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"content": "\u003cp>A year ago, on a warm, windy night, Paul Lowenthal got the call; he was needed at work.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The Tubbs Fire, \u003ca href=\"https://www.pressdemocrat.com/multimedia/7567543-181/santa-rosas-tubbs-fire-spread\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">on its way\u003c/a> to becoming the most destructive blaze in California history, was spreading into Santa Rosa, and Lowenthal, the city’s assistant fire marshal, needed to get people out.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“It was exploding at a rate that I would have never imagined,” he says. “I left in my work truck and uniform and thought: worst case scenario, I’ll be back tomorrow morning.”\u003c/p>\n\u003caside class=\"pullquote alignright\">‘In a disaster, there’s such a strong emotional pull to get what you lost back.’\u003cbr>\n\u003ccite>Julie Combs, Santa Rosa City Council\u003c/cite>\u003c/aside>\n\u003cp>Later that night, he drove past his own neighborhood.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“You couldn’t actually make out individual homes in here,” he says. “It just looked like an entire wall of fire. And then realized right away my house is gone.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad fullwidth]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>He worked the next five days on just a few hours of sleep, until finally, he stopped to take stock.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“And then realized I have nothing,” he says. “Literally had nothing.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Picking Up the Pieces\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Fueled by extreme winds, \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/11654027/my-world-was-burning-the-north-bay-fires-and-what-went-wrong\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Sonoma County’s Tubbs fire\u003c/a> killed 22 people and destroyed more than 5,000 homes and buildings.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Since then, the community has banded together to pick up the pieces. But it’s also been grappling with a tough question — one that faces fire-ravaged communities around the state.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Wildfire is a normal part of the California landscape. So, how — and where — should residents rebuild to protect themselves?\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_1932391\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 800px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-1932391\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/science/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2018/10/lownethal-800x450.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"800\" height=\"450\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2018/10/lownethal-800x450.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2018/10/lownethal-160x90.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2018/10/lownethal-768x432.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2018/10/lownethal-1020x574.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2018/10/lownethal-1200x676.jpg 1200w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2018/10/lownethal.jpg 1920w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2018/10/lownethal-1180x664.jpg 1180w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2018/10/lownethal-960x541.jpg 960w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2018/10/lownethal-240x135.jpg 240w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2018/10/lownethal-375x211.jpg 375w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2018/10/lownethal-520x293.jpg 520w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 800px) 100vw, 800px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Nearly a year after the Tubbs Fire, Paul Lowenthal’s Larkfield rebuild was finally nearing completion — this time with more fire-resistant materials. \u003ccite>(Lauren Sommer/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Hundreds of Sonoma residents have opted to stay put, both financially and emotionally tied to their land.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Lowenthal is one of them.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Do I think those areas will burn again?” he says. “Absolutely. It’s done it before.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>It happened 54 years ago, when the Hanly Fire burned almost exactly same area. But since then, Santa Rosa’s population has grown by nearly six times, and Lowenthal was keenly aware of this latest fire’s effect on an already-tight housing market.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“I made a decision that it made more sense to rebuild here,” he says. His daughter was also a big part of that decision.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Could I have convinced her that we could live in a really cool place somewhere else?” he says. “Maybe. But this was our home.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In the hills above Santa Rosa, wooden frames of houses are rising among the blackened trees. Many of the rebuilt homes will include new fire-resistant building materials, something few had when the fire swept through.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Still, because of California’s decade-old zoning rules, almost 2,000 of the destroyed structures will not be required to meet building standards for wildfire-prone areas. Some homeowners are taking it on themselves to meet them anyway, dipping into their insurance payouts to cover the cost. Others are not.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>At the same time, given the region’s severe housing shortage even before last year’s firestorm, city and county governments are under pressure to build new housing in areas at risk for wildfire.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>As people are trying to heal and recover, local leaders have been faced with balancing those delicate issues. With climate change making California’s fires more extreme, their decisions will affect lives for decades to come.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_1932394\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 800px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-1932394\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/science/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2018/10/rebuild2-800x450.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"800\" height=\"450\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2018/10/rebuild2-800x450.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2018/10/rebuild2-160x90.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2018/10/rebuild2-768x432.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2018/10/rebuild2-1020x574.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2018/10/rebuild2-1200x675.jpg 1200w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2018/10/rebuild2.jpg 1920w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2018/10/rebuild2-1180x664.jpg 1180w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2018/10/rebuild2-960x540.jpg 960w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2018/10/rebuild2-240x135.jpg 240w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2018/10/rebuild2-375x211.jpg 375w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2018/10/rebuild2-520x293.jpg 520w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 800px) 100vw, 800px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">The Tubbs Fire swept away about 5 percent of Santa Rosa’s housing stock. \u003ccite>(Lauren Sommer/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Wildland Building Codes\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>A year after the fires, Lowenthal’s Larkfield home is finally taking shape, still a few weeks away from final inspection. This time, he says it will be better prepared to withstand fire, built with cement-fiber siding and other fire-resistant materials.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Between the roof, the siding, things of that nature, it was definitely a step that I wanted to take,” he says.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But Lowenthal isn’t legally obligated to do any of that, as his home was outside the area subject to California’s “\u003ca href=\"https://www.fire.ca.gov/fire_prevention/downloads/ICC_2009_Ch7A_2007_rev_1Jan09_Supplement.pdf\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Wildland-Urban Interface Codes\u003c/a>.” They include a broad range of standards for siding, roofs, decks, and windows, as well as requirements for gutters and attic vents that are meant to \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/science/1917346/wildfires-can-attack-your-house-from-the-inside-heres-how-to-prevent-it\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">prevent embers blown ahead of a wildfire\u003c/a> from igniting a home.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The zones are established by a set of \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/science/1917374/map-see-if-you-live-in-a-high-risk-fire-zone-and-what-that-means\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">2008 Cal Fire maps\u003c/a> that outline wildfire risk by considering vegetation, fire history and slope. Sonoma County’s zones are based exactly on those maps, while the city of Santa Rosa had extended the stricter requirements somewhat beyond what was on the state maps.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Almost 2,000 buildings destroyed in the Tubbs fire in Santa Rosa and Sonoma County weren’t mapped in those zones and won’t be required to use fire-resistant materials.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“We don’t have an extra set of rules or requirements that we put on people to rebuild,” says David Guhin, Santa Rosa’s director of planning and economic development.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Guhin says Santa Rosa would be on shaky legal ground if it imposed new wildfire building codes on structures that weren’t required to meet them when they were destroyed. But since most of the homes were built decades ago, before most modern building codes, he says even the basic code upgrades they’ll undergo will help.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_1917314\" class=\"wp-caption alignright\" style=\"max-width: 450px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-1917314\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/science/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2017/10/FireHazard_V02_171024.gif\" alt=\"\" width=\"450\" height=\"801\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Fire maps based on 2007 assessment.\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>“The housing stock that’s going in is much more resilient than the previous house stock,” he says.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Still, many believe Cal Fire’s maps are outdated, since they don’t reflect the extreme nature of today’s fires. The maps assumed fairly benign weather conditions, just 12 mph for “mid-flame” wind speed, the height that affects fire behavior. During the Tubbs Fire, gusts hit almost 80 mph.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Cal Fire is in the process of updating the fire hazard maps using more realistic data, including localized information and historic fire conditions. A draft of the maps is expected sometime next year. The new maps could put many homes into a fire hazard zone that aren’t in one today.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But several North Bay officials say the community can’t wait for that to be sorted out.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“I take solace in that the existing code is significantly better than what was there before,” Tennis Wick, who heads Sonoma County’s Permit and Resource Management Department. “I’m not going to let the perfect be the enemy of the good. This community needs to rebuild.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Wick says many homeowners are choosing fire-resistant materials anyway, such as cement-laden siding and metal roofs.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Giving Home Owners Choices\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Some fire victims have opted to pull up stakes after living through the fire’s emotional trauma or due to steep rebuilding costs. In the hilly Fountaingrove neighborhood of Santa Rosa, for-sale signs sprout from empty lots among the construction sites.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Other homeowners are tied to their property, either restricted by insurance policies that prescribe where they can rebuild, or simply priced out of other Bay Area homes. And that concerns Santa Rosa City Council member Julie Combs.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“I know I’ve heard stories about flooding along the Mississippi and thought, ‘Why did they keep rebuilding there?’” notes Combs.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“I’m all for having property owners have choice,” she adds. “And right now, we aren’t really giving them a choice to not build on the land they’re tied to in a high-fire-hazard area.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[contextly_sidebar id=”6J0nVgqZyLvs7R2iqgz1ZfZkLrWF3g14”]Combs says she’s interested in programs like those that already exist for flooded homes, where governments or neighbors can buy out inundated properties so they won’t be re-developed.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>She’s not confident that today’s wildfire building codes are enough to protect people. The codes are meant to reduce risk, but don’t eliminate it.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Within the Tubbs fire footprint in Santa Rosa, 22 homes were built with the most recent wildfire codes before the fire. Twenty-one of them burned anyway.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“That doesn’t strike me as particularly good odds,” says Combs.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Struggle Over New Housing\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Homeowners considering not rebuilding face another hurdle: there are few other places to go.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In Santa Rosa, the Tubbs fire obliterated five percent of the city’s housing stock, exacerbating an already brutal housing market.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Before the fire, the city estimated it needed 5,000 more housing units. The fire added 3,000 more to that number.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“We need to walk and chew gum at the same time,” Guhin says. “We’re going to rebuild our community as fast and quickly and as efficiently as we possibly can, but we also have to build new homes as fast as we can.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_1932396\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 800px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-1932396\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/science/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2018/10/roundbarn-800x450.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"800\" height=\"450\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2018/10/roundbarn-800x450.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2018/10/roundbarn-160x90.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2018/10/roundbarn-768x432.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2018/10/roundbarn-1020x574.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2018/10/roundbarn-1200x675.jpg 1200w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2018/10/roundbarn.jpg 1920w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2018/10/roundbarn-1180x664.jpg 1180w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2018/10/roundbarn-960x540.jpg 960w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2018/10/roundbarn-240x135.jpg 240w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2018/10/roundbarn-375x211.jpg 375w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2018/10/roundbarn-520x293.jpg 520w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 800px) 100vw, 800px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">The 237-unit Round Barn Hill Project is proposed for an area burned in the Tubbs fire. \u003ccite>(Lauren Sommer/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Santa Rosa is pushing for more “\u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/science/1917302/bay-area-sprawl-has-put-homes-in-the-path-of-fires-what-now\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">in-fill development\u003c/a>,” putting housing downtown and closer to public transit.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“We made that a priority this year,” he says. “We put a number of polices in place such as expedited permit processing, reducing the impact fees substantially for housing in the downtown core.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But there has long been pressure to build in the surrounding hills, where the wildfire risk is highest.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Development of single-family homes on the outskirts of town will happen on its own,” Guhin says. “There is a market for that.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In February, the Santa Rosa City Council faced down that question.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>San Francisco-based City Ventures asked for a zoning change to allow its Round Barn Village project to go forward. The 237-unit townhome development is proposed for a hillside that burned in the Tubbs fire.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>City Ventures made the case that the homes would be built using wildfire standards and would provide much needed affordable housing.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“We absolutely need the housing,” said council member John Sawyer at the meeting. “And lots of mistakes were made in the past with saying no.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But doubts hounded at least one council member.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“We are setting a precedent to build more new housing in a fire hazard area when we vote today,” warned Combs at the meeting. “I just think we need to not put more sleeping people in a fire hazard area.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The rezoning passed 6-1.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“I was really sorry to be a lone vote,” says Combs. “It becomes very difficult to explain why we would approve that and not approve more. And I have real concerns that more is coming. We don’t need sprawl. We need to be building up.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Sonoma County is also facing pressure to build.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“I met with a resort that burned twice, once in the Hanley fire and a second time in the Tubbs,” Wick says. “New people came to see me about building a third one. And I told them I just could not support the project. There’s an enormous pressure on us to be approving resorts in remote areas.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In communities still in shock from the fires, these fraught decisions won’t come easily.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad floatright]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“I think that in a disaster, there’s such a strong emotional pull to get what you lost back,” says Combs. “I think that’s a powerful pull.”\u003c/p>\n\n",
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"excerpt": "One year after devastating fires, the North Bay is grappling with how and where to rebuild.",
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"title": "Should Californians Be Rebuilding Homes in a Fire Zone? | KQED",
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"headline": "Should Californians Be Rebuilding Homes in a Fire Zone?",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003cp>A year ago, on a warm, windy night, Paul Lowenthal got the call; he was needed at work.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The Tubbs Fire, \u003ca href=\"https://www.pressdemocrat.com/multimedia/7567543-181/santa-rosas-tubbs-fire-spread\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">on its way\u003c/a> to becoming the most destructive blaze in California history, was spreading into Santa Rosa, and Lowenthal, the city’s assistant fire marshal, needed to get people out.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“It was exploding at a rate that I would have never imagined,” he says. “I left in my work truck and uniform and thought: worst case scenario, I’ll be back tomorrow morning.”\u003c/p>\n\u003caside class=\"pullquote alignright\">‘In a disaster, there’s such a strong emotional pull to get what you lost back.’\u003cbr>\n\u003ccite>Julie Combs, Santa Rosa City Council\u003c/cite>\u003c/aside>\n\u003cp>Later that night, he drove past his own neighborhood.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“You couldn’t actually make out individual homes in here,” he says. “It just looked like an entire wall of fire. And then realized right away my house is gone.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>He worked the next five days on just a few hours of sleep, until finally, he stopped to take stock.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“And then realized I have nothing,” he says. “Literally had nothing.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Picking Up the Pieces\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Fueled by extreme winds, \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/11654027/my-world-was-burning-the-north-bay-fires-and-what-went-wrong\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Sonoma County’s Tubbs fire\u003c/a> killed 22 people and destroyed more than 5,000 homes and buildings.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Since then, the community has banded together to pick up the pieces. But it’s also been grappling with a tough question — one that faces fire-ravaged communities around the state.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Wildfire is a normal part of the California landscape. So, how — and where — should residents rebuild to protect themselves?\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_1932391\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 800px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-1932391\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/science/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2018/10/lownethal-800x450.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"800\" height=\"450\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2018/10/lownethal-800x450.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2018/10/lownethal-160x90.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2018/10/lownethal-768x432.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2018/10/lownethal-1020x574.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2018/10/lownethal-1200x676.jpg 1200w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2018/10/lownethal.jpg 1920w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2018/10/lownethal-1180x664.jpg 1180w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2018/10/lownethal-960x541.jpg 960w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2018/10/lownethal-240x135.jpg 240w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2018/10/lownethal-375x211.jpg 375w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2018/10/lownethal-520x293.jpg 520w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 800px) 100vw, 800px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Nearly a year after the Tubbs Fire, Paul Lowenthal’s Larkfield rebuild was finally nearing completion — this time with more fire-resistant materials. \u003ccite>(Lauren Sommer/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Hundreds of Sonoma residents have opted to stay put, both financially and emotionally tied to their land.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Lowenthal is one of them.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Do I think those areas will burn again?” he says. “Absolutely. It’s done it before.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>It happened 54 years ago, when the Hanly Fire burned almost exactly same area. But since then, Santa Rosa’s population has grown by nearly six times, and Lowenthal was keenly aware of this latest fire’s effect on an already-tight housing market.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“I made a decision that it made more sense to rebuild here,” he says. His daughter was also a big part of that decision.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Could I have convinced her that we could live in a really cool place somewhere else?” he says. “Maybe. But this was our home.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In the hills above Santa Rosa, wooden frames of houses are rising among the blackened trees. Many of the rebuilt homes will include new fire-resistant building materials, something few had when the fire swept through.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Still, because of California’s decade-old zoning rules, almost 2,000 of the destroyed structures will not be required to meet building standards for wildfire-prone areas. Some homeowners are taking it on themselves to meet them anyway, dipping into their insurance payouts to cover the cost. Others are not.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>At the same time, given the region’s severe housing shortage even before last year’s firestorm, city and county governments are under pressure to build new housing in areas at risk for wildfire.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>As people are trying to heal and recover, local leaders have been faced with balancing those delicate issues. With climate change making California’s fires more extreme, their decisions will affect lives for decades to come.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_1932394\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 800px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-1932394\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/science/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2018/10/rebuild2-800x450.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"800\" height=\"450\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2018/10/rebuild2-800x450.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2018/10/rebuild2-160x90.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2018/10/rebuild2-768x432.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2018/10/rebuild2-1020x574.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2018/10/rebuild2-1200x675.jpg 1200w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2018/10/rebuild2.jpg 1920w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2018/10/rebuild2-1180x664.jpg 1180w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2018/10/rebuild2-960x540.jpg 960w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2018/10/rebuild2-240x135.jpg 240w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2018/10/rebuild2-375x211.jpg 375w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2018/10/rebuild2-520x293.jpg 520w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 800px) 100vw, 800px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">The Tubbs Fire swept away about 5 percent of Santa Rosa’s housing stock. \u003ccite>(Lauren Sommer/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Wildland Building Codes\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>A year after the fires, Lowenthal’s Larkfield home is finally taking shape, still a few weeks away from final inspection. This time, he says it will be better prepared to withstand fire, built with cement-fiber siding and other fire-resistant materials.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Between the roof, the siding, things of that nature, it was definitely a step that I wanted to take,” he says.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But Lowenthal isn’t legally obligated to do any of that, as his home was outside the area subject to California’s “\u003ca href=\"https://www.fire.ca.gov/fire_prevention/downloads/ICC_2009_Ch7A_2007_rev_1Jan09_Supplement.pdf\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Wildland-Urban Interface Codes\u003c/a>.” They include a broad range of standards for siding, roofs, decks, and windows, as well as requirements for gutters and attic vents that are meant to \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/science/1917346/wildfires-can-attack-your-house-from-the-inside-heres-how-to-prevent-it\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">prevent embers blown ahead of a wildfire\u003c/a> from igniting a home.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The zones are established by a set of \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/science/1917374/map-see-if-you-live-in-a-high-risk-fire-zone-and-what-that-means\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">2008 Cal Fire maps\u003c/a> that outline wildfire risk by considering vegetation, fire history and slope. Sonoma County’s zones are based exactly on those maps, while the city of Santa Rosa had extended the stricter requirements somewhat beyond what was on the state maps.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Almost 2,000 buildings destroyed in the Tubbs fire in Santa Rosa and Sonoma County weren’t mapped in those zones and won’t be required to use fire-resistant materials.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“We don’t have an extra set of rules or requirements that we put on people to rebuild,” says David Guhin, Santa Rosa’s director of planning and economic development.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Guhin says Santa Rosa would be on shaky legal ground if it imposed new wildfire building codes on structures that weren’t required to meet them when they were destroyed. But since most of the homes were built decades ago, before most modern building codes, he says even the basic code upgrades they’ll undergo will help.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_1917314\" class=\"wp-caption alignright\" style=\"max-width: 450px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-1917314\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/science/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2017/10/FireHazard_V02_171024.gif\" alt=\"\" width=\"450\" height=\"801\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Fire maps based on 2007 assessment.\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>“The housing stock that’s going in is much more resilient than the previous house stock,” he says.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Still, many believe Cal Fire’s maps are outdated, since they don’t reflect the extreme nature of today’s fires. The maps assumed fairly benign weather conditions, just 12 mph for “mid-flame” wind speed, the height that affects fire behavior. During the Tubbs Fire, gusts hit almost 80 mph.