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Cal Poly Humboldt Professor Laurie Richmond Joins California Sea Grant as an Extension Specialist

Cal Poly Humboldt professor Dr. Laurie Richmond has joined the California Sea Grant Extension Program. Richmond’s work focuses on the human, social and policy dimensions of marine and coastal issues, incorporating different ways of knowing and working with a diverse set of partners and communities.

During her nearly decade at Cal Poly Humboldt, Richmond’s work has focused on a number of marine and coastal issues including fisheries and fishing communities, mariculture, offshore wind development and coastal planning. Recently her research and outreach activities have taken a central focus on sea-level rise planning and adaptation. Her expertise includes informing sea-level rise policies to ensure they’re more just and inclusive for regional communities.

In 2018, Richmond helped launch the Cal Poly Humboldt Sea Level Rise Institute, a partnership between Cal Poly Humboldt and members of the Humboldt community including the Wiyot Tribe, whose traditional homelands encompass Humboldt Bay. Humboldt Bay, also known as Wigi, is experiencing the fastest rate of relative sea-level rise on the U.S. west coast. Richmond currently serves as the co-chair of the institute and is focused on building networks within the regional community to plan and adapt to sea-level rise in a just and equitable way.

“"Instead of thinking of sea-level rise as a climate challenge, we think about it as an opportunity for creatively rethinking our relationship with the oceans and natural world," Richmond says.

For Richmond, that means expanding the boundaries of how academia traditionally considers issues surrounding sea-level rise.

“We're trying to do a little something different than academic institutions,” says Richmond. “It’s viewed as a partnership between us and local tribes and the local community.”

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US reinstates Superfund taxes to clean up 1,300 contaminated sites

The US government is reviving two long-expired excise taxes on 42 chemicals, and substances made from them. The expected $14.4 billion in revenue will help fund decontamination of more than 1,300 polluted sites in the US.

The ‘Superfund’ taxes, which come into effect on July 1, are poised to revitalise cleanup efforts that have trickled to a near-halt over the past years as money to fund them has run out.

Originally created by the Comprehensive Environmental Response, Compensation, and Liability Act in 1980, the Superfund imposes a tax on any company manufacturing, producing or importing listed chemicals, based on the amount produced or imported.

The money collected feeds into a trust that the US Environmental Protection Agency uses to offset the high prices involved in cleaning up uncontrolled or abandoned hazardous waste sites. There are an estimated 44,000 such sites in the US, of which 1,300 are on the national priority list.

The levy previously lapsed in 1995, when Congress voted against renewing it. It was reinstated under the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act, which president Joe Biden signed into law on November 15, 2021. If not renewed, the current provisions will expire at the end of December 2031.

During the 27 years since the fund’s termination, cleanup operations have almost ground to a halt.

44 Feet: The de-facto nuclear waste site on the edge of Humboldt Bay and one group's efforts toward an atomic-ally correct future

Forty-four feet isn't all that high. It's halfway up the tall side of the county courthouse. If you stacked Guy Fieri seven-and-a-half times on top of himself, his platinum blond hair would reach 44 feet high. Forty-four feet is also the height above today's sea level where 37 tons of radioactive waste from the former PG&E Humboldt Bay power plant is entombed in a concrete vault at the edge of the bay. A new coalition called, you guessed it, 44 Feet has brought together state agencies, federal and local political interests, scientists, a few folks with no titles at all and, to some extent, the nuclear plant's owner, PG&E. Like nanoplastics and deep-fried butter, most of us do not want to think about radioactive waste stored nearby, but 44 Feet is trying to plan for its future safety, even if that future is 100,000 years away.

PG&E's old nuclear power plant sat next to U.S. Highway 101 at King Salmon. It ran a brief and ignominiously leaky life from 1963 to 1976. Still, it produced high-level radioactive waste from the uranium fuel it used to create electricity. The radioactivity has cooled somewhat in the intervening years, but it will remain hot and toxic for more than 100,000 years.

Opinion: The Coastal Commission is Not the Enemy, Developers Flouting the Rules Are the Real Problem

When our local officials fail to protect the general public interest, the Coastal Commission becomes the public’s last line of defense in protecting our shared environment from being harmed. Unfortunately, some developers (and sometimes city and county staff) have successfully cast the Coastal Commission as something to be overcome.

Local groups call for removal of Humboldt County planning commissioner for ‘racist and other offensive language’

Almost a dozen local groups are calling for the resignation or removal of a Humboldt County planning commissioner after he used “racist and other offensive language” at a recent meeting.

The letter, addressed to 1st District Supervisor Rex Bohn and 1st District Planning Commissioner Alan Bongio, requests Bongio’s resignation or removal for his statements at an Aug. 18 Planning Commission meeting. At the meeting, Bongio made repeated statements insinuating the Wiyot Tribe, Blue Lake Rancheria Tribe and Bear River Band of the Rohnerville Rancheria were acting in bad faith when it came to working with the county to come up with appropriate permit conditions for a controversial Indianola home construction project.

“The Planning Commission represents Humboldt County and all of its residents,” the letter states. “Mr. Bongio’s conduct strains relationships between Humboldt County and sovereign tribal governments and trustee agencies, and makes government-to-government relationships more difficult.”

Jen Kalt, executive director of Humboldt Baykeeper, said it was imperative for a member of the Planning Commission to understand the laws protecting the coast and tribal cultural resources, and Bongio illustrated he cannot apply those laws to projects equally.

“To me, that is what’s most despicable, other than the totally racist remarks that he made,” Kalt said. “It’s the view that some people are above the law and this applicant has shown that he thinks he’s above the law many times.”