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"title": "This Fishing Gear Can Help Save Whales. What Will It Take for Fishermen to Use It?",
"headTitle": "This Fishing Gear Can Help Save Whales. What Will It Take for Fishermen to Use It? | KQED",
"content": "\u003cp>Fishing boats would normally still be unloading Dungeness crabs at San Francisco’s fisherman’s wharf in May. This year, the docks were quiet, except for one berth.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“We’re the only boat right now,” says Brand Little, standing next to a large tank of bright red crabs on the deck of his boat, the Pale Horse.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>State regulators closed the Dungeness season two months early this year, due to the arrival of humpback whales in the area. On both the East and West Coasts, crab and lobster fishermen are \u003ca href=\"https://www.wbur.org/news/2023/02/01/massachusetts-lobster-crab-fishing-banned-restriction-noaa-whale\">seeing their fishing seasons shrink\u003c/a> over concerns that whales are getting entangled in the long ropes attached to their gear, accidents that often end up injuring or killing the animals.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_1983168\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\" style=\"max-width: 800px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-1983168 size-medium\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/35/2023/06/dsc04615_custom-1696faf5fb1bdfd3e39e5bf9e6318eb2ccb805aa-s1300-c85-800x532.jpg\" alt=\"A fisherman wearing a black baseball cap, black sweater, and black shorts is standing at a fishery posing for a photo. There is a large blue bin next to him on the far right of the photo. The fisherman's right hand is rested on a large white compartment that is half opened. \" width=\"800\" height=\"532\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/06/dsc04615_custom-1696faf5fb1bdfd3e39e5bf9e6318eb2ccb805aa-s1300-c85-800x532.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/06/dsc04615_custom-1696faf5fb1bdfd3e39e5bf9e6318eb2ccb805aa-s1300-c85-1020x679.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/06/dsc04615_custom-1696faf5fb1bdfd3e39e5bf9e6318eb2ccb805aa-s1300-c85-160x106.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/06/dsc04615_custom-1696faf5fb1bdfd3e39e5bf9e6318eb2ccb805aa-s1300-c85-768x511.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/06/dsc04615_custom-1696faf5fb1bdfd3e39e5bf9e6318eb2ccb805aa-s1300-c85.jpg 1300w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 800px) 100vw, 800px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Despite the early closure of the Dungeness crab fishery, fisherman Brand Little has been able to keep fishing using pop-up gear, designed to avoid entangling whales. \u003ccite>(Lauren Summer/NPR)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>But Little is still fishing, because he’s trying out a system that many hope will be a technological fix to the problem: \u003ca href=\"https://www.fisheries.noaa.gov/new-england-mid-atlantic/marine-mammal-protection/developing-viable-demand-gear-systems\">“pop-up” fishing gear\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Normally, crab and lobster traps sit on the bottom of the ocean and are tethered to the surface by a rope that can stretch hundreds of feet. Pop-up fishing gear, also known as on-demand or ropeless gear, keeps the rope and buoy stowed on the ocean floor, until the fisherman comes to retrieve it. This spring, a dozen lobstermen were also permitted to fish in closed areas off Massachusetts and Rhode Island with pop-up gear.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_1983156\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\" style=\"max-width: 800px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-1983156 size-medium\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/35/2023/06/348274596_6193085530739907_7897540296190815100_n_custom-30c3cb9e5b3f2cf30b41e5dba60414747cbeb77d-800x600.jpg\" alt=\"A man in a black and gray baseball cap is wearing a red t-shirt and brown pants. He wears orange gloves and is holding a circular shaped crab trap.\" width=\"800\" height=\"600\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/06/348274596_6193085530739907_7897540296190815100_n_custom-30c3cb9e5b3f2cf30b41e5dba60414747cbeb77d-800x600.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/06/348274596_6193085530739907_7897540296190815100_n_custom-30c3cb9e5b3f2cf30b41e5dba60414747cbeb77d-1020x765.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/06/348274596_6193085530739907_7897540296190815100_n_custom-30c3cb9e5b3f2cf30b41e5dba60414747cbeb77d-160x120.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/06/348274596_6193085530739907_7897540296190815100_n_custom-30c3cb9e5b3f2cf30b41e5dba60414747cbeb77d-768x576.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/06/348274596_6193085530739907_7897540296190815100_n_custom-30c3cb9e5b3f2cf30b41e5dba60414747cbeb77d-1536x1151.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/06/348274596_6193085530739907_7897540296190815100_n_custom-30c3cb9e5b3f2cf30b41e5dba60414747cbeb77d-1920x1439.jpg 1920w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/06/348274596_6193085530739907_7897540296190815100_n_custom-30c3cb9e5b3f2cf30b41e5dba60414747cbeb77d.jpg 2048w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 800px) 100vw, 800px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Deckhand Justin Middleton pulls in a crab trap off San Francisco, where new pop-up fishing gear is being piloted. \u003ccite>(Courtesy Brand Little)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>The new gear has the potential to help whales and fishermen alike, but it isn’t a quick fix. There are technical issues to iron out, including ensuring the gear can be used in crowded areas. The cost for each pop-up system can also run thousands of dollars, a massive expenditure for boats that would need to buy hundreds.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Within the fishing community, there’s also reluctance to even test the equipment because many fishermen fear government regulators will mandate it.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Still, the urgency to make the gear work is growing, as fishermen keep taking financial hits and whales remain at risk. On the East Coast, North Atlantic right whales are dangerously close to extinction and more than 85% show injuries from being entangled.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_1983169\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\" style=\"max-width: 800px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-1983169 size-medium\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/35/2023/06/dsc2058_custom-bb7e686498dea94d5c8feb848702d71d513b0f78-s1300-c85-800x534.jpg\" alt=\"An orange float is seen floating in the dark ocean with clear blue and cloudy skies at the top.\" width=\"800\" height=\"534\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/06/dsc2058_custom-bb7e686498dea94d5c8feb848702d71d513b0f78-s1300-c85-800x534.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/06/dsc2058_custom-bb7e686498dea94d5c8feb848702d71d513b0f78-s1300-c85-1020x680.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/06/dsc2058_custom-bb7e686498dea94d5c8feb848702d71d513b0f78-s1300-c85-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/06/dsc2058_custom-bb7e686498dea94d5c8feb848702d71d513b0f78-s1300-c85-768x512.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/06/dsc2058_custom-bb7e686498dea94d5c8feb848702d71d513b0f78-s1300-c85.jpg 1300w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 800px) 100vw, 800px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">With ropeless technology, orange markers rise to the surface of the water at the traps once they are triggered remotely. \u003ccite>(Claire Harbage/NPR)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>“I think this on-demand system, this ropeless fishing, is a very human way to tackle the problem because it’s technology,” says Mark Baumgartner, senior scientist at the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution. “What we’re good at is coming up with technology to solve problems.”\u003c/p>\n\u003ch3>Testing pop-up gear in the water\u003c/h3>\n\u003cp>On a Saturday morning, a steady stream of customers stop by Little’s boat to snag a few crabs. Little’s catch is far less than he’d get at the peak of crab season, but his goal is to test the pop-up fishing gear and look for pitfalls.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“That’s what fishermen need to do — be part of the development of it or take what’s handed to you,” he says. “And 90% of what’s out there I would not want to be handed.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The system works like this: The large round crab trap is tossed overboard along with a coiled rope, buoy and inflatable bag. After it’s collected crabs on the seafloor, Little returns, finding the trap on an app. He hits a button, sending an acoustic signal to release the rope and buoy, which rise to the surface. Other gear manufacturers have different variations of this system.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Little says he was skeptical at first, but has found the gear has potential. The last few years have been tough on him and the rest of California’s crab fleet. The season opening was also delayed several times in recent years, after humpback whales returned to coastal waters on their yearly migration in the winter.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_1983170\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\" style=\"max-width: 800px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-1983170 size-medium\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/35/2023/06/mg_2944_custom-0a14d18f1ff372add0dfaf81a0bcac4ca091561c-s1300-c85-800x532.jpg\" alt=\"A person in orange overalls is holding a large shrimp in their hands. The person is on a boat.\" width=\"800\" height=\"532\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/06/mg_2944_custom-0a14d18f1ff372add0dfaf81a0bcac4ca091561c-s1300-c85-800x532.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/06/mg_2944_custom-0a14d18f1ff372add0dfaf81a0bcac4ca091561c-s1300-c85-1020x679.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/06/mg_2944_custom-0a14d18f1ff372add0dfaf81a0bcac4ca091561c-s1300-c85-160x106.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/06/mg_2944_custom-0a14d18f1ff372add0dfaf81a0bcac4ca091561c-s1300-c85-768x511.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/06/mg_2944_custom-0a14d18f1ff372add0dfaf81a0bcac4ca091561c-s1300-c85.jpg 1300w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 800px) 100vw, 800px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Lobster fishermen on the East Coast have faced closures over North Atlantic right whales. Only around 340 right whales remain in the population. \u003ccite>(Courtesy Ryan Kellman)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Lobster fishermen on the East Coast have faced similar closures over North Atlantic right whales. Only around 340 right whales remain in the population and federal officials \u003ca href=\"https://www.fisheries.noaa.gov/national/marine-life-distress/2017-2023-north-atlantic-right-whale-unusual-mortality-event\">have documented dozens of entanglements since 2017\u003c/a>. The whales feed by swimming slowly with open mouths, making them vulnerable to long ropes hanging in the water. The injuries can be grisly. Ropes dig into the whale’s flesh, exhausting or killing whales after they drag the gear for miles. Earlier this year, rescuers worked for 3 days to \u003ca href=\"https://www.fisheries.noaa.gov/national/endangered-species-conservation/north-atlantic-right-whale-updates#entanglement-response-mounted-for-newly-entangled-right-whale,-argo-(#1218)\">remove more than 150 feet of rope\u003c/a> from a whale, equipment later linked to the Canadian fishing industry.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Concerns about whales led Whole Foods to announce last spring that it would \u003ca href=\"https://www.npr.org/2022/11/30/1139876157/whole-foods-maine-lobster-north-atlantic-right-whale\">no longer sell live lobsters from Maine\u003c/a>. The controversy has been intense, with Maine’s lobster industry contending that no whale deaths have been linked to their fishery.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>It’s challenging for regulators to determine exactly where whales are being entangled. Many injured whales are found after the ropes have fallen off, and federal rules only recently required fishermen to put \u003ca href=\"https://www.mainepublic.org/environment-and-outdoors/2023-04-13/right-whales-arent-having-a-good-year-the-pressure-is-on-to-save-this-hard-to-track-species\">color coding on their ropes\u003c/a> to better identify where they came from. As the oceans get hotter with climate change, \u003ca href=\"https://apps.npr.org/arctic-ice-melting-climate-change/greenland-whales.html\">right whales have also been shifting their migration\u003c/a>, spending less time in Maine waters.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_1983171\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\" style=\"max-width: 800px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-1983171\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/35/2023/06/11468719096_f7acc916b7_k_custom-ae5d1a61371fef3c6991ec8d352ce37fd353a5d9-s1300-c85-800x422.jpg\" alt=\"An image of a whale swimming in dark green waters.\" width=\"800\" height=\"422\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/06/11468719096_f7acc916b7_k_custom-ae5d1a61371fef3c6991ec8d352ce37fd353a5d9-s1300-c85-800x422.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/06/11468719096_f7acc916b7_k_custom-ae5d1a61371fef3c6991ec8d352ce37fd353a5d9-s1300-c85-1020x538.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/06/11468719096_f7acc916b7_k_custom-ae5d1a61371fef3c6991ec8d352ce37fd353a5d9-s1300-c85-160x84.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/06/11468719096_f7acc916b7_k_custom-ae5d1a61371fef3c6991ec8d352ce37fd353a5d9-s1300-c85-768x405.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/06/11468719096_f7acc916b7_k_custom-ae5d1a61371fef3c6991ec8d352ce37fd353a5d9-s1300-c85.jpg 1300w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 800px) 100vw, 800px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Entangled North Atlantic right whales can drag fishing gear hundreds of miles, like this whale off of Florida. The injuries can be life-threatening. \u003ccite>(NOAA News Archive 123110)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003ch3>Some fishermen hesitant to dive in\u003c/h3>\n\u003cp>On social media, Little has been posting when “whale-safe” crab is available to help customers understand what fishermen are doing about the problem.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“For me, it’s adapt or die,” he says. “You gotta roll with the punches. This problem isn’t going away without changing the way we do stuff.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Still, his willingness to test out the new fishing gear has not made him popular at the docks.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“I get a lot of flack,” Little says. “There’s a lot of guys really upset with me for doing this.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>On the East Coast, gear testing has faced a similar atmosphere of doubt. Dave Casoni, who has been lobstering off Cape Cod for five decades, said he’s tested pop-up gear, but there’s a fair amount of peer pressure to steer clear over worries it will bring more regulation.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Maybe it would send a message that: See, the industry did it, therefore they were in favor of it,” Casoni says. “I was accused of that and I had not intended to do that. I intended to find the shortfalls.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>NOAA’s Northwest Fisheries Science Center has created a \u003ca href=\"https://www.fisheries.noaa.gov/new-england-mid-atlantic/marine-mammal-protection/borrow-northeast-fisheries-science-center-gear\">library of ropeless gear\u003c/a>, where fishermen can test gear in the water and help provide feedback to manufacturers. But of more than 5,000 lobstermen in New England, only 50 have used the library since it was created several years ago.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_1983172\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\" style=\"max-width: 800px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-1983172\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/35/2023/06/dsc1970_custom-2b5f7edde43a70922a02d838f137c4d3c3f6e628-s1300-c85-800x532.jpg\" alt=\"A white woman in a gray baseball cap, light blue t-shirt, blue jeans, and gray sneakers stands on a wooden surface next to a white boat. The backdrop is a lakeside with houses in front of the lake.\" width=\"800\" height=\"532\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/06/dsc1970_custom-2b5f7edde43a70922a02d838f137c4d3c3f6e628-s1300-c85-800x532.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/06/dsc1970_custom-2b5f7edde43a70922a02d838f137c4d3c3f6e628-s1300-c85-1020x679.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/06/dsc1970_custom-2b5f7edde43a70922a02d838f137c4d3c3f6e628-s1300-c85-160x106.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/06/dsc1970_custom-2b5f7edde43a70922a02d838f137c4d3c3f6e628-s1300-c85-768x511.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/06/dsc1970_custom-2b5f7edde43a70922a02d838f137c4d3c3f6e628-s1300-c85.jpg 1300w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 800px) 100vw, 800px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Patrice McCarron of the Maine Lobsterman’s Association says the fear among fishermen is that if regulators see them using pop-up gear, they’ll mandate it year-round. \u003ccite>(Claire Harbage/NPR)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Patrice Maccarron, policy director of the Maine Lobstermen’s Association, says the fear among fishermen is that if regulators see them using pop-up gear, they’ll mandate it year-round, even when whales are not present. But some lobstermen are still trying to be part of the process.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“They tend to be younger people with families who want to be in the fishery,” Maccarron says. “And they’re thinking, you know, I don’t want to do this. This is going to be really hard. But I also don’t want my livelihood to be removed and to reach a point where we don’t have options.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>As the fishery closures have mounted, hitting the more than $500 million lobster industry, the conversation is shifting, albeit slowly.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“I think we’re now seeing a lot more willingness to try this, a lot more feedback, a lot more people who are understanding that we’re simply trying to provide fishermen a tool so they can access these closed areas,” says Henry Milliken, who helps run the gear library at NOAA’s Northeast Fisheries Science Center.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_1983173\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\" style=\"max-width: 800px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-1983173\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/35/2023/06/2014summerswans-181-4c921061ff7d5c703fd8d037747254058a049943-s1300-c85-800x600.jpg\" alt=\"A boat with a blue sail is seen on the waters during the early hours of the morning.\" width=\"800\" height=\"600\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/06/2014summerswans-181-4c921061ff7d5c703fd8d037747254058a049943-s1300-c85-800x600.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/06/2014summerswans-181-4c921061ff7d5c703fd8d037747254058a049943-s1300-c85-1020x765.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/06/2014summerswans-181-4c921061ff7d5c703fd8d037747254058a049943-s1300-c85-160x120.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/06/2014summerswans-181-4c921061ff7d5c703fd8d037747254058a049943-s1300-c85-768x576.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/06/2014summerswans-181-4c921061ff7d5c703fd8d037747254058a049943-s1300-c85.jpg 1300w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 800px) 100vw, 800px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">A boat is prepared for a day at sea. \u003ccite>(Courtesy Ryan Kellman)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003ch3>Technical issues still remain\u003c/h3>\n\u003cp>Pop-up gear may work well in tests, but many fishermen worry it could be a different story when hundreds of boats use it during a busy commercial fishing season.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Buoys on the surface normally mark where traps are located, so fishermen can avoid putting their traps on top of someone else’s. With pop-up gear, fishermen would need to use an app or their onboard navigation system to see where traps already are on the seafloor. And some worry there could be conflict when boats are working close together.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“It’s very, very congested,” Casoni says. “So I think the fear is it would create more problems amongst each other just fishing. It’s a very busy, dangerous operation to begin with, and we don’t need to add that.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad fullwidth]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>To prevent problems, fishing gear made by different manufacturers needs to show up on the same maps, just as cell phones from different carriers can all use the same network. NOAA plans on holding a workshop this fall to develop universal technical standards for manufacturers.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Then there’s the question how much slower it is to use pop-up gear. Dick Ogg, a crab fisherman from Bodega Bay, California, says he’s tested the gear. He points out that fishermen work with hundreds of traps during already grueling work days, and adding any extra time with new gear would be an economic hit.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“The process is very fast and it’s important to understand if we alter any of this, it has to be comparable,” Ogg says. “If I do one extra minute on my pot allocation, that’s an extra 5.8 hours a day.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_1983174\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\" style=\"max-width: 800px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-1983174\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/35/2023/06/ogg1_custom-394b757826fc16c16c2af78babed56b7be77eca0-s1300-c85-800x599.jpg\" alt=\"A fisherman with gray hair is wearing a gray sweater and sunglasses poses for a photo in front of some fishing gear.\" width=\"800\" height=\"599\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/06/ogg1_custom-394b757826fc16c16c2af78babed56b7be77eca0-s1300-c85-800x599.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/06/ogg1_custom-394b757826fc16c16c2af78babed56b7be77eca0-s1300-c85-1020x763.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/06/ogg1_custom-394b757826fc16c16c2af78babed56b7be77eca0-s1300-c85-160x120.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/06/ogg1_custom-394b757826fc16c16c2af78babed56b7be77eca0-s1300-c85-768x575.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/06/ogg1_custom-394b757826fc16c16c2af78babed56b7be77eca0-s1300-c85.jpg 1300w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 800px) 100vw, 800px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Dick Ogg, a crab fisherman from Bodega Bay, California, says he’s tested the gear, but since fishermen work with hundreds of traps during already grueling work days, adding any extra time would be an economic hit. \u003ccite>(Lauren Sommer/NPR)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>The price tag for pop-up systems can cost from hundreds to thousands of dollars per unit, which adds up for boats with hundreds of traps. To deploy the gear in a fishery equitably, boats would likely need grants or loans to defray the costs.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“If we bring in a capital-intensive model, we know our small boats don’t have that sort of operating capital,” McCarron says. “And, you know, there’s a very, very strong concern that we’re going to lose them and there won’t be a place for them.”\u003c/p>\n\u003ch3>New resources to make pop-up gear work\u003c/h3>\n\u003cp>To accelerate the process, the federal government is putting almost $68 million toward efforts to help North Atlantic right whales this year, funding that comes from the Inflation Reduction Act and the omnibus spending bill passed in December. Of that, $27 million will go to new kinds of fishing gear.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“It’s a very significant investment that we haven’t seen before to address the issues that are facing North Atlantic right whales,” says Kim Damon-Randall, director of NOAA Fisheries Office of Protected Resources. “If we can develop on-demand technology for gear in the Northeast, that technology can be applied elsewhere.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Fishermen on both coasts are able to use pop-up gear voluntarily now, and lobstermen on the East Coast aren’t facing imminent rules mandating the gear. While NOAA had developed new regulations that would close fishing grounds and limit the number of traps in the water, a last-minute Congressional effort in December \u003ca href=\"https://www.npr.org/2023/01/04/1146637583/maine-lobster-industry-wins-reprieve-but-environmentalists-say-whales-will-die\">delayed those rules for six years\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_1983175\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\" style=\"max-width: 800px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-1983175\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/35/2023/06/mg_3876-2_custom-5b88e265b16803d0d69913005aeed519cf012d80-s1300-c85-1-800x532.jpg\" alt=\"A person wearing purple gloves and an orange fishing overall carries a blue tub that is filled with large shrimp.\" width=\"800\" height=\"532\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/06/mg_3876-2_custom-5b88e265b16803d0d69913005aeed519cf012d80-s1300-c85-1-800x532.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/06/mg_3876-2_custom-5b88e265b16803d0d69913005aeed519cf012d80-s1300-c85-1-1020x679.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/06/mg_3876-2_custom-5b88e265b16803d0d69913005aeed519cf012d80-s1300-c85-1-160x106.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/06/mg_3876-2_custom-5b88e265b16803d0d69913005aeed519cf012d80-s1300-c85-1-768x511.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/06/mg_3876-2_custom-5b88e265b16803d0d69913005aeed519cf012d80-s1300-c85-1.jpg 1300w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 800px) 100vw, 800px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Federal officials say pop-up gear technology being piloted in the lobster industry could lead the way for other fisheries around the world that risk entangling whales. \u003ccite>(Courtesy Ryan Kellman)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>No matter what side of the issue, most agree that pop-up gear will take some time, both to iron out the technical issues and to work on acceptance in the fishing industry. In the Northeast, a group of manufacturers, fishermen and the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institute, known as the \u003ca href=\"https://ropeless.org/\">Ropeless Consortium\u003c/a>, is working together on improving the technology.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Everything just needs to happen faster,” Baumgartner says. “So more focus and more resources are what’s needed. Those are coming but it’s been slow in coming.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cdiv class=\"fullattribution\">Copyright 2023 NPR. To see more, visit https://www.npr.org.\u003cimg decoding=\"async\" src=\"https://www.google-analytics.com/__utm.gif?utmac=UA-5828686-4&utmdt=This+fishing+gear+can+help+save+whales.+What+will+it+take+for+fishermen+to+use+it%3F&utme=8(APIKey)9(MDAxOTAwOTE4MDEyMTkxMDAzNjczZDljZA004)\">\u003c/div>\n\u003cp>[ad floatright]\u003c/p>\n",
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"excerpt": "On both the East and West coasts, whales are at risk of being entangled and injured by ropes used by fishermen. Fishing grounds are being closed, but new technology could help avoid that. ",
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"description": "On both the East and West coasts, whales are at risk of being entangled and injured by ropes used by fishermen. Fishing grounds are being closed, but new technology could help avoid that. ",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003cp>Fishing boats would normally still be unloading Dungeness crabs at San Francisco’s fisherman’s wharf in May. This year, the docks were quiet, except for one berth.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“We’re the only boat right now,” says Brand Little, standing next to a large tank of bright red crabs on the deck of his boat, the Pale Horse.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>State regulators closed the Dungeness season two months early this year, due to the arrival of humpback whales in the area. On both the East and West Coasts, crab and lobster fishermen are \u003ca href=\"https://www.wbur.org/news/2023/02/01/massachusetts-lobster-crab-fishing-banned-restriction-noaa-whale\">seeing their fishing seasons shrink\u003c/a> over concerns that whales are getting entangled in the long ropes attached to their gear, accidents that often end up injuring or killing the animals.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_1983168\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\" style=\"max-width: 800px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-1983168 size-medium\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/35/2023/06/dsc04615_custom-1696faf5fb1bdfd3e39e5bf9e6318eb2ccb805aa-s1300-c85-800x532.jpg\" alt=\"A fisherman wearing a black baseball cap, black sweater, and black shorts is standing at a fishery posing for a photo. There is a large blue bin next to him on the far right of the photo. The fisherman's right hand is rested on a large white compartment that is half opened. \" width=\"800\" height=\"532\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/06/dsc04615_custom-1696faf5fb1bdfd3e39e5bf9e6318eb2ccb805aa-s1300-c85-800x532.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/06/dsc04615_custom-1696faf5fb1bdfd3e39e5bf9e6318eb2ccb805aa-s1300-c85-1020x679.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/06/dsc04615_custom-1696faf5fb1bdfd3e39e5bf9e6318eb2ccb805aa-s1300-c85-160x106.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/06/dsc04615_custom-1696faf5fb1bdfd3e39e5bf9e6318eb2ccb805aa-s1300-c85-768x511.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/06/dsc04615_custom-1696faf5fb1bdfd3e39e5bf9e6318eb2ccb805aa-s1300-c85.jpg 1300w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 800px) 100vw, 800px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Despite the early closure of the Dungeness crab fishery, fisherman Brand Little has been able to keep fishing using pop-up gear, designed to avoid entangling whales. \u003ccite>(Lauren Summer/NPR)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>But Little is still fishing, because he’s trying out a system that many hope will be a technological fix to the problem: \u003ca href=\"https://www.fisheries.noaa.gov/new-england-mid-atlantic/marine-mammal-protection/developing-viable-demand-gear-systems\">“pop-up” fishing gear\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Normally, crab and lobster traps sit on the bottom of the ocean and are tethered to the surface by a rope that can stretch hundreds of feet. Pop-up fishing gear, also known as on-demand or ropeless gear, keeps the rope and buoy stowed on the ocean floor, until the fisherman comes to retrieve it. This spring, a dozen lobstermen were also permitted to fish in closed areas off Massachusetts and Rhode Island with pop-up gear.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_1983156\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\" style=\"max-width: 800px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-1983156 size-medium\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/35/2023/06/348274596_6193085530739907_7897540296190815100_n_custom-30c3cb9e5b3f2cf30b41e5dba60414747cbeb77d-800x600.jpg\" alt=\"A man in a black and gray baseball cap is wearing a red t-shirt and brown pants. He wears orange gloves and is holding a circular shaped crab trap.\" width=\"800\" height=\"600\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/06/348274596_6193085530739907_7897540296190815100_n_custom-30c3cb9e5b3f2cf30b41e5dba60414747cbeb77d-800x600.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/06/348274596_6193085530739907_7897540296190815100_n_custom-30c3cb9e5b3f2cf30b41e5dba60414747cbeb77d-1020x765.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/06/348274596_6193085530739907_7897540296190815100_n_custom-30c3cb9e5b3f2cf30b41e5dba60414747cbeb77d-160x120.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/06/348274596_6193085530739907_7897540296190815100_n_custom-30c3cb9e5b3f2cf30b41e5dba60414747cbeb77d-768x576.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/06/348274596_6193085530739907_7897540296190815100_n_custom-30c3cb9e5b3f2cf30b41e5dba60414747cbeb77d-1536x1151.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/06/348274596_6193085530739907_7897540296190815100_n_custom-30c3cb9e5b3f2cf30b41e5dba60414747cbeb77d-1920x1439.jpg 1920w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/06/348274596_6193085530739907_7897540296190815100_n_custom-30c3cb9e5b3f2cf30b41e5dba60414747cbeb77d.jpg 2048w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 800px) 100vw, 800px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Deckhand Justin Middleton pulls in a crab trap off San Francisco, where new pop-up fishing gear is being piloted. \u003ccite>(Courtesy Brand Little)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>The new gear has the potential to help whales and fishermen alike, but it isn’t a quick fix. There are technical issues to iron out, including ensuring the gear can be used in crowded areas. The cost for each pop-up system can also run thousands of dollars, a massive expenditure for boats that would need to buy hundreds.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Within the fishing community, there’s also reluctance to even test the equipment because many fishermen fear government regulators will mandate it.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Still, the urgency to make the gear work is growing, as fishermen keep taking financial hits and whales remain at risk. On the East Coast, North Atlantic right whales are dangerously close to extinction and more than 85% show injuries from being entangled.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_1983169\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\" style=\"max-width: 800px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-1983169 size-medium\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/35/2023/06/dsc2058_custom-bb7e686498dea94d5c8feb848702d71d513b0f78-s1300-c85-800x534.jpg\" alt=\"An orange float is seen floating in the dark ocean with clear blue and cloudy skies at the top.\" width=\"800\" height=\"534\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/06/dsc2058_custom-bb7e686498dea94d5c8feb848702d71d513b0f78-s1300-c85-800x534.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/06/dsc2058_custom-bb7e686498dea94d5c8feb848702d71d513b0f78-s1300-c85-1020x680.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/06/dsc2058_custom-bb7e686498dea94d5c8feb848702d71d513b0f78-s1300-c85-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/06/dsc2058_custom-bb7e686498dea94d5c8feb848702d71d513b0f78-s1300-c85-768x512.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/06/dsc2058_custom-bb7e686498dea94d5c8feb848702d71d513b0f78-s1300-c85.jpg 1300w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 800px) 100vw, 800px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">With ropeless technology, orange markers rise to the surface of the water at the traps once they are triggered remotely. \u003ccite>(Claire Harbage/NPR)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>“I think this on-demand system, this ropeless fishing, is a very human way to tackle the problem because it’s technology,” says Mark Baumgartner, senior scientist at the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution. “What we’re good at is coming up with technology to solve problems.”\u003c/p>\n\u003ch3>Testing pop-up gear in the water\u003c/h3>\n\u003cp>On a Saturday morning, a steady stream of customers stop by Little’s boat to snag a few crabs. Little’s catch is far less than he’d get at the peak of crab season, but his goal is to test the pop-up fishing gear and look for pitfalls.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“That’s what fishermen need to do — be part of the development of it or take what’s handed to you,” he says. “And 90% of what’s out there I would not want to be handed.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The system works like this: The large round crab trap is tossed overboard along with a coiled rope, buoy and inflatable bag. After it’s collected crabs on the seafloor, Little returns, finding the trap on an app. He hits a button, sending an acoustic signal to release the rope and buoy, which rise to the surface. Other gear manufacturers have different variations of this system.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Little says he was skeptical at first, but has found the gear has potential. The last few years have been tough on him and the rest of California’s crab fleet. The season opening was also delayed several times in recent years, after humpback whales returned to coastal waters on their yearly migration in the winter.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_1983170\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\" style=\"max-width: 800px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-1983170 size-medium\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/35/2023/06/mg_2944_custom-0a14d18f1ff372add0dfaf81a0bcac4ca091561c-s1300-c85-800x532.jpg\" alt=\"A person in orange overalls is holding a large shrimp in their hands. The person is on a boat.\" width=\"800\" height=\"532\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/06/mg_2944_custom-0a14d18f1ff372add0dfaf81a0bcac4ca091561c-s1300-c85-800x532.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/06/mg_2944_custom-0a14d18f1ff372add0dfaf81a0bcac4ca091561c-s1300-c85-1020x679.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/06/mg_2944_custom-0a14d18f1ff372add0dfaf81a0bcac4ca091561c-s1300-c85-160x106.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/06/mg_2944_custom-0a14d18f1ff372add0dfaf81a0bcac4ca091561c-s1300-c85-768x511.