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"content": "\u003cp>The ski season in the Sierra Nevada is still months away, but a weather whiplash is in the cards this weekend.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Forecasters expect a surprisingly strong low-pressure system originating from the Gulf of Alaska to dip into California from the Pacific Northwest on Friday, weakening the high pressure that usually dominates the atmosphere above the West Coast in August and keeping the region toasty.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Snowflakes could fall on the mountain’s highest peaks as temperatures drop to freezing, inaugurating the first snowfall of the 2024–25 season. Friday could be the coldest day of the week, but chilly temperatures might last through the weekend.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The National Weather Service cautions hikers, backpackers, and campers to consider the cold, windy weather if they head to the Sierra this weekend.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“It’s a pretty cold system for this time of year,” Sacramento-based weather service meteorologist Katrina Hand said. “We’re expecting up to a half-inch or an inch at the highest peaks.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad fullwidth]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Hand said most of the rain and snow will likely fall north of Interstate 80 at elevations above 8,000 feet. But snow could drop from Mammoth to Yosemite to north of Tahoe. Summertime “snow has not occurred in these locations for at least 20 years,” according to the weather service office based in Hanford.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>https://twitter.com/NWSHanford/status/1826242853489750376\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The northernmost parts of the Bay Area — Marin, Napa and Sonoma counties — could also receive about 0.1 inches of summertime rain.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“We describe it as climatological anomalous, which means we don’t expect these types of storm systems this time of year,” Hand said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>https://twitter.com/NWSBayArea/status/1826220223302869271\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The Shasta area could see the most significant possible rainfall totals. Hand said lighter amounts could fall further south and into valley areas. Temperatures at lower elevations, around 5,000 feet, could reach as low as 50 degrees, akin to winter weather.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>This past week, a different low-pressure system from the north brought mild and foggy weather around the Bay Area. This second system, set to arrive on Friday, will be deeper and pretty unusual for this time of year, according to the weather service.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Closer to the coast, they forecast an increased likelihood of cooler temperatures across the Bay Area beginning Friday and a 10% to 40% chance of up to 0.1 inch of rain in the North Bay.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“We’re not looking at a deep soaker or anything. It’s pretty much confined to through the day Friday, and if we get anything, it’s going to be pretty light,” said Dalton Behringer, a meteorologist with the weather service’s Bay Area office.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The North Bay typically receives a tiny amount of rain in August, normally about 0.04 inches (basically a drop or two).\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“If this system were in the winter, it would definitely be a bigger rainmaker,” said Roger Goss, a weather service Bay Area office meteorologist. “We don’t expect the rain to be that big of a deal, but the cooldown will be more of a big deal.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Sunshine and above-average temperatures are expected to return by early next week, when inland temperatures could reach triple digits. At the same time, the weather service forecasts that the San Francisco area will hit the mid-70s to low 80s.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“It’s going to warm right back up as we head into next week,” he said.\u003c/p>\n\n",
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"headline": "Snow in August? California's Sierra Braces for Rare Summertime System",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003cp>The ski season in the Sierra Nevada is still months away, but a weather whiplash is in the cards this weekend.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Forecasters expect a surprisingly strong low-pressure system originating from the Gulf of Alaska to dip into California from the Pacific Northwest on Friday, weakening the high pressure that usually dominates the atmosphere above the West Coast in August and keeping the region toasty.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Snowflakes could fall on the mountain’s highest peaks as temperatures drop to freezing, inaugurating the first snowfall of the 2024–25 season. Friday could be the coldest day of the week, but chilly temperatures might last through the weekend.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The National Weather Service cautions hikers, backpackers, and campers to consider the cold, windy weather if they head to the Sierra this weekend.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“It’s a pretty cold system for this time of year,” Sacramento-based weather service meteorologist Katrina Hand said. “We’re expecting up to a half-inch or an inch at the highest peaks.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Hand said most of the rain and snow will likely fall north of Interstate 80 at elevations above 8,000 feet. But snow could drop from Mammoth to Yosemite to north of Tahoe. Summertime “snow has not occurred in these locations for at least 20 years,” according to the weather service office based in Hanford.\u003c/p>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\n\u003cp>The northernmost parts of the Bay Area — Marin, Napa and Sonoma counties — could also receive about 0.1 inches of summertime rain.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“We describe it as climatological anomalous, which means we don’t expect these types of storm systems this time of year,” Hand said.\u003c/p>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\n\u003cp>The Shasta area could see the most significant possible rainfall totals. Hand said lighter amounts could fall further south and into valley areas. Temperatures at lower elevations, around 5,000 feet, could reach as low as 50 degrees, akin to winter weather.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>This past week, a different low-pressure system from the north brought mild and foggy weather around the Bay Area. This second system, set to arrive on Friday, will be deeper and pretty unusual for this time of year, according to the weather service.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Closer to the coast, they forecast an increased likelihood of cooler temperatures across the Bay Area beginning Friday and a 10% to 40% chance of up to 0.1 inch of rain in the North Bay.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“We’re not looking at a deep soaker or anything. It’s pretty much confined to through the day Friday, and if we get anything, it’s going to be pretty light,” said Dalton Behringer, a meteorologist with the weather service’s Bay Area office.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The North Bay typically receives a tiny amount of rain in August, normally about 0.04 inches (basically a drop or two).\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“If this system were in the winter, it would definitely be a bigger rainmaker,” said Roger Goss, a weather service Bay Area office meteorologist. “We don’t expect the rain to be that big of a deal, but the cooldown will be more of a big deal.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Sunshine and above-average temperatures are expected to return by early next week, when inland temperatures could reach triple digits. At the same time, the weather service forecasts that the San Francisco area will hit the mid-70s to low 80s.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“It’s going to warm right back up as we head into next week,” he said.\u003c/p>\n\n\u003c/div>\u003c/p>",
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"content": "\u003cp>Every year during the summer or fall, shore waves across the Bay Area are lit up with flashes of beautiful blue light.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>This beautiful blue light is caused by millions of tiny bioluminescent plankton called dinoflagellates. But how do these minuscule organisms produce such a dazzling display?\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Keep reading for the facts about the science behind bioluminescence, and where you can see it for yourself in the Bay Area.\u003c/p>\n\u003cul>\n\u003cli>\u003cstrong>Jump straight to:\u003c/strong> \u003ca href=\"#biolumi\">\u003cstrong>How you can see bioluminescence for yourself in the Bay Area\u003c/strong>\u003c/a>\u003c/li>\n\u003c/ul>\n\u003ch2>How do organisms make light?\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>Bioluminescence is a chemical reaction that happens inside many organisms, from bacteria to squid, shrimp, fungus, fireflies and even starfish.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>This is all thanks to a light-emitting molecule in their cells called luciferin, combined with a photo protein called luciferase. This protein creates the chemical reaction between luciferin and oxygen, making these organisms glow.[aside postID='news_11910495,science_1983522,news_11953853,news_11953794' label='More Outdoor Guides From KQED']Different forms of luciferin can produce different colors of light. Fireflies, for example, have a form of luciferin in their cells that emit green light, whereas marine organisms like the dinoflagellates found around the shores of the San Francisco Bay emit blue light.\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>Why do some organisms produce bioluminescence?\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>Some species of bioluminescent sea creatures, like some jellyfish, have evolved to become bioluminescent due to their diet. When they eat other bioluminescent organisms, they borrow that chemical that allows them to produce light within their bodies.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Other sea creatures, like angler fish that have that ball of light that glows and lures in prey, and flashes light to repel predators, get their bioluminescence from a certain bacteria called photobacterium.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“And the standard rule of thumb is that, what glows in the ocean attracts and what flashes repel,” said Steve Haddock, a senior scientist at Monterey Bay Aquarium Research Institute who researches bioluminescence organisms. He also runs a citizen science website, \u003ca href=\"https://jellywatch.org/\">JellyWatch.org\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_1993933\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\" style=\"max-width: 2160px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-1993933\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/08/DSC04812.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"2160\" height=\"1440\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/08/DSC04812.jpg 2160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/08/DSC04812-800x533.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/08/DSC04812-1020x680.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/08/DSC04812-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/08/DSC04812-768x512.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/08/DSC04812-1536x1024.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/08/DSC04812-2048x1365.jpg 2048w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/08/DSC04812-1920x1280.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2160px) 100vw, 2160px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Bioluminescence was captured at Seacliff State Beach in Santa Cruz on August 12, 2023. \u003ccite>(Johnny Chien)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Bioluminescence is a terrific deterrent against predators that would eat these organisms. It also functions like a flashlight for finding and attracting prey. Some organisms use their glowing abilities as camouflage — they turn light on to block out their silhouette, a kind of cloaking device — hiding them from potential predators.\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>What are dinoflagellates? And how are they related to red tides?\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>Dinoflagellates are single-celled phytoplankton that are usually invisible to the naked eye. But when they are present in high numbers, they can turn the water a hazy green or even orange, depending on the pigments present in cells of that species. When left alone, dinoflagellates won’t produce any light, but when things like ocean waves, wind, and sea creatures disturb them at night, they become bioluminescent, dazzling with a blue light.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>When water temperatures and conditions are just right, blooms of dinoflagellates can grow rapidly and accumulate in high concentrations, causing an event known as a red tide. Red tide is a term generally used to describe when phytoplankton or algae becomes so abundant that it discolors the water, sometimes appearing orange or red.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“So you get a red tide in the daytime and blue tide in the nighttime,” said Haddock.\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>Can I swim or kayak in bioluminescent waters caused by a dinoflagellate red tide?\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>A red tide of dinoflagellates is not to be mistaken with the \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/science/1983775/as-algal-bloom-returns-to-the-bay-is-swimming-safe-for-humans-and-pets\">harmful red tides that killed many fish across the Bay Area \u003c/a>last year. The species that caused that red tide is called Heterosigma akashiwo, and although classified as not dangerous to humans, this species can suck up all the oxygen that fish need in the water, causing them to die.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Most of the bioluminescent species of dinoflagellates are not dangerous to humans. And it should be fine to kayak or swim in bioluminescent waters, says Haddock. But during a red tide, when the water is murky brown, multiple species of different organisms may be present, including the ones that release toxins that might be harmful to humans and animals.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Some species of dinoflagellates can produce various toxins. Their decomposition releases the toxin into the water, and it can even enter the air and become a problem for marine animals and humans, according to Peter Roopnarine, a curator of geology at California Academy of Sciences.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Pay attention to your local advisories about water quality, and things like shellfish poisoning,” Haddock advised.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The rule of thumb is: If the water is a murky brown instead of the usual green or blue, it’s best to stay out of the water. \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/science/1983775/as-algal-bloom-returns-to-the-bay-is-swimming-safe-for-humans-and-pets\">Read more about the algal blooms during the red tide in the Bay Area here\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad fullwidth]\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>\u003ca id=\"biolumi\">\u003c/a>When can I see bioluminescence around the Bay Area?\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>Johnny Chien, a hobbyist photographer and Bay Area resident captured bioluminescence at \u003ca href=\"https://www.instagram.com/p/CurmoqxLFhQ/\">Seacliff State Beach\u003c/a> and \u003ca href=\"https://www.instagram.com/p/CvH30zHrCr-/?img_index=1\">Manresa State Beach\u003c/a> in Santa Cruz County last year. He says that when looking for bioluminescence, patience is key.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“It’s one of those natural [phenomena] that is kind of like the Northern Lights,” said Chien. Chien says that because the wind and tide play important roles in the movement of these bioluminescent planktons, it’s worth it to walk around and explore the beaches when you’re out looking for them. “You could have combinations where there are blotches or certain parts of the beach that are active, certain parts are not,” said Chien.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_1993934\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\" style=\"max-width: 1620px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-1993934\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/08/DSC04243.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"1620\" height=\"2160\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/08/DSC04243.jpg 1620w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/08/DSC04243-800x1067.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/08/DSC04243-1020x1360.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/08/DSC04243-160x213.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/08/DSC04243-768x1024.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/08/DSC04243-1152x1536.jpg 1152w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/08/DSC04243-1536x2048.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1620px) 100vw, 1620px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Johnny Chien, a hobbyist photographer and Bay Area resident captured bioluminescence at Manresa State Beach in Santa Cruz County. This photo was taken in July 2023 \u003ccite>(Johnny Chien)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003ch2>What time of year is best to see bioluminescence?\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>Bioluminescent planktons are around all year long in our California waters. But it’s only when there’s a high concentration of them that makes for a big bioluminescence event, says Haddock. And the best time to see one of those is usually from June until October.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Predicting a big bioluminescent event is not easy. It depends on many factors like temperature, the weather, wind, and tide. So with that in mind…\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Tip #1: Watch the weather\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Phytoplanktons like dinoflagellates can reproduce significantly in optimal warm temperatures. Very often, these warm temperatures can cause an increase in dinoflagellate populations, said Roopnarine.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Haddock says that spotting bioluminescence is “best in the fall,” especially on a balmy day in late summer, “where it’s been relatively warm and calm.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Sometimes conditions occur that lead to massive increases in abundance. These can be seasonal causes, when currents concentrate them in some areas, or when nutrient conditions become very favorable for population increase among bioluminescent planktons, said Roopnarine.[aside label=\"related coverage\" tag=\"algae\"]A rainy or windy day followed by a calm day can kick off the sequence of events leading to a bloom. Rainy days will bring nutrients like phosphate and nitrate found in fertilizers used on land into the watershed and eventually into the sea. Wind will cause the mixing of deeper water, which has more nutrients, up to the surface, said Haddock.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Calm waters in a bay where the area is more enclosed and unaffected by the wind, could be a great spot to look for them after a windy or rainy day, said Haddock.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Tip #2: Look for red tides around surf zones\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Shreenivasan Manievannan, a professional photographer in the Bay Area, captured \u003ca href=\"https://www.instagram.com/p/CjQ_0vbjCFb/\">a video of the bioluminescence in 2022 in Pacifica\u003c/a> when he noticed the red tide event earlier in the day.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“I noticed a distinct change in [color in] the waves in the surf zone,” said Manievannan.\u003c/p>\n\u003cul>\n\u003cli>\u003cstrong>\u003ca href=\"#tellus\">Tell us: What else would you like to read a guide about right now?\u003c/a>\u003c/strong>\u003c/li>\n\u003c/ul>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Tip #3: Track those dinoflagellates (or follow those who do)\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>You might also be able to track dinoflagellates on \u003ca href=\"https://www.inaturalist.org/observations?taxon_id=1410906\">iNaturalist\u003c/a>, a crowdsourced species-identification system.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Also, stay tuned to local aquariums like the Monterey Bay Aquarium and social media updates on bioluminescence events.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Tip #4: Consider the visibility\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>For the best visibility, catch the bioluminescence on a moonless night or a night during a new moon.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“The darker the night, the better,” said Haddock.\u003c/p>\n\u003cdiv style=\"width: 100%;\" align=\"center\">\n\u003c!-- iframe plugin v.4.3 wordpress.org/plugins/iframe/ -->\u003cbr>\n\u003ciframe loading=\"lazy\" width=\"500\" height=\"750\" src=\"https://www.instagram.com/p/Cuw1w37LlYl/embed\" frameborder=\"0\" scrolling=\"yes\" class=\"iframe-class\">\u003c/iframe>\n\u003c/div>\n\u003ch2>Where can I see bioluminescence around the Bay Area?\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>Haddock says that if the bioluminescence is very bright, you can see it really well on the shore or on the bluffs overlooking the shore.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But one of his best experiences seeing bioluminescence was on a rowboat in a bay.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Every drip of water from the paddle would create this concentric ring of lights that went out,” he said. “It’s just amazing.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The two most common spots to check out bioluminescence are Tomales Bay in Marin County and Moss Landing in Monterey Bay where you can take advantage of a number of bioluminescent tours organized by kayaking companies.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In Santa Cruz county, residents have spotted bioluminescence on the shores of Manresa State Beach in Aptos, Seacliff State Beach, \u003ca href=\"https://www.instagram.com/p/Cu4fsapr3kH/\">Rio Del Mar State Beach\u003c/a>, Shark Fin Cove in Davenport, Platforms Beach and Sumner Beach in Aptos. \u003ca href=\"https://www.sfgate.com/local/article/Bioluminescent-waves-glowing-in-Big-Sur-12556823.php\">Big Sur near Bixby Bridge\u003c/a> has been known to produce bioluminescence in 2018.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x5ugV88_HTU\u003c/p>\n\u003cp> \u003c/p>\n\u003cp>For folks who want to experience this event with others, Haddock advises checking out kayaking companies that offer bioluminescence tours. Bay Area kayak companies like \u003ca href=\"https://kayakconnection.com/\">Kayak Connection\u003c/a> and \u003ca href=\"https://www.bluewaterskayaking.com/\">Blue Waters Kayaking\u003c/a> offer bioluminescence tours every year from June until around November.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>What’s it like to go on one of these bioluminescence tours via kayak — especially if you’re already a science lover? In 2023, Bay Area scientist Nuur Shaikh, who majored in biology in college, accompanied almost 20 other friends on \u003ca href=\"https://kayakconnection.com/\">a bioluminescence tour in Moss Landing, Santa Cruz\u003c/a>, where the tour guides brought them to the bioluminescent hot spots in Elkhorn Slough.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“The current was basically pulling us toward the hot spots. We didn’t really have to row or anything,” she said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>On the way to the bioluminescent hot spots, Shaikh and her group passed by patches of algae. “So you could pick up a piece of algae and you can kind of see the [bioluminescent] plankton that’s stuck on those strands,” she said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>When she twirled her fingers in the water, she said the water would light up for a microsecond, making it look like glitter.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“They kind of sparkle a little,” she said. “They look like fairy dust.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cem>This story was originally published on August 10, 2023.\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>\u003ca id=\"tellus\">\u003c/a>Tell us: What else do you need information about?\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>At KQED News, we know that it can sometimes be hard to track down the answers to navigate life in the Bay Area in 2024. We’ve published \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/tag/coronavirus-resources-and-explainers\">clear, practical explainers and guides about COVID\u003c/a>, \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/11936674/how-to-prepare-for-this-weeks-atmospheric-river-storm-sandbags-emergency-kits-and-more\">how to cope with intense winter weather\u003c/a> and \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/11821950/how-to-safely-attend-a-protest-in-the-bay-area\">how to exercise your right to protest safely\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>So tell us: What do you need to know more about? Tell us, and you could see your question answered online or on social media. What you submit will make our reporting stronger, and help us decide what to cover here on our site, and on KQED Public Radio, too.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[hearken id=\"10483\" src=\"https://modules.wearehearken.com/kqed/embed/10483.js\"]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad floatright]\u003c/p>\n",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003cp>Every year during the summer or fall, shore waves across the Bay Area are lit up with flashes of beautiful blue light.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>This beautiful blue light is caused by millions of tiny bioluminescent plankton called dinoflagellates. But how do these minuscule organisms produce such a dazzling display?\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Keep reading for the facts about the science behind bioluminescence, and where you can see it for yourself in the Bay Area.\u003c/p>\n\u003cul>\n\u003cli>\u003cstrong>Jump straight to:\u003c/strong> \u003ca href=\"#biolumi\">\u003cstrong>How you can see bioluminescence for yourself in the Bay Area\u003c/strong>\u003c/a>\u003c/li>\n\u003c/ul>\n\u003ch2>How do organisms make light?\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>Bioluminescence is a chemical reaction that happens inside many organisms, from bacteria to squid, shrimp, fungus, fireflies and even starfish.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>This is all thanks to a light-emitting molecule in their cells called luciferin, combined with a photo protein called luciferase. This protein creates the chemical reaction between luciferin and oxygen, making these organisms glow.\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>Different forms of luciferin can produce different colors of light. Fireflies, for example, have a form of luciferin in their cells that emit green light, whereas marine organisms like the dinoflagellates found around the shores of the San Francisco Bay emit blue light.\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>Why do some organisms produce bioluminescence?\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>Some species of bioluminescent sea creatures, like some jellyfish, have evolved to become bioluminescent due to their diet. When they eat other bioluminescent organisms, they borrow that chemical that allows them to produce light within their bodies.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Other sea creatures, like angler fish that have that ball of light that glows and lures in prey, and flashes light to repel predators, get their bioluminescence from a certain bacteria called photobacterium.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“And the standard rule of thumb is that, what glows in the ocean attracts and what flashes repel,” said Steve Haddock, a senior scientist at Monterey Bay Aquarium Research Institute who researches bioluminescence organisms. He also runs a citizen science website, \u003ca href=\"https://jellywatch.org/\">JellyWatch.org\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_1993933\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\" style=\"max-width: 2160px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-1993933\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/08/DSC04812.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"2160\" height=\"1440\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/08/DSC04812.jpg 2160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/08/DSC04812-800x533.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/08/DSC04812-1020x680.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/08/DSC04812-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/08/DSC04812-768x512.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/08/DSC04812-1536x1024.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/08/DSC04812-2048x1365.jpg 2048w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/08/DSC04812-1920x1280.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2160px) 100vw, 2160px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Bioluminescence was captured at Seacliff State Beach in Santa Cruz on August 12, 2023. \u003ccite>(Johnny Chien)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Bioluminescence is a terrific deterrent against predators that would eat these organisms. It also functions like a flashlight for finding and attracting prey. Some organisms use their glowing abilities as camouflage — they turn light on to block out their silhouette, a kind of cloaking device — hiding them from potential predators.\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>What are dinoflagellates? And how are they related to red tides?\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>Dinoflagellates are single-celled phytoplankton that are usually invisible to the naked eye. But when they are present in high numbers, they can turn the water a hazy green or even orange, depending on the pigments present in cells of that species. When left alone, dinoflagellates won’t produce any light, but when things like ocean waves, wind, and sea creatures disturb them at night, they become bioluminescent, dazzling with a blue light.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>When water temperatures and conditions are just right, blooms of dinoflagellates can grow rapidly and accumulate in high concentrations, causing an event known as a red tide. Red tide is a term generally used to describe when phytoplankton or algae becomes so abundant that it discolors the water, sometimes appearing orange or red.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“So you get a red tide in the daytime and blue tide in the nighttime,” said Haddock.\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>Can I swim or kayak in bioluminescent waters caused by a dinoflagellate red tide?\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>A red tide of dinoflagellates is not to be mistaken with the \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/science/1983775/as-algal-bloom-returns-to-the-bay-is-swimming-safe-for-humans-and-pets\">harmful red tides that killed many fish across the Bay Area \u003c/a>last year. The species that caused that red tide is called Heterosigma akashiwo, and although classified as not dangerous to humans, this species can suck up all the oxygen that fish need in the water, causing them to die.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Most of the bioluminescent species of dinoflagellates are not dangerous to humans. And it should be fine to kayak or swim in bioluminescent waters, says Haddock. But during a red tide, when the water is murky brown, multiple species of different organisms may be present, including the ones that release toxins that might be harmful to humans and animals.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Some species of dinoflagellates can produce various toxins. Their decomposition releases the toxin into the water, and it can even enter the air and become a problem for marine animals and humans, according to Peter Roopnarine, a curator of geology at California Academy of Sciences.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Pay attention to your local advisories about water quality, and things like shellfish poisoning,” Haddock advised.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The rule of thumb is: If the water is a murky brown instead of the usual green or blue, it’s best to stay out of the water. \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/science/1983775/as-algal-bloom-returns-to-the-bay-is-swimming-safe-for-humans-and-pets\">Read more about the algal blooms during the red tide in the Bay Area here\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>\u003ca id=\"biolumi\">\u003c/a>When can I see bioluminescence around the Bay Area?\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>Johnny Chien, a hobbyist photographer and Bay Area resident captured bioluminescence at \u003ca href=\"https://www.instagram.com/p/CurmoqxLFhQ/\">Seacliff State Beach\u003c/a> and \u003ca href=\"https://www.instagram.com/p/CvH30zHrCr-/?img_index=1\">Manresa State Beach\u003c/a> in Santa Cruz County last year. He says that when looking for bioluminescence, patience is key.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“It’s one of those natural [phenomena] that is kind of like the Northern Lights,” said Chien. Chien says that because the wind and tide play important roles in the movement of these bioluminescent planktons, it’s worth it to walk around and explore the beaches when you’re out looking for them. “You could have combinations where there are blotches or certain parts of the beach that are active, certain parts are not,” said Chien.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_1993934\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\" style=\"max-width: 1620px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-1993934\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/08/DSC04243.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"1620\" height=\"2160\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/08/DSC04243.jpg 1620w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/08/DSC04243-800x1067.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/08/DSC04243-1020x1360.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/08/DSC04243-160x213.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/08/DSC04243-768x1024.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/08/DSC04243-1152x1536.jpg 1152w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2023/08/DSC04243-1536x2048.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1620px) 100vw, 1620px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Johnny Chien, a hobbyist photographer and Bay Area resident captured bioluminescence at Manresa State Beach in Santa Cruz County. This photo was taken in July 2023 \u003ccite>(Johnny Chien)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003ch2>What time of year is best to see bioluminescence?\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>Bioluminescent planktons are around all year long in our California waters. But it’s only when there’s a high concentration of them that makes for a big bioluminescence event, says Haddock. And the best time to see one of those is usually from June until October.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Predicting a big bioluminescent event is not easy. It depends on many factors like temperature, the weather, wind, and tide. So with that in mind…\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Tip #1: Watch the weather\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Phytoplanktons like dinoflagellates can reproduce significantly in optimal warm temperatures. Very often, these warm temperatures can cause an increase in dinoflagellate populations, said Roopnarine.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Haddock says that spotting bioluminescence is “best in the fall,” especially on a balmy day in late summer, “where it’s been relatively warm and calm.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Sometimes conditions occur that lead to massive increases in abundance. These can be seasonal causes, when currents concentrate them in some areas, or when nutrient conditions become very favorable for population increase among bioluminescent planktons, said Roopnarine.