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"slug": "decades-later-industry-and-regulators-fail-to-clean-up-former-rocket-test-site",
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"content": "\u003cp>\u003cem> Reporting for this story was supported by the \u003ca href=\"http://www.fij.org\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Fund for Investigative Journalism.\u003c/a>\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>One sleepy Saturday morning in late August 1959, the federal Atomic Energy Commission issued \u003ca href=\"https://www.documentcloud.org/documents/2703248-Atomic-Energy-Commission-Press-Release.html\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">a press release\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\n\u003cblockquote>\u003cp>During an inspection of fuel elements on July 26 at the Sodium Reactor Experiment, operated for the Atomic Energy Commission at Santa Susana, California by Atomics International, a division of North American Aviation, Inc., a parted fuel element was observed.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The fuel element damage is not an indication of unsafe reactor conditions. No release of radioactive materials to the plant or its environs occurred and operating personnel were not exposed to harmful conditions.\u003c/p>\u003c/blockquote>\n\u003cp>In fact, there was a partial nuclear plant meltdown in the hills just 30 miles northwest of downtown Los Angeles.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The details of what happened at the Santa Susana Field Laboratory, including the venting of an unknown amount of radioactive gases, did not receive much media attention, and the facts of the accident weren’t really known to the public for the better part of two decades.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Today, the environmental damage has yet to be fully addressed.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad fullwidth]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[audio src=\"http://www.kqed.org/.stream/anon/radio/tcr/2017/04/2017-04-21a-tcr.mp3\" Image=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/news/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2017/03/RS24625_DSC_0026-qut-1920x1285.jpg\" Title=\"Decades Later, Industry and Regulators Fail to Clean Up Former Rocket Test Site\" program=\"The California Report\"]\u003c/p>\n\u003ch3>Decades of Polluting the Mountains\u003c/h3>\n\u003cp>Santa Susana was founded in the mid-1940s at what was then the remote fringe of a largely rural San Fernando Valley. The laboratory developed and tested 10 nuclear reactors for the federal government and tested rocket engines for half a century.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The 1959 meltdown was just one mishap in decades of pollution \u003ca href=\"https://www.documentcloud.org/documents/2271069-report-of-the-santa-susana-field-laboratory-panel.html\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">left by atomic research\u003c/a>, the open-air \u003ca href=\"https://www.documentcloud.org/documents/2339522-3131-a1bp-lr1.html#document/p17/a238264\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">burning of toxic wastes\u003c/a> and thousands of \u003ca href=\"https://www.documentcloud.org/documents/3473599-Space-History-at-SSFL-2010-04-28.html\">NASA rocket engine tests\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[contextly_sidebar id=”WTxtI9KNKG0pwjmpsmg5Ci4rqA2kZbEX”]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Space agency technicians used at least 800,000 gallons of the carcinogenic chemical compound \u003ca href=\"https://www.epa.gov/assessing-and-managing-chemicals-under-tsca/trichloroethylene-tce\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">trichloroethylene (TCE) \u003c/a>as a degreasing agent, then poured it out on the ground, where it flowed into unlined ponds and percolated down to local aquifers, \u003ca href=\"https://www.documentcloud.org/documents/2752182-SSFL-PASI-Report-r2-Complete.html#document/p8/a282098\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">records show\u003c/a>. The \u003ca href=\"http://yosemite.epa.gov/r9/sfund/r9sfdocw.nsf/ViewByEPAID/CAN000908498\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">EPA estimates\u003c/a> that half a million gallons of the substance remain in the soil and groundwater beneath the lab. Other contaminants from NASA’s activities include \u003ca href=\"https://www.epa.gov/sites/production/files/2014-03/documents/ffrrofactsheet_contaminant_perchlorate_january2014_final.pdf\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">perchlorate, \u003c/a>\u003ca href=\"https://www.cdc.gov/niosh/topics/hydrazine/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">hydrazines\u003c/a>, \u003ca href=\"https://www.epa.gov/pcbs/learn-about-polychlorinated-biphenyls-pcbs\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">PCBs\u003c/a>, \u003ca href=\"https://www.epa.gov/dioxin\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">dioxins\u003c/a> and heavy metals, \u003ca href=\"https://www.documentcloud.org/documents/2424338-11-30-07-preliminary-assessment-site-inspection.html\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">the EPA found\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_11383385\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 1920px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-11383385\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/news/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2017/03/RS24626_DSC_1223-photo-by-William-Preston-Bowling-qut.jpg\" alt=\"NASA used trichloroethylene, a carcinogen, as a degreaser on its rocket test stands, then poured it into unlined storage ponds. An estimated half-million gallons of trichloroethylene have contaminated the ground beneath Santa Susana.\" width=\"1920\" height=\"1285\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2017/03/RS24626_DSC_1223-photo-by-William-Preston-Bowling-qut.jpg 1920w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2017/03/RS24626_DSC_1223-photo-by-William-Preston-Bowling-qut-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2017/03/RS24626_DSC_1223-photo-by-William-Preston-Bowling-qut-800x535.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2017/03/RS24626_DSC_1223-photo-by-William-Preston-Bowling-qut-1020x683.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2017/03/RS24626_DSC_1223-photo-by-William-Preston-Bowling-qut-1180x790.jpg 1180w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2017/03/RS24626_DSC_1223-photo-by-William-Preston-Bowling-qut-960x643.jpg 960w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2017/03/RS24626_DSC_1223-photo-by-William-Preston-Bowling-qut-240x161.jpg 240w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2017/03/RS24626_DSC_1223-photo-by-William-Preston-Bowling-qut-375x251.jpg 375w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2017/03/RS24626_DSC_1223-photo-by-William-Preston-Bowling-qut-520x348.jpg 520w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1920px) 100vw, 1920px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">NASA used trichloroethylene, a carcinogen, as a degreaser on its rocket test stands, and then poured it into unlined storage ponds. An estimated half-million gallons of trichloroethylene have contaminated the ground beneath Santa Susana. \u003ccite>(William Preston Bowling)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>At its height in the 1960s, the laboratory employed some 9,000 workers and carried out as many as eight rocket engine tests a day. People remember how the thundering roar of the rockets used to rattle windows in the rapidly growing suburbs nearby.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Today, the lab sits idle behind a security fence. The last nuclear experiment there concluded nearly 30 years ago, and the rocket engine testing wound up in 2006.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Giant rocket engine test stands still loom intact, but many of the lab’s industrial buildings have been leveled. Those remaining are slowly weathering. The rusting industrial wasteland seems incongruous today, a silent blot on a vista of chaparral and majestic sandstone bluffs. Still, nature is fighting back. In places, black sage, mule fat bush and \u003ca href=\"http://www.flowersociety.org/Yerba_About.htm\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">yerba santa\u003c/a> are starting to crowd the roads. Mountain lions, bobcats, coyotes and deer roam the grounds.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003ca href=\"http://www.boeing.com\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">The Boeing Co. \u003c/a>took over most of the 2,850-acre lab site when it acquired \u003ca href=\"http://www.rocket.com/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Aerojet Rocketdyne\u003c/a> in 1996, and has pledged to preserve its portion of the land as open space.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_11371914\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 1920px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-11371914\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/news/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2017/03/RS24703_DTSC_Map-qut-1.jpg\" alt=\"The Santa Susana Field Laboratory is in the Simi Hills about 30 miles west of downtown Los Angeles.\" width=\"1920\" height=\"1292\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2017/03/RS24703_DTSC_Map-qut-1.jpg 1920w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2017/03/RS24703_DTSC_Map-qut-1-160x108.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2017/03/RS24703_DTSC_Map-qut-1-800x538.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2017/03/RS24703_DTSC_Map-qut-1-1020x686.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2017/03/RS24703_DTSC_Map-qut-1-1180x794.jpg 1180w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2017/03/RS24703_DTSC_Map-qut-1-960x646.jpg 960w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2017/03/RS24703_DTSC_Map-qut-1-240x162.jpg 240w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2017/03/RS24703_DTSC_Map-qut-1-375x252.jpg 375w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2017/03/RS24703_DTSC_Map-qut-1-520x350.jpg 520w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1920px) 100vw, 1920px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">The Santa Susana Field Laboratory is in the Simi Hills about 30 miles northwest of downtown Los Angeles. \u003ccite>(Source: California Department of Toxic Substances Control)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>But some neighbors and nuclear watchdog groups call that a public relations ploy meant to obscure the extent of the contamination. They fear that by getting Santa Susana designated as parkland, Boeing could avoid hundreds of millions of dollars in cleanup costs. Environmental remediation standards for such land are less stringent than they are for places where people live. They point out that even if nobody ever lives on the mountain site itself, the suburbs extend to just half a mile from the lab gates.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Critics are also wary of the lab’s two other landowners, the \u003ca href=\"https://energy.gov/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Department of Energy, or DOE, \u003c/a>and\u003ca href=\"https://www.nasa.gov\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"> NASA. \u003c/a> In half a century of polluting the mountains, neither agency has come up with a thorough cleanup plan.\u003c/p>\n\u003ch3>A Moment of Hope Turns Sour\u003c/h3>\n\u003cp>In late 2010, the \u003ca href=\"http://www.dtsc.ca.gov\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">California Department of Toxic Substances Control \u003c/a> — the state agency in charge of regulating California’s most polluted sites — tried to get things moving. It signed \u003ca href=\"https://www.nasa.gov/home/hqnews/2010/dec/HQ_10-326_Santa_Susana.html\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">agreements\u003c/a> with \u003ca href=\"https://www.documentcloud.org/documents/2761442-64791-SSFL-DOE-AOC-Final.html#document/p5/a339563\">DOE\u003c/a> and \u003ca href=\"https://www.documentcloud.org/documents/2761443-NASA-DTSC-Final-AOC-Dec-2010.html\">NASA \u003c/a> that required the federal agencies to remove all radioactive and chemical contamination from federally controlled property at Santa Susana, restoring the land to the condition it was in before rocketry and nuclear experiments began.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Activists called the agreement a triumph for the environment and public health. They trusted state regulators’ \u003ca href=\"https://www.documentcloud.org/documents/2703460-DTSC-s-2010-Explanation-For-Applying.html#document/p21/a275250\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">promise\u003c/a> to make Boeing follow suit.\u003c/p>\n\u003caside class=\"pullquote alignright\">‘The history of this has been that of callous disregard for public health and safety, essentially cutting every corner you can.’\u003ccite>Dan Hirsch, UC Santa Cruz\u003c/cite>\u003c/aside>\n\u003cp>Instead, the standards for Boeing’s portion of the cleanup have been weakened to match company wishes. And both federal agencies are questioning the extent of their commitments to restore the land. The cleanup, which was supposed to be finished by now, hasn’t even cleared the planning stage.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Some activists wonder whether the toxic threats in the land will ever be removed.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“The history of this has been that of callous disregard for public health and safety, essentially cutting every corner you can, having a cozy relationship with regulators that lets you bypass normal rules,” says longtime lab critic Dan Hirsch. He’s president of the nuclear watchdog group \u003ca href=\"http://committeetobridgethegap.org/\">Committee to Bridge the Gap\u003c/a> and directs the \u003ca href=\"https://socialsciences.ucsc.edu/academics/singleton.php?&singleton=true&cruz_id=dohirsch\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Program on Environmental and Nuclear Policy at UC Santa Cruz.\u003c/a>\u003c/p>\n\u003ch3>Cancer Risk Studies Hotly Debated\u003c/h3>\n\u003cp>Several studies have linked Santa Susana to increased cancer risks. However, scientists associated with the laboratory’s owners have questioned such findings, saying they make unwarranted assumptions about how much poison people actually are exposed to, or extrapolate from study populations that are too small.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The debate has gone on for decades.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In 1997, UCLA School of Public Health researchers \u003ca href=\"https://www.documentcloud.org/documents/2752394-UCLA-Rocketdyne-Radiation-Study-Sept-1997-Release.html#document/p8/a282262\">found\u003c/a> that field lab workers who were exposed to radiation at Santa Susana have an increased risk of dying of cancer. Researchers estimated the risks at six to eight times higher than those permitted under federal guidelines for long-term exposure to low-level radiation. News stories at the time quoted scholars hired by the laboratory to review the findings as questioning the study’s methodology.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Two years later, the School of Public Health scientists \u003ca href=\"https://www.documentcloud.org/documents/2752395-UCLA-Rocketdyne-Chemical-Study-Jan-1999.html#document/p7/a286836\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">published research\u003c/a> showing twice as many lung cancers in workers who faced a lot of exposure to hydrazine on the job, compared with workers who didn’t. The authors said they couldn’t prove hydrazine exposure was to blame, but they were confident some chemical or chemicals related to hydrazine or other aspects of rocket engine fueling was the source of the danger. Again, scholars under contract with the laboratory’s owners called the findings inconclusive.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In 2005, Boeing funded its own \u003ca href=\"https://www.documentcloud.org/documents/2339865-rocketdyne-worker-health-study-executive-summary.html#document/p8/a238275\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">study,\u003c/a> which offered sharply different findings. After examining more than 46,000 people who worked for six months or longer at Santa Susana and an affiliated research facility in Canoga Park, researchers found a cancer death rate lower than that of the general population. Further, the paper’s authors pointed out that “no cause of death was significantly elevated,” even among those exposed to radiation and toxic chemicals.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>This time, press accounts quoted a UCLA researcher who noted that Boeing had paid a private research company more than twice what the DOE paid for the UCLA studies, and who speculated that the Boeing report’s conclusions were tailored to meet the client’s wishes.\u003c/p>\n\u003caside class=\"pullquote alignright\">‘All the older people who lived above me, to the east, they all died of some sort of cancer.’\u003ccite>Holly Huff, Santa Susana neighbor\u003c/cite>\u003c/aside>\n\u003cp>The debate resumed the following year, when another UCLA scholar published \u003ca href=\"https://www.documentcloud.org/documents/2752826-UCLA-2006-Cohen-UCLA-2006-02-02.html#document/p107/a282273\">findings\u003c/a> on how poisons appear to have migrated from Santa Susana. Researchers reported that, from the 1950s through the ’70s, people living within 2 miles of the field laboratory could have been exposed to significant amounts of TCE, hydrazine and other contaminants.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>This time, Boeing \u003ca href=\"https://www.documentcloud.org/documents/2752866-Boeing-2006-Boeing-Comments-on-UCLA-Exposure.html#document/p1/a282285\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">replied with a letter\u003c/a> to the study’s lead author, with copies to federal, state and local legislators, saying he was overstating the health risks by consistently choosing the worst-case exposure scenario. Boeing asserted that many of the contaminants cited in the report probably dissipate as they migrate from the site.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In 2007, University of Michigan researchers found the incidence of thyroid, bladder and blood system cancers to be \u003ca href=\"https://www.documentcloud.org/documents/2343941-uofm-rocketdyne-epidemiologic-study-feb-2007.html#document/p4/a349138\">more than 60 percent higher\u003c/a> for people living within 2 miles of the site than for those more than 5 miles away.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>For all the scientific claims and counterclaims, Santa Susana neighbor Holly Huff knows what she sees in her own body and among her friends and relatives. She has leukemia.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_11367302\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 800px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-11367302\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/news/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2017/03/RS24628__DSC0196-qut-800x535.jpg\" alt=\"Santa Susana neighbor Holly Huff recently visited the place just outside the the field laboratory where she once grew flowers for sale. She thinks poison from the laboratory caused her leukemia.\" width=\"800\" height=\"535\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2017/03/RS24628__DSC0196-qut-800x535.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2017/03/RS24628__DSC0196-qut-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2017/03/RS24628__DSC0196-qut-1020x683.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2017/03/RS24628__DSC0196-qut.jpg 1920w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2017/03/RS24628__DSC0196-qut-1180x790.jpg 1180w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2017/03/RS24628__DSC0196-qut-960x643.jpg 960w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2017/03/RS24628__DSC0196-qut-240x161.jpg 240w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2017/03/RS24628__DSC0196-qut-375x251.jpg 375w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2017/03/RS24628__DSC0196-qut-520x348.jpg 520w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 800px) 100vw, 800px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Santa Susana neighbor Holly Huff recently visited the place just outside the the field laboratory where she once grew flowers for sale. She thinks poison from the laboratory caused her leukemia. \u003ccite>(Chris Richard/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>“A good friend, I just found out has esophagus cancer,” she says. “My brother’s friend he went to school with all his life, over at Chatsworth Lake, she died last summer from a brain tumor. All the older people who lived above me, to the east, they all died of some sort of cancer. I don’t know. Is it just because cancer is everywhere? I don’t think so. I do know it’s here.”\u003c/p>\n\u003ch3>Local Governments Say Cleanup Plan Fails to Address Problem\u003c/h3>\n\u003cp>The DOE estimates that honoring its pledge to remove all the pollution it caused could mean excavating up to \u003ca href=\"https://www.documentcloud.org/documents/3472706-Summary.html#document/p49/a339476\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">1.4 million cubic yards\u003c/a> of contaminated dirt from the 130 acres of land it is responsible for. That’s more than three times the volume of the Rose Bowl — and removing that much dirt could cost at least \u003ca href=\"https://www.documentcloud.org/documents/3472706-Summary.html#document/p48/a339588\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">$468 million\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>A DOE study published in January proposes leaving \u003ca href=\"https://www.documentcloud.org/documents/3472706-Summary.html#document/p29/a346483\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">more than a third\u003c/a> of the department’s pollution in place. It includes the option of reducing the cleanup much more and cutting costs \u003ca href=\"https://www.documentcloud.org/documents/3472706-Summary.html#document/p48/a339588\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">by up to 75 percent\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The \u003ca href=\"https://www.documentcloud.org/documents/3560276-Ventura-County-Board-of-Supervisors-Letter.html\">Ventura County Board of Supervisors\u003c/a>, the \u003ca href=\"https://www.documentcloud.org/documents/3515481-SSFL-Letter-to-B-Lee.html\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors\u003c/a> and the \u003ca href=\"https://www.documentcloud.org/documents/3560273-LA-City-Mayor-Letter-and-Council-Resolution.html\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Los Angeles City Council\u003c/a> have all protested the study — and this April they reiterated their criticism in a \u003ca href=\"https://www.documentcloud.org/documents/3617755-Signed-Joint-Letter-DOE-DEIS.html\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">joint letter\u003c/a>. The state Department of Toxic Substances Control also has \u003ca href=\"https://www.documentcloud.org/documents/3617756-DTSC-Comments-on-DOE-s-DEIS-for-Area-IV-Santa.html#document/p1/a348882\">declared\u003c/a> that the proposed cleanup fails to meet DOE’s 2010 commitment.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>For its part, NASA has estimated that keeping its agreement to remove all its waste would mean digging out up to \u003ca href=\"https://www.documentcloud.org/documents/2755545-SSFL-Final-EIS.html#document/p91/a282753\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">half a million cubic yards of dirt at a cost of $200 million\u003c/a>. The agency’s inspector general has pointed out that that’s more than three times \u003ca href=\"https://www.documentcloud.org/documents/3473565-IG-14-021.html#document/p18/a339579\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">NASA’s annual cleanup budget\u003c/a> for the entire country. NASA has yet to come up with a concrete plan to proceed.\u003c/p>\n\u003caside class=\"pullquote alignright\">“It doesn’t make any sense at all to put this habitat at risk, and people use the term ‘moonscape.’ “\u003ccite>Dave Dassler, Boeing site program closure director\u003c/cite>\u003c/aside>\n\u003cp>The Boeing Co., which is responsible for more than three-quarters of the land, hasn’t published any cost analysis as detailed as the federal agencies have provided.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Whenever Boeing’s site program closure director, Dave Dassler, talks about cleanup standards, he stresses the environmental cost of removing too much dirt.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“It doesn’t make any sense at all to put this habitat at risk, and people use the term ‘moonscape,’ ” he says.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Dassler advocates what he calls a “suburban residential” cleanup standard for Boeing’s property. Environmental activists say that he’s distorting that regulatory category and that in fact the standards he’s pushing don’t meet residential requirements at all. Dassler insists that the standard is safe, especially since Santa Susana will eventually become a park where nobody lives and people visit only occasionally.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>He estimates that the company could finish its share of the cleanup by removing no more than 400,000 cubic yards of dirt.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>That’s less than either NASA or the DOE face on their much smaller portions of Santa Susana’s grounds.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_11367366\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 800px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-11367366 size-medium\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/news/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2017/03/RS24634_DSC_0064-qut-800x535.jpg\" alt=\"Abe Weitzberg, a former Santa Susana physicist who lives about three miles from the lab, is active in the SSFL Community Advisory Group, which opposes the stringent cleanups at Santa Susana that NASA and the federal Department of Energy have agreed to. Weitzberg predicts that if NASA and the DOE do meet the terms of their 2010 commitments, they’ll start a years-long parade of demolition debris through his neighborhood\" width=\"800\" height=\"535\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2017/03/RS24634_DSC_0064-qut-800x535.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2017/03/RS24634_DSC_0064-qut-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2017/03/RS24634_DSC_0064-qut-1020x683.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2017/03/RS24634_DSC_0064-qut.jpg 1920w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2017/03/RS24634_DSC_0064-qut-1180x790.jpg 1180w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2017/03/RS24634_DSC_0064-qut-960x643.jpg 960w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2017/03/RS24634_DSC_0064-qut-240x161.jpg 240w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2017/03/RS24634_DSC_0064-qut-375x251.jpg 375w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2017/03/RS24634_DSC_0064-qut-520x348.jpg 520w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 800px) 100vw, 800px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">The Boeing Company’s Dave Dassler, right, with company attorney and lobbyist Peter Weiner, at a regulatory hearing. Weiner, a former environmental aide to Gov. Jerry Brown during Brown’s first administration, is considered to be one of the most influential environmental attorneys in the state.\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Boeing has acknowledged in \u003ca href=\"https://www.documentcloud.org/documents/2429094-64847-boeing-sj-memorandum.html#document/p40/a243517\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">a court filing\u003c/a> that requiring it to match NASA’s and the DOE’s cleanup standards could cost the company hundreds of millions of dollars. Any comparison of Boeing’s plan with what the federal agencies are facing makes clear that Boeing stands to save a lot more money than that.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The Santa Susana project director for the DOE, John Jones, also has questioned whether his department’s promise to clean up its nuclear waste needs to be as rigorous. He points out that Santa Susana is the only place where the DOE has agreed to such stringent cleanup rules.\u003c/p>\n\u003ch3>How Clean Is Clean Enough?\u003c/h3>\n\u003cp>In 2012, the federal Environmental Protection Agency completed a detailed radiation map.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Eight out of 10 times, when technicians found radiation, it was at concentrations low enough that it wasn’t considered a health threat that must be removed. But that \u003ca href=\"https://www.documentcloud.org/documents/2313920-65789-final-radiological-characterization-of.html#document/p64/a237500\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">still left\u003c/a> nearly 300 hot spots where radioactive \u003ca href=\"https://www.epa.gov/radiation/radionuclide-basics-cesium-137\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">cesium-137\u003c/a> exceeded the safety threshold. Another 153 samples had strontium-90 at much higher concentrations than regulators considered safe.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003ca href=\"http://www.psr-la.org/about-psr-la/board-of-directors/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Robert Dodge of Physicians for Social Responsibility \u003c/a>called the pollution a grave public health risk. To the human body, strontium-90 looks like calcium.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“It’s taken up and deposited where calcium would be, which means teeth and bones, therefore causing problems down the road of bone cancer and leukemia,” he says. And cesium can actually cause cancer in any organ of the body.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>During an October 2015 tour of the Field Lab grounds, DOE Santa Susana Project Director John Jones discounted the threat.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Although there are those who are very politically connected who are very good for talking about vast radiological contamination, they need to define what is ‘vast amounts,’ ” he said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_11367369\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 1920px\">\u003ca href=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/news/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2017/03/RS24635_RadiationMap-qut.jpg\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-11367369 size-full\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/news/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2017/03/RS24635_RadiationMap-qut.jpg\" alt=\"In a survey of land around the former reactor site, the U.S. EPA found radioactive cesium, strontium, cobalt and plutonium at levels exceeding the cleanup thresholds, or 'Radiation Trigger Levels.' This detail from a survey map superimposes radiation findings on an aerial photograph.\" width=\"1920\" height=\"1251\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2017/03/RS24635_RadiationMap-qut.jpg 1920w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2017/03/RS24635_RadiationMap-qut-160x104.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2017/03/RS24635_RadiationMap-qut-800x521.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2017/03/RS24635_RadiationMap-qut-1020x665.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2017/03/RS24635_RadiationMap-qut-1180x769.jpg 1180w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2017/03/RS24635_RadiationMap-qut-960x626.jpg 960w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2017/03/RS24635_RadiationMap-qut-240x156.jpg 240w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2017/03/RS24635_RadiationMap-qut-375x244.jpg 375w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2017/03/RS24635_RadiationMap-qut-520x339.jpg 520w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1920px) 100vw, 1920px\">\u003c/a>\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">In a survey of land around the former reactor site, the U.S. EPA found radioactive cesium, strontium, cobalt and plutonium at levels exceeding the cleanup thresholds, or ‘Radiation Trigger Levels.’ This detail from a survey map superimposes radiation findings on an aerial photograph. \u003ccite>(United States Environmental Protection Agency)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Jones described most of the hot spots identified in the survey as just slightly more radioactive than what the EPA had declared safe.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“I’m an engineer, so to me, the numbers don’t lie,” he said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>However, the numbers Jones cited to discredit fears of radiation poisoning were out of date. A year before the interview, the EPA had markedly tightened its national safety \u003ca href=\"http://epa-prgs.ornl.gov/cgi-bin/radionuclides/rprg_search\">guidelines\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Jones has not responded to repeated requests to say whether he still considers the cleanup too rigorous.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>To critic Dan Hirsch, the EPA’s new stricter rules mean that “the agreement to clean up everything they can detect, that they created, becomes critically more important.”\u003c/p>\n\u003ch3>Neighborhood Groups in Conflict\u003c/h3>\n\u003cp>Some neighborhood organizations are also pushing for a strict cleanup. The \u003ca href=\"http://www.rocketdynecleanupcoalition.org/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Rocketdyne Cleanup Coalition\u003c/a> and the \u003ca href=\"http://www.ssflworkgroup.org/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Santa Susana Field Laboratory Work Group\u003c/a> meet regularly for briefings on developments regarding the laboratory. Members frequently testify before local and state lawmakers, urging them to enforce the terms of the 2010 federal agreements and to strengthen the terms that Boeing must meet.\u003c/p>\n\u003caside class=\"pullquote alignright\">‘It feels like we’re back on square one.’\u003ccite>Devyn Gortner, founder Teens Against Toxins\u003c/cite>\u003c/aside>\n\u003cp>Another group, Teens Against Toxins, formed at the local high school. Co-founder Devyn Gortner has long since graduated.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Seven years ago, when NASA and the DOE signed their agreements, Devyn felt sure her neighborhood would soon be free of pollution.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_11369637\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 1920px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-11369637 size-full\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/news/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2017/03/RS24677__DSC0012-3-qut.jpg\" alt=\"Jeanne Fjelstand hands out a leaflet warning Santa Susana visitors of remaining chemical and nuclear contamination during a Boeing-sponsored nature tour. Activists say Boeing is emphasizing Santa Susana's environmental value as a tactic to minimize the risk posed by the pollutants that remain at the site.\" width=\"1920\" height=\"1285\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2017/03/RS24677__DSC0012-3-qut.jpg 1920w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2017/03/RS24677__DSC0012-3-qut-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2017/03/RS24677__DSC0012-3-qut-800x535.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2017/03/RS24677__DSC0012-3-qut-1020x683.