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/06/mg_2944_custom-0a14d18f1ff372add0dfaf81a0bcac4ca091561c-s1300-c85.jpg 1300w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 800px) 100vw, 800px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Lobster fishermen on the East Coast have faced closures over North Atlantic right whales. Only around 340 right whales remain in the population. \u003ccite>(Courtesy Ryan Kellman)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Lobster fishermen on the East Coast have faced similar closures over North Atlantic right whales. Only around 340 right whales remain in the population and federal officials \u003ca href=\"https://www.fisheries.noaa.gov/national/marine-life-distress/2017-2023-north-atlantic-right-whale-unusual-mortality-event\">have documented dozens of entanglements since 2017\u003c/a>. The whales feed by swimming slowly with open mouths, making them vulnerable to long ropes hanging in the water. The injuries can be grisly. Ropes dig into the whale’s flesh, exhausting or killing whales after they drag the gear for miles. Earlier this year, rescuers worked for 3 days to \u003ca href=\"https://www.fisheries.noaa.gov/national/endangered-species-conservation/north-atlantic-right-whale-updates#entanglement-response-mounted-for-newly-entangled-right-whale,-argo-(#1218)\">remove more than 150 feet of rope\u003c/a> from a whale, equipment later linked to the Canadian fishing industry.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Concerns about whales led Whole Foods to announce last spring that it would \u003ca href=\"https://www.npr.org/2022/11/30/1139876157/whole-foods-maine-lobster-north-atlantic-right-whale\">no longer sell live lobsters from Maine\u003c/a>. The controversy has been intense, with Maine’s lobster industry contending that no whale deaths have been linked to their fishery.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>It’s challenging for regulators to determine exactly where whales are being entangled. Many injured whales are found after the ropes have fallen off, and federal rules only recently required fishermen to put \u003ca href=\"https://www.mainepublic.org/environment-and-outdoors/2023-04-13/right-whales-arent-having-a-good-year-the-pressure-is-on-to-save-this-hard-to-track-species\">color coding on their ropes\u003c/a> to better identify where they came from. As the oceans get hotter with climate change, \u003ca href=\"https://apps.npr.org/arctic-ice-melting-climate-change/greenland-whales.html\">right whales have also been shifting their migration\u003c/a>, spending less time in Maine waters.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_1983171\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\" style=\"max-width: 800px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-1983171\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/35/2023/06/11468719096_f7acc916b7_k_custom-ae5d1a61371fef3c6991ec8d352ce37fd353a5d9-s1300-c85-800x422.jpg\" alt=\"An image of a whale swimming in dark green waters.\" width=\"800\" height=\"422\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/06/11468719096_f7acc916b7_k_custom-ae5d1a61371fef3c6991ec8d352ce37fd353a5d9-s1300-c85-800x422.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/06/11468719096_f7acc916b7_k_custom-ae5d1a61371fef3c6991ec8d352ce37fd353a5d9-s1300-c85-1020x538.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/06/11468719096_f7acc916b7_k_custom-ae5d1a61371fef3c6991ec8d352ce37fd353a5d9-s1300-c85-160x84.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/06/11468719096_f7acc916b7_k_custom-ae5d1a61371fef3c6991ec8d352ce37fd353a5d9-s1300-c85-768x405.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/06/11468719096_f7acc916b7_k_custom-ae5d1a61371fef3c6991ec8d352ce37fd353a5d9-s1300-c85.jpg 1300w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 800px) 100vw, 800px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Entangled North Atlantic right whales can drag fishing gear hundreds of miles, like this whale off of Florida. The injuries can be life-threatening. \u003ccite>(NOAA News Archive 123110)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003ch3>Some fishermen hesitant to dive in\u003c/h3>\n\u003cp>On social media, Little has been posting when “whale-safe” crab is available to help customers understand what fishermen are doing about the problem.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“For me, it’s adapt or die,” he says. “You gotta roll with the punches. This problem isn’t going away without changing the way we do stuff.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Still, his willingness to test out the new fishing gear has not made him popular at the docks.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“I get a lot of flack,” Little says. “There’s a lot of guys really upset with me for doing this.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>On the East Coast, gear testing has faced a similar atmosphere of doubt. Dave Casoni, who has been lobstering off Cape Cod for five decades, said he’s tested pop-up gear, but there’s a fair amount of peer pressure to steer clear over worries it will bring more regulation.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Maybe it would send a message that: See, the industry did it, therefore they were in favor of it,” Casoni says. “I was accused of that and I had not intended to do that. I intended to find the shortfalls.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>NOAA’s Northwest Fisheries Science Center has created a \u003ca href=\"https://www.fisheries.noaa.gov/new-england-mid-atlantic/marine-mammal-protection/borrow-northeast-fisheries-science-center-gear\">library of ropeless gear\u003c/a>, where fishermen can test gear in the water and help provide feedback to manufacturers. But of more than 5,000 lobstermen in New England, only 50 have used the library since it was created several years ago.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_1983172\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\" style=\"max-width: 800px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-1983172\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/35/2023/06/dsc1970_custom-2b5f7edde43a70922a02d838f137c4d3c3f6e628-s1300-c85-800x532.jpg\" alt=\"A white woman in a gray baseball cap, light blue t-shirt, blue jeans, and gray sneakers stands on a wooden surface next to a white boat. The backdrop is a lakeside with houses in front of the lake.\" width=\"800\" height=\"532\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/06/dsc1970_custom-2b5f7edde43a70922a02d838f137c4d3c3f6e628-s1300-c85-800x532.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/06/dsc1970_custom-2b5f7edde43a70922a02d838f137c4d3c3f6e628-s1300-c85-1020x679.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/06/dsc1970_custom-2b5f7edde43a70922a02d838f137c4d3c3f6e628-s1300-c85-160x106.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/06/dsc1970_custom-2b5f7edde43a70922a02d838f137c4d3c3f6e628-s1300-c85-768x511.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/06/dsc1970_custom-2b5f7edde43a70922a02d838f137c4d3c3f6e628-s1300-c85.jpg 1300w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 800px) 100vw, 800px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Patrice McCarron of the Maine Lobsterman’s Association says the fear among fishermen is that if regulators see them using pop-up gear, they’ll mandate it year-round. \u003ccite>(Claire Harbage/NPR)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Patrice Maccarron, policy director of the Maine Lobstermen’s Association, says the fear among fishermen is that if regulators see them using pop-up gear, they’ll mandate it year-round, even when whales are not present. But some lobstermen are still trying to be part of the process.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“They tend to be younger people with families who want to be in the fishery,” Maccarron says. “And they’re thinking, you know, I don’t want to do this. This is going to be really hard. But I also don’t want my livelihood to be removed and to reach a point where we don’t have options.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>As the fishery closures have mounted, hitting the more than $500 million lobster industry, the conversation is shifting, albeit slowly.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“I think we’re now seeing a lot more willingness to try this, a lot more feedback, a lot more people who are understanding that we’re simply trying to provide fishermen a tool so they can access these closed areas,” says Henry Milliken, who helps run the gear library at NOAA’s Northeast Fisheries Science Center.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_1983173\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\" style=\"max-width: 800px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-1983173\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/35/2023/06/2014summerswans-181-4c921061ff7d5c703fd8d037747254058a049943-s1300-c85-800x600.jpg\" alt=\"A boat with a blue sail is seen on the waters during the early hours of the morning.\" width=\"800\" height=\"600\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/06/2014summerswans-181-4c921061ff7d5c703fd8d037747254058a049943-s1300-c85-800x600.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/06/2014summerswans-181-4c921061ff7d5c703fd8d037747254058a049943-s1300-c85-1020x765.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/06/2014summerswans-181-4c921061ff7d5c703fd8d037747254058a049943-s1300-c85-160x120.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/06/2014summerswans-181-4c921061ff7d5c703fd8d037747254058a049943-s1300-c85-768x576.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/06/2014summerswans-181-4c921061ff7d5c703fd8d037747254058a049943-s1300-c85.jpg 1300w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 800px) 100vw, 800px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">A boat is prepared for a day at sea. \u003ccite>(Courtesy Ryan Kellman)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003ch3>Technical issues still remain\u003c/h3>\n\u003cp>Pop-up gear may work well in tests, but many fishermen worry it could be a different story when hundreds of boats use it during a busy commercial fishing season.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Buoys on the surface normally mark where traps are located, so fishermen can avoid putting their traps on top of someone else’s. With pop-up gear, fishermen would need to use an app or their onboard navigation system to see where traps already are on the seafloor. And some worry there could be conflict when boats are working close together.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“It’s very, very congested,” Casoni says. “So I think the fear is it would create more problems amongst each other just fishing. It’s a very busy, dangerous operation to begin with, and we don’t need to add that.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>To prevent problems, fishing gear made by different manufacturers needs to show up on the same maps, just as cell phones from different carriers can all use the same network. NOAA plans on holding a workshop this fall to develop universal technical standards for manufacturers.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Then there’s the question how much slower it is to use pop-up gear. Dick Ogg, a crab fisherman from Bodega Bay, California, says he’s tested the gear. He points out that fishermen work with hundreds of traps during already grueling work days, and adding any extra time with new gear would be an economic hit.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“The process is very fast and it’s important to understand if we alter any of this, it has to be comparable,” Ogg says. “If I do one extra minute on my pot allocation, that’s an extra 5.8 hours a day.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_1983174\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\" style=\"max-width: 800px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-1983174\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/35/2023/06/ogg1_custom-394b757826fc16c16c2af78babed56b7be77eca0-s1300-c85-800x599.jpg\" alt=\"A fisherman with gray hair is wearing a gray sweater and sunglasses poses for a photo in front of some fishing gear.\" width=\"800\" height=\"599\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/06/ogg1_custom-394b757826fc16c16c2af78babed56b7be77eca0-s1300-c85-800x599.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/06/ogg1_custom-394b757826fc16c16c2af78babed56b7be77eca0-s1300-c85-1020x763.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/06/ogg1_custom-394b757826fc16c16c2af78babed56b7be77eca0-s1300-c85-160x120.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/06/ogg1_custom-394b757826fc16c16c2af78babed56b7be77eca0-s1300-c85-768x575.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/06/ogg1_custom-394b757826fc16c16c2af78babed56b7be77eca0-s1300-c85.jpg 1300w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 800px) 100vw, 800px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Dick Ogg, a crab fisherman from Bodega Bay, California, says he’s tested the gear, but since fishermen work with hundreds of traps during already grueling work days, adding any extra time would be an economic hit. \u003ccite>(Lauren Sommer/NPR)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>The price tag for pop-up systems can cost from hundreds to thousands of dollars per unit, which adds up for boats with hundreds of traps. To deploy the gear in a fishery equitably, boats would likely need grants or loans to defray the costs.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“If we bring in a capital-intensive model, we know our small boats don’t have that sort of operating capital,” McCarron says. “And, you know, there’s a very, very strong concern that we’re going to lose them and there won’t be a place for them.”\u003c/p>\n\u003ch3>New resources to make pop-up gear work\u003c/h3>\n\u003cp>To accelerate the process, the federal government is putting almost $68 million toward efforts to help North Atlantic right whales this year, funding that comes from the Inflation Reduction Act and the omnibus spending bill passed in December. Of that, $27 million will go to new kinds of fishing gear.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“It’s a very significant investment that we haven’t seen before to address the issues that are facing North Atlantic right whales,” says Kim Damon-Randall, director of NOAA Fisheries Office of Protected Resources. “If we can develop on-demand technology for gear in the Northeast, that technology can be applied elsewhere.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Fishermen on both coasts are able to use pop-up gear voluntarily now, and lobstermen on the East Coast aren’t facing imminent rules mandating the gear. While NOAA had developed new regulations that would close fishing grounds and limit the number of traps in the water, a last-minute Congressional effort in December \u003ca href=\"https://www.npr.org/2023/01/04/1146637583/maine-lobster-industry-wins-reprieve-but-environmentalists-say-whales-will-die\">delayed those rules for six years\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_1983175\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\" style=\"max-width: 800px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-1983175\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/35/2023/06/mg_3876-2_custom-5b88e265b16803d0d69913005aeed519cf012d80-s1300-c85-1-800x532.jpg\" alt=\"A person wearing purple gloves and an orange fishing overall carries a blue tub that is filled with large shrimp.\" width=\"800\" height=\"532\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/06/mg_3876-2_custom-5b88e265b16803d0d69913005aeed519cf012d80-s1300-c85-1-800x532.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/06/mg_3876-2_custom-5b88e265b16803d0d69913005aeed519cf012d80-s1300-c85-1-1020x679.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/06/mg_3876-2_custom-5b88e265b16803d0d69913005aeed519cf012d80-s1300-c85-1-160x106.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/06/mg_3876-2_custom-5b88e265b16803d0d69913005aeed519cf012d80-s1300-c85-1-768x511.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/06/mg_3876-2_custom-5b88e265b16803d0d69913005aeed519cf012d80-s1300-c85-1.jpg 1300w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 800px) 100vw, 800px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Federal officials say pop-up gear technology being piloted in the lobster industry could lead the way for other fisheries around the world that risk entangling whales. \u003ccite>(Courtesy Ryan Kellman)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>No matter what side of the issue, most agree that pop-up gear will take some time, both to iron out the technical issues and to work on acceptance in the fishing industry. In the Northeast, a group of manufacturers, fishermen and the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institute, known as the \u003ca href=\"https://ropeless.org/\">Ropeless Consortium\u003c/a>, is working together on improving the technology.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Everything just needs to happen faster,” Baumgartner says. “So more focus and more resources are what’s needed. Those are coming but it’s been slow in coming.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cdiv class=\"fullattribution\">Copyright 2023 NPR. To see more, visit https://www.npr.org.\u003cimg decoding=\"async\" src=\"https://www.google-analytics.com/__utm.gif?utmac=UA-5828686-4&utmdt=This+fishing+gear+can+help+save+whales.+What+will+it+take+for+fishermen+to+use+it%3F&utme=8(APIKey)9(MDAxOTAwOTE4MDEyMTkxMDAzNjczZDljZA004)\">\u003c/div>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"title": "MAP: More Than 5,000 Toxic Sites Along SF Bay Threatened by Rising Groundwater, New Study Finds",
"headTitle": "MAP: More Than 5,000 Toxic Sites Along SF Bay Threatened by Rising Groundwater, New Study Finds | KQED",
"content": "\u003cp>More than 5,200 toxic sites buried along the lip of San Francisco Bay could be impacted by rising groundwater levels over the next century, posing potentially severe risks to human and environmental health, according to a \u003ca href=\"https://news.berkeley.edu/2023/06/20/rising-groundwater-threatens-thousands-of-toxic-sites-in-the-bay-area/\">recently released study\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>That’s more than 10 times as many potentially at-risk Bay Area sites as had been identified in previous reports. A disproportionate number are located in lower-income communities of color, including in low-lying areas of San Francisco, Richmond, West Oakland and East Palo Alto.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“The higher the social vulnerability, the higher the density of contaminated sites,” said Kristina Hill, director of UC Berkeley’s Institute of Urban and Regional Development, who co-authored the study.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Unlike much lower tallies from the federal and state agencies that oversee these sites, Hill’s study includes 1,480 open sites, which are in the process of being cleaned up or have not yet been cleaned up, as well as an additional 3,817 closed sites where some level of cleanup work may have been conducted, but that may still contain residual contaminants and be vulnerable to rising groundwater.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003ci>The map below shows the more than 5,000 open (orange circle) and closed (black square) contaminated sites in the Bay Area that UC Berkeley Institute of Urban and Regional Development researchers identified as being potentially at risk of inundation by rising groundwater over the next century. Open sites include areas where cleanup has yet to begin or is still in progress. Closed sites include areas where cleanup has been completed but may still contain harmful toxins. For more information on each toxic site and the agency overseeing its cleanup, visit either of these searchable databases: \u003ca href=\"https://www.envirostor.dtsc.ca.gov/public/\">Envirostor\u003c/a> (from California’s Department of Toxics Control) or \u003ca href=\"https://geotracker.waterboards.ca.gov/\">GeoTracker\u003c/a> (from the state Water Resources Control Board).\u003c/i>\u003c/p>\n\u003cdiv style=\"width: 100%;\" align=\"center\">\n\u003c!-- iframe plugin v.4.3 wordpress.org/plugins/iframe/ -->\u003cbr>\n\u003ciframe loading=\"lazy\" width=\"1000\" height=\"750\" frameborder=\"0\" scrolling=\"no\" marginheight=\"0\" marginwidth=\"0\" title=\"Contaminated sites\" src=\"//www.arcgis.com/apps/Embed/index.html?webmap=35ac1447ecd04b8faa3429f3e8fa429e&extent=-123.928,37.114,-120.4481,38.5586&home=true&zoom=true&previewImage=false&scale=true&search=true&searchextent=true&details=true&legendlayers=true&active_panel=legend&disable_scroll=false&theme=light\" class=\"iframe-class\">\u003c/iframe>\n\u003c/div>\n\u003cdiv align=\"left\">\u003csmall>\u003ci>Map by Matthew Green/KQED\u003c/i>\u003c/small>\u003c/div>\n\u003cp> \u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Sites are contaminated with everything from radioactive materials and small underground petroleum tanks to toxic chemicals that can vaporize into pipes leading directly to homes, Hill said. Some sites date to the 19th century.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“It’s like a graveyard,” Hill said. “Everything we’ve done in the past is coming up with that groundwater to haunt us in the present.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>While \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/science/1979645/see-a-map-of-hazardous-sites-at-risk-from-rising-seas\">other studies have identified toxic sites at risk of coastal flooding\u003c/a> due to climate change, this is the first to comprehensively pinpoint areas where rising groundwater is likely to come into contact with contaminants and potentially move them toward both the bay and people’s homes. Twice as much land in the Bay Area could be affected by groundwater rise compared to coastal flooding, according to the new study, which is currently in the process of peer review (a \u003ca href=\"https://essopenarchive.org/users/621729/articles/645176-rising-coastal-groundwater-as-a-result-of-sea-level-rise-will-influence-contaminated-coastal-sites-and-underground-infrastructure\">preprint\u003c/a> and preliminary data are publicly available).\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Hill found that in nearly all Bay Area counties, the impact from rising groundwater along the bay will be more severe than from the more than three feet of sea level that could take place by mid-century. She said additional research is needed to better understand the risks those contaminants pose to human health.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In the study, Hill found that in all but one Bay Area county (Santa Clara County), the impact from rising groundwater along the bay will be more severe than that from rising seas. She said additional research is needed to better understand the risks those contaminants pose to human health.[aside label=\"More on toxic sites\" postID=\"science_1979645,science_1980255,science_1979092\"]The risk of potential contamination from groundwater rise is notably higher in California as compared to most other states because of its vast coastline and sheer number of vulnerable sites, she noted.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Hill said that rising groundwater — potentially made worse during atmospheric river storms and rising tides — is “already moving contaminants”\u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/science/1981077/state-regulators-scrutinize-climate-plan-for-controversial-richmond-housing-development\">\u003cb> toward homes and businesses from toxic sites in places like Richmond.\u003c/b>\u003c/a>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The two state agencies in charge of enforcing cleanup of the sites, Hill said, need “to flip a switch” to the default goal of removing or neutralizing contaminants.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“It’s a solvable problem. But it requires us to dig up the graves,” she said, emphasizing the need to consider rising groundwater levels in future climate adaptation plans.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“The idea is not to run away from these places,” she added. “The idea is to make them safe and healthy again.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Cleanup of toxic sites can range from digging up contaminants and trucking debris to contained locations, treating toxics directly on-site, or capping the pollutants in the ground with materials like cement to prevent them from leaking. That third option, Hill said, is likely not a good long-term solution because groundwater rise will generally circumvent barriers over time.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The new findings presented in the study are revelatory and underscore the urgency of the situation, said Todd Sax, deputy director of site mitigation and restoration with the California Department of Toxic Substances Control, or DTSC, one of the agencies tasked with holding polluters accountable for cleaning up at-risk contaminated areas.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Sax said his agency has identified about 300 particularly vulnerable toxic sites in the Bay Area and has set the goal of shoring them up to withstand 3.5 feet of sea level rise by 2050 and 6 feet by 2100. On a rolling basis, the agency is beginning to require known polluters to \u003ca href=\"https://dtsc.ca.gov/climate-change/\">assess the risks posed by sea-level and groundwater rise\u003c/a> at those sites and perform the necessary cleanups.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“The bottom line is the polluter will pay for the vulnerability assessment unless the site does not have a responsible party,” Sax said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But he noted that a site cleanup doesn’t always mean polluters will be required to remove all contamination, even after a vulnerability assessment. He said that sometimes trucking contaminants out of a community can be more harmful to human health and the bay than leaving them in the ground.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“There aren’t any magic bullets to help solve the environmental contamination problem,” he said. “The best we can do is remove or treat the contamination where we can and then to engineer robust solutions that protect public health and the environment into the future.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Meanwhile, the San Francisco Bay Regional Water Quality Control Board, which oversees cleanup operations in some 1,000 vulnerable toxic sites in the region, has only begun enforcing groundwater rise assessment in a tiny percentage of cleanup plans, said Alec Naugle, the agency’s toxics cleanup division manager.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“We have to act more quickly on the most vulnerable sites,” he said, stressing the need for more caseworkers to manage the cleanups. He said the agency recently began requiring landfill operators to account for groundwater rise.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“The public can understand that this isn’t going ignored,” he said. “It is a sort of a slow-moving train and, at the same time, we need to have eyes on it now because the remedy is going to be costly.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Naugle and Sax note that the number of toxic sites identified in this study is substantially larger than the number their agencies oversee, due largely to Hill’s inclusion of closed sites, which could pose a lower risk to public health.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Still, both agencies said they are assessing Hill’s data.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“What Dr. Hill’s study points out, is that fundamentally, there’s going to be issues with these sites into the future,” Sax said.[ad fullwidth]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad floatright]\u003c/p>\n",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003cp>More than 5,200 toxic sites buried along the lip of San Francisco Bay could be impacted by rising groundwater levels over the next century, posing potentially severe risks to human and environmental health, according to a \u003ca href=\"https://news.berkeley.edu/2023/06/20/rising-groundwater-threatens-thousands-of-toxic-sites-in-the-bay-area/\">recently released study\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>That’s more than 10 times as many potentially at-risk Bay Area sites as had been identified in previous reports. A disproportionate number are located in lower-income communities of color, including in low-lying areas of San Francisco, Richmond, West Oakland and East Palo Alto.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“The higher the social vulnerability, the higher the density of contaminated sites,” said Kristina Hill, director of UC Berkeley’s Institute of Urban and Regional Development, who co-authored the study.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Unlike much lower tallies from the federal and state agencies that oversee these sites, Hill’s study includes 1,480 open sites, which are in the process of being cleaned up or have not yet been cleaned up, as well as an additional 3,817 closed sites where some level of cleanup work may have been conducted, but that may still contain residual contaminants and be vulnerable to rising groundwater.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003ci>The map below shows the more than 5,000 open (orange circle) and closed (black square) contaminated sites in the Bay Area that UC Berkeley Institute of Urban and Regional Development researchers identified as being potentially at risk of inundation by rising groundwater over the next century. Open sites include areas where cleanup has yet to begin or is still in progress. Closed sites include areas where cleanup has been completed but may still contain harmful toxins. For more information on each toxic site and the agency overseeing its cleanup, visit either of these searchable databases: \u003ca href=\"https://www.envirostor.dtsc.ca.gov/public/\">Envirostor\u003c/a> (from California’s Department of Toxics Control) or \u003ca href=\"https://geotracker.waterboards.ca.gov/\">GeoTracker\u003c/a> (from the state Water Resources Control Board).\u003c/i>\u003c/p>\n\u003cdiv style=\"width: 100%;\" align=\"center\">\n\u003c!-- iframe plugin v.4.3 wordpress.org/plugins/iframe/ -->\u003cbr>\n\u003ciframe loading=\"lazy\" width=\"1000\" height=\"750\" frameborder=\"0\" scrolling=\"no\" marginheight=\"0\" marginwidth=\"0\" title=\"Contaminated sites\" src=\"//www.arcgis.com/apps/Embed/index.html?webmap=35ac1447ecd04b8faa3429f3e8fa429e&extent=-123.928,37.114,-120.4481,38.5586&home=true&zoom=true&previewImage=false&scale=true&search=true&searchextent=true&details=true&legendlayers=true&active_panel=legend&disable_scroll=false&theme=light\" class=\"iframe-class\">\u003c/iframe>\n\u003c/div>\n\u003cdiv align=\"left\">\u003csmall>\u003ci>Map by Matthew Green/KQED\u003c/i>\u003c/small>\u003c/div>\n\u003cp> \u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Sites are contaminated with everything from radioactive materials and small underground petroleum tanks to toxic chemicals that can vaporize into pipes leading directly to homes, Hill said. Some sites date to the 19th century.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“It’s like a graveyard,” Hill said. “Everything we’ve done in the past is coming up with that groundwater to haunt us in the present.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>While \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/science/1979645/see-a-map-of-hazardous-sites-at-risk-from-rising-seas\">other studies have identified toxic sites at risk of coastal flooding\u003c/a> due to climate change, this is the first to comprehensively pinpoint areas where rising groundwater is likely to come into contact with contaminants and potentially move them toward both the bay and people’s homes. Twice as much land in the Bay Area could be affected by groundwater rise compared to coastal flooding, according to the new study, which is currently in the process of peer review (a \u003ca href=\"https://essopenarchive.org/users/621729/articles/645176-rising-coastal-groundwater-as-a-result-of-sea-level-rise-will-influence-contaminated-coastal-sites-and-underground-infrastructure\">preprint\u003c/a> and preliminary data are publicly available).\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Hill found that in nearly all Bay Area counties, the impact from rising groundwater along the bay will be more severe than from the more than three feet of sea level that could take place by mid-century. She said additional research is needed to better understand the risks those contaminants pose to human health.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In the study, Hill found that in all but one Bay Area county (Santa Clara County), the impact from rising groundwater along the bay will be more severe than that from rising seas. She said additional research is needed to better understand the risks those contaminants pose to human health.\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>The risk of potential contamination from groundwater rise is notably higher in California as compared to most other states because of its vast coastline and sheer number of vulnerable sites, she noted.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Hill said that rising groundwater — potentially made worse during atmospheric river storms and rising tides — is “already moving contaminants”\u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/science/1981077/state-regulators-scrutinize-climate-plan-for-controversial-richmond-housing-development\">\u003cb> toward homes and businesses from toxic sites in places like Richmond.\u003c/b>\u003c/a>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The two state agencies in charge of enforcing cleanup of the sites, Hill said, need “to flip a switch” to the default goal of removing or neutralizing contaminants.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“It’s a solvable problem. But it requires us to dig up the graves,” she said, emphasizing the need to consider rising groundwater levels in future climate adaptation plans.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“The idea is not to run away from these places,” she added. “The idea is to make them safe and healthy again.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Cleanup of toxic sites can range from digging up contaminants and trucking debris to contained locations, treating toxics directly on-site, or capping the pollutants in the ground with materials like cement to prevent them from leaking. That third option, Hill said, is likely not a good long-term solution because groundwater rise will generally circumvent barriers over time.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The new findings presented in the study are revelatory and underscore the urgency of the situation, said Todd Sax, deputy director of site mitigation and restoration with the California Department of Toxic Substances Control, or DTSC, one of the agencies tasked with holding polluters accountable for cleaning up at-risk contaminated areas.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Sax said his agency has identified about 300 particularly vulnerable toxic sites in the Bay Area and has set the goal of shoring them up to withstand 3.5 feet of sea level rise by 2050 and 6 feet by 2100. On a rolling basis, the agency is beginning to require known polluters to \u003ca href=\"https://dtsc.ca.gov/climate-change/\">assess the risks posed by sea-level and groundwater rise\u003c/a> at those sites and perform the necessary cleanups.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“The bottom line is the polluter will pay for the vulnerability assessment unless the site does not have a responsible party,” Sax said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But he noted that a site cleanup doesn’t always mean polluters will be required to remove all contamination, even after a vulnerability assessment. He said that sometimes trucking contaminants out of a community can be more harmful to human health and the bay than leaving them in the ground.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“There aren’t any magic bullets to help solve the environmental contamination problem,” he said. “The best we can do is remove or treat the contamination where we can and then to engineer robust solutions that protect public health and the environment into the future.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Meanwhile, the San Francisco Bay Regional Water Quality Control Board, which oversees cleanup operations in some 1,000 vulnerable toxic sites in the region, has only begun enforcing groundwater rise assessment in a tiny percentage of cleanup plans, said Alec Naugle, the agency’s toxics cleanup division manager.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“We have to act more quickly on the most vulnerable sites,” he said, stressing the need for more caseworkers to manage the cleanups. He said the agency recently began requiring landfill operators to account for groundwater rise.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“The public can understand that this isn’t going ignored,” he said. “It is a sort of a slow-moving train and, at the same time, we need to have eyes on it now because the remedy is going to be costly.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Naugle and Sax note that the number of toxic sites identified in this study is substantially larger than the number their agencies oversee, due largely to Hill’s inclusion of closed sites, which could pose a lower risk to public health.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Still, both agencies said they are assessing Hill’s data.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“What Dr. Hill’s study points out, is that fundamentally, there’s going to be issues with these sites into the future,” Sax said.\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"title": "California Lawmakers Wage Delta Water War With Newsom",
"headTitle": "California Lawmakers Wage Delta Water War With Newsom | KQED",
