Anchored by the cities of Eureka and Arcata and known for its redwood forests, cannabis tourism and cool, misty beaches, Humboldt Bay also has an unwelcome distinction: It has the fastest rate of sea level rise on the West Coast.Tectonic activity is causing the area around the bay roughly 300 miles north of San Francisco to sink, which gives it a rate of sea level rise that is about twice the state average. Compared to 2000, the sea in the area is expected to rise 1 foot by 2030, 2.3 feet by 2050 and 3.1 feet by 2060, according to California Ocean Protection Council.Residential areas, wastewater treatment plants and a segment of Highway 101 that connects Eureka and Arcata are all at risk — especially when the frequent and intense storms associated with climate change trigger more flooding. There are even long-term worries about a nuclear waste storage facility on the bluffs. Yet the region also has become a test case for how to adapt to a problem that faces all of coastal California, including by restoring wetlands that were filled in for logging and farming in earlier eras.“We say the bay is going to take back from us what we borrowed for the last hundred years or so,” said Jennifer Kalt, director of the nonprofit group Humboldt Baykeeper and a member of the Cal Poly Humboldt Sea Level Rise Institute.Read More
Near the end of a roughly seven-hour special meeting on Wednesday, the Humboldt County Board of Supervisors denied an appeal of the environmental report regarding Nordic Aquafarms’ proposed fish farm on the Samoa Peninsula.The supervisors voted 4-0 with 4th District Supervisor Steve Madrone absent to deny the appeal brought forward by the Redwood Region Audubon Society, 350 Humboldt and the Humboldt Fishermen’s Marketing Association who argued that the recently certified environmental impact report inadequately analyzed the scope of several project elements including greenhouse gas emissions and biological concerns.Read More
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.”
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. Read More
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.Read More