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2017/03/RS24677__DSC0012-3-qut-1180x790.jpg 1180w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2017/03/RS24677__DSC0012-3-qut-960x643.jpg 960w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2017/03/RS24677__DSC0012-3-qut-240x161.jpg 240w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2017/03/RS24677__DSC0012-3-qut-375x251.jpg 375w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2017/03/RS24677__DSC0012-3-qut-520x348.jpg 520w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1920px) 100vw, 1920px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Jeanne Fjelstad hands out a leaflet warning Santa Susana visitors of remaining chemical and nuclear contamination during a Boeing-sponsored nature tour. Activists say Boeing is emphasizing Santa Susana’s environmental value as a tactic to minimize the risk posed by the pollutants that remain at the site. \u003ccite>(Chris Richard/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Today, “It feels like we’re back on square one,” she says.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Still, some of Santa Susana’s neighbors say the environmental activists worry about the wrong things.\u003c/p>\n\u003caside class=\"pullquote alignright\">‘You should only clean up those materials that pose a risk to communities.’\u003ccite>Abe Weitzberg, community advisory group member and former lab physicist\u003c/cite>\u003c/aside>\n\u003cp>The \u003ca href=\"http://ssflcag.net/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">SSFL Community Advisory Group\u003c/a> is \u003ca href=\"https://www.documentcloud.org/documents/3474280-SSFL-CAG-Documents.html#document/p5/a339739\">against enforcing\u003c/a> the DOE’s and NASA’s cleanup commitments, arguing that scouring away all pollution will scar the beautiful Simi Hills, damage pre-Colombian historic sites, endanger local wildlife and jeopardize the health of neighbors. They are concerned about trucks carrying hazardous debris through the surrounding suburbs.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Group member Abe Weitzberg is a former Santa Susana physicist who lives about 3 miles from the lab. He says he helped start the advisory group in part because Hirsch and his supporters kept shouting down skeptics at meetings.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_11367364\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 800px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-11367364 size-medium\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/news/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2017/03/RS24637_DSC_0020-qut-800x535.jpg\" alt=\"Abe Weitzberg, a former Santa Susana physicist who lives about three miles from the lab, is active in the SSFL Community Advisory Group, which opposes the stringent cleanups at Santa Susana that NASA and the federal Department of Energy have agreed to. Weitzberg predicts that if NASA and the DOE do meet the terms of their 2010 commitments, they’ll start a years-long parade of demolition debris through his neighborhood.\" width=\"800\" height=\"535\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2017/03/RS24637_DSC_0020-qut-800x535.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2017/03/RS24637_DSC_0020-qut-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2017/03/RS24637_DSC_0020-qut-1020x683.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2017/03/RS24637_DSC_0020-qut.jpg 1920w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2017/03/RS24637_DSC_0020-qut-1180x790.jpg 1180w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2017/03/RS24637_DSC_0020-qut-960x643.jpg 960w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2017/03/RS24637_DSC_0020-qut-240x161.jpg 240w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2017/03/RS24637_DSC_0020-qut-375x251.jpg 375w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2017/03/RS24637_DSC_0020-qut-520x348.jpg 520w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 800px) 100vw, 800px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Abe Weitzberg, a former Santa Susana physicist who lives about 3 miles from the lab, is active in the SSFL Community Advisory Group, which opposes the stringent cleanups at Santa Susana that NASA and the federal Department of Energy have agreed to. Weitzberg predicts that if NASA and the DOE do meet the terms of their 2010 commitments, they’ll start a years-long parade of demolition debris through his neighborhood. \u003ccite>(Chris Richard/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>The advisory group has been asking Southern California neighborhood councils — appointed boards that report community sentiment to the Los Angeles City Council — to oppose the state’s cleanup agreements with NASA and the DOE.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“You should only clean up those materials that pose a risk to communities. The hydrocarbons from the truck traffic actually pose more of a risk than very small quantities of cesium or strontium or chemicals, up at a place remote to where you live,” Weitzberg says.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But not everyone agrees. Melissa Bumstead attended the West Hills Neighborhood Council one night early this month when it considered a resolution opposing the agreements.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“They voted overwhelmingly for a very limited cleanup option as I held up a picture of my daughter with no hair,” she says. “I feel that denial is a very, very powerful force.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_11378520\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 1920px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-11378520 size-full\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/news/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2017/03/RS24774__DSC0106-2-qut.jpg\" alt=\"Gracie Bumstead, 7, was diagnosed at age 4 with a rare form of leukemia. The necklace she wears is made of "courage beads" she received each time she completed a chemotherapy treatment. She's been cancer-free since January 2016. Gracie's mother Melissa, right, says neighborhood children have an unusually high cancer rate.\" width=\"1920\" height=\"1285\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2017/03/RS24774__DSC0106-2-qut.jpg 1920w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2017/03/RS24774__DSC0106-2-qut-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2017/03/RS24774__DSC0106-2-qut-800x535.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2017/03/RS24774__DSC0106-2-qut-1020x683.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2017/03/RS24774__DSC0106-2-qut-1180x790.jpg 1180w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2017/03/RS24774__DSC0106-2-qut-960x643.jpg 960w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2017/03/RS24774__DSC0106-2-qut-240x161.jpg 240w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2017/03/RS24774__DSC0106-2-qut-375x251.jpg 375w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2017/03/RS24774__DSC0106-2-qut-520x348.jpg 520w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1920px) 100vw, 1920px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Gracie Bumstead, 7, was diagnosed at age 4 with a rare form of leukemia. The necklace she wears is made of “courage beads” she received each time she completed a cancer treatment. She’s been cancer-free since January 2016, but still keeps the hairless Barbie doll her parents gave her to help her through the trauma of chemotherapy. Gracie’s mother, Melissa, right, believes neighborhood children have an unusually high cancer rate. \u003ccite>(Chris Richard/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>When Bumstead and her husband, Chad, bought their home in 2012, they thought they’d found a fantastic deal. Melissa had checked crime statistics and the performance of local schools. They were thrilled with the backyard pool.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Then in January 2014, they took their daughter, Gracie, to a hospital emergency room after she suddenly showed bruising all over her body. Gracie was diagnosed with a rare form of blood cancer.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>As her child underwent two years of chemotherapy, Bumstead said she kept meeting other parents at the local hospital whose children suffered from rare illnesses.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>She’s \u003ca href=\"https://www.documentcloud.org/documents/3525565-ReportPediatricCancerCluster-PUBLIC.html#document/p4/a345647\">made a map\u003c/a> of pediatric cancers in her neighborhood. She acknowledges that her data are comprised of family accounts.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Still, “even with our rudimentary data, the numbers are alarming,” Bumstead says.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Dan Hirsch believes the advisory group is a case of “Astroturfing,” where a polluter sets up a fake grass-roots organization that promotes its agenda and opposes strict environmental regulation. Email \u003ca href=\"https://www.documentcloud.org/documents/2474383-boeingcagemails.html\">records\u003c/a> show that a Boeing public relations executive advised the group as it was being formed.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But advisory group member John Luker gets tired of such talk. He says he has yet to see any pollution readings that make him fear Santa Susana will poison him. Meanwhile, he says, the need for a park is clear.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“There are people who say I work for the Boeing Co., or they qualify that by saying I work for the goals and the ends of the Boeing Co.,” he says. “My answer to that is the Boeing Co. works for me. Preserve what we can, clean up what we must, and save for future generations the wonders that are up here.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In August 2015, the DOE \u003ca href=\"https://www.usaspending.gov/Pages/AdvancedSearch.aspx?k=SSFL%20CAG%20Foundation\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">awarded\u003c/a> a $34,100 grant to a \u003ca href=\"https://www.documentcloud.org/documents/3474345-2015-472219588-0c59ea88-Z.html#document/p2/a339756\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">foundation\u003c/a> set up and run by advisory group members. Alec Uzemeck, a former advisory group chairman who now serves as the foundation’s secretary and treasurer, says the foundation was created for educational purposes.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“The $34,000 is for the CAG (community advisory group) to understand the cleanup process, the documentation, and what’s going on with the agencies and (polluters) and to communicate that to the public. So we’re a communications service to the public and from the public,” he says. “We don’t lobby.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>He declined to provide a copy of the bid request and grant documents.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad floatright]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>So far, the DOE has proved equally guarded. Responding to a Freedom of Information Act request in October, a DOE official said he’d completed his review of the documents, but the department’s Washington office wanted to check them prior to release. The department has not produced the records.\u003c/p>\n\n",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003cp>\u003cem> Reporting for this story was supported by the \u003ca href=\"http://www.fij.org\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Fund for Investigative Journalism.\u003c/a>\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>One sleepy Saturday morning in late August 1959, the federal Atomic Energy Commission issued \u003ca href=\"https://www.documentcloud.org/documents/2703248-Atomic-Energy-Commission-Press-Release.html\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">a press release\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\n\u003cblockquote>\u003cp>During an inspection of fuel elements on July 26 at the Sodium Reactor Experiment, operated for the Atomic Energy Commission at Santa Susana, California by Atomics International, a division of North American Aviation, Inc., a parted fuel element was observed.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The fuel element damage is not an indication of unsafe reactor conditions. No release of radioactive materials to the plant or its environs occurred and operating personnel were not exposed to harmful conditions.\u003c/p>\u003c/blockquote>\n\u003cp>In fact, there was a partial nuclear plant meltdown in the hills just 30 miles northwest of downtown Los Angeles.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The details of what happened at the Santa Susana Field Laboratory, including the venting of an unknown amount of radioactive gases, did not receive much media attention, and the facts of the accident weren’t really known to the public for the better part of two decades.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Today, the environmental damage has yet to be fully addressed.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003ch3>Decades of Polluting the Mountains\u003c/h3>\n\u003cp>Santa Susana was founded in the mid-1940s at what was then the remote fringe of a largely rural San Fernando Valley. The laboratory developed and tested 10 nuclear reactors for the federal government and tested rocket engines for half a century.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The 1959 meltdown was just one mishap in decades of pollution \u003ca href=\"https://www.documentcloud.org/documents/2271069-report-of-the-santa-susana-field-laboratory-panel.html\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">left by atomic research\u003c/a>, the open-air \u003ca href=\"https://www.documentcloud.org/documents/2339522-3131-a1bp-lr1.html#document/p17/a238264\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">burning of toxic wastes\u003c/a> and thousands of \u003ca href=\"https://www.documentcloud.org/documents/3473599-Space-History-at-SSFL-2010-04-28.html\">NASA rocket engine tests\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Space agency technicians used at least 800,000 gallons of the carcinogenic chemical compound \u003ca href=\"https://www.epa.gov/assessing-and-managing-chemicals-under-tsca/trichloroethylene-tce\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">trichloroethylene (TCE) \u003c/a>as a degreasing agent, then poured it out on the ground, where it flowed into unlined ponds and percolated down to local aquifers, \u003ca href=\"https://www.documentcloud.org/documents/2752182-SSFL-PASI-Report-r2-Complete.html#document/p8/a282098\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">records show\u003c/a>. The \u003ca href=\"http://yosemite.epa.gov/r9/sfund/r9sfdocw.nsf/ViewByEPAID/CAN000908498\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">EPA estimates\u003c/a> that half a million gallons of the substance remain in the soil and groundwater beneath the lab. Other contaminants from NASA’s activities include \u003ca href=\"https://www.epa.gov/sites/production/files/2014-03/documents/ffrrofactsheet_contaminant_perchlorate_january2014_final.pdf\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">perchlorate, \u003c/a>\u003ca href=\"https://www.cdc.gov/niosh/topics/hydrazine/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">hydrazines\u003c/a>, \u003ca href=\"https://www.epa.gov/pcbs/learn-about-polychlorinated-biphenyls-pcbs\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">PCBs\u003c/a>, \u003ca href=\"https://www.epa.gov/dioxin\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">dioxins\u003c/a> and heavy metals, \u003ca href=\"https://www.documentcloud.org/documents/2424338-11-30-07-preliminary-assessment-site-inspection.html\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">the EPA found\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_11383385\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 1920px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-11383385\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/news/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2017/03/RS24626_DSC_1223-photo-by-William-Preston-Bowling-qut.jpg\" alt=\"NASA used trichloroethylene, a carcinogen, as a degreaser on its rocket test stands, then poured it into unlined storage ponds. An estimated half-million gallons of trichloroethylene have contaminated the ground beneath Santa Susana.\" width=\"1920\" height=\"1285\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2017/03/RS24626_DSC_1223-photo-by-William-Preston-Bowling-qut.jpg 1920w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2017/03/RS24626_DSC_1223-photo-by-William-Preston-Bowling-qut-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2017/03/RS24626_DSC_1223-photo-by-William-Preston-Bowling-qut-800x535.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2017/03/RS24626_DSC_1223-photo-by-William-Preston-Bowling-qut-1020x683.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2017/03/RS24626_DSC_1223-photo-by-William-Preston-Bowling-qut-1180x790.jpg 1180w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2017/03/RS24626_DSC_1223-photo-by-William-Preston-Bowling-qut-960x643.jpg 960w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2017/03/RS24626_DSC_1223-photo-by-William-Preston-Bowling-qut-240x161.jpg 240w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2017/03/RS24626_DSC_1223-photo-by-William-Preston-Bowling-qut-375x251.jpg 375w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2017/03/RS24626_DSC_1223-photo-by-William-Preston-Bowling-qut-520x348.jpg 520w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1920px) 100vw, 1920px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">NASA used trichloroethylene, a carcinogen, as a degreaser on its rocket test stands, and then poured it into unlined storage ponds. An estimated half-million gallons of trichloroethylene have contaminated the ground beneath Santa Susana. \u003ccite>(William Preston Bowling)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>At its height in the 1960s, the laboratory employed some 9,000 workers and carried out as many as eight rocket engine tests a day. People remember how the thundering roar of the rockets used to rattle windows in the rapidly growing suburbs nearby.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Today, the lab sits idle behind a security fence. The last nuclear experiment there concluded nearly 30 years ago, and the rocket engine testing wound up in 2006.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Giant rocket engine test stands still loom intact, but many of the lab’s industrial buildings have been leveled. Those remaining are slowly weathering. The rusting industrial wasteland seems incongruous today, a silent blot on a vista of chaparral and majestic sandstone bluffs. Still, nature is fighting back. In places, black sage, mule fat bush and \u003ca href=\"http://www.flowersociety.org/Yerba_About.htm\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">yerba santa\u003c/a> are starting to crowd the roads. Mountain lions, bobcats, coyotes and deer roam the grounds.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003ca href=\"http://www.boeing.com\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">The Boeing Co. \u003c/a>took over most of the 2,850-acre lab site when it acquired \u003ca href=\"http://www.rocket.com/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Aerojet Rocketdyne\u003c/a> in 1996, and has pledged to preserve its portion of the land as open space.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_11371914\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 1920px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-11371914\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/news/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2017/03/RS24703_DTSC_Map-qut-1.jpg\" alt=\"The Santa Susana Field Laboratory is in the Simi Hills about 30 miles west of downtown Los Angeles.\" width=\"1920\" height=\"1292\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2017/03/RS24703_DTSC_Map-qut-1.jpg 1920w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2017/03/RS24703_DTSC_Map-qut-1-160x108.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2017/03/RS24703_DTSC_Map-qut-1-800x538.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2017/03/RS24703_DTSC_Map-qut-1-1020x686.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2017/03/RS24703_DTSC_Map-qut-1-1180x794.jpg 1180w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2017/03/RS24703_DTSC_Map-qut-1-960x646.jpg 960w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2017/03/RS24703_DTSC_Map-qut-1-240x162.jpg 240w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2017/03/RS24703_DTSC_Map-qut-1-375x252.jpg 375w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2017/03/RS24703_DTSC_Map-qut-1-520x350.jpg 520w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1920px) 100vw, 1920px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">The Santa Susana Field Laboratory is in the Simi Hills about 30 miles northwest of downtown Los Angeles. \u003ccite>(Source: California Department of Toxic Substances Control)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>But some neighbors and nuclear watchdog groups call that a public relations ploy meant to obscure the extent of the contamination. They fear that by getting Santa Susana designated as parkland, Boeing could avoid hundreds of millions of dollars in cleanup costs. Environmental remediation standards for such land are less stringent than they are for places where people live. They point out that even if nobody ever lives on the mountain site itself, the suburbs extend to just half a mile from the lab gates.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Critics are also wary of the lab’s two other landowners, the \u003ca href=\"https://energy.gov/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Department of Energy, or DOE, \u003c/a>and\u003ca href=\"https://www.nasa.gov\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"> NASA. \u003c/a> In half a century of polluting the mountains, neither agency has come up with a thorough cleanup plan.\u003c/p>\n\u003ch3>A Moment of Hope Turns Sour\u003c/h3>\n\u003cp>In late 2010, the \u003ca href=\"http://www.dtsc.ca.gov\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">California Department of Toxic Substances Control \u003c/a> — the state agency in charge of regulating California’s most polluted sites — tried to get things moving. It signed \u003ca href=\"https://www.nasa.gov/home/hqnews/2010/dec/HQ_10-326_Santa_Susana.html\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">agreements\u003c/a> with \u003ca href=\"https://www.documentcloud.org/documents/2761442-64791-SSFL-DOE-AOC-Final.html#document/p5/a339563\">DOE\u003c/a> and \u003ca href=\"https://www.documentcloud.org/documents/2761443-NASA-DTSC-Final-AOC-Dec-2010.html\">NASA \u003c/a> that required the federal agencies to remove all radioactive and chemical contamination from federally controlled property at Santa Susana, restoring the land to the condition it was in before rocketry and nuclear experiments began.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Activists called the agreement a triumph for the environment and public health. They trusted state regulators’ \u003ca href=\"https://www.documentcloud.org/documents/2703460-DTSC-s-2010-Explanation-For-Applying.html#document/p21/a275250\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">promise\u003c/a> to make Boeing follow suit.\u003c/p>\n\u003caside class=\"pullquote alignright\">‘The history of this has been that of callous disregard for public health and safety, essentially cutting every corner you can.’\u003ccite>Dan Hirsch, UC Santa Cruz\u003c/cite>\u003c/aside>\n\u003cp>Instead, the standards for Boeing’s portion of the cleanup have been weakened to match company wishes. And both federal agencies are questioning the extent of their commitments to restore the land. The cleanup, which was supposed to be finished by now, hasn’t even cleared the planning stage.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Some activists wonder whether the toxic threats in the land will ever be removed.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“The history of this has been that of callous disregard for public health and safety, essentially cutting every corner you can, having a cozy relationship with regulators that lets you bypass normal rules,” says longtime lab critic Dan Hirsch. He’s president of the nuclear watchdog group \u003ca href=\"http://committeetobridgethegap.org/\">Committee to Bridge the Gap\u003c/a> and directs the \u003ca href=\"https://socialsciences.ucsc.edu/academics/singleton.php?&singleton=true&cruz_id=dohirsch\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Program on Environmental and Nuclear Policy at UC Santa Cruz.\u003c/a>\u003c/p>\n\u003ch3>Cancer Risk Studies Hotly Debated\u003c/h3>\n\u003cp>Several studies have linked Santa Susana to increased cancer risks. However, scientists associated with the laboratory’s owners have questioned such findings, saying they make unwarranted assumptions about how much poison people actually are exposed to, or extrapolate from study populations that are too small.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The debate has gone on for decades.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In 1997, UCLA School of Public Health researchers \u003ca href=\"https://www.documentcloud.org/documents/2752394-UCLA-Rocketdyne-Radiation-Study-Sept-1997-Release.html#document/p8/a282262\">found\u003c/a> that field lab workers who were exposed to radiation at Santa Susana have an increased risk of dying of cancer. Researchers estimated the risks at six to eight times higher than those permitted under federal guidelines for long-term exposure to low-level radiation. News stories at the time quoted scholars hired by the laboratory to review the findings as questioning the study’s methodology.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Two years later, the School of Public Health scientists \u003ca href=\"https://www.documentcloud.org/documents/2752395-UCLA-Rocketdyne-Chemical-Study-Jan-1999.html#document/p7/a286836\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">published research\u003c/a> showing twice as many lung cancers in workers who faced a lot of exposure to hydrazine on the job, compared with workers who didn’t. The authors said they couldn’t prove hydrazine exposure was to blame, but they were confident some chemical or chemicals related to hydrazine or other aspects of rocket engine fueling was the source of the danger. Again, scholars under contract with the laboratory’s owners called the findings inconclusive.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In 2005, Boeing funded its own \u003ca href=\"https://www.documentcloud.org/documents/2339865-rocketdyne-worker-health-study-executive-summary.html#document/p8/a238275\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">study,\u003c/a> which offered sharply different findings. After examining more than 46,000 people who worked for six months or longer at Santa Susana and an affiliated research facility in Canoga Park, researchers found a cancer death rate lower than that of the general population. Further, the paper’s authors pointed out that “no cause of death was significantly elevated,” even among those exposed to radiation and toxic chemicals.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>This time, press accounts quoted a UCLA researcher who noted that Boeing had paid a private research company more than twice what the DOE paid for the UCLA studies, and who speculated that the Boeing report’s conclusions were tailored to meet the client’s wishes.\u003c/p>\n\u003caside class=\"pullquote alignright\">‘All the older people who lived above me, to the east, they all died of some sort of cancer.’\u003ccite>Holly Huff, Santa Susana neighbor\u003c/cite>\u003c/aside>\n\u003cp>The debate resumed the following year, when another UCLA scholar published \u003ca href=\"https://www.documentcloud.org/documents/2752826-UCLA-2006-Cohen-UCLA-2006-02-02.html#document/p107/a282273\">findings\u003c/a> on how poisons appear to have migrated from Santa Susana. Researchers reported that, from the 1950s through the ’70s, people living within 2 miles of the field laboratory could have been exposed to significant amounts of TCE, hydrazine and other contaminants.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>This time, Boeing \u003ca href=\"https://www.documentcloud.org/documents/2752866-Boeing-2006-Boeing-Comments-on-UCLA-Exposure.html#document/p1/a282285\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">replied with a letter\u003c/a> to the study’s lead author, with copies to federal, state and local legislators, saying he was overstating the health risks by consistently choosing the worst-case exposure scenario. Boeing asserted that many of the contaminants cited in the report probably dissipate as they migrate from the site.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In 2007, University of Michigan researchers found the incidence of thyroid, bladder and blood system cancers to be \u003ca href=\"https://www.documentcloud.org/documents/2343941-uofm-rocketdyne-epidemiologic-study-feb-2007.html#document/p4/a349138\">more than 60 percent higher\u003c/a> for people living within 2 miles of the site than for those more than 5 miles away.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>For all the scientific claims and counterclaims, Santa Susana neighbor Holly Huff knows what she sees in her own body and among her friends and relatives. She has leukemia.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_11367302\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 800px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-11367302\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/news/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2017/03/RS24628__DSC0196-qut-800x535.jpg\" alt=\"Santa Susana neighbor Holly Huff recently visited the place just outside the the field laboratory where she once grew flowers for sale. She thinks poison from the laboratory caused her leukemia.\" width=\"800\" height=\"535\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2017/03/RS24628__DSC0196-qut-800x535.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2017/03/RS24628__DSC0196-qut-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2017/03/RS24628__DSC0196-qut-1020x683.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2017/03/RS24628__DSC0196-qut.jpg 1920w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2017/03/RS24628__DSC0196-qut-1180x790.jpg 1180w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2017/03/RS24628__DSC0196-qut-960x643.jpg 960w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2017/03/RS24628__DSC0196-qut-240x161.jpg 240w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2017/03/RS24628__DSC0196-qut-375x251.jpg 375w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2017/03/RS24628__DSC0196-qut-520x348.jpg 520w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 800px) 100vw, 800px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Santa Susana neighbor Holly Huff recently visited the place just outside the the field laboratory where she once grew flowers for sale. She thinks poison from the laboratory caused her leukemia. \u003ccite>(Chris Richard/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>“A good friend, I just found out has esophagus cancer,” she says. “My brother’s friend he went to school with all his life, over at Chatsworth Lake, she died last summer from a brain tumor. All the older people who lived above me, to the east, they all died of some sort of cancer. I don’t know. Is it just because cancer is everywhere? I don’t think so. I do know it’s here.”\u003c/p>\n\u003ch3>Local Governments Say Cleanup Plan Fails to Address Problem\u003c/h3>\n\u003cp>The DOE estimates that honoring its pledge to remove all the pollution it caused could mean excavating up to \u003ca href=\"https://www.documentcloud.org/documents/3472706-Summary.html#document/p49/a339476\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">1.4 million cubic yards\u003c/a> of contaminated dirt from the 130 acres of land it is responsible for. That’s more than three times the volume of the Rose Bowl — and removing that much dirt could cost at least \u003ca href=\"https://www.documentcloud.org/documents/3472706-Summary.html#document/p48/a339588\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">$468 million\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>A DOE study published in January proposes leaving \u003ca href=\"https://www.documentcloud.org/documents/3472706-Summary.html#document/p29/a346483\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">more than a third\u003c/a> of the department’s pollution in place. It includes the option of reducing the cleanup much more and cutting costs \u003ca href=\"https://www.documentcloud.org/documents/3472706-Summary.html#document/p48/a339588\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">by up to 75 percent\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The \u003ca href=\"https://www.documentcloud.org/documents/3560276-Ventura-County-Board-of-Supervisors-Letter.html\">Ventura County Board of Supervisors\u003c/a>, the \u003ca href=\"https://www.documentcloud.org/documents/3515481-SSFL-Letter-to-B-Lee.html\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors\u003c/a> and the \u003ca href=\"https://www.documentcloud.org/documents/3560273-LA-City-Mayor-Letter-and-Council-Resolution.html\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Los Angeles City Council\u003c/a> have all protested the study — and this April they reiterated their criticism in a \u003ca href=\"https://www.documentcloud.org/documents/3617755-Signed-Joint-Letter-DOE-DEIS.html\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">joint letter\u003c/a>. The state Department of Toxic Substances Control also has \u003ca href=\"https://www.documentcloud.org/documents/3617756-DTSC-Comments-on-DOE-s-DEIS-for-Area-IV-Santa.html#document/p1/a348882\">declared\u003c/a> that the proposed cleanup fails to meet DOE’s 2010 commitment.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>For its part, NASA has estimated that keeping its agreement to remove all its waste would mean digging out up to \u003ca href=\"https://www.documentcloud.org/documents/2755545-SSFL-Final-EIS.html#document/p91/a282753\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">half a million cubic yards of dirt at a cost of $200 million\u003c/a>. The agency’s inspector general has pointed out that that’s more than three times \u003ca href=\"https://www.documentcloud.org/documents/3473565-IG-14-021.html#document/p18/a339579\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">NASA’s annual cleanup budget\u003c/a> for the entire country. NASA has yet to come up with a concrete plan to proceed.\u003c/p>\n\u003caside class=\"pullquote alignright\">“It doesn’t make any sense at all to put this habitat at risk, and people use the term ‘moonscape.’ “\u003ccite>Dave Dassler, Boeing site program closure director\u003c/cite>\u003c/aside>\n\u003cp>The Boeing Co., which is responsible for more than three-quarters of the land, hasn’t published any cost analysis as detailed as the federal agencies have provided.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Whenever Boeing’s site program closure director, Dave Dassler, talks about cleanup standards, he stresses the environmental cost of removing too much dirt.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“It doesn’t make any sense at all to put this habitat at risk, and people use the term ‘moonscape,’ ” he says.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Dassler advocates what he calls a “suburban residential” cleanup standard for Boeing’s property. Environmental activists say that he’s distorting that regulatory category and that in fact the standards he’s pushing don’t meet residential requirements at all. Dassler insists that the standard is safe, especially since Santa Susana will eventually become a park where nobody lives and people visit only occasionally.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>He estimates that the company could finish its share of the cleanup by removing no more than 400,000 cubic yards of dirt.