"content": "\u003cp>Amping up their concerns as a deadline looms, key California legislators today escalated their pushback on Gov. Gavin Newsom’s efforts to streamline the Delta water tunnel and other infrastructure projects.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The stalemate could become a critical lever while lawmakers haggle with Newsom over the 2023–2024 budget leading up to his \u003ca href=\"https://calmatters.org/explainers/california-budget-2023/\">June 27 deadline for approving the spending plan\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>A bipartisan group of \u003ca href=\"https://twitter.com/AsmVillapudua/status/1671286825888129027?s=20\">10 lawmakers from the Assembly and the Senate signed on to a letter today\u003c/a> urging Newsom and legislative leaders to stall Newsom’s package of infrastructure bills “for as long as \u003ca href=\"https://calmatters.org/environment/2022/06/california-water-delta-tunnel/\">the Delta Conveyance Project\u003c/a> remains a part of the proposal.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The legislators said Newsom’s proposals — which would overhaul permitting and litigation for expansive projects like the controversial tunnel plan to replumb the Delta and send more water south — could cause environmental harm.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Rather than taking up a few blocks like a stadium, the tunnel would span multiple counties and impose water and air quality concerns throughout the region. If the project is litigated under (the California Environmental Quality Act), the process should not be rushed,” said the letter, spearheaded by Assemblymember \u003ca href=\"https://a13.asmdc.org/\">Carlos Villapudua\u003c/a>, a Democrat from Stockton and a member of the Delta Caucus.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad fullwidth]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In mid-May, Newsom unveiled an executive order and package of wide-ranging proposals to streamline state approval of major infrastructure projects, \u003ca href=\"https://www.gov.ca.gov/2023/05/19/governor-newsom-unveils-new-proposals-to-build-californias-clean-future-faster/\">such as bridges, reservoirs, semiconductor plants and the Delta tunnel\u003c/a>. Some of his proposals aim to keep transportation, energy and water projects from stalling under legal challenges related to the \u003ca href=\"https://calmatters.org/environment/2023/05/gavin-newsom-ceqa-reform/\">California Environmental Quality Act\u003c/a> and make the state more appealing for federal funding.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The fight pits Newsom against lawmakers who say they feel “jammed” by Newsom’s use of the budget process to fast-track the bills. Environmental groups and salmon fishermen are squaring off against building and labor groups. And Delta counties are once again waging \u003ca href=\"https://calmatters.org/environment/2022/06/california-water-delta-tunnel/\">a decades-long battle against a massive water project\u003c/a> that would reshape their region.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The Newsom administration says the changes are urgent because California needs to more rapidly build water and energy projects to prepare for climate change.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“The proposals that the governor brings forward we don’t bring forward lightly into the budget process, but because we have to take action now,” California Natural Resources Secretary Wade Crowfoot said at a joint hearing of the Assembly Judiciary and Natural Resources committees in early June. “We need to be in a dead sprint implementing what we call our water supply strategy for a hotter, drier future.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Newsom’s Deputy Communications Director Alex Stack said the package “ensures California would still have the same nation-leading environmental protections while also cutting unnecessary red tape that has stalled key climate projects for years.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The final budget is not contingent on Newsom’s infrastructure proposals, and they could be enacted after it’s signed. But experts suspect they will be used as a political lever while negotiations hashing out the budget continue through the end of this month.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Introduced as budget trailer bills less than a month before the \u003ca href=\"https://calmatters.org/explainers/california-budget-2023/\">Legislature’s June 15 budget deadline\u003c/a>, Newsom’s proposals bypass the typical legislative policy committee lineup and give lawmakers and the public less opportunity for deliberation or amendments.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“It feels disrespectful to the process, to all the work that we’ve done … to have something come at this late date and want to be rushed through that has had such an impact on my district, and the state and the 4 million people who reside in that area,” Sen. Susan Talamantes Eggman, a Democrat from Stockton, said in a committee hearing this month.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Assembly consultants warned in a report that this approach “significantly limits transparency and public input” and “increases the potential for creating unintended consequences.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“They (Newsom officials) want to rewrite more than a century of California law in a backroom deal,” Doug Obegi, a senior attorney at the Natural Resources Defense Council, told CalMatters.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[pullquote size='medium' align='right' citation='Alex Stack, deputy communications director for Gov. Newsom']‘California would still have the same nation-leading environmental protections while also cutting unnecessary red tape that has stalled key climate projects for years.’[/pullquote]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>During informational hearings held in early June, lawmakers noted that this is not the first time that the Newsom administration has \u003ca href=\"https://calmatters.org/environment/2022/06/energy-deal-budget-talks/\">brought policy proposals into the budget process\u003c/a>. “It is starting to feel like we are being jammed by design,” Sen. Monique Limón, a Democrat from Santa Barbara, said at the Senate Natural Resources and Water hearing.\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>‘Overly onerous’ regulations or ‘railroading’ projects in?\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>Water providers, business interests and several labor unions have voiced support for Newsom’s policy package.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Major infrastructure projects are too often bogged down in overly onerous regulatory processes and a siloed approach to permitting approvals, which increases overall costs and delays critical projects,” the Association of California Water Agencies, Mojave Water Agency, and the Almond Alliance all wrote in individual letters.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Much of the opposition stressed the impact on the tunnel project, including a coalition of the five counties ringing the Delta — Sacramento, Solano, San Joaquin, Contra Costa and Yolo.[pullquote size='medium' align='right' citation='Doug Obegi, senior attorney, Natural Resources Defense Council']‘They want to rewrite more than a century of California law in a backroom deal.’[/pullquote]“The Legislature is being asked to railroad over the objections of 4 million people and the 25 county supervisors that represent them and are trying to protect their homes and communities,” said Karen Lange on behalf of the Delta Counties Coalition at an informational hearing of the Assembly Committee on Water, Parks and Wildlife. “In the case of the tunnel, every county and city that is affected by it opposes it.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Stockton community organizations, salmon fishers and environmental groups said Newsom’s plan would remove guardrails and hamper litigation against the Delta tunnel and other projects.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>One Newsom proposal, for instance, would exclude \u003ca href=\"https://esd.dof.ca.gov/trailer-bill/public/trailerBill/pdf/954\">certain internal communications (PDF)\u003c/a> such as emails from the administrative record prepared for litigation if they didn’t ultimately reach the final decision-making body.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Assembly \u003ca href=\"https://antr.assembly.ca.gov/sites/antr.assembly.ca.gov/files/June%207%2C%202022%20Info%20Hearing%20Documents.pdf\">analysts warned that this “allows the agency to pick and choose what documents to include in the record” (PDF)\u003c/a>. Though these records could be available under a separate California Public Records Act request, this too can lead to lawsuits and delays and “could prove very costly to public agencies.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In today’s letter, legislators criticized parts of the package that would set a time limit for lawsuits challenging the tunnel and other projects and reduce protections against killing certain wildlife species, such as sandhill cranes that winter in the Delta.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Crowfoot told CalMatters that the proposals were not developed specifically to push through the tunnel project.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“I haven’t been part of any internal conversation on fully protected species and our need to modernize it that discuss the Sandhill crane or its relationship to the project,” he said. “The intent is not to short circuit any environmental review or public input, but it is to ultimately get to an answer around whether this project can be supported and move forward.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003ca href=\"https://calmatters.org/environment/2022/06/california-water-delta-tunnel/\">Decades in the making yet still decades from completion\u003c/a>, the proposed tunnel has been called both a water grab and a critical update to water supplies for 27 million people, mostly in Southern California, and 750,000 acres of farmland. State officials say it would protect a vital water artery from earthquakes, sea level rise and extreme swings from wet to dry, while local communities and environmental groups say it would upend the way of life and sensitive ecosystems of the Delta.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The estimated price tag, last updated in 2020, is around $16 billion, which would eventually be paid back by water agencies receiving its supplies. Last year, \u003ca href=\"https://calmatters.org/environment/2022/07/delta-tunnel-water-report/\">a draft state environmental report\u003c/a> warned that the tunnel project would harm endangered and threatened species, convert 2,300 acres of farmland, and disrupt cultural and historic sites.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad floatright]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Asked why the administration included such a fiercely contested issue in the infrastructure package as part of the budget process, Crowfoot said in an interview, “We simply can’t kick the can down the road on this question because it generates disagreements and controversy.”\u003c/p>\n\n",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003cp>Amping up their concerns as a deadline looms, key California legislators today escalated their pushback on Gov. Gavin Newsom’s efforts to streamline the Delta water tunnel and other infrastructure projects.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The stalemate could become a critical lever while lawmakers haggle with Newsom over the 2023–2024 budget leading up to his \u003ca href=\"https://calmatters.org/explainers/california-budget-2023/\">June 27 deadline for approving the spending plan\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>A bipartisan group of \u003ca href=\"https://twitter.com/AsmVillapudua/status/1671286825888129027?s=20\">10 lawmakers from the Assembly and the Senate signed on to a letter today\u003c/a> urging Newsom and legislative leaders to stall Newsom’s package of infrastructure bills “for as long as \u003ca href=\"https://calmatters.org/environment/2022/06/california-water-delta-tunnel/\">the Delta Conveyance Project\u003c/a> remains a part of the proposal.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The legislators said Newsom’s proposals — which would overhaul permitting and litigation for expansive projects like the controversial tunnel plan to replumb the Delta and send more water south — could cause environmental harm.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Rather than taking up a few blocks like a stadium, the tunnel would span multiple counties and impose water and air quality concerns throughout the region. If the project is litigated under (the California Environmental Quality Act), the process should not be rushed,” said the letter, spearheaded by Assemblymember \u003ca href=\"https://a13.asmdc.org/\">Carlos Villapudua\u003c/a>, a Democrat from Stockton and a member of the Delta Caucus.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In mid-May, Newsom unveiled an executive order and package of wide-ranging proposals to streamline state approval of major infrastructure projects, \u003ca href=\"https://www.gov.ca.gov/2023/05/19/governor-newsom-unveils-new-proposals-to-build-californias-clean-future-faster/\">such as bridges, reservoirs, semiconductor plants and the Delta tunnel\u003c/a>. Some of his proposals aim to keep transportation, energy and water projects from stalling under legal challenges related to the \u003ca href=\"https://calmatters.org/environment/2023/05/gavin-newsom-ceqa-reform/\">California Environmental Quality Act\u003c/a> and make the state more appealing for federal funding.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The fight pits Newsom against lawmakers who say they feel “jammed” by Newsom’s use of the budget process to fast-track the bills. Environmental groups and salmon fishermen are squaring off against building and labor groups. And Delta counties are once again waging \u003ca href=\"https://calmatters.org/environment/2022/06/california-water-delta-tunnel/\">a decades-long battle against a massive water project\u003c/a> that would reshape their region.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The Newsom administration says the changes are urgent because California needs to more rapidly build water and energy projects to prepare for climate change.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“The proposals that the governor brings forward we don’t bring forward lightly into the budget process, but because we have to take action now,” California Natural Resources Secretary Wade Crowfoot said at a joint hearing of the Assembly Judiciary and Natural Resources committees in early June. “We need to be in a dead sprint implementing what we call our water supply strategy for a hotter, drier future.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Newsom’s Deputy Communications Director Alex Stack said the package “ensures California would still have the same nation-leading environmental protections while also cutting unnecessary red tape that has stalled key climate projects for years.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The final budget is not contingent on Newsom’s infrastructure proposals, and they could be enacted after it’s signed. But experts suspect they will be used as a political lever while negotiations hashing out the budget continue through the end of this month.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Introduced as budget trailer bills less than a month before the \u003ca href=\"https://calmatters.org/explainers/california-budget-2023/\">Legislature’s June 15 budget deadline\u003c/a>, Newsom’s proposals bypass the typical legislative policy committee lineup and give lawmakers and the public less opportunity for deliberation or amendments.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“It feels disrespectful to the process, to all the work that we’ve done … to have something come at this late date and want to be rushed through that has had such an impact on my district, and the state and the 4 million people who reside in that area,” Sen. Susan Talamantes Eggman, a Democrat from Stockton, said in a committee hearing this month.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Assembly consultants warned in a report that this approach “significantly limits transparency and public input” and “increases the potential for creating unintended consequences.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“They (Newsom officials) want to rewrite more than a century of California law in a backroom deal,” Doug Obegi, a senior attorney at the Natural Resources Defense Council, told CalMatters.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>During informational hearings held in early June, lawmakers noted that this is not the first time that the Newsom administration has \u003ca href=\"https://calmatters.org/environment/2022/06/energy-deal-budget-talks/\">brought policy proposals into the budget process\u003c/a>. “It is starting to feel like we are being jammed by design,” Sen. Monique Limón, a Democrat from Santa Barbara, said at the Senate Natural Resources and Water hearing.\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>‘Overly onerous’ regulations or ‘railroading’ projects in?\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>Water providers, business interests and several labor unions have voiced support for Newsom’s policy package.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Major infrastructure projects are too often bogged down in overly onerous regulatory processes and a siloed approach to permitting approvals, which increases overall costs and delays critical projects,” the Association of California Water Agencies, Mojave Water Agency, and the Almond Alliance all wrote in individual letters.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Much of the opposition stressed the impact on the tunnel project, including a coalition of the five counties ringing the Delta — Sacramento, Solano, San Joaquin, Contra Costa and Yolo.\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>“The Legislature is being asked to railroad over the objections of 4 million people and the 25 county supervisors that represent them and are trying to protect their homes and communities,” said Karen Lange on behalf of the Delta Counties Coalition at an informational hearing of the Assembly Committee on Water, Parks and Wildlife. “In the case of the tunnel, every county and city that is affected by it opposes it.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Stockton community organizations, salmon fishers and environmental groups said Newsom’s plan would remove guardrails and hamper litigation against the Delta tunnel and other projects.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>One Newsom proposal, for instance, would exclude \u003ca href=\"https://esd.dof.ca.gov/trailer-bill/public/trailerBill/pdf/954\">certain internal communications (PDF)\u003c/a> such as emails from the administrative record prepared for litigation if they didn’t ultimately reach the final decision-making body.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Assembly \u003ca href=\"https://antr.assembly.ca.gov/sites/antr.assembly.ca.gov/files/June%207%2C%202022%20Info%20Hearing%20Documents.pdf\">analysts warned that this “allows the agency to pick and choose what documents to include in the record” (PDF)\u003c/a>. Though these records could be available under a separate California Public Records Act request, this too can lead to lawsuits and delays and “could prove very costly to public agencies.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In today’s letter, legislators criticized parts of the package that would set a time limit for lawsuits challenging the tunnel and other projects and reduce protections against killing certain wildlife species, such as sandhill cranes that winter in the Delta.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Crowfoot told CalMatters that the proposals were not developed specifically to push through the tunnel project.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“I haven’t been part of any internal conversation on fully protected species and our need to modernize it that discuss the Sandhill crane or its relationship to the project,” he said. “The intent is not to short circuit any environmental review or public input, but it is to ultimately get to an answer around whether this project can be supported and move forward.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003ca href=\"https://calmatters.org/environment/2022/06/california-water-delta-tunnel/\">Decades in the making yet still decades from completion\u003c/a>, the proposed tunnel has been called both a water grab and a critical update to water supplies for 27 million people, mostly in Southern California, and 750,000 acres of farmland. State officials say it would protect a vital water artery from earthquakes, sea level rise and extreme swings from wet to dry, while local communities and environmental groups say it would upend the way of life and sensitive ecosystems of the Delta.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The estimated price tag, last updated in 2020, is around $16 billion, which would eventually be paid back by water agencies receiving its supplies. Last year, \u003ca href=\"https://calmatters.org/environment/2022/07/delta-tunnel-water-report/\">a draft state environmental report\u003c/a> warned that the tunnel project would harm endangered and threatened species, convert 2,300 acres of farmland, and disrupt cultural and historic sites.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cp>The smoke from wildfires that bathed the Eastern Seaboard in recent days prompted officials to issue air quality alerts and refocused wide attention on the issue of fire pollution.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>It’s also the urgent backdrop to \u003ca href=\"https://www.padilla.senate.gov/wp-content/uploads/Letter-to-EPA-re_-PM2.5-Rule-Limiting-Prescribed-Fire-Opportunities1.pdf\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">a letter congressional leaders from California\u003c/a> sent to the Environmental Protection Agency on Tuesday, pressing regulators to amend their update of the Clean Air Act.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>While specifying their support for cleaner standards, the members of Congress want the implementation of the EPA’s new rule to support, rather than hinder, the use of prescribed burns.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“A lot of our colleagues from other parts of the country [are] finally getting an appreciation for a very real challenge that we’ve had in California for many years,” said Sen. Alex Padilla in an interview with KQED.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>He led the effort to draft the letter and is one of 25 leaders to co-sign, along with Sen. Dianne Feinstein, Rep. Katie Porter, Rep. Adam Schiff and Rep. Zoe Lofgren.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad fullwidth]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>They expressed concern that a new rule intended to improve air quality — tightening standards on a class of pollutants that include soot and smoke — could have the opposite intended effect by making it harder to conduct prescribed burns, setting the stage for the types of big fires currently raging out of control in Canada.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“We ask for your continued focus on developing a solution that both safeguards clean air and prevents the consistent cycle of devastating wildfires that also undermines our efforts to make progress on clean air,” the letter says. It also urges officials to collaborate with air districts, land managers and fire practitioners.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“The problem is, if you don’t do these controlled burns, you’re going to have more catastrophic fires that blast way past anyone’s air quality standards. And that has become a chronic problem in Northern California year after year,” said North Bay Congressmember Jared Huffman, who co-signed the letter.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>While controlled burns do produce smoke, it’s more manageable and less toxic than wildfire smoke. And, crucially, prescribed fires help inoculate areas against disastrous fires — the kind that produce debilitating\u003cstrong> \u003c/strong>smoke for weeks on end.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“If regulators are not allowing us to use the most powerful tool we have to prevent those kind of massive air quality violations, then we need to urge them to do better. That’s what this letter is all about,” Huffman said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Increasing the pace and scale of prescribed fire is a cornerstone of plans from both the state of California and the U.S. Forest Service for addressing the wildfire crisis.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But the EPA’s proposed rule might hinder that approach by requiring air districts to meet newly strengthened standards for smoke and soot. Air districts, in turn, might err on the side of not approving planned burns to safeguard their compliance with air quality standards. (Consequences can be severe for air districts that are out of compliance. The EPA may take over air permitting and impose a ban on new federal highway funds.) \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/science/1982166\">The fire science community in California has said this is wrongheaded\u003c/a> and risks ultimately leading to smokier days in this state and beyond.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“By treating prescribed fire smoke similarly to industrial pollution sources, the draft EPA rule would significantly curb the use of beneficial fire,” wrote Matt Weiner of the nonprofit Megafire Action in an email; Megafire Action gave input on the letter. “This letter shows that the issue has gone from relatively obscure to top of mind, even among those who are fiercely supportive of EPA lowering the PM 2.5 threshold.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>PM 2.5 is a class of pollutants defined by their size: 2.5 microns in length or smaller (about 3% of a hair’s width). Their small size allows them to get deep into the lungs and even pass into the bloodstream.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The EPA has not said when it will publish their final rule. According to reports, they are in discussions with the U.S. Forest Service and other agencies about this issue.\u003c/p>\n\n",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003cp>The smoke from wildfires that bathed the Eastern Seaboard in recent days prompted officials to issue air quality alerts and refocused wide attention on the issue of fire pollution.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>It’s also the urgent backdrop to \u003ca href=\"https://www.padilla.senate.gov/wp-content/uploads/Letter-to-EPA-re_-PM2.5-Rule-Limiting-Prescribed-Fire-Opportunities1.pdf\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">a letter congressional leaders from California\u003c/a> sent to the Environmental Protection Agency on Tuesday, pressing regulators to amend their update of the Clean Air Act.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>While specifying their support for cleaner standards, the members of Congress want the implementation of the EPA’s new rule to support, rather than hinder, the use of prescribed burns.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“A lot of our colleagues from other parts of the country [are] finally getting an appreciation for a very real challenge that we’ve had in California for many years,” said Sen. Alex Padilla in an interview with KQED.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>He led the effort to draft the letter and is one of 25 leaders to co-sign, along with Sen. Dianne Feinstein, Rep. Katie Porter, Rep. Adam Schiff and Rep. Zoe Lofgren.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>They expressed concern that a new rule intended to improve air quality — tightening standards on a class of pollutants that include soot and smoke — could have the opposite intended effect by making it harder to conduct prescribed burns, setting the stage for the types of big fires currently raging out of control in Canada.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“We ask for your continued focus on developing a solution that both safeguards clean air and prevents the consistent cycle of devastating wildfires that also undermines our efforts to make progress on clean air,” the letter says. It also urges officials to collaborate with air districts, land managers and fire practitioners.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“The problem is, if you don’t do these controlled burns, you’re going to have more catastrophic fires that blast way past anyone’s air quality standards. And that has become a chronic problem in Northern California year after year,” said North Bay Congressmember Jared Huffman, who co-signed the letter.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>While controlled burns do produce smoke, it’s more manageable and less toxic than wildfire smoke. And, crucially, prescribed fires help inoculate areas against disastrous fires — the kind that produce debilitating\u003cstrong> \u003c/strong>smoke for weeks on end.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“If regulators are not allowing us to use the most powerful tool we have to prevent those kind of massive air quality violations, then we need to urge them to do better. That’s what this letter is all about,” Huffman said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Increasing the pace and scale of prescribed fire is a cornerstone of plans from both the state of California and the U.S. Forest Service for addressing the wildfire crisis.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But the EPA’s proposed rule might hinder that approach by requiring air districts to meet newly strengthened standards for smoke and soot. Air districts, in turn, might err on the side of not approving planned burns to safeguard their compliance with air quality standards. (Consequences can be severe for air districts that are out of compliance. The EPA may take over air permitting and impose a ban on new federal highway funds.) \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/science/1982166\">The fire science community in California has said this is wrongheaded\u003c/a> and risks ultimately leading to smokier days in this state and beyond.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“By treating prescribed fire smoke similarly to industrial pollution sources, the draft EPA rule would significantly curb the use of beneficial fire,” wrote Matt Weiner of the nonprofit Megafire Action in an email; Megafire Action gave input on the letter. “This letter shows that the issue has gone from relatively obscure to top of mind, even among those who are fiercely supportive of EPA lowering the PM 2.5 threshold.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>PM 2.5 is a class of pollutants defined by their size: 2.5 microns in length or smaller (about 3% of a hair’s width). Their small size allows them to get deep into the lungs and even pass into the bloodstream.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The EPA has not said when it will publish their final rule. According to reports, they are in discussions with the U.S. Forest Service and other agencies about this issue.\u003c/p>\n\n\u003c/div>\u003c/p>",
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"title": "3 Lessons From the Western US for Dealing With Wildfire Smoke",
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"content": "\u003cp>When New York City’s skyline turned an eerie orange color with smoke from widespread wildfires in Canada, it was an all-too-familiar sight for residents of the Western U.S. In recent years, \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/search?q=wildfires&site=all\">record-setting wildfires\u003c/a> have darkened the sky for weeks at a time with unhealthy air, upending life for Westerners.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Hazardous wildfire smoke is becoming an \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/11890211/dangerous%E2%80%91air%E2%80%91as%E2%80%91california%E2%80%91burns%E2%80%91america%E2%80%91breathes%E2%80%91toxic%E2%80%91smoke.\">increasing problem around the country\u003c/a>, as NPR’s California Newsroom has \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/11890211/dangerous%E2%80%91air%E2%80%91as%E2%80%91california%E2%80%91burns%E2%80%91america%E2%80%91breathes%E2%80%91toxic%E2%80%91smoke.\">reported\u003c/a>. The risk is only expected to rise, as a hotter climate helps create bigger and more severe fires that can take months to contain.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The tiny particles in smoke can go deep in the lungs, increasing the risk of asthma, heart attack and stroke. One scientific study found wildfire smoke is \u003ca href=\"https://www.npr.org/sections/health-shots/2021/03/05/973848360/study-finds-wildfire-smoke-more-harmful-to-humans-than-pollution-from-cars\">even more dangerous\u003c/a> than pollution from cars and trucks.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Across the West, schools districts, businesses and families have had to grapple with how to live with smoke. Here’s what they’ve learned.\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>1. Everyone needs to protect themselves, even when they’re indoors\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>When wildfires raged in California in the summer of 2020, the air was choked with smoke for weeks. Many residents tracked the air quality in real-time on \u003ca href=\"https://www2.purpleair.com/\">Purple Air\u003c/a>, a crowd-sourced network of sensors that shows pollution readings across a city.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad fullwidth]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>On those same maps, pollution also spiked inside people’s homes.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Some households had installed sensors indoors to track air quality levels. Researchers at the University of California Berkeley studied the data from 1,400 sensors in San Francisco and Los Angeles and found that \u003ca href=\"https://www.npr.org/2021/09/07/1034895514/sheltering-inside-may-not-protect-you-from-the-dangers-of-wildfire-smoke\">even indoors, air pollution tripled during the fires\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The lesson: just going inside isn’t enough. Invisible particles in smoke, known as particulate matter or PM 2.5, can seep in through doors and cracks in windows. In older homes and substandard housing, the infiltration can be even worse.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Still, researchers found the households that took action fared much better. Those that closed their windows, had air purifiers or ran central air conditioners had lower levels of indoor pollution.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The Covid-19 pandemic has made portable indoor air purifiers a much more common item, but when smoke fills the skies, it can be tough to find one in a store. So, plans to build more affordable DIY air purifiers have proliferated online where \u003ca href=\"https://aghealth.ucdavis.edu/news/corsi-rosenthal-box-diy-box-fan-air-filter-covid-19-and-wildfire-smoke\">all someone needs is a box fan, some air filters and duct tape\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>2. Create a plan for what to do with kids\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>A haze of gray smoke in the sky usually means one thing for families: a scramble for childcare.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003ca href=\"https://www.npr.org/live-updates/air-quality-wildfires-canada-smoke#new-york-city-schools-canceled-all-outdoor-activities-for-the-day\">Many schools close\u003c/a> when air quality reaches hazardous levels, but policies can be patchwork and haphazard. While an elementary school might close for the day, nearby preschools or aftercare programs might remain open.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>For school administrators, the decision can be fraught. Many working parents have no other options for where to send their kids. And knowing when to keep kids indoors can be tough for families, based on the official \u003ca href=\"https://www.airnow.gov/aqi/aqi-basics/\">air quality index\u003c/a> or AQI. While children are considered a “sensitive” group, there’s not much guidance about whether a \u003ca href=\"https://www.airnow.gov/aqi/aqi-basics/\">yellow or orange air alert\u003c/a> is enough to keep kids under lockdown.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Children are \u003ca href=\"http://childrenscolorado.org/conditions-and-advice/parenting/parenting-articles/wildfire-smoke/\">particularly vulnerable to the effects of wildfire smoke\u003c/a>. They’re more active, have developing lungs and take in more air than adults do relative to their body size. The decision to close school is up to each local district, but just a few years ago, there weren’t many health resources to inform those decisions.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>As wildfire smoke became more severe in California, state officials released an index with more specific \u003ca href=\"https://www.cde.ca.gov/ls/ep/documents/airqualityguidance.pdf\">advice for schools about activities (PDF)\u003c/a>, like what to do about P.E., recess and sports events. (In the state’s version, it doesn’t mention exact air quality index numbers, though many school districts have consulted local air quality officials and created guidelines, \u003ca href=\"https://www.shastacounty.gov/sites/default/files/fileattachments/air_quality/page/2400/aq-levels-guidelines.pdf\">like this version (PDF)\u003c/a> from Shasta County Office of Education.)\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Creating smoke response plans ahead of time, with community input, is key for schools, according to Eric Wittmershaus, director of communications for the Sonoma County Office of Education. On the West Coast, “smoke days” are becoming the new “snow days.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“One of the things we tell school officials to balance is whether the students will be safer and healthier if they’re in their school building, which may have a better HVAC system than what the students have at home,” Wittmershaus says. “It’s going to be a fact of life we struggle with.”\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>3. The most vulnerable communities of people need direct help\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>Some of those most susceptible to the health impacts of wildfire smoke are the least able to protect themselves. Recent episodes of smoke on the West Coast have revealed how some populations are falling through the cracks.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Many people don’t realize they need to protect themselves from smoke, unlike other extreme weather events. The elderly or those with health problems might struggle to get the tools and solutions to filter the air at home. Those who lack housing have no way to escape being exposed.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“We see individuals with access to fewer resources, who may live in substandard housing, who may desire to reduce their exposure but who are unable to do so,” says Gabrielle Wong-Parodi, assistant professor in the department of earth system science at Stanford University, who has studied how communities responded to smoke in California.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Overall, \u003ca href=\"https://earth.stanford.edu/news/how-do-people-respond-wildfire-smoke\">not many people are checking the air quality index\u003c/a> on a regular basis and changing their behavior, her research found. Instead, seeing how other people react to smoke is the bigger motivator.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The lesson: make sure the message is coming from those in the local community, like community groups, senior centers or faith groups. Providing masks, air filters and resources to groups on the ground can help ensure it reaches those who need it most.\u003c/p>\n\u003cdiv class=\"fullattribution\">Copyright 2023 NPR. To see more, visit https://www.npr.org.