\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>A rainy or windy day followed by a calm day can kick off the sequence of events leading to a bloom. Rainy days will bring nutrients like phosphate and nitrate found in fertilizers used on land into the watershed and eventually into the sea. Wind will cause the mixing of deeper water, which has more nutrients, up to the surface, said Haddock.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Calm waters in a bay where the area is more enclosed and unaffected by the wind, could be a great spot to look for them after a windy or rainy day, said Haddock.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Tip #2: Look for red tides around surf zones\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Shreenivasan Manievannan, a professional photographer in the Bay Area, captured \u003ca href=\"https://www.instagram.com/p/CjQ_0vbjCFb/\">a video of the bioluminescence in 2022 in Pacifica\u003c/a> when he noticed the red tide event earlier in the day.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“I noticed a distinct change in [color in] the waves in the surf zone,” said Manievannan.\u003c/p>\n\u003cul>\n\u003cli>\u003cstrong>\u003ca href=\"#tellus\">Tell us: What else would you like to read a guide about right now?\u003c/a>\u003c/strong>\u003c/li>\n\u003c/ul>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Tip #3: Track those dinoflagellates (or follow those who do)\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>You might also be able to track dinoflagellates on \u003ca href=\"https://www.inaturalist.org/observations?taxon_id=1410906\">iNaturalist\u003c/a>, a crowdsourced species-identification system.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Also, stay tuned to local aquariums like the Monterey Bay Aquarium and social media updates on bioluminescence events.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Tip #4: Consider the visibility\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>For the best visibility, catch the bioluminescence on a moonless night or a night during a new moon.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“The darker the night, the better,” said Haddock.\u003c/p>\n\u003cdiv style=\"width: 100%;\" align=\"center\">\n\u003c!-- iframe plugin v.4.3 wordpress.org/plugins/iframe/ -->\u003cbr>\n\u003ciframe loading=\"lazy\" width=\"500\" height=\"750\" src=\"https://www.instagram.com/p/Cuw1w37LlYl/embed\" frameborder=\"0\" scrolling=\"yes\" class=\"iframe-class\">\u003c/iframe>\n\u003c/div>\n\u003ch2>Where can I see bioluminescence around the Bay Area?\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>Haddock says that if the bioluminescence is very bright, you can see it really well on the shore or on the bluffs overlooking the shore.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But one of his best experiences seeing bioluminescence was on a rowboat in a bay.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Every drip of water from the paddle would create this concentric ring of lights that went out,” he said. “It’s just amazing.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The two most common spots to check out bioluminescence are Tomales Bay in Marin County and Moss Landing in Monterey Bay where you can take advantage of a number of bioluminescent tours organized by kayaking companies.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In Santa Cruz county, residents have spotted bioluminescence on the shores of Manresa State Beach in Aptos, Seacliff State Beach, \u003ca href=\"https://www.instagram.com/p/Cu4fsapr3kH/\">Rio Del Mar State Beach\u003c/a>, Shark Fin Cove in Davenport, Platforms Beach and Sumner Beach in Aptos. \u003ca href=\"https://www.sfgate.com/local/article/Bioluminescent-waves-glowing-in-Big-Sur-12556823.php\">Big Sur near Bixby Bridge\u003c/a> has been known to produce bioluminescence in 2018.\u003c/p>\u003c/p>\u003cp>\u003cspan class='utils-parseShortcode-shortcodes-__youtubeShortcode__embedYoutube'>\n \u003cspan class='utils-parseShortcode-shortcodes-__youtubeShortcode__embedYoutubeInside'>\n \u003ciframe\n loading='lazy'\n class='utils-parseShortcode-shortcodes-__youtubeShortcode__youtubePlayer'\n type='text/html'\n src='//www.youtube.com/embed/x5ugV88_HTU'\n title='//www.youtube.com/embed/x5ugV88_HTU'\n allowfullscreen='true'\n style='border:0;'>\u003c/iframe>\n \u003c/span>\n \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\u003cp>\u003cp> \u003c/p>\n\u003cp>For folks who want to experience this event with others, Haddock advises checking out kayaking companies that offer bioluminescence tours. Bay Area kayak companies like \u003ca href=\"https://kayakconnection.com/\">Kayak Connection\u003c/a> and \u003ca href=\"https://www.bluewaterskayaking.com/\">Blue Waters Kayaking\u003c/a> offer bioluminescence tours every year from June until around November.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>What’s it like to go on one of these bioluminescence tours via kayak — especially if you’re already a science lover? In 2023, Bay Area scientist Nuur Shaikh, who majored in biology in college, accompanied almost 20 other friends on \u003ca href=\"https://kayakconnection.com/\">a bioluminescence tour in Moss Landing, Santa Cruz\u003c/a>, where the tour guides brought them to the bioluminescent hot spots in Elkhorn Slough.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“The current was basically pulling us toward the hot spots. We didn’t really have to row or anything,” she said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>On the way to the bioluminescent hot spots, Shaikh and her group passed by patches of algae. “So you could pick up a piece of algae and you can kind of see the [bioluminescent] plankton that’s stuck on those strands,” she said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>When she twirled her fingers in the water, she said the water would light up for a microsecond, making it look like glitter.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“They kind of sparkle a little,” she said. “They look like fairy dust.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cem>This story was originally published on August 10, 2023.\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>\u003ca id=\"tellus\">\u003c/a>Tell us: What else do you need information about?\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>At KQED News, we know that it can sometimes be hard to track down the answers to navigate life in the Bay Area in 2024. We’ve published \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/tag/coronavirus-resources-and-explainers\">clear, practical explainers and guides about COVID\u003c/a>, \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/11936674/how-to-prepare-for-this-weeks-atmospheric-river-storm-sandbags-emergency-kits-and-more\">how to cope with intense winter weather\u003c/a> and \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/11821950/how-to-safely-attend-a-protest-in-the-bay-area\">how to exercise your right to protest safely\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>So tell us: What do you need to know more about? Tell us, and you could see your question answered online or on social media. What you submit will make our reporting stronger, and help us decide what to cover here on our site, and on KQED Public Radio, too.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"title": "California Needs to Pull Carbon From the Air to Meet Its Climate Goals. This Bill Lays Out a Plan",
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"content": "\u003cp>To achieve its ambitious climate goals, California will likely need to not only slash emissions but also remove huge amounts of carbon dioxide from the atmosphere using technology that’s new and very expensive.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003ca href=\"https://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/billTextClient.xhtml?bill_id=202320240SB308\">A newly introduced bill\u003c/a> making its way through the state Legislature aims to push the carbon removal industry to be able to pull 75 million tons of carbon dioxide — the amount created by \u003ca href=\"https://ww2.arb.ca.gov/sites/default/files/2022-11/2022-sp.pdf\">roughly 200 gas-fired power plants\u003c/a> — from the air every year by 2045.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But that plan is not without controversy. Its critics include big oil, business associations and some environmental justice groups.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>State Sen. Josh Becker (D-Menlo Park) said he authored the \u003ca href=\"https://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/billTextClient.xhtml?bill_id=202320240SB308\">bill\u003c/a> — SB 308 — to show companies that California is committed to carbon dioxide removal.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“We need to let these entrepreneurs know that there’s a long-term market for carbon removal so they can continue to work,” Becker said. “Investors will invest, and we can bring down the cost of these solutions, just like we’ve done with wind and solar.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad fullwidth]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>There are already several California-based carbon dioxide removal companies, but none of them are yet able to remove the planet-warming gas from the atmosphere in a cost-effective way, according to industry experts, who argue it should cost close to $100 per ton of carbon dioxide removed — a fraction of the current estimates.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Becker’s bill would require the California Air Resources Board, the state agency tasked with reducing air pollution, to set targets to scale up the amount of carbon dioxide removed annually and report on that progress. Becker thinks this will also help assure carbon-removal companies that they will have a robust market.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[aside postID=\"science_1982049\" hero='https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/35/2023/03/image5-2-1020x702.jpg']\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The legislation would also establish guardrails for the carbon-removal industry, including how long the pulled carbon dioxide must be stored for — whether that be in deep underground wells, concrete, the ocean or other locations. It would also mandate that companies directly involve communities who live near project sites. Additionally, it would require that the efforts be focused on true carbon dioxide removal rather than projects used to extract oil from an existing well — a process known as enhanced oil recovery.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Carbon removal means pulling the gas out of the atmosphere through either nature-based approaches — like conserving existing wetlands — or through technological engineering methods that speed the process of carbon dioxide absorption using air, rocks, land and oceans and then sequester it.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Carbon removal is different from \u003ca href=\"https://www.c2es.org/content/carbon-capture/\">carbon capture\u003c/a>, which involves trapping greenhouse gasses at their source of emissions — like smokestacks — a process environmentalists have criticized as allowing fossil-fuel companies to continue burning gases that warm the planet.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Supporters of Becker’s bill, including carbon-removal companies and some environmental groups, emphasize that first and foremost, California must reduce emissions, like the pollution that comes from smokestacks and tailpipes. However, they argue that the gas must also be pulled from the atmosphere to meet the state’s goal of carbon neutrality by 2045. Realizing that goal means the state will have to\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> remove as many carbon emissions from the atmosphere as it emits.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“This is a strategy that is necessary,” said Katelyn Roedner Sutter, California state director of the Environmental Defense Fund. “We have to design good rules now so we can start developing and scaling up these projects.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>However, a number of influential business groups, like the California Chamber of Commerce, oppose the bill, arguing it would be redundant and \u003ca href=\"https://advocacy.calchamber.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/10/Alert-10-20-23.pdf\">add unnecessary regulations\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Environmental justice groups, like the Central Valley Air Quality Coalition, also oppose the bill but for entirely different reasons. They say carbon dioxide removal projects are popping up across the Central Valley, directly impacting low-income communities there, and that the money would be better spent on cutting emissions in the first place.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“We accept that direct air capture is a part of California’s climate strategy,” said Katie Valenzuela, the coalition’s senior policy advocate and a Sacramento City Council member. “But we have deep concerns about potentially replicating some of the same harms that we see from traditional industrial processes.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Valenzuela said she worries about how the projects might negatively impact local air quality and how the chemicals used in the process will be disposed of. The way the captured carbon will be transported through those communities and the consequences of the gas potentially leaking out of storage areas are also major concerns, she adds.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Think about long term: Say there’s a leakage at a carbon storage site in 50 years. Whose job is it going to be to monitor that?” she asked. “Whose job is it going to be to pay for that?”\u003c/p>\n\n",
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"description": "To achieve its ambitious climate goals, California will likely need to not only slash emissions but also remove huge amounts of carbon dioxide from the atmosphere using technology that’s new and very expensive. A newly introduced bill making its way through the state Legislature aims to push the carbon removal industry to be able to pull 75 million tons of carbon dioxide — the amount created by roughly 200 gas-fired power plants — from the air every year by 2045. But that plan is not without controversy. Its critics include big oil, business associations and some environmental justice groups. State",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003cp>To achieve its ambitious climate goals, California will likely need to not only slash emissions but also remove huge amounts of carbon dioxide from the atmosphere using technology that’s new and very expensive.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003ca href=\"https://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/billTextClient.xhtml?bill_id=202320240SB308\">A newly introduced bill\u003c/a> making its way through the state Legislature aims to push the carbon removal industry to be able to pull 75 million tons of carbon dioxide — the amount created by \u003ca href=\"https://ww2.arb.ca.gov/sites/default/files/2022-11/2022-sp.pdf\">roughly 200 gas-fired power plants\u003c/a> — from the air every year by 2045.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But that plan is not without controversy. Its critics include big oil, business associations and some environmental justice groups.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>State Sen. Josh Becker (D-Menlo Park) said he authored the \u003ca href=\"https://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/billTextClient.xhtml?bill_id=202320240SB308\">bill\u003c/a> — SB 308 — to show companies that California is committed to carbon dioxide removal.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“We need to let these entrepreneurs know that there’s a long-term market for carbon removal so they can continue to work,” Becker said. “Investors will invest, and we can bring down the cost of these solutions, just like we’ve done with wind and solar.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>There are already several California-based carbon dioxide removal companies, but none of them are yet able to remove the planet-warming gas from the atmosphere in a cost-effective way, according to industry experts, who argue it should cost close to $100 per ton of carbon dioxide removed — a fraction of the current estimates.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Becker’s bill would require the California Air Resources Board, the state agency tasked with reducing air pollution, to set targets to scale up the amount of carbon dioxide removed annually and report on that progress. Becker thinks this will also help assure carbon-removal companies that they will have a robust market.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The legislation would also establish guardrails for the carbon-removal industry, including how long the pulled carbon dioxide must be stored for — whether that be in deep underground wells, concrete, the ocean or other locations. It would also mandate that companies directly involve communities who live near project sites. Additionally, it would require that the efforts be focused on true carbon dioxide removal rather than projects used to extract oil from an existing well — a process known as enhanced oil recovery.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Carbon removal means pulling the gas out of the atmosphere through either nature-based approaches — like conserving existing wetlands — or through technological engineering methods that speed the process of carbon dioxide absorption using air, rocks, land and oceans and then sequester it.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Carbon removal is different from \u003ca href=\"https://www.c2es.org/content/carbon-capture/\">carbon capture\u003c/a>, which involves trapping greenhouse gasses at their source of emissions — like smokestacks — a process environmentalists have criticized as allowing fossil-fuel companies to continue burning gases that warm the planet.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Supporters of Becker’s bill, including carbon-removal companies and some environmental groups, emphasize that first and foremost, California must reduce emissions, like the pollution that comes from smokestacks and tailpipes. However, they argue that the gas must also be pulled from the atmosphere to meet the state’s goal of carbon neutrality by 2045. Realizing that goal means the state will have to\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> remove as many carbon emissions from the atmosphere as it emits.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“This is a strategy that is necessary,” said Katelyn Roedner Sutter, California state director of the Environmental Defense Fund. “We have to design good rules now so we can start developing and scaling up these projects.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>However, a number of influential business groups, like the California Chamber of Commerce, oppose the bill, arguing it would be redundant and \u003ca href=\"https://advocacy.calchamber.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/10/Alert-10-20-23.pdf\">add unnecessary regulations\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Environmental justice groups, like the Central Valley Air Quality Coalition, also oppose the bill but for entirely different reasons. They say carbon dioxide removal projects are popping up across the Central Valley, directly impacting low-income communities there, and that the money would be better spent on cutting emissions in the first place.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“We accept that direct air capture is a part of California’s climate strategy,” said Katie Valenzuela, the coalition’s senior policy advocate and a Sacramento City Council member. “But we have deep concerns about potentially replicating some of the same harms that we see from traditional industrial processes.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Valenzuela said she worries about how the projects might negatively impact local air quality and how the chemicals used in the process will be disposed of. The way the captured carbon will be transported through those communities and the consequences of the gas potentially leaking out of storage areas are also major concerns, she adds.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Think about long term: Say there’s a leakage at a carbon storage site in 50 years. Whose job is it going to be to monitor that?” she asked. “Whose job is it going to be to pay for that?”\u003c/p>\n\n\u003c/div>\u003c/p>",
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"title": "Top Places in the Bay Area to See the Perseid Meteor Shower",
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"content": "\u003cp>The \u003ca href=\"https://solarsystem.nasa.gov/asteroids-comets-and-meteors/meteors-and-meteorites/perseids/in-depth/\">Perseid meteor shower\u003c/a> is the most anticipated light show of the year.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>And while the Perseids have already been illuminating our dark skies as of late July, they’re expected to peak starting this weekend — on Sunday, Aug. 11, Monday, Aug. 12 and Tuesday, Aug. 13.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Producing up to 100 meteors per hour, the Perseids form one of the most reliable annual meteor showers to watch out for. And under optimal weather conditions — especially in the pre-dawn hours when the sky is darkest — observers will be able to enjoy a spectacular view of these “shooting stars” if they know where to look.[aside postID='news_11990187,news_11988380,news_11987126,news_11984496' label='More Outdoor Guides From KQED']\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Keep reading for the best places to see the Perseid meteor shower in the Bay Area this year.\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>\u003cstrong>When to see the Perseid meteor shower in the Bay Area\u003c/strong>\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>The best time to view the Perseids is during the peak nights, which in 2024 are:\u003c/p>\n\u003cul>\n\u003cli>Sunday, Aug. 11\u003c/li>\n\u003cli>Monday, Aug. 12\u003c/li>\n\u003cli>Tuesday, Aug. 13\u003c/li>\n\u003c/ul>\n\u003cp>As for timing, meteors are most visible between midnight, after the moon sets, and dawn.\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>\u003cstrong>Where to watch the Perseid meteor shower in the Bay Area \u003c/strong>\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>For meteor spotting, you want to choose a dark location away from city lights.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Here are a few popular dark locations for watching meteor showers in the Bay Area:\u003c/p>\n\u003cul>\n\u003cli>Henry Coe State Park, South Bay\u003c/li>\n\u003cli>Tilden Park, East Bay\u003c/li>\n\u003cli>Sunol Regional Wilderness, East Bay\u003c/li>\n\u003cli>Mount Diablo, East Bay\u003c/li>\n\u003cli>Skyline Boulevard, Peninsula\u003c/li>\n\u003cli>Montara Beach, Peninsula\u003c/li>\n\u003cli>Pescadero, Peninsula\u003c/li>\n\u003cli>Point Reyes National Seashore, North Bay\u003c/li>\n\u003cli>Bodega Bay, North Bay\u003c/li>\n\u003c/ul>\n\u003cp>In the North Bay, you can find miles of darkened rural skies from the coast eastward. But note that fog in coastal areas might disrupt your views of the dark night sky.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>State parks, national forests, and rural areas are also ideal for night sky watching. And if you’re looking to go beyond the Bay Area, popular spots in California include Pinnacles National Park, Joshua Tree National Park, Death Valley National Park, and the Sierra Nevada mountains. \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/11953853/how-to-find-a-camping-spot-in-california-when-they-always-seem-to-be-fully-booked#walkincampsites\">Read our tips for finding a last-minute camping reservation near the Bay Area.\u003c/a>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad fullwidth]\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>\u003cstrong>Where to look in the sky to see the Perseid meteor shower\u003c/strong>\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>If you’re heading out to see the meteor shower, be prepared to be outdoors for at least a few hours. Bring a reclining chair or a blanket to lie on for comfort. Dress warmly as temperatures can drop at night, even in summer. Make sure to check the weather forecast — clear skies are essential for optimal viewing.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Once you’re situated, allow your eyes to adjust to the darkness for about 20–30 minutes and avoid looking at your phone or any other bright lights, as this can reduce night vision.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Look towards the northeast horizon, where the constellation Perseus will be rising, and enjoy the show.\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>\u003cstrong>What is a meteor shower? \u003c/strong>\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>A \u003ca href=\"https://spaceplace.nasa.gov/meteor-shower/en/\">meteor shower\u003c/a> occurs when Earth passes through a stream of debris left behind by a \u003ca href=\"https://solarsystem.nasa.gov/asteroids-comets-and-meteors/comets/overview/?page=0&per_page=40&order=name+asc&search=&condition_1=102%3Aparent_id&condition_2=comet%3Abody_type%3Ailike\">comet\u003c/a> or, in some cases, an asteroid. As Earth moves through the debris, these particles enter our atmosphere at high speeds and burn up, creating striking streaks of light.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The Perseids are named after the constellation \u003ca href=\"https://www.constellation-guide.com/constellation-list/perseus-constellation/\">Perseus\u003c/a>, the point from which the meteors appear to radiate, and are fragments of the comet \u003ca href=\"https://solarsystem.nasa.gov/asteroids-comets-and-meteors/comets/109p-swift-tuttle/in-depth/\">Swift-Tuttle\u003c/a>. This comet last passed near Earth in 1992 and won’t return until 2126.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cem>A version of this story was originally published on July 27.\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003cp>The \u003ca href=\"https://solarsystem.nasa.gov/asteroids-comets-and-meteors/meteors-and-meteorites/perseids/in-depth/\">Perseid meteor shower\u003c/a> is the most anticipated light show of the year.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>And while the Perseids have already been illuminating our dark skies as of late July, they’re expected to peak starting this weekend — on Sunday, Aug. 11, Monday, Aug. 12 and Tuesday, Aug. 13.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Producing up to 100 meteors per hour, the Perseids form one of the most reliable annual meteor showers to watch out for. And under optimal weather conditions — especially in the pre-dawn hours when the sky is darkest — observers will be able to enjoy a spectacular view of these “shooting stars” if they know where to look.\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Keep reading for the best places to see the Perseid meteor shower in the Bay Area this year.\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>\u003cstrong>When to see the Perseid meteor shower in the Bay Area\u003c/strong>\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>The best time to view the Perseids is during the peak nights, which in 2024 are:\u003c/p>\n\u003cul>\n\u003cli>Sunday, Aug. 11\u003c/li>\n\u003cli>Monday, Aug. 12\u003c/li>\n\u003cli>Tuesday, Aug. 13\u003c/li>\n\u003c/ul>\n\u003cp>As for timing, meteors are most visible between midnight, after the moon sets, and dawn.\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>\u003cstrong>Where to watch the Perseid meteor shower in the Bay Area \u003c/strong>\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>For meteor spotting, you want to choose a dark location away from city lights.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Here are a few popular dark locations for watching meteor showers in the Bay Area:\u003c/p>\n\u003cul>\n\u003cli>Henry Coe State Park, South Bay\u003c/li>\n\u003cli>Tilden Park, East Bay\u003c/li>\n\u003cli>Sunol Regional Wilderness, East Bay\u003c/li>\n\u003cli>Mount Diablo, East Bay\u003c/li>\n\u003cli>Skyline Boulevard, Peninsula\u003c/li>\n\u003cli>Montara Beach, Peninsula\u003c/li>\n\u003cli>Pescadero, Peninsula\u003c/li>\n\u003cli>Point Reyes National Seashore, North Bay\u003c/li>\n\u003cli>Bodega Bay, North Bay\u003c/li>\n\u003c/ul>\n\u003cp>In the North Bay, you can find miles of darkened rural skies from the coast eastward. But note that fog in coastal areas might disrupt your views of the dark night sky.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>State parks, national forests, and rural areas are also ideal for night sky watching. And if you’re looking to go beyond the Bay Area, popular spots in California include Pinnacles National Park, Joshua Tree National Park, Death Valley National Park, and the Sierra Nevada mountains. \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/11953853/how-to-find-a-camping-spot-in-california-when-they-always-seem-to-be-fully-booked#walkincampsites\">Read our tips for finding a last-minute camping reservation near the Bay Area.\u003c/a>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>\u003cstrong>Where to look in the sky to see the Perseid meteor shower\u003c/strong>\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>If you’re heading out to see the meteor shower, be prepared to be outdoors for at least a few hours. Bring a reclining chair or a blanket to lie on for comfort. Dress warmly as temperatures can drop at night, even in summer. Make sure to check the weather forecast — clear skies are essential for optimal viewing.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Once you’re situated, allow your eyes to adjust to the darkness for about 20–30 minutes and avoid looking at your phone or any other bright lights, as this can reduce night vision.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Look towards the northeast horizon, where the constellation Perseus will be rising, and enjoy the show.\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>\u003cstrong>What is a meteor shower? \u003c/strong>\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>A \u003ca href=\"https://spaceplace.nasa.gov/meteor-shower/en/\">meteor shower\u003c/a> occurs when Earth passes through a stream of debris left behind by a \u003ca href=\"https://solarsystem.nasa.gov/asteroids-comets-and-meteors/comets/overview/?page=0&per_page=40&order=name+asc&search=&condition_1=102%3Aparent_id&condition_2=comet%3Abody_type%3Ailike\">comet\u003c/a> or, in some cases, an asteroid. As Earth moves through the debris, these particles enter our atmosphere at high speeds and burn up, creating striking streaks of light.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The Perseids are named after the constellation \u003ca href=\"https://www.constellation-guide.com/constellation-list/perseus-constellation/\">Perseus\u003c/a>, the point from which the meteors appear to radiate, and are fragments of the comet \u003ca href=\"https://solarsystem.nasa.gov/asteroids-comets-and-meteors/comets/109p-swift-tuttle/in-depth/\">Swift-Tuttle\u003c/a>. This comet last passed near Earth in 1992 and won’t return until 2126.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cem>A version of this story was originally published on July 27.\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003c/div>\u003c/p>",
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"title": "Rising Seas Already Flood Some Bay Area Schools. The Risk Will Only Get Worse",
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"content": "\u003cp>The Bay Area will become much wetter in the coming decades as rising sea levels push water into shoreline communities, putting highways, homes and \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/science/1993783/schools-in-deep-water-bay-area-faces-uphill-battle-against-climate-change\">schools\u003c/a> in the path of flooding.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>A new analysis from KQED and Climate Central, a nonadvocacy science and newsgroup, found that more than 50 public schools are so close to the bay’s high-tide line that \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/science/1993798/see-which-bay-area-schools-are-at-risk-from-rising-seas\">they’re already in danger of being inundated with ocean and groundwater\u003c/a> — and the risk will grow as seas continue to rise from the effects of climate change.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>While many major sea-level rise solutions could indirectly protect schools, our analysis alerts the public to areas that may flood and gives school districts around the Bay Area agency to prepare for what’s to come.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad fullwidth]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>The big picture: \u003c/strong>Human-caused climate change is raising seas around the globe, and Bay Area scientists believe that will wreak havoc on the region in the coming decades. We’ve known that unless action is taken, much of the 400-plus miles of bay shore will be inundated and shallow groundwater will be pushed up to the surface, flooding property and potentially damaging underground infrastructure. Our new analysis shows how schools are already being affected by flooding due in part to sea-level rise.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_1993889\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-1993889\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2024/08/20240604_FloodedSchool-19_qed.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1333\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2024/08/20240604_FloodedSchool-19_qed.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2024/08/20240604_FloodedSchool-19_qed-800x533.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2024/08/20240604_FloodedSchool-19_qed-1020x680.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2024/08/20240604_FloodedSchool-19_qed-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2024/08/20240604_FloodedSchool-19_qed-768x512.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2024/08/20240604_FloodedSchool-19_qed-1536x1024.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2024/08/20240604_FloodedSchool-19_qed-1920x1280.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Richardson Bay, the body of water next to Mill Valley Middle School, is seen on Tuesday, June 4, 2024. In October 2021, Mill Valley Middle School closed down for two days due to flooding and storm damage caused by rain-induced flooding and high tides. \u003ccite>(Gina Castro/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>The context: \u003c/strong>The high-tide line in the San Francisco Bay has risen by 8 inches over the last century as heat trapped by pollution has melted ice and heated and expanded the world’s oceans. As human-caused climate change accelerates, scientists expect floods to become more regular because about 250 square miles of the Bay Area sit just above — and in some cases below — that line.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Warning signs: \u003c/strong>Three Marin County schools already cope with routine floods: Redwood High School has installed a pump to keep its parking lot dry during high tides, Mill Valley Middle School’s drop-off zone floods multiple times a year, and Tamalpais High School’s parking lot sits below the bay’s high tide levels, causing the storm drains to sometimes run backward from the bay onto campus.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">[aside postID=science_1993783 hero='https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2024/08/20240604_FloodedSchool-13_qed-1020x680.jpg']\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Zoom in: \u003c/strong>Flooding is a significant reason parents are upset that the district plans to rebuild the aging Mill Valley Middle School in the same spot it’s been in for more than 50 years rather than find a new site on safer ground. The Mill Valley School District shares the concerns about flooding, and board members said they’re determined to rebuild the school in a way that will keep its students safe, using bond dollars to modernize it.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But even if the district raises the school above the area that will likely flood in the coming decades, climate scientists said it won’t take much more sea-level rise to turn the school periodically into an “island.” The school’s sea-level rise solution might protect the property, but the district’s choice to raise the school doesn’t fix the parents’ woes of getting kids to class on flooded streets.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Zoom out: \u003c/strong>Across the Bay Area, 52 schools are already at risk of groundwater floods linked to sea-level rise, and seven also face coastal flooding. By 2050, 16 schools will face both risks. San Mateo, Alameda, and Marin are the counties with the most flood-prone schools.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">[aside postID=science_1993798 hero='https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2024/08/FloodMap.jpg']\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Solutions: \u003c/strong>School districts can rebuild schools at elevations above flood zones or move them entirely away from risky areas. But there’s an equity issue for school districts that may want to address the rising sea level independently.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Districts in less economically privileged communities may not have the funds or ability to move a school and must rely on community or region-wide efforts — sea walls, levees, or out-of-the-box solutions — to protect schools. That means city, county, and state leaders must come alongside communities to develop plans for a wetter future.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>What’s new: \u003c/strong>While seawalls and levees are the usual options to protect communities from floodwaters, they come with a sizable price tag. Plus, sea-level rise scientists behind a new paper published in Scientific Reports suggest that \u003ca href=\"https://news.uark.edu/articles/70841/barriers-designed-to-prevent-saltwater-intrusion-may-worsen-inland-flooding?utm_source=arkansas-news&utm_medium=email_2024-07-31&utm_campaign=news_headlines&utm_content=barriers-designed-to-prevent-saltwater-intrusion-may-worsen-inland-flooding\">sea walls or other shoreline barriers “can backfire,” leading to more groundwater flooding inland\u003c/a>, said Xin Su, a research assistant professor at the University of Memphis. As a result, the researchers suggest any solution with a barrier in mind needs a secondary plan — like pumps — to deal with the extra water inland.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>The bottom line: \u003c/strong>The Bay Area needs to develop large-scale sea-level rise solutions — for schools, highways, homes, major infrastructure, etc. — in the coming decades as the pace of flooding increases. It will \u003ca href=\"https://abag.ca.gov/sites/default/files/documents/2023-07/SLR_Framework_Final_Report.pdf\">cost as much as $110 billion\u003c/a> to protect the entire bay shore from nearly a foot and a half of sea-level rise and a 100-year storm, according to a funding report from last summer by various Bay Area governments. Failing to do so could push the cost of preparing the region for rising tides to over $230 billion, the authors note. The good news is that the Bay Area Conservation and Development Commission is working on \u003ca href=\"https://www.bayadapt.org/regional-shoreline-adaptation-plan/\">a regional sea-level rise plan with a draft due at the end of the year\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n",