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>That’s less than either NASA or the DOE face on their much smaller portions of Santa Susana’s grounds.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_11367366\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 800px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-11367366 size-medium\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/news/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2017/03/RS24634_DSC_0064-qut-800x535.jpg\" alt=\"Abe Weitzberg, a former Santa Susana physicist who lives about three miles from the lab, is active in the SSFL Community Advisory Group, which opposes the stringent cleanups at Santa Susana that NASA and the federal Department of Energy have agreed to. Weitzberg predicts that if NASA and the DOE do meet the terms of their 2010 commitments, they’ll start a years-long parade of demolition debris through his neighborhood\" width=\"800\" height=\"535\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2017/03/RS24634_DSC_0064-qut-800x535.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2017/03/RS24634_DSC_0064-qut-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2017/03/RS24634_DSC_0064-qut-1020x683.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2017/03/RS24634_DSC_0064-qut.jpg 1920w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2017/03/RS24634_DSC_0064-qut-1180x790.jpg 1180w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2017/03/RS24634_DSC_0064-qut-960x643.jpg 960w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2017/03/RS24634_DSC_0064-qut-240x161.jpg 240w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2017/03/RS24634_DSC_0064-qut-375x251.jpg 375w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2017/03/RS24634_DSC_0064-qut-520x348.jpg 520w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 800px) 100vw, 800px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">The Boeing Company’s Dave Dassler, right, with company attorney and lobbyist Peter Weiner, at a regulatory hearing. Weiner, a former environmental aide to Gov. Jerry Brown during Brown’s first administration, is considered to be one of the most influential environmental attorneys in the state.\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Boeing has acknowledged in \u003ca href=\"https://www.documentcloud.org/documents/2429094-64847-boeing-sj-memorandum.html#document/p40/a243517\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">a court filing\u003c/a> that requiring it to match NASA’s and the DOE’s cleanup standards could cost the company hundreds of millions of dollars. Any comparison of Boeing’s plan with what the federal agencies are facing makes clear that Boeing stands to save a lot more money than that.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The Santa Susana project director for the DOE, John Jones, also has questioned whether his department’s promise to clean up its nuclear waste needs to be as rigorous. He points out that Santa Susana is the only place where the DOE has agreed to such stringent cleanup rules.\u003c/p>\n\u003ch3>How Clean Is Clean Enough?\u003c/h3>\n\u003cp>In 2012, the federal Environmental Protection Agency completed a detailed radiation map.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Eight out of 10 times, when technicians found radiation, it was at concentrations low enough that it wasn’t considered a health threat that must be removed. But that \u003ca href=\"https://www.documentcloud.org/documents/2313920-65789-final-radiological-characterization-of.html#document/p64/a237500\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">still left\u003c/a> nearly 300 hot spots where radioactive \u003ca href=\"https://www.epa.gov/radiation/radionuclide-basics-cesium-137\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">cesium-137\u003c/a> exceeded the safety threshold. Another 153 samples had strontium-90 at much higher concentrations than regulators considered safe.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003ca href=\"http://www.psr-la.org/about-psr-la/board-of-directors/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Robert Dodge of Physicians for Social Responsibility \u003c/a>called the pollution a grave public health risk. To the human body, strontium-90 looks like calcium.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“It’s taken up and deposited where calcium would be, which means teeth and bones, therefore causing problems down the road of bone cancer and leukemia,” he says. And cesium can actually cause cancer in any organ of the body.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>During an October 2015 tour of the Field Lab grounds, DOE Santa Susana Project Director John Jones discounted the threat.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Although there are those who are very politically connected who are very good for talking about vast radiological contamination, they need to define what is ‘vast amounts,’ ” he said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_11367369\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 1920px\">\u003ca href=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/news/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2017/03/RS24635_RadiationMap-qut.jpg\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-11367369 size-full\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/news/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2017/03/RS24635_RadiationMap-qut.jpg\" alt=\"In a survey of land around the former reactor site, the U.S. EPA found radioactive cesium, strontium, cobalt and plutonium at levels exceeding the cleanup thresholds, or 'Radiation Trigger Levels.' This detail from a survey map superimposes radiation findings on an aerial photograph.\" width=\"1920\" height=\"1251\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2017/03/RS24635_RadiationMap-qut.jpg 1920w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2017/03/RS24635_RadiationMap-qut-160x104.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2017/03/RS24635_RadiationMap-qut-800x521.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2017/03/RS24635_RadiationMap-qut-1020x665.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2017/03/RS24635_RadiationMap-qut-1180x769.jpg 1180w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2017/03/RS24635_RadiationMap-qut-960x626.jpg 960w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2017/03/RS24635_RadiationMap-qut-240x156.jpg 240w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2017/03/RS24635_RadiationMap-qut-375x244.jpg 375w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2017/03/RS24635_RadiationMap-qut-520x339.jpg 520w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1920px) 100vw, 1920px\">\u003c/a>\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">In a survey of land around the former reactor site, the U.S. EPA found radioactive cesium, strontium, cobalt and plutonium at levels exceeding the cleanup thresholds, or ‘Radiation Trigger Levels.’ This detail from a survey map superimposes radiation findings on an aerial photograph. \u003ccite>(United States Environmental Protection Agency)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Jones described most of the hot spots identified in the survey as just slightly more radioactive than what the EPA had declared safe.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“I’m an engineer, so to me, the numbers don’t lie,” he said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>However, the numbers Jones cited to discredit fears of radiation poisoning were out of date. A year before the interview, the EPA had markedly tightened its national safety \u003ca href=\"http://epa-prgs.ornl.gov/cgi-bin/radionuclides/rprg_search\">guidelines\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Jones has not responded to repeated requests to say whether he still considers the cleanup too rigorous.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>To critic Dan Hirsch, the EPA’s new stricter rules mean that “the agreement to clean up everything they can detect, that they created, becomes critically more important.”\u003c/p>\n\u003ch3>Neighborhood Groups in Conflict\u003c/h3>\n\u003cp>Some neighborhood organizations are also pushing for a strict cleanup. The \u003ca href=\"http://www.rocketdynecleanupcoalition.org/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Rocketdyne Cleanup Coalition\u003c/a> and the \u003ca href=\"http://www.ssflworkgroup.org/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Santa Susana Field Laboratory Work Group\u003c/a> meet regularly for briefings on developments regarding the laboratory. Members frequently testify before local and state lawmakers, urging them to enforce the terms of the 2010 federal agreements and to strengthen the terms that Boeing must meet.\u003c/p>\n\u003caside class=\"pullquote alignright\">‘It feels like we’re back on square one.’\u003ccite>Devyn Gortner, founder Teens Against Toxins\u003c/cite>\u003c/aside>\n\u003cp>Another group, Teens Against Toxins, formed at the local high school. Co-founder Devyn Gortner has long since graduated.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Seven years ago, when NASA and the DOE signed their agreements, Devyn felt sure her neighborhood would soon be free of pollution.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_11369637\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 1920px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-11369637 size-full\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/news/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2017/03/RS24677__DSC0012-3-qut.jpg\" alt=\"Jeanne Fjelstand hands out a leaflet warning Santa Susana visitors of remaining chemical and nuclear contamination during a Boeing-sponsored nature tour. Activists say Boeing is emphasizing Santa Susana's environmental value as a tactic to minimize the risk posed by the pollutants that remain at the site.\" width=\"1920\" height=\"1285\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2017/03/RS24677__DSC0012-3-qut.jpg 1920w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2017/03/RS24677__DSC0012-3-qut-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2017/03/RS24677__DSC0012-3-qut-800x535.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2017/03/RS24677__DSC0012-3-qut-1020x683.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2017/03/RS24677__DSC0012-3-qut-1180x790.jpg 1180w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2017/03/RS24677__DSC0012-3-qut-960x643.jpg 960w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2017/03/RS24677__DSC0012-3-qut-240x161.jpg 240w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2017/03/RS24677__DSC0012-3-qut-375x251.jpg 375w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2017/03/RS24677__DSC0012-3-qut-520x348.jpg 520w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1920px) 100vw, 1920px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Jeanne Fjelstad hands out a leaflet warning Santa Susana visitors of remaining chemical and nuclear contamination during a Boeing-sponsored nature tour. Activists say Boeing is emphasizing Santa Susana’s environmental value as a tactic to minimize the risk posed by the pollutants that remain at the site. \u003ccite>(Chris Richard/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Today, “It feels like we’re back on square one,” she says.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Still, some of Santa Susana’s neighbors say the environmental activists worry about the wrong things.\u003c/p>\n\u003caside class=\"pullquote alignright\">‘You should only clean up those materials that pose a risk to communities.’\u003ccite>Abe Weitzberg, community advisory group member and former lab physicist\u003c/cite>\u003c/aside>\n\u003cp>The \u003ca href=\"http://ssflcag.net/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">SSFL Community Advisory Group\u003c/a> is \u003ca href=\"https://www.documentcloud.org/documents/3474280-SSFL-CAG-Documents.html#document/p5/a339739\">against enforcing\u003c/a> the DOE’s and NASA’s cleanup commitments, arguing that scouring away all pollution will scar the beautiful Simi Hills, damage pre-Colombian historic sites, endanger local wildlife and jeopardize the health of neighbors. They are concerned about trucks carrying hazardous debris through the surrounding suburbs.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Group member Abe Weitzberg is a former Santa Susana physicist who lives about 3 miles from the lab. He says he helped start the advisory group in part because Hirsch and his supporters kept shouting down skeptics at meetings.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_11367364\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 800px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-11367364 size-medium\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/news/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2017/03/RS24637_DSC_0020-qut-800x535.jpg\" alt=\"Abe Weitzberg, a former Santa Susana physicist who lives about three miles from the lab, is active in the SSFL Community Advisory Group, which opposes the stringent cleanups at Santa Susana that NASA and the federal Department of Energy have agreed to. Weitzberg predicts that if NASA and the DOE do meet the terms of their 2010 commitments, they’ll start a years-long parade of demolition debris through his neighborhood.\" width=\"800\" height=\"535\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2017/03/RS24637_DSC_0020-qut-800x535.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2017/03/RS24637_DSC_0020-qut-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2017/03/RS24637_DSC_0020-qut-1020x683.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2017/03/RS24637_DSC_0020-qut.jpg 1920w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2017/03/RS24637_DSC_0020-qut-1180x790.jpg 1180w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2017/03/RS24637_DSC_0020-qut-960x643.jpg 960w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2017/03/RS24637_DSC_0020-qut-240x161.jpg 240w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2017/03/RS24637_DSC_0020-qut-375x251.jpg 375w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2017/03/RS24637_DSC_0020-qut-520x348.jpg 520w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 800px) 100vw, 800px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Abe Weitzberg, a former Santa Susana physicist who lives about 3 miles from the lab, is active in the SSFL Community Advisory Group, which opposes the stringent cleanups at Santa Susana that NASA and the federal Department of Energy have agreed to. Weitzberg predicts that if NASA and the DOE do meet the terms of their 2010 commitments, they’ll start a years-long parade of demolition debris through his neighborhood. \u003ccite>(Chris Richard/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>The advisory group has been asking Southern California neighborhood councils — appointed boards that report community sentiment to the Los Angeles City Council — to oppose the state’s cleanup agreements with NASA and the DOE.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“You should only clean up those materials that pose a risk to communities. The hydrocarbons from the truck traffic actually pose more of a risk than very small quantities of cesium or strontium or chemicals, up at a place remote to where you live,” Weitzberg says.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But not everyone agrees. Melissa Bumstead attended the West Hills Neighborhood Council one night early this month when it considered a resolution opposing the agreements.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“They voted overwhelmingly for a very limited cleanup option as I held up a picture of my daughter with no hair,” she says. “I feel that denial is a very, very powerful force.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_11378520\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 1920px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-11378520 size-full\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/news/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2017/03/RS24774__DSC0106-2-qut.jpg\" alt=\"Gracie Bumstead, 7, was diagnosed at age 4 with a rare form of leukemia. The necklace she wears is made of "courage beads" she received each time she completed a chemotherapy treatment. She's been cancer-free since January 2016. Gracie's mother Melissa, right, says neighborhood children have an unusually high cancer rate.\" width=\"1920\" height=\"1285\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2017/03/RS24774__DSC0106-2-qut.jpg 1920w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2017/03/RS24774__DSC0106-2-qut-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2017/03/RS24774__DSC0106-2-qut-800x535.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2017/03/RS24774__DSC0106-2-qut-1020x683.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2017/03/RS24774__DSC0106-2-qut-1180x790.jpg 1180w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2017/03/RS24774__DSC0106-2-qut-960x643.jpg 960w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2017/03/RS24774__DSC0106-2-qut-240x161.jpg 240w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2017/03/RS24774__DSC0106-2-qut-375x251.jpg 375w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2017/03/RS24774__DSC0106-2-qut-520x348.jpg 520w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1920px) 100vw, 1920px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Gracie Bumstead, 7, was diagnosed at age 4 with a rare form of leukemia. The necklace she wears is made of “courage beads” she received each time she completed a cancer treatment. She’s been cancer-free since January 2016, but still keeps the hairless Barbie doll her parents gave her to help her through the trauma of chemotherapy. Gracie’s mother, Melissa, right, believes neighborhood children have an unusually high cancer rate. \u003ccite>(Chris Richard/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>When Bumstead and her husband, Chad, bought their home in 2012, they thought they’d found a fantastic deal. Melissa had checked crime statistics and the performance of local schools. They were thrilled with the backyard pool.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Then in January 2014, they took their daughter, Gracie, to a hospital emergency room after she suddenly showed bruising all over her body. Gracie was diagnosed with a rare form of blood cancer.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>As her child underwent two years of chemotherapy, Bumstead said she kept meeting other parents at the local hospital whose children suffered from rare illnesses.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>She’s \u003ca href=\"https://www.documentcloud.org/documents/3525565-ReportPediatricCancerCluster-PUBLIC.html#document/p4/a345647\">made a map\u003c/a> of pediatric cancers in her neighborhood. She acknowledges that her data are comprised of family accounts.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Still, “even with our rudimentary data, the numbers are alarming,” Bumstead says.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Dan Hirsch believes the advisory group is a case of “Astroturfing,” where a polluter sets up a fake grass-roots organization that promotes its agenda and opposes strict environmental regulation. Email \u003ca href=\"https://www.documentcloud.org/documents/2474383-boeingcagemails.html\">records\u003c/a> show that a Boeing public relations executive advised the group as it was being formed.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But advisory group member John Luker gets tired of such talk. He says he has yet to see any pollution readings that make him fear Santa Susana will poison him. Meanwhile, he says, the need for a park is clear.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“There are people who say I work for the Boeing Co., or they qualify that by saying I work for the goals and the ends of the Boeing Co.,” he says. “My answer to that is the Boeing Co. works for me. Preserve what we can, clean up what we must, and save for future generations the wonders that are up here.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In August 2015, the DOE \u003ca href=\"https://www.usaspending.gov/Pages/AdvancedSearch.aspx?k=SSFL%20CAG%20Foundation\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">awarded\u003c/a> a $34,100 grant to a \u003ca href=\"https://www.documentcloud.org/documents/3474345-2015-472219588-0c59ea88-Z.html#document/p2/a339756\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">foundation\u003c/a> set up and run by advisory group members. Alec Uzemeck, a former advisory group chairman who now serves as the foundation’s secretary and treasurer, says the foundation was created for educational purposes.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“The $34,000 is for the CAG (community advisory group) to understand the cleanup process, the documentation, and what’s going on with the agencies and (polluters) and to communicate that to the public. So we’re a communications service to the public and from the public,” he says. “We don’t lobby.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>He declined to provide a copy of the bid request and grant documents.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>So far, the DOE has proved equally guarded. Responding to a Freedom of Information Act request in October, a DOE official said he’d completed his review of the documents, but the department’s Washington office wanted to check them prior to release. The department has not produced the records.\u003c/p>\n\n\u003c/div>\u003c/p>",
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"disqusTitle": "Yosemite Rangers Use GPS to Save Bears From Cars",
"title": "Yosemite Rangers Use GPS to Save Bears From Cars",
"headTitle": "The California Report | KQED News",
"content": "\u003cp>People love seeing \u003ca href=\"https://www.nps.gov/yose/learn/nature/bears.htm\">black bears\u003c/a> when they visit Yosemite National Park. But encounters don't always go well. The park has come up with a new way to keep humans and bears safe.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Fresno State University student Quiang Chang was walking recently with his friends along the rushing Merced River. It was his fifth time visiting Yosemite National Park, and he hadn't seen a bear.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But if they appear, Chang said, \"I probably would just quietly ... just observe them and take a picture.\"\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c!-- iframe plugin v.4.3 wordpress.org/plugins/iframe/ -->\u003cbr>\n\u003ciframe src=\"https://www.npr.org/player/embed/524409047/524936093\" width=\"100%\" height=\"290\" frameborder=\"0\" scrolling=\"no\" title=\"NPR embedded audio player\" class=\"iframe-class\">\u003c/iframe>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003ca href=\"http://keepbearswild.org/bear-encounters/\">Keeping a healthy distance\u003c/a> from bears is exactly what park officials want people to do. But training the public to think this way hasn't been easy, says National Park Service spokesman Scott Gediman. Twenty years ago, human-bear encounters in Yosemite were very common.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad fullwidth]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\"It was not atypical to have three or four vehicles broken into every night,\" he says.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Bears would rip open car doors or smash windows \u003ca href=\"http://www.nytimes.com/1997/11/30/us/to-bears-in-yosemite-cars-are-like-cookie-jars.html\">in search of food\u003c/a>. But others are craftier. One park visitor even took a video of a bear opening a car door with its paws.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_11418747\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 800px\">\u003cimg class=\"size-medium wp-image-11418747\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/news/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2017/04/248424-photo-4-7cd4d9e51fe5551ebbb2cbe1f8553e25fa59b56f-800x600.jpg\" alt=\"Yosemite National Park wildlife biologist Ryan Leahy says he hopes the website keeps both people and bears safe.\" width=\"800\" height=\"600\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Yosemite National Park wildlife biologist Ryan Leahy says he hopes the website keeps both people and bears safe. \u003ccite>(Ezra David Romero/Valley Public Radio)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>In 1998, there were 1,600 encounters with bears. Now, there are fewer than 100 every year, says Yosemite National Park wildlife biologist Ryan Leahy. That's because park rangers have worked to educate the public on \u003ca href=\"https://www.nps.gov/yose/planyourvisit/bears.htm\">storing food properly\u003c/a>, and Leahy says they now use technology to track the bears.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Leahy works in a cabin on the edge of Yosemite Valley. He's tracking bears online in real time using the GPS collars the animals wear.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In the past, he says, human interaction with bears often resulted in having to kill the animals. By using these tracking tools, fewer and fewer bears are killed. If a bear gets too close to people, Leahy's team can scare it away, catch it or relocate it.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Tracking data from the past few years points to another trend: Bears are being hit by cars, and speeding is now their biggest threat. Leahy says 28 were hit last year, and many of them died.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\"You're talking about 10 percent of our bears potentially being hit by vehicles each year,\" he says. \"Just slowing down a little bit will give you that stopping distance required to prevent a collision.\"\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_11418748\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 800px\">\u003cimg class=\"size-medium wp-image-11418748\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/news/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2017/04/248424-photo-3-577eedb4615d69db7fa31c13313bd910f0acb832-800x600.jpg\" alt=\"Black bears are tracked in Yosemite using telemetry and GPS collars.\" width=\"800\" height=\"600\" srcset=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2017/04/248424-photo-3-577eedb4615d69db7fa31c13313bd910f0acb832-800x600.jpg 800w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2017/04/248424-photo-3-577eedb4615d69db7fa31c13313bd910f0acb832-160x120.jpg 160w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2017/04/248424-photo-3-577eedb4615d69db7fa31c13313bd910f0acb832-1020x765.jpg 1020w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2017/04/248424-photo-3-577eedb4615d69db7fa31c13313bd910f0acb832-1920x1440.jpg 1920w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2017/04/248424-photo-3-577eedb4615d69db7fa31c13313bd910f0acb832-1180x885.jpg 1180w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2017/04/248424-photo-3-577eedb4615d69db7fa31c13313bd910f0acb832-960x720.jpg 960w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2017/04/248424-photo-3-577eedb4615d69db7fa31c13313bd910f0acb832-240x180.jpg 240w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2017/04/248424-photo-3-577eedb4615d69db7fa31c13313bd910f0acb832-375x281.jpg 375w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2017/04/248424-photo-3-577eedb4615d69db7fa31c13313bd910f0acb832-520x390.jpg 520w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2017/04/248424-photo-3-577eedb4615d69db7fa31c13313bd910f0acb832.jpg 1998w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 800px) 100vw, 800px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Black bears are tracked in Yosemite using telemetry and GPS collars. \u003ccite>(Ezra David Romero/Valley Public Radio)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>The key, he says, is education. His team has created an \u003ca href=\"http://keepbearswild.org/bear-tracker/\">interactive map-based website\u003c/a> where the public can track the lives of selected bears and see general areas where they're hit most often.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Leahy says the bears' locations are delayed on the site so people aren't able to track them in real time. On the site, park visitors can also learn about how to be safe if a bear is around.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\"So what we want to do with this website in a positive way is engage people before they get here: 'Hey, here's the real story about black bears in Yosemite National Park,' \" Leahy says.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>He hopes the site means fewer midnight calls with a dented car and either a dead or wounded bear.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003ca href=\"http://kvpr.org/people/ezra-david-romero#stream/0\">Ezra David Romero\u003c/a>\u003cem> is a reporter with NPR member station Valley Public Radio. You can follow him\u003c/em> \u003ca href=\"https://twitter.com/ezraromero\">@ezraromero\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\n\u003cdiv class=\"fullattribution\">Copyright 2017 Valley Public Radio. To see more, visit \u003ca href=\"http://www.kvpr.org/\">Valley Public Radio\u003c/a>.\u003cimg src=\"https://www.google-analytics.com/__utm.gif?utmac=UA-5828686-4&utmdt=Yosemite+Rangers+Use+Technology+To+Save+Bears+From+Cars&utme=8(APIKey)9(MDAxOTAwOTE4MDEyMTkxMDAzNjczZDljZA004)\">\u003c/div>\n\n",
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"excerpt": "Speeding cars have become the biggest threat for bears in Yosemite. But rangers hope tracking tools, including a website, will help keep both humans and bears safe.",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003cp>People love seeing \u003ca href=\"https://www.nps.gov/yose/learn/nature/bears.htm\">black bears\u003c/a> when they visit Yosemite National Park. But encounters don't always go well. The park has come up with a new way to keep humans and bears safe.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Fresno State University student Quiang Chang was walking recently with his friends along the rushing Merced River. It was his fifth time visiting Yosemite National Park, and he hadn't seen a bear.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But if they appear, Chang said, \"I probably would just quietly ... just observe them and take a picture.\"\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c!-- iframe plugin v.4.3 wordpress.org/plugins/iframe/ -->\u003cbr>\n\u003ciframe src=\"https://www.npr.org/player/embed/524409047/524936093\" width=\"100%\" height=\"290\" frameborder=\"0\" scrolling=\"no\" title=\"NPR embedded audio player\" class=\"iframe-class\">\u003c/iframe>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003ca href=\"http://keepbearswild.org/bear-encounters/\">Keeping a healthy distance\u003c/a> from bears is exactly what park officials want people to do. But training the public to think this way hasn't been easy, says National Park Service spokesman Scott Gediman. Twenty years ago, human-bear encounters in Yosemite were very common.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\"It was not atypical to have three or four vehicles broken into every night,\" he says.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Bears would rip open car doors or smash windows \u003ca href=\"http://www.nytimes.com/1997/11/30/us/to-bears-in-yosemite-cars-are-like-cookie-jars.html\">in search of food\u003c/a>. But others are craftier. One park visitor even took a video of a bear opening a car door with its paws.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_11418747\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 800px\">\u003cimg class=\"size-medium wp-image-11418747\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/news/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2017/04/248424-photo-4-7cd4d9e51fe5551ebbb2cbe1f8553e25fa59b56f-800x600.jpg\" alt=\"Yosemite National Park wildlife biologist Ryan Leahy says he hopes the website keeps both people and bears safe.\" width=\"800\" height=\"600\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Yosemite National Park wildlife biologist Ryan Leahy says he hopes the website keeps both people and bears safe. \u003ccite>(Ezra David Romero/Valley Public Radio)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>In 1998, there were 1,600 encounters with bears. Now, there are fewer than 100 every year, says Yosemite National Park wildlife biologist Ryan Leahy. That's because park rangers have worked to educate the public on \u003ca href=\"https://www.nps.gov/yose/planyourvisit/bears.htm\">storing food properly\u003c/a>, and Leahy says they now use technology to track the bears.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Leahy works in a cabin on the edge of Yosemite Valley. He's tracking bears online in real time using the GPS collars the animals wear.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In the past, he says, human interaction with bears often resulted in having to kill the animals. By using these tracking tools, fewer and fewer bears are killed. If a bear gets too close to people, Leahy's team can scare it away, catch it or relocate it.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Tracking data from the past few years points to another trend: Bears are being hit by cars, and speeding is now their biggest threat. Leahy says 28 were hit last year, and many of them died.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\"You're talking about 10 percent of our bears potentially being hit by vehicles each year,\" he says. \"Just slowing down a little bit will give you that stopping distance required to prevent a collision.\"\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_11418748\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 800px\">\u003cimg class=\"size-medium wp-image-11418748\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/news/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2017/04/248424-photo-3-577eedb4615d69db7fa31c13313bd910f0acb832-800x600.jpg\" alt=\"Black bears are tracked in Yosemite using telemetry and GPS collars.\" width=\"800\" height=\"600\" srcset=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2017/04/248424-photo-3-577eedb4615d69db7fa31c13313bd910f0acb832-800x600.jpg 800w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2017/04/248424-photo-3-577eedb4615d69db7fa31c13313bd910f0acb832-160x120.jpg 160w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2017/04/248424-photo-3-577eedb4615d69db7fa31c13313bd910f0acb832-1020x765.jpg 1020w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2017/04/248424-photo-3-577eedb4615d69db7fa31c13313bd910f0acb832-1920x1440.jpg 1920w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2017/04/248424-photo-3-577eedb4615d69db7fa31c13313bd910f0acb832-1180x885.jpg 1180w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2017/04/248424-photo-3-577eedb4615d69db7fa31c13313bd910f0acb832-960x720.jpg 960w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2017/04/248424-photo-3-577eedb4615d69db7fa31c13313bd910f0acb832-240x180.jpg 240w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2017/04/248424-photo-3-577eedb4615d69db7fa31c13313bd910f0acb832-375x281.jpg 375w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2017/04/248424-photo-3-577eedb4615d69db7fa31c13313bd910f0acb832-520x390.jpg 520w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2017/04/248424-photo-3-577eedb4615d69db7fa31c13313bd910f0acb832.jpg 1998w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 800px) 100vw, 800px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Black bears are tracked in Yosemite using telemetry and GPS collars. \u003ccite>(Ezra David Romero/Valley Public Radio)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>The key, he says, is education. His team has created an \u003ca href=\"http://keepbearswild.org/bear-tracker/\">interactive map-based website\u003c/a> where the public can track the lives of selected bears and see general areas where they're hit most often.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Leahy says the bears' locations are delayed on the site so people aren't able to track them in real time. On the site, park visitors can also learn about how to be safe if a bear is around.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\"So what we want to do with this website in a positive way is engage people before they get here: 'Hey, here's the real story about black bears in Yosemite National Park,' \" Leahy says.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>He hopes the site means fewer midnight calls with a dented car and either a dead or wounded bear.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003ca href=\"http://kvpr.org/people/ezra-david-romero#stream/0\">Ezra David Romero\u003c/a>\u003cem> is a reporter with NPR member station Valley Public Radio. You can follow him\u003c/em> \u003ca href=\"https://twitter.com/ezraromero\">@ezraromero\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\n\u003cdiv class=\"fullattribution\">Copyright 2017 Valley Public Radio. To see more, visit \u003ca href=\"http://www.kvpr.org/\">Valley Public Radio\u003c/a>.\u003cimg src=\"https://www.google-analytics.com/__utm.gif?utmac=UA-5828686-4&utmdt=Yosemite+Rangers+Use+Technology+To+Save+Bears+From+Cars&utme=8(APIKey)9(MDAxOTAwOTE4MDEyMTkxMDAzNjczZDljZA004)\">\u003c/div>\n\n\u003c/div>\u003c/p>",
