UC Berkeley wants to mow down urban forest

We’ll begin with the opening of a stunning report from Randy Shaw at California Progress Report:

The Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) is moving to chop down 22,000 trees in Berkeley’s historic Strawberry and Claremont Canyons and over 60,000 more in Oakland. This destructive plan is rapidly moving forward with little publicity, and FEMA cleverly scheduled its three public meetings for mid and late May while UC Berkeley students were in finals or gone for the summer.

UC Berkeley has applied for the grant to destroy the bucolic Strawberry and Claremont Canyon areas, claiming that the trees pose a fire hazard. The school has no plans to replant, and instead will cover 20% of the area in wood chips two feet deep. And it will pour between 700 and 1400 gallons of herbicide to prevent re-sprouting, including the highly toxic herbicide, Roundup. People are mobilizing against this outrageous proposal, which UC Berkeley has done its best to keep secret.

Read the rest.

The massive deforesting operation in one of the East Bay’s most scenic areas is part of a FEMA project officially entitled “East Bay Hills Hazardous Fire Risk Reduction.”

Targets of the chainsaws will be non-native trees, especially eucalyptus.

Details from the project’s Draft Environmental Impact Statement [posted here]:

UCB submitted two grant applications under the PDM [Pre-Disaster Mitigation — esnl] program: one for a 56.3-acre area designated Strawberry Canyon-PDM in this EIS and one for a 42.8-acre area designated Claremont-PDM. To reduce the potential for these areas to support and spread wildfires, UCB proposes to eliminate eucalyptus, Monterey pine, and other non-native trees that promote the spread of wildfire. Oak and bay trees and other native vegetation present under the larger non-native trees would be preserved and encouraged to expand.

The environmental review did consider alternatives, including a required “no action” version in which existing management practices would continue. Here’s the relevant portion for the UC Berkeley land:

UCB would continue annual removal of grass and light, flashy fuels (such as twigs, needles, and grasses that ignite and burn rapidly) from UCB roadsides, UCB turnouts, and within 100 feet of UCB structures and adjacent private residences. UCB would also work to maintain the strategic areas where fuel reduction projects have been completed during the past 10 years to ensure eradication of target species of vegetation that have already been removed. UCB would continue to pursue fuel reduction within 30 feet of private and public structures to create defensible space in accordance with its 2020 Hill Area Fire Fuel Management Program.

And some more details from the environmental statement focusing on the Berkeley part of the project:

The UCB grant application includes two project areas in which approximately 22,000 non-native trees would be cut down, including all eucalyptus, Monterey pine, and acacia trees. The goal is to reduce the amount of fuel in the project areas by allowing the forest to convert from a eucalyptus-dominated, non-native forest to a native forest of California bay laurel, oak, big-leaf maple, California buckeye, California hazelnut, and other native tree and shrub species currently present beneath the eucalyptus and other non-native trees. The native species would provide less fuel to potential wildfires than the non-native species currently provide.

Felled trees up to approximately 24 inches in diameter at breast height (DBH) would be cut up into chips 1 to 4 inches long and the chips would be spread on up to 20% of each site to a maximum depth of 24 inches. UCB expects the chips to largely decompose within 5 years.

Branches from trees greater than 24 inches DBH would be cut up and scattered on the site (lopped and scattered). The trunks of these trees would typically be cut into 20- to 30-foot lengths. Some tree trunks would be placed to help control sediment and erosion or support wildlife habitat. Some tree trunks may be moved to an adjacent portion of the hillside or shipped for use as fuel, a source of paper pulp, or horse bedding.

Three temporary access roads are anticipated to be required for the proposed Claremont-PDM project. The three roads would be 12 feet wide and total approximately 2,600 feet long.

Completion of the initial vegetation reduction work is expected to require up to 40 weeks spread over 2 to 3 years. Maintenance would continue for up to 10 years after initial tree cutting.

The last chance for spoken public comments will come tomorrow [Saturday] morning in Oakland, with a hearing scheduled for 10 a.m. to noon at the Claremont Middle School, 5750 College Avenue.

Written comments will be received until 17 June at the following places:

• At the project website.
• By email at EBH-EIS-FEMA-RIX@fema.dhs.gov
• By snail mail sent to P.O. Box 72379, Oakland, CA 94612-8579
• And by fax at 510-627-7147

Project opponents have created their own website here.

