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Enormous Fire Threatens Water Supply for San Francisco and Parts of East Bay

Mon, 2013-08-26 14:10 — Kathy Gilbeaux

                                                 (TO ENLARGE - CLICK ON MAP IMAGE BELOW)

       

Hetch Hetchy Aqueduct

eastbayexpress.com - by Robert Gammon - August 23, 2013

The massive Rim Fire is closing in on Hetch Hetchy Reservoir in Yosemite National Park and is threatening the main water supply for the City of San Francisco and numerous other Bay Area communities. As of this morning, the fast-moving blaze was about 2.5 miles from Hetch Hetchy, according to a map created by the US Forest Service. If the enormous fire reaches the tinder-dry forests surrounding the reservoir, it could pollute the freshwater with huge amounts of ash. That’s bad news for San Franciscans and other communities that depend on Hetch Hetchy because the reservoir is not equipped with a water-filtration system.

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US - West
General Topic Tags: 
Disaster Response
Energy
Vulnerability
Water
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Situation Report

Japan Nuclear Body Says Radioactive Water at Fukushima an Emergency

Thu, 2013-08-08 07:36 — Kathy Gilbeaux

         

(SEE IMPORTANT LINKS BELOW)

reuters.com - by Antoni Slodkowski and Mari Saito - TOKYO | Aug 5, 2013

(Reuters) - Highly radioactive water seeping into the ocean from Japan's crippled Fukushima nuclear plant is creating an "emergency" that the operator is struggling to contain, an official from the country's nuclear watchdog said on Monday.

This contaminated groundwater has breached an underground barrier, is rising toward the surface and is exceeding legal limits of radioactive discharge, Shinji Kinjo, head of a Nuclear Regulatory Authority (NRA) task force, told Reuters.

Countermeasures planned by Tokyo Electric Power Co are only a temporary solution, he said.

Tepco's "sense of crisis is weak," Kinjo said. "This is why you can't just leave it up to Tepco alone" to grapple with the ongoing disaster.

"Right now, we have an emergency," he said.

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US - West
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Radiation
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Situation Report

Scientists Predicted A Decade Ago Arctic Ice Loss Would Worsen Western Droughts. Is That Happening Already?

Thu, 2013-07-04 20:14 — Kathy Gilbeaux

thinkprogress.org - by Joe Romm - June 30, 2013

(SEE LINKS BELOW FOR 2004 STUDY, 2005 STUDY, AND 2013 CRYOSAT ARTICLE)

Scientists predicted a decade ago that Arctic ice loss would bring on worse western droughts. Arctic ice loss has been much faster than the researchers — and indeed all climate modelers — expected (see “CryoSat-2 Confirms Sea Ice Volume Has Collapsed“).

It just so happens that the western U.S. is in the grip of a brutal, record-breaking drought. Is this just an amazing coincidence — or were the scientists right and what would that mean for the future? I ask the authors.

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US - West
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Climate
Extreme Weather
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Situation Report

CDC Investigating Tuberculosis Outbreak in Homeless Community

Fri, 2013-03-01 18:55 — Maeryn Obley

Some of Los Angeles' homeless population.

Image: Some of Los Angeles' homeless population.

ktla.com - February 22nd, 2013 - Carolyn Costello

Public health officials are working to contain a persistent outbreak of tuberculosis affecting L.A.’s homeless population.

They want to get a handle on the crisis as quickly as possible, becasue tuberculosis can be deadly if left untreated.

Right now, it’s primarily affecting the homeless population in downtown L.A., and officials have seen the trend continue in the Los Angeles area.

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US - West
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Disease
Health
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Making Communities More Resilient to Climate-Induced Weather Disasters

Tue, 2013-02-26 20:23 — Kathy Gilbeaux

submitted by Samuel Bendett

homelandsecuritynewswire.com - February 18, 2013

Mounting scientific evidence indicates climate change will lead to more frequent and intense extreme weather that affects larger areas and lasts longer. We can reduce the risk of weather-related disasters, however, with a variety of measures. Experts say that a good strategy should include a variety of actions such as communicating risk and transferring it through vehicles such as insurance, taking a multi-hazard management approach, linking local and global management, and taking an iterative approach as opposed to starting with a master plan.