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"slug": "what-makes-san-francisco-sourdough-unique",
"title": "What Makes San Francisco Sourdough Unique?",
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"headTitle": "What Makes San Francisco Sourdough Unique? | KQED",
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"content": "\u003cp>If bagels are a New York thing, San Francisco definitely has sourdough. And probably no one has convinced more people that our sourdough is unique than \u003ca href=\"https://www.boudinbakery.com/\">Boudin Bakery\u003c/a>, where tourists line up at Fisherman’s Wharf for a taste of that moist-tangy, fogbound delight.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[baycuriouspodcastinfo]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Bay Area native (and KQED staffer) Peter Cavagnaro has been eating local sourdough all his life. It’s his favorite bread. And that got him wondering about something. He asked\u003ca href=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/news/series/baycurious/\"> Bay Curious\u003c/a>….\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>“What makes San Francisco sourdough so unique?”\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Here at KQED, we’ve always heard there’s something in the water or the air that makes our sourdough special. But is that really true?\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad fullwidth]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>It turns out that this is as much a science question as it is about the history and local mythology of our “authentic” local sourdough. By the time I had the answer, I also had 2 pounds of smelly homemade sourdough starter fermenting at home, \u003cem>and\u003c/em> the results of a lab test that described the microbes living in it.\u003c/p>\n\u003ch3>Taste the Microbes\u003c/h3>\n\u003cp>To understand what makes our bread taste the way it does, you need to know how bread gets started. My investigation began in the fermentation room at \u003ca href=\"https://www.semifreddis.com/\">Semifreddi’s\u003c/a> bakery in Alameda, one of the best-known local producers of sourdough, along with \u003ca href=\"http://www.acmebread.com/\">Acme Bread Company\u003c/a> and \u003ca href=\"http://www.tartinebakery.com/\">Tartine Bakery\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The fermentation room is the inner sanctum of the bakery. It’s a very cold, stainless-steel vault where 300 yellow buckets brim with slow-bubbling beige goop: future sourdough. I stood there, shivering in a hairnet, with co-owner Mike Rose and head baker John Tredgold.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Rose is a soft-spoken man who talks about sourdough with wonderment, as if it’s alive — which it is, with millions of microbes.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Can you hear it? It’s hungry,” Rose said. “It will be fed later today. It gets fed once a day. Equal parts flour and water.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Before sourdough gets baked, it has to be grown. Born as a primordial glop, aptly called starter. All it needs to grow, as Rose said, is flour and water. And time. That’s it. If you add anything else, it’s not real sourdough. Eventually, the sugars in the flour start to break down, and fermentation happens on its own.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Tredgold handed me a plastic spoon and pointed me to a bucket. I could see bubbles rising to the surface of the bucket — a sure sign of microbial activity. The starter tasted like very sour yogurt to me, but Tredgold treated the experience like tasting a fine wine, smelling and savoring.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“This is more like creme fraiche,” he said. “It makes you salivate, it makes you excited to eat more.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_11405274\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 800px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-11405274\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/news/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2018/04/starter-e1492028179160-800x1067.jpeg\" alt=\"The author's starter, looking healthy with lots of air pockets.\" width=\"800\" height=\"1067\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2018/04/starter-e1492028179160-800x1067.jpeg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2018/04/starter-e1492028179160-160x213.jpeg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2018/04/starter-e1492028179160-1020x1360.jpeg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2018/04/starter-e1492028179160-1920x2560.jpeg 1920w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2018/04/starter-e1492028179160-1180x1573.jpeg 1180w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2018/04/starter-e1492028179160-960x1280.jpeg 960w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2018/04/starter-e1492028179160-240x320.jpeg 240w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2018/04/starter-e1492028179160-375x500.jpeg 375w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2018/04/starter-e1492028179160-520x693.jpeg 520w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 800px) 100vw, 800px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">The author’s starter, looking healthy with lots of air pockets. \u003ccite>(Julia Scott/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003ch3>Flour, Water, Temperature, Time\u003c/h3>\n\u003cp>Semifreddi’s produces 9,500 loaves of sourdough each day. But no two loaves taste exactly alike. And that’s because the starter is alive with millions of wild yeast cells and naturally occurring bacteria. The yeast makes the bread rise. And the bacteria create the acids that make the bread sour.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The flavors vary from day to day, and batch to batch. Sourdough is one of the most \u003ca href=\"https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sourdough#History\">ancient breads\u003c/a>, dating back at least 5,000 years. It’s reasonably easy to create a starter from scratch, but tricky to master the triple arts of crust, crumb and flavor when baking. So much depends on capturing enough wild yeast to make the bread light and airy. (Adding commercial yeast is not a permitted technique at the baking stage if the goal is authentic, old-fashioned sourdough).\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“We try to control it by temperature and time. And our hands. It’s never fully totally under control, because we’re dealing with natural organisms,” said Rose. “I love it,” he added with a grin.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Rose was so passionate that I decided to try growing my own sourdough starter at home (more on that below).\u003c/p>\n\u003ch3>The Boudin Lore\u003c/h3>\n\u003cp>A little voice nagged at me, though. Anyone can make sourdough, but would it be \u003cem>authentic\u003c/em> if it wasn’t born in San Francisco? (I live in Oakland).\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>No one has convinced more people about the unique qualities of San Francisco sourdough than Boudin, which says it’s been selling the same loaf of bread for 168 years. According to the Boudin Bakery museum at Fisherman’s Wharf, the company’s mother dough follows an unbroken line back to the Gold Rush in 1849. Louise Boudin even saved the starter from a burning building in the 1906 earthquake.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_11431554\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 800px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-11431554\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/news/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2017/04/4945590922_813a0a546c_o-800x531.jpg\" alt=\"Boudin Bakery says their decades-old starter is the key to the bread's flavor.\" width=\"800\" height=\"531\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2017/04/4945590922_813a0a546c_o-800x531.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2017/04/4945590922_813a0a546c_o-160x106.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2017/04/4945590922_813a0a546c_o-1020x677.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2017/04/4945590922_813a0a546c_o-1920x1275.jpg 1920w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2017/04/4945590922_813a0a546c_o-1180x784.jpg 1180w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2017/04/4945590922_813a0a546c_o-960x638.jpg 960w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2017/04/4945590922_813a0a546c_o-240x159.jpg 240w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2017/04/4945590922_813a0a546c_o-375x249.jpg 375w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2017/04/4945590922_813a0a546c_o-520x345.jpg 520w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 800px) 100vw, 800px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Boudin Bakery says their decades-old starter is the key to the bread’s flavor. \u003ccite>(\u003ca href=\"https://www.flickr.com/photos/rachelhathaway/4945590922/\" target=\"_blank\">Rachel Hathaway\u003c/a>/Flickr)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>A museum docent told me the starter is so special and irreplaceable that the Boudin mothership sends its retail stores fresh starter every 23 days. Without it, they say the sourdough those stores produce would stop tasting like San Francisco sourdough and start tasting like San Diego or Sacramento sourdough.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Why? Well, according to the museum, Boudin bread owes its special flavor to a strain of bacteria that thrives only in San Francisco’s climate. Scientists \u003ca href=\"http://discovermagazine.com/2003/sep/featscienceof\">identified it here \u003c/a>in 1970, so they named it \u003cem>Lactobacillus sanfranciscensis.\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003ch3>Not That Unique, Actually\u003c/h3>\n\u003cp>It’s a great story. Too bad it’s not quite true.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Scientists did identify\u003cem> Lactobacillus sanfranciscensis\u003c/em> here. But recent studies have found it in up to \u003ca href=\"http://www.nytimes.com/2012/09/19/dining/for-gastronomists-a-go-to-microbiologist.html\">90 percent of countries \u003c/a>where sourdough is produced. So from a biological standpoint, San Francisco sourdough is not all that distinctive.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“It’s something that everyone thinks is unique to San Francisco and that is not true at all,” said Ben Wolfe, a microbiologist at Tufts University in Boston. \u003ca href=\"https://sites.tufts.edu/wolfelab/\">His lab studies fermentation\u003c/a> full time … including the microbes you find in sourdough.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>So, case closed? Not quite.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y5xOpss4j5E&t=56s\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Science is still learning about the lactic acid bacteria (like\u003cem> L. sanfranciscensis\u003c/em>) that give sourdough its main sour flavor. Other fermented foods have lactic acids, too, like miso, yogurt and kimchi.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But scientists don’t know where they come from. Or how they get into your sourdough starter when you make it in your kitchen.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_11403523\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 800px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-11403523\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/news/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2018/04/Screen-Shot-2017-04-11-at-11.31.58-AM-e1492027997490-800x437.png\" alt=\"Colonies of bacteria found in the author's sourdough starter, magnified 1,000 times. \" width=\"800\" height=\"437\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2018/04/Screen-Shot-2017-04-11-at-11.31.58-AM-e1492027997490-800x437.png 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2018/04/Screen-Shot-2017-04-11-at-11.31.58-AM-e1492027997490-160x87.png 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2018/04/Screen-Shot-2017-04-11-at-11.31.58-AM-e1492027997490-240x131.png 240w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2018/04/Screen-Shot-2017-04-11-at-11.31.58-AM-e1492027997490-375x205.png 375w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2018/04/Screen-Shot-2017-04-11-at-11.31.58-AM-e1492027997490-520x284.png 520w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2018/04/Screen-Shot-2017-04-11-at-11.31.58-AM-e1492027997490.png 894w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 800px) 100vw, 800px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Colonies of bacteria found in the author’s sourdough starter, magnified 1,000 times. \u003ccite>(Courtesy of the Wolfe Lab at Tufts University)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>One explanation is that the bacteria could be in the flour to begin with. So when you go to the store and buy a bag of flour, it’s not sterile. They could also be on your skin or floating around your kitchen, but Wolfe says those are less likely to become the dominant bacteria in your starter.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“This is one of the big questions we’re trying to answer in our story of American sourdough: Where are the lactic acid bacteria coming from?” said Wolfe.\u003c/p>\n\u003ch3>The Sourdough Project\u003c/h3>\n\u003cp>There’s never been a large-scale study in home kitchens to really identify the sources of bacteria at home.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Until now.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Wolfe’s lab has partnered with the Rob Dunn Lab at North Carolina State University on \u003ca href=\"http://robdunnlab.com/projects/sourdough/\">the Sourdough Project\u003c/a>, the first comprehensive effort to test the DNA of sourdough starters across America — and understand the evolutionary biology that underlies the differences among starters.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_11403524\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 548px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-11403524\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/news/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2018/04/Screen-Shot-2017-04-11-at-11.32.25-AM-e1492028037372.png\" alt=\"A colony of yeast from the author's sourdough starter under the microscope. \" width=\"548\" height=\"301\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2018/04/Screen-Shot-2017-04-11-at-11.32.25-AM-e1492028037372.png 548w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2018/04/Screen-Shot-2017-04-11-at-11.32.25-AM-e1492028037372-160x88.png 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2018/04/Screen-Shot-2017-04-11-at-11.32.25-AM-e1492028037372-240x132.png 240w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2018/04/Screen-Shot-2017-04-11-at-11.32.25-AM-e1492028037372-375x206.png 375w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2018/04/Screen-Shot-2017-04-11-at-11.32.25-AM-e1492028037372-520x286.png 520w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 548px) 100vw, 548px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">A colony of yeast from the author’s sourdough starter under the microscope. \u003ccite>(Courtesy of the Wolfe Lab at Tufts University)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>The Sourdough Project is soliciting hundreds of sourdough starter samples from amateur and professional bread bakers across the country. (To participate in this public science project, get started by filling out \u003ca href=\"https://designscience.wufoo.com/forms/p1pgrbjq05dzces/\">this questionnaire\u003c/a>).\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Scientists will analyze samples to answer the baseline question: How variable are the microbes from region to region? And how much variability can be attributed to the grain of the bread, versus the air, the water or the humans involved?\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>There are so many factors. Wolfe ticks them off.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“It could be the time that people ferment their breads. It could be the temperature. It could be a special set of recipes used in San Francisco than in other places.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[baycuriousbug]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>When I told him I was growing my own sourdough starter, he offered to analyze it.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>So while science may yet discover something special is lurking in our sourdough, Wolfe isn’t holding his breath.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Not even the bakers at Semifreddi’s, a company that has been in a position to benefit from the reputation of local sourdough, embrace the cachet.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Semifreddi’s head baker Tredgold says it’s pure marketing.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“It sells the city. It’s one of the things the city’s known for. The bridge, the bay, the sourdough.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>And Rose, the co-owner of the bakery, added: “If we take our local starter and bake with it in Los Angeles, I think it will taste very similar to what we’re making here,” he said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Blasphemy! But possibly … true.\u003c/p>\n\u003ch3>My Kitchen Sourdough Experiment: Results\u003c/h3>\n\u003cp>My own sourdough experiment lasted more than a month. I used King Arthur whole wheat flour and kept my mixture on the kitchen counter. As it grew, it smelled distressingly like vomit before it mellowed. At one point it almost spilled out of the Tupperware I’d been keeping it in.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>As my starter matured, it needed to be fed twice a day on a regular schedule. I raced home from work to give it more flour and water, spoke to it, and pampered it with field trips out to the balcony to give it some exposure to the Oakland atmosphere. (In spite of what I learned about the uncertainty of the science of microbes in sourdough, I still pictured my starter capturing beneficial wild yeast and bacteria from the atmosphere.)\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>I don’t have pets or children, so I took photos of my starter’s regular maturity and forced my friends to admire them.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_11403508\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 640px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-large wp-image-11403508\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/news/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2018/04/RS24904_IMG_7422-qut-1020x765.jpg\" alt=\"The author's sourdough bread was a bit dense, but tasters said the flavor was spot on.\" width=\"640\" height=\"480\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2018/04/RS24904_IMG_7422-qut-1020x765.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2018/04/RS24904_IMG_7422-qut-160x120.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2018/04/RS24904_IMG_7422-qut-800x600.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2018/04/RS24904_IMG_7422-qut.jpg 1920w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2018/04/RS24904_IMG_7422-qut-1180x885.jpg 1180w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2018/04/RS24904_IMG_7422-qut-960x720.jpg 960w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2018/04/RS24904_IMG_7422-qut-240x180.jpg 240w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2018/04/RS24904_IMG_7422-qut-375x281.jpg 375w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2018/04/RS24904_IMG_7422-qut-520x390.jpg 520w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 640px) 100vw, 640px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">The author’s sourdough bread was a bit dense, but tasters said the flavor was spot on. \u003ccite>(Julia Scott/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>But the most important question was: How did it taste? I baked two little loaves and brought them into the KQED newsroom to get some brutally honest feedback from fellow reporters.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Being a first-time baker, you can imagine how this went. The loaves were so dense they had almost no air pockets. They weighed at least 3 pounds and were nearly rock-hard. My colleagues at KQED charitably praised the taste, but it was clear something had gone wrong in the baking process … or with the starter itself.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_11431549\" class=\"wp-caption alignright\" style=\"max-width: 640px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-large wp-image-11431549\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/news/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2017/04/IMG_4453-1020x765.jpeg\" alt=\"Julia Scott, left, and Bay Curious podcast host Olivia Allen-Price enjoy the fruits of Scott's labor -- some homemade sourdough bread.\" width=\"640\" height=\"480\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2017/04/IMG_4453-1020x765.jpeg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2017/04/IMG_4453-160x120.jpeg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2017/04/IMG_4453-800x600.jpeg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2017/04/IMG_4453-1920x1440.jpeg 1920w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2017/04/IMG_4453-1180x885.jpeg 1180w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2017/04/IMG_4453-960x720.jpeg 960w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2017/04/IMG_4453-240x180.jpeg 240w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2017/04/IMG_4453-375x281.jpeg 375w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2017/04/IMG_4453-520x390.jpeg 520w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2017/04/IMG_4453.jpeg 2016w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 640px) 100vw, 640px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Julia Scott, left, and Bay Curious podcast host Olivia Allen-Price enjoy the fruits of Scott’s labor — some homemade sourdough bread. \u003ccite>(Vinnee Tong/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>A few weeks later, I got my sourdough DNA results back from Ben Wolfe’s Tufts lab. My starter had two bacterial species: \u003ca href=\"https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lactobacillus_brevis\">\u003cem> Lactobacillus brevis \u003c/em>\u003c/a>and \u003cem>\u003ca href=\"https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lactobacillus_plantarum\"> Lactobacillus plantarum\u003c/a>;\u003c/em> and one yeast species: \u003ca href=\"http://genome.jgi.doe.gov/Wican1/Wican1.home.html\">\u003cem>Wickerhamomyces anomalus\u003c/em>\u003c/a>. All of which are very commonly found in sourdough starters made around the world, according to Wolfe. It’s also common to have no more than a few species of yeast and bacteria in any given starter.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But that one bacterium once believed to make our bread so special — \u003cem>Lactobacillus sanfranciscensis\u003c/em>? My bread didn’t have any. Would things have gone differently if it had shown up? I may never know.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad floatright]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[baycuriousquestion]\u003c/p>\n\n",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003cp>If bagels are a New York thing, San Francisco definitely has sourdough. And probably no one has convinced more people that our sourdough is unique than \u003ca href=\"https://www.boudinbakery.com/\">Boudin Bakery\u003c/a>, where tourists line up at Fisherman’s Wharf for a taste of that moist-tangy, fogbound delight.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003cp>\u003caside class=\"alignleft utils-parseShortcode-shortcodes-__bayCuriousPodcastShortcode__bayCurious\">\u003cimg src=https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/2023/02/bayCuriousLogo.png alt=\"Bay Curious Podcast\" loading=\"lazy\" />\n \u003ca href=\"/news/series/baycurious\">Bay Curious\u003c/a> is a podcast that answers your questions about the Bay Area.\n Subscribe on \u003ca href=\"https://itunes.apple.com/us/podcast/bay-curious/id1172473406\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Apple Podcasts\u003c/a>,\n \u003ca href=\"http://www.npr.org/podcasts/500557090/bay-curious\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">NPR One\u003c/a> or your favorite podcast platform.\u003c/aside>\u003c/p>\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Bay Area native (and KQED staffer) Peter Cavagnaro has been eating local sourdough all his life. It’s his favorite bread. And that got him wondering about something. He asked\u003ca href=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/news/series/baycurious/\"> Bay Curious\u003c/a>….\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>“What makes San Francisco sourdough so unique?”\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Here at KQED, we’ve always heard there’s something in the water or the air that makes our sourdough special. But is that really true?\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>It turns out that this is as much a science question as it is about the history and local mythology of our “authentic” local sourdough. By the time I had the answer, I also had 2 pounds of smelly homemade sourdough starter fermenting at home, \u003cem>and\u003c/em> the results of a lab test that described the microbes living in it.\u003c/p>\n\u003ch3>Taste the Microbes\u003c/h3>\n\u003cp>To understand what makes our bread taste the way it does, you need to know how bread gets started. My investigation began in the fermentation room at \u003ca href=\"https://www.semifreddis.com/\">Semifreddi’s\u003c/a> bakery in Alameda, one of the best-known local producers of sourdough, along with \u003ca href=\"http://www.acmebread.com/\">Acme Bread Company\u003c/a> and \u003ca href=\"http://www.tartinebakery.com/\">Tartine Bakery\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The fermentation room is the inner sanctum of the bakery. It’s a very cold, stainless-steel vault where 300 yellow buckets brim with slow-bubbling beige goop: future sourdough. I stood there, shivering in a hairnet, with co-owner Mike Rose and head baker John Tredgold.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Rose is a soft-spoken man who talks about sourdough with wonderment, as if it’s alive — which it is, with millions of microbes.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Can you hear it? It’s hungry,” Rose said. “It will be fed later today. It gets fed once a day. Equal parts flour and water.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Before sourdough gets baked, it has to be grown. Born as a primordial glop, aptly called starter. All it needs to grow, as Rose said, is flour and water. And time. That’s it. If you add anything else, it’s not real sourdough. Eventually, the sugars in the flour start to break down, and fermentation happens on its own.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Tredgold handed me a plastic spoon and pointed me to a bucket. I could see bubbles rising to the surface of the bucket — a sure sign of microbial activity. The starter tasted like very sour yogurt to me, but Tredgold treated the experience like tasting a fine wine, smelling and savoring.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“This is more like creme fraiche,” he said. “It makes you salivate, it makes you excited to eat more.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_11405274\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 800px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-11405274\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/news/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2018/04/starter-e1492028179160-800x1067.jpeg\" alt=\"The author's starter, looking healthy with lots of air pockets.\" width=\"800\" height=\"1067\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2018/04/starter-e1492028179160-800x1067.jpeg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2018/04/starter-e1492028179160-160x213.jpeg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2018/04/starter-e1492028179160-1020x1360.jpeg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2018/04/starter-e1492028179160-1920x2560.jpeg 1920w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2018/04/starter-e1492028179160-1180x1573.jpeg 1180w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2018/04/starter-e1492028179160-960x1280.jpeg 960w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2018/04/starter-e1492028179160-240x320.jpeg 240w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2018/04/starter-e1492028179160-375x500.jpeg 375w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2018/04/starter-e1492028179160-520x693.jpeg 520w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 800px) 100vw, 800px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">The author’s starter, looking healthy with lots of air pockets. \u003ccite>(Julia Scott/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003ch3>Flour, Water, Temperature, Time\u003c/h3>\n\u003cp>Semifreddi’s produces 9,500 loaves of sourdough each day. But no two loaves taste exactly alike. And that’s because the starter is alive with millions of wild yeast cells and naturally occurring bacteria. The yeast makes the bread rise. And the bacteria create the acids that make the bread sour.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The flavors vary from day to day, and batch to batch. Sourdough is one of the most \u003ca href=\"https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sourdough#History\">ancient breads\u003c/a>, dating back at least 5,000 years. It’s reasonably easy to create a starter from scratch, but tricky to master the triple arts of crust, crumb and flavor when baking. So much depends on capturing enough wild yeast to make the bread light and airy. (Adding commercial yeast is not a permitted technique at the baking stage if the goal is authentic, old-fashioned sourdough).\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“We try to control it by temperature and time. And our hands. It’s never fully totally under control, because we’re dealing with natural organisms,” said Rose. “I love it,” he added with a grin.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Rose was so passionate that I decided to try growing my own sourdough starter at home (more on that below).\u003c/p>\n\u003ch3>The Boudin Lore\u003c/h3>\n\u003cp>A little voice nagged at me, though. Anyone can make sourdough, but would it be \u003cem>authentic\u003c/em> if it wasn’t born in San Francisco? (I live in Oakland).\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>No one has convinced more people about the unique qualities of San Francisco sourdough than Boudin, which says it’s been selling the same loaf of bread for 168 years. According to the Boudin Bakery museum at Fisherman’s Wharf, the company’s mother dough follows an unbroken line back to the Gold Rush in 1849. Louise Boudin even saved the starter from a burning building in the 1906 earthquake.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_11431554\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 800px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-11431554\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/news/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2017/04/4945590922_813a0a546c_o-800x531.jpg\" alt=\"Boudin Bakery says their decades-old starter is the key to the bread's flavor.\" width=\"800\" height=\"531\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2017/04/4945590922_813a0a546c_o-800x531.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2017/04/4945590922_813a0a546c_o-160x106.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2017/04/4945590922_813a0a546c_o-1020x677.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2017/04/4945590922_813a0a546c_o-1920x1275.jpg 1920w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2017/04/4945590922_813a0a546c_o-1180x784.jpg 1180w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2017/04/4945590922_813a0a546c_o-960x638.jpg 960w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2017/04/4945590922_813a0a546c_o-240x159.jpg 240w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2017/04/4945590922_813a0a546c_o-375x249.jpg 375w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2017/04/4945590922_813a0a546c_o-520x345.jpg 520w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 800px) 100vw, 800px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Boudin Bakery says their decades-old starter is the key to the bread’s flavor. \u003ccite>(\u003ca href=\"https://www.flickr.com/photos/rachelhathaway/4945590922/\" target=\"_blank\">Rachel Hathaway\u003c/a>/Flickr)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>A museum docent told me the starter is so special and irreplaceable that the Boudin mothership sends its retail stores fresh starter every 23 days. Without it, they say the sourdough those stores produce would stop tasting like San Francisco sourdough and start tasting like San Diego or Sacramento sourdough.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Why? Well, according to the museum, Boudin bread owes its special flavor to a strain of bacteria that thrives only in San Francisco’s climate. Scientists \u003ca href=\"http://discovermagazine.com/2003/sep/featscienceof\">identified it here \u003c/a>in 1970, so they named it \u003cem>Lactobacillus sanfranciscensis.\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003ch3>Not That Unique, Actually\u003c/h3>\n\u003cp>It’s a great story. Too bad it’s not quite true.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Scientists did identify\u003cem> Lactobacillus sanfranciscensis\u003c/em> here. But recent studies have found it in up to \u003ca href=\"http://www.nytimes.com/2012/09/19/dining/for-gastronomists-a-go-to-microbiologist.html\">90 percent of countries \u003c/a>where sourdough is produced. So from a biological standpoint, San Francisco sourdough is not all that distinctive.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“It’s something that everyone thinks is unique to San Francisco and that is not true at all,” said Ben Wolfe, a microbiologist at Tufts University in Boston. \u003ca href=\"https://sites.tufts.edu/wolfelab/\">His lab studies fermentation\u003c/a> full time … including the microbes you find in sourdough.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>So, case closed? Not quite.