\u003cimg decoding=\"async\" src=\"https://www.google-analytics.com/__utm.gif?utmac=UA-5828686-4&utmdt=3+lessons+from+the+Western+U.S.+for+dealing+with+wildfire+smoke+&utme=8(APIKey)9(MDAxOTAwOTE4MDEyMTkxMDAzNjczZDljZA004)\">\u003c/div>\n\n",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003cp>When New York City’s skyline turned an eerie orange color with smoke from widespread wildfires in Canada, it was an all-too-familiar sight for residents of the Western U.S. In recent years, \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/search?q=wildfires&site=all\">record-setting wildfires\u003c/a> have darkened the sky for weeks at a time with unhealthy air, upending life for Westerners.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Hazardous wildfire smoke is becoming an \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/11890211/dangerous%E2%80%91air%E2%80%91as%E2%80%91california%E2%80%91burns%E2%80%91america%E2%80%91breathes%E2%80%91toxic%E2%80%91smoke.\">increasing problem around the country\u003c/a>, as NPR’s California Newsroom has \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/11890211/dangerous%E2%80%91air%E2%80%91as%E2%80%91california%E2%80%91burns%E2%80%91america%E2%80%91breathes%E2%80%91toxic%E2%80%91smoke.\">reported\u003c/a>. The risk is only expected to rise, as a hotter climate helps create bigger and more severe fires that can take months to contain.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The tiny particles in smoke can go deep in the lungs, increasing the risk of asthma, heart attack and stroke. One scientific study found wildfire smoke is \u003ca href=\"https://www.npr.org/sections/health-shots/2021/03/05/973848360/study-finds-wildfire-smoke-more-harmful-to-humans-than-pollution-from-cars\">even more dangerous\u003c/a> than pollution from cars and trucks.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Across the West, schools districts, businesses and families have had to grapple with how to live with smoke. Here’s what they’ve learned.\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>1. Everyone needs to protect themselves, even when they’re indoors\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>When wildfires raged in California in the summer of 2020, the air was choked with smoke for weeks. Many residents tracked the air quality in real-time on \u003ca href=\"https://www2.purpleair.com/\">Purple Air\u003c/a>, a crowd-sourced network of sensors that shows pollution readings across a city.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>On those same maps, pollution also spiked inside people’s homes.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Some households had installed sensors indoors to track air quality levels. Researchers at the University of California Berkeley studied the data from 1,400 sensors in San Francisco and Los Angeles and found that \u003ca href=\"https://www.npr.org/2021/09/07/1034895514/sheltering-inside-may-not-protect-you-from-the-dangers-of-wildfire-smoke\">even indoors, air pollution tripled during the fires\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The lesson: just going inside isn’t enough. Invisible particles in smoke, known as particulate matter or PM 2.5, can seep in through doors and cracks in windows. In older homes and substandard housing, the infiltration can be even worse.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Still, researchers found the households that took action fared much better. Those that closed their windows, had air purifiers or ran central air conditioners had lower levels of indoor pollution.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The Covid-19 pandemic has made portable indoor air purifiers a much more common item, but when smoke fills the skies, it can be tough to find one in a store. So, plans to build more affordable DIY air purifiers have proliferated online where \u003ca href=\"https://aghealth.ucdavis.edu/news/corsi-rosenthal-box-diy-box-fan-air-filter-covid-19-and-wildfire-smoke\">all someone needs is a box fan, some air filters and duct tape\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>2. Create a plan for what to do with kids\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>A haze of gray smoke in the sky usually means one thing for families: a scramble for childcare.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003ca href=\"https://www.npr.org/live-updates/air-quality-wildfires-canada-smoke#new-york-city-schools-canceled-all-outdoor-activities-for-the-day\">Many schools close\u003c/a> when air quality reaches hazardous levels, but policies can be patchwork and haphazard. While an elementary school might close for the day, nearby preschools or aftercare programs might remain open.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>For school administrators, the decision can be fraught. Many working parents have no other options for where to send their kids. And knowing when to keep kids indoors can be tough for families, based on the official \u003ca href=\"https://www.airnow.gov/aqi/aqi-basics/\">air quality index\u003c/a> or AQI. While children are considered a “sensitive” group, there’s not much guidance about whether a \u003ca href=\"https://www.airnow.gov/aqi/aqi-basics/\">yellow or orange air alert\u003c/a> is enough to keep kids under lockdown.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Children are \u003ca href=\"http://childrenscolorado.org/conditions-and-advice/parenting/parenting-articles/wildfire-smoke/\">particularly vulnerable to the effects of wildfire smoke\u003c/a>. They’re more active, have developing lungs and take in more air than adults do relative to their body size. The decision to close school is up to each local district, but just a few years ago, there weren’t many health resources to inform those decisions.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>As wildfire smoke became more severe in California, state officials released an index with more specific \u003ca href=\"https://www.cde.ca.gov/ls/ep/documents/airqualityguidance.pdf\">advice for schools about activities (PDF)\u003c/a>, like what to do about P.E., recess and sports events. (In the state’s version, it doesn’t mention exact air quality index numbers, though many school districts have consulted local air quality officials and created guidelines, \u003ca href=\"https://www.shastacounty.gov/sites/default/files/fileattachments/air_quality/page/2400/aq-levels-guidelines.pdf\">like this version (PDF)\u003c/a> from Shasta County Office of Education.)\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Creating smoke response plans ahead of time, with community input, is key for schools, according to Eric Wittmershaus, director of communications for the Sonoma County Office of Education. On the West Coast, “smoke days” are becoming the new “snow days.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“One of the things we tell school officials to balance is whether the students will be safer and healthier if they’re in their school building, which may have a better HVAC system than what the students have at home,” Wittmershaus says. “It’s going to be a fact of life we struggle with.”\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>3. The most vulnerable communities of people need direct help\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>Some of those most susceptible to the health impacts of wildfire smoke are the least able to protect themselves. Recent episodes of smoke on the West Coast have revealed how some populations are falling through the cracks.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Many people don’t realize they need to protect themselves from smoke, unlike other extreme weather events. The elderly or those with health problems might struggle to get the tools and solutions to filter the air at home. Those who lack housing have no way to escape being exposed.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“We see individuals with access to fewer resources, who may live in substandard housing, who may desire to reduce their exposure but who are unable to do so,” says Gabrielle Wong-Parodi, assistant professor in the department of earth system science at Stanford University, who has studied how communities responded to smoke in California.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Overall, \u003ca href=\"https://earth.stanford.edu/news/how-do-people-respond-wildfire-smoke\">not many people are checking the air quality index\u003c/a> on a regular basis and changing their behavior, her research found. Instead, seeing how other people react to smoke is the bigger motivator.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The lesson: make sure the message is coming from those in the local community, like community groups, senior centers or faith groups. Providing masks, air filters and resources to groups on the ground can help ensure it reaches those who need it most.\u003c/p>\n\u003cdiv class=\"fullattribution\">Copyright 2023 NPR. To see more, visit https://www.npr.org.\u003cimg decoding=\"async\" src=\"https://www.google-analytics.com/__utm.gif?utmac=UA-5828686-4&utmdt=3+lessons+from+the+Western+U.S.+for+dealing+with+wildfire+smoke+&utme=8(APIKey)9(MDAxOTAwOTE4MDEyMTkxMDAzNjczZDljZA004)\">\u003c/div>\n\n\u003c/div>\u003c/p>",
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"title": "How Sea Level Rise Poses a Looming Threat to San Leandro's Underground Infrastructure",
"headTitle": "How Sea Level Rise Poses a Looming Threat to San Leandro’s Underground Infrastructure | KQED",
"content": "\u003cp>On an unseasonably hot day on the edge of the San Leandro neighborhood of Mulford Gardens, David O’Donnell uses a heavy metal bar to lift a thick steel cover off a utility hole, exposing an echoey chamber running several hundred feet to the bay.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Oh, we got a crab in there. It crawled all the way through,” said O’Donnell, a maintenance supervisor for the city.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Below ground, tidal water pushes through the city’s pipes that were built to pump stormwater in the opposite direction.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“We’re fighting the tide and fighting nature,” O’Donnell said. “It’s a bit of an uphill battle. There’s no pump we can install underground to hold the bay back at high tide.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>These pipes — and other below-ground infrastructure — which already periodically flood during high tides could become more routinely inundated as the bay continues to rise because of human-caused climate change.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_1982915\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\" style=\"max-width: 1920px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-1982915\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/35/2023/06/RS65982_010_KQED_SanLeandroSeaLevelRise_06012023-KQED.jpg\" alt=\"A view of a drain with water flowing.\" width=\"1920\" height=\"1280\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/06/RS65982_010_KQED_SanLeandroSeaLevelRise_06012023-KQED.jpg 1920w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/06/RS65982_010_KQED_SanLeandroSeaLevelRise_06012023-KQED-800x533.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/06/RS65982_010_KQED_SanLeandroSeaLevelRise_06012023-KQED-1020x680.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/06/RS65982_010_KQED_SanLeandroSeaLevelRise_06012023-KQED-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/06/RS65982_010_KQED_SanLeandroSeaLevelRise_06012023-KQED-768x512.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/06/RS65982_010_KQED_SanLeandroSeaLevelRise_06012023-KQED-1536x1024.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1920px) 100vw, 1920px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Water flows from a drain into the bay at the San Leandro Marina on June 1, 2023. \u003ccite>(Beth LaBerge/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>San Leandro recently secured a small grant to develop a comprehensive plan to address the potential impact rising sea levels could have on its roughly 10-mile shoreline and intricate network of underground pipes. The city is also partnering with a team of San Diego State University climate scientists to determine how many of its 90,000 residents may be at risk from flooding.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Having the plan now will put us in a much better place to plan how we can move forward into [the future],” said Hoi-Fei Mok, San Leandro’s sustainability manager, who uses they/them pronouns.[aside label=\"Related Stories\" postID=\"science_1981900,science_1982800,science_1981687\"]“It’s not like people don’t care,” said Mok, who grew up in San Leandro, where the vast majority of residents are people of color. “I’m able to tap into what the community is saying and bring that forward to [the San Leandro City Council] and be that extra amplification of community voices.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>A former community organizer, Mok says they are dedicated to making sure this community is able to persevere through smoky skies, heat waves, floods and other increasingly frequent climate-induced conditions.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Ultimately, it is my community that is being impacted,” they added.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>San Leandro’s shoreline makes up less than 3% of the entirety of the lip of San Francisco Bay, but sea level rise will affect this entire region. Mok’s work is feeding into a regional partnership to ready every inch of the shoreline for the future.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>A Bay Area-wide Regional Shoreline Adaptation Plan is expected to be completed in mid-2024. The team behind it, led by Dana Brechwald, must get buy-in from more than 40 cities and counties — including San Leandro — to engage environmental-justice communities and develop uniform sea level rise standards.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“We want to make sure we’re considering impacts on neighbors so that we don’t have this issue of one city behind a tall wall and everybody around it flooding,” said Brechwald.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_1982918\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\" style=\"max-width: 1920px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-1982918\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/35/2023/06/RS65999_004_KQED_HoiFeiMokSanLeandro_06012023-KQED.jpg\" alt=\"An Asian American person sits and looks away from the camera.\" width=\"1920\" height=\"1280\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/06/RS65999_004_KQED_HoiFeiMokSanLeandro_06012023-KQED.jpg 1920w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/06/RS65999_004_KQED_HoiFeiMokSanLeandro_06012023-KQED-800x533.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/06/RS65999_004_KQED_HoiFeiMokSanLeandro_06012023-KQED-1020x680.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/06/RS65999_004_KQED_HoiFeiMokSanLeandro_06012023-KQED-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/06/RS65999_004_KQED_HoiFeiMokSanLeandro_06012023-KQED-768x512.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/06/RS65999_004_KQED_HoiFeiMokSanLeandro_06012023-KQED-1536x1024.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1920px) 100vw, 1920px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Hoi-Fei Mok, sustainability manager for the city of San Leandro, stands outside San Leandro City Hall on June 1, 2023. \u003ccite>(Beth LaBerge/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>It’s still unclear how San Leandro’s underground infrastructure will be affected as groundwater rises under the city. \u003ca href=\"https://sfei.maps.arcgis.com/apps/instant/portfolio/index.html?appid=2ab0c998497f4f7398aa54f176a6fb26%20\">Maps\u003c/a> produced by the San Francisco Estuary Institute and Pathways Climate Institute show that even 1 foot of sea level rise will cause groundwater to emerge in San Leandro.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The city’s stormwater pipes appear to be in good condition, according to Hassan Davani, associate professor at SDSU and a water resources engineer who is leading the team that’s partnering with San Leandro. Davani’s models don’t show major threats in the near term. Still, he said, his work, sponsored by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, does not include many other underground infrastructures like sewers, belowground power lines and drinking water pipes.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Also, by looking at United States Geological Survey groundwater data, maps of underground infrastructure in the city and middle-of-the-road climate models, Hassan concluded that — as climate change worsens — the current stormwater system will almost certainly “be disrupted” by the end of the century. This could look like the bay pushing further up the drainage system, preventing stormwater from escaping and in turn flooding inland areas of the city.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_1982880\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\" style=\"max-width: 2560px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-1982880\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/35/2023/06/IMG_7810-scaled.jpg\" alt=\"Two young men stand by the side of a street and gaze at a handheld screen.\" width=\"2560\" height=\"1920\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/06/IMG_7810-scaled.jpg 2560w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/06/IMG_7810-800x600.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/06/IMG_7810-1020x765.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/06/IMG_7810-160x120.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/06/IMG_7810-768x576.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/06/IMG_7810-1536x1152.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/06/IMG_7810-2048x1536.jpg 2048w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/06/IMG_7810-1920x1440.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 2560px) 100vw, 2560px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Hassan Davani (right), a San Diego State University professor and water resources engineer, said that as climate change worsens, San Leandro will become increasingly vulnerable, and its current stormwater system will almost certainly ‘be disrupted’ by the end of the century. Kian Bagheri (left) is a doctoral student in Davani’s lab. \u003ccite>(Ezra David Romero/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>“We’re going to have flooding further inland, kilometers inland, because the system will be packed with water at the downstream side,” he said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But when taking into account more extreme climate models, Davani said, the disruption to the stormwater system could come around mid-century.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Pauline Russo Cutter, who served as mayor of San Leandro until earlier this year, said the city has also tested its wastewater infrastructure and has yet to find any red flags.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But she recognizes “it’s only a matter of time” before emerging groundwater becomes an issue.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“If no one’s thinking about it, then these things kind of appear. That’s what can sink a city,” she said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_1982881\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\" style=\"max-width: 2560px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-1982881\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/35/2023/06/IMG_7758-scaled.jpg\" alt=\"A middle aged white woman with dark brown hair stands beside the shore of San Leandro Bay as she talks toward the camera with sunglasses on.\" width=\"2560\" height=\"1920\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/06/IMG_7758-scaled.jpg 2560w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/06/IMG_7758-800x600.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/06/IMG_7758-1020x765.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/06/IMG_7758-160x120.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/06/IMG_7758-768x576.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/06/IMG_7758-1536x1152.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/06/IMG_7758-2048x1536.jpg 2048w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/06/IMG_7758-1920x1440.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 2560px) 100vw, 2560px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Former San Leandro Mayor Pauline Russo Cutter says ‘it’s only a matter of time’ before emerging groundwater becomes an issue. \u003ccite>(Ezra David Romero/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>In preparing for sea level rise, Mok, the sustainability manager, dreams of a range of solutions — everything from building levees to utilizing marshes to soak up waves.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“I think nature-based solutions have a lot of benefits that I think would be great for us,” Mok said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But, despite the imminent threat that sea level rise poses — with the bay expected to rise by at least a foot in the next three decades — Mok acknowledges that actively preparing for it now can be a hard sell given more immediate concerns like budget issues, staff shortages and ongoing health emergencies.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_1982916\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\" style=\"max-width: 1920px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-1982916\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/35/2023/06/RS65984_011_KQED_SanLeandroSeaLevelRise_06012023-KQED.jpg\" alt=\"A view of a street leading to a marina sign.\" width=\"1920\" height=\"1280\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/06/RS65984_011_KQED_SanLeandroSeaLevelRise_06012023-KQED.jpg 1920w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/06/RS65984_011_KQED_SanLeandroSeaLevelRise_06012023-KQED-800x533.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/06/RS65984_011_KQED_SanLeandroSeaLevelRise_06012023-KQED-1020x680.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/06/RS65984_011_KQED_SanLeandroSeaLevelRise_06012023-KQED-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/06/RS65984_011_KQED_SanLeandroSeaLevelRise_06012023-KQED-768x512.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/06/RS65984_011_KQED_SanLeandroSeaLevelRise_06012023-KQED-1536x1024.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1920px) 100vw, 1920px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">A sign for the San Leandro Marina marks the entrance to the shoreline in the Mulford Gardens neighborhood in San Leandro on June 1, 2023. \u003ccite>(Beth LaBerge/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>“Sea level rise is tricky for people to wrap their heads around,” said Mok. “I’m hoping this is an opportunity not to get alarmed, but to realize this is something that is coming, not just in San Leandro, but regionally.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad fullwidth]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad floatright]\u003c/p>\n",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003cp>On an unseasonably hot day on the edge of the San Leandro neighborhood of Mulford Gardens, David O’Donnell uses a heavy metal bar to lift a thick steel cover off a utility hole, exposing an echoey chamber running several hundred feet to the bay.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Oh, we got a crab in there. It crawled all the way through,” said O’Donnell, a maintenance supervisor for the city.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Below ground, tidal water pushes through the city’s pipes that were built to pump stormwater in the opposite direction.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“We’re fighting the tide and fighting nature,” O’Donnell said. “It’s a bit of an uphill battle. There’s no pump we can install underground to hold the bay back at high tide.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>These pipes — and other below-ground infrastructure — which already periodically flood during high tides could become more routinely inundated as the bay continues to rise because of human-caused climate change.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_1982915\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\" style=\"max-width: 1920px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-1982915\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/35/2023/06/RS65982_010_KQED_SanLeandroSeaLevelRise_06012023-KQED.jpg\" alt=\"A view of a drain with water flowing.\" width=\"1920\" height=\"1280\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/06/RS65982_010_KQED_SanLeandroSeaLevelRise_06012023-KQED.jpg 1920w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/06/RS65982_010_KQED_SanLeandroSeaLevelRise_06012023-KQED-800x533.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/06/RS65982_010_KQED_SanLeandroSeaLevelRise_06012023-KQED-1020x680.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/06/RS65982_010_KQED_SanLeandroSeaLevelRise_06012023-KQED-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/06/RS65982_010_KQED_SanLeandroSeaLevelRise_06012023-KQED-768x512.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/06/RS65982_010_KQED_SanLeandroSeaLevelRise_06012023-KQED-1536x1024.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1920px) 100vw, 1920px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Water flows from a drain into the bay at the San Leandro Marina on June 1, 2023. \u003ccite>(Beth LaBerge/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>San Leandro recently secured a small grant to develop a comprehensive plan to address the potential impact rising sea levels could have on its roughly 10-mile shoreline and intricate network of underground pipes. The city is also partnering with a team of San Diego State University climate scientists to determine how many of its 90,000 residents may be at risk from flooding.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Having the plan now will put us in a much better place to plan how we can move forward into [the future],” said Hoi-Fei Mok, San Leandro’s sustainability manager, who uses they/them pronouns.\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>“It’s not like people don’t care,” said Mok, who grew up in San Leandro, where the vast majority of residents are people of color. “I’m able to tap into what the community is saying and bring that forward to [the San Leandro City Council] and be that extra amplification of community voices.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>A former community organizer, Mok says they are dedicated to making sure this community is able to persevere through smoky skies, heat waves, floods and other increasingly frequent climate-induced conditions.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Ultimately, it is my community that is being impacted,” they added.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>San Leandro’s shoreline makes up less than 3% of the entirety of the lip of San Francisco Bay, but sea level rise will affect this entire region. Mok’s work is feeding into a regional partnership to ready every inch of the shoreline for the future.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>A Bay Area-wide Regional Shoreline Adaptation Plan is expected to be completed in mid-2024. The team behind it, led by Dana Brechwald, must get buy-in from more than 40 cities and counties — including San Leandro — to engage environmental-justice communities and develop uniform sea level rise standards.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“We want to make sure we’re considering impacts on neighbors so that we don’t have this issue of one city behind a tall wall and everybody around it flooding,” said Brechwald.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_1982918\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\" style=\"max-width: 1920px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-1982918\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/35/2023/06/RS65999_004_KQED_HoiFeiMokSanLeandro_06012023-KQED.jpg\" alt=\"An Asian American person sits and looks away from the camera.\" width=\"1920\" height=\"1280\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/06/RS65999_004_KQED_HoiFeiMokSanLeandro_06012023-KQED.jpg 1920w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/06/RS65999_004_KQED_HoiFeiMokSanLeandro_06012023-KQED-800x533.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/06/RS65999_004_KQED_HoiFeiMokSanLeandro_06012023-KQED-1020x680.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/06/RS65999_004_KQED_HoiFeiMokSanLeandro_06012023-KQED-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/06/RS65999_004_KQED_HoiFeiMokSanLeandro_06012023-KQED-768x512.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/06/RS65999_004_KQED_HoiFeiMokSanLeandro_06012023-KQED-1536x1024.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1920px) 100vw, 1920px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Hoi-Fei Mok, sustainability manager for the city of San Leandro, stands outside San Leandro City Hall on June 1, 2023. \u003ccite>(Beth LaBerge/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>It’s still unclear how San Leandro’s underground infrastructure will be affected as groundwater rises under the city. \u003ca href=\"https://sfei.maps.arcgis.com/apps/instant/portfolio/index.html?appid=2ab0c998497f4f7398aa54f176a6fb26%20\">Maps\u003c/a> produced by the San Francisco Estuary Institute and Pathways Climate Institute show that even 1 foot of sea level rise will cause groundwater to emerge in San Leandro.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The city’s stormwater pipes appear to be in good condition, according to Hassan Davani, associate professor at SDSU and a water resources engineer who is leading the team that’s partnering with San Leandro. Davani’s models don’t show major threats in the near term. Still, he said, his work, sponsored by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, does not include many other underground infrastructures like sewers, belowground power lines and drinking water pipes.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Also, by looking at United States Geological Survey groundwater data, maps of underground infrastructure in the city and middle-of-the-road climate models, Hassan concluded that — as climate change worsens — the current stormwater system will almost certainly “be disrupted” by the end of the century. This could look like the bay pushing further up the drainage system, preventing stormwater from escaping and in turn flooding inland areas of the city.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_1982880\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\" style=\"max-width: 2560px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-1982880\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/35/2023/06/IMG_7810-scaled.jpg\" alt=\"Two young men stand by the side of a street and gaze at a handheld screen.\" width=\"2560\" height=\"1920\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/06/IMG_7810-scaled.jpg 2560w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/06/IMG_7810-800x600.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/06/IMG_7810-1020x765.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/06/IMG_7810-160x120.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/06/IMG_7810-768x576.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/06/IMG_7810-1536x1152.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/06/IMG_7810-2048x1536.jpg 2048w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/06/IMG_7810-1920x1440.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 2560px) 100vw, 2560px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Hassan Davani (right), a San Diego State University professor and water resources engineer, said that as climate change worsens, San Leandro will become increasingly vulnerable, and its current stormwater system will almost certainly ‘be disrupted’ by the end of the century. Kian Bagheri (left) is a doctoral student in Davani’s lab. \u003ccite>(Ezra David Romero/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>“We’re going to have flooding further inland, kilometers inland, because the system will be packed with water at the downstream side,” he said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But when taking into account more extreme climate models, Davani said, the disruption to the stormwater system could come around mid-century.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Pauline Russo Cutter, who served as mayor of San Leandro until earlier this year, said the city has also tested its wastewater infrastructure and has yet to find any red flags.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But she recognizes “it’s only a matter of time” before emerging groundwater becomes an issue.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“If no one’s thinking about it, then these things kind of appear. That’s what can sink a city,” she said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_1982881\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\" style=\"max-width: 2560px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-1982881\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/35/2023/06/IMG_7758-scaled.jpg\" alt=\"A middle aged white woman with dark brown hair stands beside the shore of San Leandro Bay as she talks toward the camera with sunglasses on.\" width=\"2560\" height=\"1920\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/06/IMG_7758-scaled.jpg 2560w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/06/IMG_7758-800x600.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/06/IMG_7758-1020x765.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/06/IMG_7758-160x120.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/06/IMG_7758-768x576.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/06/IMG_7758-1536x1152.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/06/IMG_7758-2048x1536.jpg 2048w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/06/IMG_7758-1920x1440.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 2560px) 100vw, 2560px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Former San Leandro Mayor Pauline Russo Cutter says ‘it’s only a matter of time’ before emerging groundwater becomes an issue. \u003ccite>(Ezra David Romero/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>In preparing for sea level rise, Mok, the sustainability manager, dreams of a range of solutions — everything from building levees to utilizing marshes to soak up waves.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“I think nature-based solutions have a lot of benefits that I think would be great for us,” Mok said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But, despite the imminent threat that sea level rise poses — with the bay expected to rise by at least a foot in the next three decades — Mok acknowledges that actively preparing for it now can be a hard sell given more immediate concerns like budget issues, staff shortages and ongoing health emergencies.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_1982916\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\" style=\"max-width: 1920px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-1982916\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/35/2023/06/RS65984_011_KQED_SanLeandroSeaLevelRise_06012023-KQED.jpg\" alt=\"A view of a street leading to a marina sign.\" width=\"1920\" height=\"1280\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/06/RS65984_011_KQED_SanLeandroSeaLevelRise_06012023-KQED.jpg 1920w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/06/RS65984_011_KQED_SanLeandroSeaLevelRise_06012023-KQED-800x533.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/06/RS65984_011_KQED_SanLeandroSeaLevelRise_06012023-KQED-1020x680.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/06/RS65984_011_KQED_SanLeandroSeaLevelRise_06012023-KQED-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/06/RS65984_011_KQED_SanLeandroSeaLevelRise_06012023-KQED-768x512.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/06/RS65984_011_KQED_SanLeandroSeaLevelRise_06012023-KQED-1536x1024.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1920px) 100vw, 1920px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">A sign for the San Leandro Marina marks the entrance to the shoreline in the Mulford Gardens neighborhood in San Leandro on June 1, 2023. \u003ccite>(Beth LaBerge/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>“Sea level rise is tricky for people to wrap their heads around,” said Mok. “I’m hoping this is an opportunity not to get alarmed, but to realize this is something that is coming, not just in San Leandro, but regionally.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"title": "California Is Still at Risk of Flooding. Maybe Rivers Just Need Some Space",
"headTitle": "California Is Still at Risk of Flooding. Maybe Rivers Just Need Some Space | KQED",
