials on the state’s capacity to advance clean fuel.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Galiteva said the governor emphasized California’s strong climate goals and its robust marketplace for clean energy. And his pitch didn’t stop there.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“You need us more than we need you,” Newsom, by her account, told the DOE. “So you’d better give us a hub.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Laughter erupted in a ballroom of industry representatives and public officials as Galiteva smiled. “I guess they listened,” she said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cem>Molly Peterson is a Los Angeles-based staff writer for \u003ca href=\"https://publichealthwatch.org/\">Public Health Watch\u003c/a>, a nonprofit investigative news organization that covers environmental health and health inequities. \u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\n\u003c/div>\u003c/p>",
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"title": "Newsom Warns Californians to Prepare for Busy Fire Season and Heat Waves",
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"content": "\u003cp>With more hot, dry, windy conditions ahead, Gov. Gavin Newsom and emergency officials are \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/11993386/california-heat-turned-brush-into-prime-fuel-for-fires-forests-will-be-next\">bracing for the possibility of bad fires\u003c/a> and asking that Californians do the same.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“This is my plea to you, please create a wildfire action plan that addresses escape routes, meeting points, animal arrangements, and a communications plan with your family,” Cal Fire Director Joe Tyler said Wednesday in an update on the state’s emergency plans. “Listen to the guidance of law enforcement and our firefighters for evacuation warnings and orders. Prepare your home to defend from an advancing wildfire, and prepare your home by home hardening and utilizing defensible space.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>After an extreme, extended heat wave and more high temperatures to come, much of the state is at high or extreme risk for heat. Those conditions have left dry grass and shrubs in Northern California “critically flammable,” according to the \u003ca href=\"https://fsapps.nwcg.gov/psp/npsg/forecast/#/outlooks?forecastDay=2015-07-07&forecastInView=2015-07-07&state=sideBySide&gaccId=4\">National Interagency Fire Center\u003c/a>, and some forests at lower and middle elevations are also becoming primed to burn.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad fullwidth]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Forecasts show the possibility of lightning strikes in the Sierra Nevada this weekend, which could ignite fires in dry fuel.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>California’s Office of Emergency Services, meanwhile, has activated its \u003ca href=\"https://news.caloes.ca.gov/california-prepares-for-dangerous-heatwave-ahead-of-fourth-of-july/\">emergency response plan\u003c/a> for heat, opening cooling centers and enforcing safety protections for outdoor workers.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Check in with coworkers if you work outside. Also, check in with older adults who might be isolated,” said Nancy Ward, director of Cal OES. “Stay hydrated and take frequent breaks. Find a cooling center in your community to cool down if necessary. Many communities are providing free transportation to these centers. Pack a to-go bag in case you have to be evacuated with the essential items for each of your members and also your pets. Learn multiple ways in and out of your neighborhood in case you are asked to evacuate.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Ward also advised people to sign up for emergency alerts, which can be done at \u003ca href=\"https://www.ready.gov/\">https://www.ready.gov/\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Newsom asked Californians to connect the dots between the frequency of weather-related disasters and their roots in human-caused climate change driven by burning fossil fuels.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Hots are getting a lot hotter; we’re experiencing unprecedented record heat,” he said. “These heat domes over the entire western United States, over and over and over and over and over again. Record-breaking temperatures, record-breaking experiences. Not just in California, across this country and around the rest of the world.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Taking a swipe at his critics and climate deniers, he added: “With respect to the troglodytes out there, climate change is real. Mother Nature, she bats last, bats a thousand. She’s chemistry, biology and physics. Those realities, those extremes are here, present every day in the great state of California.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>This year, the California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection has responded to more than 3,500 wildland fires that have burned more than 207,000 acres. That’s similar to the number of fires at this time last year but represents 197,000 more acres.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“In the last 24 hours across the state, there have been 44 new wildland fires,” said Tyler, the Cal Fire director.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Noting that 95% of all wildfires are started by human activity, Tyler offered some practical advice.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“I ask that you recognize that lawnmowers, weed eaters, chainsaws, grinders, welders, tractors, and trimmers can all spark wildfires if not properly maintained,” he said. “You need to make sure that the spark arrestors are clean and maintained when mowing. Mow before 10 in the morning, mow when the humidities are high, as it dries out throughout the day.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>As most fires start along roads, drivers have a large role to play in preventing them.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“And for our motorists on our roadways and our highways: Make sure that you are doing your part as well, and ensure that your chains are secure, that you’re removing dragging parts, carrying a fire extinguisher, and maintaining your braking systems,” Tyler said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>For more on how to prepare for wildfires, visit KQED’s guides on \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/11833686/what-to-pack-in-your-emergency-bag-with-covid-19-in-mind\">what to pack\u003c/a>, \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/11834901/fire-evacuation-what-actually-happens-and-how-can-you-plan\">what to do during an evacuation order\u003c/a>, and \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/science/1926793/protecting-your-health-from-toxic-wildfire-smoke\">how to protect yourself against smoke\u003c/a>. To learn how to prepare for dangerous heat, visit \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/science/1926793/protecting-your-health-from-toxic-wildfire-smoke\">this guide on the risks of heat-related illness\u003c/a> and how to keep cool.