September 2009 Archives

Long Beach's Department of Devlopment Services will hold a joint community meeting and EIR scoping session Oct. 7 for the proposed project at the SeaPort Marina site.

The project, pegged for Second Street and Pacific Coast Highway, has been criticized because of plans for a 12-story building in an area where heights are zoned for 35 feet maxximum.

 The meeting will be at 6:30 pm at Rogers Middle School in Long Beach. For more information, visit www.LBDS.info

Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger on Thursday commemorated the third anniversary of the signing of the world's first comprehensive law to reduce greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions.

 Since AB 32 was signed, the state's efforts to engage other states and countries such as China in the fight against climate change and the need for a global solution to this global problem.

 "Every year it becomes more apparent that no single issue threatens the health and prosperity of our world, ... and that is why California has stepped up to take the lead.
 Three years ago I signed the world's most comprehensive global warming law and since then our emissions have been reduced, our green economy has grown and our policies have influenced the world," said Schwarzenegger.

. "But that was only the first step. Global warming is a global problem that requires a global solution and I am committed to working toward that solution so our children and grandchildren are left with a clean environment and a strong economy."

AB 32, according to the govenor's office,  mandates a reduction of the state's GHG emissions to 1990 levels by 2020 and calls for an 80 percent reduction from 1990 levels by 2050.

 Three years after AB 32, the state has also approved an AB 32 Scoping Plan as a blueprint for reducing GHG emissions, adopted measures from the Low Carbon Fuel Standard to the Pavley Vehicle Standards to address 40 percent of its overall goals and is working on more than 20 additional measures such as a cap-and-trade system to fully meet AB 32 mandates.

 Last week, Schwarzenegger took another major step forward toward reducing GHG emissions when he signed Executive Order S-21-09, directing the California Air Resources Board to adopt regulations increasing California's Renewable Portfolio Standard to 33 percent by 2020 - putting the state on track to becoming the largest clean energy producer in the nation.

 In the last three years, more than $6 billion in venture capital has been pumped into California's economy, making us the national leader in the number of clean businesses. Green jobs have also skyrocketed, growing 10 times faster in California than in other areas.

LOS ANGELES - The federal EPAhas added the B.F. Goodrich site in western San Bernardino County to the Superfund National Priorities List, the federal program that cleans up the nation's uncontrolled hazardous waste sites.

Since the 1940's, the B.F. Goodrich site has been used to store, test and manufacture munitions, rocket motors, and pyrotechnics by the government and businesses, according to an Environmental Protection Agency announcement Wednesday.

" The area's groundwater is contaminated with trichloroethylene (TCE) and perchlorate, forcing the closure of public drinking water supply wells in the communities of Rialto and Colton," the EPA added. 

Placing  B.F. Goodrich to the Superfund list gives the EPA the essential tools to clean up the site, according to Keith Takata, director of the EPA's regional Superfund program.

The EPA proposed adding B.F. Goodrich to the Superfund National Priorities List in 2008.

Since 2002, the EPA and the California Regional Water Quality Control Board have worked to investigate and clean up the B.F. Goodrich site. IFour years later, in 2006, investigation and cleanup efforts stalled when the potentially responsible parties presented legal challenges to state cleanup efforts. The EPA has since spent over $3 million to complete required soil and groundwater testing before the actual cleanup can begin. The EPA expects to release a plan to begin cleanup at a portion of the site later this year, the agency added.

TCE is a metal cleaning solvent, and drinking or breathing high levels of it may cause damage to the nervous system, liver and lungs. Perchlorate is an ingredient in solid rocket propellant and many pyrotechnics, and may affect the thyroid gland, according to the EPA.

For more information on the BF Goodrich Superfund site, visit:
http://www.epa.gov/region09/bfgoodrich

For the Federal Register notice and supporting documents, visit: http://www.epa.gov/superfund/sites/npl/current.htm

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All comments received by Oct. 2 will be included in a DFG
report to the commission that will be submitted no later than April 23,
2010. Another 30-day public comment period will be held before the
commission makes its decision, which could occur as soon as August 2010.

DFG's petition evaluation report for the Pacific fisher can be found
at: http://www.dfg.ca.gov/wildlife/nongame/publications/.