\u003c/p>\u003c/p>\u003cp>\u003cspan class='utils-parseShortcode-shortcodes-__youtubeShortcode__embedYoutube'>\n \u003cspan class='utils-parseShortcode-shortcodes-__youtubeShortcode__embedYoutubeInside'>\n \u003ciframe\n loading='lazy'\n class='utils-parseShortcode-shortcodes-__youtubeShortcode__youtubePlayer'\n type='text/html'\n src='//www.youtube.com/embed/y5xOpss4j5E'\n title='//www.youtube.com/embed/y5xOpss4j5E'\n allowfullscreen='true'\n style='border:0;'>\u003c/iframe>\n \u003c/span>\n \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\u003cp>\u003cp>Science is still learning about the lactic acid bacteria (like\u003cem> L. sanfranciscensis\u003c/em>) that give sourdough its main sour flavor. Other fermented foods have lactic acids, too, like miso, yogurt and kimchi.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But scientists don’t know where they come from. Or how they get into your sourdough starter when you make it in your kitchen.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_11403523\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 800px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-11403523\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/news/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2018/04/Screen-Shot-2017-04-11-at-11.31.58-AM-e1492027997490-800x437.png\" alt=\"Colonies of bacteria found in the author's sourdough starter, magnified 1,000 times. \" width=\"800\" height=\"437\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2018/04/Screen-Shot-2017-04-11-at-11.31.58-AM-e1492027997490-800x437.png 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2018/04/Screen-Shot-2017-04-11-at-11.31.58-AM-e1492027997490-160x87.png 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2018/04/Screen-Shot-2017-04-11-at-11.31.58-AM-e1492027997490-240x131.png 240w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2018/04/Screen-Shot-2017-04-11-at-11.31.58-AM-e1492027997490-375x205.png 375w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2018/04/Screen-Shot-2017-04-11-at-11.31.58-AM-e1492027997490-520x284.png 520w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2018/04/Screen-Shot-2017-04-11-at-11.31.58-AM-e1492027997490.png 894w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 800px) 100vw, 800px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Colonies of bacteria found in the author’s sourdough starter, magnified 1,000 times. \u003ccite>(Courtesy of the Wolfe Lab at Tufts University)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>One explanation is that the bacteria could be in the flour to begin with. So when you go to the store and buy a bag of flour, it’s not sterile. They could also be on your skin or floating around your kitchen, but Wolfe says those are less likely to become the dominant bacteria in your starter.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“This is one of the big questions we’re trying to answer in our story of American sourdough: Where are the lactic acid bacteria coming from?” said Wolfe.\u003c/p>\n\u003ch3>The Sourdough Project\u003c/h3>\n\u003cp>There’s never been a large-scale study in home kitchens to really identify the sources of bacteria at home.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Until now.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Wolfe’s lab has partnered with the Rob Dunn Lab at North Carolina State University on \u003ca href=\"http://robdunnlab.com/projects/sourdough/\">the Sourdough Project\u003c/a>, the first comprehensive effort to test the DNA of sourdough starters across America — and understand the evolutionary biology that underlies the differences among starters.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_11403524\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 548px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-11403524\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/news/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2018/04/Screen-Shot-2017-04-11-at-11.32.25-AM-e1492028037372.png\" alt=\"A colony of yeast from the author's sourdough starter under the microscope. \" width=\"548\" height=\"301\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2018/04/Screen-Shot-2017-04-11-at-11.32.25-AM-e1492028037372.png 548w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2018/04/Screen-Shot-2017-04-11-at-11.32.25-AM-e1492028037372-160x88.png 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2018/04/Screen-Shot-2017-04-11-at-11.32.25-AM-e1492028037372-240x132.png 240w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2018/04/Screen-Shot-2017-04-11-at-11.32.25-AM-e1492028037372-375x206.png 375w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2018/04/Screen-Shot-2017-04-11-at-11.32.25-AM-e1492028037372-520x286.png 520w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 548px) 100vw, 548px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">A colony of yeast from the author’s sourdough starter under the microscope. \u003ccite>(Courtesy of the Wolfe Lab at Tufts University)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>The Sourdough Project is soliciting hundreds of sourdough starter samples from amateur and professional bread bakers across the country. (To participate in this public science project, get started by filling out \u003ca href=\"https://designscience.wufoo.com/forms/p1pgrbjq05dzces/\">this questionnaire\u003c/a>).\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Scientists will analyze samples to answer the baseline question: How variable are the microbes from region to region? And how much variability can be attributed to the grain of the bread, versus the air, the water or the humans involved?\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>There are so many factors. Wolfe ticks them off.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“It could be the time that people ferment their breads. It could be the temperature. It could be a special set of recipes used in San Francisco than in other places.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003cp>\u003caside class=\"alignleft utils-parseShortcode-shortcodes-__bayCuriousPodcastShortcode__bayCurious\">\u003cimg src=https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/2023/02/bayCuriousLogo.png alt=\"Bay Curious Podcast\" loading=\"lazy\" />\n What do you wonder about the Bay Area, its culture or people that you want KQED to investigate?\n \u003ca href=\"/news/series/baycurious\">Ask Bay Curious.\u003c/a>\u003c/aside>\u003c/p>\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>When I told him I was growing my own sourdough starter, he offered to analyze it.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>So while science may yet discover something special is lurking in our sourdough, Wolfe isn’t holding his breath.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Not even the bakers at Semifreddi’s, a company that has been in a position to benefit from the reputation of local sourdough, embrace the cachet.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Semifreddi’s head baker Tredgold says it’s pure marketing.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“It sells the city. It’s one of the things the city’s known for. The bridge, the bay, the sourdough.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>And Rose, the co-owner of the bakery, added: “If we take our local starter and bake with it in Los Angeles, I think it will taste very similar to what we’re making here,” he said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Blasphemy! But possibly … true.\u003c/p>\n\u003ch3>My Kitchen Sourdough Experiment: Results\u003c/h3>\n\u003cp>My own sourdough experiment lasted more than a month. I used King Arthur whole wheat flour and kept my mixture on the kitchen counter. As it grew, it smelled distressingly like vomit before it mellowed. At one point it almost spilled out of the Tupperware I’d been keeping it in.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>As my starter matured, it needed to be fed twice a day on a regular schedule. I raced home from work to give it more flour and water, spoke to it, and pampered it with field trips out to the balcony to give it some exposure to the Oakland atmosphere. (In spite of what I learned about the uncertainty of the science of microbes in sourdough, I still pictured my starter capturing beneficial wild yeast and bacteria from the atmosphere.)\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>I don’t have pets or children, so I took photos of my starter’s regular maturity and forced my friends to admire them.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_11403508\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 640px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-large wp-image-11403508\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/news/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2018/04/RS24904_IMG_7422-qut-1020x765.jpg\" alt=\"The author's sourdough bread was a bit dense, but tasters said the flavor was spot on.\" width=\"640\" height=\"480\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2018/04/RS24904_IMG_7422-qut-1020x765.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2018/04/RS24904_IMG_7422-qut-160x120.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2018/04/RS24904_IMG_7422-qut-800x600.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2018/04/RS24904_IMG_7422-qut.jpg 1920w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2018/04/RS24904_IMG_7422-qut-1180x885.jpg 1180w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2018/04/RS24904_IMG_7422-qut-960x720.jpg 960w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2018/04/RS24904_IMG_7422-qut-240x180.jpg 240w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2018/04/RS24904_IMG_7422-qut-375x281.jpg 375w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2018/04/RS24904_IMG_7422-qut-520x390.jpg 520w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 640px) 100vw, 640px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">The author’s sourdough bread was a bit dense, but tasters said the flavor was spot on. \u003ccite>(Julia Scott/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>But the most important question was: How did it taste? I baked two little loaves and brought them into the KQED newsroom to get some brutally honest feedback from fellow reporters.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Being a first-time baker, you can imagine how this went. The loaves were so dense they had almost no air pockets. They weighed at least 3 pounds and were nearly rock-hard. My colleagues at KQED charitably praised the taste, but it was clear something had gone wrong in the baking process … or with the starter itself.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_11431549\" class=\"wp-caption alignright\" style=\"max-width: 640px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-large wp-image-11431549\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/news/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2017/04/IMG_4453-1020x765.jpeg\" alt=\"Julia Scott, left, and Bay Curious podcast host Olivia Allen-Price enjoy the fruits of Scott's labor -- some homemade sourdough bread.\" width=\"640\" height=\"480\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2017/04/IMG_4453-1020x765.jpeg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2017/04/IMG_4453-160x120.jpeg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2017/04/IMG_4453-800x600.jpeg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2017/04/IMG_4453-1920x1440.jpeg 1920w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2017/04/IMG_4453-1180x885.jpeg 1180w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2017/04/IMG_4453-960x720.jpeg 960w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2017/04/IMG_4453-240x180.jpeg 240w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2017/04/IMG_4453-375x281.jpeg 375w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2017/04/IMG_4453-520x390.jpeg 520w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2017/04/IMG_4453.jpeg 2016w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 640px) 100vw, 640px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Julia Scott, left, and Bay Curious podcast host Olivia Allen-Price enjoy the fruits of Scott’s labor — some homemade sourdough bread. \u003ccite>(Vinnee Tong/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>A few weeks later, I got my sourdough DNA results back from Ben Wolfe’s Tufts lab. My starter had two bacterial species: \u003ca href=\"https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lactobacillus_brevis\">\u003cem> Lactobacillus brevis \u003c/em>\u003c/a>and \u003cem>\u003ca href=\"https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lactobacillus_plantarum\"> Lactobacillus plantarum\u003c/a>;\u003c/em> and one yeast species: \u003ca href=\"http://genome.jgi.doe.gov/Wican1/Wican1.home.html\">\u003cem>Wickerhamomyces anomalus\u003c/em>\u003c/a>. All of which are very commonly found in sourdough starters made around the world, according to Wolfe. It’s also common to have no more than a few species of yeast and bacteria in any given starter.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But that one bacterium once believed to make our bread so special — \u003cem>Lactobacillus sanfranciscensis\u003c/em>? My bread didn’t have any. Would things have gone differently if it had shown up? I may never know.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"slug": "facebooks-reveals-plan-to-draw-you-in-but-no-details-on-handling",
"title": "Facebook Reveals Plan To Draw You In, But No Details on Handling Safety Concerns",
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"content": "\u003cp>Facebook’s CEO gave a public address on Tuesday in Silicon Valley, laying out the company’s grand plan for the next year. Mark Zuckerberg provided dazzling details about how Facebook will use cameras, like the ones on our phones, to draw us deeper into digital life — and zero details about how Facebook will address growing safety concerns online.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>He was speaking at \u003ca href=\"https://www.fbf8.com/\">F8\u003c/a>. In tech land, that stands for the Facebook Developer Conference, which brings together thousands of people who make apps for Facebook and build other tools for the platform.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Though, for the rest of the world, F8 might be a reference to \u003cem>The Fast and The Furious\u003c/em>. Zuckerberg spent the first few minutes of his address making geeky jokes about it and laughing at his own jokes.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“While \u003cem>Fast and Furious\u003c/em>‘ tagline is ‘never give up on family,’ ours is similar: Never give up on the family of apps,” he said, chuckling.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>And then, once that was out of his system, the 32-year-old CEO pivoted to what seemed like a more serious, timely place. “Last month I wrote a letter on building community. I have it here.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad fullwidth]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The large screen projected his \u003ca href=\"https://www.facebook.com/notes/mark-zuckerberg/building-global-community/10154544292806634/\">manifesto\u003c/a>, which he published in February, about how broken the human social fabric is and how Facebook could solve that by connecting us. But Zuckerberg acknowledged that human beings are complicated, and being connected is not an unconditional good.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“We have a lot more to do here. And we’re reminded of this, this week, by the tragedy in Cleveland,” Zuckerberg said. He expressed condolences to the loved ones of Robert Godwin Sr., whose murder was broadcast on Facebook. “And we have a lot of work. And we will keep doing all we can to prevent tragedies like this from happening,” Zuckerberg said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>It sounded as if Zuckerberg were about to lay out for his audience — the people helping to build his platform — what they all need to take seriously: That people sometimes hijack the app to broadcast gratuitous violence, to wage propaganda wars with “fake news,” to bully and to hate.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But that’s not what he did. Instead he pivoted again, abruptly, to a radical vision for how Facebook will move us from the two-dimensional news feed to vibrant 3-D imaginary worlds. “Think about, if your daughter is a big Harry Potter fan, for her birthday you can change your home into Hogwarts.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The world learned about “augmented reality” through the \u003ca href=\"http://www.npr.org/sections/alltechconsidered/2016/07/11/485551781/pokemon-go-is-catching-us-all-in-unexpected-ways\">Pokémon Go\u003c/a> craze. Now Facebook wants to take that craze and turn it into a sustained global movement.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The company plans to use smartphone cameras and virtual reality headsets to create 3-D digital spaces all around us. Instead of seeing a real painting, for example, you could don a headset and stare at a blank wall to gaze upon imaginary art. Your kids could wear goggles at breakfast, and see fun little sharks swimming around the bowl of Cheerios. Or say you wake up for your morning coffee. “You can add a second coffee mug so it looks like you’re not having breakfast alone,” Zuckerberg said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>He told the audience to imagine tapping on a virtual wine bottle, “and you can add an information card that shows what the vintage of the wine is and what the rating is and maybe where to get it and maybe in the future even a link to buy it.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In the imaginary world, the possibilities — creative and commercial — are endless.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The company is releasing an initial version of “\u003ca href=\"https://www.facebook.com/spaces\">Facebook Spaces\u003c/a>,” a new virtual reality app that lets you hang out with your Facebook friends in VR as 3-D cartoon characters, or avatars. Facebook VR guru Rachel Rubin Franklin explained onstage: The company is using artificial intelligence to suggest how you should look. Though you have the final word, of course. “You can add glasses or facial hair. You can change your eye and hair color,” she explained.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>When you step back and take in this Facebook keynote, it appears Zuckerberg (and his leadership) are, like the best engineers, deeply excited about the new worlds they can build, but also deeply unsure about how to govern these worlds.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Virtual and augmented reality apps are not new. But Ryan Pamplin, vice president of sales at augmented reality company Meta, says in an email that Facebook is “uniquely positioned” to take them from the gamer community to the mainstream.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>He writes: “If you believe Facebook has good intentions and will properly protect user privacy, it’s exciting. If you don’t, then it’s a scary step towards a dystopian future.”\u003c/p>\n\n",
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"excerpt": "In quintessential Silicon Valley style, Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg unveils ambitious plans to bring users to 3-D imaginary worlds.",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003cp>Facebook’s CEO gave a public address on Tuesday in Silicon Valley, laying out the company’s grand plan for the next year. Mark Zuckerberg provided dazzling details about how Facebook will use cameras, like the ones on our phones, to draw us deeper into digital life — and zero details about how Facebook will address growing safety concerns online.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>He was speaking at \u003ca href=\"https://www.fbf8.com/\">F8\u003c/a>. In tech land, that stands for the Facebook Developer Conference, which brings together thousands of people who make apps for Facebook and build other tools for the platform.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Though, for the rest of the world, F8 might be a reference to \u003cem>The Fast and The Furious\u003c/em>. Zuckerberg spent the first few minutes of his address making geeky jokes about it and laughing at his own jokes.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“While \u003cem>Fast and Furious\u003c/em>‘ tagline is ‘never give up on family,’ ours is similar: Never give up on the family of apps,” he said, chuckling.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>And then, once that was out of his system, the 32-year-old CEO pivoted to what seemed like a more serious, timely place. “Last month I wrote a letter on building community. I have it here.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The large screen projected his \u003ca href=\"https://www.facebook.com/notes/mark-zuckerberg/building-global-community/10154544292806634/\">manifesto\u003c/a>, which he published in February, about how broken the human social fabric is and how Facebook could solve that by connecting us. But Zuckerberg acknowledged that human beings are complicated, and being connected is not an unconditional good.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“We have a lot more to do here. And we’re reminded of this, this week, by the tragedy in Cleveland,” Zuckerberg said. He expressed condolences to the loved ones of Robert Godwin Sr., whose murder was broadcast on Facebook. “And we have a lot of work. And we will keep doing all we can to prevent tragedies like this from happening,” Zuckerberg said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>It sounded as if Zuckerberg were about to lay out for his audience — the people helping to build his platform — what they all need to take seriously: That people sometimes hijack the app to broadcast gratuitous violence, to wage propaganda wars with “fake news,” to bully and to hate.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But that’s not what he did. Instead he pivoted again, abruptly, to a radical vision for how Facebook will move us from the two-dimensional news feed to vibrant 3-D imaginary worlds. “Think about, if your daughter is a big Harry Potter fan, for her birthday you can change your home into Hogwarts.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The world learned about “augmented reality” through the \u003ca href=\"http://www.npr.org/sections/alltechconsidered/2016/07/11/485551781/pokemon-go-is-catching-us-all-in-unexpected-ways\">Pokémon Go\u003c/a> craze. Now Facebook wants to take that craze and turn it into a sustained global movement.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The company plans to use smartphone cameras and virtual reality headsets to create 3-D digital spaces all around us. Instead of seeing a real painting, for example, you could don a headset and stare at a blank wall to gaze upon imaginary art. Your kids could wear goggles at breakfast, and see fun little sharks swimming around the bowl of Cheerios. Or say you wake up for your morning coffee. “You can add a second coffee mug so it looks like you’re not having breakfast alone,” Zuckerberg said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>He told the audience to imagine tapping on a virtual wine bottle, “and you can add an information card that shows what the vintage of the wine is and what the rating is and maybe where to get it and maybe in the future even a link to buy it.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In the imaginary world, the possibilities — creative and commercial — are endless.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The company is releasing an initial version of “\u003ca href=\"https://www.facebook.com/spaces\">Facebook Spaces\u003c/a>,” a new virtual reality app that lets you hang out with your Facebook friends in VR as 3-D cartoon characters, or avatars. Facebook VR guru Rachel Rubin Franklin explained onstage: The company is using artificial intelligence to suggest how you should look. Though you have the final word, of course. “You can add glasses or facial hair. You can change your eye and hair color,” she explained.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>When you step back and take in this Facebook keynote, it appears Zuckerberg (and his leadership) are, like the best engineers, deeply excited about the new worlds they can build, but also deeply unsure about how to govern these worlds.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Virtual and augmented reality apps are not new. But Ryan Pamplin, vice president of sales at augmented reality company Meta, says in an email that Facebook is “uniquely positioned” to take them from the gamer community to the mainstream.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>He writes: “If you believe Facebook has good intentions and will properly protect user privacy, it’s exciting. If you don’t, then it’s a scary step towards a dystopian future.”\u003c/p>\n\n\u003c/div>\u003c/p>",
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"disqusTitle": "AP Investigation Details Water Officials' Missteps as Oroville Spillways Failed",
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"content": "\u003cp>OROVILLE, Butte County — Late in the afternoon of Feb. 12, Sheriff Kory Honea was at the emergency operations center for the tallest dam in America when he overheard someone say something that stopped him in his tracks:\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\"This is not good.\"\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Over six straight days, the operators of the Oroville Dam had said there was no immediate danger after water surging down the main spillway gouged a hole the size of a football field in the concrete chute. But now suddenly they realized that the dam's emergency backup spillway — essentially an unpaved hillside — was falling apart, too, and could unleash a deadly torrent of water.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Honea reacted by ordering the immediate evacuation of nearly 200,000 people downstream.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In the end, after frantic action by the dam's keepers, catastrophe was averted. But an Associated Press examination of state and federal documents, emails obtained under public records requests and numerous interviews reveal a sequence of questionable decisions and missteps, some of them made years ago, some of them in the middle of the crisis.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad fullwidth]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Among other things, the dam's federal and state overseers overestimated the durability of the two spillways. And in public statements during the emergency, they failed to acknowledge — or perhaps recognize — that while they were busy dealing with one crisis, they were creating a possible new one.\u003c/p>\n\u003caside class=\"pullquote alignright\">'Stuff happens. So you get a flat tire on your car. You run your car out of oil. I mean, these things happen.'\u003ccite>Bill Croyle,\u003cbr>California Department of Water Resources\u003c/cite>\u003c/aside>\n\u003cp>During the darkest hours of the emergency, the fear was that if the hillside collapsed, \"it was not whether people would die, but how many would die,\" Honea recalled.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>State water officials have defended their handling of the crisis at the 770-foot-high dam in the Sierra Nevada foothills 130 miles northeast of San Francisco, saying it was managed as effectively as possible under extraordinary circumstances, including one of the wettest winters on record.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Bill Croyle, acting head of the California Department of Water Resources, became exasperated by a reporter's questions during a media briefing last month about who should be held responsible for the spillway failure. \u003c/p>\n\u003cp>He likened the spillway failure to problems with a car. \u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\"This happens. Stuff happens,\" Croyle said. \"So you get a flat tire on your car. You run your car out of oil. I mean, these things happen.\"\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Beginning of a Crisis\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The crisis began Feb. 7 with the rupture in the main spillway. Dam managers responded by obtaining an uncommon exemption from the Army Corps of Engineers to bypass a rule that would have required them to release huge amounts of water from the rapidly filling dam. Water releases down the main spillway were scaled back drastically, sometimes to zero.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Engineers did this because they wanted to inspect the hole, study how much bigger it might get and think of a way to keep the spillway from crumbling further, state officials said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>All the while, the reservoir behind the dam kept rising, reaching the highest level in the structure's history, because of one of the biggest storms in two decades.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Dam managers repeatedly assured the public there was \"no imminent threat.\" Just 12 hours before water began running down the hillside on Feb. 11, they told Honea in an email that the water releases, though reduced, \"will still keep the lake from spilling over the emergency ... spillway.\"\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Not long after the water started going down that spillway, it began ripping away the hillside. That triggered the sheriff's evacuation order, which was quickly endorsed by the dam's managers, who said the emergency spillway could fail within an hour.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\"They were futzing around with the main service spillway that had broken. They turned off the flow and were inspecting it and testing it,\" said Ron Stork, senior policy adviser with Friends of the River, an environmental group. \"And all of the time the reservoir was filling.\"\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\"And then it failed,\" Stork said of the emergency spillway. \"And you know, they almost lost control.\"\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>It was the first time in the history of the 50-year-old dam that the emergency spillway was used, but not the first hint it might be inadequate.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>'Man, You Don't Want to Use That Emergency Spillway'\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\"There's always been an understanding that, man, you don't want to use that emergency spillway, because when you do, it's going to be a mess,\" said Jerry Antonetti, a retired engineer who was a construction inspector for one of the dam's power plants when the dam was built in the 1960s.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Friends of the River and other environmental groups had argued as far back as 2005 that the earthen spillway needed to be reinforced with concrete. The Department of Water Resources and local water agencies said that was unnecessary.\u003c/p>\n\u003caside class=\"pullquote alignleft\">The state 'earned a grade of F on its ability to timely and completely communicate during this incident.'\u003ccite>Mark Sorenson,\u003cbr>Biggs city manager\u003c/cite>\u003c/aside>\n\u003cp>In 2014, the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission not only affirmed the safety of both spillways but also said there was no point in studying or discussing the possibility that either could fail, state water officials told the AP.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Ultimately, the spillways broke apart while handling just a fraction of the water they were designed to carry.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>As families from the Gold Rush-era towns below the dam fled their homes, Oroville Dam's managers finally ramped up water releases down the damaged main spillway, bringing the reservoir back down to safer levels. The main spillway kept eroding but handled the flow.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Local officials downstream said the dam's operators failed to keep them fully informed as the emergency unfolded.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>On Feb. 7, when word started spreading that a big hole had opened in the main spillway, Honea's dispatchers called state water officials to inquire, and were told that the state was doing only \"routine maintenance inspections,\" according to the sheriff.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In an email a day before the evacuation, Mark Sorensen, the city administrator of the small town of Biggs, about 25 miles from the dam, told the state agency that the state \"earned a grade of F on its ability to timely and completely communicate during this incident.\" State officials are expanding efforts to inform the public, but say there have been dozens of news briefings, updates and advisories.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Department of Water Resources officials said during the crisis that they were primarily worried that the hole in the main spillway would grow larger and take out power-line towers at the dam's hydroelectric plant.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>After the evacuation, however, agency spokesman Ed Wilson said the main concern was that the hole could take out the release gates, too. That could lead to devastating flooding downstream.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>A federally ordered investigation is underway. In the meantime, the spillways will need hundreds of millions of dollars in repairs before the rainy season in the fall.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>'Kind of a Hindsight Thing'\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Rick Poeppelman, chief of the Army Corps' engineering division for the region, said his agency and the state water managers made the best decisions they could.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\"It's kind of the hindsight thing,\" he said. \"The expectation was that the emergency spillway was going to be able to pass.\"\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>On Wednesday, U.S. House Democrats called on the auditing arm of Congress to review dam safety standards.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\"The Oroville Dam failure did not come without warning,\" they said in a letter to the Government Accountability Office.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad floatright]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The group that includes six House members from California told the office that a changing climate raises risks for aging dams around the U.S. There is a \"real crisis for dam safety,\" the group said.\u003c/p>\n\n",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003cp>OROVILLE, Butte County — Late in the afternoon of Feb. 12, Sheriff Kory Honea was at the emergency operations center for the tallest dam in America when he overheard someone say something that stopped him in his tracks:\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\"This is not good.\"\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Over six straight days, the operators of the Oroville Dam had said there was no immediate danger after water surging down the main spillway gouged a hole the size of a football field in the concrete chute. But now suddenly they realized that the dam's emergency backup spillway — essentially an unpaved hillside — was falling apart, too, and could unleash a deadly torrent of water.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Honea reacted by ordering the immediate evacuation of nearly 200,000 people downstream.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In the end, after frantic action by the dam's keepers, catastrophe was averted. But an Associated Press examination of state and federal documents, emails obtained under public records requests and numerous interviews reveal a sequence of questionable decisions and missteps, some of them made years ago, some of them in the middle of the crisis.