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Cal Fire is in the process of updating the fire hazard maps using more realistic data, including localized information and historic fire conditions. A draft of the maps is expected sometime next year. The new maps could put many homes into a fire hazard zone that aren’t in one today.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But several North Bay officials say the community can’t wait for that to be sorted out.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“I take solace in that the existing code is significantly better than what was there before,” Tennis Wick, who heads Sonoma County’s Permit and Resource Management Department. “I’m not going to let the perfect be the enemy of the good. This community needs to rebuild.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Wick says many homeowners are choosing fire-resistant materials anyway, such as cement-laden siding and metal roofs.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Giving Home Owners Choices\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Some fire victims have opted to pull up stakes after living through the fire’s emotional trauma or due to steep rebuilding costs. In the hilly Fountaingrove neighborhood of Santa Rosa, for-sale signs sprout from empty lots among the construction sites.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Other homeowners are tied to their property, either restricted by insurance policies that prescribe where they can rebuild, or simply priced out of other Bay Area homes. And that concerns Santa Rosa City Council member Julie Combs.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“I know I’ve heard stories about flooding along the Mississippi and thought, ‘Why did they keep rebuilding there?’” notes Combs.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“I’m all for having property owners have choice,” she adds. “And right now, we aren’t really giving them a choice to not build on the land they’re tied to in a high-fire-hazard area.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003cp>Combs says she’s interested in programs like those that already exist for flooded homes, where governments or neighbors can buy out inundated properties so they won’t be re-developed.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>She’s not confident that today’s wildfire building codes are enough to protect people. The codes are meant to reduce risk, but don’t eliminate it.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Within the Tubbs fire footprint in Santa Rosa, 22 homes were built with the most recent wildfire codes before the fire. Twenty-one of them burned anyway.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“That doesn’t strike me as particularly good odds,” says Combs.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Struggle Over New Housing\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Homeowners considering not rebuilding face another hurdle: there are few other places to go.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In Santa Rosa, the Tubbs fire obliterated five percent of the city’s housing stock, exacerbating an already brutal housing market.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Before the fire, the city estimated it needed 5,000 more housing units. The fire added 3,000 more to that number.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“We need to walk and chew gum at the same time,” Guhin says. “We’re going to rebuild our community as fast and quickly and as efficiently as we possibly can, but we also have to build new homes as fast as we can.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_1932396\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 800px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-1932396\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/science/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2018/10/roundbarn-800x450.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"800\" height=\"450\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2018/10/roundbarn-800x450.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2018/10/roundbarn-160x90.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2018/10/roundbarn-768x432.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2018/10/roundbarn-1020x574.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2018/10/roundbarn-1200x675.jpg 1200w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2018/10/roundbarn.jpg 1920w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2018/10/roundbarn-1180x664.jpg 1180w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2018/10/roundbarn-960x540.jpg 960w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2018/10/roundbarn-240x135.jpg 240w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2018/10/roundbarn-375x211.jpg 375w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2018/10/roundbarn-520x293.jpg 520w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 800px) 100vw, 800px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">The 237-unit Round Barn Hill Project is proposed for an area burned in the Tubbs fire. \u003ccite>(Lauren Sommer/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Santa Rosa is pushing for more “\u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/science/1917302/bay-area-sprawl-has-put-homes-in-the-path-of-fires-what-now\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">in-fill development\u003c/a>,” putting housing downtown and closer to public transit.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“We made that a priority this year,” he says. “We put a number of polices in place such as expedited permit processing, reducing the impact fees substantially for housing in the downtown core.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But there has long been pressure to build in the surrounding hills, where the wildfire risk is highest.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Development of single-family homes on the outskirts of town will happen on its own,” Guhin says. “There is a market for that.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In February, the Santa Rosa City Council faced down that question.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>San Francisco-based City Ventures asked for a zoning change to allow its Round Barn Village project to go forward. The 237-unit townhome development is proposed for a hillside that burned in the Tubbs fire.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>City Ventures made the case that the homes would be built using wildfire standards and would provide much needed affordable housing.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“We absolutely need the housing,” said council member John Sawyer at the meeting. “And lots of mistakes were made in the past with saying no.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But doubts hounded at least one council member.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“We are setting a precedent to build more new housing in a fire hazard area when we vote today,” warned Combs at the meeting. “I just think we need to not put more sleeping people in a fire hazard area.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The rezoning passed 6-1.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“I was really sorry to be a lone vote,” says Combs. “It becomes very difficult to explain why we would approve that and not approve more. And I have real concerns that more is coming. We don’t need sprawl. We need to be building up.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Sonoma County is also facing pressure to build.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“I met with a resort that burned twice, once in the Hanley fire and a second time in the Tubbs,” Wick says. “New people came to see me about building a third one. And I told them I just could not support the project. There’s an enormous pressure on us to be approving resorts in remote areas.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In communities still in shock from the fires, these fraught decisions won’t come easily.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“I think that in a disaster, there’s such a strong emotional pull to get what you lost back,” says Combs. “I think that’s a powerful pull.”\u003c/p>\n\n\u003c/div>\u003c/p>",
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"title": "Water Contamination Could Cost Santa Rosa an Unexpected $43 Million",
"headTitle": "Water Contamination Could Cost Santa Rosa an Unexpected $43 Million | KQED",
"content": "\u003cp>Chemical contamination from the North Bay Fires could now force Santa Rosa to replace the water delivery system for the severely burned Fountaingrove neighborhood, at an unbudgeted cost of $43 million.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Santa Rosa water officials \u003ca href=\"https://srcity.org/2801/Water-Quality-Advisory\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">will present an update\u003c/a> on the problem and a recommendation about how to address it at a meeting Tuesday at 2 p.m.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The fire was merciless on Fountaingrove’s hillsides, leaving just 13 homes standing out of hundreds in a nearly 200-square-mile area. Connecting those homes to the water system were pipes made of high-density polyethylene or HDPE — a kind of plastic preferred for its cost, and for its flexibility in terrain that can be shaken by earthquakes.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But plastic has a downside.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Plastics burn,” says Santa Rosa’s Director of Water, Ben Horenstein. “And no question when plastics burn and melt, they give off constituents you would not want in your water supply.”\u003c/p>\n\u003caside class='\"pullquote'>’No question when plastics burn, they give off constituents you would not want in your water supply.’\u003ccite>Ben Horenstein, Santa Rosa Water\u003c/cite>\u003c/aside>\n\u003cp>That happened last October, says Horenstein. After an investigation, he says his department believes melted components released cancer-causing benzene, along with other hydrocarbons and contaminants that were then sucked further into the city’s depressurized water system. Sitting in the water mains, the contaminants migrated into the plastic mains.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad fullwidth]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The water department learned of the problem only when returning residents reported bad odors and tastes. Hundreds of subsequent water samples found benzene in all of the mains and lines within an advisory area, where residents were warned not to boil or drink tap water. Testing beyond the advisory area in greater Santa Rosa \u003ca href=\"https://santa-rosa.legistar.com/View.ashx?M=F&ID=6156758&GUID=B4432391-FB8D-4DF8-8578-A5702DEB7BEA\">found benzene\u003c/a> in some smaller lines, but no water mains.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>New Risks to Old Systems\u003c/b>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The state’s Division of Drinking Water \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/science/1920335\">has said that\u003c/a> Santa Rosa’s problem is the first of its kind reported in California. But Horenstein suspects this could have happened in other communities, where smell and odor telltales weren’t as apparent.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Horenstein believes Santa Rosa’s response could have implications for other communities at risk of a similar incident, even nationally.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“I think questions are being raised about prudent use of plastics in a water distribution system,” he says. I think there’s a lot of related questions that will slowly come out of this in terms of industry-wide standards, industry-wide approaches and industry-wide responses to similar problems.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Even if Santa Rosa’s problem is unusual, other California cities have suffered damages to water systems after significant fire events and related natural disasters. In Santa Barbara County, heavy rains \u003ca href=\"http://www.montecitowater.com/latest-news/mwd-corrects-facts-on-jan-9-debris-flow-incidents/\">drove a debris flow\u003c/a> into the highline distribution water main for the Montecito Water District. Montecito, which is also recovering from major fires, ordered residents \u003ca href=\"http://www.montecitowater.com/latest-news/cancellation-of-boil-water-order/\">to boil water\u003c/a> before drinking for about a month in January. Other communities in that area \u003ca href=\"https://www.noozhawk.com/article/storm_causes_major_damage_montecito_water_distribution_south_coast_conduit\">have suffered\u003c/a> rock falls and mudslides.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“I think we’re seeing a lot of events both in California and around the country and around the world, where we are experiencing how the change in probability of climate extremes has these indirect effects,” says Stanford climatologist Noah Diffenbaugh. “We’ve made decisions about where to site infrastructure, how to construct infrastructure, based on assumptions about climate that are no longer valid in a statistical sense.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Diffenbaugh is a member of the \u003ca href=\"http://resources.ca.gov/climate/climate-safe-infrastructure-working-group/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Climate-Safe Infrastructure Working Group\u003c/a> convened by California Natural Resources Secretary John Laird, which \u003ca href=\"http://resources.ca.gov/wp-content/uploads/2018/03/AB2800_Mtg2_SummaryNotes_final.pdf\">is\u003c/a> \u003ca href=\"http://resources.ca.gov/wp-content/uploads/2018/03/AB2800_Mtg2_SummaryNotes_final.pdf\">considering\u003c/a> how to better integrate climate considerations into infrastructure design and maintenance. The group will produce a report later this year.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_1921722\" class=\"wp-caption alignright\" style=\"max-width: 640px\">\u003ca href=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/science/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2018/03/FountaingroveAdvisoryArea.jpeg\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-1921722 size-large\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/science/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2018/03/FountaingroveAdvisoryArea-1020x1318.jpeg\" alt=\"Map of Fountaingrove water advisory area\" width=\"640\" height=\"827\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2018/03/FountaingroveAdvisoryArea-1020x1318.jpeg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2018/03/FountaingroveAdvisoryArea-160x207.jpeg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2018/03/FountaingroveAdvisoryArea-800x1034.jpeg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2018/03/FountaingroveAdvisoryArea-768x992.jpeg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2018/03/FountaingroveAdvisoryArea-1920x2481.jpeg 1920w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2018/03/FountaingroveAdvisoryArea-1180x1525.jpeg 1180w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2018/03/FountaingroveAdvisoryArea-960x1241.jpeg 960w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2018/03/FountaingroveAdvisoryArea-240x310.jpeg 240w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2018/03/FountaingroveAdvisoryArea-375x485.jpeg 375w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2018/03/FountaingroveAdvisoryArea-520x672.jpeg 520w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2018/03/FountaingroveAdvisoryArea.jpeg 2012w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 640px) 100vw, 640px\">\u003c/a>\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Click image to enlarge. \u003ccite>(Santa Rosa Water)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Return to Normal\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In Santa Rosa, Horenstein says the city’s goal is to return people to their homes, and return the area to a pre-fire condition. \u003ca href=\"https://santa-rosa.legistar.com/View.ashx?M=F&ID=6156758&GUID=B4432391-FB8D-4DF8-8578-A5702DEB7BEA\">According to a city presentation\u003c/a>, the best-case scenario for full replacement in the advisory area would replace the drinking water system over two years.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“It does feel very important for me to assure people, we are going to solve this thing,” Horenstein says.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Santa Rosa could dip into reserves, seek federal aid, or even raise water rates to pay for the full replacement of Fountaingrove’s water delivery system.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>And the city may have to weigh that investment against future fire risk: Fountaingrove has now burned twice in the last 54 years.\u003c/p>\n\n",
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"excerpt": "In the searing heat of October's fires, plastic components in the water system absorbed toxic chemicals.",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003cp>Chemical contamination from the North Bay Fires could now force Santa Rosa to replace the water delivery system for the severely burned Fountaingrove neighborhood, at an unbudgeted cost of $43 million.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Santa Rosa water officials \u003ca href=\"https://srcity.org/2801/Water-Quality-Advisory\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">will present an update\u003c/a> on the problem and a recommendation about how to address it at a meeting Tuesday at 2 p.m.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The fire was merciless on Fountaingrove’s hillsides, leaving just 13 homes standing out of hundreds in a nearly 200-square-mile area. Connecting those homes to the water system were pipes made of high-density polyethylene or HDPE — a kind of plastic preferred for its cost, and for its flexibility in terrain that can be shaken by earthquakes.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But plastic has a downside.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Plastics burn,” says Santa Rosa’s Director of Water, Ben Horenstein. “And no question when plastics burn and melt, they give off constituents you would not want in your water supply.”\u003c/p>\n\u003caside class='\"pullquote'>’No question when plastics burn, they give off constituents you would not want in your water supply.’\u003ccite>Ben Horenstein, Santa Rosa Water\u003c/cite>\u003c/aside>\n\u003cp>That happened last October, says Horenstein. After an investigation, he says his department believes melted components released cancer-causing benzene, along with other hydrocarbons and contaminants that were then sucked further into the city’s depressurized water system. Sitting in the water mains, the contaminants migrated into the plastic mains.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The water department learned of the problem only when returning residents reported bad odors and tastes. Hundreds of subsequent water samples found benzene in all of the mains and lines within an advisory area, where residents were warned not to boil or drink tap water. Testing beyond the advisory area in greater Santa Rosa \u003ca href=\"https://santa-rosa.legistar.com/View.ashx?M=F&ID=6156758&GUID=B4432391-FB8D-4DF8-8578-A5702DEB7BEA\">found benzene\u003c/a> in some smaller lines, but no water mains.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>New Risks to Old Systems\u003c/b>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The state’s Division of Drinking Water \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/science/1920335\">has said that\u003c/a> Santa Rosa’s problem is the first of its kind reported in California. But Horenstein suspects this could have happened in other communities, where smell and odor telltales weren’t as apparent.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Horenstein believes Santa Rosa’s response could have implications for other communities at risk of a similar incident, even nationally.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“I think questions are being raised about prudent use of plastics in a water distribution system,” he says. I think there’s a lot of related questions that will slowly come out of this in terms of industry-wide standards, industry-wide approaches and industry-wide responses to similar problems.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Even if Santa Rosa’s problem is unusual, other California cities have suffered damages to water systems after significant fire events and related natural disasters. In Santa Barbara County, heavy rains \u003ca href=\"http://www.montecitowater.com/latest-news/mwd-corrects-facts-on-jan-9-debris-flow-incidents/\">drove a debris flow\u003c/a> into the highline distribution water main for the Montecito Water District. Montecito, which is also recovering from major fires, ordered residents \u003ca href=\"http://www.montecitowater.com/latest-news/cancellation-of-boil-water-order/\">to boil water\u003c/a> before drinking for about a month in January. Other communities in that area \u003ca href=\"https://www.noozhawk.com/article/storm_causes_major_damage_montecito_water_distribution_south_coast_conduit\">have suffered\u003c/a> rock falls and mudslides.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“I think we’re seeing a lot of events both in California and around the country and around the world, where we are experiencing how the change in probability of climate extremes has these indirect effects,” says Stanford climatologist Noah Diffenbaugh. “We’ve made decisions about where to site infrastructure, how to construct infrastructure, based on assumptions about climate that are no longer valid in a statistical sense.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Diffenbaugh is a member of the \u003ca href=\"http://resources.ca.gov/climate/climate-safe-infrastructure-working-group/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Climate-Safe Infrastructure Working Group\u003c/a> convened by California Natural Resources Secretary John Laird, which \u003ca href=\"http://resources.ca.gov/wp-content/uploads/2018/03/AB2800_Mtg2_SummaryNotes_final.pdf\">is\u003c/a> \u003ca href=\"http://resources.ca.gov/wp-content/uploads/2018/03/AB2800_Mtg2_SummaryNotes_final.pdf\">considering\u003c/a> how to better integrate climate considerations into infrastructure design and maintenance. The group will produce a report later this year.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_1921722\" class=\"wp-caption alignright\" style=\"max-width: 640px\">\u003ca href=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/science/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2018/03/FountaingroveAdvisoryArea.jpeg\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-1921722 size-large\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/science/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2018/03/FountaingroveAdvisoryArea-1020x1318.jpeg\" alt=\"Map of Fountaingrove water advisory area\" width=\"640\" height=\"827\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2018/03/FountaingroveAdvisoryArea-1020x1318.jpeg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2018/03/FountaingroveAdvisoryArea-160x207.jpeg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2018/03/FountaingroveAdvisoryArea-800x1034.jpeg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2018/03/FountaingroveAdvisoryArea-768x992.jpeg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2018/03/FountaingroveAdvisoryArea-1920x2481.jpeg 1920w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2018/03/FountaingroveAdvisoryArea-1180x1525.jpeg 1180w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2018/03/FountaingroveAdvisoryArea-960x1241.jpeg 960w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2018/03/FountaingroveAdvisoryArea-240x310.jpeg 240w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2018/03/FountaingroveAdvisoryArea-375x485.jpeg 375w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2018/03/FountaingroveAdvisoryArea-520x672.jpeg 520w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2018/03/FountaingroveAdvisoryArea.jpeg 2012w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 640px) 100vw, 640px\">\u003c/a>\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Click image to enlarge. \u003ccite>(Santa Rosa Water)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Return to Normal\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In Santa Rosa, Horenstein says the city’s goal is to return people to their homes, and return the area to a pre-fire condition. \u003ca href=\"https://santa-rosa.legistar.com/View.ashx?M=F&ID=6156758&GUID=B4432391-FB8D-4DF8-8578-A5702DEB7BEA\">According to a city presentation\u003c/a>, the best-case scenario for full replacement in the advisory area would replace the drinking water system over two years.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“It does feel very important for me to assure people, we are going to solve this thing,” Horenstein says.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Santa Rosa could dip into reserves, seek federal aid, or even raise water rates to pay for the full replacement of Fountaingrove’s water delivery system.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>And the city may have to weigh that investment against future fire risk: Fountaingrove has now burned twice in the last 54 years.\u003c/p>\n\n\u003c/div>\u003c/p>",
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"title": "Winter Storm Pelts Bay Area, Bringing Gusty Winds, Snow",
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"content": "\u003cp>A major winter storm moved across Northern California on Thursday, bringing heavy snow and strong winds to the Sierra Nevada and steady rain through the region that disrupted the morning commute.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Dozens of collisions had been reported by 6 a.m. Thursday on San Francisco Bay Area highways, the California Highway Patrol said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The National Weather Service describes it as one of the strongest systems this winter, with wind speeds between 20 and 35 miles per hour and gusts as high as 50 miles per hour.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>A wind advisory for much of the Bay Area was issued for Thursday between 2 a.m. and 10 p.m., according to the NWS. Heavy rainfall is expected to last through Friday. [contextly_sidebar id=”T3UkhrcaDCuRxQytG4p5QODloXCE2sYW”]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Bay Area residents should be on the lookout for blowing debris, hazardous driving conditions, gusty winds, potential downed trees and powerlines, and possible flooding throughout Thursday, according to the NWS.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad fullwidth]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Up in the Sierra, officials warned people to stay off mountain roads. The California Department of Transportation said there were chain controls or snow-tire requirements in place on stretches of Interstate 80, U.S. Highway 50 and U.S. 395.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>A blizzard warning was issued for parts of the Sierra Nevada, where winds could gust up to 125 mph on the ridges and 40 to 60 mph in some valleys, the National Weather Service said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Sonoma County Burn Scars\u003c/strong>\u003cbr>\nThe Santa Rosa Fire Department issued a weather \u003ca href=\"https://twitter.com/SantaRosaFire/status/968978125651456001\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">warning\u003c/a> for areas located near the burn scars in Sonoma County, citing concerns over potential flooding and mudslides.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp class=\"paragraph\">Santa Rosa is expected to see 1 to 1.5 inches of rain. Areas located near the burn scars could see anywhere from one to four inches of rain, according to the NWS.\u003c/p>\n\u003cblockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\">\n\u003cp dir=\"ltr\" lang=\"en\">Upcoming rain and \u003ca href=\"https://twitter.com/hashtag/NorthBay?src=hash&ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">#NorthBay\u003c/a> burn scars. Potential is low for debris flows, but have a plan regardless. \u003ca href=\"https://twitter.com/hashtag/cawx?src=hash&ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">#cawx\u003c/a> \u003ca href=\"https://twitter.com/hashtag/castorm?src=hash&ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">#castorm\u003c/a> \u003ca href=\"https://twitter.com/CountyofNapa?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">@CountyofNapa\u003c/a> \u003ca href=\"https://twitter.com/CountyofSonoma?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">@CountyofSonoma\u003c/a> \u003ca href=\"https://t.co/qbxF0o7gZr\">pic.twitter.com/qbxF0o7gZr\u003c/a>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>— NWS Bay Area (@NWSBayArea) \u003ca href=\"https://twitter.com/NWSBayArea/status/968974405878583301?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">February 28, 2018\u003c/a>\u003c/p>\u003c/blockquote>\n\u003caside class=\"alignright\">\n\u003ch3>\u003ca href=\"https://public.coderedweb.com/cne/en-US/BF7053564662\">Sign-up for Sonoma County Weather Alerts\u003c/a>\u003c/h3>\n\u003c/aside>\n\u003cp>An official \u003ca href=\"https://www.sonomacountyrecovers.org/rain-ready/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">analysis\u003c/a> of the damage caused by the devastating October wildfires found that properties located within the burned areas are at greater risk of flash floods, mudflows and debris flows.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter wp-image-1920516 size-medium\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/science/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2018/02/DXJ6YO3WAAQSX1L-800x600.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"800\" height=\"600\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2018/02/DXJ6YO3WAAQSX1L-800x600.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2018/02/DXJ6YO3WAAQSX1L-160x120.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2018/02/DXJ6YO3WAAQSX1L-768x576.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2018/02/DXJ6YO3WAAQSX1L.jpg 960w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2018/02/DXJ6YO3WAAQSX1L-240x180.jpg 240w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2018/02/DXJ6YO3WAAQSX1L-375x281.jpg 375w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2018/02/DXJ6YO3WAAQSX1L-520x390.jpg 520w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 800px) 100vw, 800px\">\u003cbr>\nThe \u003ca href=\"https://www.sonomacountyrecovers.org/rain-ready/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Sonoma County Recovery website\u003c/a>, launched in the immediate aftermath of the\u003ca href=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/news/2017/11/22/sonoma-county-faces-heightened-risk-of-landslides-after-fires/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"> October wildfire\u003c/a>s, has issued a set of safety recommendations in the event of bad weather including clearing debris from drainages to reduce flooding and keeping cell phones turned on to receive emergency alerts.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cem>The Associated Press contributed to this report.