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"title": "Despite Drought, Laws to Track California’s Biggest Water Users Ignored",
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"content": "\u003cp>\u003cstrong>By Katharine Mieszkowski\u003c/strong>\u003cbr>\n\u003cstrong>\u003ca title=\"CIR - main\" href=\"http://cironline.org/\">The Center for Investigative Reporting\u003c/a>\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_17792\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 640px\">\u003ca href=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/science/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2014/05/IMG_1050_crop.jpg\" rel=\"attachment wp-att-17792\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-17792\" src=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/science/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2014/05/IMG_1050_crop.jpg\" alt=\"Siphons draw water to irrigate a wheat field in Reclamation District 108, northwest of Sacramento.\" width=\"640\" height=\"360\">\u003c/a>\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Siphons draw water to irrigate a wheat field in Reclamation District 108, northwest of Sacramento. (Katharine Mieszkowski/CIR)\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>The last time California endured a drought, legislators set their sights on the state’s heaviest water users: farmers.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The state designed laws to push agricultural water districts to closely track their water flow and make the largest districts charge farmers based on how much they use. The economic theory is simple: If you aren’t paying for how much water you actually use, you have little incentive to try to consume less.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But those rules are widely being ignored as they come into effect in the midst of one of the state’s \u003ca title=\"Q-Sci - Drought Watch\" href=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/science/series/california-drought-watch/\">most severe droughts\u003c/a> on record.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>All but the smallest agricultural water districts were required to track and report to the state how much water they deliver to customers as the result of a 2007 law. Only 20 percent – 48 of 242 districts – have filed those reports, according to \u003ca title=\"DWR - main\" href=\"http://www.water.ca.gov/\">California Department of Water Resources\u003c/a> data. They were due 10 months ago.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad fullwidth]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Under a 2009 law, the 55 largest agricultural water districts also are required to more precisely measure how much water each farmer is using. They’re then required to charge farmers – at least in part – on that basis.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The state doesn’t know how many suppliers are meeting this requirement or are even taking steps toward doing so, because almost half of them have failed to turn in the relevant reports, records show.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Charging for water based on use had been common in some agricultural areas where water is scarce, like the San Joaquin Valley. But now, it’s mandatory for large districts throughout California. These water management plans, which spell out how the districts will make the changes, were due at the end of 2012. Districts face few consequences for failing to comply.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>By contrast, most residential water customers in California, whose use is metered, have long seen how much water they use reflected in the bills they receive.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Throughout the state, people should be paying for water based on how much they use, and that will drive conservation,” said Peter Brostrom, program manager of water use efficiency for the Department of Water Resources.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Agriculture, which accounts for some 80 percent of the water that’s used in the state, has met the new rules with skepticism and indifference, as growers cope with the drought.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The Tulelake Irrigation District in Siskiyou and Modoc counties is not following the new rules. Earl Danosky, the district’s manager, said he has no plans to charge farmers for how much water they use individually. The district currently charges a flat per-acre fee once a year.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“I don’t believe it would save one drop of water,” Danosky said. He said he believes farmers there already are careful with the water they use out of necessity. “Too much water will damage the crop.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Danosky said he didn’t realize he was supposed to be turning the reports in to the state. The district serves hundreds of family farms, which grow potatoes, onions, alfalfa and mint near the state’s northern border with Oregon.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_17794\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 640px\">\u003ca href=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/science/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2014/05/AgWater_Dist108Measure_KM.jpg\" rel=\"attachment wp-att-17794\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-17794\" src=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/science/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2014/05/AgWater_Dist108Measure_KM.jpg\" alt=\"Chad Navarrot, operations manager for Reclamation District 108, demonstrates measuring water sent to a field.\" width=\"640\" height=\"360\">\u003c/a>\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Chad Navarrot measures the flow of irrigation water with a velocity meter which transmits cellular data to his laptop. The costly technology has discouraged some districts from complying with reporting laws. (Katharine Mieszkowski/CIR)\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Down in the Sacramento Valley, Reclamation District 108 is on track to meet the state’s new requirements. Still, farmers there doubt the changes will inspire much water conservation in their area.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“It’s a one-size-fits-all for the state, and for us, it didn’t fit,” said Fritz Durst, the district’s board president, who grows rice, sunflowers, alfalfa and corn. “There’s probably areas where it would give people incentives to use less water, but with the way we manage our water here, there is no benefit.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Water flows from the district’s system of canals through farm gates and into ditches next to the farmers’ fields, where it is used for irrigation. Rice especially relies on a lot of water. Growers flood the fields, allowing plants to sit in four inches of water. Water that drains off the fields is reused on other fields, accounting for about 40 percent of the total water the district delivers.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Local farmers voted to install a $2 million system to measure how much water comes out of these canals. Now, changing the district’s pricing to meet the regulations will require another vote. District officials hope to have the new pricing in place by the start of irrigation in spring 2016.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>If Durst’s water bill goes way up, he said he likely won’t use less water. He said he’ll probably just grow a specialty rice that will fetch more on the market.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Districts’ failure to comply with the requirements troubles environmentalists who promote conservation as one tool for taking on the state’s water woes.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Unless these districts start taking this seriously, it’s going to be their customers that suffer,” said Claire O’Connor, agricultural water policy analyst for the Natural Resources Defense Council.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The Department of Water Resources has had to rely on letters and workshops to try to cajole districts into complying. There’s no penalty for agricultural districts that don’t report how much water they’re delivering to farms.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Large districts that haven’t submitted their water management plans to the state have lost access to $472 million in state grants to encourage conservation and improve water management. But once they turn in their plans, they are eligible for funds again.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>That money could be used to help farmers in their districts install more efficient irrigation systems, for instance.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>A third party could sue districts for not fulfilling the requirements, but there’s little talk of this being in the works.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Farmers aren’t the only ones whose water use came under the legislative microscope during the last drought. The state is now trying to achieve a 20 percent reduction in urban per-capita water use by the end of 2020, based on the same law that targeted large agricultural districts.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cem>This story was edited by Andrew Donohue. It was copy edited by Nikki Frick and Christine Lee.\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>This story was produced by The Center for Investigative Reporting, an award-winning nonprofit news organization based in the San Francisco Bay Area. For more, visit cironline.org. Mieszkowski can be reached at kmieszkowski@cironline.org. Listen to the companion radio story on \u003ca title=\"TCR - main\" href=\"http://www.californiareport.org/\">The California Report\u003c/a>.\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad floatright]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp> \u003c/p>\n\n",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003cp>\u003cstrong>By Katharine Mieszkowski\u003c/strong>\u003cbr>\n\u003cstrong>\u003ca title=\"CIR - main\" href=\"http://cironline.org/\">The Center for Investigative Reporting\u003c/a>\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_17792\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 640px\">\u003ca href=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/science/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2014/05/IMG_1050_crop.jpg\" rel=\"attachment wp-att-17792\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-17792\" src=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/science/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2014/05/IMG_1050_crop.jpg\" alt=\"Siphons draw water to irrigate a wheat field in Reclamation District 108, northwest of Sacramento.\" width=\"640\" height=\"360\">\u003c/a>\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Siphons draw water to irrigate a wheat field in Reclamation District 108, northwest of Sacramento. (Katharine Mieszkowski/CIR)\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>The last time California endured a drought, legislators set their sights on the state’s heaviest water users: farmers.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The state designed laws to push agricultural water districts to closely track their water flow and make the largest districts charge farmers based on how much they use. The economic theory is simple: If you aren’t paying for how much water you actually use, you have little incentive to try to consume less.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But those rules are widely being ignored as they come into effect in the midst of one of the state’s \u003ca title=\"Q-Sci - Drought Watch\" href=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/science/series/california-drought-watch/\">most severe droughts\u003c/a> on record.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>All but the smallest agricultural water districts were required to track and report to the state how much water they deliver to customers as the result of a 2007 law. Only 20 percent – 48 of 242 districts – have filed those reports, according to \u003ca title=\"DWR - main\" href=\"http://www.water.ca.gov/\">California Department of Water Resources\u003c/a> data. They were due 10 months ago.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Under a 2009 law, the 55 largest agricultural water districts also are required to more precisely measure how much water each farmer is using. They’re then required to charge farmers – at least in part – on that basis.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The state doesn’t know how many suppliers are meeting this requirement or are even taking steps toward doing so, because almost half of them have failed to turn in the relevant reports, records show.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Charging for water based on use had been common in some agricultural areas where water is scarce, like the San Joaquin Valley. But now, it’s mandatory for large districts throughout California. These water management plans, which spell out how the districts will make the changes, were due at the end of 2012. Districts face few consequences for failing to comply.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>By contrast, most residential water customers in California, whose use is metered, have long seen how much water they use reflected in the bills they receive.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Throughout the state, people should be paying for water based on how much they use, and that will drive conservation,” said Peter Brostrom, program manager of water use efficiency for the Department of Water Resources.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Agriculture, which accounts for some 80 percent of the water that’s used in the state, has met the new rules with skepticism and indifference, as growers cope with the drought.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The Tulelake Irrigation District in Siskiyou and Modoc counties is not following the new rules. Earl Danosky, the district’s manager, said he has no plans to charge farmers for how much water they use individually. The district currently charges a flat per-acre fee once a year.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“I don’t believe it would save one drop of water,” Danosky said. He said he believes farmers there already are careful with the water they use out of necessity. “Too much water will damage the crop.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Danosky said he didn’t realize he was supposed to be turning the reports in to the state. The district serves hundreds of family farms, which grow potatoes, onions, alfalfa and mint near the state’s northern border with Oregon.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_17794\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 640px\">\u003ca href=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/science/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2014/05/AgWater_Dist108Measure_KM.jpg\" rel=\"attachment wp-att-17794\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-17794\" src=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/science/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2014/05/AgWater_Dist108Measure_KM.jpg\" alt=\"Chad Navarrot, operations manager for Reclamation District 108, demonstrates measuring water sent to a field.\" width=\"640\" height=\"360\">\u003c/a>\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Chad Navarrot measures the flow of irrigation water with a velocity meter which transmits cellular data to his laptop. The costly technology has discouraged some districts from complying with reporting laws. (Katharine Mieszkowski/CIR)\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Down in the Sacramento Valley, Reclamation District 108 is on track to meet the state’s new requirements. Still, farmers there doubt the changes will inspire much water conservation in their area.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“It’s a one-size-fits-all for the state, and for us, it didn’t fit,” said Fritz Durst, the district’s board president, who grows rice, sunflowers, alfalfa and corn. “There’s probably areas where it would give people incentives to use less water, but with the way we manage our water here, there is no benefit.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Water flows from the district’s system of canals through farm gates and into ditches next to the farmers’ fields, where it is used for irrigation. Rice especially relies on a lot of water. Growers flood the fields, allowing plants to sit in four inches of water. Water that drains off the fields is reused on other fields, accounting for about 40 percent of the total water the district delivers.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Local farmers voted to install a $2 million system to measure how much water comes out of these canals. Now, changing the district’s pricing to meet the regulations will require another vote. District officials hope to have the new pricing in place by the start of irrigation in spring 2016.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>If Durst’s water bill goes way up, he said he likely won’t use less water. He said he’ll probably just grow a specialty rice that will fetch more on the market.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Districts’ failure to comply with the requirements troubles environmentalists who promote conservation as one tool for taking on the state’s water woes.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Unless these districts start taking this seriously, it’s going to be their customers that suffer,” said Claire O’Connor, agricultural water policy analyst for the Natural Resources Defense Council.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The Department of Water Resources has had to rely on letters and workshops to try to cajole districts into complying. There’s no penalty for agricultural districts that don’t report how much water they’re delivering to farms.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Large districts that haven’t submitted their water management plans to the state have lost access to $472 million in state grants to encourage conservation and improve water management. But once they turn in their plans, they are eligible for funds again.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>That money could be used to help farmers in their districts install more efficient irrigation systems, for instance.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>A third party could sue districts for not fulfilling the requirements, but there’s little talk of this being in the works.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Farmers aren’t the only ones whose water use came under the legislative microscope during the last drought. The state is now trying to achieve a 20 percent reduction in urban per-capita water use by the end of 2020, based on the same law that targeted large agricultural districts.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cem>This story was edited by Andrew Donohue. It was copy edited by Nikki Frick and Christine Lee.\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>This story was produced by The Center for Investigative Reporting, an award-winning nonprofit news organization based in the San Francisco Bay Area. For more, visit cironline.org. Mieszkowski can be reached at kmieszkowski@cironline.org. Listen to the companion radio story on \u003ca title=\"TCR - main\" href=\"http://www.californiareport.org/\">The California Report\u003c/a>.\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cp>A team of neuroscientists at the University of California at San Francisco will receive $26 million dollars over the next five years from the Department of Defense to develop new “electroceuticals,” electricity-based treatments for depression, anxiety disorders, addiction and other mental disorders.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The work, which will also focus on veterans with PTSD, is part of President Obama’s Brain Initiative. At UCSF, neuroscientist and neurosurgeon Eddie Chang will lead a team studying volunteers who already have probes in their brains as part of treatment for epilepsy or Parkinson’s disease. \u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cem>(See our coverage on the \u003ca href=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/science/audio/epilepsy-reveals-the-brain-in-action/\">role epilepsy patients play in brain science\u003c/a>)\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Chang and others will use these probes to look for the parts of the brain involved in depression and PTSD. Once the scientists have those clues, they’ll work with scientists at UC Berkeley and elsewhere to design tiny electronic implants that can stimulate the cells in faulty brain circuits and, they hope, fix those networks and alleviate symptoms. \u003c/p>\n\u003cdiv data-ajax=\"{'url':'http://www.npr.org/blogs/health/2014/05/27/316129491/military-plans-to-test-brain-implants-to-fight-mental-disorders','embed':'<a class=\\"embedly-card\\" href=\\"http://www.npr.org/blogs/health/2014/05/27/316129491/military-plans-to-test-brain-implants-to-fight-mental-disorders\\">Military Plans To Test Brain Implants To Fight Mental Disorders</a>'}\">\u003ca class=\"embedly-card\" href=\"http://www.npr.org/blogs/health/2014/05/27/316129491/military-plans-to-test-brain-implants-to-fight-mental-disorders\">Military Plans To Test Brain Implants To Fight Mental Disorders\u003c/a>\u003c/div>\n\u003cp>[ad fullwidth]\u003c/p>\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003cp>A team of neuroscientists at the University of California at San Francisco will receive $26 million dollars over the next five years from the Department of Defense to develop new “electroceuticals,” electricity-based treatments for depression, anxiety disorders, addiction and other mental disorders.