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Among other things, the dam's federal and state overseers overestimated the durability of the two spillways. And in public statements during the emergency, they failed to acknowledge — or perhaps recognize — that while they were busy dealing with one crisis, they were creating a possible new one.\u003c/p>\n\u003caside class=\"pullquote alignright\">'Stuff happens. So you get a flat tire on your car. You run your car out of oil. I mean, these things happen.'\u003ccite>Bill Croyle,\u003cbr>California Department of Water Resources\u003c/cite>\u003c/aside>\n\u003cp>During the darkest hours of the emergency, the fear was that if the hillside collapsed, \"it was not whether people would die, but how many would die,\" Honea recalled.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>State water officials have defended their handling of the crisis at the 770-foot-high dam in the Sierra Nevada foothills 130 miles northeast of San Francisco, saying it was managed as effectively as possible under extraordinary circumstances, including one of the wettest winters on record.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Bill Croyle, acting head of the California Department of Water Resources, became exasperated by a reporter's questions during a media briefing last month about who should be held responsible for the spillway failure. \u003c/p>\n\u003cp>He likened the spillway failure to problems with a car. \u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\"This happens. Stuff happens,\" Croyle said. \"So you get a flat tire on your car. You run your car out of oil. I mean, these things happen.\"\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Beginning of a Crisis\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The crisis began Feb. 7 with the rupture in the main spillway. Dam managers responded by obtaining an uncommon exemption from the Army Corps of Engineers to bypass a rule that would have required them to release huge amounts of water from the rapidly filling dam. Water releases down the main spillway were scaled back drastically, sometimes to zero.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Engineers did this because they wanted to inspect the hole, study how much bigger it might get and think of a way to keep the spillway from crumbling further, state officials said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>All the while, the reservoir behind the dam kept rising, reaching the highest level in the structure's history, because of one of the biggest storms in two decades.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Dam managers repeatedly assured the public there was \"no imminent threat.\" Just 12 hours before water began running down the hillside on Feb. 11, they told Honea in an email that the water releases, though reduced, \"will still keep the lake from spilling over the emergency ... spillway.\"\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Not long after the water started going down that spillway, it began ripping away the hillside. That triggered the sheriff's evacuation order, which was quickly endorsed by the dam's managers, who said the emergency spillway could fail within an hour.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\"They were futzing around with the main service spillway that had broken. They turned off the flow and were inspecting it and testing it,\" said Ron Stork, senior policy adviser with Friends of the River, an environmental group. \"And all of the time the reservoir was filling.\"\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\"And then it failed,\" Stork said of the emergency spillway. \"And you know, they almost lost control.\"\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>It was the first time in the history of the 50-year-old dam that the emergency spillway was used, but not the first hint it might be inadequate.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>'Man, You Don't Want to Use That Emergency Spillway'\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\"There's always been an understanding that, man, you don't want to use that emergency spillway, because when you do, it's going to be a mess,\" said Jerry Antonetti, a retired engineer who was a construction inspector for one of the dam's power plants when the dam was built in the 1960s.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Friends of the River and other environmental groups had argued as far back as 2005 that the earthen spillway needed to be reinforced with concrete. The Department of Water Resources and local water agencies said that was unnecessary.\u003c/p>\n\u003caside class=\"pullquote alignleft\">The state 'earned a grade of F on its ability to timely and completely communicate during this incident.'\u003ccite>Mark Sorenson,\u003cbr>Biggs city manager\u003c/cite>\u003c/aside>\n\u003cp>In 2014, the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission not only affirmed the safety of both spillways but also said there was no point in studying or discussing the possibility that either could fail, state water officials told the AP.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Ultimately, the spillways broke apart while handling just a fraction of the water they were designed to carry.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>As families from the Gold Rush-era towns below the dam fled their homes, Oroville Dam's managers finally ramped up water releases down the damaged main spillway, bringing the reservoir back down to safer levels. The main spillway kept eroding but handled the flow.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Local officials downstream said the dam's operators failed to keep them fully informed as the emergency unfolded.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>On Feb. 7, when word started spreading that a big hole had opened in the main spillway, Honea's dispatchers called state water officials to inquire, and were told that the state was doing only \"routine maintenance inspections,\" according to the sheriff.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In an email a day before the evacuation, Mark Sorensen, the city administrator of the small town of Biggs, about 25 miles from the dam, told the state agency that the state \"earned a grade of F on its ability to timely and completely communicate during this incident.\" State officials are expanding efforts to inform the public, but say there have been dozens of news briefings, updates and advisories.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Department of Water Resources officials said during the crisis that they were primarily worried that the hole in the main spillway would grow larger and take out power-line towers at the dam's hydroelectric plant.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>After the evacuation, however, agency spokesman Ed Wilson said the main concern was that the hole could take out the release gates, too. That could lead to devastating flooding downstream.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>A federally ordered investigation is underway. In the meantime, the spillways will need hundreds of millions of dollars in repairs before the rainy season in the fall.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>'Kind of a Hindsight Thing'\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Rick Poeppelman, chief of the Army Corps' engineering division for the region, said his agency and the state water managers made the best decisions they could.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\"It's kind of the hindsight thing,\" he said. \"The expectation was that the emergency spillway was going to be able to pass.\"\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>On Wednesday, U.S. House Democrats called on the auditing arm of Congress to review dam safety standards.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\"The Oroville Dam failure did not come without warning,\" they said in a letter to the Government Accountability Office.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The group that includes six House members from California told the office that a changing climate raises risks for aging dams around the U.S. There is a \"real crisis for dam safety,\" the group said.\u003c/p>\n\n\u003c/div>\u003c/p>",
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"disqusTitle": "Oil Platform Off Santa Barbara Coast to Be Decommissioned",
"title": "Oil Platform Off Santa Barbara Coast to Be Decommissioned",
"headTitle": "The California Report | KQED News",
"content": "\u003cp>LOS ANGELES -- A Southern California offshore oil platform will be decommissioned and its operator is seeking bankruptcy protection, nearly two years after the platform was idled when an onshore pipeline \u003ca href=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/news/2016/05/17/criminal-charges-in-2015-santa-barbara-county-oil-spill/\" target=\"_blank\">ruptured and spilled a massive amount of oil\u003c/a> into the ocean, the state and company said Monday.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The State Lands Commission said it received documents from Venoco LLC relinquishing rights to the South Ellwood oil field leases in the Santa Barbara Channel northwest of Los Angeles, including Platform Holly and a pier in the city of Goleta.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[contextly_sidebar id=\"mlymtoaamk8OSbwLnuJyQ5Ic3NigKJCO\"]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Platform Holly has not produced since May 19, 2015, when an onshore underground line owned by Plains All American Pipeline spilled more than 120,000 gallons of crude into the ocean. The line, which transported oil produced by Holly, remains shut down and there is no estimate for when it might reopen.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Denver-based Venoco, which acquired the leases in 1997 from ExxonMobil, simultaneously announced it has filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection and expects its assets to be sold. Most are in Southern California, except for an onshore field in Texas.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad fullwidth]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\"Today's filing is the result of unfortunate circumstances impacting the company's financial strength, including the ongoing closure of Plains All American Pipeline's Line 901,\" Mike Wracher, Venoco's chief operating officer, said in a statement.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>He added: \"We have pursued a number of market-based and regulatory solutions to address these challenges during the last year. Despite these considerable efforts, our financial position now compels us to take this action.\"\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[audio src=\"http://www.kqed.org/.stream/anon/radio/tcr/2017/04/2017-04-19d-tcr.mp3\" Image=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/news/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2017/04/OilPlatformBoom-800x498.jpg\" Title=\"Oil Platform Off Santa Barbara Coast to Be Decommissioned\" program=\"The California Report\"]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Venoco had been seeking to restructure as recently as last summer to eliminate $1 billion of debt, but said at the time that low price oil prices and the Line 901 shutdown were serious problems.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The State Lands Commission said the relinquishment of claims to the leases effectively ends commercial oil and gas production in state waters at that location in the Santa Barbara Channel and leaves about 85 million barrels of oil in the ground. New offshore oil and gas leases are prohibited by California's Coastal Sanctuary Act.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The decommissioning of Platform Holly is a \"landmark in the evolution of California's energy portfolio,\" Lt. Gov. Gavin Newsom, the commission's chairman, said in a statement.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\"As President Trump voices his determination to expand oil drilling and twentieth-century energy policies, California is pioneering the sustainable alternative that protects our coastlines and environment while gaining a strong foothold in the future energy and global economy,\" it said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[contextly_sidebar id=\"Zhch896quyA5e8o2S2zedHMQndQZ4Gxz\"]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Platform Holly stands a few miles off the coast of south Santa Barbara County, part of a series of oil platforms in waters between the mainland and the Channel Islands.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The decommissioning decision was celebrated by people who have been working to get rid of offshore drilling since the 1969 blowout of a Union Oil Co. platform in the Santa Barbara Channel fouled 30 miles of beaches, killed thousands of birds and other sea life, and gave rise to the American environmental movement.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\"This marks the end of an era of offshore oil production in this location, and we will never again go back,\" said state Sen. Hannah-Beth Jackson, D-Santa Barbara.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The commission said it will develop a plan for the costly process of plugging 32 wells in the South Ellwood Field, removing Platform Holly and decommissioning the Goleta Beach Pier, a process expected to take three years.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Venoco will remain responsible for securing and maintaining the facilities at its own cost until May 1, when the company will be temporarily reimbursed by the commission until a third party is hired. The commission said it will involve itself in the bankruptcy process and submit claims for costs against Venoco.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The commission noted that Venoco generated about $160 million in state revenue from royalties and rent without any significant spills on state property during the past 20 years.\u003c/p>\n\n",
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"excerpt": "Platform Holly’s operator seeks bankruptcy protection nearly two years after the platform was idled following a massive onshore oil spill in 2015.",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003cp>LOS ANGELES -- A Southern California offshore oil platform will be decommissioned and its operator is seeking bankruptcy protection, nearly two years after the platform was idled when an onshore pipeline \u003ca href=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/news/2016/05/17/criminal-charges-in-2015-santa-barbara-county-oil-spill/\" target=\"_blank\">ruptured and spilled a massive amount of oil\u003c/a> into the ocean, the state and company said Monday.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The State Lands Commission said it received documents from Venoco LLC relinquishing rights to the South Ellwood oil field leases in the Santa Barbara Channel northwest of Los Angeles, including Platform Holly and a pier in the city of Goleta.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Platform Holly has not produced since May 19, 2015, when an onshore underground line owned by Plains All American Pipeline spilled more than 120,000 gallons of crude into the ocean. The line, which transported oil produced by Holly, remains shut down and there is no estimate for when it might reopen.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Denver-based Venoco, which acquired the leases in 1997 from ExxonMobil, simultaneously announced it has filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection and expects its assets to be sold. Most are in Southern California, except for an onshore field in Texas.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\"Today's filing is the result of unfortunate circumstances impacting the company's financial strength, including the ongoing closure of Plains All American Pipeline's Line 901,\" Mike Wracher, Venoco's chief operating officer, said in a statement.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>He added: \"We have pursued a number of market-based and regulatory solutions to address these challenges during the last year. Despite these considerable efforts, our financial position now compels us to take this action.\"\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Venoco had been seeking to restructure as recently as last summer to eliminate $1 billion of debt, but said at the time that low price oil prices and the Line 901 shutdown were serious problems.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The State Lands Commission said the relinquishment of claims to the leases effectively ends commercial oil and gas production in state waters at that location in the Santa Barbara Channel and leaves about 85 million barrels of oil in the ground. New offshore oil and gas leases are prohibited by California's Coastal Sanctuary Act.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The decommissioning of Platform Holly is a \"landmark in the evolution of California's energy portfolio,\" Lt. Gov. Gavin Newsom, the commission's chairman, said in a statement.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\"As President Trump voices his determination to expand oil drilling and twentieth-century energy policies, California is pioneering the sustainable alternative that protects our coastlines and environment while gaining a strong foothold in the future energy and global economy,\" it said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Platform Holly stands a few miles off the coast of south Santa Barbara County, part of a series of oil platforms in waters between the mainland and the Channel Islands.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The decommissioning decision was celebrated by people who have been working to get rid of offshore drilling since the 1969 blowout of a Union Oil Co. platform in the Santa Barbara Channel fouled 30 miles of beaches, killed thousands of birds and other sea life, and gave rise to the American environmental movement.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\"This marks the end of an era of offshore oil production in this location, and we will never again go back,\" said state Sen. Hannah-Beth Jackson, D-Santa Barbara.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The commission said it will develop a plan for the costly process of plugging 32 wells in the South Ellwood Field, removing Platform Holly and decommissioning the Goleta Beach Pier, a process expected to take three years.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Venoco will remain responsible for securing and maintaining the facilities at its own cost until May 1, when the company will be temporarily reimbursed by the commission until a third party is hired. The commission said it will involve itself in the bankruptcy process and submit claims for costs against Venoco.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The commission noted that Venoco generated about $160 million in state revenue from royalties and rent without any significant spills on state property during the past 20 years.\u003c/p>\n\n\u003c/div>\u003c/p>",
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"disqusTitle": "Report: Flaws in Design, Building and Upkeep Led to Oroville Spillway Failure",
"title": "Report: Flaws in Design, Building and Upkeep Led to Oroville Spillway Failure",
"headTitle": "The California Report | KQED News",
"content": "\u003cp>An independent analysis of the spillway failure at Oroville Dam concludes that extensive sections of the concrete structure disintegrated due to a series of design, construction and maintenance flaws stretching back more than half a century.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The \u003ca href=\"https://www.documentcloud.org/documents/3673031-OrovilleSpillway-RootCauseAnalysis.html\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">root-cause analysis\u003c/a>, by Robert Bea, a retired professor of civil engineering at UC Berkeley and co-founder of the university's \u003ca href=\"http://ccrm.berkeley.edu/\">Center for Catastrophic Risk Management\u003c/a>, contends that \"the gated spillway failures are deeply rooted in pervasive design defects and flaws developed by the California Department of Water Resources\" -- the agency that built the dam in the 1960s and now owns it.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Bea has been called on \u003ca href=\"http://www.mensjournal.com/magazine/bob-bea-the-master-of-disaster-20130225\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">to investigate\u003c/a> high-profile engineering failures, including the loss of the space shuttle Columbia, the levee failure in New Orleans after Hurricane Katrina and the Deepwater Horizon oil-rig disaster in the Gulf of Mexico.\u003cbr>\n[documentcloud url=\"https://www.documentcloud.org/documents/3673031-OrovilleSpillway-RootCauseAnalysis\" notes=\"true\" text=\"false\" search=\"true\" sidebar=\"false\" pdf=\"true\" responsive=\"true\" page=\"1\"]\u003cbr>\nIn a report for the UC Berkeley center circulated Monday, Bea contends that \"the gated spillway failures are deeply rooted in pervasive design defects and flaws developed by the California Department of Water Resources.\"\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Those defects include slabs that were much too thin -- an estimated 4 to 6 inches in critical spots -- and lacking in the reinforcement and anchoring they needed to withstand the destructive power of repeated water releases.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[audio src=\"http://www.kqed.org/.stream/anon/radio/tcr/2017/04/2017-04-19c-tcr.mp3\" Image=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/science/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2017/04/ORO_FI_06-1920x1080.jpg\" Title=\"Report: Flaws in Design, Building and Upkeep Led to Oroville Spillway Failure\" program=\"The California Report\"]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>DWR compounded those initial flaws, Bea's report says, by failing to ensure that the giant concrete chute was built on \u003ca href=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/science/2017/04/07/how-incompetent-rock-led-to-the-oroville-dam-crisis/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">competent rock\u003c/a>. Contractors also used \"native soils\" -- mostly clay -- to grade sections of the spillway foundation, allowing extensive erosion and displacement of gravel intended to support a crucial drainage system, Bea concludes.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad fullwidth]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The spillway's built-in problems led to extensive cracking of its concrete surface and openings in the joints between adjacent slabs of concrete. Bea says repeated repairs to the concrete were ineffective in preventing large volumes of water from getting under the concrete and further eroding the surface below.\u003c/p>\n\u003caside class=\"pullquote alignright\">'The gated spillway failures are deeply rooted in pervasive design defects and flaws developed by the California Department of Water Resources.'\u003ccite>Professor Robert Bea\u003c/cite>\u003c/aside>\n\u003cp>Bea also faults DWR for allowing large trees to grow adjacent to the spillway walls. Their roots could block pipes meant to drain water from beneath the concrete.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The dam is the key facility of the State Water Project, which conveys agricultural and urban water supplies from the massive reservoir of Lake Oroville to farms in the San Joaquin Valley and agencies serving 26 million people in the San Francisco Bay Area and Southern California.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The Department of Water Resources had no immediate response to a request for comment on Bea's analysis. In past statements, the agency has said the Oroville spillway met the design and construction standards in place during the 1960s and that repeated inspections found it to be well-maintained and approved for continued use.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Bea's analysis challenges both of those DWR assertions. He concludes \"the wrong standards and guidelines are being used to requalify many critical infrastructure systems for continued service.\"\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Spillway Breach Led to February Crisis\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The dam became the focus of worldwide attention in early February when a large breach appeared in its main spillway just as a surge of storm runoff flowed into Lake Oroville, the state's second-largest reservoir.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[contextly_sidebar id=\"o2IZ7WfchLDGTwdOK3eN9C8A4ixeo0kI\"]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>With spillway releases reduced, a rapid rise in the lake sent water flowing over an untested emergency spillway. Severe erosion on the slope beneath that massive overflow structure prompted fears that it would collapse, triggering evacuation orders affecting about 180,000 people from communities along the Feather River.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>As that near-catastrophe unfolded, Bea said in interviews, he began assembling materials to try to explain it. He says the Department of Water Resources rebuffed a request for original design documents of the spillway and adjacent emergency weir.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>DWR representatives told him that agency guidelines barred the release of information on critical infrastructure systems -- data protected by a post-9/11 law designed to prevent such resources from falling into the hands of potential attackers.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\"They looked at me and smiled and said, 'You might be a terrorist,' \" Bea recalls.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Bea then assembled on his own a collection of publicly available information -- including partial design information released by DWR in the 1960s and '70s, a selection of the department's dam inspection reports, and photographs from the agency, media sources and even Google Earth -- to try to analyze the causes of the spillway failure.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>While acknowledging that he was working with what he called \"incomplete information,\" Bea says the materials pointed to the defects he outlined in his analysis.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>A Drainage System and Thin Concrete\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>One of the crucial flaws in the construction, Bea says, concerns the complex drainage system installed beneath the slab.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The system consists of a network of clay pipes with an inside diameter of 6 inches and outside diameter ranging from about 8 inches to 10.5 inches at their connecting ends. The pipes are laid out in a herringbone pattern beneath the concrete. They are designed to collect water that seeps through cracks in the slab and route it to drains in the spillway's sidewalls.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Bea says that since the slab is generally just 15 inches thick, the concrete over the drain pipes is much thinner -- between 4 and 6 inches thick, or about the same as a standard sidewalk.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The thinness of the concrete over the pipes showed up as cracks on the surface of the spillway -- a fact Bea says was noted after extensive repairs to the concrete were performed in 2009.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\"The concrete along the spillway chute has been repaired,\" a dam inspector wrote in June 2010. \"The repaired herringbone crack pattern is said to reflect the underlying drain system.\"\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Agency Consultants Share Similar Concerns\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In some respects Bea's conclusions echo concerns raised in \u003ca href=\"https://www.documentcloud.org/documents/3523667-20170317-5113-32037979.html\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">a report last month\u003c/a> by a board of engineering consultants DWR retained, at the direction of federal regulators, to oversee the agency's plans for rebuilding the spillway.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The board expressed concern about the structure's repair history. Members noted that the slab was just 12 inches thick and thinner in some areas -- much thinner than current design standards -- and had been cut open repeatedly in the past to fill voids that had opened beneath the spillway. The engineers also noted that compacted clay had been used to fill spaces that have opened under the slab.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The use of the clay \"calls into question whether the portions of the slab that appear undamaged by the failure should be replaced during the restoration,\" the board wrote.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The consultants also observed that a drainage system installed beneath the spillway slab was discharging \"extraordinarily large\" amounts of water even days after flows were halted down the concrete chute.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\"It seems likely that piping [erosion] of foundation material beneath the chute slab may be responsible for the voids that have been found and repaired in the past,\" the consultants' report said. The board called for an investigation of that possibility, a task that will likely be taken up by a separate panel appointed to conduct a forensic investigation of the spillway failure.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>DWR says the forensic panel, which was also created at the direction of federal overseers, began reviewing documents late last month and visited the spillway for the first time last week. There is no timeline yet for its report on the causes of the structure's failure, though it has been asked to submit preliminary conclusions to the spillway replacement design team by the end of the first week of May.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>'A Regulated Failure'\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Bea calls the breach and destruction of the spillway \"a regulated failure.\"\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\"The regulatory processes are not sufficient to put a check and balance into the system to say, 'Hey, what a minute, what you're thinking here about design is not appropriate,' or 'What you're concluding from your inspection and repair operations is not appropriate,' \" he said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Why deficiencies in the spillway were allowed to occur and grow into a crisis, a process that took more than five decades, is an issue he says he's still wrestling with.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\"It's obvious these things were accumulating and persisting. Why?\" Bea says he asked himself.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\"I looked back on my previous experience with our Department of Water Resources,\" Bea says. \"I worked with them back in the 2005 and 2010 period and had gotten to know [former DWR director] Lester Snow pretty well, and a couple of engineers. They're not really what I would call the evil empire.\"\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But Bea says it's clear to him that the agency and other oversight bodies, such as the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission, are using standards that don't account for the deterioration of infrastructure over time or outdated technology. He points to the fact that the Bureau of Reclamation's current standard for spillway construction calls for 36 to 42 inches of concrete and other measures to reduce the destructive effects of high water flows.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\"Much as I learned from working on Katrina,\" Bea said, \"DWR, FERC and our state regulatory system are using guidelines and standards that may have been appropriate for the 1960s, and were appropriate for the design and initial construction, but not appropriate for a 50-year-old system that's experienced aging and technological obsolescence. We're using the wrong standards to requalify these aged infrastructure systems.\"\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Bea's analysis of the failure comes as DWR rushes forward with plans to rebuild the spillway. The department announced Monday night that it had awarded a $275 million contract for the project to Kiewit Infrastructure West, the Northern California branch of an Omaha-based construction conglomerate.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>DWR says it estimates the project's cost at $231 million. Kiewit's was the lowest of three bids, which ranged up to $344 million.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad floatright]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The department says preparatory work will begin immediately. Acting Director Bill Croyle said as recently as last Thursday that it's still working to determine the project's scope and final design.\u003c/p>\n\n",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003cp>An independent analysis of the spillway failure at Oroville Dam concludes that extensive sections of the concrete structure disintegrated due to a series of design, construction and maintenance flaws stretching back more than half a century.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The \u003ca href=\"https://www.documentcloud.org/documents/3673031-OrovilleSpillway-RootCauseAnalysis.html\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">root-cause analysis\u003c/a>, by Robert Bea, a retired professor of civil engineering at UC Berkeley and co-founder of the university's \u003ca href=\"http://ccrm.berkeley.edu/\">Center for Catastrophic Risk Management\u003c/a>, contends that \"the gated spillway failures are deeply rooted in pervasive design defects and flaws developed by the California Department of Water Resources\" -- the agency that built the dam in the 1960s and now owns it.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Bea has been called on \u003ca href=\"http://www.mensjournal.com/magazine/bob-bea-the-master-of-disaster-20130225\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">to investigate\u003c/a> high-profile engineering failures, including the loss of the space shuttle Columbia, the levee failure in New Orleans after Hurricane Katrina and the Deepwater Horizon oil-rig disaster in the Gulf of Mexico.\u003cbr>\n\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003cbr>\nIn a report for the UC Berkeley center circulated Monday, Bea contends that \"the gated spillway failures are deeply rooted in pervasive design defects and flaws developed by the California Department of Water Resources.\"\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Those defects include slabs that were much too thin -- an estimated 4 to 6 inches in critical spots -- and lacking in the reinforcement and anchoring they needed to withstand the destructive power of repeated water releases.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>DWR compounded those initial flaws, Bea's report says, by failing to ensure that the giant concrete chute was built on \u003ca href=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/science/2017/04/07/how-incompetent-rock-led-to-the-oroville-dam-crisis/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">competent rock\u003c/a>. Contractors also used \"native soils\" -- mostly clay -- to grade sections of the spillway foundation, allowing extensive erosion and displacement of gravel intended to support a crucial drainage system, Bea concludes.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The spillway's built-in problems led to extensive cracking of its concrete surface and openings in the joints between adjacent slabs of concrete. Bea says repeated repairs to the concrete were ineffective in preventing large volumes of water from getting under the concrete and further eroding the surface below.\u003c/p>\n\u003caside class=\"pullquote alignright\">'The gated spillway failures are deeply rooted in pervasive design defects and flaws developed by the California Department of Water Resources.'