\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp> \u003c/p>\n\n",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003cp>A major winter storm moved across Northern California on Thursday, bringing heavy snow and strong winds to the Sierra Nevada and steady rain through the region that disrupted the morning commute.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Dozens of collisions had been reported by 6 a.m. Thursday on San Francisco Bay Area highways, the California Highway Patrol said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The National Weather Service describes it as one of the strongest systems this winter, with wind speeds between 20 and 35 miles per hour and gusts as high as 50 miles per hour.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>A wind advisory for much of the Bay Area was issued for Thursday between 2 a.m. and 10 p.m., according to the NWS. Heavy rainfall is expected to last through Friday. \u003c/p>\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Bay Area residents should be on the lookout for blowing debris, hazardous driving conditions, gusty winds, potential downed trees and powerlines, and possible flooding throughout Thursday, according to the NWS.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Up in the Sierra, officials warned people to stay off mountain roads. The California Department of Transportation said there were chain controls or snow-tire requirements in place on stretches of Interstate 80, U.S. Highway 50 and U.S. 395.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>A blizzard warning was issued for parts of the Sierra Nevada, where winds could gust up to 125 mph on the ridges and 40 to 60 mph in some valleys, the National Weather Service said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Sonoma County Burn Scars\u003c/strong>\u003cbr>\nThe Santa Rosa Fire Department issued a weather \u003ca href=\"https://twitter.com/SantaRosaFire/status/968978125651456001\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">warning\u003c/a> for areas located near the burn scars in Sonoma County, citing concerns over potential flooding and mudslides.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp class=\"paragraph\">Santa Rosa is expected to see 1 to 1.5 inches of rain. Areas located near the burn scars could see anywhere from one to four inches of rain, according to the NWS.\u003c/p>\n\u003cblockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\">\n\u003cp dir=\"ltr\" lang=\"en\">Upcoming rain and \u003ca href=\"https://twitter.com/hashtag/NorthBay?src=hash&ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">#NorthBay\u003c/a> burn scars. Potential is low for debris flows, but have a plan regardless. \u003ca href=\"https://twitter.com/hashtag/cawx?src=hash&ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">#cawx\u003c/a> \u003ca href=\"https://twitter.com/hashtag/castorm?src=hash&ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">#castorm\u003c/a> \u003ca href=\"https://twitter.com/CountyofNapa?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">@CountyofNapa\u003c/a> \u003ca href=\"https://twitter.com/CountyofSonoma?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">@CountyofSonoma\u003c/a> \u003ca href=\"https://t.co/qbxF0o7gZr\">pic.twitter.com/qbxF0o7gZr\u003c/a>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>— NWS Bay Area (@NWSBayArea) \u003ca href=\"https://twitter.com/NWSBayArea/status/968974405878583301?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">February 28, 2018\u003c/a>\u003c/p>\u003c/blockquote>\n\u003caside class=\"alignright\">\n\u003ch3>\u003ca href=\"https://public.coderedweb.com/cne/en-US/BF7053564662\">Sign-up for Sonoma County Weather Alerts\u003c/a>\u003c/h3>\n\u003c/aside>\n\u003cp>An official \u003ca href=\"https://www.sonomacountyrecovers.org/rain-ready/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">analysis\u003c/a> of the damage caused by the devastating October wildfires found that properties located within the burned areas are at greater risk of flash floods, mudflows and debris flows.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter wp-image-1920516 size-medium\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/science/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2018/02/DXJ6YO3WAAQSX1L-800x600.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"800\" height=\"600\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2018/02/DXJ6YO3WAAQSX1L-800x600.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2018/02/DXJ6YO3WAAQSX1L-160x120.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2018/02/DXJ6YO3WAAQSX1L-768x576.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2018/02/DXJ6YO3WAAQSX1L.jpg 960w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2018/02/DXJ6YO3WAAQSX1L-240x180.jpg 240w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2018/02/DXJ6YO3WAAQSX1L-375x281.jpg 375w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2018/02/DXJ6YO3WAAQSX1L-520x390.jpg 520w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 800px) 100vw, 800px\">\u003cbr>\nThe \u003ca href=\"https://www.sonomacountyrecovers.org/rain-ready/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Sonoma County Recovery website\u003c/a>, launched in the immediate aftermath of the\u003ca href=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/news/2017/11/22/sonoma-county-faces-heightened-risk-of-landslides-after-fires/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"> October wildfire\u003c/a>s, has issued a set of safety recommendations in the event of bad weather including clearing debris from drainages to reduce flooding and keeping cell phones turned on to receive emergency alerts.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cem>The Associated Press contributed to this report.\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp> \u003c/p>\n\n\u003c/div>\u003c/p>",
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"title": "Cancer-Causing Chemical Found in Some Santa Rosa Drinking Water",
"headTitle": "Cancer-Causing Chemical Found in Some Santa Rosa Drinking Water | KQED",
"content": "\u003cp>Some drinking water in Santa Rosa remains undrinkable months after the \u003ca href=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/news/tag/north-bay-fires/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">North Bay fires\u003c/a>, and pressure is mounting on the city’s water department to locate and control the cause.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“The city is very interested to get people back and rebuilt into their homes, of course, as soon as possible,” says Bennett Horenstein, the City of Santa Rosa’s Water Director.\u003c/p>\n\u003caside class=\"pullquote alignright\">‘This contamination is certainly attributable to the fire.’\u003ccite>Bennett Horenstein, Santa Rosa Water Department\u003c/cite>\u003c/aside>\n\u003cp>Fire savaged the neighborhood around Fountaingrove parkway last October. Where more than 350 families once lived, 13 homes remain standing. In November, people returning to the neighborhood complained of foul smelling and tasting water.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Engineers for Santa Rosa’s water department isolated water service for Fountaingrove, in an aim to prevent wider contamination. The department \u003ca href=\"https://www.sonomacountyrecovers.org/not-drink-not-boil-water-advisory-issued-two-specific-areas-fountaingrove/\">ordered\u003c/a> residents not to drink or boil the water there. Then its tests found benzene, a chemical that can cause cancer.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“This contamination is certainly attributable to the fire,” says Horenstein, “specifically the heating and burning of different plastic components in the system.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad fullwidth]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[contextly_sidebar id=”GtYvC57AGilad5nS8LixjHYFgyORRCxR”]Initial sampling found benzene in the Fountaingrove water main, the local service components, and the lines that connected to destroyed properties. The city has now \u003ca href=\"https://srcity.org/2801/Water-Quality-Advisory\">gathered\u003c/a> more than 300 water samples, examining them with the help of a forensic chemist. And water officials say evidence points to burned polyethylene plastic, found in service lines to homes and other components of the water system, as a source of benzene.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The service lines fed water from a main to individual properties, and melted above ground, potentially releasing toxic chemicals. The water lines in that part of Santa Rosa lost pressure in the fire, which officials say could have helped benzene to spread further when equipment melted\u003cstrong>.\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_1920337\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 640px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-large wp-image-1920337\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/science/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2018/02/Document-1020x787.png\" alt=\"\" width=\"640\" height=\"494\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2018/02/Document-1020x787.png 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2018/02/Document-160x124.png 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2018/02/Document-800x618.png 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2018/02/Document-768x593.png 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2018/02/Document-1920x1482.png 1920w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2018/02/Document-1180x911.png 1180w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2018/02/Document-960x741.png 960w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2018/02/Document-240x185.png 240w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2018/02/Document-375x289.png 375w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2018/02/Document-520x401.png 520w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 640px) 100vw, 640px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Benzene has been found in a number of locations burned in last year’s North Bay Fires. \u003ccite>(Santa Rosa Water)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Test results and forensic science have made other explanations seem less likely. So far, sampling has not found petroleum byproducts in the contamination, which would be expected if the benzene came from underground tanks or soil. But samples have shown the presence of vinyl chloride, which is linked to melted plastic.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“It’s a very logical source as far as we’re concerned,” says Bruce Burton, Northern California section chief for the State Water Resources Control Board’s Division of Drinking Water.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>California water regulations set a limit for carcinogenic benzene at one part per billion. Initial samples found 87 instances where that limit was exceeded, mostly, but not exclusively, in the Fountaingrove neighborhood. A second round of sampling in February found more benzene, including at seven locations outside the quarantined area. Horenstein stressed that the benzene in areas outside Fountaingrove was less pervasive, and had not been found in the city’s mains.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[contextly_sidebar id=”8fhBNx5dRmkNAqTdVZR5GsT99sWt4egf”]Still, water department investigators \u003ca href=\"https://srcity.org/documentcenter/view/18949\">now\u003c/a> are looking for melted plastic components, benzene, and explanations in Coffey Park as well as Fountaingrove.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“We aren’t seeing [the contamination] broad-based, everywhere,” says Horenstein. “We’re just seeing some, maybe 10 percent of these homes, have concerns with benzene. And that, we really don’t know why.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>As far as DDW’s Burton knows, plastic pipes spreading water contamination after a catastrophic fire event is unprecedented. But he acknowledges Santa Rosa’s problems may have implications for future fires in other cities\u003cstrong>.\u003c/strong> “Certainly if we were faced with similar circumstances again, we would want the system to test to see if this had happened,” Burton says.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Pressure is mounting on Santa Rosa to take action for another reason too: Horenstein says testing for benzene, finding damaged water systems components, and replacing melted pipe could cost “twenty, forty, fifty” million dollars – an unanticipated cost.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Santa Rosa will seek disaster response assistance from the Federal Emergency Management Agency to address this problem. But the clock is ticking. Horenstein says the city has “weeks” to wrap up its investigation, and until mid-April to determine the scope of the contamination.\u003c/p>\n\n",
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"excerpt": "Some drinking water in Santa Rosa remains undrinkable months after the North Bay fires, and pressure is mounting on the city’s water department to locate and control the cause.",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003cp>Some drinking water in Santa Rosa remains undrinkable months after the \u003ca href=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/news/tag/north-bay-fires/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">North Bay fires\u003c/a>, and pressure is mounting on the city’s water department to locate and control the cause.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“The city is very interested to get people back and rebuilt into their homes, of course, as soon as possible,” says Bennett Horenstein, the City of Santa Rosa’s Water Director.\u003c/p>\n\u003caside class=\"pullquote alignright\">‘This contamination is certainly attributable to the fire.’\u003ccite>Bennett Horenstein, Santa Rosa Water Department\u003c/cite>\u003c/aside>\n\u003cp>Fire savaged the neighborhood around Fountaingrove parkway last October. Where more than 350 families once lived, 13 homes remain standing. In November, people returning to the neighborhood complained of foul smelling and tasting water.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Engineers for Santa Rosa’s water department isolated water service for Fountaingrove, in an aim to prevent wider contamination. The department \u003ca href=\"https://www.sonomacountyrecovers.org/not-drink-not-boil-water-advisory-issued-two-specific-areas-fountaingrove/\">ordered\u003c/a> residents not to drink or boil the water there. Then its tests found benzene, a chemical that can cause cancer.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“This contamination is certainly attributable to the fire,” says Horenstein, “specifically the heating and burning of different plastic components in the system.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003cp>Initial sampling found benzene in the Fountaingrove water main, the local service components, and the lines that connected to destroyed properties. The city has now \u003ca href=\"https://srcity.org/2801/Water-Quality-Advisory\">gathered\u003c/a> more than 300 water samples, examining them with the help of a forensic chemist. And water officials say evidence points to burned polyethylene plastic, found in service lines to homes and other components of the water system, as a source of benzene.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The service lines fed water from a main to individual properties, and melted above ground, potentially releasing toxic chemicals. The water lines in that part of Santa Rosa lost pressure in the fire, which officials say could have helped benzene to spread further when equipment melted\u003cstrong>.\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_1920337\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 640px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-large wp-image-1920337\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/science/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2018/02/Document-1020x787.png\" alt=\"\" width=\"640\" height=\"494\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2018/02/Document-1020x787.png 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2018/02/Document-160x124.png 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2018/02/Document-800x618.png 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2018/02/Document-768x593.png 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2018/02/Document-1920x1482.png 1920w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2018/02/Document-1180x911.png 1180w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2018/02/Document-960x741.png 960w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2018/02/Document-240x185.png 240w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2018/02/Document-375x289.png 375w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2018/02/Document-520x401.png 520w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 640px) 100vw, 640px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Benzene has been found in a number of locations burned in last year’s North Bay Fires. \u003ccite>(Santa Rosa Water)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Test results and forensic science have made other explanations seem less likely. So far, sampling has not found petroleum byproducts in the contamination, which would be expected if the benzene came from underground tanks or soil. But samples have shown the presence of vinyl chloride, which is linked to melted plastic.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“It’s a very logical source as far as we’re concerned,” says Bruce Burton, Northern California section chief for the State Water Resources Control Board’s Division of Drinking Water.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>California water regulations set a limit for carcinogenic benzene at one part per billion. Initial samples found 87 instances where that limit was exceeded, mostly, but not exclusively, in the Fountaingrove neighborhood. A second round of sampling in February found more benzene, including at seven locations outside the quarantined area. Horenstein stressed that the benzene in areas outside Fountaingrove was less pervasive, and had not been found in the city’s mains.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003cp>Still, water department investigators \u003ca href=\"https://srcity.org/documentcenter/view/18949\">now\u003c/a> are looking for melted plastic components, benzene, and explanations in Coffey Park as well as Fountaingrove.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“We aren’t seeing [the contamination] broad-based, everywhere,” says Horenstein. “We’re just seeing some, maybe 10 percent of these homes, have concerns with benzene. And that, we really don’t know why.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>As far as DDW’s Burton knows, plastic pipes spreading water contamination after a catastrophic fire event is unprecedented. But he acknowledges Santa Rosa’s problems may have implications for future fires in other cities\u003cstrong>.\u003c/strong> “Certainly if we were faced with similar circumstances again, we would want the system to test to see if this had happened,” Burton says.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Pressure is mounting on Santa Rosa to take action for another reason too: Horenstein says testing for benzene, finding damaged water systems components, and replacing melted pipe could cost “twenty, forty, fifty” million dollars – an unanticipated cost.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Santa Rosa will seek disaster response assistance from the Federal Emergency Management Agency to address this problem. But the clock is ticking. Horenstein says the city has “weeks” to wrap up its investigation, and until mid-April to determine the scope of the contamination.\u003c/p>\n\n\u003c/div>\u003c/p>",
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"title": "The Big Sort: What To Do With 2 Million Tons of Fire Debris",
"headTitle": "The Big Sort: What To Do With 2 Million Tons of Fire Debris | KQED",
"content": "\u003cp>California’s biggest disaster cleanup in a century is now three-quarters complete, according to the Army Corps of Engineers. And like the North Bay fires that caused it, this massive response is one for the record books.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“It is a very complicated debris removal operation,” California Office of Emergency Services director Mark Ghilarducci \u003ca href=\"https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yIW8ji8-fgw\">told\u003c/a> a Santa Rosa Town Hall in January. “The largest debris clearance operation we’ve seen since the 1906 earthquake.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But unlike after the 1906 quake, when people \u003ca href=\"http://www.sfmuseum.org/1906.2/swamp.html\">dumped\u003c/a> debris in the bay and took \u003ca href=\"https://calisphere.org/item/ad57c35b1381b65b99b4b5867fd86988/\">bricks\u003c/a> home in wheelbarrows to shore up their own property, current laws require that debris be safely removed, for the environment and public health. State and local officials also say they hope to recycle or re-use about half the recovered material.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_1920029\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003ca href=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/science/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2018/02/IMG_9149.jpg\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-1920029 size-full\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/science/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2018/02/IMG_9149.jpg\" alt=\"Piles of fire debris in Santa Rosa\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1500\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2018/02/IMG_9149.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2018/02/IMG_9149-160x120.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2018/02/IMG_9149-800x600.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2018/02/IMG_9149-768x576.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2018/02/IMG_9149-1020x765.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2018/02/IMG_9149-1920x1440.jpg 1920w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2018/02/IMG_9149-1180x885.jpg 1180w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2018/02/IMG_9149-960x720.jpg 960w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2018/02/IMG_9149-240x180.jpg 240w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2018/02/IMG_9149-375x281.jpg 375w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2018/02/IMG_9149-520x390.jpg 520w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003c/a>\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Piles of fire debris await removal in a Santa Rosa parking lot. Millions of tons went to landfills and recycling centers. \u003ccite>(Craig Miller/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Debris Measured in Bridge Weights\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Last October, ten to eleven thousand structures burned, on about six thousand parcels of land, spread out across 250 square miles, in four counties. All those numbers add up to about $1 billion in contracts to clean up Sonoma, Napa, Lake and Mendocino counties, issued by the Army Corps of Engineers under the authority of the Federal Emergency Management Agency. (CalRecycle, a state agency, is handling fire clean-up in three additional counties.)\u003c/p>\n\u003caside class=\"pullquote alignright\">‘It’s the largest debris clearance operation we’ve seen since the 1906 earthquake’\u003ccite>Mark Ghilarducci, CalOES\u003c/cite>\u003c/aside>\n\u003cp>A typical residential parcel yields 200 to 250 tons of material. By the time cleanup is complete, thousands of truck trips will have removed about 2 million tons of debris: that’s double the weight of the Golden Gate Bridge.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad fullwidth]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003ca href=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/science/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2018/02/180217-Infographic.jpg\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone size-medium wp-image-1920075\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/science/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2018/02/180217-Infographic-800x450.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"800\" height=\"450\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2018/02/180217-Infographic-800x450.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2018/02/180217-Infographic-160x90.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2018/02/180217-Infographic-768x432.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2018/02/180217-Infographic-1020x574.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2018/02/180217-Infographic-1180x664.jpg 1180w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2018/02/180217-Infographic-960x540.jpg 960w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2018/02/180217-Infographic-240x135.jpg 240w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2018/02/180217-Infographic-375x211.jpg 375w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2018/02/180217-Infographic-520x293.jpg 520w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2018/02/180217-Infographic.jpg 1280w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 800px) 100vw, 800px\">\u003c/a>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Tricky Business\u003cbr>\n\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Household hazardous waste was the first problem to tackle: the propane tanks, motor oil, pesticides, paint hanging around garages or sheds. The Environmental Protection Agency and state toxic regulators helped crews pick it out of the rubble safely; they finished last fall.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In a second phase, Army Corps contractors are separating concrete from ash and metal, for transport to different places. It’s finicky work.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“I’m picking up rebar in little pieces; that’s a four-five-foot bucket and you’re trying to pick up a little bicycle or a night awning or a chair or something,” explained Kenny Drew, who was operating an excavator for contractor Ghilotti Bros. in Santa Rosa’s Coffey Park neighborhood. “We grab what we can, push it into a pile, separate that, and the rest goes to the dumps.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_1920028\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003ca href=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/science/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2018/02/PC180613.jpg\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-1920028\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/science/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2018/02/PC180613.jpg\" alt=\"Excavator removing fire debris\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1500\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2018/02/PC180613.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2018/02/PC180613-160x120.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2018/02/PC180613-800x600.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2018/02/PC180613-768x576.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2018/02/PC180613-1020x765.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2018/02/PC180613-1920x1440.jpg 1920w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2018/02/PC180613-1180x885.jpg 1180w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2018/02/PC180613-960x720.jpg 960w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2018/02/PC180613-240x180.jpg 240w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2018/02/PC180613-375x281.jpg 375w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2018/02/PC180613-520x390.jpg 520w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003c/a>\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Excavator operator Kenny Drew slings a burned lawnmower into a dump truck. Metals are among the debris that can be recycled. \u003ccite>(Craig Miller/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>What Goes Where\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Separated debris follows different routes to different fates. Drew’s crew will recycle usable metal for scrap. Once crushed, concrete can find a second use below asphalt in roads, or if pulverized, that material can be recycled for new concrete.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Ashy wood and home debris, black, white, or gray, threatens public health if airborne or dumped into a river. Crews wet it down or fold it into a “burrito wrap” – a sheet to keep toxic particulates out of the air while it’s in the bed of a truck headed for the dump.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>An array of regulations control landfill operations under normal circumstances, limiting how many trucks can go there each day, how much they can leave, and what materials a landfill can take in. But after the fires, state and county response managers obtained waivers for some of these rules. Consequently, some landfills are seeing five to eight times as much traffic, not to mention long lines. Every truck carrying disaster debris also requires special paperwork.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Nevertheless, the cleanup itself is a declared health emergency. CalRecycle’s Lance Klug emphasizes that waivers don’t lower significant rules, or permit toxic and hazardous material from being dumped just anywhere. For example, local codes still prohibit draining your pool water, which could carry chlorine and ash, into a waterway.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Landfill Rush\u003cbr>\n\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Fire certainly speeds the consumption of landfill space, but may not shorten the lifespan of an expandable dump site. A supervisor in Lake County has said that fire debris will take up a third of the county’s available landfill — what the industry calls “airspace” — shaving about 4 years off the landfill’s projected life. Officials in Sonoma County and Cal Recycling acknowledge that landfills there may require expansion sooner than planned, but they say those in use have plenty of room left.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The scale of debris removal isn’t the only reason it’s shocking: fires this destructive haven’t commonly happened in the North Bay, so there’s no practiced history of responding to them. Along the Gulf Coast, where hurricanes like Katrina and Harvey have repeatedly wreaked havoc, tens of tons of debris have scattered across a dozen states. State officials and fire scientists say that if we become accustomed to catastrophic fires, we’ll have to also accustom ourselves to recovering from their wrath.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cem>KQED Science Editor Craig Miller contributed to this story.\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\n",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003cp>California’s biggest disaster cleanup in a century is now three-quarters complete, according to the Army Corps of Engineers. And like the North Bay fires that caused it, this massive response is one for the record books.