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The work, which will also focus on veterans with PTSD, is part of President Obama’s Brain Initiative. At UCSF, neuroscientist and neurosurgeon Eddie Chang will lead a team studying volunteers who already have probes in their brains as part of treatment for epilepsy or Parkinson’s disease. \u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cem>(See our coverage on the \u003ca href=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/science/audio/epilepsy-reveals-the-brain-in-action/\">role epilepsy patients play in brain science\u003c/a>)\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Chang and others will use these probes to look for the parts of the brain involved in depression and PTSD. Once the scientists have those clues, they’ll work with scientists at UC Berkeley and elsewhere to design tiny electronic implants that can stimulate the cells in faulty brain circuits and, they hope, fix those networks and alleviate symptoms. \u003c/p>\n\u003cdiv data-ajax=\"{'url':'http://www.npr.org/blogs/health/2014/05/27/316129491/military-plans-to-test-brain-implants-to-fight-mental-disorders','embed':'<a class=\\"embedly-card\\" href=\\"http://www.npr.org/blogs/health/2014/05/27/316129491/military-plans-to-test-brain-implants-to-fight-mental-disorders\\">Military Plans To Test Brain Implants To Fight Mental Disorders</a>'}\">\u003ca class=\"embedly-card\" href=\"http://www.npr.org/blogs/health/2014/05/27/316129491/military-plans-to-test-brain-implants-to-fight-mental-disorders\">Military Plans To Test Brain Implants To Fight Mental Disorders\u003c/a>\u003c/div>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"audio-wrap\">\n\u003ch2>Listen:\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>http://www.kqed.org/.stream/anon/radio/science/2014/05/20140526science.mp3\u003c/p>\n\u003c/div>\n\u003cp>\u003cem>This story originally aired on\u003c/em> \u003ca href=\"http://www.californiareport.org/archive/R201307260850/a?__utma=111150238.900526782.1397169073.1400791631.1400871590.12&__utmb=111150238.4.8.1400877197319&__utmc=111150238&__utmx=-&__utmz=111150238.1400871543.12.4.utmcsr=google%7Cutmccn=%28organic%29%7Cutmcmd=organic%7Cutmctr=%28not%20provided%29&__utmv=-&__utmk=40508258\">The California Report\u003c/a>\u003cem> as part of the \u003ca href=\"http://www.kqed.org/news/bayarea/lifeafterwar/?__utma=34673459.900526782.1397169073.1400791631.1400871590.12&__utmb=34673459.0.10.1400871593&__utmc=34673459&__utmx=-&__utmz=34673459.1400871543.12.4.utmcsr=google%7Cutmccn=%28organic%29%7Cutmcmd=organic%7Cutmctr=%28not%20provided%29&__utmv=-&__utmk=81495701\">“Life After War”\u003c/a> series.\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>As a soldier in Japan, Donald Foster, an 86-year-old veteran of World War II, worked in a Japanese orphanage. He said it made him feel patriotic — at first.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“But when you see these little tykes dropping dead from aplastic anemia, and the burns on adults wandering around dazed before they died of radiation sickness, rather than make me more patriotic, I just felt — I just threw up,” Foster said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_17734\" class=\"wp-caption alignright\" style=\"max-width: 335px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\" wp-image-17734\" src=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/science/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2014/05/RS5810_Don-Foster-poses-with-a-photo-of-himself-from-WW-2.-scr.jpg\" alt=\"Don Foster poses with a photo of himself from World War II. (Scott Shafer/KQED)\" width=\"335\" height=\"447\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Don Foster poses with a photo of himself from World War II. (Scott Shafer/KQED)\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>After he returned home, he married, had several children and began an impressive career. His work with the United Nations and World Bank took him to dozens of nations. He retired about five years ago.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>All that globe-trotting helped mask his struggles with depression and anger, issues he never linked back to his military service. But two years ago, after a massive earthquake in Japan triggered a tsunami, the scenes of devastation brought back a flood of memories.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad fullwidth]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>He had an urgent, almost desperate, need to find out what happened to the kids he saw on television.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>That incident led him to Grass Valley psychologist Page Brown, who works with veterans. She said PTSD symptoms are very often triggered by scenes of war, violence or devastation.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Foster was diagnosed with PTSD about two years ago. He said he didn’t expect to learn that his symptoms were related to his military experience. Brown said that’s not an unusual reaction of older vets.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“It’s more common than not that they’re surprised that there’s a relationship,” Brown said. “They think they’re fine, and that the rest of the world is stupid.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>PTSD symptoms in older vets can also be triggered by life changes, like the loss of a spouse or retirement, Brown said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Another one of her patients, Dan Renfro, served with the Marines in Vietnam between 1965 and 1967. Unlike Foster, he did see combat. Lots of it.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“I was shot down in three different disabled helicopters,” Renfro said. “The last was the worst. It took a couple days to get out.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>His transition to civilian life was a long slide into misery: divorce, drinking and the inability to hold a job.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>He often gets bored, or fired, not uncommon symptoms for people with PTSD. Renfro said he has had 45 jobs since he got out of the Marines.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Renfro eventually remarried, quit drinking and managed to bring a semblance of order to his life. But in 1993, a horrible tragedy sent him into a downward spiral. His 19-year-old stepson was murdered, shot in the head after leaving a party near Sacramento.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[contextly_sidebar id=”fda8578fba39a56b43d27daeb3d1b14f”]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“The anger’s still there. It’s right here, all the time,” he said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>A few years ago, Renfro was diagnosed with PTSD and began getting help.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“PTSD sounds a lot better than idiot or A-hole,” Renfro said of his diagnosis.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Renfro is hardly alone. At the VA office in San Francisco, social worker Keith Armstrong heads up the PTSD program. His clients are mostly Vietnam-era vets now, but he has a few from World War II.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>No matter how old the veteran is, a PTSD diagnosis can help bring new insights into mental health problems, Armstrong said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“The pieces get put together in your mind about how to understand all of these erratic behaviors,” Armstrong said. “You find yourself irritable, you may be sleeping badly or that you get startled at loud noises, whether they be dump trucks or whatever — that I think for a number of people there’s relief.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Fran, Foster’s wife of 64 years, said she agrees that a PTSD diagnosis is definitely better late than never.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“I and other family members would get really exasperated because you think, ‘Well, just control yourself, you know? What are you mad about?’” she said. “When you understand it probably wasn’t at all easy, that would explain it.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Today, the VA is much more focused on PTSD, but the agency is overwhelmed with all the returning vets affected by it.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Still, there’s hope that treating veterans’ symptoms before decades have passed will help mitigate the kind of suffering in silence that many veterans of earlier wars endured.\u003c/p>\n\n",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/div>\n\u003cp>\u003cem>This story originally aired on\u003c/em> \u003ca href=\"http://www.californiareport.org/archive/R201307260850/a?__utma=111150238.900526782.1397169073.1400791631.1400871590.12&__utmb=111150238.4.8.1400877197319&__utmc=111150238&__utmx=-&__utmz=111150238.1400871543.12.4.utmcsr=google%7Cutmccn=%28organic%29%7Cutmcmd=organic%7Cutmctr=%28not%20provided%29&__utmv=-&__utmk=40508258\">The California Report\u003c/a>\u003cem> as part of the \u003ca href=\"http://www.kqed.org/news/bayarea/lifeafterwar/?__utma=34673459.900526782.1397169073.1400791631.1400871590.12&__utmb=34673459.0.10.1400871593&__utmc=34673459&__utmx=-&__utmz=34673459.1400871543.12.4.utmcsr=google%7Cutmccn=%28organic%29%7Cutmcmd=organic%7Cutmctr=%28not%20provided%29&__utmv=-&__utmk=81495701\">“Life After War”\u003c/a> series.\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>As a soldier in Japan, Donald Foster, an 86-year-old veteran of World War II, worked in a Japanese orphanage. He said it made him feel patriotic — at first.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“But when you see these little tykes dropping dead from aplastic anemia, and the burns on adults wandering around dazed before they died of radiation sickness, rather than make me more patriotic, I just felt — I just threw up,” Foster said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_17734\" class=\"wp-caption alignright\" style=\"max-width: 335px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\" wp-image-17734\" src=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/science/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2014/05/RS5810_Don-Foster-poses-with-a-photo-of-himself-from-WW-2.-scr.jpg\" alt=\"Don Foster poses with a photo of himself from World War II. (Scott Shafer/KQED)\" width=\"335\" height=\"447\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Don Foster poses with a photo of himself from World War II. (Scott Shafer/KQED)\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>After he returned home, he married, had several children and began an impressive career. His work with the United Nations and World Bank took him to dozens of nations. He retired about five years ago.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>All that globe-trotting helped mask his struggles with depression and anger, issues he never linked back to his military service. But two years ago, after a massive earthquake in Japan triggered a tsunami, the scenes of devastation brought back a flood of memories.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>He had an urgent, almost desperate, need to find out what happened to the kids he saw on television.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>That incident led him to Grass Valley psychologist Page Brown, who works with veterans. She said PTSD symptoms are very often triggered by scenes of war, violence or devastation.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Foster was diagnosed with PTSD about two years ago. He said he didn’t expect to learn that his symptoms were related to his military experience. Brown said that’s not an unusual reaction of older vets.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“It’s more common than not that they’re surprised that there’s a relationship,” Brown said. “They think they’re fine, and that the rest of the world is stupid.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>PTSD symptoms in older vets can also be triggered by life changes, like the loss of a spouse or retirement, Brown said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Another one of her patients, Dan Renfro, served with the Marines in Vietnam between 1965 and 1967. Unlike Foster, he did see combat. Lots of it.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“I was shot down in three different disabled helicopters,” Renfro said. “The last was the worst. It took a couple days to get out.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>His transition to civilian life was a long slide into misery: divorce, drinking and the inability to hold a job.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>He often gets bored, or fired, not uncommon symptoms for people with PTSD. Renfro said he has had 45 jobs since he got out of the Marines.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Renfro eventually remarried, quit drinking and managed to bring a semblance of order to his life. But in 1993, a horrible tragedy sent him into a downward spiral. His 19-year-old stepson was murdered, shot in the head after leaving a party near Sacramento.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“The anger’s still there. It’s right here, all the time,” he said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>A few years ago, Renfro was diagnosed with PTSD and began getting help.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“PTSD sounds a lot better than idiot or A-hole,” Renfro said of his diagnosis.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Renfro is hardly alone. At the VA office in San Francisco, social worker Keith Armstrong heads up the PTSD program. His clients are mostly Vietnam-era vets now, but he has a few from World War II.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>No matter how old the veteran is, a PTSD diagnosis can help bring new insights into mental health problems, Armstrong said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“The pieces get put together in your mind about how to understand all of these erratic behaviors,” Armstrong said. “You find yourself irritable, you may be sleeping badly or that you get startled at loud noises, whether they be dump trucks or whatever — that I think for a number of people there’s relief.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Fran, Foster’s wife of 64 years, said she agrees that a PTSD diagnosis is definitely better late than never.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“I and other family members would get really exasperated because you think, ‘Well, just control yourself, you know? What are you mad about?’” she said. “When you understand it probably wasn’t at all easy, that would explain it.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Today, the VA is much more focused on PTSD, but the agency is overwhelmed with all the returning vets affected by it.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Still, there’s hope that treating veterans’ symptoms before decades have passed will help mitigate the kind of suffering in silence that many veterans of earlier wars endured.\u003c/p>\n\n\u003c/div>\u003c/p>",
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"title": "Seven of 10 of California's Most Polluted Beaches Are in Northern California",
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"content": "\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_17719\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 640px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-17719\" src=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/science/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2014/05/pillarpoint.jpg\" alt=\"Pillar Point Harbor in San Mateo County made Heal the Bay's 'Beach Bummer' list this year. (geoff dude/Flickr)\" width=\"640\" height=\"360\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Pillar Point Harbor in San Mateo County made Heal the Bay’s ‘Beach Bummer’ list this year. (geoff dude/\u003ca href=\"https://www.flickr.com/photos/geoffdude/14001274521/in/photolist-nkfc7R-nkfcSj-nni9Zt-nkfchG-nkfiMK-nkfeoK-nkyJJA-gAAAyv-5RY2rs-9fuHgC-d49f7J-5Nhsgo-6YzpPo-6YRvXj-5RY2BN-5Nd8Lg-6YMu9p-5Nhpuw-6YMu6H-cXWLB5-5RUeVt-wHm5s-5R8qGa-4feNcd-csmrbA-csmr6m-gCLuH3-doAPWL-5NdbUi-5Nhqo9-6XjKUs-5Nhrpy-5bCiM7-56NURQ-7zfCXr-6YRw1U-7ESnNU-6XfLHK-4UeVk1-5RY2iQ-6ep78w-dAXXWW-5Ra7pA-6YvU2Z-6YRw6y-6YRvQh-5Rcuu3-c6Em5S-c6EjB3-c6EnB7\">Flickr\u003c/a>)\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Seven out of 10 of the state’s most polluted beaches are in Northern California, according to environmental group Heal the Bay’s \u003ca href=\"http://www.healthebay.org/sites/default/files/pdf/BRC_2014_WEB_.pdf\">annual Beach Report Card,\u003c/a> released Thursday.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Each year, Heal the Bay ranks California beaches on water quality. They test for bacteria that signal the presence of microscopic critters that can make people sick. This year, 95 percent of beaches got clean A or B grades, a record. That’s thanks to the drought, explained Amanda Griesbach with Heal the Bay.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“There’s a lack of rainfall, urban runoff and pollutants and debris and everything that’s washed into the beach water and that elevates the level of bacteria,” she said. “So if there’s a drought we typically see better grades.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But not everywhere. The polluted beaches that made the \u003ca href=\"http://www.healthebay.org/sites/default/files/pdf/BRC_2014_WEB_.pdf#page=11\">“Beach Bummers”\u003c/a> list below suffer from problems like poor circulation — enclosed beaches like Marina Lagoon in San Mateo don’t have enough water flow to break up bacteria — and outdated sewage systems that leak contaminated water like the corroded pipes at Santa Cruz’s Cowell Beach, explained Griesbach.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Here they are, listed from worst to, well, \u003cem>maybe\u003c/em> you’ll get a sinus infection.\u003c/p>\n\u003col>\n\u003cli>Cowell Beach, at the wharf (Santa Cruz County)\u003c/li>\n\u003cli>Marina Lagoon (San Mateo County)\u003c/li>\n\u003cli>Marina del Rey, Mother’s Beach (Los Angeles County)\u003c/li>\n\u003cli>Cabrillo Beach, Harborside (Los Angeles County)\u003c/li>\n\u003cli>Stillwater Cove (Monterey County)\u003c/li>\n\u003cli>Clam Beach County Park (Humboldt County)\u003c/li>\n\u003cli>Santa Monica Pier (Los Angeles County)\u003c/li>\n\u003cli>Pillar Point Harbor (San Mateo County)\u003c/li>\n\u003cli>Capitola Beach, West of jetty (Santa Cruz County)\u003c/li>\n\u003cli>Windsurfer Circle, Candlestick Point (San Francisco County)\u003c/li>\n\u003c/ol>\n\u003cp>Griesbach and other officials stressed that water quality can change from day-to-day especially after big rainstorms.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad fullwidth]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“When we have a big storm, even if it’s in May, stay away from the water, just for a few days,” said Deb Self, the excecutive director of \u003ca href=\"https://baykeeper.org/\">San Francisco Baykeeper\u003c/a>, an environmental group that fights sewage contamination. “Let the bacteria break up and let the beach get clean again.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Every Friday, beachgoers can check up-to-date water quality stats on Heal the Bay’s \u003ca href=\"http://brc.healthebay.org/\">Beach Report Card\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\n\n",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_17719\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 640px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-17719\" src=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/science/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2014/05/pillarpoint.jpg\" alt=\"Pillar Point Harbor in San Mateo County made Heal the Bay's 'Beach Bummer' list this year. (geoff dude/Flickr)\" width=\"640\" height=\"360\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Pillar Point Harbor in San Mateo County made Heal the Bay’s ‘Beach Bummer’ list this year. (geoff dude/\u003ca href=\"https://www.flickr.com/photos/geoffdude/14001274521/in/photolist-nkfc7R-nkfcSj-nni9Zt-nkfchG-nkfiMK-nkfeoK-nkyJJA-gAAAyv-5RY2rs-9fuHgC-d49f7J-5Nhsgo-6YzpPo-6YRvXj-5RY2BN-5Nd8Lg-6YMu9p-5Nhpuw-6YMu6H-cXWLB5-5RUeVt-wHm5s-5R8qGa-4feNcd-csmrbA-csmr6m-gCLuH3-doAPWL-5NdbUi-5Nhqo9-6XjKUs-5Nhrpy-5bCiM7-56NURQ-7zfCXr-6YRw1U-7ESnNU-6XfLHK-4UeVk1-5RY2iQ-6ep78w-dAXXWW-5Ra7pA-6YvU2Z-6YRw6y-6YRvQh-5Rcuu3-c6Em5S-c6EjB3-c6EnB7\">Flickr\u003c/a>)\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Seven out of 10 of the state’s most polluted beaches are in Northern California, according to environmental group Heal the Bay’s \u003ca href=\"http://www.healthebay.org/sites/default/files/pdf/BRC_2014_WEB_.pdf\">annual Beach Report Card,\u003c/a> released Thursday.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Each year, Heal the Bay ranks California beaches on water quality. They test for bacteria that signal the presence of microscopic critters that can make people sick. This year, 95 percent of beaches got clean A or B grades, a record. That’s thanks to the drought, explained Amanda Griesbach with Heal the Bay.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“There’s a lack of rainfall, urban runoff and pollutants and debris and everything that’s washed into the beach water and that elevates the level of bacteria,” she said. “So if there’s a drought we typically see better grades.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But not everywhere. The polluted beaches that made the \u003ca href=\"http://www.healthebay.org/sites/default/files/pdf/BRC_2014_WEB_.pdf#page=11\">“Beach Bummers”\u003c/a> list below suffer from problems like poor circulation — enclosed beaches like Marina Lagoon in San Mateo don’t have enough water flow to break up bacteria — and outdated sewage systems that leak contaminated water like the corroded pipes at Santa Cruz’s Cowell Beach, explained Griesbach.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Here they are, listed from worst to, well, \u003cem>maybe\u003c/em> you’ll get a sinus infection.\u003c/p>\n\u003col>\n\u003cli>Cowell Beach, at the wharf (Santa Cruz County)\u003c/li>\n\u003cli>Marina Lagoon (San Mateo County)\u003c/li>\n\u003cli>Marina del Rey, Mother’s Beach (Los Angeles County)\u003c/li>\n\u003cli>Cabrillo Beach, Harborside (Los Angeles County)\u003c/li>\n\u003cli>Stillwater Cove (Monterey County)\u003c/li>\n\u003cli>Clam Beach County Park (Humboldt County)\u003c/li>\n\u003cli>Santa Monica Pier (Los Angeles County)\u003c/li>\n\u003cli>Pillar Point Harbor (San Mateo County)\u003c/li>\n\u003cli>Capitola Beach, West of jetty (Santa Cruz County)\u003c/li>\n\u003cli>Windsurfer Circle, Candlestick Point (San Francisco County)\u003c/li>\n\u003c/ol>\n\u003cp>Griesbach and other officials stressed that water quality can change from day-to-day especially after big rainstorms.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“When we have a big storm, even if it’s in May, stay away from the water, just for a few days,” said Deb Self, the excecutive director of \u003ca href=\"https://baykeeper.org/\">San Francisco Baykeeper\u003c/a>, an environmental group that fights sewage contamination. “Let the bacteria break up and let the beach get clean again.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Every Friday, beachgoers can check up-to-date water quality stats on Heal the Bay’s \u003ca href=\"http://brc.healthebay.org/\">Beach Report Card\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\n\n\u003c/div>\u003c/p>",
