[Water_news] 5. DWR'S CALIFORNIA WATER NEWS: AGENCIES, PROGRAMS, PEOPLE - 6/26/07

Department of Water Resources

California Water News

A daily compilation of significant news articles and comment

 

June 26, 2007

 

5. Agencies, Programs, People -

 

Tsunami drill another Humboldt first -

Eureka Times Standard

 

Editorial:

Share costs for clean ports

Voters already passed a bond measure, and it's only fair that retailers and shippers chip in, too. -

Los Angeles Times

 

Delta project topic of today's meeting -

Vacaville Reporter

 

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Tsunami drill another Humboldt first

Eureka Times Standard – 6/26/07

John Driscoll / The Times-Standard

 

Emergency officials plan to conduct what is likely to be California's first-ever tsunami evacuation drill Thursday evening, using a vulnerable community as a testing ground to develop a system to save lives.

 

Samoa will be the fictitious ground-zero for a massive tidal wave, in which the town's tsunami siren will sound and organizers will watch as residents follow evacuation signs to high ground. Just how the drill plays out will help officials understand what part of the town's evacuation plans need to be adjusted.

 

”We learn best if we can make this as real as possible,” said Troy Nicolini with the National Weather Service.

 

The weather service and the Redwood Coast Tsunami Working Group and the Samoa Pacific Group and DANCO Development -- which own the town -- have spent the past week handing out information and speaking with residents. Most residents know by now that parts of Samoa could be swamped by a big earthquake-generated wave because of earlier community canvassing.

 

Hoping to capitalize on the attention of a film team working on a tsunami documentary, Nicolini and others jumped to organize the drill. Nicolini said that not only will the message get out about tsunamis, but footage may help drill coordinators spot weak spots in the evacuation plan.

 

People will hear the siren blast at 6 p.m., then have to refer to evacuation maps -- hopefully already studied -- and signs directing them to areas of safety and assistance. The signs will be on temporary stands in places already chosen for permanent signs, which will allow the team to reposition them before they're installed if they cause confusion.

 

Dan Johnson of DANCO Development described the exercise as a collaborative effort between the public and private sectors.

 

”We have been able to leverage the resources and talents of everyone involved to get results that would have been impossible without working together,” Johnson said in a news release.

 

DANCO's Samoa development is one of the first in California to plan for major tsunamis following the 2004 Indonesian tidal wave that killed more than 200,000 people. Blueprints for the town's layout and house designs had to be redrawn to acknowledge that areas below 30-feet elevation could be at risk from a big tsunami. Such a huge wave is altogether possible, as scientists have ample evidence that the 1,100-mile long Cascadia Subduction Zone offshore can produce a 9.0-magnitude quake and generate a wave that would do damage around the Pacific.

 

Other communities like Fields Landing, King Salmon, parts of Eureka, Arcata and river bottom lands all are at risk from tsunamis.

 

Officials continue to make headway in educating people in those areas about the risks. Humboldt County Supervisor Jimmy Smith said he's holding an informational meeting for Fields Landing and lower Humboldt Hill on July 10 at 6:30 p.m. at the county agriculture center on South Broadway.

 

While practice evacuations can be problematic in larger cities, at least one other West Coast town has run a drill with success. Seaside, in far northern Oregon, with a population of about 5,900, in 2005 drilled to evacuate its low lying areas.

 

Nicolini said that he hopes that when all sirens and signs are installed, an evacuation drill may become a yearly ritual. It's important, he said, because people get killed in tsunamis.

 

”How do you avoid that?” Nicolini said. “You practice. You've got to practice stuff that's important.”#

http://www.times-standard.com/local/ci_6233221

 

 

Editorial:

Share costs for clean ports

Voters already passed a bond measure, and it's only fair that retailers and shippers chip in, too.

Los Angeles Times – 6/25/07

 

 

WHEN CALIFORNIANS passed Proposition 1B last year, they agreed to spend $3.2 billion in bond money to speed cargo to and from the state's ports and clean the air fouled by trucks and container ships. With taxpayers doing their share, it's only fair for retailers and shippers, which will benefit from the port projects, to pay up as well. A bill to share the costs is now making its second run through the Legislature, but it's getting flak from a surprising source: the ports themselves.

The bill, SB 974 from Sen. Alan Lowenthal (D-Long Beach), would impose a $30 fee on each 20-foot container passing through the state's three major ports. A similar bill was vetoed last year by Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger, and the new version targets his concerns. It adds Oakland to the list of ports (last year it applied to only Long Beach and Los Angeles) and ensures that the money will be spent in the region that it's collected from.

It's unclear whether the new bill, which the Senate passed and which now awaits approval in the Assembly, will pass muster with Schwarzenegger. It's certainly unpopular with retailers, which would be stuck paying the fee, and the California Chamber of Commerce, which calls it one of the worst "job-killer" bills in this year's legislative session. Yet rejecting the bill would kill more jobs than passing it. Without infrastructure improvements, the ports of L.A. and Long Beach are expected to reach capacity within five years, bringing growth in California's booming international trade industry to a grinding halt.

Port officials, meanwhile, fret that the bill excludes most highway projects from getting container-fee money and that it leaves funding decisions up to state boards rather than the ports. That's as it should be. States can't impose taxes that interfere with interstate commerce, but user fees — which are spent on projects that directly benefit those paying the fees — are legal. If the container fee money went to highways, it would expose California to lawsuits under the Constitution's commerce clause because that would benefit motorists as much as truckers. And because the movement of goods involves numerous counties, it's appropriate to leave decisions to the state.

The ports do have one valid point. The bill says that the infrastructure money will be cut off if the ports of L.A. and Long Beach don't meet the ambitious yearly goals set up in a 2006 clean-air plan. Lowenthal's office says that's because if the ports don't grow green, they shouldn't grow at all. Yet blocking money needed for clean rail projects could simply slow environmental improvements, and the goals rely on new technology that may not be developed in time. Further, progress could be slowed by lawsuits. The bill would be stronger without that provision. With or without it, the bill deserves the governor's signature. #

http://www.latimes.com/news/opinion/la-ed-ports25jun25,0,2301853.story?coll=la-opinion-leftrail

 

Delta project topic of today's meeting

Vacaville Reporter – 6/26/07

 

The Department of Water Resources has scheduled a Public Information Meeting today to discuss Phase 1 of the Delta Risk Management Strategy project. It will be from 4 to 7 p.m. in Rio Vista.

The meeting is at Point Waterfront Restaurant, 120 Marina Drive.

The purpose of the meeting is to explain the project's preliminary findings, and answer questions. Displays will illustrate the potential impacts on levees of seismic and flood events and climate change.

The project was undertaken to define causes of levee failure in the Delta and Suisun Marsh, to help quantify the risks associated with levee failure, and to improve management of state funding that supports levee maintenance and improvement.

The Delta is a drinking water source for about two out of every three Californians and the levees sustain important urban, environmental, agricultural, habitat and recreational benefits in the region.

The draft Phase 1 report is expected to be released for public review and comment in July.#

http://www.thereporter.com/news/ci_6232169

 

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