News

Arcata wastewater facility update underway

City examines issues with aged facility

6/26/16

As the Arcata Wastewater Treatment Facility continues to age and resulting compliance issues arise, the city is preparing for a 10- to 20-year remodeling project. The effort will take its next step Monday when Arcata’s Environmental Services Department, which manages the facility, meets with the state’s Regional Water Quality Control Board to discuss the project’s future as city officials work to have a completed plan in place by their December deadline.

The Train Dream Lives! Caltrans Gives $276k in Public Funds to Trinity County Agency for Yet Another East-West Rail Study

6/24/16

The California Department of Transportation, better known as Caltrans, today announced that it has awarded a $276,000 grant to the Trinity County Transportation Commission, which will spend that moolah studying the feasibility of constructing a brand new railroad from Humboldt Bay across the Trinity Alps to the Central Valley.

Snowy plovers and massive condos — opposing forces we'll meet on our coastal road trip

6/22/16

Imagine this:

A stunning, untouched beach, marked by crashing blue surf and a broad shoulder of dunes that are home to native plants and wildlife.

Now imagine this:

A massive condo-and-hotel monstrosity carved into the wall of sand, permanently scarring the landscape and, according to the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, destroying the habitat of birds protected under the Endangered Species Act.

Coastal Commission vote rattles far north

6/21/16

On Feb. 10, the peace and quiet of Morro Bay, an idyllic beach town and state park along the central coast, was swept away by the tide of coastal conservation politics. The town’s community center was flooded with activists fighting the California Coastal Commission’s move to terminate its executive director, Charles Lester. After hours of passionate testimony, almost exclusively in support of the beleaguered bureaucrat, the commission eventually voted 7-5 to fire him.

Four months later and 600 miles to the north, the aftershocks of the Commission’s political earthquake are still being felt.

Toxin testing delaying Arcata Dog Park

6/20/16

Efforts to identify whether toxins left over from historic lumber operations have permeated into soils near the Arcata Marsh and Arcata Bay are currently underway, with projects and weight of the city’s coffers hinging on the results.

The toxin, known as dioxin, is a leftover from a wood preservative that was used by over a hundred lumber mills that were located near the bay from the 1950s to the 1980s. The preservative was banned in the late 1980s, except for use on power poles. Unknown quantities of the preservative have been dumped into or spilled into the bay and surrounding soil over the decades, but where the toxin ended up is still unknown.

“There are some soil issues there, that’s a known,” Arcata Environmental Services Department Director Mark Andre said. “But the extent is still not well mapped out.”