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"excerpt": "More than 50 Bay Area public schools are already at risk of flooding as seas continue to rise. Here’s what to know about a new analysis from KQED and Climate Central.",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003cp>The Bay Area will become much wetter in the coming decades as rising sea levels push water into shoreline communities, putting highways, homes and \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/science/1993783/schools-in-deep-water-bay-area-faces-uphill-battle-against-climate-change\">schools\u003c/a> in the path of flooding.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>A new analysis from KQED and Climate Central, a nonadvocacy science and newsgroup, found that more than 50 public schools are so close to the bay’s high-tide line that \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/science/1993798/see-which-bay-area-schools-are-at-risk-from-rising-seas\">they’re already in danger of being inundated with ocean and groundwater\u003c/a> — and the risk will grow as seas continue to rise from the effects of climate change.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>While many major sea-level rise solutions could indirectly protect schools, our analysis alerts the public to areas that may flood and gives school districts around the Bay Area agency to prepare for what’s to come.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>The big picture: \u003c/strong>Human-caused climate change is raising seas around the globe, and Bay Area scientists believe that will wreak havoc on the region in the coming decades. We’ve known that unless action is taken, much of the 400-plus miles of bay shore will be inundated and shallow groundwater will be pushed up to the surface, flooding property and potentially damaging underground infrastructure. Our new analysis shows how schools are already being affected by flooding due in part to sea-level rise.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_1993889\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-1993889\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2024/08/20240604_FloodedSchool-19_qed.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1333\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2024/08/20240604_FloodedSchool-19_qed.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2024/08/20240604_FloodedSchool-19_qed-800x533.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2024/08/20240604_FloodedSchool-19_qed-1020x680.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2024/08/20240604_FloodedSchool-19_qed-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2024/08/20240604_FloodedSchool-19_qed-768x512.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2024/08/20240604_FloodedSchool-19_qed-1536x1024.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2024/08/20240604_FloodedSchool-19_qed-1920x1280.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Richardson Bay, the body of water next to Mill Valley Middle School, is seen on Tuesday, June 4, 2024. In October 2021, Mill Valley Middle School closed down for two days due to flooding and storm damage caused by rain-induced flooding and high tides. \u003ccite>(Gina Castro/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>The context: \u003c/strong>The high-tide line in the San Francisco Bay has risen by 8 inches over the last century as heat trapped by pollution has melted ice and heated and expanded the world’s oceans. As human-caused climate change accelerates, scientists expect floods to become more regular because about 250 square miles of the Bay Area sit just above — and in some cases below — that line.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Warning signs: \u003c/strong>Three Marin County schools already cope with routine floods: Redwood High School has installed a pump to keep its parking lot dry during high tides, Mill Valley Middle School’s drop-off zone floods multiple times a year, and Tamalpais High School’s parking lot sits below the bay’s high tide levels, causing the storm drains to sometimes run backward from the bay onto campus.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Zoom in: \u003c/strong>Flooding is a significant reason parents are upset that the district plans to rebuild the aging Mill Valley Middle School in the same spot it’s been in for more than 50 years rather than find a new site on safer ground. The Mill Valley School District shares the concerns about flooding, and board members said they’re determined to rebuild the school in a way that will keep its students safe, using bond dollars to modernize it.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But even if the district raises the school above the area that will likely flood in the coming decades, climate scientists said it won’t take much more sea-level rise to turn the school periodically into an “island.” The school’s sea-level rise solution might protect the property, but the district’s choice to raise the school doesn’t fix the parents’ woes of getting kids to class on flooded streets.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Zoom out: \u003c/strong>Across the Bay Area, 52 schools are already at risk of groundwater floods linked to sea-level rise, and seven also face coastal flooding. By 2050, 16 schools will face both risks. San Mateo, Alameda, and Marin are the counties with the most flood-prone schools.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Solutions: \u003c/strong>School districts can rebuild schools at elevations above flood zones or move them entirely away from risky areas. But there’s an equity issue for school districts that may want to address the rising sea level independently.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Districts in less economically privileged communities may not have the funds or ability to move a school and must rely on community or region-wide efforts — sea walls, levees, or out-of-the-box solutions — to protect schools. That means city, county, and state leaders must come alongside communities to develop plans for a wetter future.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>What’s new: \u003c/strong>While seawalls and levees are the usual options to protect communities from floodwaters, they come with a sizable price tag. Plus, sea-level rise scientists behind a new paper published in Scientific Reports suggest that \u003ca href=\"https://news.uark.edu/articles/70841/barriers-designed-to-prevent-saltwater-intrusion-may-worsen-inland-flooding?utm_source=arkansas-news&utm_medium=email_2024-07-31&utm_campaign=news_headlines&utm_content=barriers-designed-to-prevent-saltwater-intrusion-may-worsen-inland-flooding\">sea walls or other shoreline barriers “can backfire,” leading to more groundwater flooding inland\u003c/a>, said Xin Su, a research assistant professor at the University of Memphis. As a result, the researchers suggest any solution with a barrier in mind needs a secondary plan — like pumps — to deal with the extra water inland.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>The bottom line: \u003c/strong>The Bay Area needs to develop large-scale sea-level rise solutions — for schools, highways, homes, major infrastructure, etc. — in the coming decades as the pace of flooding increases. It will \u003ca href=\"https://abag.ca.gov/sites/default/files/documents/2023-07/SLR_Framework_Final_Report.pdf\">cost as much as $110 billion\u003c/a> to protect the entire bay shore from nearly a foot and a half of sea-level rise and a 100-year storm, according to a funding report from last summer by various Bay Area governments. Failing to do so could push the cost of preparing the region for rising tides to over $230 billion, the authors note. The good news is that the Bay Area Conservation and Development Commission is working on \u003ca href=\"https://www.bayadapt.org/regional-shoreline-adaptation-plan/\">a regional sea-level rise plan with a draft due at the end of the year\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003c/div>\u003c/p>",
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"slug": "dignity-where-there-was-little-to-be-found-inside-the-fight-for-california-needle-exchange-programs",
"title": "'Dignity Where There Was Little to Be Found': Inside the Fight for California Needle Exchange Programs",
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"content": "\u003cp>About a decade ago, Toni Rodriguez opened up to family members for the first time about using drugs.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Rodriguez, who primarily uses the pronoun “they,” was in their 20s and living in Santa Cruz at the time, and was in a bad place and hoping for support.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But instead, Rodriguez said family members reacted with personal attacks.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“It really damaged the foundations of my relationship with almost every single family member,” Rodriguez said. “I don’t know what I was expecting, and it really is the stigma around IV drug use. There is nothing more despicable in most people’s eyes.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Rodriguez felt unsupported and forced to move out, they said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Rodriguez continued to use opioids over the following years. Having trouble finding clean syringes, they would reuse needles, which can cause skin infections and lead to abscesses.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Then, in 2020, while hanging around a homeless encampment, Rodriguez learned about the Harm Reduction Coalition of Santa Cruz County.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_1993860\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003ca href=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2024/08/240730-SYRINGEEXCHANGE-29-BL-KQED.jpg\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-1993860\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2024/08/240730-SYRINGEEXCHANGE-29-BL-KQED.jpg\" alt=\"Someone displaying drug-related harm-reduction items.\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1333\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2024/08/240730-SYRINGEEXCHANGE-29-BL-KQED.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2024/08/240730-SYRINGEEXCHANGE-29-BL-KQED-800x533.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2024/08/240730-SYRINGEEXCHANGE-29-BL-KQED-1020x680.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2024/08/240730-SYRINGEEXCHANGE-29-BL-KQED-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2024/08/240730-SYRINGEEXCHANGE-29-BL-KQED-768x512.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2024/08/240730-SYRINGEEXCHANGE-29-BL-KQED-1536x1024.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2024/08/240730-SYRINGEEXCHANGE-29-BL-KQED-1920x1280.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003c/a>\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Members of the Harm Reduction Coalition of Santa Cruz County display harm reduction items, on July 30, 2024. \u003ccite>(Beth LaBerge/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>The coalition offered services without judgment or pity, Rodriguez said and delivered syringes meant to reduce the risks of infectious diseases.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“It really was game changing,” Rodriguez said. “It was dignity where there was little to be found.”\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>‘Recipe for disaster’\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>But last year, that all changed. A judge ordered the program to stop distributing needles following a lawsuit brought by members of a neighborhood group and other concerned residents. The judge ruled that the California Department of Public Health (CDPH) had \u003ca href=\"https://caselaw.findlaw.com/court/ca-court-of-appeal/114866098.html\">not adequately consulted with law enforcement\u003c/a> when it approved of the needle distribution.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“It’s a recipe for disaster. And it does nothing to curb drug use. It just makes it even more dangerous,” Rodriguez said of the ruling.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Santa Cruz County was home to one of the nation’s first syringe exchange programs – commonly known as a needle exchange – which was \u003ca href=\"https://www.hrcofscc.org/historyinsantacruz\">founded in the late 1980s during the AIDS crisis\u003c/a>. However, the county is also one of several in California to see opposition to harm reduction programs in recent years.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Many needle exchanges, like the one here, are fighting to operate amid backlash spurred by fears that such programs will lead to more public drug use and an uptick in used needles and other drug paraphernalia strewn on the streets. This is also playing out in historically conservative bastions like Orange County, \u003ca href=\"https://www.latimes.com/opinion/story/2023-07-31/orange-county-needle-exchange-program-overdose-hiv\">which remains one of the largest counties in the country without such a program\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_1993861\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003ca href=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2024/08/240730-SYRINGEEXCHANGE-35-BL-KQED.jpg\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-1993861\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2024/08/240730-SYRINGEEXCHANGE-35-BL-KQED.jpg\" alt=\"Three people stand on railroad tracks.\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1333\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2024/08/240730-SYRINGEEXCHANGE-35-BL-KQED.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2024/08/240730-SYRINGEEXCHANGE-35-BL-KQED-800x533.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2024/08/240730-SYRINGEEXCHANGE-35-BL-KQED-1020x680.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2024/08/240730-SYRINGEEXCHANGE-35-BL-KQED-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2024/08/240730-SYRINGEEXCHANGE-35-BL-KQED-768x512.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2024/08/240730-SYRINGEEXCHANGE-35-BL-KQED-1536x1024.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2024/08/240730-SYRINGEEXCHANGE-35-BL-KQED-1920x1280.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003c/a>\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Anna Koplos-Villanueva (left), Denise Elerick and Jerry Guerrero, who help run the Harm Reduction Coalition of Santa Cruz County, in Santa Cruz on July 30, 2024, nearby to where they previously distributed clean syringes before a judge ordered them to stop earlier this year. \u003ccite>(Beth LaBerge/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>“Can you imagine a child stepping on a needle in the sand at the playground?” Santa Ana Mayor Valerie Amezcua told KQED. “Is the answer to give [people] needles so that they can continue to live on the street and use freely? In my eyes, no.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003ca href=\"https://mcclibraryfunctions.azurewebsites.us/api/ordinanceDownload/15095/1258788/pdf\">Last year\u003c/a>, El Dorado County passed an ordinance to ban needle exchange programs, an action that prompted CDPH to \u003ca href=\"https://www.sacbee.com/news/local/article286978630.html\">file a lawsuit in March\u003c/a>, arguing that the ban is preempted by state law. The judge, in that case, ordered a preliminary injunction on the ban.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad fullwidth]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Harm reduction advocates in Santa Cruz and Santa Ana are still hoping CDHP approves their applications to distribute clean needles.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>And while the agency told KQED it supports these programs, some local officials and residents contend they know what’s best for their communities.\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>Changing views\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>Harm reduction advocates argue needle exchange programs save lives and are urgently needed amid the fentanyl overdose crisis. California’s opioid-related deaths spiked roughly 127% between 2019 and 2022, \u003ca href=\"https://skylab.cdph.ca.gov/ODdash/?tab=Home\">according to CDPH\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Needle exchange programs were born as part of an underground effort by activists and volunteers during the height of the AIDS epidemic to protect the health of people who used drugs. What started out as an \u003ca href=\"https://www.sfaf.org/resource-library/needle-exchange-in-san-francisco/\">act of civil disobedience\u003c/a> gained wider acceptance over the years.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[aside label=\"More on addiction treatment\" postID=\"news_11997957,news_11911092,news_11891403\"]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In December 2015, \u003ca href=\"https://www.vox.com/2016/1/6/10723800/congress-needle-exchange-ban\">Congress effectively lifted\u003c/a> the ban on federal funding for the programs. Since then, the number of counties in California with at least one needle exchange program increased markedly, and these programs now operate in about 60% of counties in the state, according to state health officials.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>A CDPH spokesperson said in a statement to KQED that harm reduction programs reduce infectious disease transmission, prevent fatal overdoses, and link people to other crucial services. The agency added that research shows that these sites do not attract more drug users to certain neighborhoods and actually reduce the amount of syringe litter.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But skepticism about the programs remains strong.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Researchers at Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health surveyed roughly 1,000 adults across the country and \u003ca href=\"https://publichealth.jhu.edu/2018/public-support-for-needle-exchange-programs-safe-injection-sites-remains-low-in-US\">found \u003c/a>that just 39% supported legalizing needle exchange programs in their communities. Those who had very negative views of people who use drugs were most more likely to be opposed to the programs.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Denise Elerick, the founder of the Harm Reduction Coalition of Santa Cruz County, said needle exchange programs should be approved based on public health evidence, not popular opinion.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“It’s not a football game,” Elerick said. “It’s the same tape, the same script that’s been repeated from Atlanta to Connecticut to everywhere, all over: ‘Those people found a syringe near my child, we have to close it down and stop it.’ That’s it in a nutshell.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_1993854\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003ca href=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2024/08/240730-SYRINGEEXCHANGE-07-BL-KQED.jpg\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-1993854\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2024/08/240730-SYRINGEEXCHANGE-07-BL-KQED.jpg\" alt=\"A man with long hair and a plaid shirt poses in a park.\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1333\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2024/08/240730-SYRINGEEXCHANGE-07-BL-KQED.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2024/08/240730-SYRINGEEXCHANGE-07-BL-KQED-800x533.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2024/08/240730-SYRINGEEXCHANGE-07-BL-KQED-1020x680.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2024/08/240730-SYRINGEEXCHANGE-07-BL-KQED-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2024/08/240730-SYRINGEEXCHANGE-07-BL-KQED-768x512.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2024/08/240730-SYRINGEEXCHANGE-07-BL-KQED-1536x1024.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2024/08/240730-SYRINGEEXCHANGE-07-BL-KQED-1920x1280.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003c/a>\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Brad Angell, a member of the Grant Park Neighborhood Association Advocates, in Grant Park in Santa Cruz on July 30, 2024. \u003ccite>(Beth LaBerge/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Brad Angell was among a group of residents who formed the Grant Park Neighborhood Association Advocates and sued the Santa Cruz needle exchange. A former Santa Cruz police chief and others were also plaintiffs.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>He said he is not opposed to all needle exchanges but was appalled and shocked by the number of needles discarded at Grant Park, located in a residential neighborhood.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The community avoided the park because drug use and discarded needles were so common, he said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Angell also said the program did not consult with the community.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“They act like renegades without any rules,” Angell said. “It’s shocking they were ever allowed to operate in the first place.”\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>Resistance in Santa Ana\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>In Santa Ana, where city leaders staunchly oppose such programs, another nonprofit harm reduction group has applied for state authorization to distribute clean needles.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>At a city council meeting in February, then-interim city manager Tom Hatch shared images of discarded syringes.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“This needle was found inside of our city library, on one of the bookshelves, where any member of the public or young person could have come in contact with that needle and caused some harm,” Hatch said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Amezcua, the mayor, said residents do not want a needle exchange program in their city. Santa Ana City Council members \u003ca href=\"https://www.santa-ana.org/city-council-opposes-needle-distribution/\">passed a resolution in April\u003c/a> voicing unanimous opposition to the proposed program.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Go to Irvine, go to Orange, go wherever you want, but don’t come here to Santa Ana because we don’t want it here,” Amezcua said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Carol Newark, the executive director of the Harm Reduction Institute, the group pushing for authorization to distribute needles in Santa Ana, watched the meeting online the next day. She said felt sickened by the images displayed, and what seemed to be a lack of understanding about why the needles were there in the first place.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_1993855\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003ca href=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2024/08/240730-SYRINGEEXCHANGE-08-BL-KQED.jpg\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-1993855\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2024/08/240730-SYRINGEEXCHANGE-08-BL-KQED.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1333\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2024/08/240730-SYRINGEEXCHANGE-08-BL-KQED.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2024/08/240730-SYRINGEEXCHANGE-08-BL-KQED-800x533.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2024/08/240730-SYRINGEEXCHANGE-08-BL-KQED-1020x680.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2024/08/240730-SYRINGEEXCHANGE-08-BL-KQED-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2024/08/240730-SYRINGEEXCHANGE-08-BL-KQED-768x512.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2024/08/240730-SYRINGEEXCHANGE-08-BL-KQED-1536x1024.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2024/08/240730-SYRINGEEXCHANGE-08-BL-KQED-1920x1280.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003c/a>\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Lisa Bates (left), her dog Tacho, Peter Glynn, and Brad Angell, members of the Grant Park Neighborhood Association Advocates, walk through Grant Park in Santa Cruz on July 30, 2024. \u003ccite>(Beth LaBerge/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>“I weirdly get the vibe that they’re trying to say [our group is] coming in to purposefully leave [the syringe litter] there. Like, we want to come in and destroy their city,” Newark said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>She contends her group’s latest effort to launch a needle exchange is different from the previous operation, which was run by a group called the Orange County Needle Exchange Program.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Newark’s group has laid out their plan to address residents’ concerns. If approved, they will collect syringes from participants five days a week, conduct “litter sweeps” throughout the city, and operate a hotline for residents, she said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>If the state does not approve the latest application to be authorized, Newark said she is not sure she has it in her to apply again.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“The backlash has traumatized me more than anything else I’ve experienced,” Newark said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad floatright]\u003c/p>\n",
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"excerpt": "Syringe exchanges in California are fighting to stay alive amid growing opposition spurred by fears that such programs will lead to more public drug use and disorder.",
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"title": "'Dignity Where There Was Little to Be Found': Inside the Fight for California Needle Exchange Programs | KQED",
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"headline": "'Dignity Where There Was Little to Be Found': Inside the Fight for California Needle Exchange Programs",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003cp>About a decade ago, Toni Rodriguez opened up to family members for the first time about using drugs.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Rodriguez, who primarily uses the pronoun “they,” was in their 20s and living in Santa Cruz at the time, and was in a bad place and hoping for support.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But instead, Rodriguez said family members reacted with personal attacks.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“It really damaged the foundations of my relationship with almost every single family member,” Rodriguez said. “I don’t know what I was expecting, and it really is the stigma around IV drug use. There is nothing more despicable in most people’s eyes.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Rodriguez felt unsupported and forced to move out, they said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Rodriguez continued to use opioids over the following years. Having trouble finding clean syringes, they would reuse needles, which can cause skin infections and lead to abscesses.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Then, in 2020, while hanging around a homeless encampment, Rodriguez learned about the Harm Reduction Coalition of Santa Cruz County.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_1993860\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003ca href=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2024/08/240730-SYRINGEEXCHANGE-29-BL-KQED.jpg\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-1993860\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2024/08/240730-SYRINGEEXCHANGE-29-BL-KQED.jpg\" alt=\"Someone displaying drug-related harm-reduction items.\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1333\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2024/08/240730-SYRINGEEXCHANGE-29-BL-KQED.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2024/08/240730-SYRINGEEXCHANGE-29-BL-KQED-800x533.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2024/08/240730-SYRINGEEXCHANGE-29-BL-KQED-1020x680.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2024/08/240730-SYRINGEEXCHANGE-29-BL-KQED-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2024/08/240730-SYRINGEEXCHANGE-29-BL-KQED-768x512.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2024/08/240730-SYRINGEEXCHANGE-29-BL-KQED-1536x1024.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2024/08/240730-SYRINGEEXCHANGE-29-BL-KQED-1920x1280.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003c/a>\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Members of the Harm Reduction Coalition of Santa Cruz County display harm reduction items, on July 30, 2024. \u003ccite>(Beth LaBerge/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>The coalition offered services without judgment or pity, Rodriguez said and delivered syringes meant to reduce the risks of infectious diseases.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“It really was game changing,” Rodriguez said. “It was dignity where there was little to be found.”\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>‘Recipe for disaster’\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>But last year, that all changed. A judge ordered the program to stop distributing needles following a lawsuit brought by members of a neighborhood group and other concerned residents. The judge ruled that the California Department of Public Health (CDPH) had \u003ca href=\"https://caselaw.findlaw.com/court/ca-court-of-appeal/114866098.html\">not adequately consulted with law enforcement\u003c/a> when it approved of the needle distribution.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“It’s a recipe for disaster. And it does nothing to curb drug use. It just makes it even more dangerous,” Rodriguez said of the ruling.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Santa Cruz County was home to one of the nation’s first syringe exchange programs – commonly known as a needle exchange – which was \u003ca href=\"https://www.hrcofscc.org/historyinsantacruz\">founded in the late 1980s during the AIDS crisis\u003c/a>. However, the county is also one of several in California to see opposition to harm reduction programs in recent years.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Many needle exchanges, like the one here, are fighting to operate amid backlash spurred by fears that such programs will lead to more public drug use and an uptick in used needles and other drug paraphernalia strewn on the streets. This is also playing out in historically conservative bastions like Orange County, \u003ca href=\"https://www.latimes.com/opinion/story/2023-07-31/orange-county-needle-exchange-program-overdose-hiv\">which remains one of the largest counties in the country without such a program\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_1993861\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003ca href=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2024/08/240730-SYRINGEEXCHANGE-35-BL-KQED.jpg\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-1993861\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2024/08/240730-SYRINGEEXCHANGE-35-BL-KQED.jpg\" alt=\"Three people stand on railroad tracks.\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1333\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2024/08/240730-SYRINGEEXCHANGE-35-BL-KQED.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2024/08/240730-SYRINGEEXCHANGE-35-BL-KQED-800x533.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2024/08/240730-SYRINGEEXCHANGE-35-BL-KQED-1020x680.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2024/08/240730-SYRINGEEXCHANGE-35-BL-KQED-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2024/08/240730-SYRINGEEXCHANGE-35-BL-KQED-768x512.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2024/08/240730-SYRINGEEXCHANGE-35-BL-KQED-1536x1024.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2024/08/240730-SYRINGEEXCHANGE-35-BL-KQED-1920x1280.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003c/a>\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Anna Koplos-Villanueva (left), Denise Elerick and Jerry Guerrero, who help run the Harm Reduction Coalition of Santa Cruz County, in Santa Cruz on July 30, 2024, nearby to where they previously distributed clean syringes before a judge ordered them to stop earlier this year. \u003ccite>(Beth LaBerge/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>“Can you imagine a child stepping on a needle in the sand at the playground?” Santa Ana Mayor Valerie Amezcua told KQED. “Is the answer to give [people] needles so that they can continue to live on the street and use freely? In my eyes, no.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003ca href=\"https://mcclibraryfunctions.azurewebsites.us/api/ordinanceDownload/15095/1258788/pdf\">Last year\u003c/a>, El Dorado County passed an ordinance to ban needle exchange programs, an action that prompted CDPH to \u003ca href=\"https://www.sacbee.com/news/local/article286978630.html\">file a lawsuit in March\u003c/a>, arguing that the ban is preempted by state law. The judge, in that case, ordered a preliminary injunction on the ban.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Harm reduction advocates in Santa Cruz and Santa Ana are still hoping CDHP approves their applications to distribute clean needles.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>And while the agency told KQED it supports these programs, some local officials and residents contend they know what’s best for their communities.\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>Changing views\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>Harm reduction advocates argue needle exchange programs save lives and are urgently needed amid the fentanyl overdose crisis. California’s opioid-related deaths spiked roughly 127% between 2019 and 2022, \u003ca href=\"https://skylab.cdph.ca.gov/ODdash/?tab=Home\">according to CDPH\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Needle exchange programs were born as part of an underground effort by activists and volunteers during the height of the AIDS epidemic to protect the health of people who used drugs. What started out as an \u003ca href=\"https://www.sfaf.org/resource-library/needle-exchange-in-san-francisco/\">act of civil disobedience\u003c/a> gained wider acceptance over the years.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In December 2015, \u003ca href=\"https://www.vox.com/2016/1/6/10723800/congress-needle-exchange-ban\">Congress effectively lifted\u003c/a> the ban on federal funding for the programs. Since then, the number of counties in California with at least one needle exchange program increased markedly, and these programs now operate in about 60% of counties in the state, according to state health officials.