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"slug": "californias-monterey-shale-bonanza-or-bust-nobody-really-knows",
"title": "California's Monterey Shale: Bonanza or Bust? Nobody Really Knows",
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"content": "\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_17661\" class=\"wp-caption alignleft\" style=\"max-width: 640px\">\u003ca href=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/science/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2014/05/pumpjacks.jpg\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-17661\" src=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/science/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2014/05/pumpjacks.jpg\" alt=\"Pumpjacks draw oil out of the Monterey Shale near McKittrick, California. (Photo by David McNew/Getty Images)\" width=\"640\" height=\"360\">\u003c/a>\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Pumpjacks draw oil out of the Monterey Shale near McKittrick, California. (Photo by David McNew/Getty Images)\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>The controversy over hydraulic fracturing in California has been largely centered around the Monterey Formation, the rock layer that was said to be the largest oil resource in the country and almost a sure bet for a drilling boom.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>At least, until this week. Federal officials with the Energy Information Administration are \u003ca href=\"http://www.latimes.com/business/la-fi-oil-20140521-story.html\">reportedly downgrading their estimate\u003c/a> of how much oil could be pumped out of the formation. Just a few years ago, the agency projected that oil companies could retrieve 15 billion barrels of oil. Now, it’s down to 600 million.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Just to clarify: these numbers don’t reflect how much oil is underground in California. Most geologists agree that there’s still plenty down there. The EIA is attempting to estimate how much could be pumped out with current technology. As with other oil and gas reserves around the country, this number fluctuates quite a bit based on assumptions about the geology and what oil companies can accomplish.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“The total resource can be huge – just ridiculously large,” says Don Gautier, geologist emeritus with the U.S. Geological Survey. “What fraction of it can actually be recovered? That can be very uncertain.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>What’s Unknown About the Monterey Formation\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad fullwidth]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>So why the uncertainty around the Monterey Shale? It has to do with the lack of information about the rock formation.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The Monterey has already been incredibly productive in California. It’s been the source of most oil production in the state over the last century. The rock layer covers 1,700 square miles and can be several thousand feet thick in places. It was created millions of years ago, when dead microorganisms piled up on the bottom of an ancient sea.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_17668\" class=\"wp-caption alignright\" style=\"max-width: 311px\">\u003ca href=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/science/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2014/05/NatGasSchematic2.jpg\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\" wp-image-17668\" src=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/science/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2014/05/NatGasSchematic2.jpg\" alt=\"Conventional drilling taps into reservoirs where oil and gas has pooled underground. Unconventional drilling goes deeper into the rock layers that generate oil.\" width=\"311\" height=\"376\">\u003c/a>\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Conventional drilling taps into reservoirs where oil and gas has pooled underground. Unconventional drilling goes deeper into the rock layers that generate oil.\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>That organic material created oil-bearing rock and over the millennia, oil has seeped out and pooled in underground reservoirs. Finding and tapping these reservoirs, what’s known as “conventional” oil development, has made California the third-largest oil producer in the country.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The buzz these days, however, is over “unconventional” development. That’s where oil and gas companies drill down into the rock layers that produce the oil – known as “source rock.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>These rocks are dense and historically, haven’t been very productive – until hydraulic fracturing came along. When water and sand are injected underground at high pressure, they create tiny fractures in the rock that help release the oil.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Historically, oil companies in California haven’t had to tap into the source rock. There were plenty of conventional reservoirs to develop. But as the technology has improved and production in older reservoirs has declined, oil producers have started looking deeper, down to the Monterey Shale source rock.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Is the Oil Still There?\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>North Dakota has seen a massive oil boom in the source rock of its Bakken formation, due in large part to hydraulic fracturing. Fracking opened up source rock that was considered beyond reach just a few decades ago.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The question in the Monterey Shale is whether the source rock still holds lots of oil. California’s abundant seismic activity could have forced much of the oil to migrate out.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“These are very effective mechanisms that allow oil to be expelled from the source rock,” says Gautier. “Whereas up in the Bakken, the oil was generated 100 million years ago and has been sitting like a dead lump since.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[contextly_sidebar id=”087bded8a228f2ed2d9be0d52ba4272a”]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Because of these unknowns, many believe there’s huge uncertainty about the amount of oil that can be recovered in the Monterey.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“We just don’t know,” says Gautier. “One of the possibilities is that most of the recoverable oil has already been expelled and migrated. So what’s left behind is residual oil that won’t really yield significant production. That isn’t to say there isn’t a whole lot of oil in the Monterey or even that there isn’t a lot of oil remaining in California.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>USGS is working on its own estimate of recoverable oil in the Monterey, expected early next year.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The seismically warped rock layers in California could also make it challenging to use the same fracking techniques that have been so effective in North Dakota. Oil wells are drilled horizontally for miles sometimes along a layer of rock. California’s roller-coaster rock layers could make horizontal drilling a challenge.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Oil companies are still in the early stages of drilling exploratory wells in the source rock. Until more of that data are available, the jury is still out on the Monterey Shale.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“The fact of the matter is there’ve only been a handful of wells that even intended to test the idea,” says Gautier.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>What the Industry Is Saying\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Despite the lackluster new estimate, the oil industry says the number has little effect on their efforts.\u003c/p>\n\u003caside class=\"pullquote alignleft\">‘Whether there are 15 billion barrels or 600 million barrels… it’s still a lot of oil.’\u003ccite>— Susan Hersberger, Aera Energy\u003c/cite>\u003c/aside>\n\u003cp>“The oil is still there,” says Catherine Reheis-Boyd of the Western States Petroleum Association, an industry group.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“It’s just a matter of technology and it’s a matter of the skill and experience and innovative spirit that we really believe the men and women of the petroleum industry possess,” she says. “And they will solve the puzzle and they will improve production rates from the Monterey Shale.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Several oil companies say their exploratory wells are getting them closer to the answer.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Preliminary data from our first exploration wells tells us the oil is there,” says Susan Hersberger of \u003ca href=\"http://aeraenergy.com/\">Aera Energy\u003c/a>, one of the largest oil production companies in California. “But this data has also confirmed that the Monterey Shale has some characteristics that warrant further study and testing, so that we might unlock its potential.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Similar to the decades-long exploration of the Bakken, the Monterey exploration process will also be a long and complex journey,” she says. “Whether there are 15 billion barrels or 600 million barrels or something in between, it’s still a lot of oil. We see potential and are in it for the long-term.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Calls for a Fracking Moratorium\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>A collation of environmental and community groups called \u003ca href=\"http://www.californiansagainstfracking.org/\">Californians Against Fracking\u003c/a> is using the new estimate to raise concerns over groundwater contamination and environmental damage.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“This bombshell from the EIA gives you a new opportunity to make the right call and halt fracking,” they wrote in a letter to Governor Jerry Brown.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The group, which is calling for a moratorium on fracking, says the lower estimate of the Monterey’s potential means that economic benefits touted by the industry are inflated.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Governor Brown has resisted a moratorium, citing the state’s efforts to \u003ca href=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/science/2013/11/15/what-californias-new-fracking-rules-would-do-and-not-do/\">develop regulations for fracking this year\u003c/a> that require groundwater monitoring, new permitting requirements and notification of neighbors in the area.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad floatright]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c!-- iframe plugin v.4.3 wordpress.org/plugins/iframe/ -->\u003cbr>\n\u003ciframe loading=\"lazy\" width=\"100%\" height=\"166\" scrolling=\"no\" frameborder=\"no\" src=\"https://w.soundcloud.com/player/?url=https%3A//api.soundcloud.com/tracks/150669396&color=ff5500&auto_play=false&hide_related=false&show_artwork=true\" class=\"iframe-class\">\u003c/iframe>\u003c/p>\n\n",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_17661\" class=\"wp-caption alignleft\" style=\"max-width: 640px\">\u003ca href=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/science/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2014/05/pumpjacks.jpg\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-17661\" src=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/science/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2014/05/pumpjacks.jpg\" alt=\"Pumpjacks draw oil out of the Monterey Shale near McKittrick, California. (Photo by David McNew/Getty Images)\" width=\"640\" height=\"360\">\u003c/a>\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Pumpjacks draw oil out of the Monterey Shale near McKittrick, California. (Photo by David McNew/Getty Images)\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>The controversy over hydraulic fracturing in California has been largely centered around the Monterey Formation, the rock layer that was said to be the largest oil resource in the country and almost a sure bet for a drilling boom.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>At least, until this week. Federal officials with the Energy Information Administration are \u003ca href=\"http://www.latimes.com/business/la-fi-oil-20140521-story.html\">reportedly downgrading their estimate\u003c/a> of how much oil could be pumped out of the formation. Just a few years ago, the agency projected that oil companies could retrieve 15 billion barrels of oil. Now, it’s down to 600 million.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Just to clarify: these numbers don’t reflect how much oil is underground in California. Most geologists agree that there’s still plenty down there. The EIA is attempting to estimate how much could be pumped out with current technology. As with other oil and gas reserves around the country, this number fluctuates quite a bit based on assumptions about the geology and what oil companies can accomplish.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“The total resource can be huge – just ridiculously large,” says Don Gautier, geologist emeritus with the U.S. Geological Survey. “What fraction of it can actually be recovered? That can be very uncertain.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>What’s Unknown About the Monterey Formation\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>So why the uncertainty around the Monterey Shale? It has to do with the lack of information about the rock formation.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The Monterey has already been incredibly productive in California. It’s been the source of most oil production in the state over the last century. The rock layer covers 1,700 square miles and can be several thousand feet thick in places. It was created millions of years ago, when dead microorganisms piled up on the bottom of an ancient sea.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_17668\" class=\"wp-caption alignright\" style=\"max-width: 311px\">\u003ca href=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/science/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2014/05/NatGasSchematic2.jpg\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\" wp-image-17668\" src=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/science/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2014/05/NatGasSchematic2.jpg\" alt=\"Conventional drilling taps into reservoirs where oil and gas has pooled underground. Unconventional drilling goes deeper into the rock layers that generate oil.\" width=\"311\" height=\"376\">\u003c/a>\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Conventional drilling taps into reservoirs where oil and gas has pooled underground. Unconventional drilling goes deeper into the rock layers that generate oil.\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>That organic material created oil-bearing rock and over the millennia, oil has seeped out and pooled in underground reservoirs. Finding and tapping these reservoirs, what’s known as “conventional” oil development, has made California the third-largest oil producer in the country.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The buzz these days, however, is over “unconventional” development. That’s where oil and gas companies drill down into the rock layers that produce the oil – known as “source rock.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>These rocks are dense and historically, haven’t been very productive – until hydraulic fracturing came along. When water and sand are injected underground at high pressure, they create tiny fractures in the rock that help release the oil.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Historically, oil companies in California haven’t had to tap into the source rock. There were plenty of conventional reservoirs to develop. But as the technology has improved and production in older reservoirs has declined, oil producers have started looking deeper, down to the Monterey Shale source rock.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Is the Oil Still There?\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>North Dakota has seen a massive oil boom in the source rock of its Bakken formation, due in large part to hydraulic fracturing. Fracking opened up source rock that was considered beyond reach just a few decades ago.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The question in the Monterey Shale is whether the source rock still holds lots of oil. California’s abundant seismic activity could have forced much of the oil to migrate out.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“These are very effective mechanisms that allow oil to be expelled from the source rock,” says Gautier. “Whereas up in the Bakken, the oil was generated 100 million years ago and has been sitting like a dead lump since.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Because of these unknowns, many believe there’s huge uncertainty about the amount of oil that can be recovered in the Monterey.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“We just don’t know,” says Gautier. “One of the possibilities is that most of the recoverable oil has already been expelled and migrated. So what’s left behind is residual oil that won’t really yield significant production. That isn’t to say there isn’t a whole lot of oil in the Monterey or even that there isn’t a lot of oil remaining in California.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>USGS is working on its own estimate of recoverable oil in the Monterey, expected early next year.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The seismically warped rock layers in California could also make it challenging to use the same fracking techniques that have been so effective in North Dakota. Oil wells are drilled horizontally for miles sometimes along a layer of rock. California’s roller-coaster rock layers could make horizontal drilling a challenge.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Oil companies are still in the early stages of drilling exploratory wells in the source rock. Until more of that data are available, the jury is still out on the Monterey Shale.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“The fact of the matter is there’ve only been a handful of wells that even intended to test the idea,” says Gautier.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>What the Industry Is Saying\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Despite the lackluster new estimate, the oil industry says the number has little effect on their efforts.\u003c/p>\n\u003caside class=\"pullquote alignleft\">‘Whether there are 15 billion barrels or 600 million barrels… it’s still a lot of oil.’\u003ccite>— Susan Hersberger, Aera Energy\u003c/cite>\u003c/aside>\n\u003cp>“The oil is still there,” says Catherine Reheis-Boyd of the Western States Petroleum Association, an industry group.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“It’s just a matter of technology and it’s a matter of the skill and experience and innovative spirit that we really believe the men and women of the petroleum industry possess,” she says. “And they will solve the puzzle and they will improve production rates from the Monterey Shale.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Several oil companies say their exploratory wells are getting them closer to the answer.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Preliminary data from our first exploration wells tells us the oil is there,” says Susan Hersberger of \u003ca href=\"http://aeraenergy.com/\">Aera Energy\u003c/a>, one of the largest oil production companies in California. “But this data has also confirmed that the Monterey Shale has some characteristics that warrant further study and testing, so that we might unlock its potential.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Similar to the decades-long exploration of the Bakken, the Monterey exploration process will also be a long and complex journey,” she says. “Whether there are 15 billion barrels or 600 million barrels or something in between, it’s still a lot of oil. We see potential and are in it for the long-term.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Calls for a Fracking Moratorium\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>A collation of environmental and community groups called \u003ca href=\"http://www.californiansagainstfracking.org/\">Californians Against Fracking\u003c/a> is using the new estimate to raise concerns over groundwater contamination and environmental damage.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“This bombshell from the EIA gives you a new opportunity to make the right call and halt fracking,” they wrote in a letter to Governor Jerry Brown.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The group, which is calling for a moratorium on fracking, says the lower estimate of the Monterey’s potential means that economic benefits touted by the industry are inflated.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Governor Brown has resisted a moratorium, citing the state’s efforts to \u003ca href=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/science/2013/11/15/what-californias-new-fracking-rules-would-do-and-not-do/\">develop regulations for fracking this year\u003c/a> that require groundwater monitoring, new permitting requirements and notification of neighbors in the area.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cp>\u003cstrong>By Associated Press\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The amount of oil that can be recovered from California’s vast Monterey Shale formation using existing technology is far less than thought.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>That’s according to a new federal estimate that found just 600 million barrels of oil can be drawn from the Monterey Shale, a 1,750-square-mile area extending from the agricultural Central Valley to the Pacific Ocean. That’s less than the previous estimate of 13.7 billion barrels of recoverable oil.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[contextly_sidebar id=”cd9476f757d42595c4f78880fa4dd247″]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The \u003ca href=\"http://lat.ms/1ndwsx9\">Los Angeles Times\u003c/a> reports the new estimate by the U.S. Energy Information Administration is expected to be publicly released next month.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad fullwidth]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Oil companies have used hydraulic fracturing, or fracking, to unlock oil from the Monterey Shale with mixed success.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The oil industry says it is hopeful new techniques will open up the formation.\u003c/p>\n\n",
