As climate change warms the planet, wildfires have become so
unpredictable and extreme that new words were invented:
firenado, gigafire, fire siege — even fire pandemic. California
has 78 more annual “fire days” — when conditions are ripe for
fires to spark — than 50 years ago. When is California’s
wildfire season? With recurring droughts, it is now year-round.
Nothing is as it was. Where are the worst California wildfires?
All over. Whatever NIMBYism that gave comfort to some
Californians — never having a fire in their community before —
no longer applies to most areas. Los Angeles County is
the latest victim.
Tucson officials are moving forward on a plan to create
southern Arizona’s first water treatment facility that turns
wastewater into drinking water. Tucson City Councilmembers
voted to approve a proposal to use some $86 million worth of
Bureau of Reclamation funding to build the new treatment
facility and save Colorado River water as a result. Tucson
Water Director Jon Kmiec says things began about 16 months ago,
when the water utility asked the agency to fund an advanced
water purification plant in Tucson’s northwest side.
Nearly a quarter of animals living in rivers, lakes and other
freshwater sources are threatened with extinction, according to
new research published Wednesday. “Huge rivers like the Amazon
can appear mighty, but at the same time freshwater environments
are very fragile,” said study co-author Patricia Charvet, a
biologist at Brazil’s Federal University of Ceará. Freshwater
habitats – including rivers, lakes, ponds, streams, bogs and
wetlands – cover less than 1% of the planet’s surface, but
support 10% of its animal species, said Catherine Sayer, a
zoologist at the International Union for Conservation of Nature
in England. The researchers examined around 23,500 species of
dragonflies, fish, crabs and other animals that depend
exclusively on freshwater ecosystems. They found that 24% were
at risk of extinction – classified as vulnerable, endangered or
critically endangered – due to compounding threats from
pollution, dams, water extraction, agriculture, invasive
species, climate change and other disruptions.
The push to explore a potential Superfund designation for the
Tijuana River Valley hit a snag Wednesday when the U.S.
Environmental Protection Agency told San Diego County leaders
that the federal agency’s priority is to control the flows of
sewage and trash that spill over from Mexico. Investigating
potential contamination in the border region was best left to
the state, they said. Last week, the federal
agency denied a petition to review whether a six-mile
stretch of the lower river valley qualifies as a Superfund
site, a determination it made based largely on data from 2018
and 2019. That data, collected by the U.S. Customs and Border
Protection and the International Boundary and Water Commission,
found concentrations of hazardous chemicals in water and
sediment, but not at levels that exceeded the EPA’s regional
screening levels for human health concerns.