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“It is a very complicated debris removal operation,” California Office of Emergency Services director Mark Ghilarducci \u003ca href=\"https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yIW8ji8-fgw\">told\u003c/a> a Santa Rosa Town Hall in January. “The largest debris clearance operation we’ve seen since the 1906 earthquake.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But unlike after the 1906 quake, when people \u003ca href=\"http://www.sfmuseum.org/1906.2/swamp.html\">dumped\u003c/a> debris in the bay and took \u003ca href=\"https://calisphere.org/item/ad57c35b1381b65b99b4b5867fd86988/\">bricks\u003c/a> home in wheelbarrows to shore up their own property, current laws require that debris be safely removed, for the environment and public health. State and local officials also say they hope to recycle or re-use about half the recovered material.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_1920029\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003ca href=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/science/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2018/02/IMG_9149.jpg\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-1920029 size-full\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/science/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2018/02/IMG_9149.jpg\" alt=\"Piles of fire debris in Santa Rosa\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1500\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2018/02/IMG_9149.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2018/02/IMG_9149-160x120.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2018/02/IMG_9149-800x600.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2018/02/IMG_9149-768x576.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2018/02/IMG_9149-1020x765.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2018/02/IMG_9149-1920x1440.jpg 1920w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2018/02/IMG_9149-1180x885.jpg 1180w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2018/02/IMG_9149-960x720.jpg 960w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2018/02/IMG_9149-240x180.jpg 240w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2018/02/IMG_9149-375x281.jpg 375w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2018/02/IMG_9149-520x390.jpg 520w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003c/a>\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Piles of fire debris await removal in a Santa Rosa parking lot. Millions of tons went to landfills and recycling centers. \u003ccite>(Craig Miller/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Debris Measured in Bridge Weights\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Last October, ten to eleven thousand structures burned, on about six thousand parcels of land, spread out across 250 square miles, in four counties. All those numbers add up to about $1 billion in contracts to clean up Sonoma, Napa, Lake and Mendocino counties, issued by the Army Corps of Engineers under the authority of the Federal Emergency Management Agency. (CalRecycle, a state agency, is handling fire clean-up in three additional counties.)\u003c/p>\n\u003caside class=\"pullquote alignright\">‘It’s the largest debris clearance operation we’ve seen since the 1906 earthquake’\u003ccite>Mark Ghilarducci, CalOES\u003c/cite>\u003c/aside>\n\u003cp>A typical residential parcel yields 200 to 250 tons of material. By the time cleanup is complete, thousands of truck trips will have removed about 2 million tons of debris: that’s double the weight of the Golden Gate Bridge.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003ca href=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/science/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2018/02/180217-Infographic.jpg\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone size-medium wp-image-1920075\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/science/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2018/02/180217-Infographic-800x450.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"800\" height=\"450\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2018/02/180217-Infographic-800x450.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2018/02/180217-Infographic-160x90.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2018/02/180217-Infographic-768x432.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2018/02/180217-Infographic-1020x574.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2018/02/180217-Infographic-1180x664.jpg 1180w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2018/02/180217-Infographic-960x540.jpg 960w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2018/02/180217-Infographic-240x135.jpg 240w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2018/02/180217-Infographic-375x211.jpg 375w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2018/02/180217-Infographic-520x293.jpg 520w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2018/02/180217-Infographic.jpg 1280w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 800px) 100vw, 800px\">\u003c/a>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Tricky Business\u003cbr>\n\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Household hazardous waste was the first problem to tackle: the propane tanks, motor oil, pesticides, paint hanging around garages or sheds. The Environmental Protection Agency and state toxic regulators helped crews pick it out of the rubble safely; they finished last fall.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In a second phase, Army Corps contractors are separating concrete from ash and metal, for transport to different places. It’s finicky work.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“I’m picking up rebar in little pieces; that’s a four-five-foot bucket and you’re trying to pick up a little bicycle or a night awning or a chair or something,” explained Kenny Drew, who was operating an excavator for contractor Ghilotti Bros. in Santa Rosa’s Coffey Park neighborhood. “We grab what we can, push it into a pile, separate that, and the rest goes to the dumps.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_1920028\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003ca href=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/science/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2018/02/PC180613.jpg\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-1920028\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/science/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2018/02/PC180613.jpg\" alt=\"Excavator removing fire debris\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1500\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2018/02/PC180613.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2018/02/PC180613-160x120.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2018/02/PC180613-800x600.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2018/02/PC180613-768x576.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2018/02/PC180613-1020x765.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2018/02/PC180613-1920x1440.jpg 1920w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2018/02/PC180613-1180x885.jpg 1180w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2018/02/PC180613-960x720.jpg 960w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2018/02/PC180613-240x180.jpg 240w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2018/02/PC180613-375x281.jpg 375w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2018/02/PC180613-520x390.jpg 520w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003c/a>\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Excavator operator Kenny Drew slings a burned lawnmower into a dump truck. Metals are among the debris that can be recycled. \u003ccite>(Craig Miller/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>What Goes Where\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Separated debris follows different routes to different fates. Drew’s crew will recycle usable metal for scrap. Once crushed, concrete can find a second use below asphalt in roads, or if pulverized, that material can be recycled for new concrete.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Ashy wood and home debris, black, white, or gray, threatens public health if airborne or dumped into a river. Crews wet it down or fold it into a “burrito wrap” – a sheet to keep toxic particulates out of the air while it’s in the bed of a truck headed for the dump.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>An array of regulations control landfill operations under normal circumstances, limiting how many trucks can go there each day, how much they can leave, and what materials a landfill can take in. But after the fires, state and county response managers obtained waivers for some of these rules. Consequently, some landfills are seeing five to eight times as much traffic, not to mention long lines. Every truck carrying disaster debris also requires special paperwork.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Nevertheless, the cleanup itself is a declared health emergency. CalRecycle’s Lance Klug emphasizes that waivers don’t lower significant rules, or permit toxic and hazardous material from being dumped just anywhere. For example, local codes still prohibit draining your pool water, which could carry chlorine and ash, into a waterway.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Landfill Rush\u003cbr>\n\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Fire certainly speeds the consumption of landfill space, but may not shorten the lifespan of an expandable dump site. A supervisor in Lake County has said that fire debris will take up a third of the county’s available landfill — what the industry calls “airspace” — shaving about 4 years off the landfill’s projected life. Officials in Sonoma County and Cal Recycling acknowledge that landfills there may require expansion sooner than planned, but they say those in use have plenty of room left.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The scale of debris removal isn’t the only reason it’s shocking: fires this destructive haven’t commonly happened in the North Bay, so there’s no practiced history of responding to them. Along the Gulf Coast, where hurricanes like Katrina and Harvey have repeatedly wreaked havoc, tens of tons of debris have scattered across a dozen states. State officials and fire scientists say that if we become accustomed to catastrophic fires, we’ll have to also accustom ourselves to recovering from their wrath.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cem>KQED Science Editor Craig Miller contributed to this story.\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\n\u003c/div>\u003c/p>",
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"title": "Fire Retardant Use Explodes as Worries About Water, Wildlife Grow",
"headTitle": "Fire Retardant Use Explodes as Worries About Water, Wildlife Grow | KQED",
"content": "\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-size: 4.6875em;float: left;line-height: 0.733em;padding: 0.05em 0.1em 0 0;font-family: times, serif, georgia\">C\u003c/span>hemical fire retardants are considered a vital wildland firefighting tool, helping to slow the spread of flames while ground crews move into position. But as their use increases, the harmful side effects of these chemicals are coming under increasing scrutiny.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan class=\"s1\">The chemicals, usually dropped from low-flying aircraft, largely consist of ammonia compounds, which are known toxins to fish and other aquatic life. Studies have shown retardants can kill fish, alter soil chemistry, feed harmful algae blooms and even encourage the spread of invasive plants. Yet there is little regulation of their use, and no safer alternatives on the market.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[contextly_sidebar id=”AhBsf9clDWFWhb35p0dJW2ufu4gD5guq”]In California, state firefighting crews have applied \u003cspan class=\"caps\">15.3\u003c/span> million gallons of chemical fire retardants so far this year, according to data provided by CalFire, the state’s wildland firefighting agency. That’s a new record, and double the amount used just three years ago.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan class=\"s1\">CalFire applied \u003cspan class=\"caps\">2.7\u003c/span> million gallons of retardant in a single one-week period starting October 9 – also a record. Of that amount, about 2 million gallons were used on the North Bay wildfires, which killed 43 people and burned more than 8,000 structures in October as they swept across several counties north of the San Francisco Bay Area, including Sonoma and Napa.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan class=\"s1\">The growth of retardant use in California has outpaced federal firefighting: In 2016, the United States Forest Service \u003ca class=\"preview-link\" href=\"https://www.fs.fed.us/fire/retardant/2016_Aerial%20Retardant%20Use%20on%20NFS%20lands_%201_17_2017.pdf\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">\u003cspan class=\"s2\">applied\u003c/span>\u003c/a> 19 million gallons of retardant on all National Forest system lands in the nation, an increase of 55 percent compared to three years earlier.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad fullwidth]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan class=\"s1\">Timothy Ingalsbee, executive director of \u003ca class=\"preview-link\" href=\"https://www.fusee.org/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">\u003cspan class=\"s2\">Firefighters United for Safety, Ethics and Ecology\u003c/span>\u003c/a>, said chemical fire retardants are overused. They are intended only to slow a fire down so that ground crews have time to reach a fire front and build containment lines. Instead, retardants are being used in place of ground crews, he said.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan class=\"s1\">In many cases where people and structures are not threatened, Ingalsbee said, fires should be allowed to burn rather than spending money on retardants and putting pilots at risk.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan class=\"s1\">“It looks good on \u003cspan class=\"caps\">TV\u003c/span> – ‘\u003cspan class=\"caps\">CNN\u003c/span> Drops’ is a term firefighters use,” Ingalsbee said. “Eventually, the fire burns through that stuff and keeps on trucking. The worst concern is, they cause some significant impacts, particularly to water quality.”\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan class=\"s1\">In 2014, scientists at the National Marine Fisheries Service published a \u003ca class=\"preview-link\" href=\"https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/24880550\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">\u003cspan class=\"s2\">study\u003c/span>\u003c/a> showing that two fire-retardant formulations are deadly to Chinook salmon, even when heavily diluted in streams.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan class=\"s1\">The chemicals killed salmon at concentrations well below 1 percent of the strength at which the retardants are applied. And the study found the chemicals had lasting effects: Even salmon that survived initially could be killed weeks later when they migrated to salt water, apparently because the chemicals damaged their gills.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan class=\"s1\">“They are sensitive at low amounts compared to what is applied,” said Joseph Dietrich, an ecotoxicologist with \u003cspan class=\"caps\">NOAA\u003c/span>’s Northwest Fisheries Science Center and lead author of the study. “It’s a very low concentration compared to what is in the stock solution that’s in a helicopter during a firefighting event.”\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan class=\"s1\">The retardants evaluated in the study, known by the trade names 259-F and \u003cspan class=\"caps\">LC\u003c/span>–\u003cspan class=\"caps\">95A\u003c/span>, are made by \u003ca class=\"preview-link\" href=\"https://phoschek.com/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">\u003cspan class=\"s2\">Phos-Chek\u003c/span>\u003c/a>, the \u003cspan class=\"caps\">U.S.\u003c/span> subsidiary of an Israel-based company called \u003cspan class=\"caps\">ICL\u003c/span> Performance Products. Both retardants are still in use by both the Forest Service and CalFire.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan class=\"s1\">However, CalFire spokesperson Scott McLean said the agency this year has mainly used a different Phos-Chek formulation known as \u003cspan class=\"caps\">MVP\u003c/span>-F. It is advertised as being a safer product, though it has not yet been subjected to similar studies.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan class=\"s1\">CalFire takes its lead in retardant selection from the \u003cspan class=\"caps\">U.S.\u003c/span> Forest Service, which produces a so-called “qualified products list” after testing the chemicals.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan class=\"s1\">Most retardants are delivered as a powder, then mixed with water before being loaded onto aircraft. The water is merely a delivery mechanism.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan class=\"s1\">The primary ingredient in retardants is an ammonium phosphate or sulfate solution – essentially a type of fertilizer. Other ingredients are exempt from public disclosure under federal law as trade secrets. But one is a gelling agent that allows the ammonia solution to cling to plants, temporarily insulating them from heat and flame to deprive an advancing fire of fuel.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan class=\"s1\">McLean said retardants are a vital firefighting tool, and defended their use.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan class=\"s1\">“Aerial application of retardant provides support to firefighters on the fire line that could not be otherwise immediately supported by a vehicle, [a] fire engine,” McLean said. “At present, there is no other long-term fire retardant that has met the requirements of the [Forest Service] qualified products list.”\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan class=\"s1\">Dietrich said it’s likely that \u003cspan class=\"caps\">MVP\u003c/span>-F will also be deadly to salmon. The concentration known to be toxic to fish, as reported by the manufacturer, is still less than 1 percent of the concentration at which the retardant is released by aircraft. This means, again, that it can be heavily diluted in the environment and still remain deadly to fish.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan class=\"s1\">The unknown proprietary ingredients in retardants may play a role in this, he said.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan class=\"s1\">“They’re definitely enhancing toxicity,” Dietrich said. “\u003c/span>\u003cspan class=\"s3\">Whether they are working with ammonia or just causing separate effects that are accumulating, I couldn’t say. \u003c/span>\u003cspan class=\"s1\">There is some other source of toxicity that comes into play.”\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan class=\"s1\">Not much is known about how long retardants linger in the environment. But the compounds most often used are known as “long-term” retardants, because they are designed to cling to plants and remain effective for weeks – until they are either burned off or washed away by heavy rain. In the latter case, the chemicals will then flow into streams and lakes.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan class=\"s1\">A team at the \u003cspan class=\"caps\">U.S.\u003c/span> Geological Survey is engaged in a large \u003ca class=\"preview-link\" href=\"https://www.cerc.usgs.gov/ScienceTopics.aspx?ScienceTopicId=1\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">\u003cspan class=\"s2\">research effort\u003c/span>\u003c/a> to analyze the longevity of these chemicals once applied. The results have not yet been published, and the team leader did not respond to a request for comment.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan class=\"s1\">The Forest Service used fire retardants for decades without analyzing their environmental effects. Then, in 2009, \u003ca class=\"preview-link\" href=\"https://www.fseee.org/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">\u003cspan class=\"s2\">Forest Service Employees for Environmental Ethics\u003c/span>\u003c/a>, a nonprofit group, sued the agency, blaming retardants for killing 50 endangered steelhead during a fire near Santa Barbara, California.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan class=\"s1\">The lawsuit resulted in a court order requiring the Forest Service to prepare an environmental impact study, which was \u003ca class=\"preview-link\" href=\"https://www.fs.fed.us/fire/retardant/eis_info.html\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">\u003cspan class=\"s2\">completed\u003c/span>\u003c/a> in 2011. The study concluded retardants are potentially harmful to wildlife and water quality, and set parameters on their use to minimize these effects. These included mapping sensitive \u003ca class=\"preview-link\" href=\"https://www.arcgis.com/home/webmap/viewer.html?webmap=1920b5b8884643dfb1b391453bbbe998\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">\u003cspan class=\"s2\">exclusion zones\u003c/span>\u003c/a> where retardants may not be used.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan class=\"s1\">Also, fire crews are now trained not to drop retardant within 300ft of water bodies if using an airplane, and within 100ft if applied from a helicopter or fire engine. Fire crews can, however, deviate from these guidelines when life or property are threatened.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan class=\"s1\">Earlier this year, the Forest Service prepared a \u003ca class=\"preview-link\" href=\"https://www.fs.fed.us/rm/fire/wfcs/ras.htm\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">\u003cspan class=\"s2\">risk assessment\u003c/span>\u003c/a> to evaluate the ecological effects of the latest retardant chemicals. It reviewed the same products analyzed in Dietrich’s study, as well as others, and acknowledged that toxic effects to fish and plants are possible. But it minimized these concerns by reporting, in the case of fish, that long-term exposure is unlikely in flowing-water environments, and stated that plants would be worse off if they were allowed to burn.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan class=\"s1\">Ingalsbee said even a 300ft buffer may not be enough to protect water and wildlife. Unpredictable fire-fed winds may spread retardant into a stream or lake from much greater distances, he said. Pilot error is also common.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan class=\"s1\">In addition, retardants can alter plant communities long after a fire is extinguished.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan class=\"s1\">Invasive plants are known to aggressively colonize burned areas after a fire. The ammonia in retardants is a potent fertilizer: It can become a kind of junk food for invasive plants, which can quickly crowd out native plants after a fire. As a result, in 2008 the \u003cspan class=\"caps\">U.S.\u003c/span> Fish and Wildlife Service \u003ca class=\"preview-link\" href=\"https://www.fws.gov/invasives/pdfs/USFWS_FireMgtAndInvasivesPlants_A_Handbook.pdf\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">\u003cspan class=\"s2\">recommended\u003c/span>\u003c/a> limiting the use of retardants.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan class=\"s1\">Officials say retardants are made from “food grade” ingredients and pose no danger to people or animals if ingested.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan class=\"s1\">But in the wake of the North Bay fires, Napa County issued an \u003ca class=\"preview-link\" href=\"http://www.countyofnapa.org/Pages/Search.aspx?keywords=retardant\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">\u003cspan class=\"s2\">advisory\u003c/span>\u003c/a> urging residents not to consume fruits and vegetables from backyard gardens that may have been sprayed by fire retardant. Sonoma County offered \u003ca class=\"preview-link\" href=\"http://sonomacounty.ca.gov/EOC-and-PIO/Fires-October-2017/Health-Concerns-and-Resources/%23retardant\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">\u003cspan class=\"s2\">similar\u003c/span>\u003c/a> advice on its website. Both urged residents to wash retardants off plants and buildings “as soon as possible.” But targeting areas hit by retardant may be difficult in some cases, because a coloring agent in the compound is designed to vanish after exposure to sunlight.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan class=\"s1\">Fortunately for California’s wine industry, as much as 90 percent of Napa and Sonoma county grapes had been \u003ca class=\"preview-link\" title=\"Link: http://www.winespectator.com/webfeature/show/id/California-Wine-Fire-Road-Ahead\" href=\"http://www.winespectator.com/webfeature/show/id/California-Wine-Fire-Road-Ahead\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">\u003cspan class=\"s2\">harvested\u003c/span>\u003c/a> before the fires swept through. But some vineyards did get hit by retardant drops, and winery owners have said those grapes won’t be harvested.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp class=\"fin\">\u003cspan class=\"s1\">“The bottom line is, it’s really not benign at all,” Ingalsbee said. “It does have negative effects on native flora and fauna. It does have impacts on water quality and soil.”\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad floatright]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp class=\"fin\">\u003ci>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">This article originally appeared on \u003c/span>\u003c/i>\u003ca href=\"https://mail.kqed.org/owa/redir.aspx?C=9e4bb0e1a7d74f24ba4684ef2533053d&URL=https%3a%2f%2fwww.newsdeeply.com%2fwater\">\u003ci>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Water Deeply\u003c/span>\u003c/i>\u003c/a>\u003ci>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">, and you can find it \u003c/span>\u003c/i>\u003ca href=\"https://www.newsdeeply.com/water/articles/2017/11/27/fire-retardant-use-explodes-as-worries-about-water-wildlife-risk-grow\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">\u003ci>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">here\u003c/span>\u003c/i>\u003c/a>\u003ci>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">. For important news about the California drought, you can \u003c/span>\u003c/i>\u003ca href=\"http://waterdeeply.us5.list-manage.com/subscribe?u=8b78e9a34ff7443ec1e8c62c6&id=2947becb78\">\u003ci>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">sign up\u003c/span>\u003c/i>\u003c/a>\u003ci>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\"> to the Water Deeply email list.\u003c/span>\u003c/i>\u003c/p>\n\n",
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"excerpt": "State and federal use of fire-retardant chemicals has grown significantly in recent years. Yet recent studies have shown the toxins are deadly to fish and may contribute to permanent changes in plant communities.",
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"description": "State and federal use of fire-retardant chemicals has grown significantly in recent years. Yet recent studies have shown the toxins are deadly to fish and may contribute to permanent changes in plant communities.",
"title": "Fire Retardant Use Explodes as Worries About Water, Wildlife Grow | KQED",
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"headline": "Fire Retardant Use Explodes as Worries About Water, Wildlife Grow",