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"content": "\u003cp>\u003cstrong>By Peter Jon Shuler and Molly Samuel\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_10038\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 640px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-10038\" src=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/science/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2013/10/frackingprotest.jpg\" alt=\"The group Californians Against Fracking protested outside the San Francisco office of Gov. Jerry Brown, demanding that he support a ban on hydraulic fracturing in oil and gas exploration. (Justin Sullivan/Getty Images)\" width=\"640\" height=\"360\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">The group Californians Against Fracking protested outside the San Francisco office of Gov. Jerry Brown, demanding that he support a ban on hydraulic fracturing in oil and gas exploration. (Justin Sullivan/Getty Images)\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Santa Cruz County has become the first county in California to impose a “permanent” ban on fracking, as well as all other on-shore oil and gas development. Tuesday morning the Board of Supervisors unanimously approved the pre-emptive move against hydraulic fracturing, a technology that uses water and chemicals to unlock oil and gas underground.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Some would say this is a symbolic gesture,” said Supervisor Bruce McPherson. “But I think it’s a message that needs to be sent out and listened to, especially on our quality of life and particularly about the impact it might have on our water supply, whether it occurs inside this county or in adjacent counties.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[contextly_sidebar id=”76bba43104b6094f9b4efd10a78caeee”]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Butte and \u003ca href=\"http://www.mendocinobeacon.com/latest-local/ci_25722116/supervisors-working-fracking-ban\">Mendocino counties\u003c/a> are considering similar moves. And \u003ca href=\"http://ballotpedia.org/Butte_County_Fracking_Ban_Initiative_%28November_2014%29\">Butte\u003c/a>, \u003ca href=\"http://ballotpedia.org/San_Benito_County_Fracking_Ban_Initiative_%28November_2014%29\">San Benito\u003c/a> and \u003ca href=\"http://ballotpedia.org/Santa_Barbara_County_Fracking_Ban_Initiative_%28November_2014%29\">Santa Barbara\u003c/a> counties may all have fracking restrictions on the November ballot. A state bill that would \u003ca href=\"http://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/billNavClient.xhtml?bill_id=201320140SB1132\">ban fracking\u003c/a> until there is more scientific study is in limbo, having been relegated to the Appropriations Committee suspense file on Monday.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad fullwidth]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The oil industry insists that fracking is safe and has made the United States less dependent on foreign energy.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp style=\"margin: 12px auto 6px auto;font-family: Helvetica,Arial,Sans-serif;font-style: normal;font-variant: normal;font-weight: normal;font-size: 14px;line-height: normal\">\u003ca style=\"text-decoration: underline\" title=\"View Santa Cruz County Fracking Ban on Scribd\" href=\"http://www.scribd.com/doc/225318322/Santa-Cruz-County-Fracking-Ban\">Santa Cruz County Fracking Ban\u003c/a>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c!-- iframe plugin v.4.3 wordpress.org/plugins/iframe/ -->\u003cbr>\n\u003ciframe loading=\"lazy\" id=\"doc_18804\" class=\"scribd_iframe_embed\" src=\"//www.scribd.com/embeds/225318322/content?start_page=1&view_mode=scroll&show_recommendations=true\" width=\"100%\" height=\"600\" frameborder=\"0\" scrolling=\"no\">\u003c/iframe>\u003c/p>\n\n",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003cp>\u003cstrong>By Peter Jon Shuler and Molly Samuel\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_10038\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 640px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-10038\" src=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/science/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2013/10/frackingprotest.jpg\" alt=\"The group Californians Against Fracking protested outside the San Francisco office of Gov. Jerry Brown, demanding that he support a ban on hydraulic fracturing in oil and gas exploration. (Justin Sullivan/Getty Images)\" width=\"640\" height=\"360\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">The group Californians Against Fracking protested outside the San Francisco office of Gov. Jerry Brown, demanding that he support a ban on hydraulic fracturing in oil and gas exploration. (Justin Sullivan/Getty Images)\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Santa Cruz County has become the first county in California to impose a “permanent” ban on fracking, as well as all other on-shore oil and gas development. Tuesday morning the Board of Supervisors unanimously approved the pre-emptive move against hydraulic fracturing, a technology that uses water and chemicals to unlock oil and gas underground.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Some would say this is a symbolic gesture,” said Supervisor Bruce McPherson. “But I think it’s a message that needs to be sent out and listened to, especially on our quality of life and particularly about the impact it might have on our water supply, whether it occurs inside this county or in adjacent counties.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Butte and \u003ca href=\"http://www.mendocinobeacon.com/latest-local/ci_25722116/supervisors-working-fracking-ban\">Mendocino counties\u003c/a> are considering similar moves. And \u003ca href=\"http://ballotpedia.org/Butte_County_Fracking_Ban_Initiative_%28November_2014%29\">Butte\u003c/a>, \u003ca href=\"http://ballotpedia.org/San_Benito_County_Fracking_Ban_Initiative_%28November_2014%29\">San Benito\u003c/a> and \u003ca href=\"http://ballotpedia.org/Santa_Barbara_County_Fracking_Ban_Initiative_%28November_2014%29\">Santa Barbara\u003c/a> counties may all have fracking restrictions on the November ballot. A state bill that would \u003ca href=\"http://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/billNavClient.xhtml?bill_id=201320140SB1132\">ban fracking\u003c/a> until there is more scientific study is in limbo, having been relegated to the Appropriations Committee suspense file on Monday.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The oil industry insists that fracking is safe and has made the United States less dependent on foreign energy.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp style=\"margin: 12px auto 6px auto;font-family: Helvetica,Arial,Sans-serif;font-style: normal;font-variant: normal;font-weight: normal;font-size: 14px;line-height: normal\">\u003ca style=\"text-decoration: underline\" title=\"View Santa Cruz County Fracking Ban on Scribd\" href=\"http://www.scribd.com/doc/225318322/Santa-Cruz-County-Fracking-Ban\">Santa Cruz County Fracking Ban\u003c/a>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c!-- iframe plugin v.4.3 wordpress.org/plugins/iframe/ -->\u003cbr>\n\u003ciframe loading=\"lazy\" id=\"doc_18804\" class=\"scribd_iframe_embed\" src=\"//www.scribd.com/embeds/225318322/content?start_page=1&view_mode=scroll&show_recommendations=true\" width=\"100%\" height=\"600\" frameborder=\"0\" scrolling=\"no\">\u003c/iframe>\u003c/p>\n\n\u003c/div>\u003c/p>",
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"title": "California Wildfires: Training for a Tough Season",
"headTitle": "California Wildfires: Training for a Tough Season | KQED",
"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"audio-wrap\">\n\u003ch2>Listen:\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>http://www.kqed.org/.stream/anon/radio/science/2014/05/20140519science.mp3\u003c/p>\n\u003c/div>\n\u003cp>Firefighters in Southern California are still mopping up fires that raged last week, stoked by record-breaking heat and strong winds on top of the three-year drought.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Officials warn that Northern California is dry and ready to burn, too, and seasonal firefighters were brought on earlier than usual. In mid-May, newly hired CalFire firefighters were running through drills, climbing ladders and unfurling hoses at a training facility in rural Napa County.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_17575\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 640px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-17575\" src=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/science/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2014/05/ladders-web.jpg\" alt=\"CalFire firefighters running through drills at a training facility in Napa County. (Molly Samuel/KQED)\" width=\"640\" height=\"480\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">CalFire firefighters running through drills at a training facility in Napa County. (Molly Samuel/KQED)\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>“We do this every year,” said Jason Hill, who is starting his third season with CalFire. “Every fire season they say is going to be the worst, but this season I think will definitely be a good one.”\u003c/p>\n\u003caside class=\"pullquote alignleft\">‘We’ve already seen a significant increase in wildfire activity due to the drought.’\u003ccite>— Amy Head, CalFire\u003c/cite>\u003c/aside>\n\u003cp>By “good” he means what most people might consider “bad.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“We’ve already seen a significant increase in wildfire activity due to the drought,” said Amy Head, a fire captain with CalFire. More fires have started in California this year than had started by this time last year.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad fullwidth]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“We did start hiring our seasonals as early as January, which is something I’ve never heard of,” Head said. “And Southern California never even saw an end to fire season.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>It was the same for the Forest Service. “We never really had an off season,” said Shawna Legarza, the regional fire and aviation director with the Forest Service in California. “Usually we get some time off during the holidays. We had fires right before Christmas. We had fires in Northern California in January. We had fires in Central and Southern California in February. We’ve been busy.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Last year, more than 570,000 acres burned in wildfires in California. The Rim Fire, near Yosemite, was huge, but overall, total acres burned in the state was near average. \u003c/p>\n\u003caside class=\"pullquote alignleft\">‘A lot of the preparedness efforts we make cost money. We have to justify that with evidence.’\u003ccite>— Tom Knecht, CalFire\u003c/cite>\u003c/aside>\n\u003cp> This year, CalFire is preparing for a busy season by hiring extra staff — firefighters and also inspectors to check whether homeowners have cleared vegetation to create extra space around their houses, called “defensible space.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Pre-Fire Science\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“A lot of the preparedness efforts we make cost money. We have to justify that with evidence,” said Tom Knecht, a fire captain and pre-fire engineer with CalFire. His job includes collecting some of that evidence.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Because, though it may seem like common sense that it’s dry out there, there is a science to knowing how dry, and to knowing when the threat of fire is at its worst.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Knecht took me up a trail in the Las Posadas State Forest, about 20 miles northeast of Santa Rosa. The trail was lined on either side by a plant called chemise that grew higher than our heads. “It looks a lot like rosemary,” Knecht said, as he snipped twigs off the plant with a pair of garden shears and stuffed them into a plastic container shaped like a water bottle.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>He weighs the chemise he collects, then dehydrates it and weighs it again. The difference between those two numbers tells him how much water is in the plant; this is called the live fuel moisture. (As opposed to dead fuel moisture, another measurement tracking the water content in dead trees and branches.)\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_17581\" class=\"wp-caption alignleft\" style=\"max-width: 298px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-17581 \" src=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/science/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2014/05/fuels-web-e1400278725917.jpg\" alt=\"Tom Knecht of CalFire collects chemise to find its fuel moisture. (Molly Samuel/KQED)\" width=\"298\" height=\"298\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Tom Knecht of CalFire collects chemise to find its fuel moisture. (Molly Samuel/KQED)\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>At this point in the year, there’s still a good amount of water.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“We’re still seeing the plants taking on water,” Knecht said. “So they’re still getting moisture out of the ground. They’re still growing. You can see the new growth, they’re getting ready to flower. That whole time the plant is full of moisture.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Eventually, the plants will begin to go dormant. That’s the moment Knecht is on the look out for.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“We really want to know when it turns the corner, when it stops taking on water and then starts to dry out,” he said. When the chemise is growing, it could burn, but the fire would be slower and less intense. Once the plant is dormant and dried out, its presence marks the places that could burn hot and fast.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Knecht said the plants look like they’ll be turning that corner sooner this year. “The plants, although they’re taking on moisture and have new growth, they’re behind where they were last year this time,” he said. “I expect to see them dry out earlier, turn the corner earlier, be dormant earlier.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Knecht does these studies monthly, and sometimes more often than that. Fire officials look at the live fuel moisture measured in various plant species all around the state. And they feed that into a model along with the dead fuel moisture. Then they combine that with weather conditions to figure out the energy release component. That tells them, if a fire does catch, how intense it will be.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“We look at weather every day, and the topography — we know where there’s steep ridges and hills and so forth. But the fuel moistures change, and that’s one of the things we need situational awareness of, to be able to base our actions on current and expected fire behavior,” Knecht said. “That’s why I’m out here doing this.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Putting the Data to Use\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003caside class=\"pullquote alignleft\">‘We’re only in May and we’re seeing conditions that we would normally see in August.’\u003ccite>— Chief Ken Pimlott, CalFire\u003c/cite>\u003c/aside>\n\u003cp>Armed with that information, fire officials can work to ensure that firefighters and equipment like air tankers are moved to the right part of the state, and — in a year like this one — that they’re in place early as needed.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“We’re only in May and we’re seeing conditions that we would normally see in August,” said Chief Ken Pimlott, the director of CalFire. He said Governor Jerry Brown’s drought declaration in January put extra money toward firefighting. “He has made a very firm commitment that CalFire and our partners will have the resources and the funding it needs to combat this risk.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>CalFire has the budget for an extra 300 firefighters this season. Like CalFire, the U.S. Forest Service brought staff on earlier, too, and is prepared to bring firefighters in from other parts of the country.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>So the firefighting agencies say they’re ready. What they can’t predict is when or how a fire will start.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“We can’t control the lightning, that’s out of control,” said Legarza. But the majority of wildfires, she points out, are human-caused. “So we can help give information to the public to help us prevent wildland fires.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad floatright]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Like making sure brush and branches are cut back around your property, following rules about campfires and being careful with tools that might spark a flame. And as Smokey Bear’s been reminding us for decades, whatever you do, don’t throw that cigarette butt out the window.\u003c/p>\n\n",
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"excerpt": "Seasonal firefighters started training months earlier than usual this year. It may seem like common sense that it's dry out there, but there is a science to knowing how dry, and to knowing when the threat of wildfire is at its worst.",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/div>\n\u003cp>Firefighters in Southern California are still mopping up fires that raged last week, stoked by record-breaking heat and strong winds on top of the three-year drought.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Officials warn that Northern California is dry and ready to burn, too, and seasonal firefighters were brought on earlier than usual. In mid-May, newly hired CalFire firefighters were running through drills, climbing ladders and unfurling hoses at a training facility in rural Napa County.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_17575\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 640px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-17575\" src=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/science/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2014/05/ladders-web.jpg\" alt=\"CalFire firefighters running through drills at a training facility in Napa County. (Molly Samuel/KQED)\" width=\"640\" height=\"480\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">CalFire firefighters running through drills at a training facility in Napa County. (Molly Samuel/KQED)\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>“We do this every year,” said Jason Hill, who is starting his third season with CalFire. “Every fire season they say is going to be the worst, but this season I think will definitely be a good one.”\u003c/p>\n\u003caside class=\"pullquote alignleft\">‘We’ve already seen a significant increase in wildfire activity due to the drought.’\u003ccite>— Amy Head, CalFire\u003c/cite>\u003c/aside>\n\u003cp>By “good” he means what most people might consider “bad.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“We’ve already seen a significant increase in wildfire activity due to the drought,” said Amy Head, a fire captain with CalFire. More fires have started in California this year than had started by this time last year.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“We did start hiring our seasonals as early as January, which is something I’ve never heard of,” Head said. “And Southern California never even saw an end to fire season.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>It was the same for the Forest Service. “We never really had an off season,” said Shawna Legarza, the regional fire and aviation director with the Forest Service in California. “Usually we get some time off during the holidays. We had fires right before Christmas. We had fires in Northern California in January. We had fires in Central and Southern California in February. We’ve been busy.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Last year, more than 570,000 acres burned in wildfires in California. The Rim Fire, near Yosemite, was huge, but overall, total acres burned in the state was near average. \u003c/p>\n\u003caside class=\"pullquote alignleft\">‘A lot of the preparedness efforts we make cost money. We have to justify that with evidence.’\u003ccite>— Tom Knecht, CalFire\u003c/cite>\u003c/aside>\n\u003cp> This year, CalFire is preparing for a busy season by hiring extra staff — firefighters and also inspectors to check whether homeowners have cleared vegetation to create extra space around their houses, called “defensible space.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Pre-Fire Science\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“A lot of the preparedness efforts we make cost money. We have to justify that with evidence,” said Tom Knecht, a fire captain and pre-fire engineer with CalFire. His job includes collecting some of that evidence.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Because, though it may seem like common sense that it’s dry out there, there is a science to knowing how dry, and to knowing when the threat of fire is at its worst.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Knecht took me up a trail in the Las Posadas State Forest, about 20 miles northeast of Santa Rosa. The trail was lined on either side by a plant called chemise that grew higher than our heads. “It looks a lot like rosemary,” Knecht said, as he snipped twigs off the plant with a pair of garden shears and stuffed them into a plastic container shaped like a water bottle.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>He weighs the chemise he collects, then dehydrates it and weighs it again. The difference between those two numbers tells him how much water is in the plant; this is called the live fuel moisture. (As opposed to dead fuel moisture, another measurement tracking the water content in dead trees and branches.)