Lawsuit to block clean trucks at ports dropped

Here's the latest on the controversial clean trucks initiative in LB and LA Ports:The Federal Maritime Commission announced Tuesday, June 16 that it is withdrawing its lawsuit that had sought to block clean trucks initiatives at the Port of Long Beach and Port of Los Angeles, according to a press release from the Port of Long Beach.
The move eliminates a challenge to the Port of Long Beach’s landmark Clean Trucks Program that already has gone a long way to reduce pollution from area trucks.
“We are pleased that the Federal Maritime Commission has decided to drop its challenge against a key component of our important environmental efforts,” said Port of Long Beach Executive Director Richard D. Steinke. “Today’s decision by the commission helps ensure that the Clean Trucks Program will continue to improve air quality in the Long Beach community.”
In a motion filed Tuesday with the U.S. District Court in Washington D.C., the FMC asked to withdraw the lawsuit.
The FMC sued in October 2008, challenging certain aspects of the ports’ clean trucks concession agreements. In April, the judge in the case denied the FMC’s request for a preliminary injunction.

Study says green jobs in US grew by 9 percent

The number of environment-related, or green, jobs across the nation grew 9 percent from 1998 to 2007, which is more than 2 percent higher than the rate of the overall workforce, according to the Los Angeles Times that reported a study by the Pew Charitable Trusts.
California led the way with the most growth in the country, with the opening of 10,209 green businesses and 125,390 jobs in 2007 alone.

New source of methylmercury: groundwater

As many people have taken seafood out of their diets, especially fish, because of the mercury poisoning associated with it, scientists believe they have discovered a new source of where highly toxic mercury could be coming from.
For the first time, scientists have detected mercury in groundwater flows at two coastal sites in California according to a press release from the NOAA California Sea Grant program.
What's interesting is that the type of mercury discovered in these submarine groundwater flows, found underneath the ocean floor, appears to be methylmercury, the highly toxic form of mercury that accumulates in the marine food chain. Methylmercury, also often found in dental fillings, poses a public health problem in most regions of the world, according to the Madison Conference Declaration on Mercury Pollution.
The UC Santa Cruz researchers, who led the NOAA project, believe these groundwater flows represent a “significant and previously overlooked source of mercury in the nearshore marine environment.”
In an article to appear in Environmental Science and Technology, scientists report that these groundwater flows at Stinson Beach in Marin County and Elkhorn Slough in Monterey County inject about as much total mercury into coastal waters as that falling out of the sky, locally through atmospheric deposition.
But, for the most part, scientists aren’t sure how the mercury got there and why it is accumulating in high volumes.
There are a few theories though.
Frank Black, a former doctoral student at UC Santa Cruz, now a postdoctoral researcher in biogeochemistry at Princeton University and the paper’s lead author, believes that some of the inorganic mercury is coming from natural processes such as weathering of local mercury-containing rocks.
Mining and other “human activities” are also sources of mercury in soils and sediments.
Methylmercury, Black believes has come from septic tanks in the vicinity of Stinson Beach, because they provide nutrients to methylmercury bacteria, may be contributing to its formation. At Elkhorn Slough, the leading theory is that groundwater is flushing out methylmercury from sediments where it is being produced.
Previous studies documented the presence of methylmercury in terrestrial groundwater. Few have observed methylmercury in coastal waters, however, the press release states.
On a global average, the amount of mercury falling out of the sky has tripled since the Industrial Revolution 200 years ago, due primarily to the burning of fossil fuels. This mercury is converted into methylmercury by sulfur- and iron- reducing bacteria, which reside in wet, low-oxygen soils and sediments.

Above is a picture of a calico bass I caught in Catalina about a year ago.

What "green bubble"?