"content": "\u003cp>With much of California’s massive snowpack yet to melt, downstream communities remain on high alert for flooding. Hundreds of homes were destroyed or damaged during the record-breaking winter, which tested the state’s aging flood infrastructure.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Communities are looking for ways to protect themselves from future floods, and some are using a novel solution: just giving rivers some space to flow.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Building homes on the waterfront comes with a long-term arms race: levees must be built and maintained over time to hold back floodwaters. With climate change \u003ca href=\"https://www.npr.org/2022/02/09/1078261183/an-unexpected-item-is-blocking-cities-climate-change-prep-obsolete-rainfall-reco\">making storms more intense\u003c/a>, many levees will need to be raised or improved.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Now, a growing number of projects are trying to work with nature, instead of trying to contain it. Levees are being removed and moved back, creating natural floodplains that are designed to fill with water when rivers run high. The idea is to take pressure off downstream levees by giving water somewhere to go farther upstream.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Floodplain restorations also create much-need wildlife habitat. But buying out and relocating landowners, whether farmers or homeowners, can be challenging. Getting necessary permits can take years, because most flood regulations are written to keep levees in place forever.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad fullwidth]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>“\u003c/strong>We have to find ways to do this more efficiently,” says Julie Rentner, president of River Partners, a river restoration non-profit. “It’s not ok for it to take 25 years to undo the paperwork that we put in place a generation ago.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure class=\"wp-caption alignnone\" style=\"max-width: 1300px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https://media.npr.org/assets/img/2023/05/26/playground-3_custom-c169e186167c37255a78cd4d3523adb45f720947-s1300-c85.webp\" alt=\"A playground and picnic area is seen partially submerged in flood waters. \" width=\"1300\" height=\"863\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">The melt of California’s massive snowpack has led to chronic flooding in the Central Valley this spring, like this riverfront park near the town of Grayson.\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003ch2>Farmworker communities at risk\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>When heavy floods hit the farmworker communities of Pajaro and Planada this winter, John Mataka watched it closely.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>He knew it could easily have been his town, Grayson, California. It’s also a lower-income, farmworker community located next to a river in the Central Valley. After decades of underinvestment in their infrastructure, residents felt vulnerable.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“It’s not just farmworkers and people that don’t speak English living in these communities,” says Mataka, a Grayson resident. “We’re people. We’re human. We’ve got needs.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>As California’s snowpack has melted, swelling the San Joaquin River, roads into town have been shut down due to flooding. Mataka’s neighbors watched nervously as the river overtopped its banks, edging closer to houses and staying high for weeks.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But even as the water rose, Mataka felt less worried than he had in the past because of a $46 million dollar project completed nearby.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“I believe that it saved our community from some drastic flooding this year,” he says.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_1982897\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\" style=\"max-width: 800px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-1982897\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/35/2023/06/mataka-lilia2_custom-d9f7310803148c8d15cd2a3879fa01adf968cb5d-s1100-c50-800x534.jpg\" alt=\"Two people stand in front of a floodplain.\" width=\"800\" height=\"534\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/06/mataka-lilia2_custom-d9f7310803148c8d15cd2a3879fa01adf968cb5d-s1100-c50-800x534.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/06/mataka-lilia2_custom-d9f7310803148c8d15cd2a3879fa01adf968cb5d-s1100-c50-1020x681.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/06/mataka-lilia2_custom-d9f7310803148c8d15cd2a3879fa01adf968cb5d-s1100-c50-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/06/mataka-lilia2_custom-d9f7310803148c8d15cd2a3879fa01adf968cb5d-s1100-c50-768x512.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/06/mataka-lilia2_custom-d9f7310803148c8d15cd2a3879fa01adf968cb5d-s1100-c50.jpg 1100w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 800px) 100vw, 800px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Grayson residents Lilia Lomeli-Gil and John Mataka stand next to a restored floodplain at the edge of town, providing a new open space for the community. \u003ccite>(Lauren Sommer/NPR)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003ch2>Giving the river room\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>Just a few miles upstream from Grayson, hundreds of acres of land are covered in water, submerging the trunks of willow and cottonwood trees.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“We love to see the floodwater on our property,” says Jon Carlon, co-founder of River Partners, as he looks across the water from an aluminum boat.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>This land is designed to flood. About a decade ago, it was mostly fields of tomatoes, melons and wheat. But being at the confluences of two rivers, the property was prone to being damaged when the river ran high. River Partners struck a deal to buy the land, using state and federal grants.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“We had a very successful ranching and farming operation here, but there was always that element of risk,” says Bill Lyons, the former landowner.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Over the years, River Partners removed earthen berms that were holding back the river. Around 1,600 acres were restored to wildlife habitat, planted with native California trees and grasses, creating the \u003ca href=\"https://riverpartners.org/project/dos-rios-ranch-preserve/\">Dos Rios Ranch Preserve\u003c/a>. The ground is dry most of the year, but when heavy winters arrive, the river is free to spread across the floodplain.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“We’re looking back in time,” Carlon says. “We’re looking at what this river looked like 100 years ago.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_1982888\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\" style=\"max-width: 800px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-1982888 size-medium\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/35/2023/05/carlon1-d4f6a9b84343bece06819d5c293fb83620d4e1d6-800x600.jpg\" alt=\"A grizzly middle-aged white man with shaggy white hair and beard, plus a camo hat and sunglasses, sits in the front of a skiff on brown water, wearing a black puffer vest and an orange life vest.\" width=\"800\" height=\"600\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/05/carlon1-d4f6a9b84343bece06819d5c293fb83620d4e1d6-800x600.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/05/carlon1-d4f6a9b84343bece06819d5c293fb83620d4e1d6-1020x765.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/05/carlon1-d4f6a9b84343bece06819d5c293fb83620d4e1d6-160x120.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/05/carlon1-d4f6a9b84343bece06819d5c293fb83620d4e1d6-768x576.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/05/carlon1-d4f6a9b84343bece06819d5c293fb83620d4e1d6-1536x1152.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/05/carlon1-d4f6a9b84343bece06819d5c293fb83620d4e1d6.jpg 1611w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 800px) 100vw, 800px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">John Carlon of River Partners says restoring floodplains can help take pressure off downstream levees by storing floodwaters, as well as providing much-needed wildlife habitat. \u003ccite>(Lauren Sommer/NPR)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>This watery habitat is rare in California. Before the era of dam-building, the state’s rivers would seasonally flood every year as the snow melted in the Sierra Nevada, creating a vital refuge for birds and fish. Development has destroyed 95% of the riparian habitat in the Central Valley. The San Joaquin River is so heavily tapped by cities and agriculture that in many years, it runs completely dry.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The Dos Rios Ranch Preserve is now being proposed \u003ca href=\"https://www.latimes.com/california/story/2022-05-16/california-to-get-a-new-state-park-in-over-a-decade\">as California’s next state park\u003c/a>. Today, the surrounding area has few parks and recreation areas available for residents.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Having a refuge, an outlet, somewhere where you can go back to basics – that’s what we should strive for,” says Lilia Lomeli-Gil, a Grayson resident. “I think what’s happening here is a major contribution to that balance.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone wp-image-1982908 size-medium\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/06/0river4.gif\" alt=\"A video clip of either drone footage or video taken from the front of a boat, going over flooded land.\" width=\"800\" height=\"450\">\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>Floodplains as flood protection\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>As the river spreads out and slows down in the floodplain, water experts say it can help absorb a major pulse of floodwater, potentially reducing the risk for communities downstream.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“All this water flows past populated areas,” Carlon says. “So you’re taking that pressure off those downstream communities by moving the levees back up here.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Floodplains can also be more adaptable to climate change, since they can handle varying levels of water. Levees are designed to handle only a certain amount of flow. Carlon says traditional concrete infrastructure is often in conflict with the way rivers naturally behave.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Rivers move and that’s a really hard concept for us with property rights and roads and infrastructure,” Carlon says.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Wide floodplains also allow water to seep into the ground, filling up underground aquifers. Many aquifers in the Central Valley are at the lowest levels ever recorded, after being heavily pumped for agriculture for decades.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_1982899\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\" style=\"max-width: 800px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-1982899\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/35/2023/06/sjr-1_custom-51d3c8554bf1628ec09281330f4644736b1058d1-s1100-c50-800x532.jpg\" alt=\"A floodplain is seen with mountains in the background, clouds and blue skies. \" width=\"800\" height=\"532\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/06/sjr-1_custom-51d3c8554bf1628ec09281330f4644736b1058d1-s1100-c50-800x532.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/06/sjr-1_custom-51d3c8554bf1628ec09281330f4644736b1058d1-s1100-c50-1020x679.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/06/sjr-1_custom-51d3c8554bf1628ec09281330f4644736b1058d1-s1100-c50-160x106.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/06/sjr-1_custom-51d3c8554bf1628ec09281330f4644736b1058d1-s1100-c50-768x511.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/06/sjr-1_custom-51d3c8554bf1628ec09281330f4644736b1058d1-s1100-c50.jpg 1100w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 800px) 100vw, 800px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Moving levees and creating floodplains can more than a decade, since securing the land and permitting can be challenging. \u003ccite>(Lauren Sommer/NPR)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003ch2>Regulations are for levees to stay put, not move\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>Projects to move levees back – “levee setbacks,” as they’re known – are being done around the country, including on the Missouri River and elsewhere in California. But they can often take more than a decade, given the complexities of buying land and securing the permits.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In urban areas, residents often don’t want to be displaced or bought out. Rural areas often have larger parcels where it’s easier to piece together the necessary land. But taking agricultural fields out of production also can face pushback.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“We have low-hanging fruit where we haven’t yet urbanized the floodplain,” says Rentner of River Partners. “Those are the spots we really need to prioritize moving on right away.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Historically, it’s been hard for levee setback projects to get federal support from the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, the agency responsible for levees and flood protection. The agency evaluates projects using a cost-benefit analysis – so if the rural land being protected isn’t worth as much, it doesn’t justify the cost of constructing the project.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The Biden Administration has been \u003ca href=\"https://ewn.erdc.dren.mil/\">pushing agencies to consider “engineering with nature\u003c/a>.” The Army Corps and others are now looking at how to include social and environmental benefits in their analysis, in addition to simply the cost of moving levees.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“They’ve been hard to justify from an economic standpoint in the past,” says Beth Salyers, deputy district engineer with the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers Sacramento District. “I think we are seeing some positive changes when it comes to our ability from the federal level and the national level to do these types of projects where we have setback levees.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Still, sorting out federal, state and local permits can take years, since most regulations were written to ensure the levees were preserved for the long-term.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“When we engineered these levees back in the 1950s and 60s, nobody was thinking about how you undo the levee,” Rentner says.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>With the damage from the winter storms, California is facing a new urgency to invest in its flood infrastructure. In the Central Valley alone, a \u003ca href=\"https://water.ca.gov/Programs/Flood-Management/Flood-Planning-and-Studies/Central-Valley-Flood-Protection-Plan\">new state flood protection plan\u003c/a> puts the cost between $25 and $30 billion dollars over the next 30 years. California officials say floodplain restoration should be a piece of the puzzle.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad floatright]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“We should think bigger, because it’s working,” Rentner says. “Maybe it’s not so ambitious to imagine that we could scale this tremendously, to the point that it actually makes a really big difference in the way California manages its water.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cdiv class=\"fullattribution\">Copyright 2023 NPR. To see more, visit https://www.npr.org.\u003cimg decoding=\"async\" src=\"https://www.google-analytics.com/__utm.gif?utmac=UA-5828686-4&utmdt=California+is+still+at+risk+of+flooding.+Maybe+rivers+just+need+some+space&utme=8(APIKey)9(MDAxOTAwOTE4MDEyMTkxMDAzNjczZDljZA004)\">\u003c/div>\n\n",
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"excerpt": "To prevent flooding, communities often raise levees next to rivers higher and higher. Now, a new approach is about backing off, and moving levees away from rivers to create floodplains.",
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"description": "To prevent flooding, communities often raise levees next to rivers higher and higher. Now, a new approach is about backing off, and moving levees away from rivers to create floodplains.",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003cp>With much of California’s massive snowpack yet to melt, downstream communities remain on high alert for flooding. Hundreds of homes were destroyed or damaged during the record-breaking winter, which tested the state’s aging flood infrastructure.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Communities are looking for ways to protect themselves from future floods, and some are using a novel solution: just giving rivers some space to flow.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Building homes on the waterfront comes with a long-term arms race: levees must be built and maintained over time to hold back floodwaters. With climate change \u003ca href=\"https://www.npr.org/2022/02/09/1078261183/an-unexpected-item-is-blocking-cities-climate-change-prep-obsolete-rainfall-reco\">making storms more intense\u003c/a>, many levees will need to be raised or improved.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Now, a growing number of projects are trying to work with nature, instead of trying to contain it. Levees are being removed and moved back, creating natural floodplains that are designed to fill with water when rivers run high. The idea is to take pressure off downstream levees by giving water somewhere to go farther upstream.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Floodplain restorations also create much-need wildlife habitat. But buying out and relocating landowners, whether farmers or homeowners, can be challenging. Getting necessary permits can take years, because most flood regulations are written to keep levees in place forever.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>“\u003c/strong>We have to find ways to do this more efficiently,” says Julie Rentner, president of River Partners, a river restoration non-profit. “It’s not ok for it to take 25 years to undo the paperwork that we put in place a generation ago.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure class=\"wp-caption alignnone\" style=\"max-width: 1300px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https://media.npr.org/assets/img/2023/05/26/playground-3_custom-c169e186167c37255a78cd4d3523adb45f720947-s1300-c85.webp\" alt=\"A playground and picnic area is seen partially submerged in flood waters. \" width=\"1300\" height=\"863\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">The melt of California’s massive snowpack has led to chronic flooding in the Central Valley this spring, like this riverfront park near the town of Grayson.\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003ch2>Farmworker communities at risk\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>When heavy floods hit the farmworker communities of Pajaro and Planada this winter, John Mataka watched it closely.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>He knew it could easily have been his town, Grayson, California. It’s also a lower-income, farmworker community located next to a river in the Central Valley. After decades of underinvestment in their infrastructure, residents felt vulnerable.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“It’s not just farmworkers and people that don’t speak English living in these communities,” says Mataka, a Grayson resident. “We’re people. We’re human. We’ve got needs.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>As California’s snowpack has melted, swelling the San Joaquin River, roads into town have been shut down due to flooding. Mataka’s neighbors watched nervously as the river overtopped its banks, edging closer to houses and staying high for weeks.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But even as the water rose, Mataka felt less worried than he had in the past because of a $46 million dollar project completed nearby.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“I believe that it saved our community from some drastic flooding this year,” he says.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_1982897\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\" style=\"max-width: 800px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-1982897\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/35/2023/06/mataka-lilia2_custom-d9f7310803148c8d15cd2a3879fa01adf968cb5d-s1100-c50-800x534.jpg\" alt=\"Two people stand in front of a floodplain.\" width=\"800\" height=\"534\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/06/mataka-lilia2_custom-d9f7310803148c8d15cd2a3879fa01adf968cb5d-s1100-c50-800x534.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/06/mataka-lilia2_custom-d9f7310803148c8d15cd2a3879fa01adf968cb5d-s1100-c50-1020x681.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/06/mataka-lilia2_custom-d9f7310803148c8d15cd2a3879fa01adf968cb5d-s1100-c50-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/06/mataka-lilia2_custom-d9f7310803148c8d15cd2a3879fa01adf968cb5d-s1100-c50-768x512.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/06/mataka-lilia2_custom-d9f7310803148c8d15cd2a3879fa01adf968cb5d-s1100-c50.jpg 1100w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 800px) 100vw, 800px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Grayson residents Lilia Lomeli-Gil and John Mataka stand next to a restored floodplain at the edge of town, providing a new open space for the community. \u003ccite>(Lauren Sommer/NPR)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003ch2>Giving the river room\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>Just a few miles upstream from Grayson, hundreds of acres of land are covered in water, submerging the trunks of willow and cottonwood trees.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“We love to see the floodwater on our property,” says Jon Carlon, co-founder of River Partners, as he looks across the water from an aluminum boat.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>This land is designed to flood. About a decade ago, it was mostly fields of tomatoes, melons and wheat. But being at the confluences of two rivers, the property was prone to being damaged when the river ran high. River Partners struck a deal to buy the land, using state and federal grants.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“We had a very successful ranching and farming operation here, but there was always that element of risk,” says Bill Lyons, the former landowner.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Over the years, River Partners removed earthen berms that were holding back the river. Around 1,600 acres were restored to wildlife habitat, planted with native California trees and grasses, creating the \u003ca href=\"https://riverpartners.org/project/dos-rios-ranch-preserve/\">Dos Rios Ranch Preserve\u003c/a>. The ground is dry most of the year, but when heavy winters arrive, the river is free to spread across the floodplain.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“We’re looking back in time,” Carlon says. “We’re looking at what this river looked like 100 years ago.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_1982888\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\" style=\"max-width: 800px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-1982888 size-medium\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/35/2023/05/carlon1-d4f6a9b84343bece06819d5c293fb83620d4e1d6-800x600.jpg\" alt=\"A grizzly middle-aged white man with shaggy white hair and beard, plus a camo hat and sunglasses, sits in the front of a skiff on brown water, wearing a black puffer vest and an orange life vest.\" width=\"800\" height=\"600\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/05/carlon1-d4f6a9b84343bece06819d5c293fb83620d4e1d6-800x600.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/05/carlon1-d4f6a9b84343bece06819d5c293fb83620d4e1d6-1020x765.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/05/carlon1-d4f6a9b84343bece06819d5c293fb83620d4e1d6-160x120.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/05/carlon1-d4f6a9b84343bece06819d5c293fb83620d4e1d6-768x576.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/05/carlon1-d4f6a9b84343bece06819d5c293fb83620d4e1d6-1536x1152.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/05/carlon1-d4f6a9b84343bece06819d5c293fb83620d4e1d6.jpg 1611w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 800px) 100vw, 800px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">John Carlon of River Partners says restoring floodplains can help take pressure off downstream levees by storing floodwaters, as well as providing much-needed wildlife habitat. \u003ccite>(Lauren Sommer/NPR)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>This watery habitat is rare in California. Before the era of dam-building, the state’s rivers would seasonally flood every year as the snow melted in the Sierra Nevada, creating a vital refuge for birds and fish. Development has destroyed 95% of the riparian habitat in the Central Valley. The San Joaquin River is so heavily tapped by cities and agriculture that in many years, it runs completely dry.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The Dos Rios Ranch Preserve is now being proposed \u003ca href=\"https://www.latimes.com/california/story/2022-05-16/california-to-get-a-new-state-park-in-over-a-decade\">as California’s next state park\u003c/a>. Today, the surrounding area has few parks and recreation areas available for residents.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Having a refuge, an outlet, somewhere where you can go back to basics – that’s what we should strive for,” says Lilia Lomeli-Gil, a Grayson resident. “I think what’s happening here is a major contribution to that balance.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone wp-image-1982908 size-medium\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/06/0river4.gif\" alt=\"A video clip of either drone footage or video taken from the front of a boat, going over flooded land.\" width=\"800\" height=\"450\">\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>Floodplains as flood protection\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>As the river spreads out and slows down in the floodplain, water experts say it can help absorb a major pulse of floodwater, potentially reducing the risk for communities downstream.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“All this water flows past populated areas,” Carlon says. “So you’re taking that pressure off those downstream communities by moving the levees back up here.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Floodplains can also be more adaptable to climate change, since they can handle varying levels of water. Levees are designed to handle only a certain amount of flow. Carlon says traditional concrete infrastructure is often in conflict with the way rivers naturally behave.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Rivers move and that’s a really hard concept for us with property rights and roads and infrastructure,” Carlon says.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Wide floodplains also allow water to seep into the ground, filling up underground aquifers. Many aquifers in the Central Valley are at the lowest levels ever recorded, after being heavily pumped for agriculture for decades.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_1982899\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\" style=\"max-width: 800px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-1982899\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/35/2023/06/sjr-1_custom-51d3c8554bf1628ec09281330f4644736b1058d1-s1100-c50-800x532.jpg\" alt=\"A floodplain is seen with mountains in the background, clouds and blue skies. \" width=\"800\" height=\"532\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/06/sjr-1_custom-51d3c8554bf1628ec09281330f4644736b1058d1-s1100-c50-800x532.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/06/sjr-1_custom-51d3c8554bf1628ec09281330f4644736b1058d1-s1100-c50-1020x679.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/06/sjr-1_custom-51d3c8554bf1628ec09281330f4644736b1058d1-s1100-c50-160x106.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/06/sjr-1_custom-51d3c8554bf1628ec09281330f4644736b1058d1-s1100-c50-768x511.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/06/sjr-1_custom-51d3c8554bf1628ec09281330f4644736b1058d1-s1100-c50.jpg 1100w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 800px) 100vw, 800px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Moving levees and creating floodplains can more than a decade, since securing the land and permitting can be challenging. \u003ccite>(Lauren Sommer/NPR)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003ch2>Regulations are for levees to stay put, not move\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>Projects to move levees back – “levee setbacks,” as they’re known – are being done around the country, including on the Missouri River and elsewhere in California. But they can often take more than a decade, given the complexities of buying land and securing the permits.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In urban areas, residents often don’t want to be displaced or bought out. Rural areas often have larger parcels where it’s easier to piece together the necessary land. But taking agricultural fields out of production also can face pushback.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“We have low-hanging fruit where we haven’t yet urbanized the floodplain,” says Rentner of River Partners. “Those are the spots we really need to prioritize moving on right away.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Historically, it’s been hard for levee setback projects to get federal support from the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, the agency responsible for levees and flood protection. The agency evaluates projects using a cost-benefit analysis – so if the rural land being protected isn’t worth as much, it doesn’t justify the cost of constructing the project.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The Biden Administration has been \u003ca href=\"https://ewn.erdc.dren.mil/\">pushing agencies to consider “engineering with nature\u003c/a>.” The Army Corps and others are now looking at how to include social and environmental benefits in their analysis, in addition to simply the cost of moving levees.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“They’ve been hard to justify from an economic standpoint in the past,” says Beth Salyers, deputy district engineer with the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers Sacramento District. “I think we are seeing some positive changes when it comes to our ability from the federal level and the national level to do these types of projects where we have setback levees.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Still, sorting out federal, state and local permits can take years, since most regulations were written to ensure the levees were preserved for the long-term.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“When we engineered these levees back in the 1950s and 60s, nobody was thinking about how you undo the levee,” Rentner says.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>With the damage from the winter storms, California is facing a new urgency to invest in its flood infrastructure. In the Central Valley alone, a \u003ca href=\"https://water.ca.gov/Programs/Flood-Management/Flood-Planning-and-Studies/Central-Valley-Flood-Protection-Plan\">new state flood protection plan\u003c/a> puts the cost between $25 and $30 billion dollars over the next 30 years. California officials say floodplain restoration should be a piece of the puzzle.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“We should think bigger, because it’s working,” Rentner says. “Maybe it’s not so ambitious to imagine that we could scale this tremendously, to the point that it actually makes a really big difference in the way California manages its water.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cdiv class=\"fullattribution\">Copyright 2023 NPR. To see more, visit https://www.npr.org.\u003cimg decoding=\"async\" src=\"https://www.google-analytics.com/__utm.gif?utmac=UA-5828686-4&utmdt=California+is+still+at+risk+of+flooding.+Maybe+rivers+just+need+some+space&utme=8(APIKey)9(MDAxOTAwOTE4MDEyMTkxMDAzNjczZDljZA004)\">\u003c/div>\n\n\u003c/div>\u003c/p>",
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"title": "Mosquitoes Are Abuzz in San Francisco. You Can Thank Climate Change",
"headTitle": "Mosquitoes Are Abuzz in San Francisco. You Can Thank Climate Change | KQED",
"content": "\u003cp>The \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/search?q=%22atmospheric%20river%20storm%22&site=all\">Bay Area’s epic winter rainfall\u003c/a> means that a certain pesky, blood-sucking summertime pest is having the time of its short life. (For males, that’s about a week — and that’s if they aren’t swatted sooner!)\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“This year you’re going to see some pretty bad mosquito conditions — good conditions if you’re a mosquito, bad conditions if you’re a human being,” said Kaitlyn Trudeau, senior research associate at Climate Central. “Mosquitos are awful. I’m not a fan.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In the short term, lots of rain and snow means plentiful puddles, marshes, ponds and \u003ca href=\"https://twitter.com/AlamedaMosquito/status/1620897337479692288?s=20\">other opportunities for mosquitoes to lay their eggs and reproduce rapidly\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But there’s a long-term trend playing out, and it has to do with warming temperatures — and it’s bad news for any San Franciscan with bare ankles and plans for an outdoor picnic.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Trudeau and her research colleagues \u003ca href=\"https://www.climatecentral.org/climate-matters/mosquito-days-2023?utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=CM%20Mosquito%20Days%202023%20EN&utm_content=CM%20Mosquito%20Days%202023%20EN+CID_4eb38b05659c31aaee3e76c28498cca4&utm_source=Climate%20Central%20Email%20Campaign%20Monitor&utm_term=READ%20THE%20RELEASE%20%20CONTACT%20EXPERTS%20%20FIND%20REPORTING%20RESOURCES\">looked closely at mosquito activity trends between 1979 and 2022 at 242 locations across the U.S.\u003c/a> They found that rising summertime temperatures are affecting mosquitoes all over the place.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad fullwidth]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Across the country, 173 places showed an annual increase in “mosquito days” by an average of 16 days; these are days when conditions are optimal for mosquitoes, with an average relative humidity of 42% or higher, and daily temperatures ranging from 50 to 95 degrees.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>San Francisco saw one of the sharpest increase by a whopping 42 days.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“What’s really causing this is the rise in minimum temperatures,” Trudeau said. “There are many more days where the minimum temperature in San Francisco is 50 degrees or above.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The number of mosquito-friendly days around the coastal Bay Area has increased dramatically as the cooler days warm up, but San Francisco’s warmer days on average are still well below 95 degrees, making it a sweet spot for mosquitos.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>This is also the case in other humid coastal areas like Monterey and Salinas, which share these increasingly optimal conditions for mosquitoes to survive, according to Trudeau.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“It’s the coastal curse,” she said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-1982794 size-medium\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/35/2023/05/2023Mosquitoes_Days_sanfrancisco_en_title_lg-800x450.jpg\" alt=\"A graph showing an increase in mosquito days in San Francisco. \" width=\"800\" height=\"450\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/05/2023Mosquitoes_Days_sanfrancisco_en_title_lg-800x450.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/05/2023Mosquitoes_Days_sanfrancisco_en_title_lg-1020x574.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/05/2023Mosquitoes_Days_sanfrancisco_en_title_lg-160x90.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/05/2023Mosquitoes_Days_sanfrancisco_en_title_lg-768x432.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/05/2023Mosquitoes_Days_sanfrancisco_en_title_lg-1536x864.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/05/2023Mosquitoes_Days_sanfrancisco_en_title_lg.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 800px) 100vw, 800px\">\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But that trend is not true everywhere: Already hot places are getting even hotter, too warm for mosquitoes to thrive.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Other inland locations throughout the state like Stockton, Sacramento and Bakersfield are much hotter and regularly roast with temperatures above 95 degrees.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The rising temperatures in these places are causing mosquito activity to plummet each year.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“The Central Valley isn’t humid, and it’s likely getting too hot for mosquitoes,” Trudeau said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-1982843\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/35/2023/05/2023Mosquitoes_Days_sacramento_en_title_lg-800x450.jpg\" alt=\"A graph showing the decrease in the number of annual mosquito days in Sacramento. \" width=\"800\" height=\"450\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/05/2023Mosquitoes_Days_sacramento_en_title_lg-800x450.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/05/2023Mosquitoes_Days_sacramento_en_title_lg-1020x574.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/05/2023Mosquitoes_Days_sacramento_en_title_lg-160x90.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/05/2023Mosquitoes_Days_sacramento_en_title_lg-768x432.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/05/2023Mosquitoes_Days_sacramento_en_title_lg-1536x864.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/05/2023Mosquitoes_Days_sacramento_en_title_lg.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 800px) 100vw, 800px\">\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Places like San José, which gets warmer temperatures than the coastal areas, experienced a lower annual increase of mosquito days, too.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Fifty-five U.S. locations saw a significant increase of 21 days or more, primarily in the Ohio Valley and Northeast regions. The majority of the 61 locations with a decrease in mosquito days were in the Southern areas, where temperatures were too high for mosquitos to thrive.\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>A sign of climate change\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>Spring and fall temperatures are rising, and that means mosquitoes will come out earlier and survive longer, increasing the opportunities for mosquito bites and disease transmission.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>There are over 200 mosquito species in the U.S., with around a dozen species that can transmit viruses and parasites to humans. West Nile virus is the primary mosquito-borne disease in the U.S. and the Bay Area.[aside postID='science_728086']Compared to tropical regions, the U.S. has lower infection rates and milder health effects from mosquito-borne diseases. Globally, malaria and dengue pose more significant risks, particularly in Africa and Asia. Tick-borne diseases are more prevalent than mosquito-borne diseases in the U.S., although West Nile virus cases are widespread, especially in the Plains and Central regions.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_1982795\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\" style=\"max-width: 800px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-1982795\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/35/2023/05/IMG_0589-800x554.jpg\" alt=\"A map of the Bay Area with shades of blue, yellow, orange, and red dots.\" width=\"800\" height=\"554\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/05/IMG_0589-800x554.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/05/IMG_0589-1020x706.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/05/IMG_0589-160x111.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/05/IMG_0589-768x532.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/05/IMG_0589.jpg 1138w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 800px) 100vw, 800px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">A dot map of the annual change in mosquito days in the Bay Area between 1979 and 2022. \u003ccite>(Kaitlyn Trudeau/Climate Central)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Climate change affects mosquito populations and disease transmission, with increasing mosquito days and potential health risks. While mosquito-borne diseases are relatively less common in the U.S., officials say it remains crucial to address their impact through public health measures and understanding the varying risks posed by different mosquito species.