\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_17581\" class=\"wp-caption alignleft\" style=\"max-width: 298px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-17581 \" src=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/science/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2014/05/fuels-web-e1400278725917.jpg\" alt=\"Tom Knecht of CalFire collects chemise to find its fuel moisture. (Molly Samuel/KQED)\" width=\"298\" height=\"298\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Tom Knecht of CalFire collects chemise to find its fuel moisture. (Molly Samuel/KQED)\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>At this point in the year, there’s still a good amount of water.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“We’re still seeing the plants taking on water,” Knecht said. “So they’re still getting moisture out of the ground. They’re still growing. You can see the new growth, they’re getting ready to flower. That whole time the plant is full of moisture.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Eventually, the plants will begin to go dormant. That’s the moment Knecht is on the look out for.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“We really want to know when it turns the corner, when it stops taking on water and then starts to dry out,” he said. When the chemise is growing, it could burn, but the fire would be slower and less intense. Once the plant is dormant and dried out, its presence marks the places that could burn hot and fast.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Knecht said the plants look like they’ll be turning that corner sooner this year. “The plants, although they’re taking on moisture and have new growth, they’re behind where they were last year this time,” he said. “I expect to see them dry out earlier, turn the corner earlier, be dormant earlier.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Knecht does these studies monthly, and sometimes more often than that. Fire officials look at the live fuel moisture measured in various plant species all around the state. And they feed that into a model along with the dead fuel moisture. Then they combine that with weather conditions to figure out the energy release component. That tells them, if a fire does catch, how intense it will be.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“We look at weather every day, and the topography — we know where there’s steep ridges and hills and so forth. But the fuel moistures change, and that’s one of the things we need situational awareness of, to be able to base our actions on current and expected fire behavior,” Knecht said. “That’s why I’m out here doing this.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Putting the Data to Use\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003caside class=\"pullquote alignleft\">‘We’re only in May and we’re seeing conditions that we would normally see in August.’\u003ccite>— Chief Ken Pimlott, CalFire\u003c/cite>\u003c/aside>\n\u003cp>Armed with that information, fire officials can work to ensure that firefighters and equipment like air tankers are moved to the right part of the state, and — in a year like this one — that they’re in place early as needed.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“We’re only in May and we’re seeing conditions that we would normally see in August,” said Chief Ken Pimlott, the director of CalFire. He said Governor Jerry Brown’s drought declaration in January put extra money toward firefighting. “He has made a very firm commitment that CalFire and our partners will have the resources and the funding it needs to combat this risk.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>CalFire has the budget for an extra 300 firefighters this season. Like CalFire, the U.S. Forest Service brought staff on earlier, too, and is prepared to bring firefighters in from other parts of the country.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>So the firefighting agencies say they’re ready. What they can’t predict is when or how a fire will start.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“We can’t control the lightning, that’s out of control,” said Legarza. But the majority of wildfires, she points out, are human-caused. “So we can help give information to the public to help us prevent wildland fires.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Like making sure brush and branches are cut back around your property, following rules about campfires and being careful with tools that might spark a flame. And as Smokey Bear’s been reminding us for decades, whatever you do, don’t throw that cigarette butt out the window.\u003c/p>\n\n\u003c/div>\u003c/p>",
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"title": "For San Francisco Bone Collector, Skulls Are a Lifelong Love Affair",
"headTitle": "For San Francisco Bone Collector, Skulls Are a Lifelong Love Affair | KQED",
"content": "\u003cp>[UPDATE: Ray Bandar passed away in late December, 2017. His work lives on at the California Academy of Sciences.]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>There are hobbies and then there are lifelong passions. Ray Bandar’s passion is finding and cleaning skulls.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>For six decades, Bandar has been making a quiet contribution to science, harvesting the bones of dead animals on the California coast and amassing an impressive collection of skulls. On Friday the \u003ca href=\"http://www.calacademy.org/\">California Academy of Sciences\u003c/a> in San Francisco is opening a \u003ca href=\"http://www.calacademy.org/academy/exhibits/skulls/\">new exhibit of skulls\u003c/a> that features his work.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Bandar keeps his own collection in the basement of his San Francisco home. The “bone palace,” as he calls it, holds close to 7,000 skulls and skeletons, stacked floor to ceiling. He organizes the shelves by species, including seals, sea lions, leopards, cheetahs, horses, zebras, giraffes and dolphins.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“This is largest animal that lives and breeds in California,” Bandar says, holding up an elephant seal skull. “That’s an adult female.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad fullwidth]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Bandar is a spritely 86-year-old with an encyclopedic knowledge of the bones. “Sixty years at Ocean Beach, I’ve been decapitating dead marine mammals,” he says.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_17387\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 1280px\">\u003ca href=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/science/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2014/05/DSC01301-1024x576.jpg\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-17387 size-full\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/science/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2014/05/DSC01301.jpg\" alt='Ray \"Bones\" Bandar has spent six decades finding and cleaning animal bones. (Lauren Sommer/KQED)' width=\"1280\" height=\"720\">\u003c/a>\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Ray ‘Bones’ Bandar has spent six decades finding dead animals and preparing their bones. (Lauren Sommer/KQED)\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>For most of his life, Bandar searched local beaches for dead sea lions and seals and removed the heads. As a volunteer with the California Academy of Sciences, he worked under its scientific collection permit from the state. The more exotic animals in his collection came from local zoos after the animals died.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Cleaning skulls is not for the faint of heart. “I remove as much flesh as possible,” he says. “Put them in bucket of water. Put them in a warm spot and leave it to sit there for weeks and the bacterial action removes all the organic material.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Bandar’s fascination with the natural world began as a kid growing up in San Francisco, when he collected snakes and frogs in Golden Gate Park and donated them to the Steinhart Aquarium.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>He collected his first skull in his twenties, dragging the head of a harbor seal back to his parents’ house — on public transportation. He says he wondered to himself how he could get the meat off. “So I put it in a big pot. Said, ‘Well, I guess I’ll boil it.’ And boy did it stink up the house. When my parents came home, they weren’t too happy about that.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_17390\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 1280px\">\u003ca href=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/science/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2014/05/Basement1-1024x576.jpg\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-17390 size-full\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/science/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2014/05/Basement1.jpg\" alt=\"Bandar has almost 7,000 skulls and skeletons in his San Francisco basement\" width=\"1280\" height=\"720\">\u003c/a>\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">There are almost 7,000 skulls and skeletons in Bandar’s San Francisco basement. (Lauren Sommer/KQED)\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Over the years, Bandar attracted crowds of beachgoers as he harvested skulls. Occasionally, he attracted suspicion, like the time in Half Moon Bay when he was working on a 14-foot elephant seal carcass in front of the Ritz-Carlton.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“I’m sitting on his neck, cutting away, trying to sever the skull from the torso,” he recalls. “And I turn around and standing on the beach is three cops.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The policemen eyed Bandar’s ratty field jacket, covered in rotting flesh. They’d gotten a number of phone calls, Bandar says. “More than one call is, ‘There’s this homeless guy. He’s trying to eat this dead elephant seal.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Bandar’s wife of 60 years doesn’t mind his hobby. The two of them met in art school. On their honeymoon to New York City, they fell in love with the bone displays at the American Museum of Natural History.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Vertebrae hang next to his wife’s paintings in their living room. “To me,” Bandar says, “they’re beautiful pieces of sculpture.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_17391\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 1280px\">\u003ca href=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/science/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2014/05/Basement7-1024x576.jpg\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-17391 size-full\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/science/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2014/05/Basement7.jpg\" alt=\"Bandar would often attract crowds of beachgoers as he worked, as well as the police. (Lauren Sommer/KQED)\" width=\"1280\" height=\"720\">\u003c/a>\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Bandar would often attract crowds of beachgoers as he worked, as well as, occasionally, the police. (Lauren Sommer/KQED)\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Bandar went on to teach biology for 32 years at Fremont High School in East Oakland, where dissection was a big part of the curriculum. “Even in medical school, the students do not get what they got in my classroom,” he says. “I still hear from my students.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Bandar retired from collecting specimens last summer. The skulls in his basement will eventually go to the California Academy of Sciences, where his work will comprise one-fifth of the museum’s ornithology and mammalogy collection.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Cal Academy’s collection of skulls teaches the public, including thousands of school children who come to the museum each year, about wildlife and the natural world. One of the Academy’s collectors is curatorial assistant Sue Pemberton.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Inside the specimen preparation room, Pemberton describes the work she has in progress. “You’ll see over on the left here I have a young elephant seal skull,” she says.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The skull is crawling with dermestid beetles, which specialize in eating dead flesh. Pemberton uses them to clean skulls for the collection. She also uses large buckets of water, the same method Bandar employs.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Pemberton pulls a harbor seal skull out of a bucket, and a putrid odor fills the air. “Smells like the worst outhouse you can ever be in,” she says. “But that’s how it works. Everything kind of breaks down.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_17395\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 1280px\">\u003ca href=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/science/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2014/05/DSC01243-1024x576.jpg\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-17395 size-full\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/science/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2014/05/DSC01243.jpg\" alt=\"Dermestid beetles clean a young elephant seal skull at the California Academy of Sciences. (Lauren Sommer/KQED)\" width=\"1280\" height=\"720\">\u003c/a>\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Dermestid beetles clean the flesh off a young elephant seal skull at the California Academy of Sciences. (Lauren Sommer/KQED)\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>The skulls also help scientists learn how marine mammals are doing off the California coast. The bones reveal if the animals were sick and what they ate.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>She pulls out a southern sea otter skull to illustrate. “Here you can see what color the teeth are. Bright purple, like the-color-of-grape-juice purple.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The otter stained its teeth eating purple sea urchins. Other sea otters have completely different diets, which they learn from their mothers.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Pemberton heads out to the beach whenever a report comes in of a dead animal; she’s part of the \u003ca href=\"http://www.nmfs.noaa.gov/pr/health/networks.htm#westcoast\">Marine Mammal Stranding Network\u003c/a>, a group of wildlife centers and museums that responds to reports. Her whale kit is ready to go on the table: a dozen steak knives and an ax.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_17396\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 1280px\">\u003ca href=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/science/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2014/05/DSC01248-1024x576.jpg\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-17396 size-full\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/science/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2014/05/DSC01248.jpg\" alt=\"A southern sea otter skull has purple teeth, stained from the sea urchins that made up its diet. (Lauren Sommer/KQED)\" width=\"1280\" height=\"720\">\u003c/a>\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">A southern sea otter skull with purple teeth, stained from the sea urchins that made up its diet. (Lauren Sommer/KQED)\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>“Sometimes there’s a blubber layer that’s two feet thick,” she says. “So you’re having to get through that to get to what you think might be the cause of death.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Pemberton and others have documented cases where ship strikes killed whales off the coast. The data actually helped change policy. Last year, federal officials \u003ca href=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/science/2013/06/04/san-francisco-bay-shipping-lanes-narrowed-to-protect-whales/\">put in new speed limits\u003c/a> for cargo ships coming into San Francisco Bay.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“It’s what you think about when you’re elbow-deep in rotted, dead whales,” she says. “And it’s not pleasant by any stretch. But to know that it’s actually helping with the conservation and protection of all the whales that come after that, it makes all really worthwhile.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Cal Academy’s \u003ca href=\"http://www.calacademy.org/academy/exhibits/skulls/\">exhibit of skulls\u003c/a>, featuring Ray Bandar’s work, opens to the public on May 16.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_17401\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 1280px\">\u003ca href=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/science/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2014/05/DSC01268-1024x576.jpg\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-17401 size-full\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/science/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2014/05/DSC01268.jpg\" alt=\"DSC01268\" width=\"1280\" height=\"720\">\u003c/a>\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">A box of monkey skulls in Bandar’s collection, with room for more. (Lauren Sommer/KQED)\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>[ad floatright]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>.\u003c/p>\n\n",
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"excerpt": "San Francisco's California Academy of Sciences opens a skull exhibit this week, featuring the work of Ray Bandar, a man who has devoted 60 years to cleaning the skulls and bones of some of California's most beloved animals.",
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"description": "San Francisco's California Academy of Sciences opens a skull exhibit this week, featuring the work of Ray Bandar, a man who has devoted 60 years to cleaning the skulls and bones of some of California's most beloved animals.",
"title": "For San Francisco Bone Collector, Skulls Are a Lifelong Love Affair | KQED",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003cp>[UPDATE: Ray Bandar passed away in late December, 2017. His work lives on at the California Academy of Sciences.]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>There are hobbies and then there are lifelong passions. Ray Bandar’s passion is finding and cleaning skulls.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>For six decades, Bandar has been making a quiet contribution to science, harvesting the bones of dead animals on the California coast and amassing an impressive collection of skulls. On Friday the \u003ca href=\"http://www.calacademy.org/\">California Academy of Sciences\u003c/a> in San Francisco is opening a \u003ca href=\"http://www.calacademy.org/academy/exhibits/skulls/\">new exhibit of skulls\u003c/a> that features his work.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Bandar keeps his own collection in the basement of his San Francisco home. The “bone palace,” as he calls it, holds close to 7,000 skulls and skeletons, stacked floor to ceiling. He organizes the shelves by species, including seals, sea lions, leopards, cheetahs, horses, zebras, giraffes and dolphins.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“This is largest animal that lives and breeds in California,” Bandar says, holding up an elephant seal skull. “That’s an adult female.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Bandar is a spritely 86-year-old with an encyclopedic knowledge of the bones. “Sixty years at Ocean Beach, I’ve been decapitating dead marine mammals,” he says.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_17387\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 1280px\">\u003ca href=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/science/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2014/05/DSC01301-1024x576.jpg\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-17387 size-full\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/science/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2014/05/DSC01301.jpg\" alt='Ray \"Bones\" Bandar has spent six decades finding and cleaning animal bones. (Lauren Sommer/KQED)' width=\"1280\" height=\"720\">\u003c/a>\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Ray ‘Bones’ Bandar has spent six decades finding dead animals and preparing their bones. (Lauren Sommer/KQED)\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>For most of his life, Bandar searched local beaches for dead sea lions and seals and removed the heads. As a volunteer with the California Academy of Sciences, he worked under its scientific collection permit from the state. The more exotic animals in his collection came from local zoos after the animals died.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Cleaning skulls is not for the faint of heart. “I remove as much flesh as possible,” he says. “Put them in bucket of water. Put them in a warm spot and leave it to sit there for weeks and the bacterial action removes all the organic material.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Bandar’s fascination with the natural world began as a kid growing up in San Francisco, when he collected snakes and frogs in Golden Gate Park and donated them to the Steinhart Aquarium.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>He collected his first skull in his twenties, dragging the head of a harbor seal back to his parents’ house — on public transportation. He says he wondered to himself how he could get the meat off. “So I put it in a big pot. Said, ‘Well, I guess I’ll boil it.’ And boy did it stink up the house. When my parents came home, they weren’t too happy about that.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_17390\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 1280px\">\u003ca href=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/science/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2014/05/Basement1-1024x576.jpg\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-17390 size-full\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/science/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2014/05/Basement1.jpg\" alt=\"Bandar has almost 7,000 skulls and skeletons in his San Francisco basement\" width=\"1280\" height=\"720\">\u003c/a>\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">There are almost 7,000 skulls and skeletons in Bandar’s San Francisco basement. (Lauren Sommer/KQED)\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Over the years, Bandar attracted crowds of beachgoers as he harvested skulls. Occasionally, he attracted suspicion, like the time in Half Moon Bay when he was working on a 14-foot elephant seal carcass in front of the Ritz-Carlton.