With the economic downturn sending many jobless, whether they be white collar or blue collar workers, the greening of America could be what businesses are looking for.
At least that was the consensus during a conference about the new "green collar" workforce at the Long Beach Convention Center last week.
The event was hailed as the biggest conference to address such advancements in the business market. Rightly so, since Long Beach is a highly productive heavily-polluted area that suffers from bad air quality because of one of the nation's largest ports. The city also suffers from a large unemployment rate, much like other cities across the nation right now.
The conference spoke about diversity in the workforce as well, as government officials and green business owners talked about how environmental efforts will "bring back the middle class...and help protect Mother Earth" all at the same time.
The problem is though, that the State of California, and the nation, as a whole, are suffering financially right now, keeping manufacturers of these new technologies, i.e., wind, solar and other green energies, on hold until further notice. The other problem is the funding to teach people about how to work in the fields of these new green technologies, whether its building green infrastructure or green tech jobs, is near non-existent.
So the answer from experts in the field was pretty much, "Be patient." And whether the green trend will create another "green bubble" much like the tech bubble in 2000 and then the mortgage bubble we all are so familiar with the answer was, "We will always have the sun and wind."
To read more here is my article in the Press-Telegram.

Avalon Harbor top 'beach bummer' for sixth year

Heal the Bay released its 19th annual Beach Report Card for 2008-09 on May 20, with most California beaches receiving “very good” water quality this past year.
The non-profit water monitoring organization also released its yearly “beach bummer” list of the beaches with the worst water quality.
At the top of the list was Avalon Harbor Beach on Catalina Island, which has been the statewide Bummer for six years running.
Two years ago a $4.5 million swimmer health effects study added Avalon Beach as a research location due to its perpetually poor water quality.
Coming in at No. 2 was Cabrillo Beach harborside and No. 6 was the LA River outlet in Long Beach.
Overall, 276 of 324 (85 percent) locations received very good to excellent (A and B) grades for the year during dry weather.
Heal the Bay analysts assigned A-to-F letter grades to 502 beaches along the California coast, based on levels of weekly bacterial pollution reported from April 2008 through March 2009.
During the high-traffic 2008 summer season, 91 percent of beaches statewide received A or B grades, meaning very good to excellent water quality. That figure marks a slight 2 percent dip from last summer, which earned the best grades ever issued by Heal the Bay.
Overall, only 32 of the beaches (6 percent) monitored statewide received D or F grades last summer.
High bacteria counts at these sites are linked to such potential illnesses as stomach flu, ear infections and major skin rashes.

So Cal all shook up

Looks like Mother Earth isn't finished rocking and rolling from Sunday.
Today at around 3:45 p.m. and then again at about 3:51 p.m. there were two aftershocks that shook Southern California following the 4.7 that hit on Sunday from the Newport-Inglewood fault line.
The shocks epicenter appear to be from Hawthorne and El Sgundo area.
The 4.1 and 2.5 aftershocks today jostles my Long Beach apartment around a bit, but nothing big. To see up-to-the-second quake info for the So Cal region click here: http://www.data.scec.org/recenteqs/Quakes/quakes0.html

Intermediate I run at Irvine Ranch Conservancy

Now is a perfect time to get some exercise– the weather is nice and summer is coming.
So, why not experience the hidden valleys of Orange County while you're at it.
The Irvine Ranch Conservancy, 50,000 acres of lush wild flowers and sprawling wild life, offers monthly events to view a wonderland of vast Natural Landmarks.
One of them will be a guided trail run on June 6 at 7 a.m. to the Sinks, an erosional formation similar to the Grand Canyon. On the trail, you will run through burn areas from the October 2007 Santiago Fire and pass through indigenous and recovering habitats of coastal sage scrub, grasslands, and oak woodlands.
This Intermediate I run is shorter than the Intermediate II runs but the pace will be the same, so you'll have to keep up.
The run includes multiple steep climbs and descents with very limited stops and is very strenuous. The run is intended for new and experienced trail runners who are in great cardio shape and have experience running continuously for 8 miles or more. Guests are required to carry their own water.