Focus
Trump administration presses rollback of ‘Roadless Rule’ on wildlands
Los Angeles Times – August 27
The U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) took formal steps this week to rescind a decades-old rule that protects 58.5 million acres of wild areas in national forests, including 4.4 million acres in California. The agency published a notice of intent in the Federal Register on Friday (today) to roll back the so-called Roadless Rule. The 2001 rule established lasting protection for specified wilderness areas within national forests by prohibiting road construction and logging, which can destroy or disrupt habitats, increase erosion, and worsen sediment pollution in drinking water, among other impacts.
News
EPA moves to block California’s roadside emissions checks
Transport Topics – August 26
The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) is taking aim at another California emissions law specific to the trucking industry: the California Air Resources Board’s Clean Truck Check law, also known as the Heavy-Duty Inspection and Maintenance Program. Launched in January 2023, the program deploys roadside emissions monitoring devices and screens the emissions output of vehicles operating on California roads, regardless of where the vehicles are registered. In an August 25 news release, EPA said it plans to disapprove application of the requirements to out-of-state and out-of-country vehicles, asserting that the requirements violate the U.S. Constitution’s Commerce Clause and are inconsistent with federal law.
Delta agrees to $79 million settlement for Los Angeles jet fuel dump
CBS News – August 27
Delta Air Lines has agreed to pay a $79 million settlement to South Los Angeles residents after its pilots dumped jet fuel on neighborhoods in 2020. Local residents filed a class-action lawsuit, arguing that the fuel jettison was not necessary, and the plane was too low and should never have emptied over densely populated neighborhoods. As part of the settlement, Delta did not admit to liability and pointed to an investigation from the Federal Aviation Administration that cleared the pilots of wrongdoing.
San Diego is suing a growing number of residents, businesses, and victims over 2024 flooding
The San Diego Union-Tribune – August 25
The question of who bears responsibility for the damage from catastrophic flooding in January 2024 continues to play out in complex litigation — with the city of San Diego arguing that local residents and companies should have done more to maintain storm channels. The city has now filed more than 20 cross-complaints against more than a dozen parties, including at least two flood victims, maintaining that they were responsible for drainage on their properties or developed their property in such a way as to overwhelm the city’s existing infrastructure. The accusations come in response to litigation that the city has faced from hundreds of people since stormwater overburdened city infrastructure early last year.
‘Erin Brockovich’ made this cancer-causing compound famous. Now it’s been found in L.A. fire debris
San Francisco Chronicle - August 28
Hexavalent chromium has been found in the air around wildfire cleanup sites in Los Angeles, potentially posing a risk to human health, according to a preliminary report released this Tuesday by a team of researchers at the University of California, Davis. When the element chromium — often found in soil, electronics, and fire suppressants — burns, it can turn into hexavalent chromium, or Cr(VI), a highly toxic form of chromium more frequently associated with industrial processes or high-temperature oxidation. In the short term, Cr(VI) can irritate the skin, eyes, and throat; prolonged exposure has been associated with an increased risk of lung cancer. Researchers aren’t certain where the chromium came from or how long the compound will stay in the air after the remaining debris has been removed.
Popular Bay Area park is hiding ‘literal tons of waste’
SFGate – August 27
Last month, the California Coastal Commission delivered a sobering presentation about what it called one of the most concerning situations facing the commission right now: the former Mussel Rock landfill on the Daly City-Pacifica border. The 150-acre site operated as a municipal dump from 1957 to 1978 but has since become a popular park. A coastal planner at the Commission painted a stark picture of the site, where 1.4 million cubic yards of waste lie precariously close to the ocean. The financial burden has fallen on Daly City, which does not have the means to address the issue. According to a planned retreat management plan prepared for the city, completely removing the landfill material would take eight years and cost $237,292,560.
Water district drops plan to build largest new Bay Area reservoir since 1998 amid cost overruns, delays
The Mercury News – August 27
Faced with new cost overruns, the board of Santa Clara County’s largest water agency, the Santa Clara Valley Water District, on August 26 voted to kill a plan to build a new reservoir in the southern part of the county after eight years of studies and the expenditure of $100 million in public funds. The reservoir would have been the largest new reservoir built anywhere in the Bay Area since 1998 when Los Vaqueros Reservoir was constructed in eastern Contra Costa County.
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