[Originally published July 18, 2018] An uproar over proposed offshore oil drilling in June of 1989 drew hundreds of people to Humboldt State University’s Van Duzer Theatre to discuss the future of both the Humboldt and Mendocino coastlines.In the June 28, 1989 article “Oil hearings underway at HSU” by Marie Gravelle, a panel of geologists held public hearings at the campus. Their intent was to deliver a “sentiment (…) that was predominantly anti-oil.” According to Jeffrey Lahr, a then-representative of the Humboldt County Planning Department, the phones rang nonstop for more than a week and nearly 100 people signed up to make comment during the hearings.The reason for the uproar: federal Lease Sale 91, President George H.W. Bush’s proposal to examine the California coast and its potential to be drilled for oil. Like the majority of California in ‘89, the North Coast was resilient in not letting the feds push them around.According to the article, other legislation was in the works to make the coastal waters of Humboldt and Mendocino counties permanently off limits to oil drilling. Congressman Doug Bosco (D-Occidental) said they were making “tremendous strides to (convince) Congress of the necessity to protect the California Coast,” and further stated that he hoped the previous moratorium on funding lease sale operations would “send a clear message to the Bush administration and its drilling task force.” That message being that Congress was already convinced of the environmental hazards of drilling off the North Coast.In a follow-up article on June 29, 1989, “Don’t drill, North Coast pleads” by Mark Rathjen, “speaker after speaker … told task force members that the risks of offshore oil drilling to the environment and local economy were not worth the benefits.”Rathjen also noted that many of the speakers at the gathering of 700 attendees alluded to the then-recent oil spill off the Alaskan coast, caused when the Exxon Valdez, an oil tanker bound for Long Beach, ran aground on Prince William Sound’s Bligh Reef on March 24, 1989. Karin Luban spoke out against oil drilling and warned others that it brought nothing but destruction.“The government cannot turn its eyes away from these disasters anymore,” Luban said. “Don’t let the desecration happen here.”Keep Reading
In a special meeting Thursday morning, the Humboldt Bay Municipal Water District Board of Directors voted to approve an emergency pipeline relocation on the Samoa Peninsula. The project will relocate a stretch of pipeline that feeds county parkland and the U.S. Coast Guard Station Humboldt Bay.That stretch of pipeline had been found to be damaged by recent high tides and is currently at risk of being undermined by king tides predicted to exceed 9 feet in early December.“District staff were informed on Nov. 12, 2025, that an air-release valve and vault on the Samoa Peninsula was damaged,” a staff report of the subject states. “Staff investigated on Nov. 13 … and discovered the recent high tides (8+ feet) had undermined the vault, and (the vault and valve) were no longer secure. Staff removed the air-release valve and vault to prevent further damage and possible failure to the six-inch transmission pipeline which serves the Coast Guard at the southern end of the Samoa Peninsula.”“When we went out right here yesterday, that was a high tide of about seven and a half feet; we’re looking at an additional two feet on top of that, which will completely undermine the pipeline,” Mares said, noting that the pipeline is about three feet deep along the stretch of shoreline. “… This is asphalt and cement pipe, which can be very brittle. So again, we do not want that pipeline exposed at all. What we’re proposing is to get out there and begin mobilizing.”“Shoreline encroachment, the process where land is lost to the sea from coastal erosion, has accelerated in this area,” HBMWD’s staff report notes. “Approximately, 20 years ago, the District relocated approximately 1,000 feet of pipeline immediately south of the current threatened pipeline due to shoreline encroachment.”Keep Reading