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“I’m sitting on his neck, cutting away, trying to sever the skull from the torso,” he recalls. “And I turn around and standing on the beach is three cops.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The policemen eyed Bandar’s ratty field jacket, covered in rotting flesh. They’d gotten a number of phone calls, Bandar says. “More than one call is, ‘There’s this homeless guy. He’s trying to eat this dead elephant seal.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Bandar’s wife of 60 years doesn’t mind his hobby. The two of them met in art school. On their honeymoon to New York City, they fell in love with the bone displays at the American Museum of Natural History.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Vertebrae hang next to his wife’s paintings in their living room. “To me,” Bandar says, “they’re beautiful pieces of sculpture.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_17391\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 1280px\">\u003ca href=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/science/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2014/05/Basement7-1024x576.jpg\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-17391 size-full\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/science/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2014/05/Basement7.jpg\" alt=\"Bandar would often attract crowds of beachgoers as he worked, as well as the police. (Lauren Sommer/KQED)\" width=\"1280\" height=\"720\">\u003c/a>\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Bandar would often attract crowds of beachgoers as he worked, as well as, occasionally, the police. (Lauren Sommer/KQED)\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Bandar went on to teach biology for 32 years at Fremont High School in East Oakland, where dissection was a big part of the curriculum. “Even in medical school, the students do not get what they got in my classroom,” he says. “I still hear from my students.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Bandar retired from collecting specimens last summer. The skulls in his basement will eventually go to the California Academy of Sciences, where his work will comprise one-fifth of the museum’s ornithology and mammalogy collection.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Cal Academy’s collection of skulls teaches the public, including thousands of school children who come to the museum each year, about wildlife and the natural world. One of the Academy’s collectors is curatorial assistant Sue Pemberton.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Inside the specimen preparation room, Pemberton describes the work she has in progress. “You’ll see over on the left here I have a young elephant seal skull,” she says.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The skull is crawling with dermestid beetles, which specialize in eating dead flesh. Pemberton uses them to clean skulls for the collection. She also uses large buckets of water, the same method Bandar employs.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Pemberton pulls a harbor seal skull out of a bucket, and a putrid odor fills the air. “Smells like the worst outhouse you can ever be in,” she says. “But that’s how it works. Everything kind of breaks down.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_17395\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 1280px\">\u003ca href=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/science/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2014/05/DSC01243-1024x576.jpg\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-17395 size-full\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/science/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2014/05/DSC01243.jpg\" alt=\"Dermestid beetles clean a young elephant seal skull at the California Academy of Sciences. (Lauren Sommer/KQED)\" width=\"1280\" height=\"720\">\u003c/a>\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Dermestid beetles clean the flesh off a young elephant seal skull at the California Academy of Sciences. (Lauren Sommer/KQED)\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>The skulls also help scientists learn how marine mammals are doing off the California coast. The bones reveal if the animals were sick and what they ate.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>She pulls out a southern sea otter skull to illustrate. “Here you can see what color the teeth are. Bright purple, like the-color-of-grape-juice purple.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The otter stained its teeth eating purple sea urchins. Other sea otters have completely different diets, which they learn from their mothers.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Pemberton heads out to the beach whenever a report comes in of a dead animal; she’s part of the \u003ca href=\"http://www.nmfs.noaa.gov/pr/health/networks.htm#westcoast\">Marine Mammal Stranding Network\u003c/a>, a group of wildlife centers and museums that responds to reports. Her whale kit is ready to go on the table: a dozen steak knives and an ax.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_17396\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 1280px\">\u003ca href=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/science/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2014/05/DSC01248-1024x576.jpg\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-17396 size-full\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/science/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2014/05/DSC01248.jpg\" alt=\"A southern sea otter skull has purple teeth, stained from the sea urchins that made up its diet. (Lauren Sommer/KQED)\" width=\"1280\" height=\"720\">\u003c/a>\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">A southern sea otter skull with purple teeth, stained from the sea urchins that made up its diet. (Lauren Sommer/KQED)\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>“Sometimes there’s a blubber layer that’s two feet thick,” she says. “So you’re having to get through that to get to what you think might be the cause of death.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Pemberton and others have documented cases where ship strikes killed whales off the coast. The data actually helped change policy. Last year, federal officials \u003ca href=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/science/2013/06/04/san-francisco-bay-shipping-lanes-narrowed-to-protect-whales/\">put in new speed limits\u003c/a> for cargo ships coming into San Francisco Bay.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“It’s what you think about when you’re elbow-deep in rotted, dead whales,” she says. “And it’s not pleasant by any stretch. But to know that it’s actually helping with the conservation and protection of all the whales that come after that, it makes all really worthwhile.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Cal Academy’s \u003ca href=\"http://www.calacademy.org/academy/exhibits/skulls/\">exhibit of skulls\u003c/a>, featuring Ray Bandar’s work, opens to the public on May 16.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_17401\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 1280px\">\u003ca href=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/science/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2014/05/DSC01268-1024x576.jpg\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-17401 size-full\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/science/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2014/05/DSC01268.jpg\" alt=\"DSC01268\" width=\"1280\" height=\"720\">\u003c/a>\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">A box of monkey skulls in Bandar’s collection, with room for more. (Lauren Sommer/KQED)\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"title": "Drought Tech: How Solar Desalination Could Help Parched Farms",
"headTitle": "Drought Tech: How Solar Desalination Could Help Parched Farms | KQED",
"content": "\u003cp>\u003cstrong>By Alice Daniel \u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Farmers on the western side of the San Joaquin Valley can count on two things: sunshine and water that’s polluted and salty where minerals have built up in the soil. Now a Northern California entrepreneur is using one to clean up the other in the Panoche Water and Drainage District near the little town of Firebaugh, about 50 miles northwest of Fresno.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_17370\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 640px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-17370\" src=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/science/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2014/05/10308scr_a381d905d6002f3.jpg\" alt=\"This solar desalination plant uses curved mirrors to capture the sun's energy and separate the salt from the water. (Alice Daniel/KQED) \" width=\"640\" height=\"360\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">This solar desalination plant uses curved mirrors to capture the sun’s energy and separate the salt from the water. (Alice Daniel/KQED)\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>It’s called a “drainage district” because farms around here have to get rid of excess salty irrigation water, explains ranch manager Wayne Western (yes, that’s his name). An elaborate system of underground drains and pumps collects the runoff. The district then recycles that water on 6,000 acres of more salt-tolerant crops.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“These are pistachios right here, they’re 13 years old,” he says, walking through an orchard that’s getting some of the reclaimed water.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“The district is doing this for its growers because if they didn’t, at some point you’d have to retain your own runoff water,” says Western. “If you’ve got nowhere to go with it, after awhile, you’re not going to be growing anything in that ground.”\u003c/p>\n\u003caside class=\"pullquote alignleft\">‘Not in our wildest dreams did we ever think we could have revenue generated from this wastewater.’\u003c/aside>\n\u003cp>The residual water is laden with salts and other contaminants such as \u003ca href=\"http://water.epa.gov/drink/contaminants/basicinformation/selenium.cfm\">selenium\u003c/a>, which is toxic in high concentrations. The district reuses this water not only on pistachios, he says, but also on another salt-tolerant crop, Jose tall wheatgrass.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad fullwidth]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Our whole goal here was to get rid of the wastewater,” says Dennis Falaschi, who runs the district. “Not in our wildest dreams did we ever think we could have revenue generated from this wastewater.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The revenue comes from selling the wheatgrass, which is used for cattle feed, and the pistachios. As it turns out, cattle need a certain amount of selenium. But there’s still the problem of the brackish runoff from these salt-tolerant crops. By 2016, environmental regulations will put a stop to dumping it into the San Joaquin River. Falaschi says finding another solution is paramount, if tricky.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[contextly_sidebar id=”fb6ef5164fe5845c1c64a80b774e275b”]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Over the course of the last 15 years, we must have tried out 20-to-25 different treatment processes and you know, you end up spending a lot of time and a lot of hours on something that just doesn’t work,” he says.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But now there’s one idea that’s starting to look a little brighter. Falaschi points to a row of curved mirrors that stretch out near a field of wheatgrass.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“The equipment that we’re looking at here — with the exception of the solar panels — is pretty much shelf-item stuff,” he says. “I mean, you know, you’re looking at a boiler, and then you have a plumbing system that actually runs through.”\u003c/p>\n\u003caside class=\"pullquote alignleft\">‘If we can treat this water, we’ve managed our drainage problem, but we’ve also created supplemental water.’\u003c/aside>\n\u003cp>It’s an experimental solar desalination plant, funded by the district with a million-dollar state grant. The project looks a bit like a spaceship on this vast expanse of land.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“If we can treat this water, we’ve managed our drainage problem, but we’ve also created supplemental water,” says Falaschi. “That’s why we’re excited.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“It’s actually a lot like back when you were a kid and you would play with a magnifying glass on the sidewalk to burn things,” explains Aaron Mandell, the founder of \u003ca href=\"http://www.waterfx.co\">WaterFX\u003c/a>, which designed the solar plant. “We don’t actually burn things but it’s the same concept; you concentrate solar energy and you can generate very high temperatures.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>An absorption pump that Mandell and his team designed reduces by half the energy it takes to evaporate water. The project also uses a reflective mirror-like film to focus the sun on long tubes containing mineral oil. The heat from the oil is piped into evaporators to generate steam.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“So the heat that we generate from the sun basically separates water and salt,” he says. The process produces potable water which the company can then sell, along with some of the minerals distilled out, like selenium and even boron. The project is timely with California three years into a drought, but Mandell says, that wasn’t his motivation.\u003c/p>\n\u003caside class=\"pullquote alignleft\">‘Even if the drought were to end right now, we would still need desalination as a more reliable source of water going forward.’\u003c/aside>\n\u003cp>“Even if the drought were to end right now, we would still need desalination as a more reliable source of water going forward,” he says. “Because the real problem is that the water supply in California and many of the Western states is actually no longer reliable.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>WaterFX will soon build a much larger plant, this one funded by investors. It’s slated to treat about 2 million gallons a day. Mandell says it will cost about $450 to produce an acre-foot of water. That’s more than farmers here pay for surface water but about half the total operating costs of a conventional desalination plant that uses \u003ca href=\"http://science.howstuffworks.com/reverse-osmosis.htm\">reverse osmosis\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Dennis Falaschi says his water district will provide the 75-acre site and probably be the main customer. Farmers this year received no water from the federal Central Valley Project, so the onus, he says, is on Water FX.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“You showed us the baby steps you can perform. Now go out and do the big steps,” says Falaschi. “And if you perform? That’s why the world goes around. I get water, you get money.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c!-- iframe plugin v.4.3 wordpress.org/plugins/iframe/ -->\u003cbr>\n\u003ciframe loading=\"lazy\" src=\"https://w.soundcloud.com/player/?url=https%3A//api.soundcloud.com/tracks/148721571&color=ff5500&auto_play=false&hide_related=false&show_artwork=true\" width=\"100%\" height=\"166\" frameborder=\"no\" scrolling=\"no\" class=\"iframe-class\">\u003c/iframe>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cem>Alice Daniel reports out of \u003c/em>The California Report’s \u003cem>Central Valley bureau. \u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\n",
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"excerpt": "While coastal communities debate the merits of desalting seawater as a drought solution, a new approach to desalination could be a boon to farmers far inland.",
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"title": "Drought Tech: How Solar Desalination Could Help Parched Farms | KQED",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003cp>\u003cstrong>By Alice Daniel \u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Farmers on the western side of the San Joaquin Valley can count on two things: sunshine and water that’s polluted and salty where minerals have built up in the soil. Now a Northern California entrepreneur is using one to clean up the other in the Panoche Water and Drainage District near the little town of Firebaugh, about 50 miles northwest of Fresno.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_17370\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 640px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-17370\" src=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/science/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2014/05/10308scr_a381d905d6002f3.jpg\" alt=\"This solar desalination plant uses curved mirrors to capture the sun's energy and separate the salt from the water. (Alice Daniel/KQED) \" width=\"640\" height=\"360\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">This solar desalination plant uses curved mirrors to capture the sun’s energy and separate the salt from the water. (Alice Daniel/KQED)\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>It’s called a “drainage district” because farms around here have to get rid of excess salty irrigation water, explains ranch manager Wayne Western (yes, that’s his name). An elaborate system of underground drains and pumps collects the runoff. The district then recycles that water on 6,000 acres of more salt-tolerant crops.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“These are pistachios right here, they’re 13 years old,” he says, walking through an orchard that’s getting some of the reclaimed water.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“The district is doing this for its growers because if they didn’t, at some point you’d have to retain your own runoff water,” says Western. “If you’ve got nowhere to go with it, after awhile, you’re not going to be growing anything in that ground.”\u003c/p>\n\u003caside class=\"pullquote alignleft\">‘Not in our wildest dreams did we ever think we could have revenue generated from this wastewater.’\u003c/aside>\n\u003cp>The residual water is laden with salts and other contaminants such as \u003ca href=\"http://water.epa.gov/drink/contaminants/basicinformation/selenium.cfm\">selenium\u003c/a>, which is toxic in high concentrations. The district reuses this water not only on pistachios, he says, but also on another salt-tolerant crop, Jose tall wheatgrass.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Our whole goal here was to get rid of the wastewater,” says Dennis Falaschi, who runs the district. “Not in our wildest dreams did we ever think we could have revenue generated from this wastewater.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The revenue comes from selling the wheatgrass, which is used for cattle feed, and the pistachios. As it turns out, cattle need a certain amount of selenium. But there’s still the problem of the brackish runoff from these salt-tolerant crops. By 2016, environmental regulations will put a stop to dumping it into the San Joaquin River. Falaschi says finding another solution is paramount, if tricky.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Over the course of the last 15 years, we must have tried out 20-to-25 different treatment processes and you know, you end up spending a lot of time and a lot of hours on something that just doesn’t work,” he says.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But now there’s one idea that’s starting to look a little brighter. Falaschi points to a row of curved mirrors that stretch out near a field of wheatgrass.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“The equipment that we’re looking at here — with the exception of the solar panels — is pretty much shelf-item stuff,” he says. “I mean, you know, you’re looking at a boiler, and then you have a plumbing system that actually runs through.”\u003c/p>\n\u003caside class=\"pullquote alignleft\">‘If we can treat this water, we’ve managed our drainage problem, but we’ve also created supplemental water.’\u003c/aside>\n\u003cp>It’s an experimental solar desalination plant, funded by the district with a million-dollar state grant. The project looks a bit like a spaceship on this vast expanse of land.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“If we can treat this water, we’ve managed our drainage problem, but we’ve also created supplemental water,” says Falaschi. “That’s why we’re excited.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“It’s actually a lot like back when you were a kid and you would play with a magnifying glass on the sidewalk to burn things,” explains Aaron Mandell, the founder of \u003ca href=\"http://www.waterfx.co\">WaterFX\u003c/a>, which designed the solar plant. “We don’t actually burn things but it’s the same concept; you concentrate solar energy and you can generate very high temperatures.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>An absorption pump that Mandell and his team designed reduces by half the energy it takes to evaporate water. The project also uses a reflective mirror-like film to focus the sun on long tubes containing mineral oil. The heat from the oil is piped into evaporators to generate steam.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“So the heat that we generate from the sun basically separates water and salt,” he says. The process produces potable water which the company can then sell, along with some of the minerals distilled out, like selenium and even boron. The project is timely with California three years into a drought, but Mandell says, that wasn’t his motivation.\u003c/p>\n\u003caside class=\"pullquote alignleft\">‘Even if the drought were to end right now, we would still need desalination as a more reliable source of water going forward.’\u003c/aside>\n\u003cp>“Even if the drought were to end right now, we would still need desalination as a more reliable source of water going forward,” he says. “Because the real problem is that the water supply in California and many of the Western states is actually no longer reliable.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>WaterFX will soon build a much larger plant, this one funded by investors. It’s slated to treat about 2 million gallons a day. Mandell says it will cost about $450 to produce an acre-foot of water. That’s more than farmers here pay for surface water but about half the total operating costs of a conventional desalination plant that uses \u003ca href=\"http://science.howstuffworks.com/reverse-osmosis.htm\">reverse osmosis\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Dennis Falaschi says his water district will provide the 75-acre site and probably be the main customer. Farmers this year received no water from the federal Central Valley Project, so the onus, he says, is on Water FX.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“You showed us the baby steps you can perform. Now go out and do the big steps,” says Falaschi. “And if you perform? That’s why the world goes around. I get water, you get money.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c!-- iframe plugin v.4.3 wordpress.org/plugins/iframe/ -->\u003cbr>\n\u003ciframe loading=\"lazy\" src=\"https://w.soundcloud.com/player/?url=https%3A//api.soundcloud.com/tracks/148721571&color=ff5500&auto_play=false&hide_related=false&show_artwork=true\" width=\"100%\" height=\"166\" frameborder=\"no\" scrolling=\"no\" class=\"iframe-class\">\u003c/iframe>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cem>Alice Daniel reports out of \u003c/em>The California Report’s \u003cem>Central Valley bureau. \u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\n\u003c/div>\u003c/p>",