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“The things that we do on a daily basis are impacting the environment. An increase in mosquito days is just one of the many, many impacts that we are seeing around the U.S., around the world, or in California because of climate change,” Trudeau said.\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>Innovative efforts to reduce mosquito population\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>Last April, the Santa Clara County Board of Supervisors approved an innovative initiative to reduce the mosquito population.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>They launched a six-propeller drone to drop larvicide on the county’s remote marshlands, replacing work that was typically conducted by helicopter.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Edgar Nolasco, who directs the agency spearheading the program, said using drones instead of helicopters reduces the county’s carbon footprint and is more sustainable and efficient. It decreases larvicide waste and saves on costs.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“A drone is able to get closer to areas that helicopters can’t get to because of the drift caused by their propellers,” said Nolasco, who works for the Consumer and Environmental Protection Agency.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Adult mosquitoes can travel up to a 25-mile radius. “Treating adult mosquitos becomes very difficult,” Nolasco said, adding that using a strong larvicide program is the most effective way for the county to combat mosquitos.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003ciframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"County of Santa Clara to Use Drones to Reduce Mosquito Population\" width=\"500\" height=\"281\" src=\"https://www.youtube.com/embed/J9edY0VeWpk?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" allowfullscreen>\u003c/iframe>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Nolasco emphasizes that drones will only be used in uninhabitable and remote areas not accessible by the \u003ca href=\"https://vector.sccgov.org/home\">Vector Control team\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>And, he said, the county is making every effort to eliminate mosquito sources, but is asking the community to help reduce the mosquito population.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“We need everybody in the community to do their part with standing water,” Nolaso said. “With the amount of rain that we got this year, there are many areas of standing water that can hold water that can reproduce mosquitoes.”\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>What to do if you get a mosquito bite, and how to protect yourself\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>If you get bitten by a mosquito, the California Department of Public Health recommends using a topical lotion to reduce itching. In California, most mosquito bites do not result in any infection. If you develop a fever two to 14 days after getting bitten by a mosquito and are concerned about West Nile virus disease, you should see a doctor. Most people with West Nile recover completely, according to CDPH.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The San Francisco Department of Public Health recommends using mosquito repellant such as DEET, installing window screens and wearing long sleeves when outdoors at night if possible.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_1982796\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\" style=\"max-width: 800px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-1982796 size-medium\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/35/2023/05/GettyImages-1407155740-800x533.jpg\" alt=\"A young Black woman with locs twirled on the top of her head sprays insect repellent on her skin while in the outdoors. Background shows lush green trees.\" width=\"800\" height=\"533\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/05/GettyImages-1407155740-800x533.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/05/GettyImages-1407155740-1020x680.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/05/GettyImages-1407155740-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/05/GettyImages-1407155740-768x512.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/05/GettyImages-1407155740-1536x1024.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/05/GettyImages-1407155740-2048x1365.jpg 2048w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/05/GettyImages-1407155740-1920x1280.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 800px) 100vw, 800px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Insect repellent can deter mosquitoes and ticks during hikes in nature. \u003ccite>(stefanamer/Getty Images)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Residents can also protect themselves by recognizing and reducing the source where mosquito larvae are commonly found. Mosquitos lay eggs in standing water, such as water in outdoor containers, so it’s important for residents to clear this water and clean out clogged roof gutters. Large drains that hold water are also a possible source of mosquito activity. Placing screens and under-drain covers could prevent mosquitoes from breeding.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>San Francisco health officials frequently survey areas where mosquito complaints are received, make monthly checks on monitoring devices for invasive Aedes mosquitoes in select fire stations and inspect apartment buildings regularly for mosquito sources. To report complaints, call 311. For more information, \u003ca href=\"https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7eLTc975iJI\">see San Francisco’s Mosquito Prevention 101 public service announcement\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad floatright]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The \u003ca href=\"https://protect-us.mimecast.com/s/Us7dClYpANizM4m4s9UYrw?domain=westnile.ca.gov/\">West Nile virus website\u003c/a>, handled by CDPH’s Vector-Borne Disease Section, is updated weekly on Fridays with the latest findings to ensure public health partners and the public have current information on the risk of transmission in the state.\u003c/p>\n\n",
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"excerpt": "Reality bites: Warming weather has extended skeeter season in San Francisco by six weeks. Here are some tips for managing the bugs.",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003cp>The \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/search?q=%22atmospheric%20river%20storm%22&site=all\">Bay Area’s epic winter rainfall\u003c/a> means that a certain pesky, blood-sucking summertime pest is having the time of its short life. (For males, that’s about a week — and that’s if they aren’t swatted sooner!)\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“This year you’re going to see some pretty bad mosquito conditions — good conditions if you’re a mosquito, bad conditions if you’re a human being,” said Kaitlyn Trudeau, senior research associate at Climate Central. “Mosquitos are awful. I’m not a fan.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In the short term, lots of rain and snow means plentiful puddles, marshes, ponds and \u003ca href=\"https://twitter.com/AlamedaMosquito/status/1620897337479692288?s=20\">other opportunities for mosquitoes to lay their eggs and reproduce rapidly\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But there’s a long-term trend playing out, and it has to do with warming temperatures — and it’s bad news for any San Franciscan with bare ankles and plans for an outdoor picnic.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Trudeau and her research colleagues \u003ca href=\"https://www.climatecentral.org/climate-matters/mosquito-days-2023?utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=CM%20Mosquito%20Days%202023%20EN&utm_content=CM%20Mosquito%20Days%202023%20EN+CID_4eb38b05659c31aaee3e76c28498cca4&utm_source=Climate%20Central%20Email%20Campaign%20Monitor&utm_term=READ%20THE%20RELEASE%20%20CONTACT%20EXPERTS%20%20FIND%20REPORTING%20RESOURCES\">looked closely at mosquito activity trends between 1979 and 2022 at 242 locations across the U.S.\u003c/a> They found that rising summertime temperatures are affecting mosquitoes all over the place.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Across the country, 173 places showed an annual increase in “mosquito days” by an average of 16 days; these are days when conditions are optimal for mosquitoes, with an average relative humidity of 42% or higher, and daily temperatures ranging from 50 to 95 degrees.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>San Francisco saw one of the sharpest increase by a whopping 42 days.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“What’s really causing this is the rise in minimum temperatures,” Trudeau said. “There are many more days where the minimum temperature in San Francisco is 50 degrees or above.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The number of mosquito-friendly days around the coastal Bay Area has increased dramatically as the cooler days warm up, but San Francisco’s warmer days on average are still well below 95 degrees, making it a sweet spot for mosquitos.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>This is also the case in other humid coastal areas like Monterey and Salinas, which share these increasingly optimal conditions for mosquitoes to survive, according to Trudeau.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“It’s the coastal curse,” she said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-1982794 size-medium\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/35/2023/05/2023Mosquitoes_Days_sanfrancisco_en_title_lg-800x450.jpg\" alt=\"A graph showing an increase in mosquito days in San Francisco. \" width=\"800\" height=\"450\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/05/2023Mosquitoes_Days_sanfrancisco_en_title_lg-800x450.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/05/2023Mosquitoes_Days_sanfrancisco_en_title_lg-1020x574.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/05/2023Mosquitoes_Days_sanfrancisco_en_title_lg-160x90.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/05/2023Mosquitoes_Days_sanfrancisco_en_title_lg-768x432.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/05/2023Mosquitoes_Days_sanfrancisco_en_title_lg-1536x864.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/05/2023Mosquitoes_Days_sanfrancisco_en_title_lg.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 800px) 100vw, 800px\">\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But that trend is not true everywhere: Already hot places are getting even hotter, too warm for mosquitoes to thrive.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Other inland locations throughout the state like Stockton, Sacramento and Bakersfield are much hotter and regularly roast with temperatures above 95 degrees.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The rising temperatures in these places are causing mosquito activity to plummet each year.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“The Central Valley isn’t humid, and it’s likely getting too hot for mosquitoes,” Trudeau said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-1982843\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/35/2023/05/2023Mosquitoes_Days_sacramento_en_title_lg-800x450.jpg\" alt=\"A graph showing the decrease in the number of annual mosquito days in Sacramento. \" width=\"800\" height=\"450\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/05/2023Mosquitoes_Days_sacramento_en_title_lg-800x450.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/05/2023Mosquitoes_Days_sacramento_en_title_lg-1020x574.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/05/2023Mosquitoes_Days_sacramento_en_title_lg-160x90.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/05/2023Mosquitoes_Days_sacramento_en_title_lg-768x432.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/05/2023Mosquitoes_Days_sacramento_en_title_lg-1536x864.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/05/2023Mosquitoes_Days_sacramento_en_title_lg.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 800px) 100vw, 800px\">\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Places like San José, which gets warmer temperatures than the coastal areas, experienced a lower annual increase of mosquito days, too.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Fifty-five U.S. locations saw a significant increase of 21 days or more, primarily in the Ohio Valley and Northeast regions. The majority of the 61 locations with a decrease in mosquito days were in the Southern areas, where temperatures were too high for mosquitos to thrive.\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>A sign of climate change\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>Spring and fall temperatures are rising, and that means mosquitoes will come out earlier and survive longer, increasing the opportunities for mosquito bites and disease transmission.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>There are over 200 mosquito species in the U.S., with around a dozen species that can transmit viruses and parasites to humans. West Nile virus is the primary mosquito-borne disease in the U.S. and the Bay Area.\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>Compared to tropical regions, the U.S. has lower infection rates and milder health effects from mosquito-borne diseases. Globally, malaria and dengue pose more significant risks, particularly in Africa and Asia. Tick-borne diseases are more prevalent than mosquito-borne diseases in the U.S., although West Nile virus cases are widespread, especially in the Plains and Central regions.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_1982795\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\" style=\"max-width: 800px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-1982795\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/35/2023/05/IMG_0589-800x554.jpg\" alt=\"A map of the Bay Area with shades of blue, yellow, orange, and red dots.\" width=\"800\" height=\"554\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/05/IMG_0589-800x554.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/05/IMG_0589-1020x706.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/05/IMG_0589-160x111.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/05/IMG_0589-768x532.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/05/IMG_0589.jpg 1138w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 800px) 100vw, 800px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">A dot map of the annual change in mosquito days in the Bay Area between 1979 and 2022. \u003ccite>(Kaitlyn Trudeau/Climate Central)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Climate change affects mosquito populations and disease transmission, with increasing mosquito days and potential health risks. While mosquito-borne diseases are relatively less common in the U.S., officials say it remains crucial to address their impact through public health measures and understanding the varying risks posed by different mosquito species.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“The things that we do on a daily basis are impacting the environment. An increase in mosquito days is just one of the many, many impacts that we are seeing around the U.S., around the world, or in California because of climate change,” Trudeau said.\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>Innovative efforts to reduce mosquito population\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>Last April, the Santa Clara County Board of Supervisors approved an innovative initiative to reduce the mosquito population.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>They launched a six-propeller drone to drop larvicide on the county’s remote marshlands, replacing work that was typically conducted by helicopter.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Edgar Nolasco, who directs the agency spearheading the program, said using drones instead of helicopters reduces the county’s carbon footprint and is more sustainable and efficient. It decreases larvicide waste and saves on costs.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“A drone is able to get closer to areas that helicopters can’t get to because of the drift caused by their propellers,” said Nolasco, who works for the Consumer and Environmental Protection Agency.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Adult mosquitoes can travel up to a 25-mile radius. “Treating adult mosquitos becomes very difficult,” Nolasco said, adding that using a strong larvicide program is the most effective way for the county to combat mosquitos.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003ciframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"County of Santa Clara to Use Drones to Reduce Mosquito Population\" width=\"500\" height=\"281\" src=\"https://www.youtube.com/embed/J9edY0VeWpk?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" allowfullscreen>\u003c/iframe>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Nolasco emphasizes that drones will only be used in uninhabitable and remote areas not accessible by the \u003ca href=\"https://vector.sccgov.org/home\">Vector Control team\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>And, he said, the county is making every effort to eliminate mosquito sources, but is asking the community to help reduce the mosquito population.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“We need everybody in the community to do their part with standing water,” Nolaso said. “With the amount of rain that we got this year, there are many areas of standing water that can hold water that can reproduce mosquitoes.”\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>What to do if you get a mosquito bite, and how to protect yourself\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>If you get bitten by a mosquito, the California Department of Public Health recommends using a topical lotion to reduce itching. In California, most mosquito bites do not result in any infection. If you develop a fever two to 14 days after getting bitten by a mosquito and are concerned about West Nile virus disease, you should see a doctor. Most people with West Nile recover completely, according to CDPH.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The San Francisco Department of Public Health recommends using mosquito repellant such as DEET, installing window screens and wearing long sleeves when outdoors at night if possible.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_1982796\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\" style=\"max-width: 800px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-1982796 size-medium\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/35/2023/05/GettyImages-1407155740-800x533.jpg\" alt=\"A young Black woman with locs twirled on the top of her head sprays insect repellent on her skin while in the outdoors. Background shows lush green trees.\" width=\"800\" height=\"533\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/05/GettyImages-1407155740-800x533.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/05/GettyImages-1407155740-1020x680.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/05/GettyImages-1407155740-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/05/GettyImages-1407155740-768x512.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/05/GettyImages-1407155740-1536x1024.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/05/GettyImages-1407155740-2048x1365.jpg 2048w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/05/GettyImages-1407155740-1920x1280.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 800px) 100vw, 800px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Insect repellent can deter mosquitoes and ticks during hikes in nature. \u003ccite>(stefanamer/Getty Images)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Residents can also protect themselves by recognizing and reducing the source where mosquito larvae are commonly found. Mosquitos lay eggs in standing water, such as water in outdoor containers, so it’s important for residents to clear this water and clean out clogged roof gutters. Large drains that hold water are also a possible source of mosquito activity. Placing screens and under-drain covers could prevent mosquitoes from breeding.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>San Francisco health officials frequently survey areas where mosquito complaints are received, make monthly checks on monitoring devices for invasive Aedes mosquitoes in select fire stations and inspect apartment buildings regularly for mosquito sources. To report complaints, call 311. For more information, \u003ca href=\"https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7eLTc975iJI\">see San Francisco’s Mosquito Prevention 101 public service announcement\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The \u003ca href=\"https://protect-us.mimecast.com/s/Us7dClYpANizM4m4s9UYrw?domain=westnile.ca.gov/\">West Nile virus website\u003c/a>, handled by CDPH’s Vector-Borne Disease Section, is updated weekly on Fridays with the latest findings to ensure public health partners and the public have current information on the risk of transmission in the state.\u003c/p>\n\n\u003c/div>\u003c/p>",
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"content": "\u003cp>After a four-year hiatus, El Niño is widely expected to make a grand reentrance this summer, ushering in the possibility of yet another wet, stormy winter.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“It looks like it’s full steam ahead,” UCLA climate scientist Daniel Swain said in a live YouTube interview last week, in which he placed the likelihood of a strong El Niño event at greater than 50% — even as projections still vary widely.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“A strong event does have the potential for strong impacts on California,” said Swain.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The El Niño \u003ca href=\"https://www.pmel.noaa.gov/elnino/what-is-el-nino\">climate phenomenon\u003c/a> — the opposite of \u003ca href=\"https://www.pmel.noaa.gov/elnino/what-is-la-nina\">La Niña\u003c/a> — generally occurs every three to five years when ocean waters along the equator in the eastern Pacific warm by at least a half-degree Fahrenheit.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003ca href=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/35/2023/05/el-nino-1.png\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone size-full wp-image-1982830\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/35/2023/05/el-nino-1.png\" alt=\"A vertical bar chart showing El Niño events since 1950.\" width=\"2182\" height=\"1400\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/05/el-nino-1.png 2182w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/05/el-nino-1-800x513.png 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/05/el-nino-1-1020x654.png 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/05/el-nino-1-160x103.png 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/05/el-nino-1-768x493.png 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/05/el-nino-1-1536x986.png 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/05/el-nino-1-2048x1314.png 2048w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/05/el-nino-1-1920x1232.png 1920w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 2182px) 100vw, 2182px\">\u003c/a>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>That, in turn, can reposition the jet stream and funnel storms toward the West Coast, often resulting in increased rainfall across thousands of miles, said John Monteverdi, emeritus professor of meteorology at San Francisco State University.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But a wet winter is not at all guaranteed, he said, noting that only one out of about six current models predicts a strong El Niño as this year progresses.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“People have been sort of charmed into believing that all El Niños mean storms,” Monteverdi said. “The historical record does not support a sure bet on that.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Misconceptions about this mysterious weather pattern abound. Below are six of the most common ones.\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>Misconception 1: El Niño comes to California\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>Every time Jan Null reads a headline saying El Niño is coming to the West Coast, he cringes. The local forecaster, who founded \u003ca href=\"https://www.ggweather.com/\">Golden Gate Weather Service\u003c/a>, said the headlines aren’t factual because El Niño actually occurs “about 3,000 miles away from California. It does not move en masse toward the California coast.” It can, however, greatly affect the weather in California.\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>Misconception 2: Every El Niño event and its effects are identical\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>For the more than seven decades that El Niños have been tracked, their strength and impact have varied significantly, with many having little impact in California.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“The general notion is that El Niño brings wetter winters in California, although the relationship is somewhat fragile,” said UC Berkeley climate scientist John Chiang. “It’s really only the strong El Niños that affect rainfall over Northern California.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>And a slew of other oceanic and atmospheric variables can enhance or diffuse the effects of El Niño, noted meteorologist Null, saying, “I’ve often referred to it as the alphabet soup of all these other climate things going on.”\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>Misconception 3: El Niño is a storm\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>“El Niño is not a storm in and of itself,” Monteverdi said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Rather, he explains, it is a phenomenon that can prime the atmosphere to push more robust storms toward the West Coast.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>El Niños do “not spawn storms” and “do not directly create storms over California or anywhere else,” added Null.\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>Misconception 4: El Niños always result in catastrophic flooding\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>Significant flooding can just as likely occur in a non-El Niño period like the one Californians experienced this past winter (which was technically in a La Niña year).[aside label=\"related coverage\" tag=\"el-nino\"]Since 1950, \u003ca href=\"https://www.ggweather.com/ca_enso2021/ca_elnino.html\">there have been 26 El Niño years\u003c/a>, and that doesn’t include some of the costliest flood years, Null said. That means it’s very difficult to accurately predict just how wet a winter we’re in for this year, he said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“It’s slightly skewed toward the wetter than normal, but it’s not something where I’d reach into my wallet and put money on the table betting on it,” he said.\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>Misconception 5: El Niños cause elevated ocean temperatures along California’s coastal waters\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>El Niño is \u003cem>not\u003c/em> responsible for any warming of ocean temperatures along the California coast.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“It’s not true that when we have El Niño, we automatically have warm water immediately west of San Francisco,” said Monteverdi. “It refers to an oceanographic phenomenon in the tropical Pacific well away from us.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The water along California is primarily influenced by the California Current, which runs from north to south from the Gulf of Alaska down along the West Coast, where cold water comes to the surface.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“There’s no real transport mechanism for the warm water at the equator 3,000 miles away to get to the California coast and that sort of gets lost in the discussion,” said Null.\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>Misconception 6: Climate change is having a clear impact on the frequency and severity of El Niños\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>While climate change from the burning of fossil fuels has indisputably accelerated weather extremes in California — fueling significantly wetter and dryer conditions — climate experts still don’t know precisely how it has affected the nature of El Niño, in part because records about it in California only go back to about 1950.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“If we have this conversation 20 years from now, we may start seeing more of these big events in that same time frame — then it’s easier to attribute it [to climate change],” Null said. “Right now, they’re still separating the signal from the noise.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Even so, future storms fueled by El Niños could be a whole lot wetter than they used to be because of climate change, which has resulted in an increasingly warmer atmosphere that can hold more water and, in turn, dump more on land.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Global ocean warming “will change our weather patterns,” said Chiang, of UC Berkeley. “It’ll change the impact of El Niño. So, whether we see it now or in the decades ahead, that’s still an open debate.”\u003cbr>\n[ad fullwidth]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003cp>After a four-year hiatus, El Niño is widely expected to make a grand reentrance this summer, ushering in the possibility of yet another wet, stormy winter.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“It looks like it’s full steam ahead,” UCLA climate scientist Daniel Swain said in a live YouTube interview last week, in which he placed the likelihood of a strong El Niño event at greater than 50% — even as projections still vary widely.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“A strong event does have the potential for strong impacts on California,” said Swain.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The El Niño \u003ca href=\"https://www.pmel.noaa.gov/elnino/what-is-el-nino\">climate phenomenon\u003c/a> — the opposite of \u003ca href=\"https://www.pmel.noaa.gov/elnino/what-is-la-nina\">La Niña\u003c/a> — generally occurs every three to five years when ocean waters along the equator in the eastern Pacific warm by at least a half-degree Fahrenheit.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003ca href=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/35/2023/05/el-nino-1.png\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone size-full wp-image-1982830\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/35/2023/05/el-nino-1.png\" alt=\"A vertical bar chart showing El Niño events since 1950.\" width=\"2182\" height=\"1400\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/05/el-nino-1.png 2182w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/05/el-nino-1-800x513.png 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/05/el-nino-1-1020x654.png 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/05/el-nino-1-160x103.png 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/05/el-nino-1-768x493.png 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/05/el-nino-1-1536x986.png 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/05/el-nino-1-2048x1314.png 2048w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/05/el-nino-1-1920x1232.png 1920w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 2182px) 100vw, 2182px\">\u003c/a>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>That, in turn, can reposition the jet stream and funnel storms toward the West Coast, often resulting in increased rainfall across thousands of miles, said John Monteverdi, emeritus professor of meteorology at San Francisco State University.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But a wet winter is not at all guaranteed, he said, noting that only one out of about six current models predicts a strong El Niño as this year progresses.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“People have been sort of charmed into believing that all El Niños mean storms,” Monteverdi said. “The historical record does not support a sure bet on that.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Misconceptions about this mysterious weather pattern abound. Below are six of the most common ones.\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>Misconception 1: El Niño comes to California\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>Every time Jan Null reads a headline saying El Niño is coming to the West Coast, he cringes. The local forecaster, who founded \u003ca href=\"https://www.ggweather.com/\">Golden Gate Weather Service\u003c/a>, said the headlines aren’t factual because El Niño actually occurs “about 3,000 miles away from California. It does not move en masse toward the California coast.” It can, however, greatly affect the weather in California.\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>Misconception 2: Every El Niño event and its effects are identical\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>For the more than seven decades that El Niños have been tracked, their strength and impact have varied significantly, with many having little impact in California.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“The general notion is that El Niño brings wetter winters in California, although the relationship is somewhat fragile,” said UC Berkeley climate scientist John Chiang. “It’s really only the strong El Niños that affect rainfall over Northern California.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>And a slew of other oceanic and atmospheric variables can enhance or diffuse the effects of El Niño, noted meteorologist Null, saying, “I’ve often referred to it as the alphabet soup of all these other climate things going on.”\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>Misconception 3: El Niño is a storm\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>“El Niño is not a storm in and of itself,” Monteverdi said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Rather, he explains, it is a phenomenon that can prime the atmosphere to push more robust storms toward the West Coast.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>El Niños do “not spawn storms” and “do not directly create storms over California or anywhere else,” added Null.\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>Misconception 4: El Niños always result in catastrophic flooding\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>Significant flooding can just as likely occur in a non-El Niño period like the one Californians experienced this past winter (which was technically in a La Niña year).\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>Since 1950, \u003ca href=\"https://www.ggweather.com/ca_enso2021/ca_elnino.html\">there have been 26 El Niño years\u003c/a>, and that doesn’t include some of the costliest flood years, Null said. That means it’s very difficult to accurately predict just how wet a winter we’re in for this year, he said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“It’s slightly skewed toward the wetter than normal, but it’s not something where I’d reach into my wallet and put money on the table betting on it,” he said.\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>Misconception 5: El Niños cause elevated ocean temperatures along California’s coastal waters\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>El Niño is \u003cem>not\u003c/em> responsible for any warming of ocean temperatures along the California coast.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“It’s not true that when we have El Niño, we automatically have warm water immediately west of San Francisco,” said Monteverdi. “It refers to an oceanographic phenomenon in the tropical Pacific well away from us.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The water along California is primarily influenced by the California Current, which runs from north to south from the Gulf of Alaska down along the West Coast, where cold water comes to the surface.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“There’s no real transport mechanism for the warm water at the equator 3,000 miles away to get to the California coast and that sort of gets lost in the discussion,” said Null.\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>Misconception 6: Climate change is having a clear impact on the frequency and severity of El Niños\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>While climate change from the burning of fossil fuels has indisputably accelerated weather extremes in California — fueling significantly wetter and dryer conditions — climate experts still don’t know precisely how it has affected the nature of El Niño, in part because records about it in California only go back to about 1950.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“If we have this conversation 20 years from now, we may start seeing more of these big events in that same time frame — then it’s easier to attribute it [to climate change],” Null said. “Right now, they’re still separating the signal from the noise.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Even so, future storms fueled by El Niños could be a whole lot wetter than they used to be because of climate change, which has resulted in an increasingly warmer atmosphere that can hold more water and, in turn, dump more on land.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Global ocean warming “will change our weather patterns,” said Chiang, of UC Berkeley. “It’ll change the impact of El Niño. So, whether we see it now or in the decades ahead, that’s still an open debate.”\u003cbr>\n\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"title": "New Map Exposes Critical Gaps in Bay Area's Readiness for Sea Level Rise",