\u003ccite>Professor Robert Bea\u003c/cite>\u003c/aside>\n\u003cp>Bea also faults DWR for allowing large trees to grow adjacent to the spillway walls. Their roots could block pipes meant to drain water from beneath the concrete.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The dam is the key facility of the State Water Project, which conveys agricultural and urban water supplies from the massive reservoir of Lake Oroville to farms in the San Joaquin Valley and agencies serving 26 million people in the San Francisco Bay Area and Southern California.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The Department of Water Resources had no immediate response to a request for comment on Bea's analysis. In past statements, the agency has said the Oroville spillway met the design and construction standards in place during the 1960s and that repeated inspections found it to be well-maintained and approved for continued use.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Bea's analysis challenges both of those DWR assertions. He concludes \"the wrong standards and guidelines are being used to requalify many critical infrastructure systems for continued service.\"\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Spillway Breach Led to February Crisis\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The dam became the focus of worldwide attention in early February when a large breach appeared in its main spillway just as a surge of storm runoff flowed into Lake Oroville, the state's second-largest reservoir.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>With spillway releases reduced, a rapid rise in the lake sent water flowing over an untested emergency spillway. Severe erosion on the slope beneath that massive overflow structure prompted fears that it would collapse, triggering evacuation orders affecting about 180,000 people from communities along the Feather River.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>As that near-catastrophe unfolded, Bea said in interviews, he began assembling materials to try to explain it. He says the Department of Water Resources rebuffed a request for original design documents of the spillway and adjacent emergency weir.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>DWR representatives told him that agency guidelines barred the release of information on critical infrastructure systems -- data protected by a post-9/11 law designed to prevent such resources from falling into the hands of potential attackers.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\"They looked at me and smiled and said, 'You might be a terrorist,' \" Bea recalls.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Bea then assembled on his own a collection of publicly available information -- including partial design information released by DWR in the 1960s and '70s, a selection of the department's dam inspection reports, and photographs from the agency, media sources and even Google Earth -- to try to analyze the causes of the spillway failure.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>While acknowledging that he was working with what he called \"incomplete information,\" Bea says the materials pointed to the defects he outlined in his analysis.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>A Drainage System and Thin Concrete\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>One of the crucial flaws in the construction, Bea says, concerns the complex drainage system installed beneath the slab.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The system consists of a network of clay pipes with an inside diameter of 6 inches and outside diameter ranging from about 8 inches to 10.5 inches at their connecting ends. The pipes are laid out in a herringbone pattern beneath the concrete. They are designed to collect water that seeps through cracks in the slab and route it to drains in the spillway's sidewalls.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Bea says that since the slab is generally just 15 inches thick, the concrete over the drain pipes is much thinner -- between 4 and 6 inches thick, or about the same as a standard sidewalk.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The thinness of the concrete over the pipes showed up as cracks on the surface of the spillway -- a fact Bea says was noted after extensive repairs to the concrete were performed in 2009.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\"The concrete along the spillway chute has been repaired,\" a dam inspector wrote in June 2010. \"The repaired herringbone crack pattern is said to reflect the underlying drain system.\"\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Agency Consultants Share Similar Concerns\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In some respects Bea's conclusions echo concerns raised in \u003ca href=\"https://www.documentcloud.org/documents/3523667-20170317-5113-32037979.html\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">a report last month\u003c/a> by a board of engineering consultants DWR retained, at the direction of federal regulators, to oversee the agency's plans for rebuilding the spillway.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The board expressed concern about the structure's repair history. Members noted that the slab was just 12 inches thick and thinner in some areas -- much thinner than current design standards -- and had been cut open repeatedly in the past to fill voids that had opened beneath the spillway. The engineers also noted that compacted clay had been used to fill spaces that have opened under the slab.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The use of the clay \"calls into question whether the portions of the slab that appear undamaged by the failure should be replaced during the restoration,\" the board wrote.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The consultants also observed that a drainage system installed beneath the spillway slab was discharging \"extraordinarily large\" amounts of water even days after flows were halted down the concrete chute.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\"It seems likely that piping [erosion] of foundation material beneath the chute slab may be responsible for the voids that have been found and repaired in the past,\" the consultants' report said. The board called for an investigation of that possibility, a task that will likely be taken up by a separate panel appointed to conduct a forensic investigation of the spillway failure.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>DWR says the forensic panel, which was also created at the direction of federal overseers, began reviewing documents late last month and visited the spillway for the first time last week. There is no timeline yet for its report on the causes of the structure's failure, though it has been asked to submit preliminary conclusions to the spillway replacement design team by the end of the first week of May.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>'A Regulated Failure'\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Bea calls the breach and destruction of the spillway \"a regulated failure.\"\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\"The regulatory processes are not sufficient to put a check and balance into the system to say, 'Hey, what a minute, what you're thinking here about design is not appropriate,' or 'What you're concluding from your inspection and repair operations is not appropriate,' \" he said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Why deficiencies in the spillway were allowed to occur and grow into a crisis, a process that took more than five decades, is an issue he says he's still wrestling with.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\"It's obvious these things were accumulating and persisting. Why?\" Bea says he asked himself.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\"I looked back on my previous experience with our Department of Water Resources,\" Bea says. \"I worked with them back in the 2005 and 2010 period and had gotten to know [former DWR director] Lester Snow pretty well, and a couple of engineers. They're not really what I would call the evil empire.\"\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But Bea says it's clear to him that the agency and other oversight bodies, such as the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission, are using standards that don't account for the deterioration of infrastructure over time or outdated technology. He points to the fact that the Bureau of Reclamation's current standard for spillway construction calls for 36 to 42 inches of concrete and other measures to reduce the destructive effects of high water flows.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\"Much as I learned from working on Katrina,\" Bea said, \"DWR, FERC and our state regulatory system are using guidelines and standards that may have been appropriate for the 1960s, and were appropriate for the design and initial construction, but not appropriate for a 50-year-old system that's experienced aging and technological obsolescence. We're using the wrong standards to requalify these aged infrastructure systems.\"\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Bea's analysis of the failure comes as DWR rushes forward with plans to rebuild the spillway. The department announced Monday night that it had awarded a $275 million contract for the project to Kiewit Infrastructure West, the Northern California branch of an Omaha-based construction conglomerate.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>DWR says it estimates the project's cost at $231 million. Kiewit's was the lowest of three bids, which ranged up to $344 million.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The department says preparatory work will begin immediately. Acting Director Bill Croyle said as recently as last Thursday that it's still working to determine the project's scope and final design.\u003c/p>\n\n\u003c/div>\u003c/p>",
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"disqusTitle": "From Moonscape to Lush: Photographs Capture California Drought's Story",
"title": "From Moonscape to Lush: Photographs Capture California Drought's Story",
"headTitle": "The California Report | KQED News",
"content": "\u003cp>In California, an extremely wet winter put an end to the state's record-breaking drought. Heavy rainfall also produced welcome spring scenes — like replenished reservoirs and fields in bloom.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\"It's a completely different look,\" says Justin Sullivan, a Getty Images photographer who took before-and-after photos of drought-stricken areas. \"It's just like a velvety green, lush landscape now — compared to just dry, brown, almost like a moonscape before.\"\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Sullivan's photos show how one of the wettest winters on record is bringing the land back to life. In early 2014, Sullivan documented the drought at its worst. He shot photos from a helicopter above reservoirs like Lake Oroville.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\"It's a little surprising to see the recessed water in reservoirs that reveals banks that are 50, 60, 100 feet tall,\" he says on NPR's \u003cem>Morning Edition\u003c/em>. \"They look like little mini-mountains and then a little river running through them.\"\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_11415029\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 1920px\">\u003ca href=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/news/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2017/04/justin-sulivan-composite-02_custom-420c71c9f3efcd396c6337e12577eb946f2875a9-e1492541174471.jpg\">\u003cimg class=\"wp-image-11415029 size-full\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/news/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2017/04/justin-sulivan-composite-02_custom-420c71c9f3efcd396c6337e12577eb946f2875a9-e1492541174471.jpg\" alt=\"The Enterprise Bridge in Oroville, during severe drought in 2014 (left) and this April, during the week that the majority of the state's drought emergency is due to be lifted.\" width=\"1920\" height=\"641\">\u003c/a>\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">The Enterprise Bridge in Oroville, during severe drought in 2014 (left) and this April, during the week that the majority of the state's drought emergency is due to be lifted. \u003ccite>(Justin Sullivan/Getty Images)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Fast forward to this spring.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad fullwidth]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Earlier this month, California Gov. Jerry Brown declared an end to the state's drought emergency. Now, many of those desolate landscapes Sullivan captured look completely different. So he went back and tried to re-create the same shots.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_11415030\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 1920px\">\u003ca href=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/news/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2017/04/justin-sullivan-composite-01_custom-6563d6bc6deaf1ac10eb3e978ef24d51ea6e63ca-e1492541378673.jpg\">\u003cimg class=\"wp-image-11415030 size-full\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/news/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2017/04/justin-sullivan-composite-01_custom-6563d6bc6deaf1ac10eb3e978ef24d51ea6e63ca-e1492541378673.jpg\" alt=\"A dog walker on a dried section of Bernal Heights Park in 2014 in San Francisco (left). When Sullivan returned to the hillside this year, he was able to snap a photo of a woman walking her dog in almost the exact same spot.\" width=\"1920\" height=\"637\">\u003c/a>\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">A dog walker on a dried section of Bernal Heights Park in 2014 in San Francisco (left). When Sullivan returned to the hillside this year, he was able to snap a photo of a woman walking her dog in almost the exact same spot. \u003ccite>(Justin Sullivan/Getty Images)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>\"We just wanted to show the contrast,\" he says, adding that it was a tricky assignment. \"Obviously, landscapes change over the course of three years. Trees grow bigger. So it was difficult to just remember in your mind exactly what lens you used and how you approached it.\"\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Sullivan downloaded the 2014 images onto his iPad and brought it with him when he shot the \"after\" photos. In trying to re-create the exact same frame, Sullivan had some luck on his side.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c!-- iframe plugin v.4.3 wordpress.org/plugins/iframe/ -->\u003cbr>\n\u003ciframe src=\"https://www.npr.org/player/embed/523969466/524301409\" width=\"100%\" height=\"290\" frameborder=\"0\" scrolling=\"no\" title=\"NPR embedded audio player\" class=\"iframe-class\">\u003c/iframe>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In one side-by-side set of photos, the 2014 version shows a man walking his dog. The man is surrounded by dead grass, with the San Francisco skyline in the background. When Sullivan returned to the (now green, grassy) hillside this year, he was able to snap a photo of a woman walking another dog in almost the exact same spot.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\"Sometimes they just work out perfectly,\" he says.\u003c/p>\n\u003cdiv class=\"fullattribution\">Copyright 2017 NPR. To see more, visit http://www.npr.org/.\u003cimg src=\"https://www.google-analytics.com/__utm.gif?utmac=UA-5828686-4&utmdt=From+Moonscape+To+Lush%3A+Photographs+Capture+California+Drought%27s+Story&utme=8(APIKey)9(MDAxOTAwOTE4MDEyMTkxMDAzNjczZDljZA004)\">\u003c/div>\n\n",
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"excerpt": "Getty Images photographer Justin Sullivan's 'before-and-after' images show how California's wet winter has swelled formerly dry reservoirs and turned brown landscapes green.",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003cp>In California, an extremely wet winter put an end to the state's record-breaking drought. Heavy rainfall also produced welcome spring scenes — like replenished reservoirs and fields in bloom.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\"It's a completely different look,\" says Justin Sullivan, a Getty Images photographer who took before-and-after photos of drought-stricken areas. \"It's just like a velvety green, lush landscape now — compared to just dry, brown, almost like a moonscape before.\"\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Sullivan's photos show how one of the wettest winters on record is bringing the land back to life. In early 2014, Sullivan documented the drought at its worst. He shot photos from a helicopter above reservoirs like Lake Oroville.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\"It's a little surprising to see the recessed water in reservoirs that reveals banks that are 50, 60, 100 feet tall,\" he says on NPR's \u003cem>Morning Edition\u003c/em>. \"They look like little mini-mountains and then a little river running through them.\"\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_11415029\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 1920px\">\u003ca href=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/news/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2017/04/justin-sulivan-composite-02_custom-420c71c9f3efcd396c6337e12577eb946f2875a9-e1492541174471.jpg\">\u003cimg class=\"wp-image-11415029 size-full\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/news/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2017/04/justin-sulivan-composite-02_custom-420c71c9f3efcd396c6337e12577eb946f2875a9-e1492541174471.jpg\" alt=\"The Enterprise Bridge in Oroville, during severe drought in 2014 (left) and this April, during the week that the majority of the state's drought emergency is due to be lifted.\" width=\"1920\" height=\"641\">\u003c/a>\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">The Enterprise Bridge in Oroville, during severe drought in 2014 (left) and this April, during the week that the majority of the state's drought emergency is due to be lifted. \u003ccite>(Justin Sullivan/Getty Images)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Fast forward to this spring.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Earlier this month, California Gov. Jerry Brown declared an end to the state's drought emergency. Now, many of those desolate landscapes Sullivan captured look completely different. So he went back and tried to re-create the same shots.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_11415030\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 1920px\">\u003ca href=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/news/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2017/04/justin-sullivan-composite-01_custom-6563d6bc6deaf1ac10eb3e978ef24d51ea6e63ca-e1492541378673.jpg\">\u003cimg class=\"wp-image-11415030 size-full\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/news/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2017/04/justin-sullivan-composite-01_custom-6563d6bc6deaf1ac10eb3e978ef24d51ea6e63ca-e1492541378673.jpg\" alt=\"A dog walker on a dried section of Bernal Heights Park in 2014 in San Francisco (left). When Sullivan returned to the hillside this year, he was able to snap a photo of a woman walking her dog in almost the exact same spot.\" width=\"1920\" height=\"637\">\u003c/a>\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">A dog walker on a dried section of Bernal Heights Park in 2014 in San Francisco (left). When Sullivan returned to the hillside this year, he was able to snap a photo of a woman walking her dog in almost the exact same spot. \u003ccite>(Justin Sullivan/Getty Images)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>\"We just wanted to show the contrast,\" he says, adding that it was a tricky assignment. \"Obviously, landscapes change over the course of three years. Trees grow bigger. So it was difficult to just remember in your mind exactly what lens you used and how you approached it.\"\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Sullivan downloaded the 2014 images onto his iPad and brought it with him when he shot the \"after\" photos. In trying to re-create the exact same frame, Sullivan had some luck on his side.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c!-- iframe plugin v.4.3 wordpress.org/plugins/iframe/ -->\u003cbr>\n\u003ciframe src=\"https://www.npr.org/player/embed/523969466/524301409\" width=\"100%\" height=\"290\" frameborder=\"0\" scrolling=\"no\" title=\"NPR embedded audio player\" class=\"iframe-class\">\u003c/iframe>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In one side-by-side set of photos, the 2014 version shows a man walking his dog. The man is surrounded by dead grass, with the San Francisco skyline in the background. When Sullivan returned to the (now green, grassy) hillside this year, he was able to snap a photo of a woman walking another dog in almost the exact same spot.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\"Sometimes they just work out perfectly,\" he says.\u003c/p>\n\u003cdiv class=\"fullattribution\">Copyright 2017 NPR. To see more, visit http://www.npr.org/.\u003cimg src=\"https://www.google-analytics.com/__utm.gif?utmac=UA-5828686-4&utmdt=From+Moonscape+To+Lush%3A+Photographs+Capture+California+Drought%27s+Story&utme=8(APIKey)9(MDAxOTAwOTE4MDEyMTkxMDAzNjczZDljZA004)\">\u003c/div>\n\n\u003c/div>\u003c/p>",
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"disqusTitle": "Widow of Bulldozer Operator Killed in Soberanes Fire Struggles to Get By",
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"content": "\u003cp>Morgan Kemple heard a knock on her door at 4:30 in the morning on July 27, 2016. She was concerned that her daughters, ages 2 and 5, would wake up. She went to the door and saw several Cal Fire officials outside. They asked to come in.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Days earlier her husband, 35-year-old Robert Reagan, pulled out of the driveway from their home in Friant, Fresno County, and headed off to help battle a massive blaze burning in Monterey County, which would become the costliest fire in U.S. history.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[audio src=\"http://www.kqed.org/.stream/anon/radio/RDnews/2017/04/goldberg20170418.mp3\" title=\"Widow of Bulldozer Operator Killed in Soberanes Fire Struggles to Get By\" program=\"KQED News\" image=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/news/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2016/08/Screenshot-2016-08-05-09.33.35.png\"]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\"They told me there was an accident and that Robert wasn't OK,\" Kemple said in an interview with KQED. \"I immediately went to, 'Let's go, I'll get the kids right now.' They said, 'No, he's dead.' \"\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Reagan was working as a bulldozer driver for a private company that was contracted to help battle what became known as the Soberanes Fire. During massive fires, the U.S. Forest Service and Cal Fire rely heavily on hundreds of private contractors to supply heavy equipment and the people to operate them.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad fullwidth]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[contextly_sidebar id=\"AU6NhmwSdu1KEGArzo8KjL1oGjslRBjZ\"]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The bulldozer Reagan was driving tipped over on a steep embankment in the middle of the night and pinned him to the ground.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In the moments after learning of her husband's death, Kemple was given few details about the accident.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\"They told me that the bulldozer had rolled. They said they didn't have all the details,\" Kemple said. \"It was probably midday when I learned that he was trapped underneath the dozer.\"\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Family Lost a Husband, Father and Breadwinner\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The tragedy came just over 12 years after Kemple and Reagan met. She remembers the very night it happened at a bar with her friends.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\"I walked up and introduced myself, and the next thing I know he bought me a drink and he was singing karaoke to me and we were dancing and having a good time. And we were inseparable from that point on,\" Kemple said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_11042174\" class=\"wp-caption alignright\" style=\"max-width: 800px\">\u003cimg class=\"size-medium wp-image-11042174\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/news/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2016/08/Screenshot-2016-08-05-09.33.35-800x449.png\" alt=\"Robert Reagan, 35, of Fresno County, died July 26, 2016, when his bulldozer overturned while trying to access a proposed fire line near Big Sur. \" width=\"800\" height=\"449\" srcset=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2016/08/Screenshot-2016-08-05-09.33.35-800x449.png 800w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2016/08/Screenshot-2016-08-05-09.33.35-400x225.png 400w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2016/08/Screenshot-2016-08-05-09.33.35.png 935w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 800px) 100vw, 800px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Robert Reagan, 35, of Fresno County, died July 26, 2016, when his bulldozer overturned while trying to access a proposed fire line near Big Sur. \u003ccite>(Cal Fire)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>He was working as a truck driver when he met Kemple. Later, she would help him run a trucking company that he owned.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>About 10 years ago one of Reagan's friends convinced him to help work a wildfire, Kemple said. Every season after that, he would take jobs operating heavy equipment like bulldozers and water trucks, traveling to different parts of the state each time.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>When he was in the field, the couple would text if he had good cellphone reception so she knew he was OK. But large wildfires often take place in remote areas and with no connections, so she would have to wait to be in touch.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Accident Prompts Several Probes\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The incident marked the first bulldozer operator fatality in a California wildfire in nearly nine years. State fire officials say it was the first time a private \"vendor\" was killed in a Cal Fire incident.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Since the accident, three state agencies opened investigations into the incident and the company that hired Reagan, Czirban Concrete Construction.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Cal Fire's preliminary review found that Reagan was not wearing a seat belt.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The California Division of Occupational Safety and Health (Cal/OSHA) fined Czirban and Cal Fire and confirmed that the concrete construction company did not have workers' compensation coverage.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>That oversight and other state violations prompted the Contractors State License Board to try to bar Czirban from working in California again and it led to an investigation by prosecutors in Monterey County.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_11413609\" class=\"wp-caption alignright\" style=\"max-width: 800px\">\u003cimg class=\"wp-image-11413609 size-medium\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/news/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2017/04/reagan-family-photo-800x1001.jpg\" alt=\"Morgan Kemple and Robert Reagan with their two daughters. Reagan was killed on July 26, 2016 when his bulldozer toppled down a hill and pinned him underneath. This photo was posted to a GoFundMe page on behalf of Morgan Kemple.\" width=\"800\" height=\"1001\" srcset=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2017/04/reagan-family-photo-800x1001.jpg 800w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2017/04/reagan-family-photo-160x200.jpg 160w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2017/04/reagan-family-photo-1020x1276.jpg 1020w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2017/04/reagan-family-photo-1180x1476.jpg 1180w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2017/04/reagan-family-photo-960x1201.jpg 960w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2017/04/reagan-family-photo-240x300.jpg 240w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2017/04/reagan-family-photo-375x469.jpg 375w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2017/04/reagan-family-photo-520x651.jpg 520w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2017/04/reagan-family-photo.jpg 1637w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 800px) 100vw, 800px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Morgan Kemple and Robert Reagan with their two daughters. \u003ccite>(Courtesy of Morgan Kemple)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>On Friday, the Monterey County District Attorney's Office \u003ca href=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/news/2017/04/17/prosecutors-file-criminal-charges-against-employer-of-private-contractor-killed-in-massive-big-sur-wildfire/\" target=\"_blank\">filed seven criminal charges against Czirban\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The fact that Reagan's employer did not have workers' compensation insurance has made it tough for Kemple and her two daughters to collect money from his death. The family has applied for Social Security survivors' benefits.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But what's helped the most has been an \u003ca href=\"https://www.gofundme.com/2gtqxkxv\" target=\"_blank\">online fundraising effort\u003c/a> set up in the days after Reagan died. Its initial goal was to raise $16,000 but it's collected over $137,000.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Kemple says she uses the money to pay bills, to buy the dresses her daughters wore at Reagan's service and for attorney fees.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>She and her two kids have filed a wrongful death lawsuit against Cal Fire, which is not commenting on the case.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>A few of the agency's officials who were in touch with her initially after Reagan's death stopped communicating with her after the suit was filed.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Kemple says private contractors like her late husband who handle large equipment in dangerous situations should have more protection in the future.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\"There should be something set in place. You never know what's going to happen. They weren't supervising their workman's comp policies. There was no safeguards,\" she said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\"He was devoted to me and these kids. Everything he did was for us.\"\u003c/p>\n\n",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The bulldozer Reagan was driving tipped over on a steep embankment in the middle of the night and pinned him to the ground.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In the moments after learning of her husband's death, Kemple was given few details about the accident.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\"They told me that the bulldozer had rolled. They said they didn't have all the details,\" Kemple said. \"It was probably midday when I learned that he was trapped underneath the dozer.\"\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Family Lost a Husband, Father and Breadwinner\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The tragedy came just over 12 years after Kemple and Reagan met. She remembers the very night it happened at a bar with her friends.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\"I walked up and introduced myself, and the next thing I know he bought me a drink and he was singing karaoke to me and we were dancing and having a good time. And we were inseparable from that point on,\" Kemple said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_11042174\" class=\"wp-caption alignright\" style=\"max-width: 800px\">\u003cimg class=\"size-medium wp-image-11042174\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/news/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2016/08/Screenshot-2016-08-05-09.33.35-800x449.png\" alt=\"Robert Reagan, 35, of Fresno County, died July 26, 2016, when his bulldozer overturned while trying to access a proposed fire line near Big Sur. \" width=\"800\" height=\"449\" srcset=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2016/08/Screenshot-2016-08-05-09.33.35-800x449.png 800w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2016/08/Screenshot-2016-08-05-09.33.35-400x225.png 400w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2016/08/Screenshot-2016-08-05-09.33.35.png 935w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 800px) 100vw, 800px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Robert Reagan, 35, of Fresno County, died July 26, 2016, when his bulldozer overturned while trying to access a proposed fire line near Big Sur. \u003ccite>(Cal Fire)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>He was working as a truck driver when he met Kemple. Later, she would help him run a trucking company that he owned.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>About 10 years ago one of Reagan's friends convinced him to help work a wildfire, Kemple said. Every season after that, he would take jobs operating heavy equipment like bulldozers and water trucks, traveling to different parts of the state each time.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>When he was in the field, the couple would text if he had good cellphone reception so she knew he was OK. But large wildfires often take place in remote areas and with no connections, so she would have to wait to be in touch.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Accident Prompts Several Probes\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The incident marked the first bulldozer operator fatality in a California wildfire in nearly nine years. State fire officials say it was the first time a private \"vendor\" was killed in a Cal Fire incident.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Since the accident, three state agencies opened investigations into the incident and the company that hired Reagan, Czirban Concrete Construction.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Cal Fire's preliminary review found that Reagan was not wearing a seat belt.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The California Division of Occupational Safety and Health (Cal/OSHA) fined Czirban and Cal Fire and confirmed that the concrete construction company did not have workers' compensation coverage.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>That oversight and other state violations prompted the Contractors State License Board to try to bar Czirban from working in California again and it led to an investigation by prosecutors in Monterey County.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_11413609\" class=\"wp-caption alignright\" style=\"max-width: 800px\">\u003cimg class=\"wp-image-11413609 size-medium\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/news/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2017/04/reagan-family-photo-800x1001.jpg\" alt=\"Morgan Kemple and Robert Reagan with their two daughters. Reagan was killed on July 26, 2016 when his bulldozer toppled down a hill and pinned him underneath. This photo was posted to a GoFundMe page on behalf of Morgan Kemple.\" width=\"800\" height=\"1001\" srcset=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2017/04/reagan-family-photo-800x1001.jpg 800w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2017/04/reagan-family-photo-160x200.jpg 160w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2017/04/reagan-family-photo-1020x1276.jpg 1020w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2017/04/reagan-family-photo-1180x1476.jpg 1180w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2017/04/reagan-family-photo-960x1201.jpg 960w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2017/04/reagan-family-photo-240x300.jpg 240w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2017/04/reagan-family-photo-375x469.jpg 375w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2017/04/reagan-family-photo-520x651.jpg 520w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2017/04/reagan-family-photo.jpg 1637w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 800px) 100vw, 800px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Morgan Kemple and Robert Reagan with their two daughters. \u003ccite>(Courtesy of Morgan Kemple)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>On Friday, the Monterey County District Attorney's Office \u003ca href=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/news/2017/04/17/prosecutors-file-criminal-charges-against-employer-of-private-contractor-killed-in-massive-big-sur-wildfire/\" target=\"_blank\">filed seven criminal charges against Czirban\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The fact that Reagan's employer did not have workers' compensation insurance has made it tough for Kemple and her two daughters to collect money from his death. The family has applied for Social Security survivors' benefits.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But what's helped the most has been an \u003ca href=\"https://www.gofundme.com/2gtqxkxv\" target=\"_blank\">online fundraising effort\u003c/a> set up in the days after Reagan died. Its initial goal was to raise $16,000 but it's collected over $137,000.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Kemple says she uses the money to pay bills, to buy the dresses her daughters wore at Reagan's service and for attorney fees.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>She and her two kids have filed a wrongful death lawsuit against Cal Fire, which is not commenting on the case.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>A few of the agency's officials who were in touch with her initially after Reagan's death stopped communicating with her after the suit was filed.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Kemple says private contractors like her late husband who handle large equipment in dangerous situations should have more protection in the future.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\"There should be something set in place. You never know what's going to happen. They weren't supervising their workman's comp policies. There was no safeguards,\" she said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\"He was devoted to me and these kids. Everything he did was for us.\"\u003c/p>\n\n\u003c/div>\u003c/p>",