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>A CDPH spokesperson said in a statement to KQED that harm reduction programs reduce infectious disease transmission, prevent fatal overdoses, and link people to other crucial services. The agency added that research shows that these sites do not attract more drug users to certain neighborhoods and actually reduce the amount of syringe litter.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But skepticism about the programs remains strong.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Researchers at Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health surveyed roughly 1,000 adults across the country and \u003ca href=\"https://publichealth.jhu.edu/2018/public-support-for-needle-exchange-programs-safe-injection-sites-remains-low-in-US\">found \u003c/a>that just 39% supported legalizing needle exchange programs in their communities. Those who had very negative views of people who use drugs were most more likely to be opposed to the programs.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Denise Elerick, the founder of the Harm Reduction Coalition of Santa Cruz County, said needle exchange programs should be approved based on public health evidence, not popular opinion.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“It’s not a football game,” Elerick said. “It’s the same tape, the same script that’s been repeated from Atlanta to Connecticut to everywhere, all over: ‘Those people found a syringe near my child, we have to close it down and stop it.’ That’s it in a nutshell.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_1993854\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003ca href=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2024/08/240730-SYRINGEEXCHANGE-07-BL-KQED.jpg\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-1993854\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2024/08/240730-SYRINGEEXCHANGE-07-BL-KQED.jpg\" alt=\"A man with long hair and a plaid shirt poses in a park.\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1333\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2024/08/240730-SYRINGEEXCHANGE-07-BL-KQED.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2024/08/240730-SYRINGEEXCHANGE-07-BL-KQED-800x533.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2024/08/240730-SYRINGEEXCHANGE-07-BL-KQED-1020x680.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2024/08/240730-SYRINGEEXCHANGE-07-BL-KQED-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2024/08/240730-SYRINGEEXCHANGE-07-BL-KQED-768x512.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2024/08/240730-SYRINGEEXCHANGE-07-BL-KQED-1536x1024.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2024/08/240730-SYRINGEEXCHANGE-07-BL-KQED-1920x1280.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003c/a>\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Brad Angell, a member of the Grant Park Neighborhood Association Advocates, in Grant Park in Santa Cruz on July 30, 2024. \u003ccite>(Beth LaBerge/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Brad Angell was among a group of residents who formed the Grant Park Neighborhood Association Advocates and sued the Santa Cruz needle exchange. A former Santa Cruz police chief and others were also plaintiffs.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>He said he is not opposed to all needle exchanges but was appalled and shocked by the number of needles discarded at Grant Park, located in a residential neighborhood.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The community avoided the park because drug use and discarded needles were so common, he said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Angell also said the program did not consult with the community.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“They act like renegades without any rules,” Angell said. “It’s shocking they were ever allowed to operate in the first place.”\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>Resistance in Santa Ana\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>In Santa Ana, where city leaders staunchly oppose such programs, another nonprofit harm reduction group has applied for state authorization to distribute clean needles.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>At a city council meeting in February, then-interim city manager Tom Hatch shared images of discarded syringes.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“This needle was found inside of our city library, on one of the bookshelves, where any member of the public or young person could have come in contact with that needle and caused some harm,” Hatch said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Amezcua, the mayor, said residents do not want a needle exchange program in their city. Santa Ana City Council members \u003ca href=\"https://www.santa-ana.org/city-council-opposes-needle-distribution/\">passed a resolution in April\u003c/a> voicing unanimous opposition to the proposed program.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Go to Irvine, go to Orange, go wherever you want, but don’t come here to Santa Ana because we don’t want it here,” Amezcua said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Carol Newark, the executive director of the Harm Reduction Institute, the group pushing for authorization to distribute needles in Santa Ana, watched the meeting online the next day. She said felt sickened by the images displayed, and what seemed to be a lack of understanding about why the needles were there in the first place.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_1993855\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003ca href=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2024/08/240730-SYRINGEEXCHANGE-08-BL-KQED.jpg\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-1993855\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2024/08/240730-SYRINGEEXCHANGE-08-BL-KQED.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1333\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2024/08/240730-SYRINGEEXCHANGE-08-BL-KQED.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2024/08/240730-SYRINGEEXCHANGE-08-BL-KQED-800x533.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2024/08/240730-SYRINGEEXCHANGE-08-BL-KQED-1020x680.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2024/08/240730-SYRINGEEXCHANGE-08-BL-KQED-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2024/08/240730-SYRINGEEXCHANGE-08-BL-KQED-768x512.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2024/08/240730-SYRINGEEXCHANGE-08-BL-KQED-1536x1024.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2024/08/240730-SYRINGEEXCHANGE-08-BL-KQED-1920x1280.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003c/a>\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Lisa Bates (left), her dog Tacho, Peter Glynn, and Brad Angell, members of the Grant Park Neighborhood Association Advocates, walk through Grant Park in Santa Cruz on July 30, 2024. \u003ccite>(Beth LaBerge/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>“I weirdly get the vibe that they’re trying to say [our group is] coming in to purposefully leave [the syringe litter] there. Like, we want to come in and destroy their city,” Newark said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>She contends her group’s latest effort to launch a needle exchange is different from the previous operation, which was run by a group called the Orange County Needle Exchange Program.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Newark’s group has laid out their plan to address residents’ concerns. If approved, they will collect syringes from participants five days a week, conduct “litter sweeps” throughout the city, and operate a hotline for residents, she said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>If the state does not approve the latest application to be authorized, Newark said she is not sure she has it in her to apply again.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“The backlash has traumatized me more than anything else I’ve experienced,” Newark said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cp>Fifty-two Bay Area public schools sit so close to the bay’s high-tide line that they’re already at risk of being inundated with ocean and ground water, and their risk will grow as seas continue to rise, according to an analysis by KQED and Climate Central.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Some schools already cope with routine floods, like Marin County’s Redwood High School, which has installed a pump to keep its parking lot dry during high tides, and \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/science/1993783/schools-in-deep-water-bay-area-faces-uphill-battle-against-climate-change\">Mill Valley Middle School, where the drop-off zone floods multiple times a year\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“The biggest risk to these schools is that they’re in areas with high groundwater, and they get flooding when it’s a combination of a high tide and a heavy rain,” said Kristina Hill, director of UC Berkeley’s Institute of Urban and Regional Development.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad fullwidth]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The high-tide line in the San Francisco Bay has risen by \u003ca href=\"https://oehha.ca.gov/climate-change/epic-2022/impacts-physical-systems/sea-level-rise#:~:text=Sea%20levels%20have%20increased%20over,mm%20or%200.03%E2%80%B3%20each%20year.\">8 inches\u003c/a> as heat trapped by pollution has melted ice and heated and expanded the world’s oceans over the last century. As that creep accelerates scientists expect floods to become more regular because about \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/11799297/large-parts-of-the-bay-area-are-built-on-fill-why-and-where\">250 square miles\u003c/a> of the Bay Area sits just above — and in some cases below — that line, on former wetlands that were drained and piled up with rocks, rubble and soil for development.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>By 2050, moderate projections show seas rising \u003ca href=\"https://opc.ca.gov/wp-content/uploads/2024/01/SLR-Guidance-DRAFT-Jan-2024-508.pdf\">an additional 7 inches (PDF)\u003c/a>, at which point floods will become even more common at most of the schools, our analysis found. By 2100, the projections show the bay rising 3 feet above today’s levels, at which point the number of flood-risky schools will multiply.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>We aimed to identify Bay Area schools with flood risk today, and those likely to have problems by the middle of the century. We looked at two types of floods, both of which will become more common with sea level rise: coastal floods, where high tides and storm surges push the ocean up onto dry land; and groundwater floods, where saltwater saturates the soil under the shore, driving up the layer of freshwater floating above it so much that it emerges and inundates properties.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The KQED and Climate Central analysis found:\u003c/p>\n\u003cul>\n\u003cli>Fifty-two schools are already at risk of groundwater floods linked to sea level rise.\u003c/li>\n\u003cli>Seven of them also carry the risk of coastal floods, compounding the likelihood of inundation. By 2050, 16 will carry both risks.\u003c/li>\n\u003cli>By 2050, another school — Design Tech High in Redwood City — will be at risk of flooding.\u003c/li>\n\u003cli>The bulk of the flood-risky schools are located in San Mateo, Alameda and Marin counties.\u003c/li>\n\u003c/ul>\n\u003cp>\u003c!-- iframe plugin v.4.3 wordpress.org/plugins/iframe/ -->\u003cbr>\n\u003ciframe loading=\"lazy\" src=\"https://kqedsf.maps.arcgis.com/apps/instant/basic/index.html?appid=ba558582b94c47f3b683552282c70ef4\" width=\"1000\" height=\"700\" frameborder=\"0\" style=\"border:0\" scrolling=\"yes\" class=\"iframe-class\">\u003c/iframe>\u003cbr>\n\u003cem>(Map produced by Matthew Green/KQED) \u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>\u003cstrong>Data sources and methodology\u003c/strong>\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>To identify flood-risky schools, KQED and Climate Central pulled location data for more than 1,700 public schools in the Bay Area’s nine counties from the \u003ca href=\"https://gis.data.ca.gov/datasets/61a4260e68b14a5ab91daf27d4415e7d_0/explore?location=0.036826%2C-119.081787%2C0.00\">California State Geoportal\u003c/a>. Using QGIS, we mapped those schools onto flood risk data from the U.S. Geological Survey’s \u003ca href=\"https://ourcoastourfuture.org/hazard-map/\">Our Coast Our Future hazard map\u003c/a>, focusing on the risk as it stood in 2010, the model’s baseline, and with a moderate sea level rise \u003ca href=\"https://opc.ca.gov/wp-content/uploads/2024/01/SLR-Guidance-DRAFT-Jan-2024-508.pdf\">projected (PDF)\u003c/a> by 2050.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>We added a radius of 150 meters for each school, to capture flooding impacts outside the single point location coordinates provided by the state. That’s about a 17.5 acre circle, about the size of the median school campus of 10 acres, according to a \u003ca href=\"https://www.californiaschoolcampusdatabase.org/\">database\u003c/a> of California school sizes.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[aside postID=science_1993783]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Our analysis likely underestimates the real-life flood risk, according to flood experts we spoke with, because it doesn’t capture other factors, like intensifying rainfall and localized land subsidence.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>For the coastal flood analysis, we considered the risk of inundation during a 100-year-storm, which state law requires all schools to be constructed to withstand.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>We did not include four schools in Foster City and seven schools in San Mateo from the results, because those cities have recently built flood-protective levees not accounted for by the database.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_1993803\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-1993803\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2024/08/20240604_FloodedSchool-17_qed.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1333\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2024/08/20240604_FloodedSchool-17_qed.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2024/08/20240604_FloodedSchool-17_qed-800x533.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2024/08/20240604_FloodedSchool-17_qed-1020x680.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2024/08/20240604_FloodedSchool-17_qed-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2024/08/20240604_FloodedSchool-17_qed-768x512.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2024/08/20240604_FloodedSchool-17_qed-1536x1024.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2024/08/20240604_FloodedSchool-17_qed-1920x1280.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Flood warning signs are posted at the Mill Valley Middle School parking lot on Tuesday, June 4, 2024. \u003ccite>(Gina Castro/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003ch2>\u003cstrong>Groundwater floods\u003c/strong>\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>Unlike coastal inundation, groundwater floods depend on underground, out-of-sight factors like topography, soil composition and the water table. In the absence of a detailed subsurface geology map for the region, the model uses a range of plausible geologies based on the research that does exist. We limited our results to campuses that the USGS model indicates already have emergent water, at or above the surface of the land.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The model requires an assumption of soil permeability: In highly permeable soil, water drains quickly, limiting the likelihood of a flood. In the least permeable soil, groundwater drains slowly, increasing that likelihood. Research by UC Berkeley’s Hill on groundwater floods in the Bay Area has shown that the least-permeable assumption best matches up with real-life flood risk.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>To zero in on schools whose groundwater flood risk is related to sea level rise, we consulted with Hill and Patrick Barnard, research director for USGS’ Climate Impacts and Coastal Processes Team. We constrained our results to campuses under 10 feet of elevation, which we determined with \u003ca href=\"https://www.usgs.gov/3d-elevation-program\">this USGS tool\u003c/a>, and within a half-mile of the bay or a tidally influenced river, which we determined using Google Maps’ \u003ca href=\"https://support.google.com/maps/answer/1628031?hl=en&co=GENIE.Platform%3DDesktop\">distance calculator\u003c/a> and by researching rivers’ head of tide.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Barriers like levees don’t protect against rising groundwater, so in this case, we did not eliminate the schools in Foster City or San Mateo.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cem>This story was produced by KQED and Climate Central, a nonadvocacy science and news group.\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003cp>Fifty-two Bay Area public schools sit so close to the bay’s high-tide line that they’re already at risk of being inundated with ocean and ground water, and their risk will grow as seas continue to rise, according to an analysis by KQED and Climate Central.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Some schools already cope with routine floods, like Marin County’s Redwood High School, which has installed a pump to keep its parking lot dry during high tides, and \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/science/1993783/schools-in-deep-water-bay-area-faces-uphill-battle-against-climate-change\">Mill Valley Middle School, where the drop-off zone floods multiple times a year\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“The biggest risk to these schools is that they’re in areas with high groundwater, and they get flooding when it’s a combination of a high tide and a heavy rain,” said Kristina Hill, director of UC Berkeley’s Institute of Urban and Regional Development.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The high-tide line in the San Francisco Bay has risen by \u003ca href=\"https://oehha.ca.gov/climate-change/epic-2022/impacts-physical-systems/sea-level-rise#:~:text=Sea%20levels%20have%20increased%20over,mm%20or%200.03%E2%80%B3%20each%20year.\">8 inches\u003c/a> as heat trapped by pollution has melted ice and heated and expanded the world’s oceans over the last century. As that creep accelerates scientists expect floods to become more regular because about \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/11799297/large-parts-of-the-bay-area-are-built-on-fill-why-and-where\">250 square miles\u003c/a> of the Bay Area sits just above — and in some cases below — that line, on former wetlands that were drained and piled up with rocks, rubble and soil for development.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>By 2050, moderate projections show seas rising \u003ca href=\"https://opc.ca.gov/wp-content/uploads/2024/01/SLR-Guidance-DRAFT-Jan-2024-508.pdf\">an additional 7 inches (PDF)\u003c/a>, at which point floods will become even more common at most of the schools, our analysis found. By 2100, the projections show the bay rising 3 feet above today’s levels, at which point the number of flood-risky schools will multiply.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>We aimed to identify Bay Area schools with flood risk today, and those likely to have problems by the middle of the century. We looked at two types of floods, both of which will become more common with sea level rise: coastal floods, where high tides and storm surges push the ocean up onto dry land; and groundwater floods, where saltwater saturates the soil under the shore, driving up the layer of freshwater floating above it so much that it emerges and inundates properties.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The KQED and Climate Central analysis found:\u003c/p>\n\u003cul>\n\u003cli>Fifty-two schools are already at risk of groundwater floods linked to sea level rise.\u003c/li>\n\u003cli>Seven of them also carry the risk of coastal floods, compounding the likelihood of inundation. By 2050, 16 will carry both risks.\u003c/li>\n\u003cli>By 2050, another school — Design Tech High in Redwood City — will be at risk of flooding.\u003c/li>\n\u003cli>The bulk of the flood-risky schools are located in San Mateo, Alameda and Marin counties.\u003c/li>\n\u003c/ul>\n\u003cp>\u003c!-- iframe plugin v.4.3 wordpress.org/plugins/iframe/ -->\u003cbr>\n\u003ciframe loading=\"lazy\" src=\"https://kqedsf.maps.arcgis.com/apps/instant/basic/index.html?appid=ba558582b94c47f3b683552282c70ef4\" width=\"1000\" height=\"700\" frameborder=\"0\" style=\"border:0\" scrolling=\"yes\" class=\"iframe-class\">\u003c/iframe>\u003cbr>\n\u003cem>(Map produced by Matthew Green/KQED) \u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>\u003cstrong>Data sources and methodology\u003c/strong>\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>To identify flood-risky schools, KQED and Climate Central pulled location data for more than 1,700 public schools in the Bay Area’s nine counties from the \u003ca href=\"https://gis.data.ca.gov/datasets/61a4260e68b14a5ab91daf27d4415e7d_0/explore?location=0.036826%2C-119.081787%2C0.00\">California State Geoportal\u003c/a>. Using QGIS, we mapped those schools onto flood risk data from the U.S. Geological Survey’s \u003ca href=\"https://ourcoastourfuture.org/hazard-map/\">Our Coast Our Future hazard map\u003c/a>, focusing on the risk as it stood in 2010, the model’s baseline, and with a moderate sea level rise \u003ca href=\"https://opc.ca.gov/wp-content/uploads/2024/01/SLR-Guidance-DRAFT-Jan-2024-508.pdf\">projected (PDF)\u003c/a> by 2050.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>We added a radius of 150 meters for each school, to capture flooding impacts outside the single point location coordinates provided by the state. That’s about a 17.5 acre circle, about the size of the median school campus of 10 acres, according to a \u003ca href=\"https://www.californiaschoolcampusdatabase.org/\">database\u003c/a> of California school sizes.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Our analysis likely underestimates the real-life flood risk, according to flood experts we spoke with, because it doesn’t capture other factors, like intensifying rainfall and localized land subsidence.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>For the coastal flood analysis, we considered the risk of inundation during a 100-year-storm, which state law requires all schools to be constructed to withstand.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>We did not include four schools in Foster City and seven schools in San Mateo from the results, because those cities have recently built flood-protective levees not accounted for by the database.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_1993803\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-1993803\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2024/08/20240604_FloodedSchool-17_qed.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1333\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2024/08/20240604_FloodedSchool-17_qed.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2024/08/20240604_FloodedSchool-17_qed-800x533.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2024/08/20240604_FloodedSchool-17_qed-1020x680.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2024/08/20240604_FloodedSchool-17_qed-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2024/08/20240604_FloodedSchool-17_qed-768x512.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2024/08/20240604_FloodedSchool-17_qed-1536x1024.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2024/08/20240604_FloodedSchool-17_qed-1920x1280.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Flood warning signs are posted at the Mill Valley Middle School parking lot on Tuesday, June 4, 2024. \u003ccite>(Gina Castro/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003ch2>\u003cstrong>Groundwater floods\u003c/strong>\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>Unlike coastal inundation, groundwater floods depend on underground, out-of-sight factors like topography, soil composition and the water table. In the absence of a detailed subsurface geology map for the region, the model uses a range of plausible geologies based on the research that does exist. We limited our results to campuses that the USGS model indicates already have emergent water, at or above the surface of the land.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The model requires an assumption of soil permeability: In highly permeable soil, water drains quickly, limiting the likelihood of a flood. In the least permeable soil, groundwater drains slowly, increasing that likelihood. Research by UC Berkeley’s Hill on groundwater floods in the Bay Area has shown that the least-permeable assumption best matches up with real-life flood risk.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>To zero in on schools whose groundwater flood risk is related to sea level rise, we consulted with Hill and Patrick Barnard, research director for USGS’ Climate Impacts and Coastal Processes Team. We constrained our results to campuses under 10 feet of elevation, which we determined with \u003ca href=\"https://www.usgs.gov/3d-elevation-program\">this USGS tool\u003c/a>, and within a half-mile of the bay or a tidally influenced river, which we determined using Google Maps’ \u003ca href=\"https://support.google.com/maps/answer/1628031?hl=en&co=GENIE.Platform%3DDesktop\">distance calculator\u003c/a> and by researching rivers’ head of tide.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Barriers like levees don’t protect against rising groundwater, so in this case, we did not eliminate the schools in Foster City or San Mateo.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cem>This story was produced by KQED and Climate Central, a nonadvocacy science and news group.\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003c/div>\u003c/p>",
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"slug": "schools-in-deep-water-bay-area-faces-uphill-battle-against-climate-change",
"title": "Schools in Deep Water: Bay Area Faces Uphill Battle Against Climate Change",
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"headTitle": "Schools in Deep Water: Bay Area Faces Uphill Battle Against Climate Change | KQED",
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"content": "\u003cp>\u003cem>This story was produced by KQED and Climate Central, a nonadvocacy science and newsgroup. Climate Central’s Sirui Zhu contributed. \u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Even on a good day, Miranda O’Connell finds it stressful to drop her children off at Mill Valley Middle School: There’s only one road in and out of campus, and to turn onto it requires crossing over a busy artery perennially clogged with traffic.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But every time the road in and out of the school floods, she said the kids are in danger.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad fullwidth]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Cars can’t reach the school, traffic backs up, and harried parents pull creative U-turns in a rush to get to work. “It just causes a huge safety mess,” O’Connell said. Her daughter recently graduated, and her son starts sixth grade at the school later this month. “The kids kind of end up jumping out at random spots on a very busy road.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Nestled at the edge of Richardson Bay with Mount Tamalpais glowering to its north, the campus is abutted on two sides by a marsh, a creek and human-made channels meant to drain water away. Water in the channels flows in the wrong direction — from the bay toward the school — several times a year, inundating the drop-off zone, along with a parking area with permanent yellow and black signs posted above them warning parents to “PARK AT YOUR OWN RISK.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_1993788\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-1993788\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2024/08/20240604_FloodedSchool-16_qed.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1333\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2024/08/20240604_FloodedSchool-16_qed.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2024/08/20240604_FloodedSchool-16_qed-800x533.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2024/08/20240604_FloodedSchool-16_qed-1020x680.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2024/08/20240604_FloodedSchool-16_qed-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2024/08/20240604_FloodedSchool-16_qed-768x512.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2024/08/20240604_FloodedSchool-16_qed-1536x1024.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2024/08/20240604_FloodedSchool-16_qed-1920x1280.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Flood warning signs are posted at the Mill Valley Middle School staff parking lot on Tuesday, June 4, 2024. \u003ccite>(Gina Castro/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>“There are whole areas where you cannot pass a car or ride a bike,” she said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>This flooding is a major reason parents like O’Connell are upset that the district plans to rebuild the aging school in the same spot it’s been in for more than 50 years rather than finding a new site on safer ground.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Mill Valley Middle School is one of 52 Bay Area public kindergarten through 12th-grade schools that a KQED and Climate Central analysis found already face flood risks, as the effects of human-caused climate change raise water levels in the bay. The bulk of the at-risk schools are in Alameda, Marin and San Mateo counties, and most sit on low-lying land that was once marshland. \u003ca href=\"https://oehha.ca.gov/climate-change/epic-2022/impacts-physical-systems/sea-level-rise#:~:text=Sea%20levels%20have%20increased%20over,mm%20or%200.03%E2%80%B3%20each%20year.\">Assuming\u003c/a> moderate sea-level rise projections, the bay’s high tide line will rise precipitously by the end of the century, as will the number of flood-prone schools.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_1993789\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-1993789\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2024/08/20240604_FloodedSchool-41_qed.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1333\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2024/08/20240604_FloodedSchool-41_qed.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2024/08/20240604_FloodedSchool-41_qed-800x533.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2024/08/20240604_FloodedSchool-41_qed-1020x680.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2024/08/20240604_FloodedSchool-41_qed-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2024/08/20240604_FloodedSchool-41_qed-768x512.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2024/08/20240604_FloodedSchool-41_qed-1536x1024.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2024/08/20240604_FloodedSchool-41_qed-1920x1280.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">An inlet of Richardson Bay, the body of water next to Mill Valley Middle School, on Tuesday, June 4, 2024. \u003ccite>(Gina Castro/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Unlike most schools, Mill Valley Middle School leaders must decide how to address the problem now. In 2022, Mill Valley voters passed the $194 million \u003ca href=\"https://www.mvschools.org/Page/8736\">Measure G\u003c/a> to modernize the city’s schools, and the district plans to use as much as $130 million to rebuild its middle school.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>It won’t take much more sea-level rise to convert the school into an “island,” said Kevin Befus, assistant professor at the University of Arkansas Department of Geosciences who has extensively studied the hydrogeology of the Bay Area. “Administrators will have to be keeping track of king tides and the size of storms coming through,” Befus said, and perhaps institute “high-water days,” where students learn remotely or take the day off entirely.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The Mill Valley School District shares the concerns about flooding, and board members said they’re determined to rebuild the school in a way that will keep its students safe.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Climate scientists like Befus said the ability to plan for the school’s future as seas rise is a preventative measure — or a luxury — that most schools lack.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_1993790\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-1993790\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2024/08/20240604_FloodedSchool-37_qed.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1333\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2024/08/20240604_FloodedSchool-37_qed.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2024/08/20240604_FloodedSchool-37_qed-800x533.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2024/08/20240604_FloodedSchool-37_qed-1020x680.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2024/08/20240604_FloodedSchool-37_qed-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2024/08/20240604_FloodedSchool-37_qed-768x512.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2024/08/20240604_FloodedSchool-37_qed-1536x1024.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2024/08/20240604_FloodedSchool-37_qed-1920x1280.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">The entrance to Mill Valley Middle School on Tuesday, June 4, 2024. \u003ccite>(Gina Castro/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003ch2>\u003cstrong>Mapping flood risk\u003c/strong>\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>To identify schools at risk of flooding, KQED and Climate Central compared the locations of more than 1,700 public and public charter schools in the Bay Area with flood risk data maintained by the U.S. Geological Survey. The analysis showed seven Bay Area schools currently have a high risk of coastal flooding, in which the ocean laps over the shoreline, with 10 more expected to run that risk by 2050.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The analysis also considered groundwater flooding, in which rising sea levels force salt water up into the soil, pushing the shallow groundwater to the surface, flooding property and potentially damaging underground infrastructure. Fifty-two schools already face this risk, and by 2050, the threat will be heightened at most of those schools.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone size-full wp-image-1993792\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2024/08/240801-School-Flood-Risk-V1-MD-KQED.gif\" alt=\"\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1132\">\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>At that time, 16 schools — including Mill Valley Middle — carried both risks.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The danger of floods will be amplified by an additional threat that the analyses do not capture: \u003ca href=\"https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S2212094722000275#abs0010\">intensifying rainfall\u003c/a>. As pollution has trapped heat within the atmosphere, rainstorms have been dumping more rain on average per hour, overwhelming storm drains built for lighter rain and lower seas.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The Bay Area suffers from unique vulnerability to coastal flooding, a legacy of 19th- and 20th-century developers, including public agencies, farmers and investors. They piled rubble, rocks and dirt onto some \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/11799297/large-parts-of-the-bay-area-are-built-on-fill-why-and-where\">250 square miles\u003c/a> of the bay’s wetlands to create more solid ground upon which new neighborhoods and other buildings went up. In addition to being low-lying, infilled land tends to sink or subside.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The “razor-thin margin” between dry land and the bay will become even slimmer as seas rise, said Patrick Barnard, a research director for the USGS. “If it floods five times a year now, it’s probably going to be 20 times in 2050.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>For instance, Mill Valley Middle’s chronic flooding woes currently plague its access road and part of its parking lot. By the end of the century, major storms coinciding with king tides could inundate more of the campus.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_1993810\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\" style=\"max-width: 1703px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-1993810\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2024/08/FloodedSchoolLot.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"1703\" height=\"1118\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2024/08/FloodedSchoolLot.jpg 1703w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2024/08/FloodedSchoolLot-800x525.