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"content": "\u003cp>About half of the shoreline running along the lip of San Francisco Bay has no plans in place to protect against future rising seas. That’s in terms of the cost of preparing the region for the climate effect by 2050, according to regional agencies’ analysis and a map released this week.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“The big story is that there’s obviously still a lot of work to be done,” said Todd Hallenbeck, lead geographic information systems (GIS) specialist at the Bay Conservation and Development Commission, or BCDC.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_1982835\" class=\"wp-caption alignright\" style=\"max-width: 1098px\">\u003ca href=\"https://mtc.maps.arcgis.com/apps/webappviewer/index.html?id=4cfbec7006d542a5913a46ec15d7cd24\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-1982835 size-full\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/35/2023/05/Screen-Shot-2023-05-25-at-5.33.27-PM.png\" alt=\"A map showing the region’s progress in adapting to rising sea levels brought about by anthropogenic climate change.\" width=\"1098\" height=\"1124\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/05/Screen-Shot-2023-05-25-at-5.33.27-PM.png 1098w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/05/Screen-Shot-2023-05-25-at-5.33.27-PM-800x819.png 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/05/Screen-Shot-2023-05-25-at-5.33.27-PM-1020x1044.png 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/05/Screen-Shot-2023-05-25-at-5.33.27-PM-160x164.png 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/05/Screen-Shot-2023-05-25-at-5.33.27-PM-768x786.png 768w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1098px) 100vw, 1098px\">\u003c/a>\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">The map provides a visual presentation of the region’s progress in adapting to rising sea levels brought about by anthropogenic climate change.\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>For the first time, \u003ca href=\"https://mtc.maps.arcgis.com/apps/webappviewer/index.html?id=4cfbec7006d542a5913a46ec15d7cd24\">this map\u003c/a> gives Bay Area residents a visual presentation of the region’s progress in adapting to rising sea levels brought about by anthropogenic climate change.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The map shows that the region is nowhere near the $110 billion price tag it will take to prevent 4.9 feet of inundation by midcentury. This number includes preparing for around 1.5 feet of sea level rise and storm surge, but is still a middle-of-the-road preparation level. Other climate models predict more than 6 feet of sea level rise by the end of the century if the burning of fossil fuels globally goes unchecked.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“The project map shows where adaptation activities are occurring and also, importantly, where there are gaps in project planning along the bay, and where we might want to concentrate attention,” Hallenbeck said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>This map offers citizens crucial information about projects and plans that either protect their neighborhoods or leave them vulnerable to rising seas.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“The job’s not done,” Hallenbeck said. “A lot of these projects are in planning stages. They’re not necessarily in construction stages, either.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>BCDC, the Association of Bay Area Governments and the Metropolitan Transportation Commission created the map. The cohort is an essential allyship because rising seas pose an existential dilemma for the Bay Area, with its nearly 8 million people and infrastructure — highways, bridges, sewer plants and power lines — that supports human life here.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“I was pretty surprised by the amount of shoreline that \u003cem>does\u003c/em> have active planning occurring,” Hallenbeck said. “I could see that being a lot less in some areas of the country.”[aside postID=science_1982750 hero='https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/35/2023/05/004_KQED_OBVelellaVelella_05182023-1020x680.jpg']\u003cbr>\nThe map’s scope, however, is limited. It does not capture policy changes, land use zoning and building ordinances that significantly shape development along the shoreline and future vulnerability to rising sea levels.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>While it includes various project types, such as seawalls, levees and natural solutions like marshes, it fails to adequately address rising groundwater as a threat. Decades before water is expected to lap over the shoreline, rising seas will push up groundwater affecting underground infrastructure and contaminated sites.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Hallenbeck said he hopes the findings cause residents to push for complete protection of the Bay Area and causes them to ask local representatives to get involved.\u003cbr>\n[ad fullwidth]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003cp>About half of the shoreline running along the lip of San Francisco Bay has no plans in place to protect against future rising seas. That’s in terms of the cost of preparing the region for the climate effect by 2050, according to regional agencies’ analysis and a map released this week.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“The big story is that there’s obviously still a lot of work to be done,” said Todd Hallenbeck, lead geographic information systems (GIS) specialist at the Bay Conservation and Development Commission, or BCDC.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_1982835\" class=\"wp-caption alignright\" style=\"max-width: 1098px\">\u003ca href=\"https://mtc.maps.arcgis.com/apps/webappviewer/index.html?id=4cfbec7006d542a5913a46ec15d7cd24\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-1982835 size-full\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/35/2023/05/Screen-Shot-2023-05-25-at-5.33.27-PM.png\" alt=\"A map showing the region’s progress in adapting to rising sea levels brought about by anthropogenic climate change.\" width=\"1098\" height=\"1124\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/05/Screen-Shot-2023-05-25-at-5.33.27-PM.png 1098w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/05/Screen-Shot-2023-05-25-at-5.33.27-PM-800x819.png 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/05/Screen-Shot-2023-05-25-at-5.33.27-PM-1020x1044.png 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/05/Screen-Shot-2023-05-25-at-5.33.27-PM-160x164.png 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/05/Screen-Shot-2023-05-25-at-5.33.27-PM-768x786.png 768w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1098px) 100vw, 1098px\">\u003c/a>\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">The map provides a visual presentation of the region’s progress in adapting to rising sea levels brought about by anthropogenic climate change.\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>For the first time, \u003ca href=\"https://mtc.maps.arcgis.com/apps/webappviewer/index.html?id=4cfbec7006d542a5913a46ec15d7cd24\">this map\u003c/a> gives Bay Area residents a visual presentation of the region’s progress in adapting to rising sea levels brought about by anthropogenic climate change.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The map shows that the region is nowhere near the $110 billion price tag it will take to prevent 4.9 feet of inundation by midcentury. This number includes preparing for around 1.5 feet of sea level rise and storm surge, but is still a middle-of-the-road preparation level. Other climate models predict more than 6 feet of sea level rise by the end of the century if the burning of fossil fuels globally goes unchecked.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“The project map shows where adaptation activities are occurring and also, importantly, where there are gaps in project planning along the bay, and where we might want to concentrate attention,” Hallenbeck said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>This map offers citizens crucial information about projects and plans that either protect their neighborhoods or leave them vulnerable to rising seas.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“The job’s not done,” Hallenbeck said. “A lot of these projects are in planning stages. They’re not necessarily in construction stages, either.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>BCDC, the Association of Bay Area Governments and the Metropolitan Transportation Commission created the map. The cohort is an essential allyship because rising seas pose an existential dilemma for the Bay Area, with its nearly 8 million people and infrastructure — highways, bridges, sewer plants and power lines — that supports human life here.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“I was pretty surprised by the amount of shoreline that \u003cem>does\u003c/em> have active planning occurring,” Hallenbeck said. “I could see that being a lot less in some areas of the country.”\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003cbr>\nThe map’s scope, however, is limited. It does not capture policy changes, land use zoning and building ordinances that significantly shape development along the shoreline and future vulnerability to rising sea levels.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>While it includes various project types, such as seawalls, levees and natural solutions like marshes, it fails to adequately address rising groundwater as a threat. Decades before water is expected to lap over the shoreline, rising seas will push up groundwater affecting underground infrastructure and contaminated sites.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Hallenbeck said he hopes the findings cause residents to push for complete protection of the Bay Area and causes them to ask local representatives to get involved.\u003cbr>\n\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"title": "California Wants to Store Floodwaters Underground. It's Harder Than It Sounds",
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"content": "\u003cp>For much of the last few decades, when the sky didn’t produce enough water for his cows and crops, Dino Giacomazzi — like most farmers in California’s southern Central Valley — pumped it from the earth. Underground aquifers, vast bank accounts of stored water, were drained.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Now, after a historically wet winter, Giacomazzi and the state of California want to put some of that water back.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“It is a no-brainer, win-win, multibenefit opportunity,” said Giacomazzi, standing on his Central Valley farm, which depends on groundwater to grow almonds, lettuce and tomatoes for pizza sauce.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>More water stored underground means fewer flooded farms, and more water available to farmers like him during the next inevitable drought.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_1982778\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\" style=\"max-width: 800px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-1982778 size-medium\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/35/2023/05/20230414-_dsc7315_slide-f4ad38703f1ea83d5235b8f204ab33ca99410025-800x533.jpg\" alt=\"A white man with dark brown hair and black sunglasses, wearing a black puffer jacket with an orange collared shirt and jeans, stands on a farm with a to-go cup in his hand. \" width=\"800\" height=\"533\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/05/20230414-_dsc7315_slide-f4ad38703f1ea83d5235b8f204ab33ca99410025-800x533.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/05/20230414-_dsc7315_slide-f4ad38703f1ea83d5235b8f204ab33ca99410025-1020x680.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/05/20230414-_dsc7315_slide-f4ad38703f1ea83d5235b8f204ab33ca99410025-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/05/20230414-_dsc7315_slide-f4ad38703f1ea83d5235b8f204ab33ca99410025-768x512.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/05/20230414-_dsc7315_slide-f4ad38703f1ea83d5235b8f204ab33ca99410025-1536x1023.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/05/20230414-_dsc7315_slide-f4ad38703f1ea83d5235b8f204ab33ca99410025-2048x1365.jpg 2048w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/05/20230414-_dsc7315_slide-f4ad38703f1ea83d5235b8f204ab33ca99410025-1920x1279.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 800px) 100vw, 800px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Dino Giacomazzi stands on his Central Valley farm, which depends on groundwater to grow almonds, lettuce and tomatoes for pizza sauce. \u003ccite>(Claire Harbage/NPR)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>An area nearly the size of New Orleans is already flooded downstream of Giacomazzi’s farm. State officials have warned more water is coming as warmer temperatures cause a record Sierra Nevada snowpack to melt. This week, however, they said some communities, such as Corcoran, should be safe from rising floodwaters because of levee improvements, favorable weather and efforts to spread the water upstream.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad fullwidth]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But capturing the extra water is an opportunity that Giacomazzi worries is being missed.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“The condition we find ourselves in right now is that there are billions of gallons of water just flowing right through us, right on by, and heading down and filling the Tulare Lake,” Giacomazzi said, referencing the long-dried lake — once the largest west of the Mississippi River — that has come roaring back to life during this winter’s storms.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>California water officials are scrambling to catch as much of the floodwaters as they can. In January, as a series of atmospheric river storms \u003ca href=\"https://www.npr.org/2023/01/11/1148333208/storms-keep-pummeling-california-causing-widespread-flooding-and-evacuations\">blasted the state\u003c/a> with rain and snow, the state’s Department of Water Resources announced it was \u003ca href=\"https://water.ca.gov/News/News-Releases/2023/Jan-23/State-Agencies-Fast-track-Groundwater-Recharge-Pilot-Project\">accelerating permitting\u003c/a> for projects that put water back into the aquifers.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Projects that capture available precipitation, stormwater or floodwaters to recharge depleted groundwater basins need to be ready to capture high flows when they are available during each wet season,” said Karla Nemeth, the agency’s director.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_1982779\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\" style=\"max-width: 800px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-1982779 size-medium\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/35/2023/05/20230414-_dsc7388_slide-e1a31163a760bed0b4e1633bae0c23bc8a41adf1-800x533.jpg\" alt=\"A small, gray donkey, as well as a donkey in complete shadow in the foreground, look out at a gravel road through a low wire fence on a sunny day. Farm buildings and green-and-brown lots lay beyond the road.\" width=\"800\" height=\"533\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/05/20230414-_dsc7388_slide-e1a31163a760bed0b4e1633bae0c23bc8a41adf1-800x533.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/05/20230414-_dsc7388_slide-e1a31163a760bed0b4e1633bae0c23bc8a41adf1-1020x680.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/05/20230414-_dsc7388_slide-e1a31163a760bed0b4e1633bae0c23bc8a41adf1-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/05/20230414-_dsc7388_slide-e1a31163a760bed0b4e1633bae0c23bc8a41adf1-768x512.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/05/20230414-_dsc7388_slide-e1a31163a760bed0b4e1633bae0c23bc8a41adf1-1536x1023.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/05/20230414-_dsc7388_slide-e1a31163a760bed0b4e1633bae0c23bc8a41adf1-2048x1365.jpg 2048w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/05/20230414-_dsc7388_slide-e1a31163a760bed0b4e1633bae0c23bc8a41adf1-1920x1279.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 800px) 100vw, 800px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Giacomazzi’s donkeys look out over some of the farmland. \u003ccite>(Claire Harbage/NPR)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Two months later, Gov. Gavin Newsom signed \u003ca href=\"https://www.gov.ca.gov/2023/03/10/governor-newsom-issues-executive-order-to-use-floodwater-to-recharge-and-store-groundwater/\">an executive order\u003c/a> making it easier for farmers to divert water onto their lands.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But in some parts of the Central Valley, like Giacomazzi’s, bureaucracy, water rights and a history of over-pumping are creating roadblocks.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“The issue with these water systems in California is that every couple of miles in this state, it’s a completely different, independently operated situation,” Giacomazzi said. “There isn’t really a coordinating body that sits over the top if that says, ‘Here’s what we need to do. Let’s do it together.'”\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>A test for California’s climate future\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>California has always experienced dramatic swings from drought to flood. Those \u003ca href=\"https://resources.ca.gov/-/media/CNRA-Website/Files/Initiatives/Water-Resilience/CA-Water-Supply-Strategy.pdf\">swings are expected to become more severe (PDF)\u003c/a> as temperatures rise due to human-caused climate change.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In that sense, the situation playing out in California this year could be a window into the state’s climate future, said Daniel Mountjoy, director of resource stewardship for Sustainable Conservation, a California-based nonprofit water group.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“I’ve worked in water my entire career and one of our sayings is never waste a good crisis,” he said, standing next to a field of purposely flooded grapevines north of Fresno. “This is our chance for everyone to be aware of what’s possible.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_1982780\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\" style=\"max-width: 800px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-1982780 size-medium\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/35/2023/05/20230412-_dsc1148_slide-fb7786a4ff4d53e45a28bd5a1e545f524af71028-800x533.jpg\" alt=\"Two men, one white and one Black, both wearing baseball caps and unzipped jackets, talk to each other, one gesturing toward the vineyard they stand in with one arm raised.\" width=\"800\" height=\"533\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/05/20230412-_dsc1148_slide-fb7786a4ff4d53e45a28bd5a1e545f524af71028-800x533.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/05/20230412-_dsc1148_slide-fb7786a4ff4d53e45a28bd5a1e545f524af71028-1020x680.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/05/20230412-_dsc1148_slide-fb7786a4ff4d53e45a28bd5a1e545f524af71028-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/05/20230412-_dsc1148_slide-fb7786a4ff4d53e45a28bd5a1e545f524af71028-768x512.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/05/20230412-_dsc1148_slide-fb7786a4ff4d53e45a28bd5a1e545f524af71028-1536x1023.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/05/20230412-_dsc1148_slide-fb7786a4ff4d53e45a28bd5a1e545f524af71028-2048x1365.jpg 2048w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/05/20230412-_dsc1148_slide-fb7786a4ff4d53e45a28bd5a1e545f524af71028-1920x1279.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 800px) 100vw, 800px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Daniel Mountjoy (left), director of resource stewardship for Sustainable Conservation, a California-based nonprofit water group, talks with a colleague at a vineyard that is sinking water into the ground. \u003ccite>(Claire Harbage/NPR)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>California water experts like Mountjoy, hydrologists and environmental watchdog groups have long warned that the Central Valley’s use of groundwater was unsustainable. Parts of the southern Central Valley that are now flooded have sunk by as much as 28 feet over the last few decades — deflated like punctured balloons — because so much water has been pumped from the ground.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The state aimed to address the problem with legislation in 2014 that requires local water agencies to bring their underground accounts into balance.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“We’re going to have to put in as much as we pump out,” said Eric Holder, an irrigation research assistant with the University of California.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_1982781\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\" style=\"max-width: 800px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-1982781\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/35/2023/05/20230411-_dsc9551_slide-f61a1b40b9d27519eefd649a788dcaad9238baa4-800x533.jpg\" alt=\"Water is seen flowing out of pipes at a farm. \" width=\"800\" height=\"533\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/05/20230411-_dsc9551_slide-f61a1b40b9d27519eefd649a788dcaad9238baa4-800x533.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/05/20230411-_dsc9551_slide-f61a1b40b9d27519eefd649a788dcaad9238baa4-1020x680.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/05/20230411-_dsc9551_slide-f61a1b40b9d27519eefd649a788dcaad9238baa4-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/05/20230411-_dsc9551_slide-f61a1b40b9d27519eefd649a788dcaad9238baa4-768x512.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/05/20230411-_dsc9551_slide-f61a1b40b9d27519eefd649a788dcaad9238baa4-1536x1023.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/05/20230411-_dsc9551_slide-f61a1b40b9d27519eefd649a788dcaad9238baa4-2048x1365.jpg 2048w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/05/20230411-_dsc9551_slide-f61a1b40b9d27519eefd649a788dcaad9238baa4-1920x1279.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 800px) 100vw, 800px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Water floods a field at an irrigation project run by the University of California.\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Cutting groundwater use could be painful. A study by the Public Policy Institute of California last year found that an\u003ca href=\"https://www.ppic.org/publication/priorities-for-californias-water/\"> estimated 500,000 acres\u003c/a> of farmland would have to go unplanted in the southern Central Valley over the next 20 years to help restore water underground. That’s even with increased capturing of stormwaters in a year like this. The region produces billions of dollars in almonds, pistachios, dairy and other produce every year.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“We’ve got to find a safe landing pattern,” Mountjoy said. “Come up with a way to reduce the pumping or increase the groundwater supply.”\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>Some farmers are flooding their fields\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>With so much of the state awash in water, the focus in California is on increasing groundwater supply — stashing more into the bank account — by flooding farmland.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_1982782\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\" style=\"max-width: 800px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-1982782 size-medium\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/35/2023/05/20230412-_dsc1022_slide-a0b041ac2be62456d3bbd1691767f8944145102f-800x533.jpg\" alt=\"Most of the frame is taken up by slightly blurry, bright green grape leaves in the foreground. Beyond them, on the ground, two cement cisterns pour water onto the ground, with the dry land to the left looking light brown and dusty, and the wet land to the right looking dark brown and muddy.\" width=\"800\" height=\"533\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/05/20230412-_dsc1022_slide-a0b041ac2be62456d3bbd1691767f8944145102f-800x533.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/05/20230412-_dsc1022_slide-a0b041ac2be62456d3bbd1691767f8944145102f-1020x680.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/05/20230412-_dsc1022_slide-a0b041ac2be62456d3bbd1691767f8944145102f-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/05/20230412-_dsc1022_slide-a0b041ac2be62456d3bbd1691767f8944145102f-768x512.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/05/20230412-_dsc1022_slide-a0b041ac2be62456d3bbd1691767f8944145102f-1536x1023.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/05/20230412-_dsc1022_slide-a0b041ac2be62456d3bbd1691767f8944145102f-2048x1365.jpg 2048w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/05/20230412-_dsc1022_slide-a0b041ac2be62456d3bbd1691767f8944145102f-1920x1279.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 800px) 100vw, 800px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Water is pumped into a vineyard, flooding the field. In some water districts, like Madera County’s in the heart of the Central Valley, farmers are being incentivized to use their existing infrastructure to flood their fields with free or reduced-cost water. \u003ccite>(Claire Harbage/NPR)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>In some areas, like Giacomazzi’s, there isn’t enough incentive for farmers to flood their fields, or the infrastructure doesn’t exist to divert water from canals and streams.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“It takes a lot of money to excavate a basin and build the structures to divert water off the system,” said Mark Larsen, general manager of the Kaweah Delta Water Conservation District. “And then you have it sitting [dry] most of the time waiting for a year like this.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In some water districts, like Madera County’s in the heart of the Central Valley, farmers are being incentivized to use their existing infrastructure to flood their fields with free or reduced-cost water.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“That’s our way to motivate people to take that water, spread it and get that water in the ground when it’s available in years like this,” said Thomas Greci, general manager of the Madera Irrigation District.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_1982783\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\" style=\"max-width: 800px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-1982783 size-medium\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/35/2023/05/20230412-_dsc1077_slide-e34560e26d1272886404c7d51574dffa21c9998d-800x533.jpg\" alt=\"A white man with a beard, wearing a baseball cap, a long-sleeved button-up powder blue shirt, blue jeans, and boots stands in a vineyard with his hands in his pockets, looking off to the side.\" width=\"800\" height=\"533\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/05/20230412-_dsc1077_slide-e34560e26d1272886404c7d51574dffa21c9998d-800x533.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/05/20230412-_dsc1077_slide-e34560e26d1272886404c7d51574dffa21c9998d-1020x680.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/05/20230412-_dsc1077_slide-e34560e26d1272886404c7d51574dffa21c9998d-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/05/20230412-_dsc1077_slide-e34560e26d1272886404c7d51574dffa21c9998d-768x512.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/05/20230412-_dsc1077_slide-e34560e26d1272886404c7d51574dffa21c9998d-1536x1023.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/05/20230412-_dsc1077_slide-e34560e26d1272886404c7d51574dffa21c9998d-2048x1365.jpg 2048w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/05/20230412-_dsc1077_slide-e34560e26d1272886404c7d51574dffa21c9998d-1920x1279.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 800px) 100vw, 800px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Nick Davis stands in the vineyard he owns with his twin brother outside Madera. He’s been dumping water on his grapevines since the heavy rains started this winter, sinking more than four times the amount of water he typically uses on the vines into the ground. \u003ccite>(Claire Harbage/NPR)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Nick Davis, who owns a vineyard with his twin brother outside Madera, has decided to participate. He’s been dumping water on his grapevines since the heavy rains started this winter, sinking more than four times the amount of water he typically uses on the vines into the ground.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“We’re all skeptical about trying new things,” Davis said. “But we feel it’s important to just do our part and put it back in the ground.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>He’s hopeful the state will give him credit for all the water he’s returning to the aquifer, or pay him for the water he’s deposited. Incentives like that, Davis said, would make other farmers think more seriously about flooding their fields in the current moment and in wet years to come.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad floatright]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“We understand that we are part of the problem,” Davis said. “But we also want to be part of the solution when it’s possible.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cdiv class=\"fullattribution\">Copyright 2023 NPR. To see more, visit \u003ca href=\"https://www.npr.org/\">https://www.npr.org\u003c/a>.\u003cimg decoding=\"async\" src=\"https://www.google-analytics.com/__utm.gif?utmac=UA-5828686-4&utmdt=California+wants+to+store+floodwaters+underground.+It%27s+harder+than+it+sounds+&utme=8(APIKey)9(MDAxOTAwOTE4MDEyMTkxMDAzNjczZDljZA004)\">\u003c/div>\n\n",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003cp>For much of the last few decades, when the sky didn’t produce enough water for his cows and crops, Dino Giacomazzi — like most farmers in California’s southern Central Valley — pumped it from the earth. Underground aquifers, vast bank accounts of stored water, were drained.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Now, after a historically wet winter, Giacomazzi and the state of California want to put some of that water back.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“It is a no-brainer, win-win, multibenefit opportunity,” said Giacomazzi, standing on his Central Valley farm, which depends on groundwater to grow almonds, lettuce and tomatoes for pizza sauce.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>More water stored underground means fewer flooded farms, and more water available to farmers like him during the next inevitable drought.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_1982778\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\" style=\"max-width: 800px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-1982778 size-medium\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/35/2023/05/20230414-_dsc7315_slide-f4ad38703f1ea83d5235b8f204ab33ca99410025-800x533.jpg\" alt=\"A white man with dark brown hair and black sunglasses, wearing a black puffer jacket with an orange collared shirt and jeans, stands on a farm with a to-go cup in his hand. \" width=\"800\" height=\"533\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/05/20230414-_dsc7315_slide-f4ad38703f1ea83d5235b8f204ab33ca99410025-800x533.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/05/20230414-_dsc7315_slide-f4ad38703f1ea83d5235b8f204ab33ca99410025-1020x680.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/05/20230414-_dsc7315_slide-f4ad38703f1ea83d5235b8f204ab33ca99410025-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/05/20230414-_dsc7315_slide-f4ad38703f1ea83d5235b8f204ab33ca99410025-768x512.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/05/20230414-_dsc7315_slide-f4ad38703f1ea83d5235b8f204ab33ca99410025-1536x1023.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/05/20230414-_dsc7315_slide-f4ad38703f1ea83d5235b8f204ab33ca99410025-2048x1365.jpg 2048w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/05/20230414-_dsc7315_slide-f4ad38703f1ea83d5235b8f204ab33ca99410025-1920x1279.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 800px) 100vw, 800px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Dino Giacomazzi stands on his Central Valley farm, which depends on groundwater to grow almonds, lettuce and tomatoes for pizza sauce. \u003ccite>(Claire Harbage/NPR)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>An area nearly the size of New Orleans is already flooded downstream of Giacomazzi’s farm. State officials have warned more water is coming as warmer temperatures cause a record Sierra Nevada snowpack to melt. This week, however, they said some communities, such as Corcoran, should be safe from rising floodwaters because of levee improvements, favorable weather and efforts to spread the water upstream.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But capturing the extra water is an opportunity that Giacomazzi worries is being missed.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“The condition we find ourselves in right now is that there are billions of gallons of water just flowing right through us, right on by, and heading down and filling the Tulare Lake,” Giacomazzi said, referencing the long-dried lake — once the largest west of the Mississippi River — that has come roaring back to life during this winter’s storms.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>California water officials are scrambling to catch as much of the floodwaters as they can. In January, as a series of atmospheric river storms \u003ca href=\"https://www.npr.org/2023/01/11/1148333208/storms-keep-pummeling-california-causing-widespread-flooding-and-evacuations\">blasted the state\u003c/a> with rain and snow, the state’s Department of Water Resources announced it was \u003ca href=\"https://water.ca.gov/News/News-Releases/2023/Jan-23/State-Agencies-Fast-track-Groundwater-Recharge-Pilot-Project\">accelerating permitting\u003c/a> for projects that put water back into the aquifers.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Projects that capture available precipitation, stormwater or floodwaters to recharge depleted groundwater basins need to be ready to capture high flows when they are available during each wet season,” said Karla Nemeth, the agency’s director.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_1982779\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\" style=\"max-width: 800px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-1982779 size-medium\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/35/2023/05/20230414-_dsc7388_slide-e1a31163a760bed0b4e1633bae0c23bc8a41adf1-800x533.jpg\" alt=\"A small, gray donkey, as well as a donkey in complete shadow in the foreground, look out at a gravel road through a low wire fence on a sunny day. Farm buildings and green-and-brown lots lay beyond the road.\" width=\"800\" height=\"533\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/05/20230414-_dsc7388_slide-e1a31163a760bed0b4e1633bae0c23bc8a41adf1-800x533.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/05/20230414-_dsc7388_slide-e1a31163a760bed0b4e1633bae0c23bc8a41adf1-1020x680.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/05/20230414-_dsc7388_slide-e1a31163a760bed0b4e1633bae0c23bc8a41adf1-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/05/20230414-_dsc7388_slide-e1a31163a760bed0b4e1633bae0c23bc8a41adf1-768x512.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/05/20230414-_dsc7388_slide-e1a31163a760bed0b4e1633bae0c23bc8a41adf1-1536x1023.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/05/20230414-_dsc7388_slide-e1a31163a760bed0b4e1633bae0c23bc8a41adf1-2048x1365.jpg 2048w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/05/20230414-_dsc7388_slide-e1a31163a760bed0b4e1633bae0c23bc8a41adf1-1920x1279.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 800px) 100vw, 800px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Giacomazzi’s donkeys look out over some of the farmland. \u003ccite>(Claire Harbage/NPR)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Two months later, Gov. Gavin Newsom signed \u003ca href=\"https://www.gov.ca.gov/2023/03/10/governor-newsom-issues-executive-order-to-use-floodwater-to-recharge-and-store-groundwater/\">an executive order\u003c/a> making it easier for farmers to divert water onto their lands.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But in some parts of the Central Valley, like Giacomazzi’s, bureaucracy, water rights and a history of over-pumping are creating roadblocks.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“The issue with these water systems in California is that every couple of miles in this state, it’s a completely different, independently operated situation,” Giacomazzi said. “There isn’t really a coordinating body that sits over the top if that says, ‘Here’s what we need to do. Let’s do it together.'”\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>A test for California’s climate future\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>California has always experienced dramatic swings from drought to flood. Those \u003ca href=\"https://resources.ca.gov/-/media/CNRA-Website/Files/Initiatives/Water-Resilience/CA-Water-Supply-Strategy.pdf\">swings are expected to become more severe (PDF)\u003c/a> as temperatures rise due to human-caused climate change.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In that sense, the situation playing out in California this year could be a window into the state’s climate future, said Daniel Mountjoy, director of resource stewardship for Sustainable Conservation, a California-based nonprofit water group.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“I’ve worked in water my entire career and one of our sayings is never waste a good crisis,” he said, standing next to a field of purposely flooded grapevines north of Fresno. “This is our chance for everyone to be aware of what’s possible.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_1982780\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\" style=\"max-width: 800px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-1982780 size-medium\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/35/2023/05/20230412-_dsc1148_slide-fb7786a4ff4d53e45a28bd5a1e545f524af71028-800x533.jpg\" alt=\"Two men, one white and one Black, both wearing baseball caps and unzipped jackets, talk to each other, one gesturing toward the vineyard they stand in with one arm raised.\" width=\"800\" height=\"533\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/05/20230412-_dsc1148_slide-fb7786a4ff4d53e45a28bd5a1e545f524af71028-800x533.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/05/20230412-_dsc1148_slide-fb7786a4ff4d53e45a28bd5a1e545f524af71028-1020x680.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/05/20230412-_dsc1148_slide-fb7786a4ff4d53e45a28bd5a1e545f524af71028-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/05/20230412-_dsc1148_slide-fb7786a4ff4d53e45a28bd5a1e545f524af71028-768x512.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/05/20230412-_dsc1148_slide-fb7786a4ff4d53e45a28bd5a1e545f524af71028-1536x1023.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/05/20230412-_dsc1148_slide-fb7786a4ff4d53e45a28bd5a1e545f524af71028-2048x1365.jpg 2048w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/05/20230412-_dsc1148_slide-fb7786a4ff4d53e45a28bd5a1e545f524af71028-1920x1279.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 800px) 100vw, 800px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Daniel Mountjoy (left), director of resource stewardship for Sustainable Conservation, a California-based nonprofit water group, talks with a colleague at a vineyard that is sinking water into the ground. \u003ccite>(Claire Harbage/NPR)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>California water experts like Mountjoy, hydrologists and environmental watchdog groups have long warned that the Central Valley’s use of groundwater was unsustainable. Parts of the southern Central Valley that are now flooded have sunk by as much as 28 feet over the last few decades — deflated like punctured balloons — because so much water has been pumped from the ground.