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"nprByline": "\u003ca href=\"https://www.newsdeeply.com/water/contributor/matt-weiser\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Matt Weiser\u003c/a>,\u003c/br>Water Deeply",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-size: 4.6875em;float: left;line-height: 0.733em;padding: 0.05em 0.1em 0 0;font-family: times, serif, georgia\">C\u003c/span>hemical fire retardants are considered a vital wildland firefighting tool, helping to slow the spread of flames while ground crews move into position. But as their use increases, the harmful side effects of these chemicals are coming under increasing scrutiny.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan class=\"s1\">The chemicals, usually dropped from low-flying aircraft, largely consist of ammonia compounds, which are known toxins to fish and other aquatic life. Studies have shown retardants can kill fish, alter soil chemistry, feed harmful algae blooms and even encourage the spread of invasive plants. Yet there is little regulation of their use, and no safer alternatives on the market.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003cp>In California, state firefighting crews have applied \u003cspan class=\"caps\">15.3\u003c/span> million gallons of chemical fire retardants so far this year, according to data provided by CalFire, the state’s wildland firefighting agency. That’s a new record, and double the amount used just three years ago.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan class=\"s1\">CalFire applied \u003cspan class=\"caps\">2.7\u003c/span> million gallons of retardant in a single one-week period starting October 9 – also a record. Of that amount, about 2 million gallons were used on the North Bay wildfires, which killed 43 people and burned more than 8,000 structures in October as they swept across several counties north of the San Francisco Bay Area, including Sonoma and Napa.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan class=\"s1\">The growth of retardant use in California has outpaced federal firefighting: In 2016, the United States Forest Service \u003ca class=\"preview-link\" href=\"https://www.fs.fed.us/fire/retardant/2016_Aerial%20Retardant%20Use%20on%20NFS%20lands_%201_17_2017.pdf\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">\u003cspan class=\"s2\">applied\u003c/span>\u003c/a> 19 million gallons of retardant on all National Forest system lands in the nation, an increase of 55 percent compared to three years earlier.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan class=\"s1\">Timothy Ingalsbee, executive director of \u003ca class=\"preview-link\" href=\"https://www.fusee.org/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">\u003cspan class=\"s2\">Firefighters United for Safety, Ethics and Ecology\u003c/span>\u003c/a>, said chemical fire retardants are overused. They are intended only to slow a fire down so that ground crews have time to reach a fire front and build containment lines. Instead, retardants are being used in place of ground crews, he said.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan class=\"s1\">In many cases where people and structures are not threatened, Ingalsbee said, fires should be allowed to burn rather than spending money on retardants and putting pilots at risk.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan class=\"s1\">“It looks good on \u003cspan class=\"caps\">TV\u003c/span> – ‘\u003cspan class=\"caps\">CNN\u003c/span> Drops’ is a term firefighters use,” Ingalsbee said. “Eventually, the fire burns through that stuff and keeps on trucking. The worst concern is, they cause some significant impacts, particularly to water quality.”\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan class=\"s1\">In 2014, scientists at the National Marine Fisheries Service published a \u003ca class=\"preview-link\" href=\"https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/24880550\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">\u003cspan class=\"s2\">study\u003c/span>\u003c/a> showing that two fire-retardant formulations are deadly to Chinook salmon, even when heavily diluted in streams.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan class=\"s1\">The chemicals killed salmon at concentrations well below 1 percent of the strength at which the retardants are applied. And the study found the chemicals had lasting effects: Even salmon that survived initially could be killed weeks later when they migrated to salt water, apparently because the chemicals damaged their gills.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan class=\"s1\">“They are sensitive at low amounts compared to what is applied,” said Joseph Dietrich, an ecotoxicologist with \u003cspan class=\"caps\">NOAA\u003c/span>’s Northwest Fisheries Science Center and lead author of the study. “It’s a very low concentration compared to what is in the stock solution that’s in a helicopter during a firefighting event.”\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan class=\"s1\">The retardants evaluated in the study, known by the trade names 259-F and \u003cspan class=\"caps\">LC\u003c/span>–\u003cspan class=\"caps\">95A\u003c/span>, are made by \u003ca class=\"preview-link\" href=\"https://phoschek.com/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">\u003cspan class=\"s2\">Phos-Chek\u003c/span>\u003c/a>, the \u003cspan class=\"caps\">U.S.\u003c/span> subsidiary of an Israel-based company called \u003cspan class=\"caps\">ICL\u003c/span> Performance Products. Both retardants are still in use by both the Forest Service and CalFire.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan class=\"s1\">However, CalFire spokesperson Scott McLean said the agency this year has mainly used a different Phos-Chek formulation known as \u003cspan class=\"caps\">MVP\u003c/span>-F. It is advertised as being a safer product, though it has not yet been subjected to similar studies.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan class=\"s1\">CalFire takes its lead in retardant selection from the \u003cspan class=\"caps\">U.S.\u003c/span> Forest Service, which produces a so-called “qualified products list” after testing the chemicals.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan class=\"s1\">Most retardants are delivered as a powder, then mixed with water before being loaded onto aircraft. The water is merely a delivery mechanism.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan class=\"s1\">The primary ingredient in retardants is an ammonium phosphate or sulfate solution – essentially a type of fertilizer. Other ingredients are exempt from public disclosure under federal law as trade secrets. But one is a gelling agent that allows the ammonia solution to cling to plants, temporarily insulating them from heat and flame to deprive an advancing fire of fuel.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan class=\"s1\">McLean said retardants are a vital firefighting tool, and defended their use.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan class=\"s1\">“Aerial application of retardant provides support to firefighters on the fire line that could not be otherwise immediately supported by a vehicle, [a] fire engine,” McLean said. “At present, there is no other long-term fire retardant that has met the requirements of the [Forest Service] qualified products list.”\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan class=\"s1\">Dietrich said it’s likely that \u003cspan class=\"caps\">MVP\u003c/span>-F will also be deadly to salmon. The concentration known to be toxic to fish, as reported by the manufacturer, is still less than 1 percent of the concentration at which the retardant is released by aircraft. This means, again, that it can be heavily diluted in the environment and still remain deadly to fish.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan class=\"s1\">The unknown proprietary ingredients in retardants may play a role in this, he said.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan class=\"s1\">“They’re definitely enhancing toxicity,” Dietrich said. “\u003c/span>\u003cspan class=\"s3\">Whether they are working with ammonia or just causing separate effects that are accumulating, I couldn’t say. \u003c/span>\u003cspan class=\"s1\">There is some other source of toxicity that comes into play.”\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan class=\"s1\">Not much is known about how long retardants linger in the environment. But the compounds most often used are known as “long-term” retardants, because they are designed to cling to plants and remain effective for weeks – until they are either burned off or washed away by heavy rain. In the latter case, the chemicals will then flow into streams and lakes.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan class=\"s1\">A team at the \u003cspan class=\"caps\">U.S.\u003c/span> Geological Survey is engaged in a large \u003ca class=\"preview-link\" href=\"https://www.cerc.usgs.gov/ScienceTopics.aspx?ScienceTopicId=1\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">\u003cspan class=\"s2\">research effort\u003c/span>\u003c/a> to analyze the longevity of these chemicals once applied. The results have not yet been published, and the team leader did not respond to a request for comment.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan class=\"s1\">The Forest Service used fire retardants for decades without analyzing their environmental effects. Then, in 2009, \u003ca class=\"preview-link\" href=\"https://www.fseee.org/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">\u003cspan class=\"s2\">Forest Service Employees for Environmental Ethics\u003c/span>\u003c/a>, a nonprofit group, sued the agency, blaming retardants for killing 50 endangered steelhead during a fire near Santa Barbara, California.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan class=\"s1\">The lawsuit resulted in a court order requiring the Forest Service to prepare an environmental impact study, which was \u003ca class=\"preview-link\" href=\"https://www.fs.fed.us/fire/retardant/eis_info.html\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">\u003cspan class=\"s2\">completed\u003c/span>\u003c/a> in 2011. The study concluded retardants are potentially harmful to wildlife and water quality, and set parameters on their use to minimize these effects. These included mapping sensitive \u003ca class=\"preview-link\" href=\"https://www.arcgis.com/home/webmap/viewer.html?webmap=1920b5b8884643dfb1b391453bbbe998\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">\u003cspan class=\"s2\">exclusion zones\u003c/span>\u003c/a> where retardants may not be used.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan class=\"s1\">Also, fire crews are now trained not to drop retardant within 300ft of water bodies if using an airplane, and within 100ft if applied from a helicopter or fire engine. Fire crews can, however, deviate from these guidelines when life or property are threatened.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan class=\"s1\">Earlier this year, the Forest Service prepared a \u003ca class=\"preview-link\" href=\"https://www.fs.fed.us/rm/fire/wfcs/ras.htm\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">\u003cspan class=\"s2\">risk assessment\u003c/span>\u003c/a> to evaluate the ecological effects of the latest retardant chemicals. It reviewed the same products analyzed in Dietrich’s study, as well as others, and acknowledged that toxic effects to fish and plants are possible. But it minimized these concerns by reporting, in the case of fish, that long-term exposure is unlikely in flowing-water environments, and stated that plants would be worse off if they were allowed to burn.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan class=\"s1\">Ingalsbee said even a 300ft buffer may not be enough to protect water and wildlife. Unpredictable fire-fed winds may spread retardant into a stream or lake from much greater distances, he said. Pilot error is also common.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan class=\"s1\">In addition, retardants can alter plant communities long after a fire is extinguished.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan class=\"s1\">Invasive plants are known to aggressively colonize burned areas after a fire. The ammonia in retardants is a potent fertilizer: It can become a kind of junk food for invasive plants, which can quickly crowd out native plants after a fire. As a result, in 2008 the \u003cspan class=\"caps\">U.S.\u003c/span> Fish and Wildlife Service \u003ca class=\"preview-link\" href=\"https://www.fws.gov/invasives/pdfs/USFWS_FireMgtAndInvasivesPlants_A_Handbook.pdf\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">\u003cspan class=\"s2\">recommended\u003c/span>\u003c/a> limiting the use of retardants.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan class=\"s1\">Officials say retardants are made from “food grade” ingredients and pose no danger to people or animals if ingested.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan class=\"s1\">But in the wake of the North Bay fires, Napa County issued an \u003ca class=\"preview-link\" href=\"http://www.countyofnapa.org/Pages/Search.aspx?keywords=retardant\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">\u003cspan class=\"s2\">advisory\u003c/span>\u003c/a> urging residents not to consume fruits and vegetables from backyard gardens that may have been sprayed by fire retardant. Sonoma County offered \u003ca class=\"preview-link\" href=\"http://sonomacounty.ca.gov/EOC-and-PIO/Fires-October-2017/Health-Concerns-and-Resources/%23retardant\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">\u003cspan class=\"s2\">similar\u003c/span>\u003c/a> advice on its website. Both urged residents to wash retardants off plants and buildings “as soon as possible.” But targeting areas hit by retardant may be difficult in some cases, because a coloring agent in the compound is designed to vanish after exposure to sunlight.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan class=\"s1\">Fortunately for California’s wine industry, as much as 90 percent of Napa and Sonoma county grapes had been \u003ca class=\"preview-link\" title=\"Link: http://www.winespectator.com/webfeature/show/id/California-Wine-Fire-Road-Ahead\" href=\"http://www.winespectator.com/webfeature/show/id/California-Wine-Fire-Road-Ahead\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">\u003cspan class=\"s2\">harvested\u003c/span>\u003c/a> before the fires swept through. But some vineyards did get hit by retardant drops, and winery owners have said those grapes won’t be harvested.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp class=\"fin\">\u003cspan class=\"s1\">“The bottom line is, it’s really not benign at all,” Ingalsbee said. “It does have negative effects on native flora and fauna. It does have impacts on water quality and soil.”\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp class=\"fin\">\u003ci>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">This article originally appeared on \u003c/span>\u003c/i>\u003ca href=\"https://mail.kqed.org/owa/redir.aspx?C=9e4bb0e1a7d74f24ba4684ef2533053d&URL=https%3a%2f%2fwww.newsdeeply.com%2fwater\">\u003ci>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Water Deeply\u003c/span>\u003c/i>\u003c/a>\u003ci>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">, and you can find it \u003c/span>\u003c/i>\u003ca href=\"https://www.newsdeeply.com/water/articles/2017/11/27/fire-retardant-use-explodes-as-worries-about-water-wildlife-risk-grow\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">\u003ci>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">here\u003c/span>\u003c/i>\u003c/a>\u003ci>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">. For important news about the California drought, you can \u003c/span>\u003c/i>\u003ca href=\"http://waterdeeply.us5.list-manage.com/subscribe?u=8b78e9a34ff7443ec1e8c62c6&id=2947becb78\">\u003ci>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">sign up\u003c/span>\u003c/i>\u003c/a>\u003ci>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\"> to the Water Deeply email list.\u003c/span>\u003c/i>\u003c/p>\n\n\u003c/div>\u003c/p>",
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"title": "Should PG&E Shut Off Power During Windstorms to Prevent Fires?",
"headTitle": "Should PG&E Shut Off Power During Windstorms to Prevent Fires? | KQED",
"content": "\u003cp>Investigators are still sorting out what caused the North Bay fires, but \u003ca href=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/news/2017/10/31/pge-reports-electric-safety-incidents-at-time-of-north-bay-fires/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">downed power lines\u003c/a> are certainly one of the possible culprits. That has some asking why Pacific Gas & Electric didn’t turn off the power grid ahead of time, as the extreme, warm winds started picking up.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Turns out, that’s something one California utility already routinely does.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In late October, a red flag warning was issued in San Diego, as the Santa Ana winds began descending. San Diego Gas & Electric (SDG&E) tracked it closely with their network of 170 weather stations mounted on power poles.\u003c/p>\n\u003caside class=\"pullquote alignright\">‘It’s certainly possible [to shut down power] with adequate communications.”\u003cbr>\n\u003ccite>Rob Manning, Electric Power Research Institute\u003c/cite>\u003c/aside>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>“\u003c/strong>You start seeing some of these gusts come through some of the backcountry areas that can threaten the integrity of our system,” says Allison Torres, spokesperson for SDG&E.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>High winds have caused major fires in San Diego before. In 2007, the Witch, Guejito and Rice fires burned hundreds of homes. Investigators ruled that power lines were at fault and SDG&E hadn’t adequately maintained its facilities.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad fullwidth]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>So in October, SDG&E shut down the power grid preemptively in the Descanso area due to high winds, high temperatures and low humidity, affecting about 87 customers.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“If something were to come in contact with the lines, there’s no energy flowing through them that might cause an ignition,” says Torres.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>SDG&E says the customers were alerted with automated calls warning them about the outrage. Households with medical devices received more direct outreach.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“We reach out personally to make sure we make contact and they’ve made arrangements or have a backup plan,” says Torres.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Power outages are never popular, but Torres says the utility usually receives only a handful of complaints.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_1917649\" class=\"wp-caption alignright\" style=\"max-width: 800px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-1917649\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/science/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2017/11/pge-tubbs-web2-800x578.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"800\" height=\"578\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2017/11/pge-tubbs-web2-800x578.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2017/11/pge-tubbs-web2-160x116.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2017/11/pge-tubbs-web2-768x555.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2017/11/pge-tubbs-web2-1020x737.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2017/11/pge-tubbs-web2-1180x853.jpg 1180w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2017/11/pge-tubbs-web2-960x694.jpg 960w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2017/11/pge-tubbs-web2-240x173.jpg 240w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2017/11/pge-tubbs-web2-375x271.jpg 375w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2017/11/pge-tubbs-web2-520x376.jpg 520w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2017/11/pge-tubbs-web2.jpg 1273w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 800px) 100vw, 800px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">PG&E works to restore power in Santa Rosa after the Tubbs Fire. \u003ccite>(Adam Grossberg/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>“Nobody wants to see a fire affecting their community,” she says, “so if this is going to give public safety a priority then people are pretty onboard.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Since 2013, the utility has preemptively turn off the power 16 times, affect 1,000 customers in all.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>PG&E doesn’t have a policy to proactively turn off power lines during a warm windstorm, and says doing so could pose safety risks.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“These actions affect first responders and the operation of critical facilities such as hospitals, schools, water pumps and other essential services needed in response to any emergency, and especially in response to wildfires,” the company said in a statement.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>PG&E says it’s in compliance with current fire regulations from the California Public Utilities Commission and will comply with any future changes.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Proactively powering down is something that’s more common in hurricane-prone areas.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Relatively routinely, the barrier islands around the coastal areas will power down as a hurricane comes through,” says Rob Manning, Vice President of Transmission and Distribution at the \u003ca href=\"https://www.epri.com/#/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Electric Power Research Institute\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[contextly_sidebar id=”eMRvsE8BxgkuoxrbPYVMeWDQcnGiYpWr”]Manning says it’s a complex decision that requires adequate pre-planning.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“I’ve been involved with a couple of these,” he says, “and when you have a really robust and effective communications process, people generally agree.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>So far, SDG&E has not shut off power systems that include hospitals or schools.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“It’s certainly possible with adequate communications,” he says, “particularly if sensitive areas have backup generation capabilities.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Powering down can also help avoid damage during a storm.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Damage that occurs from an energized system that is in contact with the ground is more severe than a de-energized system,” says Manning. “It does help when you recover a system not to have to deal with the effects of additional damage.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Cal Fire says during a fire, crews generally treat all power lines as if they are live and are continually in contact with utilities about areas that need powering down.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>A Cal Fire spokesman wouldn’t comment on whether proactively powering down the grid would have helped during the north Bay Area fires, because of the ongoing investigation.\u003c/p>\n\n",
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"headline": "Should PG&E Shut Off Power During Windstorms to Prevent Fires?",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003cp>Investigators are still sorting out what caused the North Bay fires, but \u003ca href=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/news/2017/10/31/pge-reports-electric-safety-incidents-at-time-of-north-bay-fires/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">downed power lines\u003c/a> are certainly one of the possible culprits. That has some asking why Pacific Gas & Electric didn’t turn off the power grid ahead of time, as the extreme, warm winds started picking up.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Turns out, that’s something one California utility already routinely does.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In late October, a red flag warning was issued in San Diego, as the Santa Ana winds began descending. San Diego Gas & Electric (SDG&E) tracked it closely with their network of 170 weather stations mounted on power poles.\u003c/p>\n\u003caside class=\"pullquote alignright\">‘It’s certainly possible [to shut down power] with adequate communications.”\u003cbr>\n\u003ccite>Rob Manning, Electric Power Research Institute\u003c/cite>\u003c/aside>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>“\u003c/strong>You start seeing some of these gusts come through some of the backcountry areas that can threaten the integrity of our system,” says Allison Torres, spokesperson for SDG&E.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>High winds have caused major fires in San Diego before. In 2007, the Witch, Guejito and Rice fires burned hundreds of homes. Investigators ruled that power lines were at fault and SDG&E hadn’t adequately maintained its facilities.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>So in October, SDG&E shut down the power grid preemptively in the Descanso area due to high winds, high temperatures and low humidity, affecting about 87 customers.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“If something were to come in contact with the lines, there’s no energy flowing through them that might cause an ignition,” says Torres.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>SDG&E says the customers were alerted with automated calls warning them about the outrage. Households with medical devices received more direct outreach.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“We reach out personally to make sure we make contact and they’ve made arrangements or have a backup plan,” says Torres.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Power outages are never popular, but Torres says the utility usually receives only a handful of complaints.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_1917649\" class=\"wp-caption alignright\" style=\"max-width: 800px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-1917649\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/science/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2017/11/pge-tubbs-web2-800x578.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"800\" height=\"578\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2017/11/pge-tubbs-web2-800x578.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2017/11/pge-tubbs-web2-160x116.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2017/11/pge-tubbs-web2-768x555.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2017/11/pge-tubbs-web2-1020x737.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2017/11/pge-tubbs-web2-1180x853.jpg 1180w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2017/11/pge-tubbs-web2-960x694.jpg 960w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2017/11/pge-tubbs-web2-240x173.jpg 240w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2017/11/pge-tubbs-web2-375x271.jpg 375w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2017/11/pge-tubbs-web2-520x376.jpg 520w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2017/11/pge-tubbs-web2.jpg 1273w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 800px) 100vw, 800px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">PG&E works to restore power in Santa Rosa after the Tubbs Fire. \u003ccite>(Adam Grossberg/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>“Nobody wants to see a fire affecting their community,” she says, “so if this is going to give public safety a priority then people are pretty onboard.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Since 2013, the utility has preemptively turn off the power 16 times, affect 1,000 customers in all.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>PG&E doesn’t have a policy to proactively turn off power lines during a warm windstorm, and says doing so could pose safety risks.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“These actions affect first responders and the operation of critical facilities such as hospitals, schools, water pumps and other essential services needed in response to any emergency, and especially in response to wildfires,” the company said in a statement.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>PG&E says it’s in compliance with current fire regulations from the California Public Utilities Commission and will comply with any future changes.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Proactively powering down is something that’s more common in hurricane-prone areas.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Relatively routinely, the barrier islands around the coastal areas will power down as a hurricane comes through,” says Rob Manning, Vice President of Transmission and Distribution at the \u003ca href=\"https://www.epri.com/#/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Electric Power Research Institute\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003cp>Manning says it’s a complex decision that requires adequate pre-planning.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“I’ve been involved with a couple of these,” he says, “and when you have a really robust and effective communications process, people generally agree.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>So far, SDG&E has not shut off power systems that include hospitals or schools.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“It’s certainly possible with adequate communications,” he says, “particularly if sensitive areas have backup generation capabilities.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Powering down can also help avoid damage during a storm.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Damage that occurs from an energized system that is in contact with the ground is more severe than a de-energized system,” says Manning. “It does help when you recover a system not to have to deal with the effects of additional damage.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Cal Fire says during a fire, crews generally treat all power lines as if they are live and are continually in contact with utilities about areas that need powering down.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>A Cal Fire spokesman wouldn’t comment on whether proactively powering down the grid would have helped during the north Bay Area fires, because of the ongoing investigation.\u003c/p>\n\n\u003c/div>\u003c/p>",
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"title": "Breathing Fire: Californians' Health Is a Casualty of Climate-Fueled Blazes",
"headTitle": "Breathing Fire: Californians’ Health Is a Casualty of Climate-Fueled Blazes | KQED",