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2024/08/FloodedSchoolLot-1020x670.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2024/08/FloodedSchoolLot-160x105.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2024/08/FloodedSchoolLot-768x504.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2024/08/FloodedSchoolLot-1536x1008.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1703px) 100vw, 1703px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">In December 2023, high-tide flooding from Richardson Bay near Mill Valley Middle School flooded part of the campus parking lot and the main road into campus. \u003ccite>(Courtesy of Juliette Hart)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>At least two other schools within five miles of Mill Valley Middle also routinely fight off flood water.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>A parking lot at Larkspur’s Redwood High School ponds with water so frequently that the school has installed pumps to keep it dry, said David O’Connor, the district’s senior director of maintenance and operations. Tamalpais High’s parking lot sits below the bay’s high tide levels, causing the storm drains to sometimes run backward from the bay onto campus, O’Connor said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Experts point out that protecting public schools against rising tides and other climate hazards could offer \u003ca href=\"https://www.climateandcommunity.org/_files/ugd/d6378b_cc4acbe032604498a666f10f4795b11a.pdf\">community-wide benefits\u003c/a>: gymnasiums could serve as neighborhood shelters, fields as retaining ponds for flood water, and surrounding roads safe evacuation routes.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Turning such a vision into reality would require systematic, significant updates to at-risk schools. However, no state or federal entity is charged with tracking flood-prone schools or providing them with adaptation funds.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c!-- iframe plugin v.4.3 wordpress.org/plugins/iframe/ -->\u003cbr>\n\u003ciframe loading=\"lazy\" src=\"https://kqedsf.maps.arcgis.com/apps/instant/basic/index.html?appid=ba558582b94c47f3b683552282c70ef4\" width=\"1000\" height=\"700\" frameborder=\"0\" style=\"border:0\" scrolling=\"yes\" class=\"iframe-class\">\u003c/iframe>\u003cbr>\n(\u003cem>Map produced by Matthew Green/KQED)\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>That leaves districts to fend for themselves, which works out better for some than others. In California, money for school improvements almost always comes from local bond measures matched with state funds, a system that \u003ca href=\"https://calmatters.org/education/2018/10/california-school-bonds-favor-richer-communities/\">favors\u003c/a> wealthy communities over poor ones.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>For schools without resources to protect themselves, flooding will likely become a way of life. “Those who can afford to protect themselves will, and those who can’t end up with the extra water,” Befus said of districts that can’t rebuild a school above future floodwaters.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Take Bahia Vista Elementary, in San Rafael’s Canal neighborhood, just five miles north of Mill Valley. It counts among the most flood-risky schools in the Bay Area and also the most economically disadvantaged: 98% of its students qualify for free and reduced lunch, compared to 7% of Mill Valley Middle’s students, according to \u003ca href=\"https://www.cde.ca.gov/ds/ad/filessp.asp\">state data\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_1993795\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-1993795\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2024/08/20240604_FloodedSchool-21_qed.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1333\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2024/08/20240604_FloodedSchool-21_qed.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2024/08/20240604_FloodedSchool-21_qed-800x533.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2024/08/20240604_FloodedSchool-21_qed-1020x680.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2024/08/20240604_FloodedSchool-21_qed-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2024/08/20240604_FloodedSchool-21_qed-768x512.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2024/08/20240604_FloodedSchool-21_qed-1536x1024.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2024/08/20240604_FloodedSchool-21_qed-1920x1280.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Mill Valley Middle School on Tuesday, June 4, 2024. \u003ccite>(Gina Castro/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Over the last 15 years, Mill Valley and San Rafael have raised the same amount of bond dollars for their elementary and middle schools, even though Mill Valley has fewer schools and about half the enrollment of its northern neighbor.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>It’s not lost on O’Connell what a fortunate economic position her town is in.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“We’re a very well-resourced community. We have the means to take the time to plan, to think about where the right place for this is,” O’Connell said. “And if we can’t do it, how do we expect under-resourced communities to do it?”\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>‘It’s a challenging site’\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>For the concerned parents at Mill Valley Middle, the obvious solution is to rebuild the school on a less vulnerable site. But the Mill Valley School District Board ruled this option out, said Board President Sharon Nakatani, because the district doesn’t own a large enough parcel to accommodate a new school.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The other option, moving the middle school to an existing school site, would displace hundreds of other students and require updating schools not in the district’s current plan.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>District officials acknowledge that rebuilding Mill Valley Middle School at its current site won’t be simple. Their own research warns of major flooding on campus in the coming decades if no action is taken to protect it.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Adding to the complexity, the 1970s-era school sits on top of a former city dump where some refuse was burned. Before the school was built, a 2-to-3-foot cap of soil was poured over the waste to keep toxic contaminants — primarily heavy metals — from escaping, and the school monitors methane levels under the campus.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_1993794\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-1993794\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2024/08/20240604_FloodedSchool-22_qed.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1333\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2024/08/20240604_FloodedSchool-22_qed.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2024/08/20240604_FloodedSchool-22_qed-800x533.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2024/08/20240604_FloodedSchool-22_qed-1020x680.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2024/08/20240604_FloodedSchool-22_qed-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2024/08/20240604_FloodedSchool-22_qed-768x512.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2024/08/20240604_FloodedSchool-22_qed-1536x1024.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2024/08/20240604_FloodedSchool-22_qed-1920x1280.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Sharon Nakatani, Mill Valley Unified School District Board president, poses for a photo at Mill Valley Middle School on Tuesday, June 4, 2024. \u003ccite>(Gina Castro/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Still, district officials insist it’s possible to rebuild the school in a safe way where it sits. The district has contracted an \u003ca href=\"https://www.lionakis.com/\">architectural firm\u003c/a>, a project lead, a builder and an \u003ca href=\"https://aecom.com/\">engineering\u003c/a> firm to evaluate, design and construct a school that protects students and faculty.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Simultaneously, Nakatani said, the school district has begun an environmental review of the plans, scrutinizing the risks of sea-level and groundwater rise. Because the site was once a landfill, the California Department of Toxic Substances Control must also evaluate the project.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“It’s a challenging site, and we knew that from day one,” Nakatani said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[aside label=\"Related Stories\" postID=\"news_11981787,forum_2010101895331,science_1983106\"]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Nakatani said the idea is to elevate the school buildings 5 feet above the 100-year-flood line. The plan will likely include new on-site parking and a drop-off loop raised above current flood levels, though “actual elevations are to be determined.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The school’s main access road, Sycamore Avenue, and the area that floods may remain at current elevations, though it’s too early in the design phase to know.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“We are doing everything we can on our property to address sea-level rise,” she said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Nakatani recently met with some parents concerned about the site’s hydrology and said she is “taking their concerns seriously.” She also said the district knows it won’t be able to please everyone. The district hopes to open the new school in fall 2027.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Raising the campus alone may not be enough to protect its students, faculty and staff: If the campus is raised but the low-lying streets around it are not, it could be difficult or impossible to evacuate in an emergency.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The streets aren’t the district’s domain, however — the City of Mill Valley would have to raise them. City Manager Todd Cusimano declined an interview request, saying it “would be inappropriate for the city to comment on the middle school.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Nakatani argued that while solutions for future sea-level rise are hyper-local, it shouldn’t be the schools’ responsibility alone to resolve them. “We need to figure this out together because it’s not just one jurisdiction’s problem,” she said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_1993796\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-1993796\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2024/08/20240604_FloodedSchool-6_qed.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1333\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2024/08/20240604_FloodedSchool-6_qed.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2024/08/20240604_FloodedSchool-6_qed-800x533.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2024/08/20240604_FloodedSchool-6_qed-1020x680.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2024/08/20240604_FloodedSchool-6_qed-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2024/08/20240604_FloodedSchool-6_qed-768x512.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2024/08/20240604_FloodedSchool-6_qed-1536x1024.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2024/08/20240604_FloodedSchool-6_qed-1920x1280.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Juliette Hart has a sixth grader who will attend Mill Valley Middle School this fall and her daughter graduated from the school. She stands near the parking lot on Monday, June 3, 2024. \u003ccite>(Gina Castro/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>This sentiment was echoed by a Marin County Civil Grand Jury \u003ca href=\"https://www.marincounty.gov/departments/grand-jury/civil-grand-jury-reports/2023-2024-civil-grand-jury-reports/sea-level-rise\">report released in May, titled, in part, “We Cannot Run — We Cannot Hide.”\u003c/a> It advises Marin County to establish an agency to require sea-level rise adaptation across the county because “the water has already arrived.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Coordinated planning could also ward off the problem of individual properties or communities armoring themselves at the expense of their neighbors. Seawalls and levees can cause water to flow toward less protected areas. Hydrogeology researcher Befus noted that these barriers \u003ca href=\"https://arkansasresearch.uark.edu/barriers-designed-to-prevent-saltwater-intrusion-may-worsen-inland-flooding/\">can also worsen groundwater flooding\u003c/a>, preventing it from draining. “So then you have to pump that water out somehow,” he said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The bay’s high tide line has already crept upward by \u003ca href=\"https://oehha.ca.gov/climate-change/epic-2022/impacts-physical-systems/sea-level-rise#:~:text=Sea%20levels%20have%20increased%20over,mm%20or%200.03%E2%80%B3%20each%20year.\">8 inches over the past century, and moderate projections \u003c/a>show it climbing another \u003ca href=\"https://opc.ca.gov/wp-content/uploads/2024/01/SLR-Guidance-DRAFT-Jan-2024-508.pdf\">3 feet\u003c/a> by the end of the century, inundating the region’s lowest-lying land unless it’s protected.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Parents like O’Connell argue that rebuilding the middle school elsewhere in town would be the best way to help future generations of parents during emergencies and protect the welfare of children inheriting a warming world.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“The kids are massively losing out, and for what?” O’Connell said. “To rebuild a building on a site where it shouldn’t be rebuilt. It just doesn’t make sense.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>What ultimately happens at Mill Valley could prove instructive to the dozens of other Bay Area schools that have just begun to cope with floods. “It would be a powerful thing if this became a case study and an example to other places on how to plan for sea-level rise,” Befus said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad floatright]\u003c/p>\n",
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"excerpt": "More than 50 Bay Area public schools already face flood risk as the effects of human-caused climate change raise water levels in San Francisco Bay. ",
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"title": "Schools in Deep Water: Bay Area Faces Uphill Battle Against Climate Change | KQED",
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"nprByline": "\u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/author/eromero\">Ezra David Romero\u003c/a>, KQED; \u003ca href=\"https://twitter.com/katieworth\">Katie Worth\u003c/a>, Climate Central",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003cp>\u003cem>This story was produced by KQED and Climate Central, a nonadvocacy science and newsgroup. Climate Central’s Sirui Zhu contributed. \u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Even on a good day, Miranda O’Connell finds it stressful to drop her children off at Mill Valley Middle School: There’s only one road in and out of campus, and to turn onto it requires crossing over a busy artery perennially clogged with traffic.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But every time the road in and out of the school floods, she said the kids are in danger.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Cars can’t reach the school, traffic backs up, and harried parents pull creative U-turns in a rush to get to work. “It just causes a huge safety mess,” O’Connell said. Her daughter recently graduated, and her son starts sixth grade at the school later this month. “The kids kind of end up jumping out at random spots on a very busy road.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Nestled at the edge of Richardson Bay with Mount Tamalpais glowering to its north, the campus is abutted on two sides by a marsh, a creek and human-made channels meant to drain water away. Water in the channels flows in the wrong direction — from the bay toward the school — several times a year, inundating the drop-off zone, along with a parking area with permanent yellow and black signs posted above them warning parents to “PARK AT YOUR OWN RISK.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_1993788\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-1993788\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2024/08/20240604_FloodedSchool-16_qed.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1333\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2024/08/20240604_FloodedSchool-16_qed.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2024/08/20240604_FloodedSchool-16_qed-800x533.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2024/08/20240604_FloodedSchool-16_qed-1020x680.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2024/08/20240604_FloodedSchool-16_qed-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2024/08/20240604_FloodedSchool-16_qed-768x512.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2024/08/20240604_FloodedSchool-16_qed-1536x1024.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2024/08/20240604_FloodedSchool-16_qed-1920x1280.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Flood warning signs are posted at the Mill Valley Middle School staff parking lot on Tuesday, June 4, 2024. \u003ccite>(Gina Castro/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>“There are whole areas where you cannot pass a car or ride a bike,” she said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>This flooding is a major reason parents like O’Connell are upset that the district plans to rebuild the aging school in the same spot it’s been in for more than 50 years rather than finding a new site on safer ground.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Mill Valley Middle School is one of 52 Bay Area public kindergarten through 12th-grade schools that a KQED and Climate Central analysis found already face flood risks, as the effects of human-caused climate change raise water levels in the bay. The bulk of the at-risk schools are in Alameda, Marin and San Mateo counties, and most sit on low-lying land that was once marshland. \u003ca href=\"https://oehha.ca.gov/climate-change/epic-2022/impacts-physical-systems/sea-level-rise#:~:text=Sea%20levels%20have%20increased%20over,mm%20or%200.03%E2%80%B3%20each%20year.\">Assuming\u003c/a> moderate sea-level rise projections, the bay’s high tide line will rise precipitously by the end of the century, as will the number of flood-prone schools.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_1993789\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-1993789\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2024/08/20240604_FloodedSchool-41_qed.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1333\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2024/08/20240604_FloodedSchool-41_qed.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2024/08/20240604_FloodedSchool-41_qed-800x533.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2024/08/20240604_FloodedSchool-41_qed-1020x680.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2024/08/20240604_FloodedSchool-41_qed-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2024/08/20240604_FloodedSchool-41_qed-768x512.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2024/08/20240604_FloodedSchool-41_qed-1536x1024.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2024/08/20240604_FloodedSchool-41_qed-1920x1280.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">An inlet of Richardson Bay, the body of water next to Mill Valley Middle School, on Tuesday, June 4, 2024. \u003ccite>(Gina Castro/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Unlike most schools, Mill Valley Middle School leaders must decide how to address the problem now. In 2022, Mill Valley voters passed the $194 million \u003ca href=\"https://www.mvschools.org/Page/8736\">Measure G\u003c/a> to modernize the city’s schools, and the district plans to use as much as $130 million to rebuild its middle school.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>It won’t take much more sea-level rise to convert the school into an “island,” said Kevin Befus, assistant professor at the University of Arkansas Department of Geosciences who has extensively studied the hydrogeology of the Bay Area. “Administrators will have to be keeping track of king tides and the size of storms coming through,” Befus said, and perhaps institute “high-water days,” where students learn remotely or take the day off entirely.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The Mill Valley School District shares the concerns about flooding, and board members said they’re determined to rebuild the school in a way that will keep its students safe.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Climate scientists like Befus said the ability to plan for the school’s future as seas rise is a preventative measure — or a luxury — that most schools lack.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_1993790\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-1993790\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2024/08/20240604_FloodedSchool-37_qed.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1333\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2024/08/20240604_FloodedSchool-37_qed.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2024/08/20240604_FloodedSchool-37_qed-800x533.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2024/08/20240604_FloodedSchool-37_qed-1020x680.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2024/08/20240604_FloodedSchool-37_qed-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2024/08/20240604_FloodedSchool-37_qed-768x512.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2024/08/20240604_FloodedSchool-37_qed-1536x1024.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2024/08/20240604_FloodedSchool-37_qed-1920x1280.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">The entrance to Mill Valley Middle School on Tuesday, June 4, 2024. \u003ccite>(Gina Castro/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003ch2>\u003cstrong>Mapping flood risk\u003c/strong>\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>To identify schools at risk of flooding, KQED and Climate Central compared the locations of more than 1,700 public and public charter schools in the Bay Area with flood risk data maintained by the U.S. Geological Survey. The analysis showed seven Bay Area schools currently have a high risk of coastal flooding, in which the ocean laps over the shoreline, with 10 more expected to run that risk by 2050.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The analysis also considered groundwater flooding, in which rising sea levels force salt water up into the soil, pushing the shallow groundwater to the surface, flooding property and potentially damaging underground infrastructure. Fifty-two schools already face this risk, and by 2050, the threat will be heightened at most of those schools.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone size-full wp-image-1993792\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2024/08/240801-School-Flood-Risk-V1-MD-KQED.gif\" alt=\"\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1132\">\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>At that time, 16 schools — including Mill Valley Middle — carried both risks.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The danger of floods will be amplified by an additional threat that the analyses do not capture: \u003ca href=\"https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S2212094722000275#abs0010\">intensifying rainfall\u003c/a>. As pollution has trapped heat within the atmosphere, rainstorms have been dumping more rain on average per hour, overwhelming storm drains built for lighter rain and lower seas.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The Bay Area suffers from unique vulnerability to coastal flooding, a legacy of 19th- and 20th-century developers, including public agencies, farmers and investors. They piled rubble, rocks and dirt onto some \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/11799297/large-parts-of-the-bay-area-are-built-on-fill-why-and-where\">250 square miles\u003c/a> of the bay’s wetlands to create more solid ground upon which new neighborhoods and other buildings went up. In addition to being low-lying, infilled land tends to sink or subside.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The “razor-thin margin” between dry land and the bay will become even slimmer as seas rise, said Patrick Barnard, a research director for the USGS. “If it floods five times a year now, it’s probably going to be 20 times in 2050.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>For instance, Mill Valley Middle’s chronic flooding woes currently plague its access road and part of its parking lot. By the end of the century, major storms coinciding with king tides could inundate more of the campus.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_1993810\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\" style=\"max-width: 1703px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-1993810\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2024/08/FloodedSchoolLot.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"1703\" height=\"1118\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2024/08/FloodedSchoolLot.jpg 1703w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2024/08/FloodedSchoolLot-800x525.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2024/08/FloodedSchoolLot-1020x670.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2024/08/FloodedSchoolLot-160x105.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2024/08/FloodedSchoolLot-768x504.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2024/08/FloodedSchoolLot-1536x1008.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1703px) 100vw, 1703px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">In December 2023, high-tide flooding from Richardson Bay near Mill Valley Middle School flooded part of the campus parking lot and the main road into campus. \u003ccite>(Courtesy of Juliette Hart)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>At least two other schools within five miles of Mill Valley Middle also routinely fight off flood water.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>A parking lot at Larkspur’s Redwood High School ponds with water so frequently that the school has installed pumps to keep it dry, said David O’Connor, the district’s senior director of maintenance and operations. Tamalpais High’s parking lot sits below the bay’s high tide levels, causing the storm drains to sometimes run backward from the bay onto campus, O’Connor said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Experts point out that protecting public schools against rising tides and other climate hazards could offer \u003ca href=\"https://www.climateandcommunity.org/_files/ugd/d6378b_cc4acbe032604498a666f10f4795b11a.pdf\">community-wide benefits\u003c/a>: gymnasiums could serve as neighborhood shelters, fields as retaining ponds for flood water, and surrounding roads safe evacuation routes.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Turning such a vision into reality would require systematic, significant updates to at-risk schools. However, no state or federal entity is charged with tracking flood-prone schools or providing them with adaptation funds.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c!-- iframe plugin v.4.3 wordpress.org/plugins/iframe/ -->\u003cbr>\n\u003ciframe loading=\"lazy\" src=\"https://kqedsf.maps.arcgis.com/apps/instant/basic/index.html?appid=ba558582b94c47f3b683552282c70ef4\" width=\"1000\" height=\"700\" frameborder=\"0\" style=\"border:0\" scrolling=\"yes\" class=\"iframe-class\">\u003c/iframe>\u003cbr>\n(\u003cem>Map produced by Matthew Green/KQED)\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>That leaves districts to fend for themselves, which works out better for some than others. In California, money for school improvements almost always comes from local bond measures matched with state funds, a system that \u003ca href=\"https://calmatters.org/education/2018/10/california-school-bonds-favor-richer-communities/\">favors\u003c/a> wealthy communities over poor ones.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>For schools without resources to protect themselves, flooding will likely become a way of life. “Those who can afford to protect themselves will, and those who can’t end up with the extra water,” Befus said of districts that can’t rebuild a school above future floodwaters.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Take Bahia Vista Elementary, in San Rafael’s Canal neighborhood, just five miles north of Mill Valley. It counts among the most flood-risky schools in the Bay Area and also the most economically disadvantaged: 98% of its students qualify for free and reduced lunch, compared to 7% of Mill Valley Middle’s students, according to \u003ca href=\"https://www.cde.ca.gov/ds/ad/filessp.asp\">state data\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_1993795\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-1993795\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2024/08/20240604_FloodedSchool-21_qed.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1333\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2024/08/20240604_FloodedSchool-21_qed.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2024/08/20240604_FloodedSchool-21_qed-800x533.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2024/08/20240604_FloodedSchool-21_qed-1020x680.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2024/08/20240604_FloodedSchool-21_qed-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2024/08/20240604_FloodedSchool-21_qed-768x512.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2024/08/20240604_FloodedSchool-21_qed-1536x1024.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2024/08/20240604_FloodedSchool-21_qed-1920x1280.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Mill Valley Middle School on Tuesday, June 4, 2024. \u003ccite>(Gina Castro/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Over the last 15 years, Mill Valley and San Rafael have raised the same amount of bond dollars for their elementary and middle schools, even though Mill Valley has fewer schools and about half the enrollment of its northern neighbor.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>It’s not lost on O’Connell what a fortunate economic position her town is in.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“We’re a very well-resourced community. We have the means to take the time to plan, to think about where the right place for this is,” O’Connell said. “And if we can’t do it, how do we expect under-resourced communities to do it?”\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>‘It’s a challenging site’\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>For the concerned parents at Mill Valley Middle, the obvious solution is to rebuild the school on a less vulnerable site. But the Mill Valley School District Board ruled this option out, said Board President Sharon Nakatani, because the district doesn’t own a large enough parcel to accommodate a new school.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The other option, moving the middle school to an existing school site, would displace hundreds of other students and require updating schools not in the district’s current plan.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>District officials acknowledge that rebuilding Mill Valley Middle School at its current site won’t be simple. Their own research warns of major flooding on campus in the coming decades if no action is taken to protect it.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Adding to the complexity, the 1970s-era school sits on top of a former city dump where some refuse was burned. Before the school was built, a 2-to-3-foot cap of soil was poured over the waste to keep toxic contaminants — primarily heavy metals — from escaping, and the school monitors methane levels under the campus.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_1993794\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-1993794\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2024/08/20240604_FloodedSchool-22_qed.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1333\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2024/08/20240604_FloodedSchool-22_qed.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2024/08/20240604_FloodedSchool-22_qed-800x533.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2024/08/20240604_FloodedSchool-22_qed-1020x680.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2024/08/20240604_FloodedSchool-22_qed-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2024/08/20240604_FloodedSchool-22_qed-768x512.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2024/08/20240604_FloodedSchool-22_qed-1536x1024.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2024/08/20240604_FloodedSchool-22_qed-1920x1280.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Sharon Nakatani, Mill Valley Unified School District Board president, poses for a photo at Mill Valley Middle School on Tuesday, June 4, 2024. \u003ccite>(Gina Castro/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Still, district officials insist it’s possible to rebuild the school in a safe way where it sits. The district has contracted an \u003ca href=\"https://www.lionakis.com/\">architectural firm\u003c/a>, a project lead, a builder and an \u003ca href=\"https://aecom.com/\">engineering\u003c/a> firm to evaluate, design and construct a school that protects students and faculty.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Simultaneously, Nakatani said, the school district has begun an environmental review of the plans, scrutinizing the risks of sea-level and groundwater rise. Because the site was once a landfill, the California Department of Toxic Substances Control must also evaluate the project.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“It’s a challenging site, and we knew that from day one,” Nakatani said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Nakatani said the idea is to elevate the school buildings 5 feet above the 100-year-flood line. The plan will likely include new on-site parking and a drop-off loop raised above current flood levels, though “actual elevations are to be determined.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The school’s main access road, Sycamore Avenue, and the area that floods may remain at current elevations, though it’s too early in the design phase to know.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“We are doing everything we can on our property to address sea-level rise,” she said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Nakatani recently met with some parents concerned about the site’s hydrology and said she is “taking their concerns seriously.” She also said the district knows it won’t be able to please everyone. The district hopes to open the new school in fall 2027.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Raising the campus alone may not be enough to protect its students, faculty and staff: If the campus is raised but the low-lying streets around it are not, it could be difficult or impossible to evacuate in an emergency.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The streets aren’t the district’s domain, however — the City of Mill Valley would have to raise them. City Manager Todd Cusimano declined an interview request, saying it “would be inappropriate for the city to comment on the middle school.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Nakatani argued that while solutions for future sea-level rise are hyper-local, it shouldn’t be the schools’ responsibility alone to resolve them. “We need to figure this out together because it’s not just one jurisdiction’s problem,” she said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_1993796\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-1993796\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2024/08/20240604_FloodedSchool-6_qed.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1333\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2024/08/20240604_FloodedSchool-6_qed.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2024/08/20240604_FloodedSchool-6_qed-800x533.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2024/08/20240604_FloodedSchool-6_qed-1020x680.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2024/08/20240604_FloodedSchool-6_qed-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2024/08/20240604_FloodedSchool-6_qed-768x512.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2024/08/20240604_FloodedSchool-6_qed-1536x1024.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2024/08/20240604_FloodedSchool-6_qed-1920x1280.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Juliette Hart has a sixth grader who will attend Mill Valley Middle School this fall and her daughter graduated from the school. She stands near the parking lot on Monday, June 3, 2024. \u003ccite>(Gina Castro/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>This sentiment was echoed by a Marin County Civil Grand Jury \u003ca href=\"https://www.marincounty.gov/departments/grand-jury/civil-grand-jury-reports/2023-2024-civil-grand-jury-reports/sea-level-rise\">report released in May, titled, in part, “We Cannot Run — We Cannot Hide.”\u003c/a> It advises Marin County to establish an agency to require sea-level rise adaptation across the county because “the water has already arrived.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Coordinated planning could also ward off the problem of individual properties or communities armoring themselves at the expense of their neighbors. Seawalls and levees can cause water to flow toward less protected areas. Hydrogeology researcher Befus noted that these barriers \u003ca href=\"https://arkansasresearch.uark.edu/barriers-designed-to-prevent-saltwater-intrusion-may-worsen-inland-flooding/\">can also worsen groundwater flooding\u003c/a>, preventing it from draining. “So then you have to pump that water out somehow,” he said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The bay’s high tide line has already crept upward by \u003ca href=\"https://oehha.ca.gov/climate-change/epic-2022/impacts-physical-systems/sea-level-rise#:~:text=Sea%20levels%20have%20increased%20over,mm%20or%200.03%E2%80%B3%20each%20year.\">8 inches over the past century, and moderate projections \u003c/a>show it climbing another \u003ca href=\"https://opc.ca.gov/wp-content/uploads/2024/01/SLR-Guidance-DRAFT-Jan-2024-508.pdf\">3 feet\u003c/a> by the end of the century, inundating the region’s lowest-lying land unless it’s protected.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Parents like O’Connell argue that rebuilding the middle school elsewhere in town would be the best way to help future generations of parents during emergencies and protect the welfare of children inheriting a warming world.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“The kids are massively losing out, and for what?” O’Connell said. “To rebuild a building on a site where it shouldn’t be rebuilt. It just doesn’t make sense.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>What ultimately happens at Mill Valley could prove instructive to the dozens of other Bay Area schools that have just begun to cope with floods. “It would be a powerful thing if this became a case study and an example to other places on how to plan for sea-level rise,” Befus said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"title": "The Public Health Concern Over California’s Hydrogen Hubs Explained",