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The state aimed to address the problem with legislation in 2014 that requires local water agencies to bring their underground accounts into balance.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“We’re going to have to put in as much as we pump out,” said Eric Holder, an irrigation research assistant with the University of California.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_1982781\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\" style=\"max-width: 800px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-1982781\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/35/2023/05/20230411-_dsc9551_slide-f61a1b40b9d27519eefd649a788dcaad9238baa4-800x533.jpg\" alt=\"Water is seen flowing out of pipes at a farm. \" width=\"800\" height=\"533\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/05/20230411-_dsc9551_slide-f61a1b40b9d27519eefd649a788dcaad9238baa4-800x533.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/05/20230411-_dsc9551_slide-f61a1b40b9d27519eefd649a788dcaad9238baa4-1020x680.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/05/20230411-_dsc9551_slide-f61a1b40b9d27519eefd649a788dcaad9238baa4-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/05/20230411-_dsc9551_slide-f61a1b40b9d27519eefd649a788dcaad9238baa4-768x512.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/05/20230411-_dsc9551_slide-f61a1b40b9d27519eefd649a788dcaad9238baa4-1536x1023.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/05/20230411-_dsc9551_slide-f61a1b40b9d27519eefd649a788dcaad9238baa4-2048x1365.jpg 2048w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/05/20230411-_dsc9551_slide-f61a1b40b9d27519eefd649a788dcaad9238baa4-1920x1279.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 800px) 100vw, 800px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Water floods a field at an irrigation project run by the University of California.\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Cutting groundwater use could be painful. A study by the Public Policy Institute of California last year found that an\u003ca href=\"https://www.ppic.org/publication/priorities-for-californias-water/\"> estimated 500,000 acres\u003c/a> of farmland would have to go unplanted in the southern Central Valley over the next 20 years to help restore water underground. That’s even with increased capturing of stormwaters in a year like this. The region produces billions of dollars in almonds, pistachios, dairy and other produce every year.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“We’ve got to find a safe landing pattern,” Mountjoy said. “Come up with a way to reduce the pumping or increase the groundwater supply.”\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>Some farmers are flooding their fields\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>With so much of the state awash in water, the focus in California is on increasing groundwater supply — stashing more into the bank account — by flooding farmland.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_1982782\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\" style=\"max-width: 800px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-1982782 size-medium\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/35/2023/05/20230412-_dsc1022_slide-a0b041ac2be62456d3bbd1691767f8944145102f-800x533.jpg\" alt=\"Most of the frame is taken up by slightly blurry, bright green grape leaves in the foreground. Beyond them, on the ground, two cement cisterns pour water onto the ground, with the dry land to the left looking light brown and dusty, and the wet land to the right looking dark brown and muddy.\" width=\"800\" height=\"533\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/05/20230412-_dsc1022_slide-a0b041ac2be62456d3bbd1691767f8944145102f-800x533.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/05/20230412-_dsc1022_slide-a0b041ac2be62456d3bbd1691767f8944145102f-1020x680.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/05/20230412-_dsc1022_slide-a0b041ac2be62456d3bbd1691767f8944145102f-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/05/20230412-_dsc1022_slide-a0b041ac2be62456d3bbd1691767f8944145102f-768x512.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/05/20230412-_dsc1022_slide-a0b041ac2be62456d3bbd1691767f8944145102f-1536x1023.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/05/20230412-_dsc1022_slide-a0b041ac2be62456d3bbd1691767f8944145102f-2048x1365.jpg 2048w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/05/20230412-_dsc1022_slide-a0b041ac2be62456d3bbd1691767f8944145102f-1920x1279.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 800px) 100vw, 800px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Water is pumped into a vineyard, flooding the field. In some water districts, like Madera County’s in the heart of the Central Valley, farmers are being incentivized to use their existing infrastructure to flood their fields with free or reduced-cost water. \u003ccite>(Claire Harbage/NPR)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>In some areas, like Giacomazzi’s, there isn’t enough incentive for farmers to flood their fields, or the infrastructure doesn’t exist to divert water from canals and streams.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“It takes a lot of money to excavate a basin and build the structures to divert water off the system,” said Mark Larsen, general manager of the Kaweah Delta Water Conservation District. “And then you have it sitting [dry] most of the time waiting for a year like this.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In some water districts, like Madera County’s in the heart of the Central Valley, farmers are being incentivized to use their existing infrastructure to flood their fields with free or reduced-cost water.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“That’s our way to motivate people to take that water, spread it and get that water in the ground when it’s available in years like this,” said Thomas Greci, general manager of the Madera Irrigation District.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_1982783\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\" style=\"max-width: 800px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-1982783 size-medium\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/35/2023/05/20230412-_dsc1077_slide-e34560e26d1272886404c7d51574dffa21c9998d-800x533.jpg\" alt=\"A white man with a beard, wearing a baseball cap, a long-sleeved button-up powder blue shirt, blue jeans, and boots stands in a vineyard with his hands in his pockets, looking off to the side.\" width=\"800\" height=\"533\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/05/20230412-_dsc1077_slide-e34560e26d1272886404c7d51574dffa21c9998d-800x533.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/05/20230412-_dsc1077_slide-e34560e26d1272886404c7d51574dffa21c9998d-1020x680.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/05/20230412-_dsc1077_slide-e34560e26d1272886404c7d51574dffa21c9998d-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/05/20230412-_dsc1077_slide-e34560e26d1272886404c7d51574dffa21c9998d-768x512.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/05/20230412-_dsc1077_slide-e34560e26d1272886404c7d51574dffa21c9998d-1536x1023.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/05/20230412-_dsc1077_slide-e34560e26d1272886404c7d51574dffa21c9998d-2048x1365.jpg 2048w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/05/20230412-_dsc1077_slide-e34560e26d1272886404c7d51574dffa21c9998d-1920x1279.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 800px) 100vw, 800px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Nick Davis stands in the vineyard he owns with his twin brother outside Madera. He’s been dumping water on his grapevines since the heavy rains started this winter, sinking more than four times the amount of water he typically uses on the vines into the ground. \u003ccite>(Claire Harbage/NPR)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Nick Davis, who owns a vineyard with his twin brother outside Madera, has decided to participate. He’s been dumping water on his grapevines since the heavy rains started this winter, sinking more than four times the amount of water he typically uses on the vines into the ground.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“We’re all skeptical about trying new things,” Davis said. “But we feel it’s important to just do our part and put it back in the ground.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>He’s hopeful the state will give him credit for all the water he’s returning to the aquifer, or pay him for the water he’s deposited. Incentives like that, Davis said, would make other farmers think more seriously about flooding their fields in the current moment and in wet years to come.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“We understand that we are part of the problem,” Davis said. “But we also want to be part of the solution when it’s possible.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cdiv class=\"fullattribution\">Copyright 2023 NPR. To see more, visit \u003ca href=\"https://www.npr.org/\">https://www.npr.org\u003c/a>.\u003cimg decoding=\"async\" src=\"https://www.google-analytics.com/__utm.gif?utmac=UA-5828686-4&utmdt=California+wants+to+store+floodwaters+underground.+It%27s+harder+than+it+sounds+&utme=8(APIKey)9(MDAxOTAwOTE4MDEyMTkxMDAzNjczZDljZA004)\">\u003c/div>\n\n\u003c/div>\u003c/p>",
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"slug": "blue-jellyfish-like-creatures-ride-california-waves-a-climate-change-indicator",
"title": "Blue Jellyfish-Like Creatures Ride California Waves: A Climate Change Indicator?",
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"content": "\u003cp>Surfers and beachgoers across the \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/tag/california-coast\">California coast\u003c/a> have recently been treated to a mesmerizing spectacle: countless blue jellyfish-like creatures riding waves and washing up on sandy beaches.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>These captivating organisms, known as “by-the-wind sailors,” are Velella velella and they possess striking blue translucent bodies. They thrive in large numbers, primarily in the northern hemisphere.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“They have a little stiff sail that sticks up from their floats and they use these little sails to capture the wind,” said Chrissy Piotrowski, senior collections manager of invertebrate zoology at the California Academy of Sciences.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">[ad fullwidth]\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>They are related to the fearsome Portuguese man o’ war, often mistakenly identified as jellyfish. Still, unlike their notorious cousins, Velella velella stings are relatively mild, according to Steven Haddock, a senior scientist at the Monterey Bay Aquarium Research Institute.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“From our human point of view, we think of them as invading our shorelines, but that doesn’t necessarily reflect the actual populations that are offshore,” he said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_1982754\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 1920px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-1982754\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/35/2023/05/003_KQED_OBVelellaVelella_05182023.jpg\" alt=\"A shot of a sandy beach with scattered seaweed and shells. Nearby, a blue, translucent organism similar to a jellyfish rests on the sand. Two people in the distance walk along the ocean.\" width=\"1920\" height=\"1280\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/05/003_KQED_OBVelellaVelella_05182023.jpg 1920w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/05/003_KQED_OBVelellaVelella_05182023-800x533.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/05/003_KQED_OBVelellaVelella_05182023-1020x680.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/05/003_KQED_OBVelellaVelella_05182023-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/05/003_KQED_OBVelellaVelella_05182023-768x512.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/05/003_KQED_OBVelellaVelella_05182023-1536x1024.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1920px) 100vw, 1920px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Blue, translucent Velella velella is seen washed ashore on Ocean Beach in San Francisco on May 18, 2023. \u003ccite>(Beth LaBerge/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>These ethereal beings resemble little sailboats and wash up on shore when ocean temperatures warm up and onshore wind events occur. The recent surge in the strandings of the see-through blue sea creatures could be a consequence of human-caused climate change.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“When we see them a lot, it’s sort of like they’re putting up a huge billboard that says, ‘Hey, pay attention, things are changing,’” said Julia K. Parrish, a marine biologist and a professor at the University of Washington, who examined the creatures in a 2021 study.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Her research utilized community science data, analyzed stranding reports and found a potential association between rising ocean temperatures and the frequency of these events. Although concrete proof is yet to emerge, the warming trend in sea surface temperatures with links to human-caused climate change could mean more sightings of these azure, disc-like creatures.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“A warmer ocean along the coastline means that those organisms that normally live around California are going to start to move north,” she said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_1982760\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 2048px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-1982760\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/35/2023/05/iStock-531994550.jpg\" alt=\"Dozens of light blue, translucent organisms comparable to jellyfish are washed ashore a sandy beach. Droplets of water and sand are sprinkled over the beings.\" width=\"2048\" height=\"1536\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/05/iStock-531994550.jpg 2048w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/05/iStock-531994550-800x600.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/05/iStock-531994550-1020x765.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/05/iStock-531994550-160x120.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/05/iStock-531994550-768x576.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/05/iStock-531994550-1536x1152.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/05/iStock-531994550-1920x1440.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 2048px) 100vw, 2048px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Stranded Velella velella on the Oregon Coast on June 13, 2016. \u003ccite>((jsseattle/iStock))\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>She said one instance of a mass stranding isn’t enough to attach climate change as the reason behind the organism washing ashore. But when looking at an increase in strandings over the past two decades, Parrish said the case for the climate link is growing and more research is warranted to gain a greater understanding of the impact anthropogenic climate change has on the species.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">[pullquote size=\"medium\" align=\"right\" citation=\"Julia K. Parrish, marine biologist, professor University of Washington\"]‘When we see signals coming from the ocean to the coast, we should pay attention. The Velella velella is an early-warning bell that we may be seeing some shifts.’[/pullquote]\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“When we see signals coming from the ocean to the coast, we should pay attention,” she said. “The Velella velella is an early-warning bell that we may be seeing some shifts.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Conditions for Velella velella strandings may increase over the next year. Brian Garcia, warning coordination meteorologist for the National Weather Service Bay Area and Monterey regions, said the current onshore wind events would likely become more robust.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“If you just pull back a little bit and blur your eyes, it’s been pretty much onshore for months,” he said. “We’ll see warm waters sticking around with us probably until next spring into next summer.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003ci data-stringify-type=\"italic\">KQED’s Sarah Mohamad contributed to this story.\u003c/i>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n",
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"excerpt": "Mesmerizing blue creatures, known as \"by-the-wind sailors,\" ride waves along the California coast. Their presence hints at climate change's impact on marine ecosystems, urging us to pay attention to these subtle indicators of environmental shifts.",
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"title": "Blue Jellyfish-Like Creatures Ride California Waves: A Climate Change Indicator? | KQED",
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"headline": "Blue Jellyfish-Like Creatures Ride California Waves: A Climate Change Indicator?",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>They are related to the fearsome Portuguese man o’ war, often mistakenly identified as jellyfish. Still, unlike their notorious cousins, Velella velella stings are relatively mild, according to Steven Haddock, a senior scientist at the Monterey Bay Aquarium Research Institute.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“From our human point of view, we think of them as invading our shorelines, but that doesn’t necessarily reflect the actual populations that are offshore,” he said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_1982754\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 1920px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-1982754\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/35/2023/05/003_KQED_OBVelellaVelella_05182023.jpg\" alt=\"A shot of a sandy beach with scattered seaweed and shells. Nearby, a blue, translucent organism similar to a jellyfish rests on the sand. Two people in the distance walk along the ocean.\" width=\"1920\" height=\"1280\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/05/003_KQED_OBVelellaVelella_05182023.jpg 1920w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/05/003_KQED_OBVelellaVelella_05182023-800x533.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/05/003_KQED_OBVelellaVelella_05182023-1020x680.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/05/003_KQED_OBVelellaVelella_05182023-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/05/003_KQED_OBVelellaVelella_05182023-768x512.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/05/003_KQED_OBVelellaVelella_05182023-1536x1024.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1920px) 100vw, 1920px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Blue, translucent Velella velella is seen washed ashore on Ocean Beach in San Francisco on May 18, 2023. \u003ccite>(Beth LaBerge/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>These ethereal beings resemble little sailboats and wash up on shore when ocean temperatures warm up and onshore wind events occur. The recent surge in the strandings of the see-through blue sea creatures could be a consequence of human-caused climate change.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“When we see them a lot, it’s sort of like they’re putting up a huge billboard that says, ‘Hey, pay attention, things are changing,’” said Julia K. Parrish, a marine biologist and a professor at the University of Washington, who examined the creatures in a 2021 study.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Her research utilized community science data, analyzed stranding reports and found a potential association between rising ocean temperatures and the frequency of these events. Although concrete proof is yet to emerge, the warming trend in sea surface temperatures with links to human-caused climate change could mean more sightings of these azure, disc-like creatures.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“A warmer ocean along the coastline means that those organisms that normally live around California are going to start to move north,” she said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_1982760\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 2048px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-1982760\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/35/2023/05/iStock-531994550.jpg\" alt=\"Dozens of light blue, translucent organisms comparable to jellyfish are washed ashore a sandy beach. Droplets of water and sand are sprinkled over the beings.\" width=\"2048\" height=\"1536\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/05/iStock-531994550.jpg 2048w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/05/iStock-531994550-800x600.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/05/iStock-531994550-1020x765.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/05/iStock-531994550-160x120.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/05/iStock-531994550-768x576.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/05/iStock-531994550-1536x1152.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/05/iStock-531994550-1920x1440.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 2048px) 100vw, 2048px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Stranded Velella velella on the Oregon Coast on June 13, 2016. \u003ccite>((jsseattle/iStock))\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>She said one instance of a mass stranding isn’t enough to attach climate change as the reason behind the organism washing ashore. But when looking at an increase in strandings over the past two decades, Parrish said the case for the climate link is growing and more research is warranted to gain a greater understanding of the impact anthropogenic climate change has on the species.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"order": 1
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"id": "code-switch-life-kit",
"title": "Code Switch / Life Kit",
"info": "\u003cem>Code Switch\u003c/em>, which listeners will hear in the first part of the hour, has fearless and much-needed conversations about race. Hosted by journalists of color, the show tackles the subject of race head-on, exploring how it impacts every part of society — from politics and pop culture to history, sports and more.\u003cbr />\u003cbr />\u003cem>Life Kit\u003c/em>, which will be in the second part of the hour, guides you through spaces and feelings no one prepares you for — from finances to mental health, from workplace microaggressions to imposter syndrome, from relationships to parenting. The show features experts with real world experience and shares their knowledge. Because everyone needs a little help being human.\u003cbr />\u003cbr />\u003ca href=\"https://www.npr.org/podcasts/510312/codeswitch\">\u003cem>Code Switch\u003c/em> offical site and podcast\u003c/a>\u003cbr />\u003ca href=\"https://www.npr.org/lifekit\">\u003cem>Life Kit\u003c/em> offical site and podcast\u003c/a>\u003cbr />",
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"meta": {
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"id": "commonwealth-club",
"title": "Commonwealth Club of California Podcast",
"info": "The Commonwealth Club of California is the nation's oldest and largest public affairs forum. As a non-partisan forum, The Club brings to the public airwaves diverse viewpoints on important topics. The Club's weekly radio broadcast - the oldest in the U.S., dating back to 1924 - is carried across the nation on public radio stations and is now podcasting. Our website archive features audio of our recent programs, as well as selected speeches from our long and distinguished history. This podcast feed is usually updated twice a week and is always un-edited.",
"airtime": "THU 10pm, FRI 1am",
"imageSrc": "https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/Commonwealth-Club-Podcast-Tile-360x360-1.jpg",
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"meta": {
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"source": "Commonwealth Club of California"
},
"link": "/radio/program/commonwealth-club",
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"google": "https://podcasts.google.com/feed/aHR0cDovL3d3dy5jb21tb253ZWFsdGhjbHViLm9yZy9hdWRpby9wb2RjYXN0L3dlZWtseS54bWw",
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},
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"id": "forum",
"title": "Forum",
"tagline": "The conversation starts here",
"info": "KQED’s live call-in program discussing local, state, national and international issues, as well as in-depth interviews.",
"airtime": "MON-FRI 9am-11am, 10pm-11pm",
"imageSrc": "https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/Forum-Podcast-Tile-703x703-1.jpg",
"imageAlt": "KQED Forum with Mina Kim and Alexis Madrigal",
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"source": "kqed",
"order": 9
},
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"google": "https://podcasts.google.com/feed/aHR0cHM6Ly9mZWVkcy5tZWdhcGhvbmUuZm0vS1FJTkM5NTU3MzgxNjMz",
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"id": "freakonomics-radio",
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"officialWebsiteLink": "http://freakonomics.com/",
"airtime": "SUN 1am-2am, SAT 3pm-4pm",
"meta": {
"site": "radio",
"source": "WNYC"
},
"link": "/radio/program/freakonomics-radio",
"subscribe": {
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"apple": "https://itunes.apple.com/us/podcast/freakonomics-radio/id354668519",
"tuneIn": "https://tunein.com/podcasts/WNYC-Podcasts/Freakonomics-Radio-p272293/",
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},
"fresh-air": {
"id": "fresh-air",
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"link": "/radio/program/fresh-air",
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"apple": "https://itunes.apple.com/WebObjects/MZStore.woa/wa/viewPodcast?s=143441&mt=2&id=214089682&at=11l79Y&ct=nprdirectory",
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"info": "A live production of NPR and WBUR Boston, in collaboration with stations across the country, Here & Now reflects the fluid world of news as it's happening in the middle of the day, with timely, in-depth news, interviews and conversation. Hosted by Robin Young, Jeremy Hobson and Tonya Mosley.",
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"rss": "https://feeds.npr.org/510051/podcast.xml"
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},
"hidden-brain": {
"id": "hidden-brain",
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"info": "Shankar Vedantam uses science and storytelling to reveal the unconscious patterns that drive human behavior, shape our choices and direct our relationships.",
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"airtime": "SUN 7pm-8pm",
"meta": {
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"source": "NPR"
},
"link": "/radio/program/hidden-brain",
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},
"how-i-built-this": {
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"title": "How I Built This with Guy Raz",
"info": "Guy Raz dives into the stories behind some of the world's best known companies. How I Built This weaves a narrative journey about innovators, entrepreneurs and idealists—and the movements they built.",
"imageSrc": "https://ww2.kqed.org/news/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2018/05/howIBuiltThis.png",
"officialWebsiteLink": "https://www.npr.org/podcasts/510313/how-i-built-this",
"airtime": "SUN 7:30pm-8pm",
"meta": {
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"link": "/radio/program/how-i-built-this",
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"npr": "https://rpb3r.app.goo.gl/3zxy",
"apple": "https://itunes.apple.com/us/podcast/how-i-built-this-with-guy-raz/id1150510297?mt=2",
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"hyphenacion": {
"id": "hyphenacion",
"title": "Hyphenación",
"tagline": "Where conversation and cultura meet",
"info": "What kind of no sabo word is Hyphenación? For us, it’s about living within a hyphenation. Like being a third-gen Mexican-American from the Texas border now living that Bay Area Chicano life. Like Xorje! Each week we bring together a couple of hyphenated Latinos to talk all about personal life choices: family, careers, relationships, belonging … everything is on the table. ",
"imageSrc": "https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/2025/03/Hyphenacion_FinalAssets_PodcastTile.png",
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"officialWebsiteLink": "/podcasts/hyphenacion",
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"order": 15
},
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},
"jerrybrown": {
"id": "jerrybrown",
"title": "The Political Mind of Jerry Brown",
"tagline": "Lessons from a lifetime in politics",
"info": "The Political Mind of Jerry Brown brings listeners the wisdom of the former Governor, Mayor, and presidential candidate. Scott Shafer interviewed Brown for more than 40 hours, covering the former governor's life and half-century in the political game – and Brown has some lessons he'd like to share. ",
"imageSrc": "https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/The-Political-Mind-of-Jerry-Brown-Podcast-Tile-703x703-1.jpg",
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"officialWebsiteLink": "/podcasts/jerrybrown",
"meta": {
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"order": 18
},
"link": "/podcasts/jerrybrown",
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},
"latino-usa": {
"id": "latino-usa",
"title": "Latino USA",
"airtime": "MON 1am-2am, SUN 6pm-7pm",
"info": "Latino USA, the radio journal of news and culture, is the only national, English-language radio program produced from a Latino perspective.",
"imageSrc": "https://ww2.kqed.org/radio/wp-content/uploads/sites/50/2018/04/latinoUsa.jpg",
"officialWebsiteLink": "http://latinousa.org/",
"meta": {
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},
"link": "/radio/program/latino-usa",
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"apple": "https://itunes.apple.com/WebObjects/MZStore.woa/wa/viewPodcast?s=143441&mt=2&id=79681317&at=11l79Y&ct=nprdirectory",
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"rss": "https://feeds.npr.org/510016/podcast.xml"
}
},
"marketplace": {
"id": "marketplace",
"title": "Marketplace",
"info": "Our flagship program, helmed by Kai Ryssdal, examines what the day in money delivered, through stories, conversations, newsworthy numbers and more. Updated Monday through Friday at about 3:30 p.m. PT.",
"airtime": "MON-FRI 4pm-4:30pm, MON-WED 6:30pm-7pm",
"imageSrc": "https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/Marketplace-Podcast-Tile-360x360-1.jpg",
"officialWebsiteLink": "https://www.marketplace.org/",
"meta": {
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"source": "American Public Media"
},
"link": "/radio/program/marketplace",
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},
"masters-of-scale": {
"id": "masters-of-scale",
"title": "Masters of Scale",
"info": "Masters of Scale is an original podcast in which LinkedIn co-founder and Greylock Partner Reid Hoffman sets out to describe and prove theories that explain how great entrepreneurs take their companies from zero to a gazillion in ingenious fashion.",
"airtime": "Every other Wednesday June 12 through October 16 at 8pm (repeats Thursdays at 2am)",
"imageSrc": "https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/Masters-of-Scale-Podcast-Tile-360x360-1.jpg",
"officialWebsiteLink": "https://mastersofscale.com/",
"meta": {
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"source": "WaitWhat"
},
"link": "/radio/program/masters-of-scale",
"subscribe": {
"apple": "http://mastersofscale.app.link/",
"rss": "https://rss.art19.com/masters-of-scale"
}
},
"mindshift": {
"id": "mindshift",
"title": "MindShift",
"tagline": "A podcast about the future of learning and how we raise our kids",
"info": "The MindShift podcast explores the innovations in education that are shaping how kids learn. Hosts Ki Sung and Katrina Schwartz introduce listeners to educators, researchers, parents and students who are developing effective ways to improve how kids learn. We cover topics like how fed-up administrators are developing surprising tactics to deal with classroom disruptions; how listening to podcasts are helping kids develop reading skills; the consequences of overparenting; and why interdisciplinary learning can engage students on all ends of the traditional achievement spectrum. This podcast is part of the MindShift education site, a division of KQED News. KQED is an NPR/PBS member station based in San Francisco. You can also visit the MindShift website for episodes and supplemental blog posts or tweet us \u003ca href=\"https://twitter.com/MindShiftKQED\">@MindShiftKQED\u003c/a> or visit us at \u003ca href=\"/mindshift\">MindShift.KQED.org\u003c/a>",
"imageSrc": "https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/Mindshift-Podcast-Tile-703x703-1.jpg",
"imageAlt": "KQED MindShift: How We Will Learn",
"officialWebsiteLink": "/mindshift/",
"meta": {
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"source": "kqed",
"order": 12
},
"link": "/podcasts/mindshift",
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"google": "https://podcasts.google.com/feed/aHR0cHM6Ly9mZWVkcy5tZWdhcGhvbmUuZm0vS1FJTkM1NzY0NjAwNDI5",
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}
},
"morning-edition": {
"id": "morning-edition",
"title": "Morning Edition",
"info": "\u003cem>Morning Edition\u003c/em> takes listeners around the country and the world with multi-faceted stories and commentaries every weekday. Hosts Steve Inskeep, David Greene and Rachel Martin bring you the latest breaking news and features to prepare you for the day.",
"airtime": "MON-FRI 3am-9am",
"imageSrc": "https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/Morning-Edition-Podcast-Tile-360x360-1.jpg",
"officialWebsiteLink": "https://www.npr.org/programs/morning-edition/",
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"link": "/radio/program/morning-edition"
},
"onourwatch": {
"id": "onourwatch",
"title": "On Our Watch",
"tagline": "Deeply-reported investigative journalism",
"info": "For decades, the process for how police police themselves has been inconsistent – if not opaque. In some states, like California, these proceedings were completely hidden. After a new police transparency law unsealed scores of internal affairs files, our reporters set out to examine these cases and the shadow world of police discipline. On Our Watch brings listeners into the rooms where officers are questioned and witnesses are interrogated to find out who this system is really protecting. Is it the officers, or the public they've sworn to serve?",
"imageSrc": "https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/On-Our-Watch-Podcast-Tile-703x703-1.jpg",
"imageAlt": "On Our Watch from NPR and KQED",
"officialWebsiteLink": "/podcasts/onourwatch",
"meta": {
"site": "news",
"source": "kqed",
"order": 11
},
"link": "/podcasts/onourwatch",
"subscribe": {
"apple": "https://podcasts.apple.com/podcast/id1567098962",
"google": "https://podcasts.google.com/feed/aHR0cHM6Ly9mZWVkcy5ucHIub3JnLzUxMDM2MC9wb2RjYXN0LnhtbD9zYz1nb29nbGVwb2RjYXN0cw",
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"stitcher": "https://www.stitcher.com/show/on-our-watch",
"rss": "https://feeds.npr.org/510360/podcast.xml"
}
},
"on-the-media": {
"id": "on-the-media",
"title": "On The Media",
"info": "Our weekly podcast explores how the media 'sausage' is made, casts an incisive eye on fluctuations in the marketplace of ideas, and examines threats to the freedom of information and expression in America and abroad. For one hour a week, the show tries to lift the veil from the process of \"making media,\" especially news media, because it's through that lens that we see the world and the world sees us",
"airtime": "SUN 2pm-3pm, MON 12am-1am",
"imageSrc": "https://ww2.kqed.org/radio/wp-content/uploads/sites/50/2018/04/onTheMedia.png",
"officialWebsiteLink": "https://www.wnycstudios.org/shows/otm",
"meta": {
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"source": "wnyc"
},
"link": "/radio/program/on-the-media",
"subscribe": {
"apple": "https://itunes.apple.com/us/podcast/on-the-media/id73330715?mt=2",
"tuneIn": "https://tunein.com/radio/On-the-Media-p69/",
"rss": "http://feeds.wnyc.org/onthemedia"
}
},
"pbs-newshour": {
"id": "pbs-newshour",
"title": "PBS NewsHour",
"info": "Analysis, background reports and updates from the PBS NewsHour putting today's news in context.",
"airtime": "MON-FRI 3pm-4pm",
"imageSrc": "https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/PBS-News-Hour-Podcast-Tile-360x360-1.jpg",
"officialWebsiteLink": "https://www.pbs.org/newshour/",
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"source": "pbs"
},
"link": "/radio/program/pbs-newshour",
"subscribe": {
"apple": "https://itunes.apple.com/us/podcast/pbs-newshour-full-show/id394432287?mt=2",
"tuneIn": "https://tunein.com/radio/PBS-NewsHour---Full-Show-p425698/",
"rss": "https://www.pbs.org/newshour/feeds/rss/podcasts/show"
}
},
"perspectives": {
"id": "perspectives",
"title": "Perspectives",
"tagline": "KQED's series of daily listener commentaries since 1991",
"info": "KQED's series of daily listener commentaries since 1991.",
"imageSrc": "https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/2025/01/Perspectives_Tile_Final.jpg",
"imageAlt": "KQED Perspectives",
"officialWebsiteLink": "/perspectives/",
"meta": {
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"source": "kqed",
"order": 14
},
"link": "/perspectives",
"subscribe": {
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"npr": "https://www.npr.org/podcasts/432309616/perspectives",
"rss": "https://ww2.kqed.org/perspectives/category/perspectives/feed/",
"google": "https://podcasts.google.com/feed/aHR0cHM6Ly93dzIua3FlZC5vcmcvcGVyc3BlY3RpdmVzL2NhdGVnb3J5L3BlcnNwZWN0aXZlcy9mZWVkLw"
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},
"planet-money": {
"id": "planet-money",
"title": "Planet Money",
"info": "The economy explained. Imagine you could call up a friend and say, Meet me at the bar and tell me what's going on with the economy. Now imagine that's actually a fun evening.",
"airtime": "SUN 3pm-4pm",
"imageSrc": "https://ww2.kqed.org/radio/wp-content/uploads/sites/50/2018/04/planetmoney.jpg",
"officialWebsiteLink": "https://www.npr.org/sections/money/",
"meta": {
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"source": "npr"
},
"link": "/radio/program/planet-money",
"subscribe": {
"npr": "https://rpb3r.app.goo.gl/M4f5",
"apple": "https://itunes.apple.com/us/podcast/planet-money/id290783428?mt=2",
"tuneIn": "https://tunein.com/podcasts/Business--Economics-Podcasts/Planet-Money-p164680/",
"rss": "https://feeds.npr.org/510289/podcast.xml"
}
},
"politicalbreakdown": {
"id": "politicalbreakdown",
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