"content": "\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-size: 4.6875em;float: left;line-height: 0.733em;padding: 0.05em 0.1em 0 0;font-family: times, serif, georgia\">A\u003c/span>s the deadliest fires in California history swept through leafy neighborhoods in Santa Rosa, Kathleen Sarmento fled her home in the dark, drove to an evacuation center and began setting up a medical triage unit. Patients with burns and other severe injuries were dispatched to hospitals. She set about treating many people whose symptoms resulted from exposure to polluted air and heavy smoke.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“People were coming in with headaches. I had one. My eyes were burning,” said Sarmento, the director of nursing at Santa Rosa Community Health, which provides health care for those who cannot afford it. But respiratory problems — coughs and shortness of breath — were among the biggest risks. “We made sure everyone had a mask.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>More than half of the evacuees at the shelter that October night were elderly, some from nursing homes who needed oxygen 24/7. Sarmento scrambled to find regulators for oxygen tanks that were otherwise useless. It was a chaotic night — but what came to worry her most were the weeks and months ahead.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[contextly_sidebar id=”Xlg0O9oyLXkaXQvm4ibSW3KwbYbGKbmz”]“It looked like it was snowing for days,” Sarmento said of the falling ash. “People really need to take the smoke seriously. You’ve got cars exploding, tires burning. There has to be some long- term effect” on people’s health.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>From Puget Sound to Disneyland and east over the Rockies, Americans have coughed and wheezed, rushed to emergency rooms and shut themselves indoors this year as pollution from wildfires darkened skies and rained soot across the landscape. Even to healthy people, it can make breathing a miserable, chest-heaving experience. To the elderly, the young and the frail, the pollution can be disabling or deadly.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad fullwidth]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Even though the nation has greatly improved air quality over the last 40 years through environmental regulations and technological improvements, the increasing frequency of large wildfires now undermines that progress, releasing copious pollutants that spread far and wide through the air and linger long after the fires are extinguished.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Scientists say climate change, degraded ecosystems and the fickleness of the weather have been amplifying fires in forests, grasslands and neighborhoods throughout the West. Nine times more western forestland is burning in large fires each year on average now than 30 years ago, according to \u003ca href=\"http://www.pnas.org/content/113/42/11770.abstract\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">calculations by two leading scientists\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_1917533\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 6068px\">\u003ca href=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/science/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2017/11/Colette-Hatch-Santa-Rosa.Heidi-de-Marco-KHN.jpg\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-1917533\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/science/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2017/11/Colette-Hatch-Santa-Rosa.Heidi-de-Marco-KHN.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"6068\" height=\"4050\">\u003c/a>\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Colette Hatch has a lung disease and uses a nebulizer daily. Three weeks after the fires started, she still won’t open her windows and sleeps with an air purifier. “I still have a dry cough, a dry throat,” she says. \u003ccite>(Heidi de Marco/KHN)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>The blazes create smoke waves — pulses of pollution containing everything from charred plastic residue to soot to other small particles that lodge deep in the lungs. They can trigger short-term ailments, such as coughing; worsen chronic diseases, such as asthma; and lead to long-term damage, including cancer.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The effect of the fires in Northern California’s wine country, which destroyed thousands of homes and killed 43 people, went well beyond the burn zone. The smoke choked the San Francisco Bay Area, home to 7 million people in nine counties, for days.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Colette Hatch, 75, of Santa Rosa, who suffers from lung disease and uses a nebulizer daily, evacuated to her daughter’s home in Sunnyvale, in Silicon Valley, when the fires came. But even nearly 100 miles away, Hatch said she struggled to breathe, coughing so hard she couldn’t sleep.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Wafting beyond Oakland and Livermore in the East Bay, the smoke headed into California’s agricultural heartland, the Sacramento and San Joaquin valleys.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Known collectively as the Central Valley, it stretches for hundreds of miles roughly north to south, bracketed by mountain ranges that trap some of the dirtiest air in America. Increasingly, wildfires like the ones in Northern California’s wine country funnel smoke into the chute, significantly raising the pollution levels in places as far away as Fresno.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_1917547\" class=\"wp-caption alignright\" style=\"max-width: 3264px\">\u003ca href=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/science/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2017/11/Prescribed-Burn.John-Upton.jpg\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-1917547\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/science/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2017/11/Prescribed-Burn.John-Upton.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"3264\" height=\"2448\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2017/11/Prescribed-Burn.John-Upton.jpg 3264w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2017/11/Prescribed-Burn.John-Upton-160x120.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2017/11/Prescribed-Burn.John-Upton-800x600.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2017/11/Prescribed-Burn.John-Upton-768x576.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2017/11/Prescribed-Burn.John-Upton-1020x765.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2017/11/Prescribed-Burn.John-Upton-1920x1440.jpg 1920w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2017/11/Prescribed-Burn.John-Upton-1180x885.jpg 1180w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2017/11/Prescribed-Burn.John-Upton-960x720.jpg 960w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2017/11/Prescribed-Burn.John-Upton-240x180.jpg 240w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2017/11/Prescribed-Burn.John-Upton-375x281.jpg 375w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2017/11/Prescribed-Burn.John-Upton-520x390.jpg 520w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 3264px) 100vw, 3264px\">\u003c/a>\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Firefighter Josh Bien ignites the forest floor during a prescribed burn in Sierra National Park. \u003ccite>(John Upton/Climate Central)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Climate Central, a research and journalism nonprofit, examined air district data from California’s Sacramento and San Joaquin valleys. \u003ca href=\"http://www.climatecentral.org/news/report-wildfires-undermining-air-pollution-progress-21753\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">The analysis\u003c/a> showed that while the number of heavily polluted days is falling overall each year on average — those days are occurring more frequently during the peak fire season. The researchers, who share their work with editorially independent journalists, say wildfire smoke is to blame.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Monitors in the San Joaquin Valley and San Francisco Bay Area showed levels spiked in October as the wine country fires sullied skies.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>With large wildfires on the rise, smoke and the attendant breathing ailments seemed everywhere this year. In September, smoke from fires burning in California, the Pacific Northwest and Montana pushed as far east as Pennsylvania. Smoke triggered emergency declarations in Washington state and California. The Evergreen State was experiencing few fires of its own in July when it was hit by smoke waves that poured across the Canadian border. And smoke returned to much of the northwest in August and September as fires \u003ca href=\"http://vis.ecowest.org/interactive/wildfires.php#year=2017&firekey=waowf-000351&f=all&h=0\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">broke out in the Cascades\u003c/a> and \u003ca href=\"http://vis.ecowest.org/interactive/wildfires.php#year=2017&firekey=ormhf-000176&f=all&h=0\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">the Columbia Gorge\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“I remember waking up one morning and the sky was orangey-red and there was ash falling out of the sky,” said \u003ca href=\"http://deohs.washington.edu/faculty/hess_jeremy\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Jeremy Hess\u003c/a>, a researcher and physician at the University of Washington in Seattle. “This summer was very busy for us in the emergency department and we were often over capacity. If it wasn’t the smoke, it was the heat,” Hess said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>As World Warms, Environment and Health Suffer\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The blazes came after \u003ca href=\"http://www.mercurynews.com/2017/09/01/bay-area-weather-scorching-temperatures-will-produce-hottest-days-in-a-decade/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">record-breaking late summer heat\u003c/a> dried out grass that had flourished following \u003ca href=\"http://www.pressdemocrat.com/news/6861398-181/just-like-that-santa-rosa?gallery=6866230&artslide=0\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">record-breaking winter rains\u003c/a> — both forms of extreme weather that are worsened by global warming. In addition, a high pressure system over the Pacific fanned the flames by driving unusually hot and powerful seasonal winds into Northern California from the dry highlands of Nevada.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The immediate precipitant may have been sparks from power lines, although \u003ca href=\"http://www.pressdemocrat.com/news/7567756-181/north-bay-fires-a-complex?artslide=0\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">investigations into the causes\u003c/a> are ongoing. But a changing climate helped fuel the blazes.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_1917529\" class=\"wp-caption alignleft\" style=\"max-width: 451px\">\u003ca href=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/science/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2017/11/Trees-killed-by-drought.John-Upton.jpg\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\" wp-image-1917529\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/science/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2017/11/Trees-killed-by-drought.John-Upton.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"451\" height=\"300\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2017/11/Trees-killed-by-drought.John-Upton.jpg 5184w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2017/11/Trees-killed-by-drought.John-Upton-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2017/11/Trees-killed-by-drought.John-Upton-800x533.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2017/11/Trees-killed-by-drought.John-Upton-768x512.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2017/11/Trees-killed-by-drought.John-Upton-1020x680.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2017/11/Trees-killed-by-drought.John-Upton-1920x1280.jpg 1920w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2017/11/Trees-killed-by-drought.John-Upton-1180x787.jpg 1180w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2017/11/Trees-killed-by-drought.John-Upton-960x640.jpg 960w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2017/11/Trees-killed-by-drought.John-Upton-240x160.jpg 240w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2017/11/Trees-killed-by-drought.John-Upton-375x250.jpg 375w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2017/11/Trees-killed-by-drought.John-Upton-520x347.jpg 520w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 451px) 100vw, 451px\">\u003c/a>\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Trees killed by the effects of drought in the Sierra National Forest. \u003ccite>(John Upton/Climate Central)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>“Climate change was not the cause but it’s definitely an ingredient,” said \u003ca href=\"http://www.ldeo.columbia.edu/user/williams\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Park Williams\u003c/a>, a climate and ecology researcher at Columbia University’s Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory. And that means worse is to come.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Williams said there was a clear connection between the nearly 2 degrees Fahrenheit overall increase in global temperature since the late 1800s and the severity of these and other fires. (Warming in the West has been outpacing the global average in recent decades because of natural cycles.)\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Fire really responds strongly to even that small of a change of temperature,” said Williams, whose assessment of global warming’s role in the wine country fires is shared by other experts.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Environmentally, the fires are a double whammy: They destroy trees that help to slow global warming by absorbing heat-trapping carbon dioxide as they grow. They also release carbon dioxide stored within, as well as black carbon that melts snow and ice.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Research \u003ca href=\"http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0378112715001796\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">indicated in 2015 that large fires had helped turn \u003c/a>California’s forests and other lands into polluters, releasing more carbon to the atmosphere than they suck back in. The state’s wildlands released more heat-trapping pollution from 2001 through 2010 than Vermont’s entire economy. Rising temperatures aren’t the only cause — the forests are overloaded with fuel following more than a century of aggressive firefighting.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>While public attention has tended to focus on other health risks from climate change such as heat stroke in summer and the spread of mosquito-borne diseases northward, the effects of smoke pollution have been gaining more attention following dramatic and widespread wildfires.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_1917553\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 1024px\">\u003ca href=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/science/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2017/11/San-Fran-in-Smoke.Amy-Graff-SFGATE.jpg\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-1917553\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/science/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2017/11/San-Fran-in-Smoke.Amy-Graff-SFGATE.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"1024\" height=\"768\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2017/11/San-Fran-in-Smoke.Amy-Graff-SFGATE.jpg 1024w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2017/11/San-Fran-in-Smoke.Amy-Graff-SFGATE-160x120.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2017/11/San-Fran-in-Smoke.Amy-Graff-SFGATE-800x600.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2017/11/San-Fran-in-Smoke.Amy-Graff-SFGATE-768x576.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2017/11/San-Fran-in-Smoke.Amy-Graff-SFGATE-1020x765.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2017/11/San-Fran-in-Smoke.Amy-Graff-SFGATE-960x720.jpg 960w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2017/11/San-Fran-in-Smoke.Amy-Graff-SFGATE-240x180.jpg 240w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2017/11/San-Fran-in-Smoke.Amy-Graff-SFGATE-375x281.jpg 375w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2017/11/San-Fran-in-Smoke.Amy-Graff-SFGATE-520x390.jpg 520w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1024px) 100vw, 1024px\">\u003c/a>\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Smoky air in San Francisco during the North Bay fires. \u003ccite>(Amy Graff/SFGate)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>The most dangerous pollution from wildfires is fine soot — “really small particles that we know can get into the lungs,” said \u003ca href=\"https://www.colorado.edu/geography/colleen-reid-0\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Colleen Reid\u003c/a>, a geographer at the University of Colorado who researches climate change and human health. It’s known as PM2.5, meaning “particulate matter” that’s less than 2.5 microns wide, only visible using microscopes.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>It can nestle into lung tissue and pass into the bloodstream, contributing to an array of health problems including infections and, potentially, heart attacks.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Symptoms related to smoke waves may not be diagnosed right away, making it hard to recognize the role a fire may have played in an illness or death. Reid led an analysis \u003ca href=\"https://ehp.niehs.nih.gov/14-09277/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">published a year ago\u003c/a> based on hundreds of studies into fire pollution’s health effects. The clearest links shown in the studies were between PM2.5 and asthma and other breathing problems; links to heart disease were less conclusive.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Researchers from leading American universities\u003ca href=\"https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/27648592\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"> examined fire pollution \u003c/a>across the West, finding that two of every three counties in the region suffered at least one smoke wave from 2004 through 2009. When they correlated those findings with medical data, they found a 7 percent jump in breathing-related hospitalizations after smoke levels were most extreme.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_1917531\" class=\"wp-caption alignright\" style=\"max-width: 6963px\">\u003ca href=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/science/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2017/11/air-pollution-9.-Coffey-Park-neighborhood-of-Santa-Rosa.Heidi-de-Marco-KHN.jpg\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-1917531\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/science/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2017/11/air-pollution-9.-Coffey-Park-neighborhood-of-Santa-Rosa.Heidi-de-Marco-KHN.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"6963\" height=\"4647\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2017/11/air-pollution-9.-Coffey-Park-neighborhood-of-Santa-Rosa.Heidi-de-Marco-KHN.jpg 6963w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2017/11/air-pollution-9.-Coffey-Park-neighborhood-of-Santa-Rosa.Heidi-de-Marco-KHN-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2017/11/air-pollution-9.-Coffey-Park-neighborhood-of-Santa-Rosa.Heidi-de-Marco-KHN-800x534.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2017/11/air-pollution-9.-Coffey-Park-neighborhood-of-Santa-Rosa.Heidi-de-Marco-KHN-768x513.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2017/11/air-pollution-9.-Coffey-Park-neighborhood-of-Santa-Rosa.Heidi-de-Marco-KHN-1020x681.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2017/11/air-pollution-9.-Coffey-Park-neighborhood-of-Santa-Rosa.Heidi-de-Marco-KHN-1920x1281.jpg 1920w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2017/11/air-pollution-9.-Coffey-Park-neighborhood-of-Santa-Rosa.Heidi-de-Marco-KHN-1180x788.jpg 1180w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2017/11/air-pollution-9.-Coffey-Park-neighborhood-of-Santa-Rosa.Heidi-de-Marco-KHN-960x641.jpg 960w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2017/11/air-pollution-9.-Coffey-Park-neighborhood-of-Santa-Rosa.Heidi-de-Marco-KHN-240x160.jpg 240w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2017/11/air-pollution-9.-Coffey-Park-neighborhood-of-Santa-Rosa.Heidi-de-Marco-KHN-375x250.jpg 375w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2017/11/air-pollution-9.-Coffey-Park-neighborhood-of-Santa-Rosa.Heidi-de-Marco-KHN-520x347.jpg 520w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 6963px) 100vw, 6963px\">\u003c/a>\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Remnants from the fire in the Coffey Park neighborhood of Santa Rosa, Calif., on Oct. 27, 2017. \u003ccite>(Heidi de Marco/KHN)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>“An acute fire lasting, for example, days to weeks, may not show up as an immediate problem but as health problems that may occur over a time span of weeks or months,” said Loretta Mickley, a Harvard researcher who worked on the study.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>This Summer in California\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Elva Hernandez, 51, has lived in the San Joaquin Valley most of her life. She’s suffered from asthma since she was 10. This summer she was stuck inside her house for several weeks as smoke waves suffocated her neighborhood in the small town of Kerman, Calif., near Fresno.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“The smell, all the dust, the smoke, the smog, everything, it’s just — you can’t breathe,” said Hernandez, a stay-at-home mom whose husband analyzes lab samples at a hospital. “You can’t live your life normally.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The San Joaquin Valley is home to 4 million people, many of them poor. One in six children suffers from asthma. Poor people often are most affected by air pollution, partly because they tend to live in more drafty housing in more polluted neighborhoods.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But enforcement of federal regulations dating to the Nixon administration has been reducing air pollution from fossil fuels and fertilizers in the valley, requiring cleaner engines for trucks and the replacement of outdated equipment on farms.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“We’ve been seeing a lot of positive trends,” said Jon Klassen, manager of the air monitoring team at the San Joaquin Valley Air Pollution Control District. At the same time, “there’s a lot more emissions coming from these fires. They’re uncontrollable. They’re very difficult to deal with.”\u003c/p>\n\u003caside class=\"pullquote alignright\">‘We’re trying to ensure that we have healthy, resilient forests that are net sinks of carbon.’\u003ccite>Russ Henly, California Natural Resources Agency\u003c/cite>\u003c/aside>\n\u003cp>Research looking at air pollution levels helps explain why people like Hernandez are suffering more during fire seasons. The Climate Central analysis of San Joaquin Valley air data showed that while the number of days each year on which levels of PM2.5 exceeded federal standards declined by about 45 percent overall from 2000 to 2016, they increased by almost a third during the peak summer fire season.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In the Sacramento Valley to the north, summer fire season pollution has been responsible for about 40 percent of the days when federal standards for PM2.5 pollution were exceeded in recent years. That’s up from less than a tenth of them earlier this century, the researchers found.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Wildfires also release toxic material and chemicals that react in the atmosphere to form ozone pollution, which can hang over neighborhoods as haze. Ozone irritates lungs and throats, triggers shortness of breath and aggravates diseases like bronchitis, emphysema, and asthma.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Hernandez’s asthma doctor, Praveen Buddiga, who operates his own practice in nearby Fresno, treated patients with oxygen and medicine during September fires in the Sierra Nevada mountains, which straddle California and Nevada. He did so again following the wine country fires in October. For asthmatics, the onslaughts of fire pollution are “like pouring a little salt into the wounds,” he said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Buddiga suggests his patients limit their time outside, drive with windows rolled up and wear masks when smoke waves hit. Better yet, he advises them to leave the area if possible until the smoke clears.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_1917530\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 1150px\">\u003ca href=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/science/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2017/11/2016.07.11-Stanislaus-National-Forrest-still-photography-014.Jason-Steinberg.jpg\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-1917530\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/science/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2017/11/2016.07.11-Stanislaus-National-Forrest-still-photography-014.Jason-Steinberg.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"1150\" height=\"768\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2017/11/2016.07.11-Stanislaus-National-Forrest-still-photography-014.Jason-Steinberg.jpg 1150w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2017/11/2016.07.11-Stanislaus-National-Forrest-still-photography-014.Jason-Steinberg-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2017/11/2016.07.11-Stanislaus-National-Forrest-still-photography-014.Jason-Steinberg-800x534.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2017/11/2016.07.11-Stanislaus-National-Forrest-still-photography-014.Jason-Steinberg-768x513.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2017/11/2016.07.11-Stanislaus-National-Forrest-still-photography-014.Jason-Steinberg-1020x681.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2017/11/2016.07.11-Stanislaus-National-Forrest-still-photography-014.Jason-Steinberg-960x641.jpg 960w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2017/11/2016.07.11-Stanislaus-National-Forrest-still-photography-014.Jason-Steinberg-240x160.jpg 240w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2017/11/2016.07.11-Stanislaus-National-Forrest-still-photography-014.Jason-Steinberg-375x250.jpg 375w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2017/11/2016.07.11-Stanislaus-National-Forrest-still-photography-014.Jason-Steinberg-520x347.jpg 520w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1150px) 100vw, 1150px\">\u003c/a>\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Stands of trees killed by the 2013 Rim Fire in Stanislaus National Forest. \u003ccite>(Jason Steinberg/Climate Central)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>But risks can be difficult to gauge for patients and experts who want to offer precautions. Scientists who sampled pollution from wildfires using a NASA jet \u003ca href=\"http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/2016JD026315/abstract\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">reported in June\u003c/a> that fire pollution is being “significantly underestimated” by the federal government. While fleets of mobile air monitors are deployed near fires to help government agencies project the movement of smoke waves, the network of permanent monitors is sparse.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“We have no real good way of communicating to people, ‘Hey, the wildfire smoke is really bad in these spots, and this is where you take precautions,’” said Rob Carlmark, a weathercaster with ABC10 in Sacramento whose audience stretches from Bay Area cities to Lake Tahoe at the Nevada border. Absent local smoke pollution data, he tells viewers, “The best smoke detector is your nose.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Lighting Up to Protect Lungs — and the Planet\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Josh Bien wore a heavy pack and held a hoe in one hand. Using the other, the firefighter dripped a burning mixture of diesel fuel and gasoline on the forest floor from a spouted canister. Saplings and beds of pine needles sizzled and burned around him in a national forest in the Sierra Nevada, an hour’s drive east of Fresno.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Like smoke from suburban fires in the San Francisco Bay Area, that from large wildfires in the forest of this 600-mile mountain range can travel into the Central Valley. A spate of large fires in August and September created heavy smoke that suffocated foothills towns and drove people like Elva Hernandez indoors.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Devastating forest fire seasons in recent years \u003ca href=\"https://www.fs.usda.gov/treesearch/pubs/53771\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">have prompted research\u003c/a> pointing to the need for more prescribed burns like this one. They’re set and managed by firefighters and foresters and guided by computer models that predict the spread of fires and their smoke. They’re aimed at removing highly flammable undergrowth and spare the mature trees.\u003c/p>\n\u003caside class=\"pullquote alignright\">‘The challenge we still face is how to get out of decades of managing forests in ways that increase, rather than decrease, fire risk.’\u003ccite>Chris Field, ecology professor at Stanford University\u003c/cite>\u003c/aside>\n\u003cp>“You can either do it on your terms,” said Adam Hernandez, a prescribed fire and fuels management officer with the U.S. Forest Service, as gray smoke billowed around, “or you wait for that wildfire to come and it does it on its terms — and then you’re in a bad way.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Small fires used to burn regularly through the understories of the Sierra Nevada’s forests, started by lightning and native tribes. That changed after the Native Americans were forced from the mountain range, followed by more than a century of logging and aggressive firefighting. Those activities replaced stands of large, fire-resistant trees with thickets of smaller ones, building up fuel for enormous blazes.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“When you have some of these extreme wildfires, you’re creating more harmful emissions,” said Jonathan Long, an ecologist with the U.S. Forest Service. Extreme fires burn larger areas and their flames jump from forest floors to incinerate canopies, producing heavy black smoke and killing mature trees. “We think taking the medicine in small doses is a lot healthier.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The excessive undergrowth amplified the impact of California’s recent drought — there was too little water for so many trees. More than 100 million trees may have died across the Sierra Nevada in recent years. The dead trees can provide nesting cavities and their logs create important habitat for wildlife, but some scientists fear they may also intensify fires after they topple into desiccated piles.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The federal government has been striking agreements with state agencies to use more prescribed burns and take other steps to better manage forests. In January, California \u003ca href=\"http://fire.ca.gov/fcat/downloads/California%20Forest%20Carbon%20Plan%20Draft%20for%20Public%20Review_Jan17.pdf\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">released an ambitious draft plan\u003c/a> to restore forests over the decades to come — through a focus on prescribed burns — with the goal of reducing pollution from wildfires.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“We’re trying to ensure that we have healthy, resilient forests that are net sinks of carbon so that they’re storing more carbon than they’re releasing,” said Russ Henly, a California Natural Resources Agency official who helped draft the plan. By 2020, the plan seeks to double the amount of land treated using prescribed burns to 35,000 acres a year.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>With so many local, state and federal agencies overseeing environmental rules and owning land in California, the state says coordination will be key. For example, the San Joaquin Valley Air Pollution Control District can prevent national parks and other landowners from conducting prescribed burns when pollution levels will be affected — which is most of the time.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Mindful of the growing danger of big blazes, the air district has become more accommodating of prescribed fires. Still, finding the money to pay for the work remains a challenge.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Some members of Congress have pushed logging as a way to ease forest fires, though that approach could have the opposite effect: Trees valued by loggers tend to be the largest and most fire-resistant. Troublesome small trees and dead ones have little value other than as fuel for power plants, and even then they’re generally too expensive to gather. Low natural gas prices have been forcing the closure of biomass power plants, which are fueled with wood.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Even if the money is found to improve forest management, climate change will likely limit the progress from improved forest management, said Christopher Field, an ecology professor at Stanford University. The fire season will continue to lengthen. Landscapes will continue to dry out. “The challenge we still face is how to get out of decades of managing forests in ways that increase, rather than decrease, fire risk,” he said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Field oversaw a survey dealing with Sierra Nevada forests completed by 75 academics, government officials and nonprofit and industry employees. While most agreed that prescribed burns and other approaches can lock carbon into the mountain’s ecosystems, they warned it will be difficult to overcome the losses from wildfires as temperatures rise.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>California doesn’t include carbon losses from forest fires when it tallies its progress toward reducing climate pollution. But amid the burning, logging and clearing of tropical forests from Indonesia to the Amazon and the Congo, destructive fires in the forestlands of a U.S. state that has some of the world’s most ambitious climate goals are contributing to the problem.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad floatright]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>And, in the process, they are making people sick.\u003cbr>\n\u003cem>\u003cbr>\nThis story was produced through a partnership between \u003ca href=\"http://www.climatecentral.org/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Climate Central \u003c/a>and \u003ca href=\"https://khn.org/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Kaiser Health News\u003c/a> with support from the \u003ca href=\"https://west.stanford.edu/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Bill Lane Center for the American West \u003c/a>at Stanford University. \u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\n",