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"title": "Judge Orders Silicon Valley Billionaire to Testify in Dispute Over Beach",
"headTitle": "Judge Orders Silicon Valley Billionaire to Testify in Dispute Over Beach | KQED",
"content": "\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_12954\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 640px\">\u003ca href=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/science/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2014/01/P1140220-1024x768.jpg\" rel=\"attachment wp-att-12954\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-12954\" src=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/science/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2014/01/P1140220-1024x768.jpg\" alt=\"Martins Beach is home to the residents of about 45 small beach houses, all of whose leases expire in 2021. (Amy Standen/KQED)\" width=\"640\" height=\"480\">\u003c/a>\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Vinod Khosla, the Silicon Valley venture capitalist, bought the Martins Beach property for $37.5 million in 2008. (Amy Standen/KQED)\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Update, Thursday, May 8:\u003c/strong> A San Mateo County Superior Court judge has ordered tech billionaire Vinod Khosla to testify in a lawsuit challenging \u003ca href=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/science/audio/silicon-valley-billionaire-battles-surfers-over-beach-access/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">his decision to shut down public access\u003c/a> to a popular beach. \u003c/p>\n\u003cp>As the trial opened Thursday, San Mateo County Superior Court Judge Barbara Mallach rejected a motion to quash a subpoena for Khosla (embedded at the bottom of this article), who paid $37.5 million to buy the disputed Martin’s Beach property in 2008. Defense attorneys said the subpoena amounted to harassment and argued that the manager of the property, not Khosla, was responsible for decisions like closing off access. \u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Khosla, a cofounder of Sun Microsystems, is expected to appear in court Monday. \u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Lawyers for the Surfrider Foundation said in opening arguments Thursday that Khosla violated the California Coastal Act when he blocked access to Martins Beach, just south of Half Moon Bay. \u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“The people of the state of California passed legislation in 1976 saying that the beaches are public property,” said Surfrider attorney Joe Cotchett outside court. “We now have an individual who steps up and says I’m going to challenge that, because under my constitutional rights, I can buy a beach and close it to the public.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad fullwidth]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Defense attorney Jeffrey Essner argued that there’s no public right of access to the property because the previous owners routinely closed it for winter, private events and other occasions. \u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Original post (Monday, May 5): \u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Attorneys for Silicon Valley billionaire Vinod Khosla have asked that the venture capitalist be excused from testifying in a \u003ca href=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/science/audio/silicon-valley-billionaire-battles-surfers-over-beach-access/\">public access dispute\u003c/a> over a scenic stretch of San Mateo coastline.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Two companies owned by Khosla, Martins Beach 1, LLC and Martins Beach 2, LLC, bought the 100-acre Martins Beach property for $37.5 million in 2008. The new owners subsequently put up a gate on the main access road and blacked out a welcome sign on Highway 1.\u003c/p>\n\u003caside class=\"pullquote alignleft\">‘He wants to hide behind a wall of lawyers.’\u003c/aside>\n\u003cp>Lawyers representing the non-profit \u003ca href=\"http://www.surfrider.org/\">Surfrider Foundation\u003c/a> allege that the gate and other work on the property violate \u003ca href=\"http://www.coastal.ca.gov/ccatc.html\">California’s Coastal Act\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>On April 29, Khosla’s attorneys filed a motion to quash Khosla’s subpoena, which would prevent plaintiffs from calling him to the stand as a witness. (The motion is embedded at the bottom of this article.)\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“He wants to hide behind a wall of lawyers instead of coming to court and explain what he’s done,” said Mark Massara, an attorney with the Surfrider Foundation.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Representatives for Khosla did not respond to an interview request. But the motion states that Khosla has no “unique knowledge” about the case and therefore should not be required to testify.\u003c/p>\n\u003caside class=\"pullquote alignleft\">‘Surfrider’ s efforts …. can only be explained by an improper motive to harass.’\u003c/aside>\n\u003cp>“The Surfrider’s efforts to force Mr. Khosla to testify at trial can only be explained by an improper motive to harass, annoy, or invade the privacy of Mr. Khosla, to create some perceived leverage, or to generate publicity,” reads the motion.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Khosla’s attorneys have also \u003ca href=\"http://www.scribd.com/doc/222194141/Motion-for-Site-Visit-by-the-Trial-Judge\">requested a site visit\u003c/a>, which would bring both legal teams, along with the judge, to see “the unique properties” of the beach.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>A few dozen residents still live on the beach property, but their leases expire in 2021. Khosla hasn’t commented publicly about the dispute, or revealed what he plans to do with the property.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The Surfrider suit is one of several attempts to preserve public access to Martins Beach, a favorite spot among local surfers. Until 2008, the beach was owned by the Deeney family, which charged visitors a $10 fee to park near the beach.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The trial is expected to begin on Wednesday in front of California Superior Court Judge Barbara Mallach.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Jerry Hill, a Democratic state senator from San Mateo, is \u003ca href=\"http://sd13.senate.ca.gov/news/2014-02-06-hill-introduce-bill-restore-public-access-martin-s-beach-near-half-moon-bay\">proposing to use eminent domain\u003c/a> to allow public access to the beach.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp style=\"margin: 12px auto 6px auto;font-family: Helvetica,Arial,Sans-serif;font-style: normal;font-variant: normal;font-weight: normal;font-size: 14px;line-height: normal\">\u003ca style=\"text-decoration: underline\" title=\"View Motion to Quash Trial Subpoena to Khosla on Scribd\" href=\"http://www.scribd.com/doc/222194140/Motion-to-Quash-Trial-Subpoena-to-Khosla\">Motion to Quash Trial Subpoena to Khosla\u003c/a> by \u003ca style=\"text-decoration: underline\" title=\"View KQED News's profile on Scribd\" href=\"http://www.scribd.com/KQED_News\">KQED News\u003c/a>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c!-- iframe plugin v.4.3 wordpress.org/plugins/iframe/ -->\u003cbr>\n\u003ciframe loading=\"lazy\" id=\"doc_69598\" class=\"scribd_iframe_embed\" src=\"//www.scribd.com/embeds/222194140/content?start_page=1&view_mode=scroll&access_key=key-18gfqdttcr9luhx4nq0o&show_recommendations=true\" width=\"100%\" height=\"600\" frameborder=\"0\" scrolling=\"no\">\u003c/iframe>\u003c/p>\n\n",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_12954\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 640px\">\u003ca href=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/science/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2014/01/P1140220-1024x768.jpg\" rel=\"attachment wp-att-12954\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-12954\" src=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/science/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2014/01/P1140220-1024x768.jpg\" alt=\"Martins Beach is home to the residents of about 45 small beach houses, all of whose leases expire in 2021. (Amy Standen/KQED)\" width=\"640\" height=\"480\">\u003c/a>\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Vinod Khosla, the Silicon Valley venture capitalist, bought the Martins Beach property for $37.5 million in 2008. (Amy Standen/KQED)\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Update, Thursday, May 8:\u003c/strong> A San Mateo County Superior Court judge has ordered tech billionaire Vinod Khosla to testify in a lawsuit challenging \u003ca href=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/science/audio/silicon-valley-billionaire-battles-surfers-over-beach-access/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">his decision to shut down public access\u003c/a> to a popular beach. \u003c/p>\n\u003cp>As the trial opened Thursday, San Mateo County Superior Court Judge Barbara Mallach rejected a motion to quash a subpoena for Khosla (embedded at the bottom of this article), who paid $37.5 million to buy the disputed Martin’s Beach property in 2008. Defense attorneys said the subpoena amounted to harassment and argued that the manager of the property, not Khosla, was responsible for decisions like closing off access. \u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Khosla, a cofounder of Sun Microsystems, is expected to appear in court Monday. \u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Lawyers for the Surfrider Foundation said in opening arguments Thursday that Khosla violated the California Coastal Act when he blocked access to Martins Beach, just south of Half Moon Bay. \u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“The people of the state of California passed legislation in 1976 saying that the beaches are public property,” said Surfrider attorney Joe Cotchett outside court. “We now have an individual who steps up and says I’m going to challenge that, because under my constitutional rights, I can buy a beach and close it to the public.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Defense attorney Jeffrey Essner argued that there’s no public right of access to the property because the previous owners routinely closed it for winter, private events and other occasions. \u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Original post (Monday, May 5): \u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Attorneys for Silicon Valley billionaire Vinod Khosla have asked that the venture capitalist be excused from testifying in a \u003ca href=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/science/audio/silicon-valley-billionaire-battles-surfers-over-beach-access/\">public access dispute\u003c/a> over a scenic stretch of San Mateo coastline.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Two companies owned by Khosla, Martins Beach 1, LLC and Martins Beach 2, LLC, bought the 100-acre Martins Beach property for $37.5 million in 2008. The new owners subsequently put up a gate on the main access road and blacked out a welcome sign on Highway 1.\u003c/p>\n\u003caside class=\"pullquote alignleft\">‘He wants to hide behind a wall of lawyers.’\u003c/aside>\n\u003cp>Lawyers representing the non-profit \u003ca href=\"http://www.surfrider.org/\">Surfrider Foundation\u003c/a> allege that the gate and other work on the property violate \u003ca href=\"http://www.coastal.ca.gov/ccatc.html\">California’s Coastal Act\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>On April 29, Khosla’s attorneys filed a motion to quash Khosla’s subpoena, which would prevent plaintiffs from calling him to the stand as a witness. (The motion is embedded at the bottom of this article.)\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“He wants to hide behind a wall of lawyers instead of coming to court and explain what he’s done,” said Mark Massara, an attorney with the Surfrider Foundation.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Representatives for Khosla did not respond to an interview request. But the motion states that Khosla has no “unique knowledge” about the case and therefore should not be required to testify.\u003c/p>\n\u003caside class=\"pullquote alignleft\">‘Surfrider’ s efforts …. can only be explained by an improper motive to harass.’\u003c/aside>\n\u003cp>“The Surfrider’s efforts to force Mr. Khosla to testify at trial can only be explained by an improper motive to harass, annoy, or invade the privacy of Mr. Khosla, to create some perceived leverage, or to generate publicity,” reads the motion.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Khosla’s attorneys have also \u003ca href=\"http://www.scribd.com/doc/222194141/Motion-for-Site-Visit-by-the-Trial-Judge\">requested a site visit\u003c/a>, which would bring both legal teams, along with the judge, to see “the unique properties” of the beach.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>A few dozen residents still live on the beach property, but their leases expire in 2021. Khosla hasn’t commented publicly about the dispute, or revealed what he plans to do with the property.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The Surfrider suit is one of several attempts to preserve public access to Martins Beach, a favorite spot among local surfers. Until 2008, the beach was owned by the Deeney family, which charged visitors a $10 fee to park near the beach.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The trial is expected to begin on Wednesday in front of California Superior Court Judge Barbara Mallach.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Jerry Hill, a Democratic state senator from San Mateo, is \u003ca href=\"http://sd13.senate.ca.gov/news/2014-02-06-hill-introduce-bill-restore-public-access-martin-s-beach-near-half-moon-bay\">proposing to use eminent domain\u003c/a> to allow public access to the beach.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp style=\"margin: 12px auto 6px auto;font-family: Helvetica,Arial,Sans-serif;font-style: normal;font-variant: normal;font-weight: normal;font-size: 14px;line-height: normal\">\u003ca style=\"text-decoration: underline\" title=\"View Motion to Quash Trial Subpoena to Khosla on Scribd\" href=\"http://www.scribd.com/doc/222194140/Motion-to-Quash-Trial-Subpoena-to-Khosla\">Motion to Quash Trial Subpoena to Khosla\u003c/a> by \u003ca style=\"text-decoration: underline\" title=\"View KQED News's profile on Scribd\" href=\"http://www.scribd.com/KQED_News\">KQED News\u003c/a>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c!-- iframe plugin v.4.3 wordpress.org/plugins/iframe/ -->\u003cbr>\n\u003ciframe loading=\"lazy\" id=\"doc_69598\" class=\"scribd_iframe_embed\" src=\"//www.scribd.com/embeds/222194140/content?start_page=1&view_mode=scroll&access_key=key-18gfqdttcr9luhx4nq0o&show_recommendations=true\" width=\"100%\" height=\"600\" frameborder=\"0\" scrolling=\"no\">\u003c/iframe>\u003c/p>\n\n\u003c/div>\u003c/p>",
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"title": "California Drought: Hopes Rising for El Niño",
"headTitle": "California Drought: Hopes Rising for El Niño | KQED",
"content": "\u003cp>Federal climatologists say it’s looking more likely that El Niño conditions will develop in the Pacific Ocean by this summer. It’s a combination of ocean conditions long associated with wet, stormy winters, though the connection can be tenuous — especially in Northern California.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_17367\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 640px\">\u003ca href=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/science/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2014/05/1997_El_Nino_crop.jpg\" rel=\"attachment wp-att-17367\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-17367\" src=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/science/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2014/05/1997_El_Nino_crop.jpg\" alt=\"Heat map shows formation of the 1997-98 El Nino, which produced huge amounts of rain and snow in California. (NASA JPL)\" width=\"640\" height=\"360\">\u003c/a>\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Heat map shows formation of the 1997-98 El Nino, which produced huge amounts of rain and snow in California. (NASA JPL)\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>The \u003ca title=\"NOAA - CPC - ENSO\" href=\"http://www.cpc.ncep.noaa.gov/products/analysis_monitoring/enso_advisory/ensodisc.pdf\">latest report\u003c/a> from the NOAA \u003ca title=\"NOAA - CPC\" href=\"http://www.cpc.ncep.noaa.gov/\">Climate Prediction Center\u003c/a> puts the chance of a summer El Niño at better than 65 percent, based on observations that, “collectively indicate a continued evolution toward El Niño.” That’s when, in simplest terms, the usual trade winds ease, plowing less surface water westward, reducing upwelling of colder water below and allowing the surface water to warm up more than usual.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_17366\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 640px\">\u003ca href=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/science/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2014/05/ENSO_NOAA_140430.jpg\" rel=\"attachment wp-att-17366\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-17366\" src=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/science/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2014/05/ENSO_NOAA_140430.jpg\" alt=\"Surface temperatures trending at least 0.5 degrees above normal point to a likely summer El Nino. (NOAA)\" width=\"640\" height=\"360\">\u003c/a>\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Surface temperatures trending at least 0.5 degrees above normal point to a likely summer El Nino. (NOAA)\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Scientists caution — and history affirms — that having an El Niño is by no means a clear indicator of heavy precipitation, though some of California’s biggest soakings have coincided with that phase of the “oscillation,” as it’s known by meteorologists. In the El Niño winter of 1997-98, parts of California saw as much as double their normal amounts of precipitation.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[contextly_sidebar id=”7dc914854f606784e019dcd64b78bae8″]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The conventional pattern is for El Niño conditions to create wetter winters in the Southwest, drier in the Pacific Northwest, with the flip side of the oscillation, known as La Niña, favoring the opposite. But central and Northern California lie along a fuzzy dividing line, where often it can go either way.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad fullwidth]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The stronger the El Niño (the warmer the water), the more likely it is to produce stormy conditions and a wet winter throughout California. But, “It’s no sure thing,” says Mike Halpert, acting director of the Maryland-based CPC.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“For about the past ten years, the atmosphere and the whole climate system in the Pacific has favored more of the cold phase — the La Niña phase,” Halpert cautions. “It’s possibly one of the reasons why, back in 2012, we were at a 75 percent chance of El Nino, and it didn’t develop.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Halpert says it’s definitely premature to mark “\u003ca title=\"Q-Sci - post\" href=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/news/2014/04/24/california-is-now-100-percent-in-drought/\">end of drought\u003c/a>” on your fall calendar.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“One of the things I like to tell folks is that with a probabilistic forecast, you’re never really right or wrong.”\u003c/p>\n\n",