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003cp>With more hot, dry, windy conditions ahead, Gov. Gavin Newsom and emergency officials are \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/11993386/california-heat-turned-brush-into-prime-fuel-for-fires-forests-will-be-next\">bracing for the possibility of bad fires\u003c/a> and asking that Californians do the same.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“This is my plea to you, please create a wildfire action plan that addresses escape routes, meeting points, animal arrangements, and a communications plan with your family,” Cal Fire Director Joe Tyler said Wednesday in an update on the state’s emergency plans. “Listen to the guidance of law enforcement and our firefighters for evacuation warnings and orders. Prepare your home to defend from an advancing wildfire, and prepare your home by home hardening and utilizing defensible space.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>After an extreme, extended heat wave and more high temperatures to come, much of the state is at high or extreme risk for heat. Those conditions have left dry grass and shrubs in Northern California “critically flammable,” according to the \u003ca href=\"https://fsapps.nwcg.gov/psp/npsg/forecast/#/outlooks?forecastDay=2015-07-07&forecastInView=2015-07-07&state=sideBySide&gaccId=4\">National Interagency Fire Center\u003c/a>, and some forests at lower and middle elevations are also becoming primed to burn.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Forecasts show the possibility of lightning strikes in the Sierra Nevada this weekend, which could ignite fires in dry fuel.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>California’s Office of Emergency Services, meanwhile, has activated its \u003ca href=\"https://news.caloes.ca.gov/california-prepares-for-dangerous-heatwave-ahead-of-fourth-of-july/\">emergency response plan\u003c/a> for heat, opening cooling centers and enforcing safety protections for outdoor workers.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Check in with coworkers if you work outside. Also, check in with older adults who might be isolated,” said Nancy Ward, director of Cal OES. “Stay hydrated and take frequent breaks. Find a cooling center in your community to cool down if necessary. Many communities are providing free transportation to these centers. Pack a to-go bag in case you have to be evacuated with the essential items for each of your members and also your pets. Learn multiple ways in and out of your neighborhood in case you are asked to evacuate.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Ward also advised people to sign up for emergency alerts, which can be done at \u003ca href=\"https://www.ready.gov/\">https://www.ready.gov/\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Newsom asked Californians to connect the dots between the frequency of weather-related disasters and their roots in human-caused climate change driven by burning fossil fuels.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Hots are getting a lot hotter; we’re experiencing unprecedented record heat,” he said. “These heat domes over the entire western United States, over and over and over and over and over again. Record-breaking temperatures, record-breaking experiences. Not just in California, across this country and around the rest of the world.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Taking a swipe at his critics and climate deniers, he added: “With respect to the troglodytes out there, climate change is real. Mother Nature, she bats last, bats a thousand. She’s chemistry, biology and physics. Those realities, those extremes are here, present every day in the great state of California.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>This year, the California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection has responded to more than 3,500 wildland fires that have burned more than 207,000 acres. That’s similar to the number of fires at this time last year but represents 197,000 more acres.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“In the last 24 hours across the state, there have been 44 new wildland fires,” said Tyler, the Cal Fire director.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Noting that 95% of all wildfires are started by human activity, Tyler offered some practical advice.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“I ask that you recognize that lawnmowers, weed eaters, chainsaws, grinders, welders, tractors, and trimmers can all spark wildfires if not properly maintained,” he said. “You need to make sure that the spark arrestors are clean and maintained when mowing. Mow before 10 in the morning, mow when the humidities are high, as it dries out throughout the day.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>As most fires start along roads, drivers have a large role to play in preventing them.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“And for our motorists on our roadways and our highways: Make sure that you are doing your part as well, and ensure that your chains are secure, that you’re removing dragging parts, carrying a fire extinguisher, and maintaining your braking systems,” Tyler said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>For more on how to prepare for wildfires, visit KQED’s guides on \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/11833686/what-to-pack-in-your-emergency-bag-with-covid-19-in-mind\">what to pack\u003c/a>, \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/11834901/fire-evacuation-what-actually-happens-and-how-can-you-plan\">what to do during an evacuation order\u003c/a>, and \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/science/1926793/protecting-your-health-from-toxic-wildfire-smoke\">how to protect yourself against smoke\u003c/a>. To learn how to prepare for dangerous heat, visit \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/science/1926793/protecting-your-health-from-toxic-wildfire-smoke\">this guide on the risks of heat-related illness\u003c/a> and how to keep cool.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003c/div>\u003c/p>",
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"soldout": {
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