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"content": "\u003cp>\u003cem>This article was originally published by Public Health Watch, a nonprofit investigative news organization. Find out more at \u003ca href=\"http://publichealthwatch.org/\">publichealthwatch.org\u003c/a>.\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Billions of dollars in federal money are flowing to seven “hydrogen hubs” around the country — including in California. A public-private partnership called ARCHES recently negotiated a $1.2 billion agreement with the Department of Energy to build out hydrogen power plants, pipelines and other energy projects around the state.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Federal and state officials are celebrating the award, part of a risky and ambitious national bet on a potentially clean fuel that could someday rival renewables and cut carbon from the atmosphere. Backed by pots of money created by federal laws, California and six other hubs will serve as regional nerve centers, steering hydrogen-producing projects that can qualify for an uncapped federal tax credit – anticipated to be worth at least a hundred billion dollars.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>However, producing hydrogen energy can be expensive and complicated, and if that process relies on fossil fuels, it could actually prolong climate pollution. When even clean hydrogen is blended with methane and burned, it can still dirty the air with toxic byproducts that contribute to lung-irritating smog.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Researchers and local advocates warn that unless the so-called hydrogen \u003ca href=\"https://www.energy.gov/articles/doe-releases-first-series-reports-highlighting-pathways-toward-clean-hydrogen-earthshot\">earthshot\u003c/a> has adequate safeguards, it could harm health and climate – even in California, a state that has declared a commitment not only to ambitious climate goals but also to environmental justice.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad fullwidth]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“The people got left behind in this conversation,” said Fatima Abdul-Khabir, the Energy Equity Program manager at Oakland-based Greenlining Institute, an advocacy group. “It’s a massive step backwards.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Founded by the Governor’s Office of Business and Economic Development (GO-BIZ), the University of California, the state building and trades unions and a nonprofit called Renewables 100, ARCHES says it aims to develop hydrogen sustainably. Federal funding, GO-BIZ’s Tyson Eckerle has said, is “the pebble that launches the avalanche.” Partners are working quickly: To qualify for the federal tax credit, shovels have to be in the ground by 2032.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[aside postID=\"science_1993714\" label=\"Related coverage\"]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>However, little has been made public about ARCHES’ top projects, their locations, or their potential health impacts. To fully participate in the hub, partners – including utilities like PG&E, companies like Amazon, and fossil fuel giants like Chevron – had to sign a nondisclosure agreement. Environmental advocates call it an “iron wall” and say that, as projects pop up in marginalized or already-polluted communities around the state, they’re playing “Whac-A-Mole” trying to keep up.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>ARCHES also has rejected rules the federal government has proposed for the tax credit, a position directly contrary to that of experts who say the rules would guarantee that this huge investment leads to a sustainable hydrogen economy.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Clean hydrogen could be the angel of decarbonizing the energy sector, but Earthjustice analyst Sasan Saadat said poorly defined hydrogen could be the devil.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“The fossil fuel industry knows this, and they can blur the lines,” Saadat said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>So far, the message from ARCHES is: Trust California to do what is right with the $1.2 billion it has been awarded for its hub.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“There’s reason to trust California,” said Dan Kammen, an energy professor at the University of California, Berkeley. “But only if California continues to follow the rules that California created.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Read the full report here: \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/science/1993714/as-california-hydrogen-hubs-receive-billions-public-health-concerns-grow\">As California Hydrogen Hubs Receive Billions, Public Health Concerns Grow.\u003c/a>\u003c/p>\n\n",
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"excerpt": "Billions of dollars are flowing to seven “hydrogen hubs” around the country — including in California. However, producing hydrogen energy can be expensive and complicated, and if that process relies on fossil fuels, it could actually prolong climate pollution.",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003cp>\u003cem>This article was originally published by Public Health Watch, a nonprofit investigative news organization. Find out more at \u003ca href=\"http://publichealthwatch.org/\">publichealthwatch.org\u003c/a>.\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Billions of dollars in federal money are flowing to seven “hydrogen hubs” around the country — including in California. A public-private partnership called ARCHES recently negotiated a $1.2 billion agreement with the Department of Energy to build out hydrogen power plants, pipelines and other energy projects around the state.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Federal and state officials are celebrating the award, part of a risky and ambitious national bet on a potentially clean fuel that could someday rival renewables and cut carbon from the atmosphere. Backed by pots of money created by federal laws, California and six other hubs will serve as regional nerve centers, steering hydrogen-producing projects that can qualify for an uncapped federal tax credit – anticipated to be worth at least a hundred billion dollars.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>However, producing hydrogen energy can be expensive and complicated, and if that process relies on fossil fuels, it could actually prolong climate pollution. When even clean hydrogen is blended with methane and burned, it can still dirty the air with toxic byproducts that contribute to lung-irritating smog.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Researchers and local advocates warn that unless the so-called hydrogen \u003ca href=\"https://www.energy.gov/articles/doe-releases-first-series-reports-highlighting-pathways-toward-clean-hydrogen-earthshot\">earthshot\u003c/a> has adequate safeguards, it could harm health and climate – even in California, a state that has declared a commitment not only to ambitious climate goals but also to environmental justice.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“The people got left behind in this conversation,” said Fatima Abdul-Khabir, the Energy Equity Program manager at Oakland-based Greenlining Institute, an advocacy group. “It’s a massive step backwards.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Founded by the Governor’s Office of Business and Economic Development (GO-BIZ), the University of California, the state building and trades unions and a nonprofit called Renewables 100, ARCHES says it aims to develop hydrogen sustainably. Federal funding, GO-BIZ’s Tyson Eckerle has said, is “the pebble that launches the avalanche.” Partners are working quickly: To qualify for the federal tax credit, shovels have to be in the ground by 2032.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>However, little has been made public about ARCHES’ top projects, their locations, or their potential health impacts. To fully participate in the hub, partners – including utilities like PG&E, companies like Amazon, and fossil fuel giants like Chevron – had to sign a nondisclosure agreement. Environmental advocates call it an “iron wall” and say that, as projects pop up in marginalized or already-polluted communities around the state, they’re playing “Whac-A-Mole” trying to keep up.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>ARCHES also has rejected rules the federal government has proposed for the tax credit, a position directly contrary to that of experts who say the rules would guarantee that this huge investment leads to a sustainable hydrogen economy.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Clean hydrogen could be the angel of decarbonizing the energy sector, but Earthjustice analyst Sasan Saadat said poorly defined hydrogen could be the devil.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“The fossil fuel industry knows this, and they can blur the lines,” Saadat said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>So far, the message from ARCHES is: Trust California to do what is right with the $1.2 billion it has been awarded for its hub.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“There’s reason to trust California,” said Dan Kammen, an energy professor at the University of California, Berkeley. “But only if California continues to follow the rules that California created.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Read the full report here: \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/science/1993714/as-california-hydrogen-hubs-receive-billions-public-health-concerns-grow\">As California Hydrogen Hubs Receive Billions, Public Health Concerns Grow.\u003c/a>\u003c/p>\n\n\u003c/div>\u003c/p>",
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"content": "\u003cp>\u003cem>This article was originally published by Public Health Watch, a nonprofit investigative news organization. Find out more at \u003ca class=\"c-link\" href=\"http://publichealthwatch.org/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\" data-stringify-link=\"http://publichealthwatch.org\" data-sk=\"tooltip_parent\">publichealthwatch.org\u003c/a>.\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Billions of dollars in public money are beginning to flow to seven “hydrogen hubs” around the country — regional nerve centers for a potentially clean fuel that could someday rival solar and wind and cut carbon from the atmosphere. Earlier this month, California’s hub, a public-private partnership called ARCHES, became the first to negotiate an agreement with the Department of Energy to build out hydrogen power plants, pipelines and other projects.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But researchers and community advocates warn that unless the federal government’s so-called hydrogen \u003ca href=\"https://www.energy.gov/articles/doe-releases-first-series-reports-highlighting-pathways-toward-clean-hydrogen-earthshot\">earthshot\u003c/a> has adequate safeguards, it could worsen air pollution in vulnerable communities and aggravate a warming climate. They’re also concerned that specifics of the emerging efforts remain stubbornly secret from people who live near shovel-ready projects.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>That’s true even in California, a state that has declared a commitment not only to ambitious climate goals but also to environmental justice.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“The people got left behind in this conversation,” said Fatima Abdul-Khabir, the Energy Equity Program manager at Oakland-based Greenlining Institute, an advocacy group. “It’s a massive step backwards.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad fullwidth]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Hydrogen, a colorless, odorless gas, is the world’s most abundant chemical element. When it’s used in fuel cells or burned for energy, it generates no atmosphere-warming carbon emissions. That means it could power trucks and airplanes without spewing soot from a tailpipe or exhaust from an engine. Hydrogen could help steel plants and other heavy industries lower their carbon footprints.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>However, stripping hydrogen molecules from water or methane to use as fuel can be expensive and complicated, and if that process relies on fossil fuels, it could actually prolong climate pollution. That’s not the only health risk: When even cleanly-produced hydrogen is blended with methane and burned, it can still dirty the air with toxic byproducts that contribute to lung-irritating smog.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The nation’s hydrogen earth shot is a risky and ambitious bet. Congress created an $8 billion pot of money for the hub system. It also tucked nearly $18 billion in grants and incentives into the Inflation Reduction Act and the infrastructure bill. An uncapped federal tax credit for companies that produce hydrogen energy could cost the public at least another $100 billion.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“There’s so much hype right now for hydrogen because everybody wants a piece of the pie,” said Dan Esposito, an electricity policy analyst at the nonprofit firm Energy Innovation.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>To bring clean hydrogen to market as quickly as possible, the U.S. Department of Energy selected regional hubs based in part on their ability to quickly produce and find uses for clean hydrogen. The chosen hubs also \u003ca href=\"https://www.energy.gov/articles/biden-harris-administration-announces-7-billion-americas-first-clean-hydrogen-hubs-driving\">must\u003c/a> promise jobs and other community benefits that advance federal environmental justice \u003ca href=\"https://www.whitehouse.gov/environmentaljustice/justice40/\">goals\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_1993716\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\" style=\"max-width: 2880px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-1993716 size-full\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2024/07/Angelina-2.png\" alt=\"\" width=\"2880\" height=\"1800\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2024/07/Angelina-2.png 2880w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2024/07/Angelina-2-800x500.png 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2024/07/Angelina-2-1020x638.png 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2024/07/Angelina-2-160x100.png 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2024/07/Angelina-2-768x480.png 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2024/07/Angelina-2-1536x960.png 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2024/07/Angelina-2-2048x1280.png 2048w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2024/07/Angelina-2-1920x1200.png 1920w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 2880px) 100vw, 2880px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Angelina Galiteva is CEO of California’s hydrogen hub, which is the first in the country to negotiate terms with the U.S. Department of Energy for a billion-dollar award. \u003ccite>(California Hydrogen Leadership Summit)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>But California’s hub, a public-private partnership called ARCHES, is rejecting rules the federal government has proposed to help guard against the risk of rising pollution from incautious hydrogen projects. Along with the six other hubs, ARCHES signed a letter that warns of “far reaching negative consequences” if the rules are made permanent.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The position held by ARCHES is directly contrary to that of experts, who say such rules are the only guarantee that this huge investment will lead to a sustainable hydrogen economy.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“What our research has shown is that if we do this wrong from the start, either the hydrogen industry will fall apart, it’s going to lose a bunch of public support, or it will really significantly delay our ability to clean up the power grid,” Esposito said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003ca href=\"https://www.ethree.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/01/CPUC-Air-Quality-Report-FINAL.pdf\">Multiple\u003c/a>\u003ca href=\"https://engineering.princeton.edu/news/2022/12/20/without-guidance-inflation-reduction-act-tax-credit-may-do-more-harm-good\"> analyses\u003c/a> based on public data and modeling, including \u003ca href=\"https://energyinnovation.org/wp-content/uploads/2023/04/Smart-Design-Of-45V-Hydrogen-Production-Tax-Credit-Will-Reduce-Emissions-And-Grow-The-Industry.pdf?email=467cb6399cb7df64551775e431052b43a775c749&emaila=12a6d4d069cd56cfddaa391c24eb7042&emailb=054528e7403871c79f668e49dd3c44b1ec00c7f611bf9388f76bb2324d6ca5f3&utm_source=Sailthru&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=07.18.23%20-%20Energy%20%26%20Environment%20%E2%80%94%20RF\">Esposito’s own\u003c/a>, have concluded that hydrogen produced under the wrong circumstances could worsen air pollution instead of improving it.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>So far, the message from ARCHES is: Trust us. Trust California to do what is right with the $1.2 billion it has been awarded for its hub. Trust the hub’s projects to cut carbon and lung-searing emissions from the air.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“There’s reason to trust California,” said Dan Kammen, an energy professor at the University of California, Berkeley. “But only if California continues to follow the rules that California created.”\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>‘Pebble That Launches the Avalanche’\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>California’s hub began as an agreement among the Governor’s Office of Business and Economic Development, or GO-BIZ, the University of California, the state building and trades unions and a nonprofit called Renewables 100, founded by ARCHES CEO Angelina Galiteva. It has around 400 network partners, including Amazon, Cemex, Chevron and investor-owned utilities, including SoCal Gas and Edison International.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Building on the state’s development of the world’s first standard to cut the carbon intensity of fuel, ARCHES promises to develop zero-carbon hydrogen using solar, wind, biomass and other renewable sources.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“We came together to go after the federal funding, but that federal funding is just a start,” \u003ca href=\"https://www.verdexchange.org/news/unlocking-californias-hydrogen-future-insights-tyson-eckerles-arches-japan-california-hydrogen\">said\u003c/a> Tyson Eckerle, a senior adviser for GO BIZ, at an environmental think tank’s conference in the spring. “It’s the pebble that launches the avalanche.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But California argues that its progress will be slowed if hydrogen developers have to meet rules the U.S. Department of the Treasury has proposed for projects seeking the lucrative 45V tax credit.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Those rules are based on what energy experts refer to as the “three pillars” of clean hydrogen production. To make hydrogen clean and sustainable, it should be produced from a new source using carbon-neutral electricity. That electricity should be geographically close to where it’s needed, so delivering it isn’t costly. It should also be available when it’s needed, not traded or obtained through accounting from another time and place.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>California’s hydrogen leaders counter that the state already has a successful strategy — and numerous requirements — for getting clean energy on the grid. Complying with the federal rules would undermine that progress, ARCHES has said \u003ca href=\"https://archesh2.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/02/ARCHES-Letter.pdf\">in a public response\u003c/a>, making it “impossible” to integrate hydrogen “in a timely and cost-effect manner without disrupting our carefully calibrated energy system.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“We’re at almost 60%, 24/7 renewables across the board, which is a huge, huge step forward. We’re ahead of our goals in terms of meeting those obligations,” Galiteva told Public Health Watch.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>If these federal conditions “had been required for the nascent solar or battery or any other industry, those industries would never have taken off,” she said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Julie McNamara, a senior energy analyst at the Union of Concerned Scientists, called California’s position contradictory. Even if the state’s renewables-rich grid deserves freedom from constraining rules, why would California support a free-for-all that gives states that continue to depend on fossil fuels a pass?\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“ARCHES is trying to have it both ways,” she said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Fossil fuel-focused energy companies, including BP and Shell, have also argued for more leeway in qualifying for the federal money.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Clean hydrogen could be the angel of decarbonizing the energy sector, but Earthjustice senior research and policy analyst Sasan Saadat said that poorly defined hydrogen could be the devil because it might prolong the use of fossil fuels.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“You’ve taken this thing that is really dangerous and muddled it up with the world of climate solutions and clean energy and that’s why it’s so risky,” Saadat said. “The fossil fuel industry knows this and they can blur the lines.”\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>A ‘Black Box’ Begins to Open\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>ARCHES has prioritized 37 projects to spend its federal money, according to CEO Galiteva. This “tier one” investment reflects the hub’s vision for bringing clean hydrogen to California.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“We have another 33-plus projects … that can actually slide into a tier one project if a tier one project hits a bump on the road for any reason,” she said at a recent hydrogen trade conference in Sacramento. “So the economy and the scale is going to be pretty big once we start moving.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>There’s an incentive to move quickly: To qualify for the federal tax credit, shovels have to be in the ground by 2032.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_1993721\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\" style=\"max-width: 1920px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-1993721 size-full\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2024/07/ARCHES_Supported_Element_Resources_Project.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"1920\" height=\"1189\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2024/07/ARCHES_Supported_Element_Resources_Project.jpg 1920w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2024/07/ARCHES_Supported_Element_Resources_Project-800x495.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2024/07/ARCHES_Supported_Element_Resources_Project-1020x632.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2024/07/ARCHES_Supported_Element_Resources_Project-160x99.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2024/07/ARCHES_Supported_Element_Resources_Project-768x476.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2024/07/ARCHES_Supported_Element_Resources_Project-1536x951.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1920px) 100vw, 1920px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">In Los Angeles County, the Element Resources Project could be one of 37 projects granted money by California’s hub, ARCHES. The city of Lancaster’s project promises to produce hydrogen fuel with solar power. \u003ccite>(City of Lancaster)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>However, the criteria for what qualifies as tier one status aren’t public. Nor are the locations of most of ARCHES’ projects or their potential health and environmental impacts.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>To fully participate in the hub, partners had to sign a nondisclosure agreement. Environmental advocates call the NDA an “iron wall” that makes ARCHES a black box.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“This huge hydrogen thing is happening, and all anybody knows is that there’s a ton of money coming for it,” said Shana Lazerow, a lawyer with the nonprofit Communities for a Better Environment.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Even where hydrogen is produced without fossil fuels, enormous questions remain about where to prioritize its production and use so it doesn’t pollute or cost more.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“No one has found the killer app for green hydrogen yet,” UC Berkeley’s Dan Kammen said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_1993720\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\" style=\"max-width: 2560px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-1993720 size-full\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2024/07/Valley-Generating-IMG_0745-scaled.jpeg\" alt=\"\" width=\"2560\" height=\"1920\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2024/07/Valley-Generating-IMG_0745-scaled.jpeg 2560w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2024/07/Valley-Generating-IMG_0745-800x600.jpeg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2024/07/Valley-Generating-IMG_0745-1020x765.jpeg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2024/07/Valley-Generating-IMG_0745-160x120.jpeg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2024/07/Valley-Generating-IMG_0745-768x576.jpeg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2024/07/Valley-Generating-IMG_0745-1536x1152.jpeg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2024/07/Valley-Generating-IMG_0745-2048x1536.jpeg 2048w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2024/07/Valley-Generating-IMG_0745-1920x1440.jpeg 1920w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 2560px) 100vw, 2560px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">At Valley Generating Station in Sun Valley, the Los Angeles Department of Water and Power is demolishing four red-and-white striped stacks to make way for what it says will be renewable and possibly hydrogen projects. But the facility has a history of methane leaks, and neighbors are wary of the utility’s promises. \u003ccite>(Molly Peterson/Public Health Watch)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Projects that might scoop up the federal money are beginning to emerge from the shadows. In eastern Contra Costa County, where land along the Suisun Bay once served as a stopover for boats supplying gold miners, a company called H Cycle is proposing to heat municipal organic waste to transform it into hydrogen. Diverting waste from a landfill is a particularly attractive idea since overstuffed landfills release methane into the atmosphere.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>However, the draft environmental impact report for the project in the small city of Pittsburg is light on details. It’s not clear exactly what will be heated or what technology will be used to unlock the hydrogen. Under California’s regulations, organic waste can include some percentage of plastic and metal, which would emit toxins when burned. The report also references slag, a waste product that comes from burning material, not just heating it.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>All of that is troubling to a neighborhood \u003ca href=\"https://experience.arcgis.com/experience/11d2f52282a54ceebcac7428e6184203/page/CalEnviroScreen-4_0/\">whose residents are in the 93rd percentile statewide\u003c/a> for asthma risk. Charles Davidson, a Contra Costa resident and member of the Sunflower Alliance, points out that 25,000 people live near H Cycle. “It’s burning plastics and construction materials and other things with no limit, no specifications on what’s being incinerated next to people’s homes,” he said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>A news release says H Cycle “\u003ca href=\"https://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/h-cycle-positioned-for-funds-from-doe-hydrogen-hub-program-as-part-of-californias-arches-partnership-301956757.html\">is positioned\u003c/a>” for a piece of ARCHES’ billion-dollar pie. But whether it’s a tier-one project for the hub isn’t clear. H Cycle, as a partner in ARCHES, has signed the hub’s non-disclosure agreement, and the company did not respond to requests for comment.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>A letter local air regulators sent to Pittsburg’s planners warns of health risks from the project.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“This thermal conversion process represents a novel renewable hydrogen production strategy,” \u003ca href=\"https://www.baaqmd.gov/~/media/files/planning-and-research/ceqa-letters/2024/h-cycle-pitts-hydro-project-deir-air-district-ltr-pdf.pdf?rev=5a05cdb4b3804645b566cf9a68769bc0&sc_lang=en\">wrote\u003c/a> the Bay Area Air Quality Management District in March. “However, it will introduce additional air pollution into a community that is already overburdened.” The district recommended more consideration of residents – and more transparency.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>H Cycle’s engagement with vulnerable communities is limited at best, said Amelia Keyes, a lawyer with Communities for a Better Environment.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“It’s no coincidence that a polluting facility like this is being built here,” she said.\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>Playing Whac-A-Mole Around the State\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>At launch, ARCHES \u003ca href=\"https://www.energy.gov/sites/default/files/2024-07/H2Hubs%20ARCHES_Award%20Fact%20Sheet.pdf\">highlighted\u003c/a> 10 unnamed hydrogen production projects, “with most in the Central Valley.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Projects are popping up in marginalized or already-polluted communities around the state. Some involve producing the fuel; others will transport or use it. Keyes said advocates usually hear about these projects by word of mouth.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“I think it really illustrates the kind of Whac-a-mole that environmental justice groups have to play with these kinds of facilities,” Keyes said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>At the port of Stockton, there’s talk of a facility that would produce hydrogen by steaming it out of methane but could claim to be carbon neutral by using credits for reductions of pollution elsewhere. In a farmworker community in western Fresno County, a pilot project will blend hydrogen into gas lines that go directly into homes for 10,000 people. Southern California Gas is floating the idea of \u003ca href=\"https://www.socalgas.com/sustainability/hydrogen/angeles-link\">AngelesLink\u003c/a>. It’s billed as the nation’s largest clean hydrogen pipeline and could pipe the stuff into the Los Angeles basin. But little information is available yet about where clean fuel will come from in the first place.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Major environmental groups, including Communities for a Better Environment, complain they don’t know much about these projects because they didn’t sign the ARCHES NDA, fearing that the secrecy required would compromise their advocacy in public processes. They worry that health risks and the influence of fossil fuel companies are being waved away.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In a letter to federal energy officials, the California Environmental Justice Association called the NDA a “delay tactic that allowed ARCHES to move forward without needing to account for and include impacted communities in decision-making.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Why should we as the public be living in this poverty of information about a massive taxpayer-funded climate program?” Earthjustice’s Saadat said. “It’s really galling.”\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>Is Green Hydrogen’s Promise Real?\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>People in environmental justice communities are exactly who the California hub claims will benefit from the hydrogen boom. ARCHES says its overall proposal could help the state save nearly $3 billion by increasing “the economic value of health-related benefits” and creating 220,000 new jobs.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In a brief on its website, ARCHES attributes the potential health savings to cleaner air, based on \u003ca href=\"https://www.ethree.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/01/CPUC-Air-Quality-Report-FINAL.pdf\">a research paper\u003c/a> commissioned by the California Public Utilities Commission. That paper projects reductions in air pollution through the electrification of cars and trucks, ending the use of natural gas in buildings, and removing all emissions from natural gas power generation. It then models the anticipated public health benefits from each. But hydrogen is only glancingly mentioned.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>As for the jobs estimate, the independent think tank Rhodium Group \u003ca href=\"https://rhg.com/research/the-economic-benefits-of-hydrogen-hubs/\">offers a stark counter-estimate\u003c/a>. It suggests that California’s hub will create just 6,000 to 8,000 jobs during the construction phase and only several hundred long term.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Neighborhoods that might be affected by hydrogen development tend to be wary of promises of jobs or cleaner air. That’s particularly true in the Los Angeles basin, where people have long breathed fossil-fuel-driven pollution from refineries and natural gas plants. Now the L.A. Department of Water and Power plans to retrofit one of those plants, the Scattergood Generating Station, so it can run on methane mixed with hydrogen. The plant would produce power to serve the region when demand peaks, as it does on hot days. The estimated cost to \u003ca href=\"https://www.ladwp.com/sites/default/files/2023-10/Scattergood%20Modernization%20Project%20-%20IS.pdf\">retrofit\u003c/a> two of the plant’s three turbines is at least $800 million.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But hydrogen burned at high temperatures where oxygen is present, as in a gas plant, can create nitrogen oxides; those, in turn, contribute to ground-level ozone or smog. Emerging science \u003ca href=\"https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S0360319917319791\">suggests\u003c/a> that blending hydrogen into fossil gas could even increase those emissions unless pollution controls are added.