Advocates for offshore wind development in Humboldt County say the project is chugging ahead despite federal opposition — including the Department of Transportation withdrawing about $427 million in grant funds to develop the Humboldt Bay Offshore Wind Heavy Lift Terminal.They say with a likely delay of the project as a result, there’s now more time to get it done right. Wednesday, people from a coalition supporting renewable energy in Humboldt County pointed to ongoing work being done to get the project “shovel ready.”One organization, the Peninsula Community Collaborative, has been collecting input from residents of the Samoa Peninsula for years.“There’s all these amenities that they’re talking about putting in Samoa that would be awesome, but it’s really, right now, about mitigating harms, making sure they avoid as many problems as possible early,” said Colleen Clifford, a member of the PCC.In Samoa, the closest community to the terminal, major issues involve light, noise and possibly environmental pollution. Residents of Manila, bisected by State Route 255, are worried about an expected traffic increase. Meanwhile, the Fairhaven neighborhood is facing sea-level rise, and residents are concerned increased vessel traffic will exacerbate the issue.The PPC is meeting with agencies like the California Energy Commission to press for mitigations neighbors want from the planned industrial operation nearby. That includes, most recently, pushing to limit hours of operation.“Most people up here, the coalitions we’re part of, feel pretty good about having some time to keep focusing on these issues,” said Clifford.Keep Reading
In January, the coastal California town of Moss Landing witnessed the most destructive battery fire in U.S. history. Now, Gov. Gavin Newsom (D) has signed SB 283, a law designed to prevent a repeat of the disaster by strengthening statewide fire safety standards for grid battery installations.Batteries have become an integral part of California’s push to clean up its electricity system. But the Moss Landing conflagration jolted the state as it burned for several days, provoked evacuations of surrounding communities, and destroyed an old power-plant hall that electricity company Vistra had packed full of lithium-ion batteries in 2020. That disaster has since become a symbol of the apparent risks of adopting large-scale batteries, popping up in conversations about proposed battery projects around the country.In the years since Moss Landing came online, though, the grid battery industry has moved on from that type of design. These days, most every project places batteries in individual containers spaced out across an open field, which minimizes the chances of a fire spreading between them.Even with those advances in grid battery designs, state Sen. John Laird saw an opportunity to tighten state requirements in light of what happened in January, and he authored SB 283 to do just that. The state enhanced battery safety rules in response to the Moss Landing fire. The industry is on board, hoping better standards will reassure the public.Keep Reading
"Sharktober?” my friend asked. I’d just told him about this column I’m writing.“Yes, Sharktober,” I repeated.“Shark … tober?” he said again, drawing the syllables out as if to ensure he was saying the word properly.“Yes!” I confirmed once more.We stared at each other for a moment, then it dawned on me: He doesn’t know about Sharktober.I shall now state the obvious: Sharktober is a mashing together of the words “shark” and “October,” and a term that came about because West Coast shark encounters are more likely in late summer and fall. This is borne out by Shark Research Committee statistics, which note a dramatic uptick in attacks during August, September and October — 63 percent of recorded occurrences happened during those months.Now you know.Another friend recently reminisced, after reading last week’s column on Scott Stephens (“Sharktober Part 2,” Oct. 12), how after the attack, a dude had been hanging out in the hospital parking lot trying to sneak in a six-pack of Great White beer to give to Scott. You’d be forgiven for thinking, “Wow, what poor taste,” but surfers are kind of sick in the head — again, I state the obvious — and Northern Californian surfers especially so. It’s not exactly sane behavior to tug a thick neoprene skin over your bare ass on a beach shrouded in fog just so you can go paddle out into cold water and big waves.Which brings me back to gallows humor. We know cracking jokes about stressful or scary situations helps us poor humans cope with such things. So it’s no surprise when Sharktober rolls around and, even as everyone is tensed up over the increased likelihood of an attack, the humor ramps up along with the swell. In addition to other cute nicknames, like “the man in the gray suit,” great white sharks are known as “the landlord” and to get hit by one equates to “paying the rent.” Because most of us, regardless of where we were born and as comfortable as we might be in the water, understand that we will never be the true locals in the ocean. That designation belongs to the dolphins, seals, sea lions, sharks and all the creatures to whom the ocean truly belongs. (For the record, I find sea lions very scary and have been stink-eyed out of the water by them more than once and, also, they can run faster than us on land.)Keep Reading