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"excerpt": "Large wildfires are releasing pollution that’s undermining decades of progress in cleaning the air, sickening Americans.",
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"title": "Breathing Fire: Californians' Health Is a Casualty of Climate-Fueled Blazes | KQED",
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"headline": "Breathing Fire: Californians' Health Is a Casualty of Climate-Fueled Blazes",
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"nprByline": "\u003ca href=\"http://www.climatecentral.org/what-we-do/people/john-upton\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">John Upton\u003c/a>, Climate Central\u003c/br>\u003ca href=\"https://californiahealthline.org/news/author/barbara-feder-ostrov/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Barbara Feder Ostrov\u003c/a>, California Healthline",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-size: 4.6875em;float: left;line-height: 0.733em;padding: 0.05em 0.1em 0 0;font-family: times, serif, georgia\">A\u003c/span>s the deadliest fires in California history swept through leafy neighborhoods in Santa Rosa, Kathleen Sarmento fled her home in the dark, drove to an evacuation center and began setting up a medical triage unit. Patients with burns and other severe injuries were dispatched to hospitals. She set about treating many people whose symptoms resulted from exposure to polluted air and heavy smoke.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“People were coming in with headaches. I had one. My eyes were burning,” said Sarmento, the director of nursing at Santa Rosa Community Health, which provides health care for those who cannot afford it. But respiratory problems — coughs and shortness of breath — were among the biggest risks. “We made sure everyone had a mask.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>More than half of the evacuees at the shelter that October night were elderly, some from nursing homes who needed oxygen 24/7. Sarmento scrambled to find regulators for oxygen tanks that were otherwise useless. It was a chaotic night — but what came to worry her most were the weeks and months ahead.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003cp>“It looked like it was snowing for days,” Sarmento said of the falling ash. “People really need to take the smoke seriously. You’ve got cars exploding, tires burning. There has to be some long- term effect” on people’s health.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>From Puget Sound to Disneyland and east over the Rockies, Americans have coughed and wheezed, rushed to emergency rooms and shut themselves indoors this year as pollution from wildfires darkened skies and rained soot across the landscape. Even to healthy people, it can make breathing a miserable, chest-heaving experience. To the elderly, the young and the frail, the pollution can be disabling or deadly.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Even though the nation has greatly improved air quality over the last 40 years through environmental regulations and technological improvements, the increasing frequency of large wildfires now undermines that progress, releasing copious pollutants that spread far and wide through the air and linger long after the fires are extinguished.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Scientists say climate change, degraded ecosystems and the fickleness of the weather have been amplifying fires in forests, grasslands and neighborhoods throughout the West. Nine times more western forestland is burning in large fires each year on average now than 30 years ago, according to \u003ca href=\"http://www.pnas.org/content/113/42/11770.abstract\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">calculations by two leading scientists\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_1917533\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 6068px\">\u003ca href=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/science/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2017/11/Colette-Hatch-Santa-Rosa.Heidi-de-Marco-KHN.jpg\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-1917533\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/science/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2017/11/Colette-Hatch-Santa-Rosa.Heidi-de-Marco-KHN.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"6068\" height=\"4050\">\u003c/a>\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Colette Hatch has a lung disease and uses a nebulizer daily. Three weeks after the fires started, she still won’t open her windows and sleeps with an air purifier. “I still have a dry cough, a dry throat,” she says. \u003ccite>(Heidi de Marco/KHN)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>The blazes create smoke waves — pulses of pollution containing everything from charred plastic residue to soot to other small particles that lodge deep in the lungs. They can trigger short-term ailments, such as coughing; worsen chronic diseases, such as asthma; and lead to long-term damage, including cancer.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The effect of the fires in Northern California’s wine country, which destroyed thousands of homes and killed 43 people, went well beyond the burn zone. The smoke choked the San Francisco Bay Area, home to 7 million people in nine counties, for days.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Colette Hatch, 75, of Santa Rosa, who suffers from lung disease and uses a nebulizer daily, evacuated to her daughter’s home in Sunnyvale, in Silicon Valley, when the fires came. But even nearly 100 miles away, Hatch said she struggled to breathe, coughing so hard she couldn’t sleep.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Wafting beyond Oakland and Livermore in the East Bay, the smoke headed into California’s agricultural heartland, the Sacramento and San Joaquin valleys.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Known collectively as the Central Valley, it stretches for hundreds of miles roughly north to south, bracketed by mountain ranges that trap some of the dirtiest air in America. Increasingly, wildfires like the ones in Northern California’s wine country funnel smoke into the chute, significantly raising the pollution levels in places as far away as Fresno.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_1917547\" class=\"wp-caption alignright\" style=\"max-width: 3264px\">\u003ca href=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/science/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2017/11/Prescribed-Burn.John-Upton.jpg\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-1917547\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/science/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2017/11/Prescribed-Burn.John-Upton.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"3264\" height=\"2448\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2017/11/Prescribed-Burn.John-Upton.jpg 3264w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2017/11/Prescribed-Burn.John-Upton-160x120.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2017/11/Prescribed-Burn.John-Upton-800x600.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2017/11/Prescribed-Burn.John-Upton-768x576.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2017/11/Prescribed-Burn.John-Upton-1020x765.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2017/11/Prescribed-Burn.John-Upton-1920x1440.jpg 1920w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2017/11/Prescribed-Burn.John-Upton-1180x885.jpg 1180w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2017/11/Prescribed-Burn.John-Upton-960x720.jpg 960w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2017/11/Prescribed-Burn.John-Upton-240x180.jpg 240w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2017/11/Prescribed-Burn.John-Upton-375x281.jpg 375w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2017/11/Prescribed-Burn.John-Upton-520x390.jpg 520w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 3264px) 100vw, 3264px\">\u003c/a>\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Firefighter Josh Bien ignites the forest floor during a prescribed burn in Sierra National Park. \u003ccite>(John Upton/Climate Central)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Climate Central, a research and journalism nonprofit, examined air district data from California’s Sacramento and San Joaquin valleys. \u003ca href=\"http://www.climatecentral.org/news/report-wildfires-undermining-air-pollution-progress-21753\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">The analysis\u003c/a> showed that while the number of heavily polluted days is falling overall each year on average — those days are occurring more frequently during the peak fire season. The researchers, who share their work with editorially independent journalists, say wildfire smoke is to blame.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Monitors in the San Joaquin Valley and San Francisco Bay Area showed levels spiked in October as the wine country fires sullied skies.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>With large wildfires on the rise, smoke and the attendant breathing ailments seemed everywhere this year. In September, smoke from fires burning in California, the Pacific Northwest and Montana pushed as far east as Pennsylvania. Smoke triggered emergency declarations in Washington state and California. The Evergreen State was experiencing few fires of its own in July when it was hit by smoke waves that poured across the Canadian border. And smoke returned to much of the northwest in August and September as fires \u003ca href=\"http://vis.ecowest.org/interactive/wildfires.php#year=2017&firekey=waowf-000351&f=all&h=0\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">broke out in the Cascades\u003c/a> and \u003ca href=\"http://vis.ecowest.org/interactive/wildfires.php#year=2017&firekey=ormhf-000176&f=all&h=0\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">the Columbia Gorge\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“I remember waking up one morning and the sky was orangey-red and there was ash falling out of the sky,” said \u003ca href=\"http://deohs.washington.edu/faculty/hess_jeremy\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Jeremy Hess\u003c/a>, a researcher and physician at the University of Washington in Seattle. “This summer was very busy for us in the emergency department and we were often over capacity. If it wasn’t the smoke, it was the heat,” Hess said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>As World Warms, Environment and Health Suffer\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The blazes came after \u003ca href=\"http://www.mercurynews.com/2017/09/01/bay-area-weather-scorching-temperatures-will-produce-hottest-days-in-a-decade/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">record-breaking late summer heat\u003c/a> dried out grass that had flourished following \u003ca href=\"http://www.pressdemocrat.com/news/6861398-181/just-like-that-santa-rosa?gallery=6866230&artslide=0\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">record-breaking winter rains\u003c/a> — both forms of extreme weather that are worsened by global warming. In addition, a high pressure system over the Pacific fanned the flames by driving unusually hot and powerful seasonal winds into Northern California from the dry highlands of Nevada.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The immediate precipitant may have been sparks from power lines, although \u003ca href=\"http://www.pressdemocrat.com/news/7567756-181/north-bay-fires-a-complex?artslide=0\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">investigations into the causes\u003c/a> are ongoing. But a changing climate helped fuel the blazes.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_1917529\" class=\"wp-caption alignleft\" style=\"max-width: 451px\">\u003ca href=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/science/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2017/11/Trees-killed-by-drought.John-Upton.jpg\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\" wp-image-1917529\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/science/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2017/11/Trees-killed-by-drought.John-Upton.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"451\" height=\"300\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2017/11/Trees-killed-by-drought.John-Upton.jpg 5184w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2017/11/Trees-killed-by-drought.John-Upton-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2017/11/Trees-killed-by-drought.John-Upton-800x533.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2017/11/Trees-killed-by-drought.John-Upton-768x512.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2017/11/Trees-killed-by-drought.John-Upton-1020x680.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2017/11/Trees-killed-by-drought.John-Upton-1920x1280.jpg 1920w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2017/11/Trees-killed-by-drought.John-Upton-1180x787.jpg 1180w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2017/11/Trees-killed-by-drought.John-Upton-960x640.jpg 960w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2017/11/Trees-killed-by-drought.John-Upton-240x160.jpg 240w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2017/11/Trees-killed-by-drought.John-Upton-375x250.jpg 375w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2017/11/Trees-killed-by-drought.John-Upton-520x347.jpg 520w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 451px) 100vw, 451px\">\u003c/a>\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Trees killed by the effects of drought in the Sierra National Forest. \u003ccite>(John Upton/Climate Central)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>“Climate change was not the cause but it’s definitely an ingredient,” said \u003ca href=\"http://www.ldeo.columbia.edu/user/williams\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Park Williams\u003c/a>, a climate and ecology researcher at Columbia University’s Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory. And that means worse is to come.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Williams said there was a clear connection between the nearly 2 degrees Fahrenheit overall increase in global temperature since the late 1800s and the severity of these and other fires. (Warming in the West has been outpacing the global average in recent decades because of natural cycles.)\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Fire really responds strongly to even that small of a change of temperature,” said Williams, whose assessment of global warming’s role in the wine country fires is shared by other experts.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Environmentally, the fires are a double whammy: They destroy trees that help to slow global warming by absorbing heat-trapping carbon dioxide as they grow. They also release carbon dioxide stored within, as well as black carbon that melts snow and ice.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Research \u003ca href=\"http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0378112715001796\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">indicated in 2015 that large fires had helped turn \u003c/a>California’s forests and other lands into polluters, releasing more carbon to the atmosphere than they suck back in. The state’s wildlands released more heat-trapping pollution from 2001 through 2010 than Vermont’s entire economy. Rising temperatures aren’t the only cause — the forests are overloaded with fuel following more than a century of aggressive firefighting.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>While public attention has tended to focus on other health risks from climate change such as heat stroke in summer and the spread of mosquito-borne diseases northward, the effects of smoke pollution have been gaining more attention following dramatic and widespread wildfires.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_1917553\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 1024px\">\u003ca href=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/science/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2017/11/San-Fran-in-Smoke.Amy-Graff-SFGATE.jpg\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-1917553\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/science/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2017/11/San-Fran-in-Smoke.Amy-Graff-SFGATE.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"1024\" height=\"768\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2017/11/San-Fran-in-Smoke.Amy-Graff-SFGATE.jpg 1024w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2017/11/San-Fran-in-Smoke.Amy-Graff-SFGATE-160x120.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2017/11/San-Fran-in-Smoke.Amy-Graff-SFGATE-800x600.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2017/11/San-Fran-in-Smoke.Amy-Graff-SFGATE-768x576.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2017/11/San-Fran-in-Smoke.Amy-Graff-SFGATE-1020x765.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2017/11/San-Fran-in-Smoke.Amy-Graff-SFGATE-960x720.jpg 960w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2017/11/San-Fran-in-Smoke.Amy-Graff-SFGATE-240x180.jpg 240w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2017/11/San-Fran-in-Smoke.Amy-Graff-SFGATE-375x281.jpg 375w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2017/11/San-Fran-in-Smoke.Amy-Graff-SFGATE-520x390.jpg 520w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1024px) 100vw, 1024px\">\u003c/a>\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Smoky air in San Francisco during the North Bay fires. \u003ccite>(Amy Graff/SFGate)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>The most dangerous pollution from wildfires is fine soot — “really small particles that we know can get into the lungs,” said \u003ca href=\"https://www.colorado.edu/geography/colleen-reid-0\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Colleen Reid\u003c/a>, a geographer at the University of Colorado who researches climate change and human health. It’s known as PM2.5, meaning “particulate matter” that’s less than 2.5 microns wide, only visible using microscopes.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>It can nestle into lung tissue and pass into the bloodstream, contributing to an array of health problems including infections and, potentially, heart attacks.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Symptoms related to smoke waves may not be diagnosed right away, making it hard to recognize the role a fire may have played in an illness or death. Reid led an analysis \u003ca href=\"https://ehp.niehs.nih.gov/14-09277/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">published a year ago\u003c/a> based on hundreds of studies into fire pollution’s health effects. The clearest links shown in the studies were between PM2.5 and asthma and other breathing problems; links to heart disease were less conclusive.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Researchers from leading American universities\u003ca href=\"https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/27648592\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"> examined fire pollution \u003c/a>across the West, finding that two of every three counties in the region suffered at least one smoke wave from 2004 through 2009. When they correlated those findings with medical data, they found a 7 percent jump in breathing-related hospitalizations after smoke levels were most extreme.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_1917531\" class=\"wp-caption alignright\" style=\"max-width: 6963px\">\u003ca href=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/science/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2017/11/air-pollution-9.-Coffey-Park-neighborhood-of-Santa-Rosa.Heidi-de-Marco-KHN.jpg\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-1917531\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/science/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2017/11/air-pollution-9.-Coffey-Park-neighborhood-of-Santa-Rosa.Heidi-de-Marco-KHN.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"6963\" height=\"4647\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2017/11/air-pollution-9.-Coffey-Park-neighborhood-of-Santa-Rosa.Heidi-de-Marco-KHN.jpg 6963w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2017/11/air-pollution-9.-Coffey-Park-neighborhood-of-Santa-Rosa.Heidi-de-Marco-KHN-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2017/11/air-pollution-9.-Coffey-Park-neighborhood-of-Santa-Rosa.Heidi-de-Marco-KHN-800x534.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2017/11/air-pollution-9.-Coffey-Park-neighborhood-of-Santa-Rosa.Heidi-de-Marco-KHN-768x513.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2017/11/air-pollution-9.-Coffey-Park-neighborhood-of-Santa-Rosa.Heidi-de-Marco-KHN-1020x681.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2017/11/air-pollution-9.-Coffey-Park-neighborhood-of-Santa-Rosa.Heidi-de-Marco-KHN-1920x1281.jpg 1920w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2017/11/air-pollution-9.-Coffey-Park-neighborhood-of-Santa-Rosa.Heidi-de-Marco-KHN-1180x788.jpg 1180w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2017/11/air-pollution-9.-Coffey-Park-neighborhood-of-Santa-Rosa.Heidi-de-Marco-KHN-960x641.jpg 960w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2017/11/air-pollution-9.-Coffey-Park-neighborhood-of-Santa-Rosa.Heidi-de-Marco-KHN-240x160.jpg 240w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2017/11/air-pollution-9.-Coffey-Park-neighborhood-of-Santa-Rosa.Heidi-de-Marco-KHN-375x250.jpg 375w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2017/11/air-pollution-9.-Coffey-Park-neighborhood-of-Santa-Rosa.Heidi-de-Marco-KHN-520x347.jpg 520w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 6963px) 100vw, 6963px\">\u003c/a>\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Remnants from the fire in the Coffey Park neighborhood of Santa Rosa, Calif., on Oct. 27, 2017. \u003ccite>(Heidi de Marco/KHN)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>“An acute fire lasting, for example, days to weeks, may not show up as an immediate problem but as health problems that may occur over a time span of weeks or months,” said Loretta Mickley, a Harvard researcher who worked on the study.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>This Summer in California\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Elva Hernandez, 51, has lived in the San Joaquin Valley most of her life. She’s suffered from asthma since she was 10. This summer she was stuck inside her house for several weeks as smoke waves suffocated her neighborhood in the small town of Kerman, Calif., near Fresno.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“The smell, all the dust, the smoke, the smog, everything, it’s just — you can’t breathe,” said Hernandez, a stay-at-home mom whose husband analyzes lab samples at a hospital. “You can’t live your life normally.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The San Joaquin Valley is home to 4 million people, many of them poor. One in six children suffers from asthma. Poor people often are most affected by air pollution, partly because they tend to live in more drafty housing in more polluted neighborhoods.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But enforcement of federal regulations dating to the Nixon administration has been reducing air pollution from fossil fuels and fertilizers in the valley, requiring cleaner engines for trucks and the replacement of outdated equipment on farms.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“We’ve been seeing a lot of positive trends,” said Jon Klassen, manager of the air monitoring team at the San Joaquin Valley Air Pollution Control District. At the same time, “there’s a lot more emissions coming from these fires. They’re uncontrollable. They’re very difficult to deal with.”\u003c/p>\n\u003caside class=\"pullquote alignright\">‘We’re trying to ensure that we have healthy, resilient forests that are net sinks of carbon.’\u003ccite>Russ Henly, California Natural Resources Agency\u003c/cite>\u003c/aside>\n\u003cp>Research looking at air pollution levels helps explain why people like Hernandez are suffering more during fire seasons. The Climate Central analysis of San Joaquin Valley air data showed that while the number of days each year on which levels of PM2.5 exceeded federal standards declined by about 45 percent overall from 2000 to 2016, they increased by almost a third during the peak summer fire season.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In the Sacramento Valley to the north, summer fire season pollution has been responsible for about 40 percent of the days when federal standards for PM2.5 pollution were exceeded in recent years. That’s up from less than a tenth of them earlier this century, the researchers found.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Wildfires also release toxic material and chemicals that react in the atmosphere to form ozone pollution, which can hang over neighborhoods as haze. Ozone irritates lungs and throats, triggers shortness of breath and aggravates diseases like bronchitis, emphysema, and asthma.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Hernandez’s asthma doctor, Praveen Buddiga, who operates his own practice in nearby Fresno, treated patients with oxygen and medicine during September fires in the Sierra Nevada mountains, which straddle California and Nevada. He did so again following the wine country fires in October. For asthmatics, the onslaughts of fire pollution are “like pouring a little salt into the wounds,” he said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Buddiga suggests his patients limit their time outside, drive with windows rolled up and wear masks when smoke waves hit. Better yet, he advises them to leave the area if possible until the smoke clears.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_1917530\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 1150px\">\u003ca href=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/science/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2017/11/2016.07.11-Stanislaus-National-Forrest-still-photography-014.Jason-Steinberg.jpg\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-1917530\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/science/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2017/11/2016.07.11-Stanislaus-National-Forrest-still-photography-014.Jason-Steinberg.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"1150\" height=\"768\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2017/11/2016.07.11-Stanislaus-National-Forrest-still-photography-014.Jason-Steinberg.jpg 1150w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2017/11/2016.07.11-Stanislaus-National-Forrest-still-photography-014.Jason-Steinberg-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2017/11/2016.07.11-Stanislaus-National-Forrest-still-photography-014.Jason-Steinberg-800x534.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2017/11/2016.07.11-Stanislaus-National-Forrest-still-photography-014.Jason-Steinberg-768x513.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2017/11/2016.07.11-Stanislaus-National-Forrest-still-photography-014.Jason-Steinberg-1020x681.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2017/11/2016.07.11-Stanislaus-National-Forrest-still-photography-014.Jason-Steinberg-960x641.jpg 960w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2017/11/2016.07.11-Stanislaus-National-Forrest-still-photography-014.Jason-Steinberg-240x160.jpg 240w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2017/11/2016.07.11-Stanislaus-National-Forrest-still-photography-014.Jason-Steinberg-375x250.jpg 375w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2017/11/2016.07.11-Stanislaus-National-Forrest-still-photography-014.Jason-Steinberg-520x347.jpg 520w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1150px) 100vw, 1150px\">\u003c/a>\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Stands of trees killed by the 2013 Rim Fire in Stanislaus National Forest. \u003ccite>(Jason Steinberg/Climate Central)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>But risks can be difficult to gauge for patients and experts who want to offer precautions. Scientists who sampled pollution from wildfires using a NASA jet \u003ca href=\"http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/2016JD026315/abstract\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">reported in June\u003c/a> that fire pollution is being “significantly underestimated” by the federal government. While fleets of mobile air monitors are deployed near fires to help government agencies project the movement of smoke waves, the network of permanent monitors is sparse.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“We have no real good way of communicating to people, ‘Hey, the wildfire smoke is really bad in these spots, and this is where you take precautions,’” said Rob Carlmark, a weathercaster with ABC10 in Sacramento whose audience stretches from Bay Area cities to Lake Tahoe at the Nevada border. Absent local smoke pollution data, he tells viewers, “The best smoke detector is your nose.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Lighting Up to Protect Lungs — and the Planet\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Josh Bien wore a heavy pack and held a hoe in one hand. Using the other, the firefighter dripped a burning mixture of diesel fuel and gasoline on the forest floor from a spouted canister. Saplings and beds of pine needles sizzled and burned around him in a national forest in the Sierra Nevada, an hour’s drive east of Fresno.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Like smoke from suburban fires in the San Francisco Bay Area, that from large wildfires in the forest of this 600-mile mountain range can travel into the Central Valley. A spate of large fires in August and September created heavy smoke that suffocated foothills towns and drove people like Elva Hernandez indoors.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Devastating forest fire seasons in recent years \u003ca href=\"https://www.fs.usda.gov/treesearch/pubs/53771\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">have prompted research\u003c/a> pointing to the need for more prescribed burns like this one. They’re set and managed by firefighters and foresters and guided by computer models that predict the spread of fires and their smoke. They’re aimed at removing highly flammable undergrowth and spare the mature trees.\u003c/p>\n\u003caside class=\"pullquote alignright\">‘The challenge we still face is how to get out of decades of managing forests in ways that increase, rather than decrease, fire risk.’