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"disqusTitle": "Researchers Find a New Way to Make Water From Thin Air",
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"content": "\u003cp>Researchers have come up with a new way to extract water from thin air. Literally.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>This isn't the first technology that can turn water vapor in the atmosphere into liquid water that people can drink, but researchers from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and UC Berkeley say their approach uses less power and works in drier environments.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The new approach makes use of a substance called a \u003ca href=\"http://science.sciencemag.org/content/341/6149/1230444\">MOF\u003c/a>, a metal-organic framework. As the name suggests, these are materials made of metals mixed with organic compounds. Powders made from MOFs are very porous, so researchers have proposed using them to store hydrogen or methane fuels or to capture carbon dioxide.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>MIT's \u003ca href=\"http://meche.mit.edu/people/faculty/enwang@mit.edu\">Evelyn Wang\u003c/a> and her Berkeley colleague \u003ca href=\"http://yaghi.berkeley.edu/\">Omar Yaghi\u003c/a> decided to try using MOFs to capture water. MOF powders can not only suck up liquid water, they can also absorb water vapor.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>And there's plenty of water vapor in the atmosphere. Even in the driest place on the planet there are tons of water molecules floating overhead.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad fullwidth]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The researchers built a small prototype water collector that contains a thin layer of MOF powder. The powder absorbs water vapor until it is saturated.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\"Once you achieve that maximum amount,\" Wang says, \"you apply some type of heat to the system to release that water.\"\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>And when the water is released, it collects in the bottom of the prototype.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>There are other compounds that can suck water from the air, \u003ca href=\"https://minerals.usgs.gov/minerals/pubs/commodity/zeolites/\">zeolites\u003c/a> for example, but Wang says it takes a significant amount of energy to get these materials to release the water. Not so with a MOF device. \"The amount of energy required is very low,\" she says.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In the prototype, the heat needed to drive the water out of the MOF comes from ambient sunlight — no external power supply is needed.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_11408634\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 800px\">\u003cimg class=\"size-medium wp-image-11408634\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/news/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2017/04/Atacama-800x533.jpg\" alt=\"Even in Chile's Atacama Desert, the driest place on Earth, there are water molecules floating overhead.\" width=\"800\" height=\"533\" srcset=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2017/04/Atacama-800x533.jpg 800w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2017/04/Atacama-160x107.jpg 160w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2017/04/Atacama-1020x679.jpg 1020w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2017/04/Atacama.jpg 1920w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2017/04/Atacama-1180x785.jpg 1180w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2017/04/Atacama-960x639.jpg 960w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2017/04/Atacama-240x160.jpg 240w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2017/04/Atacama-375x250.jpg 375w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2017/04/Atacama-520x346.jpg 520w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 800px) 100vw, 800px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Even in Chile's Atacama Desert, the driest place on Earth, there are water molecules floating overhead. \u003ccite>(MARTIN BERNETTI/AFP/Getty Images)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>As they report \u003ca href=\"http://science.sciencemag.org/content/early/2017/04/12/science.aam8743\">in the journal Science\u003c/a>\u003cem>,\u003c/em> Wang and her colleagues tested the prototype of their MOF-based device on the roof of a building at MIT, and it worked great.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But it's just a prototype. It used only a fraction of an ounce of the MOF powder. \"So the amount of water that we've shown is also pretty small,\" says Wang.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>According to Wang's calculations, a full-size system using about 2 pounds of MOF powder could deliver close to three quarts of water per day.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>And she expects scaling up the prototype won't be all that expensive. Although MOFs are a relatively new material, \"there are companies that already make various MOFS at very large bulk scales,\" she says.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>There are many steps before a mass-produced MOF-based water collector becomes a reality. It hasn't been shown, for example, that the water released by the MOF powder is free of contaminants.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But it's conceivable that someday if you're visiting Death Valley, one of the driest places in the United States, you'll be able to wet your whistle with a device based on Wang and Yaghi's concept.\u003c/p>\n\u003cdiv class=\"fullattribution\">Copyright 2017 NPR. To see more, visit http://www.npr.org/.\u003cimg src=\"https://www.google-analytics.com/__utm.gif?utmac=UA-5828686-4&utmdt=Researchers+Find+A+New+Way+To+Make+Water+From+Thin+Air&utme=8(APIKey)9(MDAxOTAwOTE4MDEyMTkxMDAzNjczZDljZA004)\">\u003c/div>\n\n",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003cp>Researchers have come up with a new way to extract water from thin air. Literally.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>This isn't the first technology that can turn water vapor in the atmosphere into liquid water that people can drink, but researchers from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and UC Berkeley say their approach uses less power and works in drier environments.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The new approach makes use of a substance called a \u003ca href=\"http://science.sciencemag.org/content/341/6149/1230444\">MOF\u003c/a>, a metal-organic framework. As the name suggests, these are materials made of metals mixed with organic compounds. Powders made from MOFs are very porous, so researchers have proposed using them to store hydrogen or methane fuels or to capture carbon dioxide.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>MIT's \u003ca href=\"http://meche.mit.edu/people/faculty/enwang@mit.edu\">Evelyn Wang\u003c/a> and her Berkeley colleague \u003ca href=\"http://yaghi.berkeley.edu/\">Omar Yaghi\u003c/a> decided to try using MOFs to capture water. MOF powders can not only suck up liquid water, they can also absorb water vapor.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>And there's plenty of water vapor in the atmosphere. Even in the driest place on the planet there are tons of water molecules floating overhead.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The researchers built a small prototype water collector that contains a thin layer of MOF powder. The powder absorbs water vapor until it is saturated.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\"Once you achieve that maximum amount,\" Wang says, \"you apply some type of heat to the system to release that water.\"\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>And when the water is released, it collects in the bottom of the prototype.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>There are other compounds that can suck water from the air, \u003ca href=\"https://minerals.usgs.gov/minerals/pubs/commodity/zeolites/\">zeolites\u003c/a> for example, but Wang says it takes a significant amount of energy to get these materials to release the water. Not so with a MOF device. \"The amount of energy required is very low,\" she says.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In the prototype, the heat needed to drive the water out of the MOF comes from ambient sunlight — no external power supply is needed.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_11408634\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 800px\">\u003cimg class=\"size-medium wp-image-11408634\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/news/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2017/04/Atacama-800x533.jpg\" alt=\"Even in Chile's Atacama Desert, the driest place on Earth, there are water molecules floating overhead.\" width=\"800\" height=\"533\" srcset=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2017/04/Atacama-800x533.jpg 800w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2017/04/Atacama-160x107.jpg 160w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2017/04/Atacama-1020x679.jpg 1020w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2017/04/Atacama.jpg 1920w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2017/04/Atacama-1180x785.jpg 1180w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2017/04/Atacama-960x639.jpg 960w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2017/04/Atacama-240x160.jpg 240w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2017/04/Atacama-375x250.jpg 375w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2017/04/Atacama-520x346.jpg 520w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 800px) 100vw, 800px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Even in Chile's Atacama Desert, the driest place on Earth, there are water molecules floating overhead. \u003ccite>(MARTIN BERNETTI/AFP/Getty Images)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>As they report \u003ca href=\"http://science.sciencemag.org/content/early/2017/04/12/science.aam8743\">in the journal Science\u003c/a>\u003cem>,\u003c/em> Wang and her colleagues tested the prototype of their MOF-based device on the roof of a building at MIT, and it worked great.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But it's just a prototype. It used only a fraction of an ounce of the MOF powder. \"So the amount of water that we've shown is also pretty small,\" says Wang.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>According to Wang's calculations, a full-size system using about 2 pounds of MOF powder could deliver close to three quarts of water per day.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>And she expects scaling up the prototype won't be all that expensive. Although MOFs are a relatively new material, \"there are companies that already make various MOFS at very large bulk scales,\" she says.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>There are many steps before a mass-produced MOF-based water collector becomes a reality. It hasn't been shown, for example, that the water released by the MOF powder is free of contaminants.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But it's conceivable that someday if you're visiting Death Valley, one of the driest places in the United States, you'll be able to wet your whistle with a device based on Wang and Yaghi's concept.\u003c/p>\n\u003cdiv class=\"fullattribution\">Copyright 2017 NPR. To see more, visit http://www.npr.org/.\u003cimg src=\"https://www.google-analytics.com/__utm.gif?utmac=UA-5828686-4&utmdt=Researchers+Find+A+New+Way+To+Make+Water+From+Thin+Air&utme=8(APIKey)9(MDAxOTAwOTE4MDEyMTkxMDAzNjczZDljZA004)\">\u003c/div>\n\n\u003c/div>\u003c/p>",
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"content": "\u003cp>If you’re an inveterate rain watcher, or almost any other kind, you’ve probably \u003ca href=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/news/2017/04/13/northern-sierra-8-station-index-sets-new-record/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">read somewhere\u003c/a> that an important index of Northern California precipitation has set a new record.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The name of that somewhat arcane statistical measurement, a product of the California Department of Water Resources, is the \u003ca href=\"https://cdec.water.ca.gov/cdecapp/precipapp/get8SIPrecipIndex.action\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Northern Sierra Eight-Station Index\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>On Thursday, the index hit an all-time high — 89.7 — exceeding the mark of 88.5 set in the rainy season of 1982-83. On Friday, the index stood at 90.2, and, with more wet weather certain to visit the North State, that number will continue to rise.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>We’ve seen lots of references to the index this season, though no explanation of what it actually represents. Is it a simple mean of the eight stations? Or is there some sort of algebraic voodoo thrown in to flummox D students?\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Doug Carlson, a DWR spokesman, answered the question this way: “Every day, the accumulated precipitation among the stations is totaled up, and then divided by eight.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad fullwidth]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>OK, then: a simple average reflecting the rainfall (and water content of snowfall) at the eight stations for the current water year, which begins on Oct. 1 and runs through Sept. 30.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Next question: What stations are involved and why?\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The eight sites are scattered across the Sacramento, Feather and American river watersheds. They’re generally very, very rainy-snowy spots compared to what we’re used to in most of the Bay Area. Brush Creek, northeast of Oroville, is one of the Feather basin sites. It has recorded a mind-boggling 121 inches of precipitation since last Oct. 1.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The watersheds themselves are tracked because it was recognized when the index was created in 1920 that rainfall they were the sources of an abundant water supply. In later decades, they became the key basins for the federal Central Valley Project and the State Water Project.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Below are the eight sites the Department of Water Resources uses in the Northern Sierra eight-station index. Try as we might to find the exact gauge numbers DWR is using, we have to concede that the numbers below represent only a close approximation of what the agency has produced. In some cases, the official index uses gauges whose readings don’t appear to be online or are not up to date. Individual station data are for April 13, 2017.\u003c/p>\n\u003ctable>\n\u003ctbody>\n\u003ctr>\n\u003cth>Station\u003c/th>\n\u003cth>Basin\u003c/th>\n\u003cth>’16-’17 Precipitation\u003c/th>\n\u003c/tr>\n\u003c/tbody>\n\u003ctfoot>\n\u003ctr>\n\u003ctd>\u003cstrong>April 13, 2017\u003c/strong>\u003c/td>\n\u003ctd>\u003cstrong>Index\u003c/strong>\u003c/td>\n\u003ctd>\u003cstrong>89.7\u003c/strong>\u003c/td>\n\u003c/tr>\n\u003c/tfoot>\n\u003ctbody>\n\u003ctr>\n\u003ctd>\u003ca href=\"http://cdec.water.ca.gov/cdecstation2/?sta=msc\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Mount Shasta City\u003c/a>\u003c/td>\n\u003ctd>Sacramento\u003c/td>\n\u003ctd>56.14\u003c/td>\n\u003c/tr>\n\u003ctr>\n\u003ctd>\u003ca href=\"http://cdec.water.ca.gov/cdecstation2/?sta=sha\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Shasta Dam\u003c/a>\u003c/td>\n\u003ctd>Sacramento\u003c/td>\n\u003ctd>90.14\u003c/td>\n\u003c/tr>\n\u003ctr>\n\u003ctd>\u003ca href=\"http://cdec.water.ca.gov/cdecstation2/?sta=mnr\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Mineral\u003c/a>\u003c/td>\n\u003ctd>Sacramento\u003c/td>\n\u003ctd>92.80\u003c/td>\n\u003c/tr>\n\u003ctr>\n\u003ctd>\u003ca href=\"http://cdec.water.ca.gov/cdecstation2/?sta=qrd\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Quincy\u003c/a>\u003c/td>\n\u003ctd>Feather\u003c/td>\n\u003ctd>73.11\u003c/td>\n\u003c/tr>\n\u003ctr>\n\u003ctd>\u003ca href=\"http://cdec.water.ca.gov/cgi-progs/queryDaily?bcm\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Brush Creek\u003c/a>\u003c/td>\n\u003ctd>Feather\u003c/td>\n\u003ctd>120.97\u003c/td>\n\u003c/tr>\n\u003ctr>\n\u003ctd>\u003ca href=\"http://cdec.water.ca.gov/cdecstation2/?sta=srr\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Sierraville\u003c/a>\u003c/td>\n\u003ctd>Feather\u003c/td>\n\u003ctd>57.63\u003c/td>\n\u003c/tr>\n\u003ctr>\n\u003ctd>\u003ca href=\"http://cdec.water.ca.gov/cdecstation2/?sta=bym\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Blue Canyon\u003c/a>\u003c/td>\n\u003ctd>American\u003c/td>\n\u003ctd>125.60\u003c/td>\n\u003c/tr>\n\u003ctr>\n\u003ctd>\u003ca href=\"http://cdec.water.ca.gov/cdecstation2/?sta=pcf\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Pacific House\u003c/a>\u003c/td>\n\u003ctd>American\u003c/td>\n\u003ctd>101.15\u003c/td>\n\u003c/tr>\n\u003c/tbody>\n\u003c/table>\n\n",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003cp>If you’re an inveterate rain watcher, or almost any other kind, you’ve probably \u003ca href=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/news/2017/04/13/northern-sierra-8-station-index-sets-new-record/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">read somewhere\u003c/a> that an important index of Northern California precipitation has set a new record.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The name of that somewhat arcane statistical measurement, a product of the California Department of Water Resources, is the \u003ca href=\"https://cdec.water.ca.gov/cdecapp/precipapp/get8SIPrecipIndex.action\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Northern Sierra Eight-Station Index\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>On Thursday, the index hit an all-time high — 89.7 — exceeding the mark of 88.5 set in the rainy season of 1982-83. On Friday, the index stood at 90.2, and, with more wet weather certain to visit the North State, that number will continue to rise.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>We’ve seen lots of references to the index this season, though no explanation of what it actually represents. Is it a simple mean of the eight stations? Or is there some sort of algebraic voodoo thrown in to flummox D students?\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Doug Carlson, a DWR spokesman, answered the question this way: “Every day, the accumulated precipitation among the stations is totaled up, and then divided by eight.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>OK, then: a simple average reflecting the rainfall (and water content of snowfall) at the eight stations for the current water year, which begins on Oct. 1 and runs through Sept. 30.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Next question: What stations are involved and why?\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The eight sites are scattered across the Sacramento, Feather and American river watersheds. They’re generally very, very rainy-snowy spots compared to what we’re used to in most of the Bay Area. Brush Creek, northeast of Oroville, is one of the Feather basin sites. It has recorded a mind-boggling 121 inches of precipitation since last Oct. 1.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The watersheds themselves are tracked because it was recognized when the index was created in 1920 that rainfall they were the sources of an abundant water supply. In later decades, they became the key basins for the federal Central Valley Project and the State Water Project.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Below are the eight sites the Department of Water Resources uses in the Northern Sierra eight-station index. Try as we might to find the exact gauge numbers DWR is using, we have to concede that the numbers below represent only a close approximation of what the agency has produced. In some cases, the official index uses gauges whose readings don’t appear to be online or are not up to date. Individual station data are for April 13, 2017.\u003c/p>\n\u003ctable>\n\u003ctbody>\n\u003ctr>\n\u003cth>Station\u003c/th>\n\u003cth>Basin\u003c/th>\n\u003cth>’16-’17 Precipitation\u003c/th>\n\u003c/tr>\n\u003c/tbody>\n\u003ctfoot>\n\u003ctr>\n\u003ctd>\u003cstrong>April 13, 2017\u003c/strong>\u003c/td>\n\u003ctd>\u003cstrong>Index\u003c/strong>\u003c/td>\n\u003ctd>\u003cstrong>89.7\u003c/strong>\u003c/td>\n\u003c/tr>\n\u003c/tfoot>\n\u003ctbody>\n\u003ctr>\n\u003ctd>\u003ca href=\"http://cdec.water.ca.gov/cdecstation2/?sta=msc\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Mount Shasta City\u003c/a>\u003c/td>\n\u003ctd>Sacramento\u003c/td>\n\u003ctd>56.14\u003c/td>\n\u003c/tr>\n\u003ctr>\n\u003ctd>\u003ca href=\"http://cdec.water.ca.gov/cdecstation2/?sta=sha\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Shasta Dam\u003c/a>\u003c/td>\n\u003ctd>Sacramento\u003c/td>\n\u003ctd>90.14\u003c/td>\n\u003c/tr>\n\u003ctr>\n\u003ctd>\u003ca href=\"http://cdec.water.ca.gov/cdecstation2/?sta=mnr\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Mineral\u003c/a>\u003c/td>\n\u003ctd>Sacramento\u003c/td>\n\u003ctd>92.80\u003c/td>\n\u003c/tr>\n\u003ctr>\n\u003ctd>\u003ca href=\"http://cdec.water.ca.gov/cdecstation2/?sta=qrd\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Quincy\u003c/a>\u003c/td>\n\u003ctd>Feather\u003c/td>\n\u003ctd>73.11\u003c/td>\n\u003c/tr>\n\u003ctr>\n\u003ctd>\u003ca href=\"http://cdec.water.ca.gov/cgi-progs/queryDaily?bcm\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Brush Creek\u003c/a>\u003c/td>\n\u003ctd>Feather\u003c/td>\n\u003ctd>120.97\u003c/td>\n\u003c/tr>\n\u003ctr>\n\u003ctd>\u003ca href=\"http://cdec.water.ca.gov/cdecstation2/?sta=srr\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Sierraville\u003c/a>\u003c/td>\n\u003ctd>Feather\u003c/td>\n\u003ctd>57.63\u003c/td>\n\u003c/tr>\n\u003ctr>\n\u003ctd>\u003ca href=\"http://cdec.water.ca.gov/cdecstation2/?sta=bym\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Blue Canyon\u003c/a>\u003c/td>\n\u003ctd>American\u003c/td>\n\u003ctd>125.60\u003c/td>\n\u003c/tr>\n\u003ctr>\n\u003ctd>\u003ca href=\"http://cdec.water.ca.gov/cdecstation2/?sta=pcf\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Pacific House\u003c/a>\u003c/td>\n\u003ctd>American\u003c/td>\n\u003ctd>101.15\u003c/td>\n\u003c/tr>\n\u003c/tbody>\n\u003c/table>\n\n\u003c/div>\u003c/p>",
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"title": "Report: We Can't Stop Sea Level Rise, Only Slow it Down",
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"headTitle": "Report: We Can’t Stop Sea Level Rise, Only Slow it Down | KQED",
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"content": "\u003cp>The sea is rising twice as fast as it did in 1990, and there’s no turning back — humans can only try to slow it down.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>That’s according to \u003ca href=\"http://www.opc.ca.gov/webmaster/ftp/pdf/docs/rising-seas-in-california-an-update-on-sea-level-rise-science.pdf\">a new report\u003c/a> from a team of scientists working for the California Ocean Science Trust on behalf of Gov. Jerry Brown. They found the quickening of sea level rise is driven primarily by melting ice sheets in Greenland and Antarctica, caused by rising global temperatures fueled by emissions of heat-trapping greenhouse gases.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The sea is rising 1.3 inches per decade, and the impact is already being felt in parts of coastal Southern California, where \u003ca href=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/news/2017/03/27/study-predicts-significant-southern-california-beach-erosion/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">extensive beach erosion is occurring\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>During last winter’s El Niño, waves were 50 percent larger than in the previous El Niño cycle, and beach erosion was 76 percent higher than normal, according to\u003ca href=\"http://www.latimes.com/science/sciencenow/la-sci-sn-el-nino-california-20170214-story.html\"> a recent study\u003c/a> by the U.S. Geological Survey in Santa Cruz.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[contextly_sidebar id=”zRevpvHXwpaLTHar7YdMyBR93MhJaIcO”]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>There are few natural wetlands or dunes to protect the coastline from the rising waves, according to the report.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad fullwidth]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“The California coast is pretty unprotected,” said Helen Fricker, a glaciologist at the Scripps Institution of Oceanography who co-authored the study. “There’s not really anywhere for the water to go except onto the land.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In oceanfront cities like Newport Beach, big waves that occur during high tides \u003ca href=\"https://youtu.be/p7abSExQ-10?t=97\">regularly cause coastal flooding\u003c/a>. Now that city is raising the height of its seawalls by 6 inches, with the option to add on later if necessary.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“I liken it to Legos,” said Newport Beach City Manager David Kiff. “You snap one on, and then you snap something on, on top of that, when and if you need to do so.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>https://youtu.be/p7abSExQ-10?t=97\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>How much Newport Beach will have to extend its walls is uncertain, and completely depends on global efforts to curb greenhouse gas emissions.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>If nothing is done and we continue emitting greenhouse gases at the rate we are now, sea levels are likely to rise in Southern California by up to 3.6 feet by 2100, according to the report.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Even if we dramatically cut our greenhouse gas emissions and keep global temperatures from rising more than 2 degrees Celsius above pre-industrial levels (the goal of the 2015 Paris Agreement), sea levels will still rise, although not as much: up to 2.5 feet by 2100.\u003c/p>\n\u003caside class=\"pullquote alignright\">‘The California coast is pretty unprotected.’\u003ccite>Helen Fricker, glaciologist\u003c/cite>\u003c/aside>\n\u003cp>It’s uncertain whether people and governments around the world can cut enough greenhouse gases to avoid the worst-case scenario. In March, President Donald Trump announced efforts to undo President Obama’s Clean Power Plan, which would have required nearly all states to devise plans to cut carbon emissions from power plants. The plan was intended to play a major role in U.S. efforts to meet its goal under the Paris climate accord of cutting emissions by 2025 by roughly a quarter of what they were in 2005.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Because people have so much influence over the outcome, and because scientists aren’t sure how ice sheets in Antarctica and Greenland will respond to warming temperatures, it’s still unclear exactly how much the sea will rise. But one thing is clear: We can’t stop the sea from rising anymore.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Antarctica and Greenland are not going to stop losing mass,” Fricker said. “It’s not like we’re suddenly going to see a downturn in sea level.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>That’s why the report’s authors recommend coastal communities take action now.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Waiting for scientific certainty is neither a safe nor prudent option,” they write.\u003c/p>\n\n",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003cp>The sea is rising twice as fast as it did in 1990, and there’s no turning back — humans can only try to slow it down.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>That’s according to \u003ca href=\"http://www.opc.ca.gov/webmaster/ftp/pdf/docs/rising-seas-in-california-an-update-on-sea-level-rise-science.pdf\">a new report\u003c/a> from a team of scientists working for the California Ocean Science Trust on behalf of Gov. Jerry Brown. They found the quickening of sea level rise is driven primarily by melting ice sheets in Greenland and Antarctica, caused by rising global temperatures fueled by emissions of heat-trapping greenhouse gases.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The sea is rising 1.3 inches per decade, and the impact is already being felt in parts of coastal Southern California, where \u003ca href=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/news/2017/03/27/study-predicts-significant-southern-california-beach-erosion/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">extensive beach erosion is occurring\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>During last winter’s El Niño, waves were 50 percent larger than in the previous El Niño cycle, and beach erosion was 76 percent higher than normal, according to\u003ca href=\"http://www.latimes.com/science/sciencenow/la-sci-sn-el-nino-california-20170214-story.html\"> a recent study\u003c/a> by the U.S. Geological Survey in Santa Cruz.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>There are few natural wetlands or dunes to protect the coastline from the rising waves, according to the report.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“The California coast is pretty unprotected,” said Helen Fricker, a glaciologist at the Scripps Institution of Oceanography who co-authored the study. “There’s not really anywhere for the water to go except onto the land.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In oceanfront cities like Newport Beach, big waves that occur during high tides \u003ca href=\"https://youtu.be/p7abSExQ-10?t=97\">regularly cause coastal flooding\u003c/a>. Now that city is raising the height of its seawalls by 6 inches, with the option to add on later if necessary.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“I liken it to Legos,” said Newport Beach City Manager David Kiff. “You snap one on, and then you snap something on, on top of that, when and if you need to do so.”\u003c/p>\u003c/p>\u003cp>\u003cspan class='utils-parseShortcode-shortcodes-__youtubeShortcode__embedYoutube'>\n \u003cspan class='utils-parseShortcode-shortcodes-__youtubeShortcode__embedYoutubeInside'>\n \u003ciframe\n loading='lazy'\n class='utils-parseShortcode-shortcodes-__youtubeShortcode__youtubePlayer'\n type='text/html'\n src='//www.youtube.com/embed/p7abSExQ-10'\n title='//www.youtube.com/embed/p7abSExQ-10'\n allowfullscreen='true'\n style='border:0;'>\u003c/iframe>\n \u003c/span>\n \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\u003cp>\u003cp>How much Newport Beach will have to extend its walls is uncertain, and completely depends on global efforts to curb greenhouse gas emissions.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>If nothing is done and we continue emitting greenhouse gases at the rate we are now, sea levels are likely to rise in Southern California by up to 3.6 feet by 2100, according to the report.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Even if we dramatically cut our greenhouse gas emissions and keep global temperatures from rising more than 2 degrees Celsius above pre-industrial levels (the goal of the 2015 Paris Agreement), sea levels will still rise, although not as much: up to 2.5 feet by 2100.\u003c/p>\n\u003caside class=\"pullquote alignright\">‘The California coast is pretty unprotected.’\u003ccite>Helen Fricker, glaciologist\u003c/cite>\u003c/aside>\n\u003cp>It’s uncertain whether people and governments around the world can cut enough greenhouse gases to avoid the worst-case scenario. In March, President Donald Trump announced efforts to undo President Obama’s Clean Power Plan, which would have required nearly all states to devise plans to cut carbon emissions from power plants. The plan was intended to play a major role in U.S. efforts to meet its goal under the Paris climate accord of cutting emissions by 2025 by roughly a quarter of what they were in 2005.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Because people have so much influence over the outcome, and because scientists aren’t sure how ice sheets in Antarctica and Greenland will respond to warming temperatures, it’s still unclear exactly how much the sea will rise. But one thing is clear: We can’t stop the sea from rising anymore.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Antarctica and Greenland are not going to stop losing mass,” Fricker said. “It’s not like we’re suddenly going to see a downturn in sea level.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>That’s why the report’s authors recommend coastal communities take action now.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Waiting for scientific certainty is neither a safe nor prudent option,” they write.\u003c/p>\n\n\u003c/div>\u003c/p>",
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