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“We should not be shooting for extending the life of combustion technology,” Earthjustice analyst Saadat said. “We know that we need to stop burning fuel at the tailpipe and the smokestack.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>ARCHES and the Los Angeles Department of Water and Power plan to transition Scattergood to 100% hydrogen — “as soon as it is technically and practically feasible to do so.” In the meantime, state officials have acknowledged that the continuing transformation of California’s energy economy comes with tradeoffs.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Not everything is going to be zero all of the time in terms of emissions,” Rajinder Sahota, deputy executive officer for climate change at the California Air Resources Board, said at the hydrogen summit in Sacramento. “But making sure that, cumulatively, the exposure to harmful pollution is reduced is going to be important.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_1993722\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\" style=\"max-width: 1920px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-1993722 size-full\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2024/07/Miguel-Miguel-IMG_0759-scaled.jpeg\" alt=\"\" width=\"1920\" height=\"2560\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2024/07/Miguel-Miguel-IMG_0759-scaled.jpeg 1920w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2024/07/Miguel-Miguel-IMG_0759-800x1067.jpeg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2024/07/Miguel-Miguel-IMG_0759-1020x1360.jpeg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2024/07/Miguel-Miguel-IMG_0759-160x213.jpeg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2024/07/Miguel-Miguel-IMG_0759-768x1024.jpeg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2024/07/Miguel-Miguel-IMG_0759-1152x1536.jpeg 1152w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2024/07/Miguel-Miguel-IMG_0759-1536x2048.jpeg 1536w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1920px) 100vw, 1920px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Miguel Miguel, a policy adviser for Pacoima Beautiful, says neighbors to Valley Generating Station are wary of potential hydrogen projects in Los Angeles. \u003ccite>(Molly Peterson/Public Health Watch)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>The L.A. Department of Water and Power, or LADWP, is also “actively exploring” what happens next at its Valley Generating Station in Sun Valley. Valley notoriously leaked methane, which contributes to smog, for at least three years before officials notified anyone living nearby. The leak prompted a campaign by residents of the largely Latino neighborhood to shut Valley down, and water and power officials say demolition will soon begin. But the 12-acre property remains connected to gas infrastructure, and LADWP emphasizes that having dependable energy generated near where it’s needed in the L.A. basin is essential to a cleaner energy future.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>An LADWP spokeswoman said the utility “is actively evaluating hydrogen as well as other emerging technologies [at Valley] that will maximize environmental and equity benefits. We have consistently engaged the community and will continue to do so.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But residents aren’t reassured.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“So far it’s been hard to understand, Why this? Why this technology?” said Miguel Miguel, a policy adviser for the community advocacy group Pacoima Beautiful.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Miguel says the opaqueness about Valley’s future helped push California environmental justice advocates to \u003ca href=\"https://caleja.org/2023/10/environmental-justice-equity-principles-green-hydrogen-california/\">circulate principles\u003c/a> for an equitable energy transition to hydrogen last year. By their definition, green hydrogen relies on surplus water and renewable energy and doesn’t keep fossil fuels online. It also means communities are consulted respectfully from the start.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“There’s a possibility of green hydrogen as long as it doesn’t exacerbate problems,” Miguel said. “But for us, at Valley … in our opinion, it’s the natural gas industry’s last-ditch effort to say, ‘You still need us.’ And that’s the hardest pill to swallow.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Advocates like Miguel acknowledge that balancing Southern California’s energy sources responsibly to avoid brownouts or skyrocketing costs isn’t easy. That’s why they oppose dirty hydrogen — not all hydrogen.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But Martha Dina Arguello, the executive director of Physicians for Social Responsibility-Los Angeles, says talk of green hydrogen has left her frustrated.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“You realize that nobody wants to make green hydrogen, right? There’s no profit in making green hydrogen,” she said. “The political reality is that nobody’s building that right now.”\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>California’s Confidence, Confirmed\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>In the coming months, federal agencies will set policies that clarify the direction ARCHES and the other hydrogen hubs will take.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>When the Energy Department ARCHES funding, it also finalized the hub’s operating rules. The Treasury Department, too, must finalize guidelines for companies wishing to access hydrogen tax credits. The two agencies don’t always agree; Politico has \u003ca href=\"https://www.eenews.net/articles/doe-sides-with-industry-on-hydrogen-tax-rules/\">reported\u003c/a> that some in the DOE were advocating internally for weaker rules, as many industry leaders have sought.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Meanwhile, California lawmakers \u003ca href=\"https://digitaldemocracy.calmatters.org/bills/ca_202320240sb1420\">are considering legislation\u003c/a> that would streamline the state’s environmental review process for hydrogen projects. And some Democratic members of California’s congressional delegation \u003ca href=\"https://subscriber.politicopro.com/eenews/f/eenews/?id=00000190-989d-d892-a3db-bffd27970000\">are lobbying Treasury\u003c/a> for weaker rules.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>California’s hydrogen boosters seem confident about their strategy.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Frankly, if you want green hydrogen to succeed, you need California,” ARCHES CEO Galiteva said at the Sacramento summit. She told a story about how Gov. Gavin Newsom sold federal officials on the state’s capacity to advance clean fuel.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Galiteva said the governor emphasized California’s strong climate goals and its robust marketplace for clean energy. And his pitch didn’t stop there.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“You need us more than we need you,” Newsom, by her account, told the DOE. “So you’d better give us a hub.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Laughter erupted in a ballroom of industry representatives and public officials as Galiteva smiled. “I guess they listened,” she said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad floatright]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cem>Molly Peterson is a Los Angeles-based staff writer for \u003ca href=\"https://publichealthwatch.org/\">Public Health Watch\u003c/a>, a nonprofit investigative news organization that covers environmental health and health inequities. \u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\n",
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"excerpt": "California gets a big pot of federal funding for hydrogen projects. But community advocates worry some of the 'clean' energy projects could actually harm public health. \r\n",
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"title": "As California Hydrogen Hubs Receive Billions, Public Health Concerns Grow | KQED",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003cp>\u003cem>This article was originally published by Public Health Watch, a nonprofit investigative news organization. Find out more at \u003ca class=\"c-link\" href=\"http://publichealthwatch.org/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\" data-stringify-link=\"http://publichealthwatch.org\" data-sk=\"tooltip_parent\">publichealthwatch.org\u003c/a>.\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Billions of dollars in public money are beginning to flow to seven “hydrogen hubs” around the country — regional nerve centers for a potentially clean fuel that could someday rival solar and wind and cut carbon from the atmosphere. Earlier this month, California’s hub, a public-private partnership called ARCHES, became the first to negotiate an agreement with the Department of Energy to build out hydrogen power plants, pipelines and other projects.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But researchers and community advocates warn that unless the federal government’s so-called hydrogen \u003ca href=\"https://www.energy.gov/articles/doe-releases-first-series-reports-highlighting-pathways-toward-clean-hydrogen-earthshot\">earthshot\u003c/a> has adequate safeguards, it could worsen air pollution in vulnerable communities and aggravate a warming climate. They’re also concerned that specifics of the emerging efforts remain stubbornly secret from people who live near shovel-ready projects.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>That’s true even in California, a state that has declared a commitment not only to ambitious climate goals but also to environmental justice.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“The people got left behind in this conversation,” said Fatima Abdul-Khabir, the Energy Equity Program manager at Oakland-based Greenlining Institute, an advocacy group. “It’s a massive step backwards.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Hydrogen, a colorless, odorless gas, is the world’s most abundant chemical element. When it’s used in fuel cells or burned for energy, it generates no atmosphere-warming carbon emissions. That means it could power trucks and airplanes without spewing soot from a tailpipe or exhaust from an engine. Hydrogen could help steel plants and other heavy industries lower their carbon footprints.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>However, stripping hydrogen molecules from water or methane to use as fuel can be expensive and complicated, and if that process relies on fossil fuels, it could actually prolong climate pollution. That’s not the only health risk: When even cleanly-produced hydrogen is blended with methane and burned, it can still dirty the air with toxic byproducts that contribute to lung-irritating smog.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The nation’s hydrogen earth shot is a risky and ambitious bet. Congress created an $8 billion pot of money for the hub system. It also tucked nearly $18 billion in grants and incentives into the Inflation Reduction Act and the infrastructure bill. An uncapped federal tax credit for companies that produce hydrogen energy could cost the public at least another $100 billion.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“There’s so much hype right now for hydrogen because everybody wants a piece of the pie,” said Dan Esposito, an electricity policy analyst at the nonprofit firm Energy Innovation.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>To bring clean hydrogen to market as quickly as possible, the U.S. Department of Energy selected regional hubs based in part on their ability to quickly produce and find uses for clean hydrogen. The chosen hubs also \u003ca href=\"https://www.energy.gov/articles/biden-harris-administration-announces-7-billion-americas-first-clean-hydrogen-hubs-driving\">must\u003c/a> promise jobs and other community benefits that advance federal environmental justice \u003ca href=\"https://www.whitehouse.gov/environmentaljustice/justice40/\">goals\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_1993716\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\" style=\"max-width: 2880px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-1993716 size-full\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2024/07/Angelina-2.png\" alt=\"\" width=\"2880\" height=\"1800\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2024/07/Angelina-2.png 2880w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2024/07/Angelina-2-800x500.png 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2024/07/Angelina-2-1020x638.png 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2024/07/Angelina-2-160x100.png 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2024/07/Angelina-2-768x480.png 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2024/07/Angelina-2-1536x960.png 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2024/07/Angelina-2-2048x1280.png 2048w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2024/07/Angelina-2-1920x1200.png 1920w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 2880px) 100vw, 2880px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Angelina Galiteva is CEO of California’s hydrogen hub, which is the first in the country to negotiate terms with the U.S. Department of Energy for a billion-dollar award. \u003ccite>(California Hydrogen Leadership Summit)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>But California’s hub, a public-private partnership called ARCHES, is rejecting rules the federal government has proposed to help guard against the risk of rising pollution from incautious hydrogen projects. Along with the six other hubs, ARCHES signed a letter that warns of “far reaching negative consequences” if the rules are made permanent.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The position held by ARCHES is directly contrary to that of experts, who say such rules are the only guarantee that this huge investment will lead to a sustainable hydrogen economy.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“What our research has shown is that if we do this wrong from the start, either the hydrogen industry will fall apart, it’s going to lose a bunch of public support, or it will really significantly delay our ability to clean up the power grid,” Esposito said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003ca href=\"https://www.ethree.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/01/CPUC-Air-Quality-Report-FINAL.pdf\">Multiple\u003c/a>\u003ca href=\"https://engineering.princeton.edu/news/2022/12/20/without-guidance-inflation-reduction-act-tax-credit-may-do-more-harm-good\"> analyses\u003c/a> based on public data and modeling, including \u003ca href=\"https://energyinnovation.org/wp-content/uploads/2023/04/Smart-Design-Of-45V-Hydrogen-Production-Tax-Credit-Will-Reduce-Emissions-And-Grow-The-Industry.pdf?email=467cb6399cb7df64551775e431052b43a775c749&emaila=12a6d4d069cd56cfddaa391c24eb7042&emailb=054528e7403871c79f668e49dd3c44b1ec00c7f611bf9388f76bb2324d6ca5f3&utm_source=Sailthru&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=07.18.23%20-%20Energy%20%26%20Environment%20%E2%80%94%20RF\">Esposito’s own\u003c/a>, have concluded that hydrogen produced under the wrong circumstances could worsen air pollution instead of improving it.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>So far, the message from ARCHES is: Trust us. Trust California to do what is right with the $1.2 billion it has been awarded for its hub. Trust the hub’s projects to cut carbon and lung-searing emissions from the air.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“There’s reason to trust California,” said Dan Kammen, an energy professor at the University of California, Berkeley. “But only if California continues to follow the rules that California created.”\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>‘Pebble That Launches the Avalanche’\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>California’s hub began as an agreement among the Governor’s Office of Business and Economic Development, or GO-BIZ, the University of California, the state building and trades unions and a nonprofit called Renewables 100, founded by ARCHES CEO Angelina Galiteva. It has around 400 network partners, including Amazon, Cemex, Chevron and investor-owned utilities, including SoCal Gas and Edison International.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Building on the state’s development of the world’s first standard to cut the carbon intensity of fuel, ARCHES promises to develop zero-carbon hydrogen using solar, wind, biomass and other renewable sources.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“We came together to go after the federal funding, but that federal funding is just a start,” \u003ca href=\"https://www.verdexchange.org/news/unlocking-californias-hydrogen-future-insights-tyson-eckerles-arches-japan-california-hydrogen\">said\u003c/a> Tyson Eckerle, a senior adviser for GO BIZ, at an environmental think tank’s conference in the spring. “It’s the pebble that launches the avalanche.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But California argues that its progress will be slowed if hydrogen developers have to meet rules the U.S. Department of the Treasury has proposed for projects seeking the lucrative 45V tax credit.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Those rules are based on what energy experts refer to as the “three pillars” of clean hydrogen production. To make hydrogen clean and sustainable, it should be produced from a new source using carbon-neutral electricity. That electricity should be geographically close to where it’s needed, so delivering it isn’t costly. It should also be available when it’s needed, not traded or obtained through accounting from another time and place.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>California’s hydrogen leaders counter that the state already has a successful strategy — and numerous requirements — for getting clean energy on the grid. Complying with the federal rules would undermine that progress, ARCHES has said \u003ca href=\"https://archesh2.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/02/ARCHES-Letter.pdf\">in a public response\u003c/a>, making it “impossible” to integrate hydrogen “in a timely and cost-effect manner without disrupting our carefully calibrated energy system.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“We’re at almost 60%, 24/7 renewables across the board, which is a huge, huge step forward. We’re ahead of our goals in terms of meeting those obligations,” Galiteva told Public Health Watch.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>If these federal conditions “had been required for the nascent solar or battery or any other industry, those industries would never have taken off,” she said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Julie McNamara, a senior energy analyst at the Union of Concerned Scientists, called California’s position contradictory. Even if the state’s renewables-rich grid deserves freedom from constraining rules, why would California support a free-for-all that gives states that continue to depend on fossil fuels a pass?\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“ARCHES is trying to have it both ways,” she said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Fossil fuel-focused energy companies, including BP and Shell, have also argued for more leeway in qualifying for the federal money.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Clean hydrogen could be the angel of decarbonizing the energy sector, but Earthjustice senior research and policy analyst Sasan Saadat said that poorly defined hydrogen could be the devil because it might prolong the use of fossil fuels.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“You’ve taken this thing that is really dangerous and muddled it up with the world of climate solutions and clean energy and that’s why it’s so risky,” Saadat said. “The fossil fuel industry knows this and they can blur the lines.”\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>A ‘Black Box’ Begins to Open\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>ARCHES has prioritized 37 projects to spend its federal money, according to CEO Galiteva. This “tier one” investment reflects the hub’s vision for bringing clean hydrogen to California.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“We have another 33-plus projects … that can actually slide into a tier one project if a tier one project hits a bump on the road for any reason,” she said at a recent hydrogen trade conference in Sacramento. “So the economy and the scale is going to be pretty big once we start moving.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>There’s an incentive to move quickly: To qualify for the federal tax credit, shovels have to be in the ground by 2032.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_1993721\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\" style=\"max-width: 1920px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-1993721 size-full\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2024/07/ARCHES_Supported_Element_Resources_Project.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"1920\" height=\"1189\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2024/07/ARCHES_Supported_Element_Resources_Project.jpg 1920w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2024/07/ARCHES_Supported_Element_Resources_Project-800x495.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2024/07/ARCHES_Supported_Element_Resources_Project-1020x632.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2024/07/ARCHES_Supported_Element_Resources_Project-160x99.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2024/07/ARCHES_Supported_Element_Resources_Project-768x476.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2024/07/ARCHES_Supported_Element_Resources_Project-1536x951.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1920px) 100vw, 1920px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">In Los Angeles County, the Element Resources Project could be one of 37 projects granted money by California’s hub, ARCHES. The city of Lancaster’s project promises to produce hydrogen fuel with solar power. \u003ccite>(City of Lancaster)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>However, the criteria for what qualifies as tier one status aren’t public. Nor are the locations of most of ARCHES’ projects or their potential health and environmental impacts.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>To fully participate in the hub, partners had to sign a nondisclosure agreement. Environmental advocates call the NDA an “iron wall” that makes ARCHES a black box.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“This huge hydrogen thing is happening, and all anybody knows is that there’s a ton of money coming for it,” said Shana Lazerow, a lawyer with the nonprofit Communities for a Better Environment.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Even where hydrogen is produced without fossil fuels, enormous questions remain about where to prioritize its production and use so it doesn’t pollute or cost more.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“No one has found the killer app for green hydrogen yet,” UC Berkeley’s Dan Kammen said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_1993720\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\" style=\"max-width: 2560px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-1993720 size-full\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2024/07/Valley-Generating-IMG_0745-scaled.jpeg\" alt=\"\" width=\"2560\" height=\"1920\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2024/07/Valley-Generating-IMG_0745-scaled.jpeg 2560w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2024/07/Valley-Generating-IMG_0745-800x600.jpeg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2024/07/Valley-Generating-IMG_0745-1020x765.jpeg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2024/07/Valley-Generating-IMG_0745-160x120.jpeg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2024/07/Valley-Generating-IMG_0745-768x576.jpeg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2024/07/Valley-Generating-IMG_0745-1536x1152.jpeg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2024/07/Valley-Generating-IMG_0745-2048x1536.jpeg 2048w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2024/07/Valley-Generating-IMG_0745-1920x1440.jpeg 1920w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 2560px) 100vw, 2560px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">At Valley Generating Station in Sun Valley, the Los Angeles Department of Water and Power is demolishing four red-and-white striped stacks to make way for what it says will be renewable and possibly hydrogen projects. But the facility has a history of methane leaks, and neighbors are wary of the utility’s promises. \u003ccite>(Molly Peterson/Public Health Watch)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Projects that might scoop up the federal money are beginning to emerge from the shadows. In eastern Contra Costa County, where land along the Suisun Bay once served as a stopover for boats supplying gold miners, a company called H Cycle is proposing to heat municipal organic waste to transform it into hydrogen. Diverting waste from a landfill is a particularly attractive idea since overstuffed landfills release methane into the atmosphere.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>However, the draft environmental impact report for the project in the small city of Pittsburg is light on details. It’s not clear exactly what will be heated or what technology will be used to unlock the hydrogen. Under California’s regulations, organic waste can include some percentage of plastic and metal, which would emit toxins when burned. The report also references slag, a waste product that comes from burning material, not just heating it.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>All of that is troubling to a neighborhood \u003ca href=\"https://experience.arcgis.com/experience/11d2f52282a54ceebcac7428e6184203/page/CalEnviroScreen-4_0/\">whose residents are in the 93rd percentile statewide\u003c/a> for asthma risk. Charles Davidson, a Contra Costa resident and member of the Sunflower Alliance, points out that 25,000 people live near H Cycle. “It’s burning plastics and construction materials and other things with no limit, no specifications on what’s being incinerated next to people’s homes,” he said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>A news release says H Cycle “\u003ca href=\"https://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/h-cycle-positioned-for-funds-from-doe-hydrogen-hub-program-as-part-of-californias-arches-partnership-301956757.html\">is positioned\u003c/a>” for a piece of ARCHES’ billion-dollar pie. But whether it’s a tier-one project for the hub isn’t clear. H Cycle, as a partner in ARCHES, has signed the hub’s non-disclosure agreement, and the company did not respond to requests for comment.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>A letter local air regulators sent to Pittsburg’s planners warns of health risks from the project.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“This thermal conversion process represents a novel renewable hydrogen production strategy,” \u003ca href=\"https://www.baaqmd.gov/~/media/files/planning-and-research/ceqa-letters/2024/h-cycle-pitts-hydro-project-deir-air-district-ltr-pdf.pdf?rev=5a05cdb4b3804645b566cf9a68769bc0&sc_lang=en\">wrote\u003c/a> the Bay Area Air Quality Management District in March. “However, it will introduce additional air pollution into a community that is already overburdened.” The district recommended more consideration of residents – and more transparency.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>H Cycle’s engagement with vulnerable communities is limited at best, said Amelia Keyes, a lawyer with Communities for a Better Environment.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“It’s no coincidence that a polluting facility like this is being built here,” she said.\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>Playing Whac-A-Mole Around the State\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>At launch, ARCHES \u003ca href=\"https://www.energy.gov/sites/default/files/2024-07/H2Hubs%20ARCHES_Award%20Fact%20Sheet.pdf\">highlighted\u003c/a> 10 unnamed hydrogen production projects, “with most in the Central Valley.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Projects are popping up in marginalized or already-polluted communities around the state. Some involve producing the fuel; others will transport or use it. Keyes said advocates usually hear about these projects by word of mouth.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“I think it really illustrates the kind of Whac-a-mole that environmental justice groups have to play with these kinds of facilities,” Keyes said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>At the port of Stockton, there’s talk of a facility that would produce hydrogen by steaming it out of methane but could claim to be carbon neutral by using credits for reductions of pollution elsewhere. In a farmworker community in western Fresno County, a pilot project will blend hydrogen into gas lines that go directly into homes for 10,000 people. Southern California Gas is floating the idea of \u003ca href=\"https://www.socalgas.com/sustainability/hydrogen/angeles-link\">AngelesLink\u003c/a>. It’s billed as the nation’s largest clean hydrogen pipeline and could pipe the stuff into the Los Angeles basin. But little information is available yet about where clean fuel will come from in the first place.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Major environmental groups, including Communities for a Better Environment, complain they don’t know much about these projects because they didn’t sign the ARCHES NDA, fearing that the secrecy required would compromise their advocacy in public processes. They worry that health risks and the influence of fossil fuel companies are being waved away.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In a letter to federal energy officials, the California Environmental Justice Association called the NDA a “delay tactic that allowed ARCHES to move forward without needing to account for and include impacted communities in decision-making.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Why should we as the public be living in this poverty of information about a massive taxpayer-funded climate program?” Earthjustice’s Saadat said. “It’s really galling.”\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>Is Green Hydrogen’s Promise Real?\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>People in environmental justice communities are exactly who the California hub claims will benefit from the hydrogen boom. ARCHES says its overall proposal could help the state save nearly $3 billion by increasing “the economic value of health-related benefits” and creating 220,000 new jobs.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In a brief on its website, ARCHES attributes the potential health savings to cleaner air, based on \u003ca href=\"https://www.ethree.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/01/CPUC-Air-Quality-Report-FINAL.pdf\">a research paper\u003c/a> commissioned by the California Public Utilities Commission. That paper projects reductions in air pollution through the electrification of cars and trucks, ending the use of natural gas in buildings, and removing all emissions from natural gas power generation. It then models the anticipated public health benefits from each. But hydrogen is only glancingly mentioned.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>As for the jobs estimate, the independent think tank Rhodium Group \u003ca href=\"https://rhg.com/research/the-economic-benefits-of-hydrogen-hubs/\">offers a stark counter-estimate\u003c/a>. It suggests that California’s hub will create just 6,000 to 8,000 jobs during the construction phase and only several hundred long term.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Neighborhoods that might be affected by hydrogen development tend to be wary of promises of jobs or cleaner air. That’s particularly true in the Los Angeles basin, where people have long breathed fossil-fuel-driven pollution from refineries and natural gas plants. Now the L.A. Department of Water and Power plans to retrofit one of those plants, the Scattergood Generating Station, so it can run on methane mixed with hydrogen. The plant would produce power to serve the region when demand peaks, as it does on hot days. The estimated cost to \u003ca href=\"https://www.ladwp.com/sites/default/files/2023-10/Scattergood%20Modernization%20Project%20-%20IS.pdf\">retrofit\u003c/a> two of the plant’s three turbines is at least $800 million.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But hydrogen burned at high temperatures where oxygen is present, as in a gas plant, can create nitrogen oxides; those, in turn, contribute to ground-level ozone or smog. Emerging science \u003ca href=\"https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S0360319917319791\">suggests\u003c/a> that blending hydrogen into fossil gas could even increase those emissions unless pollution controls are added.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“We should not be shooting for extending the life of combustion technology,” Earthjustice analyst Saadat said. “We know that we need to stop burning fuel at the tailpipe and the smokestack.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>ARCHES and the Los Angeles Department of Water and Power plan to transition Scattergood to 100% hydrogen — “as soon as it is technically and practically feasible to do so.” In the meantime, state officials have acknowledged that the continuing transformation of California’s energy economy comes with tradeoffs.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Not everything is going to be zero all of the time in terms of emissions,” Rajinder Sahota, deputy executive officer for climate change at the California Air Resources Board, said at the hydrogen summit in Sacramento. “But making sure that, cumulatively, the exposure to harmful pollution is reduced is going to be important.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_1993722\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\" style=\"max-width: 1920px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-1993722 size-full\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2024/07/Miguel-Miguel-IMG_0759-scaled.jpeg\" alt=\"\" width=\"1920\" height=\"2560\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2024/07/Miguel-Miguel-IMG_0759-scaled.jpeg 1920w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2024/07/Miguel-Miguel-IMG_0759-800x1067.jpeg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2024/07/Miguel-Miguel-IMG_0759-1020x1360.jpeg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2024/07/Miguel-Miguel-IMG_0759-160x213.jpeg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2024/07/Miguel-Miguel-IMG_0759-768x1024.jpeg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2024/07/Miguel-Miguel-IMG_0759-1152x1536.jpeg 1152w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2024/07/Miguel-Miguel-IMG_0759-1536x2048.jpeg 1536w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1920px) 100vw, 1920px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Miguel Miguel, a policy adviser for Pacoima Beautiful, says neighbors to Valley Generating Station are wary of potential hydrogen projects in Los Angeles. \u003ccite>(Molly Peterson/Public Health Watch)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>The L.A. Department of Water and Power, or LADWP, is also “actively exploring” what happens next at its Valley Generating Station in Sun Valley. Valley notoriously leaked methane, which contributes to smog, for at least three years before officials notified anyone living nearby. The leak prompted a campaign by residents of the largely Latino neighborhood to shut Valley down, and water and power officials say demolition will soon begin. But the 12-acre property remains connected to gas infrastructure, and LADWP emphasizes that having dependable energy generated near where it’s needed in the L.A. basin is essential to a cleaner energy future.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>An LADWP spokeswoman said the utility “is actively evaluating hydrogen as well as other emerging technologies [at Valley] that will maximize environmental and equity benefits. We have consistently engaged the community and will continue to do so.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But residents aren’t reassured.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“So far it’s been hard to understand, Why this? Why this technology?” said Miguel Miguel, a policy adviser for the community advocacy group Pacoima Beautiful.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Miguel says the opaqueness about Valley’s future helped push California environmental justice advocates to \u003ca href=\"https://caleja.org/2023/10/environmental-justice-equity-principles-green-hydrogen-california/\">circulate principles\u003c/a> for an equitable energy transition to hydrogen last year. By their definition, green hydrogen relies on surplus water and renewable energy and doesn’t keep fossil fuels online. It also means communities are consulted respectfully from the start.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“There’s a possibility of green hydrogen as long as it doesn’t exacerbate problems,” Miguel said. “But for us, at Valley … in our opinion, it’s the natural gas industry’s last-ditch effort to say, ‘You still need us.’ And that’s the hardest pill to swallow.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Advocates like Miguel acknowledge that balancing Southern California’s energy sources responsibly to avoid brownouts or skyrocketing costs isn’t easy. That’s why they oppose dirty hydrogen — not all hydrogen.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But Martha Dina Arguello, the executive director of Physicians for Social Responsibility-Los Angeles, says talk of green hydrogen has left her frustrated.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“You realize that nobody wants to make green hydrogen, right? There’s no profit in making green hydrogen,” she said. “The political reality is that nobody’s building that right now.”\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>California’s Confidence, Confirmed\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>In the coming months, federal agencies will set policies that clarify the direction ARCHES and the other hydrogen hubs will take.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>When the Energy Department ARCHES funding, it also finalized the hub’s operating rules. The Treasury Department, too, must finalize guidelines for companies wishing to access hydrogen tax credits. The two agencies don’t always agree; Politico has \u003ca href=\"https://www.eenews.net/articles/doe-sides-with-industry-on-hydrogen-tax-rules/\">reported\u003c/a> that some in the DOE were advocating internally for weaker rules, as many industry leaders have sought.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Meanwhile, California lawmakers \u003ca href=\"https://digitaldemocracy.calmatters.org/bills/ca_202320240sb1420\">are considering legislation\u003c/a> that would streamline the state’s environmental review process for hydrogen projects. And some Democratic members of California’s congressional delegation \u003ca href=\"https://subscriber.politicopro.com/eenews/f/eenews/?id=00000190-989d-d892-a3db-bffd27970000\">are lobbying Treasury\u003c/a> for weaker rules.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>California’s hydrogen boosters seem confident about their strategy.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Frankly, if you want green hydrogen to succeed, you need California,” ARCHES CEO Galiteva said at the Sacramento summit. She told a story about how Gov. Gavin Newsom sold federal officials on the state’s capacity to advance clean fuel.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Galiteva said the governor emphasized California’s strong climate goals and its robust marketplace for clean energy. And his pitch didn’t stop there.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“You need us more than we need you,” Newsom, by her account, told the DOE. “So you’d better give us a hub.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Laughter erupted in a ballroom of industry representatives and public officials as Galiteva smiled. “I guess they listened,” she said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cem>Molly Peterson is a Los Angeles-based staff writer for \u003ca href=\"https://publichealthwatch.org/\">Public Health Watch\u003c/a>, a nonprofit investigative news organization that covers environmental health and health inequities. \u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\n\u003c/div>\u003c/p>",
