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2/23/11

You can't miss it: litter on the streets, weeds in the sidewalks and gutters, dead leaves choking the sewer grates. Since budget constraints forced the city to cut out street-sweeping, citizens have been scorching city hall telephone lines with complaints that Eureka's streets are looking increasingly down-at-the-mouth.

The thing about complaints is that they're a dime a dozen. No longer can we count on the city, with its limited resources, to fix this. If we want to protect the economic vitality of our commercial areas and property values in our residential areas we need to do it ourselves. If we want to protect Humboldt Bay from polluted runoff that threatens fishing and public health, we need to do it ourselves.

No one but us will take responsibility for keeping our streets and sidewalks free of weeds and litter. It will take a little elbow work but we will all reap the rewards:

• Keeping our commercial areas vital: Shoppers avoid areas that seem run down.

• Keeping property values up: Littered streets undermine homeowners' equity.

• Controlling crime: Criminals are drawn to areas where it looks like no one cares.

• Controlling taxpayer costs: City crews use scarce resources when forced to free stopped drains during rainy season.

• Keeping pollutants from running into the bay: Pesticides and fertilizers in landscaping debris leach into our rivers and bay through stormwater runoff, threatening habitat for our fisheries.

There's nothing complicated about it. We just need to roll up our sleeves and do it:

• Weed our sidewalks and gutters to keep them neat and prevent them from catching paper and plastic debris.

• Sweep leaves off the sidewalk and gutters, using them for mulch in landscaped areas or in compost piles or bins.

• Pick up any litter around the house. Do a litter check when putting out the garbage can.

• Pick up litter when walking. Carrying an extra plastic bag makes this easy.

If just a few of us do it, it will help. If a whole lot of us did it, it would be awesome. We can do it, Eurekans!

Michele McKeegan is president of Keep Eureka Beautiful.

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2/15/11

The EPA has proposed examining every aspect of hydraulic fracturing, from water withdrawals to waste disposal, according to a draft plan the agency released last week. If the study goes forward as planned, it would be the most comprehensive investigation of whether the drilling technique risks polluting drinking water near oil and gas wells across the nation. 

The agency wants to look at the potential impacts on drinking water of each stage involved in hydraulic fracturing, where drillers mix water with chemicals and sand and inject the fluid into wells to release oil or natural gas. In addition to examining the actual injection, the study would look at withdrawals, the mixing of the chemicals, and wastewater management and disposal. The agency, under a mandate from Congress, will only look at the impact of these practices on drinking water.

The agency’s scientific advisory board will review the draft plan on March 7-8 and will allow for public comments then. The EPA will consider any recommendations from the board and then begin the study promptly, it said in a news release. A preliminary report should be ready by the end of next year, the release said, with a full report expected in 2014.

A statement from the oil and gas industry group Energy in Depth gave a lukewarm assessment of the draft.

“Our guys are and will continue to be supportive of a study approach that’s based on the science, true to its original intent and scope,” the statement read. “But at first blush, this document doesn’t appear to definitively say whether it’s an approach EPA will ultimately take.”

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2/18/11

Japan will cut short this year’s annual whale hunt in the Antarctic Ocean after obstruction by an environmental group largely prevented its ships from killing whales, the government said Friday.

The Agriculture Ministry, which runs Japan’s widely criticized research whaling program, said harassment by the group, the Sea Shepherd Conservation Society, had kept its catch far below its annual target of whales. A spokesman for the ministry said on Friday that 170 minke whales and two fin whales had been caught this season, far below the annual targets of 850 minke and 50 fin.

The recall of Japan’s fleet is the first time that environmentalists have succeeded in cutting short the annual hunts, which Japan says are necessary for scientific research. Critics say the hunts are an effort to evade a global moratorium on commercial whaling.

Friday’s announcement was welcomed by Sea Shepherd, which is based in Washington State. In a statement on its Web site, the group said three of its ships would remain in the Southern Ocean to “escort” the Japanese fleet northward.

In recent years, Sea Shepherd has sent ships to the Antarctic to block Japan’s whaling fleet, turning the hunts into a game of cat-and-mouse that has received increasing media attention. The environmentalists try to block the Japanese by tangling the ships’ propellers with ropes or putting their own vessels in between the whalers and their quarry.

The ministry said the group had harassed the Japanese ships by shining laser beams to temporarily blind crew members and throwing flares onto the whaling vessels. Agriculture Minister Michihiko Kano told reporters on Friday that the decision to recall the fleet was made to ensure the safety of the crews and ships.

The ministry said its whaling fleet had often been able to simply outrun the environmentalists. It could not do so this year because Sea Shepherd had faster vessels, the government said.

Japanese newspapers reported that there had been resistance to cutting short the hunt for fear of appearing to cave in to pressure from foreign environmentalists.

Domestic critics have called the program an anachronism, because private fishing companies have dropped out under international pressure and the demand for whale meat is declining. Few Japanese eat whale anymore, and the meat from the hunt has piled up in freezers, or been given to children for school lunches.

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2/17/11

After almost two hours of discussion Monday night, the Fort Bragg City council agreed to have the Mendocino Solid Waste Management Authority prepare an environmental impact report for a draft ordinance regulating single-use plastic carryout bags.

City Manager Linda Ruffing noted that the Public Works & Facilities Committee met Jan. 13 to review a draft ordinance, intended to reduce waste and litter generated by small plastic bags used to carry merchandise from stores. It is also intended to promote the use of reusable cloth bags.

According to staff reports, costs would be limited to city attorney review and associated staff expenses and fines for violations could be used to offset enforcement costs.

The committee also recommended that a 10-cent charge be applied to some paper bags so retailers could cover the cost of providing them. However, it has yet to be determined how small a paper bag would have to be in order to avoid that charge. Fast food outlets typically offer drive-up food in paper and plastic bags of varying sizes. MSWMA Manager Mike Sweeney said the city would need to decide if exemptions would apply to some outlets or if the ordinance would apply equally to all.

Sweeney came to the meeting with a collection of plastic bags from around the city and said litter is the foremost problem with them. He estimated that bags from Safeway make up about half of those found locally, but also showed bags from other stores. He said plastic bags now make up about 25 percent of all litter. Showing a decrepit Walmart plastic bag, he noted that plastic does not biodegrade, but falls apart and typically ends up in the ocean.

Another problem with plastic bags is the waste of resources, he said, and the bag industry uses a lot of petroleum and energy to create disposable things.

Cities ban together

Sweeney called San Jose's ordinance exceptional, noting that its authors had looked at, and included, every conceivable negative impact caused by plastic bags. He said Fort Bragg can benefit greatly from the work of the other cities. Sweeney felt the ordinance could be generated quickly.

Vice Mayor Meg Courtney said that during her informal survey of retailers, most grocers said they would be happy to see plastic bags banned. She said some questioned having a 10-cent charge for paper bags until she explained that the retailer would keep the charge to cover its costs for offering them.

Sweeney explained later that the idea is not to replace plastic with paper bags, but to incentivize the use of reusable cloth bags.

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