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Transfers Of Canisters Filled With Nuclear Waste Resume At San Onofre

/in , /by /The San Diego Union-Tribune by Rob Nikolewski

Almost one year after a 50-ton canister filled with nuclear waste got wedged inside a storage cavity and was left suspended on a metal flange about 18 feet from the ground, the operator of the San Onofre Nuclear Generating Station, also known as SONGS, announced Monday the resumption of transfer operations at the now-shuttered plant. The restart comes two months after the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission gave Southern California Edison, or SCE, the green light to continue moving the canisters from wet storage pools at SONGS to a newly constructed dry storage facility on the plant’s premises.

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Report: SD County Faces Dramatic Spike In Heat Without Climate-Change Action

/in , , /by /KPBS

Absent significant global action to address climate change, San Diego County — and other regions across the country — will see dramatic spikes in annual extreme-heat days by the end of the century, according to a report released Tuesday by a scientific advocacy group.

The report by the Union of Concerned Scientists, a nonprofit group that has long pushed for worldwide efforts to combat climate change, offers detailed predictions of anticipated temperature increases in areas across the United States under various scenarios, including varying degrees of political action by international leaders

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Cabazon, Twenty-Nine Palms Tribes Create Air Quality Monitoring Station In Indio

/in , , /by /Desert Sunby Risa Johnson

The Cabazon and Twenty-Nine Palms tribes have joined together to create an air-quality monitoring station in Indio to keep residents better informed about their health. Air quality is a concern in the Coachella Valley, where high levels of smog from Los Angeles hovers and toxic dust rises from the nearby Salton Sea as the water recedes.

For the tribes, that (the Salton Sea) was the driving factor to start looking at developing an air-quality monitoring program,” said Shawn Muir, environmental coordinator for the Twenty-Nine Palms Tribal EPA.

The Salton Sea is about 20 minutes by car from Twenty-Nine Palms Band of Mission Indians tribal land.

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Earth Just Had Its Hottest June On Record, On Track For Warmest July

/in , , /by /The Washington Post by Jason Samenow and Andrew Freedman

Boosted by a historic heat wave in Europe and unusually warm conditions across the Arctic and Eurasia, the average temperature of the planet soared to its highest level ever recorded in June.

According to data released Monday by NASA, the global average temperature was 1.7 degrees Fahrenheit (0.93 Celsius) above the June norm (based on a 1951-to-1980 baseline), easily breaking the previous June record of 1.5 degrees Fahrenheit (0.82 Celsius), set in 2016, above the average.

The month was punctuated by a severe heat wave that struck Western Europe in particular during the last week, with numerous all-time-hottest-temperature records falling in countries with centuries-old data sets.

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Off-The-Charts Heat To Impact Millions Across The U.S., Report finds

/in , /by /The San Diego Union Tribune by Joshua Emerson Smith

Dangerous and potentially lethal bouts of heat — driven by the unabated burning of fossil fuels — could fast spread to parts of the United States unaccustomed to such blazing hot conditions.

That’s according to a new report by the Union of Concerned Scientists, published Tuesday in the journal Environmental Research Communications. According to the findings, if humanity doesn’t dramatically rein in greenhouse gas emissions by midcentury, more than 6 million people from California to Louisiana to Kansas could regularly experience what experts call “off the charts” heat.

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Bureau of Reclamation Awards $5.1 Million In Research For New Ways To Desalinate Water

/in , /by /EurekAlertby Alex Stephens

The Bureau of Reclamation announced that 30 projects will receive $5.1 million from the Desalination and Water Purification Research Program to develop improved and inexpensive ways to desalinate and treat impaired water.

“We are awarding grants to a diverse group of projects to reduce the cost, energy consumption and environmental impacts of treating impaired or otherwise unusable water for local communities across the country,” said Reclamation Commissioner Brenda Burman. “This funding is a direct result of the Trump Administration’s commitment to increase water supply and delivery through improved technology.”

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New Technology Could Help Salmon Swim Over Hydroelectric Dams

/in , , /by /Komo News by Abby Acone

A Seattle company called Whooshh Innovations has developed a creative way for fish to swim over hydroelectric dams. This product creates a pressure difference around the salmon, sucking the fish up a long tube and releasing it at the top of the dam.

“We do introduce a little bit of water to keep them moist and keep their gills moist and all those kinds of things for the few seconds it takes them to get through the system,” said Mike Dearan, Whooshh’s chief engineer.

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IID Votes To Lower Conserved Water Payments To Farmers

/in , , /by /The Desert Reviewby Betty Miller Mentioned: San Diego County Water Authority

After nearly two hours of contentious debate, the Imperial Irrigation District board voted unanimously July 9 on a hybrid plan to lower payments made to farmers for their on-farm conservation program.

The purpose for conserving water was not necessarily the drought conditions of the past two decades, but the 2003 QSA in which the San Diego County Water Authority received transferred water from the Valley via Metropolitan Water District (MWD), first through fallowing then as growers geared up, to conserved on-farm water.

 

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‘Greywater’ Could Help Solve Colorado’s Water Problems. Why Aren’t We All Using It?

/in , , /by /CPR News by Michael Sakas

Your shower, sink and laundry machine account for more than half of indoor water use. Since the wastewater that circles the drain doesn’t come from the toilet, it’s safe to reuse on things like your garden.Those hip to reuse call it greywater. To state and local governments, it’s graywater. However you spell it, it’s an idea that everyone agrees will save water — but not everyone agrees on how it should be done.

Colorado was the last Western state to legalize greywater usage in 2013. Officials say that by 2050, our water supply could fall short for over one million people. Climate change makes the future of Colorado water even more uncertain.

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OPINION: California Refuses To Enlist Clean, Cheap Hydropower In Fight Against Climate Change. It Makes No Sense

/in , , /by /CALmatters (Sacramento)by Adam Gray

Is the cleanest, greenest electricity in the world green enough for California? For years, the people of the Northern San Joaquin Valley have been trying to get hydropower recognized for what it is: the original source of clean electricity. Our efforts have been stymied by people who feel entitled to decide what is, or isn’t, green enough. That’s why I have begun the process of modifying our state Constitution to recognize safe, abundant, carbon-free hydropower as a reliable source of renewable energy in our fight against climate change. I have authored Assembly Constitutional Amendment 17 to place this question before California’s voters.

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