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US - West
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Climate
Disaster Risk Reduction
Resilience
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Solutions
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Radioactive Fish Found In California: Contamination From Fukushima Disaster Still Lingers

Sun, 2013-02-24 12:03 — Kathy Gilbeaux

            

A fisherman displays his haul of Bluefin Tuna.

CLICK HERE: STUDY - Radiocesium in Pacific Bluefin Tuna Thunnus orientalis in 2012 Validates New Tracer Technique

huffingtonpost.com - by Aaron Sankin - February 22, 2013

Nearly two years after a powerful earthquake triggered a leak at Japan's Fukushima Dai-ichi nuclear plant, the effects of that disaster are still being felt on the other side of the planet.

A report released earlier this month by researchers at Stanford University's Hopkins Marine Station found that bluefin tuna caught just off the California coast tested positive for radiation stemming from the incident.

The study looked at the levels of radiocesium, one of the most common results of nuclear fission reactions, in Pacific Bluefun Tuna--largely as way to track the species' migratory patterns as the fish make their cross-oceanic journey in search of prey.

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US - West
General Topic Tags: 
Environment
Oceans
Radiation
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Situation Report

Desalination Losing Ground as a Solution to California’s Chronic Water Shortage

Fri, 2012-10-05 21:25 — Kathy Gilbeaux

submitted by Samuel Bendett

Homeland Security News Wire - September 26, 2012

According to the July 2011 census, more than thirty-seven million people live in the state of California, increasing the pressure on the state’s water sources. Desalinating sea water as a solution to the scarcity of fresh water is not a new technology — it has been around for more than four decades — but it has more recently been considered as a way to address California’s chronic, and growing, water shortage.

The Seattle Times reports that the idea has run into problems, and rising construction costs, energy requirements for running desalination plants, and legal challenges have limited desalination in California to only one plant producing drinking water.

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US - West
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Water
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Another Yosemite camper dies in hantavirus outbreak

Fri, 2012-09-07 11:14 — Maeryn Obley

cnn.com - September 7th, 2012 - Lisa O'Neill Hill

Construction crews began working on nearby tent cabins in Curry Village not long after Jenna Beck and her family arrived at Yosemite National Park.

Beck had reserved seven nights in one of the park's 91 "signature tent cabins," now at the epicenter of a hantavirus investigation. Eight visitors to the park have contracted hantavirus pulmonary syndrome, and three of them have died. Officials on Thursday confirmed that someone who stayed in another part of Yosemite contracted hantavirus.

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Global
United States
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Disease
Health
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Yosemite Hantavirus: U.S. Officials Send Warnings To Dozens Of Countries

Thu, 2012-09-06 16:29 — Maeryn Obley

huffingtonpost.com - September 5th, 2012 - Ronnie Cohen

U.S. health officials have sent warnings to 39 other countries that their citizens who stayed in Yosemite National Park tent cabins this summer may have been exposed to a deadly mouse-borne hantavirus, a park service epidemiologist said on Tuesday.

Of the 10,000 people thought to be at risk of contracting hantavirus pulmonary syndrome from their stays in Yosemite between June and August, some 2,500 live outside the United States, Dr. David Wong told Reuters in an interview.

Wong said U.S. Department of Health and Human Services officials notified 39 countries over the weekend, most of them in the European Union, that their residents may have been exposed to the deadly virus.

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Global
United States
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Disease
Health
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Faulty Computer Modeling Caused San Onofre Nuke Equipment Problems

Thu, 2012-06-21 15:26 — Kathy Gilbeaux

      

Kaili Richards, 6, of San Diego holds up a homemade sign during a nuclear watchdog group's news conference before the Nuclear Regulatory Commission's meeting in San Juan Capistrano. The activists are against the restarting of the San Onofre nuclear plant. (Allen J. Schaben, Los Angeles…)

latimes.com - by Abby Sewell - June 19, 2012

NRC officials give their first public account of their probe into the shuttered plant's problems.

Faulty computer modeling caused the equipment problems that are expected to keep the San Onofre nuclear plant dark through the summer, federal regulators said Monday.

Officials from the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission gave their first public account of the initial findings of their investigation into the plant's problems at a meeting in San Juan Capistrano.

What they did not give was any indication of how long the plant is likely to remain out of service, saying there are still questions plant operator Southern California Edison needs to answer and more inspections the NRC must do.

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US - West
General Topic Tags: 
Energy
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