\u003ccite>Chris Field, ecology professor at Stanford University\u003c/cite>\u003c/aside>\n\u003cp>“You can either do it on your terms,” said Adam Hernandez, a prescribed fire and fuels management officer with the U.S. Forest Service, as gray smoke billowed around, “or you wait for that wildfire to come and it does it on its terms — and then you’re in a bad way.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Small fires used to burn regularly through the understories of the Sierra Nevada’s forests, started by lightning and native tribes. That changed after the Native Americans were forced from the mountain range, followed by more than a century of logging and aggressive firefighting. Those activities replaced stands of large, fire-resistant trees with thickets of smaller ones, building up fuel for enormous blazes.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“When you have some of these extreme wildfires, you’re creating more harmful emissions,” said Jonathan Long, an ecologist with the U.S. Forest Service. Extreme fires burn larger areas and their flames jump from forest floors to incinerate canopies, producing heavy black smoke and killing mature trees. “We think taking the medicine in small doses is a lot healthier.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The excessive undergrowth amplified the impact of California’s recent drought — there was too little water for so many trees. More than 100 million trees may have died across the Sierra Nevada in recent years. The dead trees can provide nesting cavities and their logs create important habitat for wildlife, but some scientists fear they may also intensify fires after they topple into desiccated piles.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The federal government has been striking agreements with state agencies to use more prescribed burns and take other steps to better manage forests. In January, California \u003ca href=\"http://fire.ca.gov/fcat/downloads/California%20Forest%20Carbon%20Plan%20Draft%20for%20Public%20Review_Jan17.pdf\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">released an ambitious draft plan\u003c/a> to restore forests over the decades to come — through a focus on prescribed burns — with the goal of reducing pollution from wildfires.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“We’re trying to ensure that we have healthy, resilient forests that are net sinks of carbon so that they’re storing more carbon than they’re releasing,” said Russ Henly, a California Natural Resources Agency official who helped draft the plan. By 2020, the plan seeks to double the amount of land treated using prescribed burns to 35,000 acres a year.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>With so many local, state and federal agencies overseeing environmental rules and owning land in California, the state says coordination will be key. For example, the San Joaquin Valley Air Pollution Control District can prevent national parks and other landowners from conducting prescribed burns when pollution levels will be affected — which is most of the time.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Mindful of the growing danger of big blazes, the air district has become more accommodating of prescribed fires. Still, finding the money to pay for the work remains a challenge.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Some members of Congress have pushed logging as a way to ease forest fires, though that approach could have the opposite effect: Trees valued by loggers tend to be the largest and most fire-resistant. Troublesome small trees and dead ones have little value other than as fuel for power plants, and even then they’re generally too expensive to gather. Low natural gas prices have been forcing the closure of biomass power plants, which are fueled with wood.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Even if the money is found to improve forest management, climate change will likely limit the progress from improved forest management, said Christopher Field, an ecology professor at Stanford University. The fire season will continue to lengthen. Landscapes will continue to dry out. “The challenge we still face is how to get out of decades of managing forests in ways that increase, rather than decrease, fire risk,” he said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Field oversaw a survey dealing with Sierra Nevada forests completed by 75 academics, government officials and nonprofit and industry employees. While most agreed that prescribed burns and other approaches can lock carbon into the mountain’s ecosystems, they warned it will be difficult to overcome the losses from wildfires as temperatures rise.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>California doesn’t include carbon losses from forest fires when it tallies its progress toward reducing climate pollution. But amid the burning, logging and clearing of tropical forests from Indonesia to the Amazon and the Congo, destructive fires in the forestlands of a U.S. state that has some of the world’s most ambitious climate goals are contributing to the problem.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>And, in the process, they are making people sick.\u003cbr>\n\u003cem>\u003cbr>\nThis story was produced through a partnership between \u003ca href=\"http://www.climatecentral.org/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Climate Central \u003c/a>and \u003ca href=\"https://khn.org/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Kaiser Health News\u003c/a> with support from the \u003ca href=\"https://west.stanford.edu/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Bill Lane Center for the American West \u003c/a>at Stanford University. \u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\n\u003c/div>\u003c/p>",
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"title": "Amid the North Bay Fire Ruins: A Lost 'Sanctuary' for Nature's Music",
"headTitle": "Amid the North Bay Fire Ruins: A Lost ‘Sanctuary’ for Nature’s Music | KQED",
"content": "\u003cp>Among the casualties from last month’s North Bay fires were thousands of homes and businesses — and some cultural landmarks. One of them was the home base of legendary nature sound recordist Bernie Krause, a place he and his wife and business partner, Kat, knew as \u003ca href=\"https://www.wildsanctuary.com/\">Wild Sanctuary\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>For decades the Glen Ellen retreat was an inspiration to artists and scientists alike, yet probably unknown to most of its neighbors in Sonoma County’s Valley of the Moon.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Only the foot-thick earthen walls of their unique “rammed-earth” construction home remain. It’s hard to imagine that just a year ago, almost exactly, I was here interviewing Bernie about his remarkable \u003ca href=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/science/2016/11/14/how-a-sound-guru-got-from-synthesizers-to-the-music-of-nature/\">50-year career\u003c/a> in music, film, and his greatest passion: nature sound.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_1917490\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-1917490\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/science/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2017/11/IMG_8768.jpg\" alt=\"Nature sound recordist Bernie Krause examines the ruins of his home and studio in Glen Ellen.\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1500\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2017/11/IMG_8768.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2017/11/IMG_8768-160x120.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2017/11/IMG_8768-800x600.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2017/11/IMG_8768-768x576.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2017/11/IMG_8768-1020x765.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2017/11/IMG_8768-1920x1440.jpg 1920w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2017/11/IMG_8768-1180x885.jpg 1180w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2017/11/IMG_8768-960x720.jpg 960w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2017/11/IMG_8768-240x180.jpg 240w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2017/11/IMG_8768-375x281.jpg 375w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2017/11/IMG_8768-520x390.jpg 520w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Nature sound recordist Bernie Krause examines the ruins of his home and studio in Glen Ellen. \u003ccite>(Craig Miller)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>I was with Bernie and his wife and business partner, Kat, as they had their first chance to pick through the ruins of their home, office and studio.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“I’ve got 50 years worth of work here,” Bernie reflected, as he stood over the rubble in disbelief. “It’s just amazing how it can all go like that.”\u003c/p>\n\u003caside class=\"pullquote alignright\">‘There were so many lovely ideas floating around here that had to do with connecting people to the natural world, it became sort of a magical place.’\u003ccite>Kat Krause, Wild Sanctuary\u003c/cite>\u003c/aside>\n\u003cp>Bernie is a founding father in the \u003ca href=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/forum/2012/05/14/bernie-krause-and-the-great-animal-orchestra-2/\">emerging science of soundscape ecology. \u003c/a>Author of The Great Animal Orchestra and numerous other books, Bernie’s “niche hypothesis” brought attention to the important role that nature sound plays in healthy ecosystems.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad fullwidth]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Now, the soundscape at Wild Sanctuary itself was reduced to the crunch of our own footsteps. No birdsong, no insects — only a light breeze in the blackened oaks and an occasional faint clang of falling debris — a cymbal crash to underscore the fragility of it all.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_1917488\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-1917488\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/science/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2017/11/IMG_8777.jpg\" alt=\"Bernie Krause picks through the molten remains of his audio tape archive in Glen Ellen.\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1500\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2017/11/IMG_8777.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2017/11/IMG_8777-160x120.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2017/11/IMG_8777-800x600.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2017/11/IMG_8777-768x576.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2017/11/IMG_8777-1020x765.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2017/11/IMG_8777-1920x1440.jpg 1920w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2017/11/IMG_8777-1180x885.jpg 1180w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2017/11/IMG_8777-960x720.jpg 960w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2017/11/IMG_8777-240x180.jpg 240w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2017/11/IMG_8777-375x281.jpg 375w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2017/11/IMG_8777-520x390.jpg 520w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Bernie Krause picks through the molten remains of his audio tape archive in Glen Ellen. \u003ccite>(Craig Miller)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>In the office and studio, Bernie & I stood over a molten reddish-brown mound that had been his archive of reel-to-reel audio tapes.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“There are reels and reels of this stuff,” recalled Bernie. “I had over 500 reels of tape here — and it’s all gone, Craig.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Fortunately, his irreplaceable nature sound archive — thousands of hours — was digitized and backed up off-site, but the loss of all the original media, his recording equipment and \u003ca href=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/arts/2017/10/11/bernie-krauses-equipment-decades-of-musical-memorabilia-lost-in-fires/\">decades of memorabilia\u003c/a> were reduced to ashes.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“It’s just all ashes, which is…I guess the way we all end up at one point or another,” he laughed, summoning his irrepressible sense of humor. “We will survive this, too.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Kat Krause agrees with her husband that Wild Sanctuary will survive. Their home and studio was an incubator and collaborative space that yielded a wide range of works from scientific papers to a ballet and symphony. But it was always less a place than an idea.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“I think because there were so many lovely ideas floating around here that had to do with connecting people to the natural world, it became sort of a magical place,” recalled Kat.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_1917489\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 720px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-1917489\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/science/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2017/11/BK-Lookup.jpg\" alt=\"In better days: Bernie in the field, recording at Sycamore Spring in Sequoia-Kings Canyon Nat'l Park.\" width=\"720\" height=\"480\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2017/11/BK-Lookup.jpg 720w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2017/11/BK-Lookup-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2017/11/BK-Lookup-240x160.jpg 240w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2017/11/BK-Lookup-375x250.jpg 375w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2017/11/BK-Lookup-520x347.jpg 520w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 720px) 100vw, 720px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">In better days: Bernie in the field, recording at Sycamore Spring in Sequoia-Kings Canyon Nat’l Park. \u003ccite>(Craig Miller)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>I first encountered that magic nearly 20 years ago, documenting Bernie’s work recording soundscapes in Sequoia-Kings Canyon, for the National Park Service — a project that was foundational to the Park Service starting a broader program to document and protect soundscapes in the parks. Alcatraz Island is among the properties where Park Service scientists have made recordings.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Sequoia is also where I met \u003ca href=\"http://www.jackhines.com\">Jack Hines\u003c/a>. He’s a musician and \u003ca href=\"http://www.eartothewild.com\">nature sound recordist\u003c/a> who drew inspiration for both from Wild Sanctuary.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“It’s not just the work that they do or that we do, it’s this bigger piece, which is truly the sanctuary of the wild,” says Hines, “And by bringing the voice of that forward into all of our ears and our consciousness, it helps to preserve a certain resource for us as people, that is extremely valuable.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_1917495\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-1917495\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/science/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2017/11/IMG_8767.jpg\" alt=\"The former studio at Wild Sanctuary. A second-story guest cottage collapsed onto the ground floor.\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1500\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2017/11/IMG_8767.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2017/11/IMG_8767-160x120.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2017/11/IMG_8767-800x600.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2017/11/IMG_8767-768x576.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2017/11/IMG_8767-1020x765.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2017/11/IMG_8767-1920x1440.jpg 1920w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2017/11/IMG_8767-1180x885.jpg 1180w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2017/11/IMG_8767-960x720.jpg 960w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2017/11/IMG_8767-240x180.jpg 240w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2017/11/IMG_8767-375x281.jpg 375w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2017/11/IMG_8767-520x390.jpg 520w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">The former studio at Wild Sanctuary. A second-story guest cottage collapsed onto the ground floor. \u003ccite>(Craig Miller)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>It was Jack who called and warned Kat & Bernie to get out, which they barely did, escaping in their car at the very moment that flames exploded on the hills surrounding their home.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“You would think with the level of emotion that I feel right now, that it’s as though we’d lost those two people,” said Jack, needing a long breath to steady himself, “But thank God we didn’t.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Jack and Bernie would sometimes record together up on Surgarloaf Ridge, the state park off of Highway 12, east of Santa Rosa. Bernie chose a wooded spot near a stream up there, to document \u003ca href=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/news/2014/10/20/where-have-all-the-birds-gone-listen-as-a-california-forest-grows-quiet-over-time/\">changes in the soundscape\u003c/a> over the course of California’s 5-year drought. In those recordings, you can hear the life draining out of the place as the landscape became desiccated. There may be one more recording in the series, as much of Sugarloaf burned in the fires.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But Kat hopes that, like that piece of scorched earth — the spirit that inhabited Wild Sanctuary will be reborn.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“It really resonated with people and they found a lot of community here,” she recalled. “So that part of Wild Sanctuary we hope will be re-envisioned and maybe re-purposed for a new generation to take this work forward.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Kat and Bernie have taken temporary refuge in Salt Lake City, where Kat has family. Where and how they will recreate their Wild Sanctuary, they still don’t know. They’re just confident that they will.\u003c/p>\n\n",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003cp>Among the casualties from last month’s North Bay fires were thousands of homes and businesses — and some cultural landmarks. One of them was the home base of legendary nature sound recordist Bernie Krause, a place he and his wife and business partner, Kat, knew as \u003ca href=\"https://www.wildsanctuary.com/\">Wild Sanctuary\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>For decades the Glen Ellen retreat was an inspiration to artists and scientists alike, yet probably unknown to most of its neighbors in Sonoma County’s Valley of the Moon.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Only the foot-thick earthen walls of their unique “rammed-earth” construction home remain. It’s hard to imagine that just a year ago, almost exactly, I was here interviewing Bernie about his remarkable \u003ca href=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/science/2016/11/14/how-a-sound-guru-got-from-synthesizers-to-the-music-of-nature/\">50-year career\u003c/a> in music, film, and his greatest passion: nature sound.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_1917490\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-1917490\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/science/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2017/11/IMG_8768.jpg\" alt=\"Nature sound recordist Bernie Krause examines the ruins of his home and studio in Glen Ellen.\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1500\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2017/11/IMG_8768.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2017/11/IMG_8768-160x120.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2017/11/IMG_8768-800x600.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2017/11/IMG_8768-768x576.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2017/11/IMG_8768-1020x765.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2017/11/IMG_8768-1920x1440.jpg 1920w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2017/11/IMG_8768-1180x885.jpg 1180w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2017/11/IMG_8768-960x720.jpg 960w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2017/11/IMG_8768-240x180.jpg 240w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2017/11/IMG_8768-375x281.jpg 375w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2017/11/IMG_8768-520x390.jpg 520w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Nature sound recordist Bernie Krause examines the ruins of his home and studio in Glen Ellen. \u003ccite>(Craig Miller)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>I was with Bernie and his wife and business partner, Kat, as they had their first chance to pick through the ruins of their home, office and studio.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“I’ve got 50 years worth of work here,” Bernie reflected, as he stood over the rubble in disbelief. “It’s just amazing how it can all go like that.”\u003c/p>\n\u003caside class=\"pullquote alignright\">‘There were so many lovely ideas floating around here that had to do with connecting people to the natural world, it became sort of a magical place.’\u003ccite>Kat Krause, Wild Sanctuary\u003c/cite>\u003c/aside>\n\u003cp>Bernie is a founding father in the \u003ca href=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/forum/2012/05/14/bernie-krause-and-the-great-animal-orchestra-2/\">emerging science of soundscape ecology. \u003c/a>Author of The Great Animal Orchestra and numerous other books, Bernie’s “niche hypothesis” brought attention to the important role that nature sound plays in healthy ecosystems.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Now, the soundscape at Wild Sanctuary itself was reduced to the crunch of our own footsteps. No birdsong, no insects — only a light breeze in the blackened oaks and an occasional faint clang of falling debris — a cymbal crash to underscore the fragility of it all.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_1917488\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-1917488\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/science/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2017/11/IMG_8777.jpg\" alt=\"Bernie Krause picks through the molten remains of his audio tape archive in Glen Ellen.\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1500\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2017/11/IMG_8777.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2017/11/IMG_8777-160x120.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2017/11/IMG_8777-800x600.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2017/11/IMG_8777-768x576.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2017/11/IMG_8777-1020x765.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2017/11/IMG_8777-1920x1440.jpg 1920w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2017/11/IMG_8777-1180x885.jpg 1180w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2017/11/IMG_8777-960x720.jpg 960w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2017/11/IMG_8777-240x180.jpg 240w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2017/11/IMG_8777-375x281.jpg 375w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2017/11/IMG_8777-520x390.jpg 520w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Bernie Krause picks through the molten remains of his audio tape archive in Glen Ellen. \u003ccite>(Craig Miller)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>In the office and studio, Bernie & I stood over a molten reddish-brown mound that had been his archive of reel-to-reel audio tapes.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“There are reels and reels of this stuff,” recalled Bernie. “I had over 500 reels of tape here — and it’s all gone, Craig.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Fortunately, his irreplaceable nature sound archive — thousands of hours — was digitized and backed up off-site, but the loss of all the original media, his recording equipment and \u003ca href=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/arts/2017/10/11/bernie-krauses-equipment-decades-of-musical-memorabilia-lost-in-fires/\">decades of memorabilia\u003c/a> were reduced to ashes.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“It’s just all ashes, which is…I guess the way we all end up at one point or another,” he laughed, summoning his irrepressible sense of humor. “We will survive this, too.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Kat Krause agrees with her husband that Wild Sanctuary will survive. Their home and studio was an incubator and collaborative space that yielded a wide range of works from scientific papers to a ballet and symphony. But it was always less a place than an idea.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“I think because there were so many lovely ideas floating around here that had to do with connecting people to the natural world, it became sort of a magical place,” recalled Kat.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_1917489\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 720px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-1917489\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/science/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2017/11/BK-Lookup.jpg\" alt=\"In better days: Bernie in the field, recording at Sycamore Spring in Sequoia-Kings Canyon Nat'l Park.\" width=\"720\" height=\"480\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2017/11/BK-Lookup.jpg 720w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2017/11/BK-Lookup-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2017/11/BK-Lookup-240x160.jpg 240w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2017/11/BK-Lookup-375x250.jpg 375w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2017/11/BK-Lookup-520x347.jpg 520w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 720px) 100vw, 720px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">In better days: Bernie in the field, recording at Sycamore Spring in Sequoia-Kings Canyon Nat’l Park. \u003ccite>(Craig Miller)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>I first encountered that magic nearly 20 years ago, documenting Bernie’s work recording soundscapes in Sequoia-Kings Canyon, for the National Park Service — a project that was foundational to the Park Service starting a broader program to document and protect soundscapes in the parks. Alcatraz Island is among the properties where Park Service scientists have made recordings.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Sequoia is also where I met \u003ca href=\"http://www.jackhines.com\">Jack Hines\u003c/a>. He’s a musician and \u003ca href=\"http://www.eartothewild.com\">nature sound recordist\u003c/a> who drew inspiration for both from Wild Sanctuary.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“It’s not just the work that they do or that we do, it’s this bigger piece, which is truly the sanctuary of the wild,” says Hines, “And by bringing the voice of that forward into all of our ears and our consciousness, it helps to preserve a certain resource for us as people, that is extremely valuable.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_1917495\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-1917495\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/science/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2017/11/IMG_8767.jpg\" alt=\"The former studio at Wild Sanctuary. A second-story guest cottage collapsed onto the ground floor.\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1500\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2017/11/IMG_8767.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2017/11/IMG_8767-160x120.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2017/11/IMG_8767-800x600.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2017/11/IMG_8767-768x576.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2017/11/IMG_8767-1020x765.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2017/11/IMG_8767-1920x1440.jpg 1920w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2017/11/IMG_8767-1180x885.jpg 1180w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2017/11/IMG_8767-960x720.jpg 960w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2017/11/IMG_8767-240x180.jpg 240w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2017/11/IMG_8767-375x281.jpg 375w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2017/11/IMG_8767-520x390.jpg 520w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">The former studio at Wild Sanctuary. A second-story guest cottage collapsed onto the ground floor. \u003ccite>(Craig Miller)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>It was Jack who called and warned Kat & Bernie to get out, which they barely did, escaping in their car at the very moment that flames exploded on the hills surrounding their home.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“You would think with the level of emotion that I feel right now, that it’s as though we’d lost those two people,” said Jack, needing a long breath to steady himself, “But thank God we didn’t.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Jack and Bernie would sometimes record together up on Surgarloaf Ridge, the state park off of Highway 12, east of Santa Rosa. Bernie chose a wooded spot near a stream up there, to document \u003ca href=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/news/2014/10/20/where-have-all-the-birds-gone-listen-as-a-california-forest-grows-quiet-over-time/\">changes in the soundscape\u003c/a> over the course of California’s 5-year drought. In those recordings, you can hear the life draining out of the place as the landscape became desiccated. There may be one more recording in the series, as much of Sugarloaf burned in the fires.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But Kat hopes that, like that piece of scorched earth — the spirit that inhabited Wild Sanctuary will be reborn.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“It really resonated with people and they found a lot of community here,” she recalled. “So that part of Wild Sanctuary we hope will be re-envisioned and maybe re-purposed for a new generation to take this work forward.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Kat and Bernie have taken temporary refuge in Salt Lake City, where Kat has family. Where and how they will recreate their Wild Sanctuary, they still don’t know. They’re just confident that they will.\u003c/p>\n\n\u003c/div>\u003c/p>",
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"radiolab": {
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"info": "A two-time Peabody Award-winner, Radiolab is an investigation told through sounds and stories, and centered around one big idea. In the Radiolab world, information sounds like music and science and culture collide. Hosted by Jad Abumrad and Robert Krulwich, the show is designed for listeners who demand skepticism, but appreciate wonder. WNYC Studios is the producer of other leading podcasts including Freakonomics Radio, Death, Sex & Money, On the Media and many more.",
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