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"excerpt": "A strong summer El Niño could set the stage for a wet winter -- or not. Forecasters say it's still early in the game.",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003cp>Federal climatologists say it’s looking more likely that El Niño conditions will develop in the Pacific Ocean by this summer. It’s a combination of ocean conditions long associated with wet, stormy winters, though the connection can be tenuous — especially in Northern California.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_17367\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 640px\">\u003ca href=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/science/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2014/05/1997_El_Nino_crop.jpg\" rel=\"attachment wp-att-17367\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-17367\" src=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/science/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2014/05/1997_El_Nino_crop.jpg\" alt=\"Heat map shows formation of the 1997-98 El Nino, which produced huge amounts of rain and snow in California. (NASA JPL)\" width=\"640\" height=\"360\">\u003c/a>\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Heat map shows formation of the 1997-98 El Nino, which produced huge amounts of rain and snow in California. (NASA JPL)\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>The \u003ca title=\"NOAA - CPC - ENSO\" href=\"http://www.cpc.ncep.noaa.gov/products/analysis_monitoring/enso_advisory/ensodisc.pdf\">latest report\u003c/a> from the NOAA \u003ca title=\"NOAA - CPC\" href=\"http://www.cpc.ncep.noaa.gov/\">Climate Prediction Center\u003c/a> puts the chance of a summer El Niño at better than 65 percent, based on observations that, “collectively indicate a continued evolution toward El Niño.” That’s when, in simplest terms, the usual trade winds ease, plowing less surface water westward, reducing upwelling of colder water below and allowing the surface water to warm up more than usual.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_17366\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 640px\">\u003ca href=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/science/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2014/05/ENSO_NOAA_140430.jpg\" rel=\"attachment wp-att-17366\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-17366\" src=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/science/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2014/05/ENSO_NOAA_140430.jpg\" alt=\"Surface temperatures trending at least 0.5 degrees above normal point to a likely summer El Nino. (NOAA)\" width=\"640\" height=\"360\">\u003c/a>\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Surface temperatures trending at least 0.5 degrees above normal point to a likely summer El Nino. (NOAA)\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Scientists caution — and history affirms — that having an El Niño is by no means a clear indicator of heavy precipitation, though some of California’s biggest soakings have coincided with that phase of the “oscillation,” as it’s known by meteorologists. In the El Niño winter of 1997-98, parts of California saw as much as double their normal amounts of precipitation.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The conventional pattern is for El Niño conditions to create wetter winters in the Southwest, drier in the Pacific Northwest, with the flip side of the oscillation, known as La Niña, favoring the opposite. But central and Northern California lie along a fuzzy dividing line, where often it can go either way.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"officialWebsiteLink": "/californiareportmagazine",
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"order": 10
},
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"google": "https://podcasts.google.com/feed/aHR0cHM6Ly9mZWVkcy5tZWdhcGhvbmUuZm0vS1FJTkM3NjkwNjk1OTAz",
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},
"city-arts": {
"id": "city-arts",
"title": "City Arts & Lectures",
"info": "A one-hour radio program to hear celebrated writers, artists and thinkers address contemporary ideas and values, often discussing the creative process. Please note: tapes or transcripts are not available",
"imageSrc": "https://ww2.kqed.org/radio/wp-content/uploads/sites/50/2018/05/cityartsandlecture-300x300.jpg",
"officialWebsiteLink": "https://www.cityarts.net/",
"airtime": "SUN 1pm-2pm, TUE 10pm, WED 1am",
"meta": {
"site": "news",
"source": "City Arts & Lectures"
},
"link": "https://www.cityarts.net",
"subscribe": {
"tuneIn": "https://tunein.com/radio/City-Arts-and-Lectures-p692/",
"rss": "https://www.cityarts.net/feed/"
}
},
"closealltabs": {
"id": "closealltabs",
"title": "Close All Tabs",
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"info": "Close All Tabs breaks down how digital culture shapes our world through thoughtful insights and irreverent humor.",
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"officialWebsiteLink": "/podcasts/closealltabs",
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"order": 1
},
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"id": "code-switch-life-kit",
"title": "Code Switch / Life Kit",
"info": "\u003cem>Code Switch\u003c/em>, which listeners will hear in the first part of the hour, has fearless and much-needed conversations about race. Hosted by journalists of color, the show tackles the subject of race head-on, exploring how it impacts every part of society — from politics and pop culture to history, sports and more.\u003cbr />\u003cbr />\u003cem>Life Kit\u003c/em>, which will be in the second part of the hour, guides you through spaces and feelings no one prepares you for — from finances to mental health, from workplace microaggressions to imposter syndrome, from relationships to parenting. The show features experts with real world experience and shares their knowledge. Because everyone needs a little help being human.\u003cbr />\u003cbr />\u003ca href=\"https://www.npr.org/podcasts/510312/codeswitch\">\u003cem>Code Switch\u003c/em> offical site and podcast\u003c/a>\u003cbr />\u003ca href=\"https://www.npr.org/lifekit\">\u003cem>Life Kit\u003c/em> offical site and podcast\u003c/a>\u003cbr />",
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"meta": {
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"google": "https://podcasts.google.com/feed/aHR0cHM6Ly93d3cubnByLm9yZy9yc3MvcG9kY2FzdC5waHA_aWQ9NTEwMzEy",
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"id": "commonwealth-club",
"title": "Commonwealth Club of California Podcast",
"info": "The Commonwealth Club of California is the nation's oldest and largest public affairs forum. As a non-partisan forum, The Club brings to the public airwaves diverse viewpoints on important topics. The Club's weekly radio broadcast - the oldest in the U.S., dating back to 1924 - is carried across the nation on public radio stations and is now podcasting. Our website archive features audio of our recent programs, as well as selected speeches from our long and distinguished history. This podcast feed is usually updated twice a week and is always un-edited.",
"airtime": "THU 10pm, FRI 1am",
"imageSrc": "https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/Commonwealth-Club-Podcast-Tile-360x360-1.jpg",
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"meta": {
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"source": "Commonwealth Club of California"
},
"link": "/radio/program/commonwealth-club",
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"google": "https://podcasts.google.com/feed/aHR0cDovL3d3dy5jb21tb253ZWFsdGhjbHViLm9yZy9hdWRpby9wb2RjYXN0L3dlZWtseS54bWw",
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},
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"id": "forum",
"title": "Forum",
"tagline": "The conversation starts here",
"info": "KQED’s live call-in program discussing local, state, national and international issues, as well as in-depth interviews.",
"airtime": "MON-FRI 9am-11am, 10pm-11pm",
"imageSrc": "https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/Forum-Podcast-Tile-703x703-1.jpg",
"imageAlt": "KQED Forum with Mina Kim and Alexis Madrigal",
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"meta": {
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"source": "kqed",
"order": 9
},
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"google": "https://podcasts.google.com/feed/aHR0cHM6Ly9mZWVkcy5tZWdhcGhvbmUuZm0vS1FJTkM5NTU3MzgxNjMz",
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"id": "freakonomics-radio",
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"imageSrc": "https://ww2.kqed.org/news/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2018/05/freakonomicsRadio.png",
"officialWebsiteLink": "http://freakonomics.com/",
"airtime": "SUN 1am-2am, SAT 3pm-4pm",
"meta": {
"site": "radio",
"source": "WNYC"
},
"link": "/radio/program/freakonomics-radio",
"subscribe": {
"npr": "https://rpb3r.app.goo.gl/4s8b",
"apple": "https://itunes.apple.com/us/podcast/freakonomics-radio/id354668519",
"tuneIn": "https://tunein.com/podcasts/WNYC-Podcasts/Freakonomics-Radio-p272293/",
"rss": "https://feeds.feedburner.com/freakonomicsradio"
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},
"fresh-air": {
"id": "fresh-air",
"title": "Fresh Air",
"info": "Hosted by Terry Gross, \u003cem>Fresh Air from WHYY\u003c/em> is the Peabody Award-winning weekday magazine of contemporary arts and issues. One of public radio's most popular programs, Fresh Air features intimate conversations with today's biggest luminaries.",
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"link": "/radio/program/fresh-air",
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"apple": "https://itunes.apple.com/WebObjects/MZStore.woa/wa/viewPodcast?s=143441&mt=2&id=214089682&at=11l79Y&ct=nprdirectory",
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"rss": "https://feeds.npr.org/381444908/podcast.xml"
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"info": "A live production of NPR and WBUR Boston, in collaboration with stations across the country, Here & Now reflects the fluid world of news as it's happening in the middle of the day, with timely, in-depth news, interviews and conversation. Hosted by Robin Young, Jeremy Hobson and Tonya Mosley.",
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"rss": "https://feeds.npr.org/510051/podcast.xml"
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},
"hidden-brain": {
"id": "hidden-brain",
"title": "Hidden Brain",
"info": "Shankar Vedantam uses science and storytelling to reveal the unconscious patterns that drive human behavior, shape our choices and direct our relationships.",
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"officialWebsiteLink": "https://www.npr.org/series/423302056/hidden-brain",
"airtime": "SUN 7pm-8pm",
"meta": {
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"source": "NPR"
},
"link": "/radio/program/hidden-brain",
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},
"how-i-built-this": {
"id": "how-i-built-this",
"title": "How I Built This with Guy Raz",
"info": "Guy Raz dives into the stories behind some of the world's best known companies. How I Built This weaves a narrative journey about innovators, entrepreneurs and idealists—and the movements they built.",
"imageSrc": "https://ww2.kqed.org/news/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2018/05/howIBuiltThis.png",
"officialWebsiteLink": "https://www.npr.org/podcasts/510313/how-i-built-this",
"airtime": "SUN 7:30pm-8pm",
"meta": {
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"source": "npr"
},
"link": "/radio/program/how-i-built-this",
"subscribe": {
"npr": "https://rpb3r.app.goo.gl/3zxy",
"apple": "https://itunes.apple.com/us/podcast/how-i-built-this-with-guy-raz/id1150510297?mt=2",
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"rss": "https://feeds.npr.org/510313/podcast.xml"
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},
"hyphenacion": {
"id": "hyphenacion",
"title": "Hyphenación",
"tagline": "Where conversation and cultura meet",
"info": "What kind of no sabo word is Hyphenación? For us, it’s about living within a hyphenation. Like being a third-gen Mexican-American from the Texas border now living that Bay Area Chicano life. Like Xorje! Each week we bring together a couple of hyphenated Latinos to talk all about personal life choices: family, careers, relationships, belonging … everything is on the table. ",
"imageSrc": "https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/2025/03/Hyphenacion_FinalAssets_PodcastTile.png",
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"officialWebsiteLink": "/podcasts/hyphenacion",
"meta": {
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"source": "kqed",
"order": 15
},
"link": "/podcasts/hyphenacion",
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"spotify": "https://open.spotify.com/show/2p3Fifq96nw9BPcmFdIq0o?si=39209f7b25774f38",
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"rss": "https://feeds.megaphone.fm/KQINC2275451163"
}
},
"jerrybrown": {
"id": "jerrybrown",
"title": "The Political Mind of Jerry Brown",
"tagline": "Lessons from a lifetime in politics",
"info": "The Political Mind of Jerry Brown brings listeners the wisdom of the former Governor, Mayor, and presidential candidate. Scott Shafer interviewed Brown for more than 40 hours, covering the former governor's life and half-century in the political game – and Brown has some lessons he'd like to share. ",
"imageSrc": "https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/The-Political-Mind-of-Jerry-Brown-Podcast-Tile-703x703-1.jpg",
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"officialWebsiteLink": "/podcasts/jerrybrown",
"meta": {
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"source": "kqed",
"order": 18
},
"link": "/podcasts/jerrybrown",
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"apple": "https://itunes.apple.com/us/podcast/id1492194549",
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}
},
"latino-usa": {
"id": "latino-usa",
"title": "Latino USA",
"airtime": "MON 1am-2am, SUN 6pm-7pm",
"info": "Latino USA, the radio journal of news and culture, is the only national, English-language radio program produced from a Latino perspective.",
"imageSrc": "https://ww2.kqed.org/radio/wp-content/uploads/sites/50/2018/04/latinoUsa.jpg",
"officialWebsiteLink": "http://latinousa.org/",
"meta": {
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"source": "npr"
},
"link": "/radio/program/latino-usa",
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"apple": "https://itunes.apple.com/WebObjects/MZStore.woa/wa/viewPodcast?s=143441&mt=2&id=79681317&at=11l79Y&ct=nprdirectory",
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"rss": "https://feeds.npr.org/510016/podcast.xml"
}
},
"marketplace": {
"id": "marketplace",
"title": "Marketplace",
"info": "Our flagship program, helmed by Kai Ryssdal, examines what the day in money delivered, through stories, conversations, newsworthy numbers and more. Updated Monday through Friday at about 3:30 p.m. PT.",
"airtime": "MON-FRI 4pm-4:30pm, MON-WED 6:30pm-7pm",
"imageSrc": "https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/Marketplace-Podcast-Tile-360x360-1.jpg",
"officialWebsiteLink": "https://www.marketplace.org/",
"meta": {
"site": "news",
"source": "American Public Media"
},
"link": "/radio/program/marketplace",
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"rss": "https://feeds.publicradio.org/public_feeds/marketplace-pm/rss/rss"
}
},
"masters-of-scale": {
"id": "masters-of-scale",
"title": "Masters of Scale",
"info": "Masters of Scale is an original podcast in which LinkedIn co-founder and Greylock Partner Reid Hoffman sets out to describe and prove theories that explain how great entrepreneurs take their companies from zero to a gazillion in ingenious fashion.",
"airtime": "Every other Wednesday June 12 through October 16 at 8pm (repeats Thursdays at 2am)",
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"officialWebsiteLink": "https://mastersofscale.com/",
"meta": {
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"source": "WaitWhat"
},
"link": "/radio/program/masters-of-scale",
"subscribe": {
"apple": "http://mastersofscale.app.link/",
"rss": "https://rss.art19.com/masters-of-scale"
}
},
"mindshift": {
"id": "mindshift",
"title": "MindShift",
"tagline": "A podcast about the future of learning and how we raise our kids",
"info": "The MindShift podcast explores the innovations in education that are shaping how kids learn. Hosts Ki Sung and Katrina Schwartz introduce listeners to educators, researchers, parents and students who are developing effective ways to improve how kids learn. We cover topics like how fed-up administrators are developing surprising tactics to deal with classroom disruptions; how listening to podcasts are helping kids develop reading skills; the consequences of overparenting; and why interdisciplinary learning can engage students on all ends of the traditional achievement spectrum. This podcast is part of the MindShift education site, a division of KQED News. KQED is an NPR/PBS member station based in San Francisco. You can also visit the MindShift website for episodes and supplemental blog posts or tweet us \u003ca href=\"https://twitter.com/MindShiftKQED\">@MindShiftKQED\u003c/a> or visit us at \u003ca href=\"/mindshift\">MindShift.KQED.org\u003c/a>",
"imageSrc": "https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/Mindshift-Podcast-Tile-703x703-1.jpg",
"imageAlt": "KQED MindShift: How We Will Learn",
"officialWebsiteLink": "/mindshift/",
"meta": {
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"source": "kqed",
"order": 12
},
"link": "/podcasts/mindshift",
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"google": "https://podcasts.google.com/feed/aHR0cHM6Ly9mZWVkcy5tZWdhcGhvbmUuZm0vS1FJTkM1NzY0NjAwNDI5",
"npr": "https://www.npr.org/podcasts/464615685/mind-shift-podcast",
"stitcher": "https://www.stitcher.com/podcast/kqed/stories-teachers-share",
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}
},
"morning-edition": {
"id": "morning-edition",
"title": "Morning Edition",
"info": "\u003cem>Morning Edition\u003c/em> takes listeners around the country and the world with multi-faceted stories and commentaries every weekday. Hosts Steve Inskeep, David Greene and Rachel Martin bring you the latest breaking news and features to prepare you for the day.",
"airtime": "MON-FRI 3am-9am",
"imageSrc": "https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/Morning-Edition-Podcast-Tile-360x360-1.jpg",
"officialWebsiteLink": "https://www.npr.org/programs/morning-edition/",
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"link": "/radio/program/morning-edition"
},
"onourwatch": {
"id": "onourwatch",
"title": "On Our Watch",
"tagline": "Deeply-reported investigative journalism",
"info": "For decades, the process for how police police themselves has been inconsistent – if not opaque. In some states, like California, these proceedings were completely hidden. After a new police transparency law unsealed scores of internal affairs files, our reporters set out to examine these cases and the shadow world of police discipline. On Our Watch brings listeners into the rooms where officers are questioned and witnesses are interrogated to find out who this system is really protecting. Is it the officers, or the public they've sworn to serve?",
"imageSrc": "https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/On-Our-Watch-Podcast-Tile-703x703-1.jpg",
"imageAlt": "On Our Watch from NPR and KQED",
"officialWebsiteLink": "/podcasts/onourwatch",
"meta": {
"site": "news",
"source": "kqed",
"order": 11
},
"link": "/podcasts/onourwatch",
"subscribe": {
"apple": "https://podcasts.apple.com/podcast/id1567098962",
"google": "https://podcasts.google.com/feed/aHR0cHM6Ly9mZWVkcy5ucHIub3JnLzUxMDM2MC9wb2RjYXN0LnhtbD9zYz1nb29nbGVwb2RjYXN0cw",
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"rss": "https://feeds.npr.org/510360/podcast.xml"
}
},
"on-the-media": {
"id": "on-the-media",
"title": "On The Media",
"info": "Our weekly podcast explores how the media 'sausage' is made, casts an incisive eye on fluctuations in the marketplace of ideas, and examines threats to the freedom of information and expression in America and abroad. For one hour a week, the show tries to lift the veil from the process of \"making media,\" especially news media, because it's through that lens that we see the world and the world sees us",
"airtime": "SUN 2pm-3pm, MON 12am-1am",
"imageSrc": "https://ww2.kqed.org/radio/wp-content/uploads/sites/50/2018/04/onTheMedia.png",
"officialWebsiteLink": "https://www.wnycstudios.org/shows/otm",
"meta": {
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"source": "wnyc"
},
"link": "/radio/program/on-the-media",
"subscribe": {
"apple": "https://itunes.apple.com/us/podcast/on-the-media/id73330715?mt=2",
"tuneIn": "https://tunein.com/radio/On-the-Media-p69/",
"rss": "http://feeds.wnyc.org/onthemedia"
}
},
"pbs-newshour": {
"id": "pbs-newshour",
"title": "PBS NewsHour",
"info": "Analysis, background reports and updates from the PBS NewsHour putting today's news in context.",
"airtime": "MON-FRI 3pm-4pm",
"imageSrc": "https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/PBS-News-Hour-Podcast-Tile-360x360-1.jpg",
"officialWebsiteLink": "https://www.pbs.org/newshour/",
"meta": {
"site": "news",
"source": "pbs"
},
"link": "/radio/program/pbs-newshour",
"subscribe": {
"apple": "https://itunes.apple.com/us/podcast/pbs-newshour-full-show/id394432287?mt=2",
"tuneIn": "https://tunein.com/radio/PBS-NewsHour---Full-Show-p425698/",
"rss": "https://www.pbs.org/newshour/feeds/rss/podcasts/show"
}
},
"perspectives": {
"id": "perspectives",
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"description": "[caption id=\"attachment_13657\" align=\"alignright\" width=\"351\"] Just over 2,000 wells have been fracked in California, according to industry data. (Craig Miller/KQED)[/caption] Hydraulic fracturing, or fracking, has been used for more than 30 years in California, but it’s attracting attention and scrutiny because of renewed interest in the state’s large oil reserve, known as the Monterey Shale. In California, fracking is done mainly for oil, while in other states with recent fracking booms, like Pennsylvania and Texas, it’s used largely for natural gas. What is it? Fracking is just one phase of the process used to bring an oil or gas well into production. The technique is used to release oil from rocks deep underground. Water, mixed with sand and chemicals, is injected down the well bore at high pressure to create tiny fractures in the rock. According to the oil industry, more than 2,000 wells have been fracked in the state. Concerns Environmental groups have called for a moratorium on fracking until the state does a comprehensive review of potential impacts on both water and air quality. A chief concern is the chemicals used, some of which are carcinogens, and potential contamination of groundwater. Fracking also uses large volumes of freshwater. Industry sources say it uses less freshwater in California than is used in other states and no cases of groundwater contamination have been found. Where it Stands In November 2013, state regulators released draft rules for fracking that are now expected to go into effect in July 2015. They followed passage of SB 4, a bill signed by Governor Jerry Brown, that spelled out what the regulations should cover. Under the rules, oil and gas operators would be required to apply for a permit prior to fracking a well, and to provide written notice to nearby landowners. Operators would have to disclose what chemicals they use, but not the specific concentrations if they consider those a trade secret. State water regulators are also developing a groundwater monitoring program. The regulations are expected to be finalized by the end of 2014.",
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"cuisine": {
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"restaurantDataById": {},
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}