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"slug": "tar-pits-are-a-death-trap-except-for-this-fly",
"title": "How Can These Flies Live in Oily Black Tar Pits?",
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"headTitle": "How Can These Flies Live in Oily Black Tar Pits? | KQED",
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"content": "\u003cp>Within the sprawling metropolis of Los Angeles, not far from West Hollywood and Beverly Hills, paleontologists are hard at work sorting through one of the richest collections of ice age fossils in the world.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Today, the La Brea Tar Pits, a public park and museum, lie between shopping centers and apartment buildings. But the sticky, black asphalt that fills the pits was oozing up from the ground long before people turned this land into a bustling city.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Across millenia, the tar pits captured over ten thousand mammals, creating a remarkably detailed record of the area’s natural history. But not every creature present in the asphalt is stuck in the past.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_1993664\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\" style=\"max-width: 800px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-1993664\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2024/07/DL1110_Petroleum_Fly_18-800x450.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"800\" height=\"450\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2024/07/DL1110_Petroleum_Fly_18-800x450.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2024/07/DL1110_Petroleum_Fly_18-1020x574.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2024/07/DL1110_Petroleum_Fly_18-160x90.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2024/07/DL1110_Petroleum_Fly_18-768x432.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2024/07/DL1110_Petroleum_Fly_18-1536x864.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2024/07/DL1110_Petroleum_Fly_18-2048x1152.jpg 2048w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2024/07/DL1110_Petroleum_Fly_18-1920x1080.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 800px) 100vw, 800px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Paleontologist Sean Campbell examines the asphalt of Pit 91, where he and his team are still uncovering fossils left behind by ice age plants and animals. \u003ccite>(Josh Cassidy/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Any tourist who goes to watch scientists dig up the bones of saber-toothed cats and dire wolves should also keep an eye out for the plucky survivor whose ancestors likely watched those big mammals die: the petroleum fly.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>There’s still a lot of mystery surrounding the petroleum fly, but one thing is clear: It has figured out how to make the most of a bad situation. Pools of asphalt are hell for most animals, but petroleum flies have turned them into a bountiful habitat.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad fullwidth]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“That’s their personal paradise,” says entomologist Martin Hauser, with the California Department of Food and Agriculture. “They have no competition in there because no one else can deal with it.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Adult petroleum flies are fairly unassuming. They’re small and flecked like fruit flies. Though scientists don’t know exactly how, they are able to skate – and mate – on the asphalt pools. Their feet don’t get stuck, but if any other body part touches the sticky liquid, they’re out of luck.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_1993665\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\" style=\"max-width: 800px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-1993665\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2024/07/DL1110_Petroleum_Fly_10-800x450.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"800\" height=\"450\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2024/07/DL1110_Petroleum_Fly_10-800x450.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2024/07/DL1110_Petroleum_Fly_10-1020x574.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2024/07/DL1110_Petroleum_Fly_10-160x90.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2024/07/DL1110_Petroleum_Fly_10-768x432.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2024/07/DL1110_Petroleum_Fly_10-1536x864.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2024/07/DL1110_Petroleum_Fly_10-2048x1152.jpg 2048w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2024/07/DL1110_Petroleum_Fly_10-1920x1080.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 800px) 100vw, 800px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">An adult petroleum fly walks on top of the sticky tar pits without getting stuck. \u003ccite>(Josh Cassidy/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>The translucent maggots, on the other hand, are truly in their element – they can fully submerge in the dark, viscous liquid.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“This is something that kills everything else,” says Kenneth Nickerson, a microbiologist at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln, who has studied petroleum flies.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Pools of natural asphalt form when petroleum from subterranean reservoirs seeps out of the ground. Most of the small molecules that make petroleum toxic to us quickly evaporate, but the asphalt that’s left behind is incredibly sticky.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Few animals that wade into a pool of asphalt manage to extricate themselves from it. In fact, the thick liquid keeps holding on even after an animal has succumbed to exhaustion or exposure, and its body has wasted away to bones. That’s why asphalt deposits around the world are particularly interesting to paleontologists.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“It just so happens that this extremophile organism lives in the medium that I dig fossils out of,” says Sean Campbell, a paleontologist with the Natural History Museums of Los Angeles County, which include the La Brea Tar Pits.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[pullquote]\u003cbr>\nADDITIONAL RESOURCES\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Discover more about the \u003ca href=\"https://https://tarpits.org//\">La Brea Tar Pits and Museum\u003c/a>, where plants and animals from the last 50,000 years are discovered every day. The museum is located right in the heart of Los Angeles.\u003cbr>\n[/pullquote] \u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Scientists have also found petroleum flies in oil fields in Santa Paula and Ojai, south of Santa Barbara, as well as in seeps in Cuba and Trinidad, in the Caribbean.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>By studying the flies in the La Brea Tar Pits, researchers are beginning to understand how their maggots are able to survive in this environment.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“They have multiple tricks,” says Hauser.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>When Hauser examined petroleum fly maggots under a microscope, he noticed they’re a little more prickly than other fly larvae. He believes their rough skin keeps the asphalt away from their bodies.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Surprisingly, the maggots actually need a bit of asphalt on their backside to survive.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“They would dry out if they can’t get in contact with oil,” says Hauser.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>As it turns out, the asphalt is also an essential moisturizer. While most insects are covered in a waxy layer that keeps moisture in, petroleum flies seem to lack this protection – likely because wax dissolves in asphalt.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>As they swim in the asphalt, maggots breathe through snorkel-like tubes on their rear ends, ringed with hairs that keep them afloat.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“When the snorkel breaks the surface, the hairs just fold out,” says Hauser. “It’s a little bit like an umbrella.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_1993667\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\" style=\"max-width: 640px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-1993667\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2024/07/DL1110_Petroleum_Fly_9.gif\" alt=\"\" width=\"640\" height=\"360\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">A crane fly gets stuck in the tar pits. \u003ccite>(Josh Cassidy/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Maggots feed on insects that have been caught in the asphalt. Dragonflies and other insects that spend their lives near ponds often mistake shiny pools of asphalt for water. When they try to skim the surface or land on it, the sticky substance pulls them down, into the maggots’ domain. Without snorkels like the ones petroleum fly larvae breathe through, those other insects quickly drown.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Petroleum fly larvae aren’t picky: They’ll turn any dying insect into a meal. When the maggots sense an insect sinking into their home, they wriggle over to it. Then, they scrape at its hard exoskeleton with their two black mouth hooks, probing for an exposed bit of soft tissue. When they find one, they make a hole and crawl inside the dying insect’s body.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_1993666\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\" style=\"max-width: 640px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-1993666\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2024/07/DL1110_Petroleum_Fly_4.gif\" alt=\"\" width=\"640\" height=\"360\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">A hungry petroleum fly larva inspects and eats an adult petroleum fly that got stuck in the tar pits. \u003ccite>(Josh Cassidy/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>As they eat, petroleum fly maggots incidentally consume some asphalt. You can see it darkening their digestive tract through their translucent skin. It looks like their guts are filled with the black substance.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“That’s one of the big mysteries,” says Hauser. “How they can deal with this.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Humans can handle eating a little bit of asphalt – medieval Persian doctors used to prescribe it for stomach ulcers. But the stuff would overwhelm our systems if we ate as much as a petroleum fly maggot. And even a little bit would expose us to carcinogens that short-lived insects don’t have to worry about.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Petroleum fly larvae eat asphalt regularly enough that scientists once thought they derived nourishment from it. Now, they know that’s not the case.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But it’s apparent that something happens to the asphalt as it passes through a maggot’s digestive tract. Between the mouth and the anus, the dark, viscous substance thins out and clears up. Whatever is responsible for that process could point to a better method for cleaning up oil spills.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>That possibility piqued the interest of University of Nebraska-Lincoln microbiologist Nickerson. He had a hunch that bacteria inside the maggots might be breaking the asphalt down. So, he asked a paleontologist to collect some petroleum fly larvae from the La Brea Tar Pits and ship them to his lab in Lincoln.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>First, Nickerson’s team identified the types of bacteria growing inside the maggots’ guts. Then, they tried growing the microorganisms in Petri dishes.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Our goal at the time was to find microbes that would be good at degrading some of these complex hydrocarbons that you would find in the tar,” says Nickerson.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>None of the bacteria that grew on Petri dishes proved capable of that feat. But Nickerson’s team found plenty of microbes that they couldn’t grow at the time, and he hopes more scientists will investigate them in the future.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad floatright]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Until then, the petroleum fly larva will continue to live in the present, swimming contentedly in its asphalt paradise.\u003c/p>\n\n",
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"excerpt": "In the sticky oil seeps known as the La Brea Tar Pits, tiny petroleum flies and their larvae thrive in the natural asphalt that oozes up to the surface. The larvae hunt among the fossilized bones of dire wolves, mammoths and saber-toothed cats.",
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"title": "How Can These Flies Live in Oily Black Tar Pits? | KQED",
"description": "In the sticky oil seeps known as the La Brea Tar Pits, tiny petroleum flies and their larvae thrive in the natural asphalt that oozes up to the surface. The larvae hunt among the fossilized bones of dire wolves, mammoths and saber-toothed cats.",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003cp>Within the sprawling metropolis of Los Angeles, not far from West Hollywood and Beverly Hills, paleontologists are hard at work sorting through one of the richest collections of ice age fossils in the world.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Today, the La Brea Tar Pits, a public park and museum, lie between shopping centers and apartment buildings. But the sticky, black asphalt that fills the pits was oozing up from the ground long before people turned this land into a bustling city.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Across millenia, the tar pits captured over ten thousand mammals, creating a remarkably detailed record of the area’s natural history. But not every creature present in the asphalt is stuck in the past.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_1993664\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\" style=\"max-width: 800px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-1993664\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2024/07/DL1110_Petroleum_Fly_18-800x450.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"800\" height=\"450\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2024/07/DL1110_Petroleum_Fly_18-800x450.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2024/07/DL1110_Petroleum_Fly_18-1020x574.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2024/07/DL1110_Petroleum_Fly_18-160x90.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2024/07/DL1110_Petroleum_Fly_18-768x432.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2024/07/DL1110_Petroleum_Fly_18-1536x864.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2024/07/DL1110_Petroleum_Fly_18-2048x1152.jpg 2048w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2024/07/DL1110_Petroleum_Fly_18-1920x1080.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 800px) 100vw, 800px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Paleontologist Sean Campbell examines the asphalt of Pit 91, where he and his team are still uncovering fossils left behind by ice age plants and animals. \u003ccite>(Josh Cassidy/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Any tourist who goes to watch scientists dig up the bones of saber-toothed cats and dire wolves should also keep an eye out for the plucky survivor whose ancestors likely watched those big mammals die: the petroleum fly.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>There’s still a lot of mystery surrounding the petroleum fly, but one thing is clear: It has figured out how to make the most of a bad situation. Pools of asphalt are hell for most animals, but petroleum flies have turned them into a bountiful habitat.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“That’s their personal paradise,” says entomologist Martin Hauser, with the California Department of Food and Agriculture. “They have no competition in there because no one else can deal with it.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Adult petroleum flies are fairly unassuming. They’re small and flecked like fruit flies. Though scientists don’t know exactly how, they are able to skate – and mate – on the asphalt pools. Their feet don’t get stuck, but if any other body part touches the sticky liquid, they’re out of luck.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_1993665\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\" style=\"max-width: 800px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-1993665\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2024/07/DL1110_Petroleum_Fly_10-800x450.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"800\" height=\"450\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2024/07/DL1110_Petroleum_Fly_10-800x450.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2024/07/DL1110_Petroleum_Fly_10-1020x574.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2024/07/DL1110_Petroleum_Fly_10-160x90.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2024/07/DL1110_Petroleum_Fly_10-768x432.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2024/07/DL1110_Petroleum_Fly_10-1536x864.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2024/07/DL1110_Petroleum_Fly_10-2048x1152.jpg 2048w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2024/07/DL1110_Petroleum_Fly_10-1920x1080.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 800px) 100vw, 800px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">An adult petroleum fly walks on top of the sticky tar pits without getting stuck. \u003ccite>(Josh Cassidy/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>The translucent maggots, on the other hand, are truly in their element – they can fully submerge in the dark, viscous liquid.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“This is something that kills everything else,” says Kenneth Nickerson, a microbiologist at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln, who has studied petroleum flies.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Pools of natural asphalt form when petroleum from subterranean reservoirs seeps out of the ground. Most of the small molecules that make petroleum toxic to us quickly evaporate, but the asphalt that’s left behind is incredibly sticky.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Few animals that wade into a pool of asphalt manage to extricate themselves from it. In fact, the thick liquid keeps holding on even after an animal has succumbed to exhaustion or exposure, and its body has wasted away to bones. That’s why asphalt deposits around the world are particularly interesting to paleontologists.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“It just so happens that this extremophile organism lives in the medium that I dig fossils out of,” says Sean Campbell, a paleontologist with the Natural History Museums of Los Angeles County, which include the La Brea Tar Pits.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cbr>\nADDITIONAL RESOURCES\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Discover more about the \u003ca href=\"https://https://tarpits.org//\">La Brea Tar Pits and Museum\u003c/a>, where plants and animals from the last 50,000 years are discovered every day. The museum is located right in the heart of Los Angeles.\u003cbr>\n",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp> \u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Scientists have also found petroleum flies in oil fields in Santa Paula and Ojai, south of Santa Barbara, as well as in seeps in Cuba and Trinidad, in the Caribbean.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>By studying the flies in the La Brea Tar Pits, researchers are beginning to understand how their maggots are able to survive in this environment.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“They have multiple tricks,” says Hauser.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>When Hauser examined petroleum fly maggots under a microscope, he noticed they’re a little more prickly than other fly larvae. He believes their rough skin keeps the asphalt away from their bodies.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Surprisingly, the maggots actually need a bit of asphalt on their backside to survive.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“They would dry out if they can’t get in contact with oil,” says Hauser.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>As it turns out, the asphalt is also an essential moisturizer. While most insects are covered in a waxy layer that keeps moisture in, petroleum flies seem to lack this protection – likely because wax dissolves in asphalt.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>As they swim in the asphalt, maggots breathe through snorkel-like tubes on their rear ends, ringed with hairs that keep them afloat.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“When the snorkel breaks the surface, the hairs just fold out,” says Hauser. “It’s a little bit like an umbrella.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_1993667\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\" style=\"max-width: 640px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-1993667\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2024/07/DL1110_Petroleum_Fly_9.gif\" alt=\"\" width=\"640\" height=\"360\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">A crane fly gets stuck in the tar pits. \u003ccite>(Josh Cassidy/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Maggots feed on insects that have been caught in the asphalt. Dragonflies and other insects that spend their lives near ponds often mistake shiny pools of asphalt for water. When they try to skim the surface or land on it, the sticky substance pulls them down, into the maggots’ domain. Without snorkels like the ones petroleum fly larvae breathe through, those other insects quickly drown.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Petroleum fly larvae aren’t picky: They’ll turn any dying insect into a meal. When the maggots sense an insect sinking into their home, they wriggle over to it. Then, they scrape at its hard exoskeleton with their two black mouth hooks, probing for an exposed bit of soft tissue. When they find one, they make a hole and crawl inside the dying insect’s body.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_1993666\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\" style=\"max-width: 640px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-1993666\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2024/07/DL1110_Petroleum_Fly_4.gif\" alt=\"\" width=\"640\" height=\"360\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">A hungry petroleum fly larva inspects and eats an adult petroleum fly that got stuck in the tar pits. \u003ccite>(Josh Cassidy/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>As they eat, petroleum fly maggots incidentally consume some asphalt. You can see it darkening their digestive tract through their translucent skin. It looks like their guts are filled with the black substance.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“That’s one of the big mysteries,” says Hauser. “How they can deal with this.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Humans can handle eating a little bit of asphalt – medieval Persian doctors used to prescribe it for stomach ulcers. But the stuff would overwhelm our systems if we ate as much as a petroleum fly maggot. And even a little bit would expose us to carcinogens that short-lived insects don’t have to worry about.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Petroleum fly larvae eat asphalt regularly enough that scientists once thought they derived nourishment from it. Now, they know that’s not the case.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But it’s apparent that something happens to the asphalt as it passes through a maggot’s digestive tract. Between the mouth and the anus, the dark, viscous substance thins out and clears up. Whatever is responsible for that process could point to a better method for cleaning up oil spills.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>That possibility piqued the interest of University of Nebraska-Lincoln microbiologist Nickerson. He had a hunch that bacteria inside the maggots might be breaking the asphalt down. So, he asked a paleontologist to collect some petroleum fly larvae from the La Brea Tar Pits and ship them to his lab in Lincoln.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>First, Nickerson’s team identified the types of bacteria growing inside the maggots’ guts. Then, they tried growing the microorganisms in Petri dishes.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Our goal at the time was to find microbes that would be good at degrading some of these complex hydrocarbons that you would find in the tar,” says Nickerson.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>None of the bacteria that grew on Petri dishes proved capable of that feat. But Nickerson’s team found plenty of microbes that they couldn’t grow at the time, and he hopes more scientists will investigate them in the future.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"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 />",
"airtime": "SUN 9pm-10pm",
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"meta": {
"site": "radio",
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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",
"officialWebsiteLink": "https://www.commonwealthclub.org/podcasts",
"meta": {
"site": "news",
"source": "Commonwealth Club of California"
},
"link": "/radio/program/commonwealth-club",
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"google": "https://podcasts.google.com/feed/aHR0cDovL3d3dy5jb21tb253ZWFsdGhjbHViLm9yZy9hdWRpby9wb2RjYXN0L3dlZWtseS54bWw",
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}
},
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"id": "forum",
"title": "Forum",
"tagline": "The conversation starts here",
"info": "KQED’s live call-in program discussing local, state, national and international issues, as well as in-depth interviews.",
"airtime": "MON-FRI 9am-11am, 10pm-11pm",
"imageSrc": "https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/Forum-Podcast-Tile-703x703-1.jpg",
"imageAlt": "KQED Forum with Mina Kim and Alexis Madrigal",
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"source": "kqed",
"order": 9
},
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"google": "https://podcasts.google.com/feed/aHR0cHM6Ly9mZWVkcy5tZWdhcGhvbmUuZm0vS1FJTkM5NTU3MzgxNjMz",
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"id": "freakonomics-radio",
"title": "Freakonomics Radio",
"info": "Freakonomics Radio is a one-hour award-winning podcast and public-radio project hosted by Stephen Dubner, with co-author Steve Levitt as a regular guest. It is produced in partnership with WNYC.",
"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": {
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"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"
}
},
"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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"id": "here-and-now",
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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.",
"imageSrc": "https://ww2.kqed.org/radio/wp-content/uploads/sites/50/2018/05/hiddenbrain.jpg",
"officialWebsiteLink": "https://www.npr.org/series/423302056/hidden-brain",
"airtime": "SUN 7pm-8pm",
"meta": {
"site": "news",
"source": "NPR"
},
"link": "/radio/program/hidden-brain",
"subscribe": {
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"tuneIn": "https://tunein.com/podcasts/Science-Podcasts/Hidden-Brain-p787503/",
"rss": "https://feeds.npr.org/510308/podcast.xml"
}
},
"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",
"imageAlt": "KQED Hyphenación",
"officialWebsiteLink": "/podcasts/hyphenacion",
"meta": {
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"order": 15
},
"link": "/podcasts/hyphenacion",
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"spotify": "https://open.spotify.com/show/2p3Fifq96nw9BPcmFdIq0o?si=39209f7b25774f38",
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"amazon": "https://music.amazon.com/podcasts/6c3dd23c-93fb-4aab-97ba-1725fa6315f1/hyphenaci%C3%B3n",
"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",
"imageAlt": "KQED The Political Mind of Jerry Brown",
"officialWebsiteLink": "/podcasts/jerrybrown",
"meta": {
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"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",
"subscribe": {
"npr": "https://rpb3r.app.goo.gl/xtTd",
"apple": "https://itunes.apple.com/WebObjects/MZStore.woa/wa/viewPodcast?s=143441&mt=2&id=79681317&at=11l79Y&ct=nprdirectory",
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"rss": "https://feeds.npr.org/510016/podcast.xml"
}
},
"marketplace": {
"id": "marketplace",
"title": "Marketplace",
"info": "Our flagship program, helmed by Kai Ryssdal, examines what the day in money delivered, through stories, conversations, newsworthy numbers and more. Updated Monday through Friday at about 3:30 p.m. PT.",
"airtime": "MON-FRI 4pm-4:30pm, MON-WED 6:30pm-7pm",
"imageSrc": "https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/Marketplace-Podcast-Tile-360x360-1.jpg",
"officialWebsiteLink": "https://www.marketplace.org/",
"meta": {
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"source": "American Public Media"
},
"link": "/radio/program/marketplace",
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"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)",
"imageSrc": "https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/Masters-of-Scale-Podcast-Tile-360x360-1.jpg",
"officialWebsiteLink": "https://mastersofscale.com/",
"meta": {
"site": "radio",
"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",
"subscribe": {
"apple": "https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/mindshift-podcast/id1078765985",
"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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"stitcher": "https://www.stitcher.com/show/on-our-watch",
"rss": "https://feeds.npr.org/510360/podcast.xml"
}
},
"on-the-media": {
"id": "on-the-media",
"title": "On The Media",
"info": "Our weekly podcast explores how the media 'sausage' is made, casts an incisive eye on fluctuations in the marketplace of ideas, and examines threats to the freedom of information and expression in America and abroad. For one hour a week, the show tries to lift the veil from the process of \"making media,\" especially news media, because it's through that lens that we see the world and the world sees us",
"airtime": "SUN 2pm-3pm, MON 12am-1am",
"imageSrc": "https://ww2.kqed.org/radio/wp-content/uploads/sites/50/2018/04/onTheMedia.png",
"officialWebsiteLink": "https://www.wnycstudios.org/shows/otm",
"meta": {
"site": "news",
"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",
"title": "Perspectives",
"tagline": "KQED's series of daily listener commentaries since 1991",
"info": "KQED's series of daily listener commentaries since 1991.",
"imageSrc": "https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/2025/01/Perspectives_Tile_Final.jpg",
"imageAlt": "KQED Perspectives",
"officialWebsiteLink": "/perspectives/",
"meta": {
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"source": "kqed",
"order": 14
},
"link": "/perspectives",
"subscribe": {
"apple": "https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/id73801135",
"npr": "https://www.npr.org/podcasts/432309616/perspectives",
"rss": "https://ww2.kqed.org/perspectives/category/perspectives/feed/",
"google": "https://podcasts.google.com/feed/aHR0cHM6Ly93dzIua3FlZC5vcmcvcGVyc3BlY3RpdmVzL2NhdGVnb3J5L3BlcnNwZWN0aXZlcy9mZWVkLw"
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},
"planet-money": {
"id": "planet-money",
"title": "Planet Money",
"info": "The economy explained. Imagine you could call up a friend and say, Meet me at the bar and tell me what's going on with the economy. Now imagine that's actually a fun evening.",
"airtime": "SUN 3pm-4pm",
"imageSrc": "https://ww2.kqed.org/radio/wp-content/uploads/sites/50/2018/04/planetmoney.jpg",
"officialWebsiteLink": "https://www.npr.org/sections/money/",
"meta": {
"site": "news",
"source": "npr"
},
"link": "/radio/program/planet-money",
"subscribe": {
"npr": "https://rpb3r.app.goo.gl/M4f5",
"apple": "https://itunes.apple.com/us/podcast/planet-money/id290783428?mt=2",
"tuneIn": "https://tunein.com/podcasts/Business--Economics-Podcasts/Planet-Money-p164680/",
"rss": "https://feeds.npr.org/510289/podcast.xml"
}
},
"politicalbreakdown": {
"id": "politicalbreakdown",
"title": "Political Breakdown",
"tagline": "Politics from a personal perspective",
"info": "Political Breakdown is a new series that explores the political intersection of California and the nation. Each week hosts Scott Shafer and Marisa Lagos are joined with a new special guest to unpack politics -- with personality — and offer an insider’s glimpse at how politics happens.",
"airtime": "THU 6:30pm-7pm",
"imageSrc": "https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/Political-Breakdown-2024-Podcast-Tile-703x703-1.jpg",
"imageAlt": "KQED Political Breakdown",
"officialWebsiteLink": "/podcasts/politicalbreakdown",
"meta": {
"site": "radio",
"source": "kqed",
"order": 5
},
"link": "/podcasts/politicalbreakdown",
"subscribe": {
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"amazon": "https://music.amazon.com/podcasts/e0c2d153-ad36-4c8d-901d-f1da6a724824/political-breakdown",
"npr": "https://www.npr.org/podcasts/572155894/political-breakdown",
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