And here, from the environmental statement, is the site of the proposed action in Strawberry Canyon:

 

Mr. Fish: The Editor

From his blog of of bodacious balatrony, Clowncrack:

Chart of the day: Early retirement fades away

From Gallup, the evidence:

Headlines of the day: Class, theology, union?

From Salon:

Jaron Lanier: The Internet destroyed the middle class

Kodak employed 140,000 people. Instagram, 13. A digital visionary says the Web kills jobs, wealth — even democracy

From Haaretz:

Israel has highest poverty rate in the developed world, OECD report shows

Israel is the most impoverished of the 34 member countries, with a poverty rate of 20.9%, according to a report released by the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development

From the BBC:

Pope Francis hits out at global ‘cult of money’

Gee, maybe there’s something to this one from the London Telegraph:

Pope Francis elected after supernatural ‘signs’ in the Conclave, says Cardinal

The surprise election of Pope Francis came about because of a series of supernatural “signs”, one of the leading Cardinals in the Roman Catholic Church has claimed

From McClatchy Newspapers:

In Mexico, fears for democracy as threatened journalists curtail coverage

From The Independent:

François Hollande calls for ‘European political union’ within two years

A bad week for the nuclear power cabal

As a follow-up to yesterday’s post on the ongoing controversy over Southern California’s San Onofre nuclear power plant, a reminder that nuclear industry woes aren’t confined to California.

First, a report of the latest shutdown, this time on the East Coast. John Murawski of the Raleigh News & Observer reports:

Duke Energy Progress shut down the Shearon Harris nuclear plant in Wake County on Wednesday after the company discovered that the reactor vessel – which holds the plant’s nuclear fuel and contains the nuclear reaction – showed early indications of corrosion and cracking.

The Nuclear Regulatory Commission reported Thursday morning that plant officials made the discovery earlier this week during a review of ultrasonic data that had been recorded in spring 2012.

The year-old data showed a one-quarter-inch flaw in the reactor vessel head, the term for the lid that is bolted on top of the vessel to maintain superheated water under high pressure.

Read the rest.

More from NBC News outlet WITN:

Duke Energy owns the Shearon Harris plant, which began operations in 1987.

The Nuclear Regulatory Commission says the quarter inch crack was not all the way through the reactor wall and there’s no indication any radioactive material escaped.

The NRC says the plant was shut down so crews could repair the crack. It says there is no impact “to the health and safety of employees or the public.”

Read the rest.

And the problems aren’t confined to the coasts, either.

Problems in Michigan, cracks once again

From Henry Erb of NBC affiliate WOOD in Grand Rapids, Michigan:

Authorities say they’ve found the crack that led to “slightly radioactive water” spilling from the Palisades nuclear power plant into Lake Michigan.

The Covert Township plant was shut down May 5 after about 79 gallons of slightly radioactive spilled into a pond that flows into Lake Michigan. Nuclear Regulatory Commission officials said the water did not pose a public health risk. The leak was in a 300,000-gallon tank used to hold water that floods and cools the nuclear reactor during refueling and in the event of a problem.

The problem was a half-inch crack in the welding around one of nine nozzles in the tank, authorities said Monday. Three of those have been replaced and every weld and every nozzle is now being checked. The entire bottom of the tank is also being checked.

Read the rest.

And here’s a report from WOOD featuring an interview with Congressional Rep. Fred Upton [R-St. Joseph]:

Perhaps we’re getting a signal. . .

Quote of the day: Words from a famous writer

When we first met Louis L’Amour in 1981, he was the best-selling writer in history, having written more books that had sold a million copies plus each than anyone who’d ever put ink to paper.

What follows is from our  profile of Louis for the 25 October 1982 Christian Science Monitor. The words as timelier than ever:

“We are using the resources of this planet far too rapidly. No one is thinking about the future. Our country has become too much a country of ‘now.’ We forget that no one ever truly ‘owns’ the land. We possess it in trust, to pass on to those who follow. And we should leave our trust better than we found it. That’s why I’ve always planted trees wherever I’ve lived.”

>snip<

“I remember a Jicarilla Apache I met in Colorado. He was looking for arrowheads. Whenever he found one, he would open a buckskin pouch he carried and sprinkle some of its contents on the ground where he had picked up the artifact. The pouch contained earth. He was giving back to the land something to replace what he had taken.

“That’s a highly symbolic gesture that should speak to us today. The earth is not something to be looted. It is to be cherished. Instead of looting the earth, we should rebuild, and leave it a better place for the next generation.”

Conflicting reports cloud San Onofre’s fate

The latest news from Southern California’s aged and troubled nuclear plant complex is, to say the least, confusing.

There’s no doubt that the San Diego Gas & Electric complex is in troubled, as we’ve noted before. But the latest developments have added a new dimension of uncertainty for the plant, which has been plagued with leaking cooling pipes and a long history of other problems.

The first development, reported Monday by Reuters, raised the possibility of a public hearing before the utility could restart the plant:

An independent nuclear regulatory panel on Monday called for a full public hearing on the proposed restart of one of the two damaged San Onofre nuclear reactors, a move that will delay Southern California Edison’s plan to run the plant this summer.

The Atomic Safety and Licensing Board ruling favored petitioner Friends of the Earth, an anti-nuclear group that sought more public input of the Nuclear Regulatory Commission’s (NRC) review of steam generator problems at the San Onofre nuclear power plant.

Read the rest.

More from the Associated Press:

The plant between San Diego and Los Angeles hasn’t produced electricity since January 2012, after a small radiation leak led to the discovery of unusual damage to hundreds of tubes that carry radioactive water.

Friends of the Earth, an advocacy group, argued that the federal process set up to consider a restart of the plant’s Unit 2 reactor was in fact a change to the plant’s operating license that would require a courtlike hearing. The three-member board concluded that the restart would allow operator Southern California Edison “to operate beyond the scope of its existing license.”

Read the rest.

And a critical detail from the San Diego Union-Tribune’s Morgan Lee:

Murray Jennex, a former systems engineer at San Onofre for nearly 20 years who now teaches at San Diego State University’s College of Business Administration, said the order likely pushes back a final decision on restarting the Unit 2 reactor until after summer.

“I won’t say this is a death blow to Unit 2, but it does make restart less likely,” Jennex said. “If approved, the additional downtime makes the Unit 2 restart more complex and costly due to corrosion issues from sitting.”

Any delays put additional financial pressure on Edison. CEO Ted Craver recently indicated that without a green light to restart by year’s end, the company might decide to permanently shut down one or both reactors, adding closure costs and a void in the region’s power grid.

Read the rest.

But there’s a catch. . .

As the Associated Press reports:

The Nuclear Regulatory Commission has not decided whether it will hold a public hearing on a plan to restart the troubled San Onofre nuclear power plant in California, the nation’s top nuclear regulator said Tuesday.

NRC Chair Allison Macfarlane told reporters in Washington, D.C., that she is aware of strong public interest in California and among some members of Congress for a public hearing, but added that a ruling this week by an NRC licensing panel does not require such a hearing be held.

“There are potential opportunities for public hearings,” Macfarlane told reporters after a speech to the nuclear industry. She called the situation at San Onofre complex with “multiple moving parts right now.”

Read the rest.

Dave Rice of the San Diego Reader offers some critical context:

Comments from Nuclear Regulatory Commission chair Alison Macfarlane on the future of San Onofre Nuclear Generating Station have generated media confusion and potentially put her at odds with environmental groups, Senator Barbara Boxer, and the NRC’s own Atomic Safety Licensing Board.

After speaking before a group representing nuclear industry business interests on Tuesday, Macfarlane said that a public hearing wasn’t necessarily required before changes to San Onofre’s license could be approved that would allow the plant to re-start. She did acknowledge public interest in such a procedure, however, saying the situation concerning the power plant’s shutdown had “multiple moving parts,” and that there existed “potential opportunities for public hearings.”

Read the rest.

Steve Chu, who served as Barack Obama’s Secretary of Energy through 22 April, is a physicist and an exuberant backer of nuclear power, as evidenced in his tenure as head of of UC Berkeley’s Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory.

Chu’s interim successor, Acting Secretary Daniel Poneman, is a lawyer and political scientist, and unlikely to make any controversial decisions.

Meanwhile,m a ticking time bomb sits on standby on the Southern California coast, separated from the mighty Pacific by a short seawall and located immediately adjacent to a fault capable of uncorking an earthquake vastly morfe powervful than the plant is designed to withstand.