Lighting regulations for unincorporated portions of the county were approved by the board of supervisors in a 3-2 vote on Aug. 19.Now covering inland areas, the guidelines were influenced by recommendations from DarkSky International, an advocacy group dedicated to combating light pollution. An accompanying coastal version still needs approval from the California Coastal Commission to go into effect.Under the dark sky ordinance, new exterior lights in residential areas can be a maximum of 1100 lumens — a brightness measure equivalent to a 75-watt bulb — and 3200 lumens in commercial zones. It also adds restrictions on light spillage onto other properties and motion sensor lights.Sylvia van Royen, Humboldt Waterkeeper’s GIS and policy analyst, created a map on the spread of light pollution in Humboldt County and documented that Eureka’s reaches 24 miles off the coast from its brightest point. Each population area in the region creates its own cascading emanations, she says, resulting in the fragmentation of natural environments — including national forests — that can confuse wildlife.“They kind of make this connected blob of sky glows,” van Royen said. “If you think about it, if you were a bird and you were trying to fly through the dark areas, now those are disconnected from each other. And they have to fly through this, but then, when they fly through the brighter light, they might get disoriented.”Van Royen has been combing through studies on light pollution to help educate local residents on the importance of regulating the brightness and temperature of lighting, with Humboldt Waterkeeper collaborating with DarkSky International and area businesses to get the word out about their findings.“Because it can disrupt our circadian rhythms, it kind of throws off our natural cycles of when we’re eating and sleeping,” van Royen said. “And that can have an effect on our health by contributing to insomnia, depression, obesity, we can lose our night vision.”When a person is looking at a bright light, she says, it is more difficult to see things outside of the light’s range. In situations like construction work happening at night, this can have dangerous consequences, van Royen says, pointing to case studies where DarkSky International collaborated with projects around the world to mitigate the effects.Read the Article
The Trump administration may be doing its darnedest to kneecap the nation’s burgeoning offshore wind industry, but California remains bullish on the renewable energy sector.On Wednesday, the California Energy Commission (CEC) awarded an $18,250,000 grant to the Humboldt Bay Harbor, Recreation and Conservation District to advance the design of the district’s planned Offshore Wind Heavy Lift Marine Terminal.That represents just a drop in the fiscal bucket compared to the $435 million in federal funding that the feds recently yanked away from the Harbor District, with U.S. Transportation Secretary Sean P. Duffy suggesting that money should instead go towards “revitalizing America’s maritime industry.”But Harbor District Executive Director Chris Mikkelsen recently told the Outpost that the agency is moving “full speed ahead” on plans to develop a new industrial terminal on the Samoa Peninsula designed specifically to facilitate development of floating offshore wind projects.This latest CEC grant, which was first announced in March but not officially awarded until this week, is part of the commission’s Waterfront Facility Improvement Program.“These funds will advance the Heavy Lift Marine Terminal Project through expanded technical studies, further examination of mitigation measures for community and environmental impacts, and expands our robust community engagement, ensuring equitable development of the terminal project,” Mikkelsen said in an email to the Outpost.Read More
The Humboldt County Board of Supervisors today took a stand against offshore oil drilling and deep sea mining, though it was hardly unanimous.Third District Supervisor Mike Wilson brought forward a draft resolution to the board for approval. In introducing it he argued that it’s important to reiterate opposition to these disruptive and polluting industries given President Donald Trump’s recent signing of an executive order to expand offshore oil drilling.As noted in yesterday’s meeting preview, former President Joe Biden withdrew 625 million acres of federal waters from oil development, effectively banning new drilling along U.S. coastlines. However, Trump’s order repealed that move, and U.S. District Court Judge James Cain later ruled that the Biden administration had exceeded its authority.Wilson noted that Humboldt County has previously taken a stand against offshore oil drilling and deep sea mining. He asked his colleagues to reiterate that position and to join like-minded local governments in an endeavor called “the Local Government Outer Continental Shelf Coordination Program and Coalition,” which aims to streamline engagement with the federal government.Wilson said the resolution “speaks for itself,” but First District Supervisor Rex Bohn questioned the need for such a measure.“There hasn’t been anything done in over 50 years off the coast, right?” he said. (Wilson countered that there are still active derricks down south.) Bohn went on to address offshore wind development, questioning whether fastening cables to the ocean floor would be contrary to any stance against seabed mining. Wilson said they’re “pretty different technologies,” noting that mining is extractive, but Bohn remained skeptical.Read More
Crab fishing in California has never been so complicated. Recent seasons have been delayed, truncated and subject to mandatory gear reductions for a variety of reasons, including a spike in whale entanglements, unhealthy levels of the neurotoxin domoic acid, low meat quality (a measurement of meat yield percentage) and ever-increasing layers of bureaucracy.These complications were recently dubbed “the four horsemen of the crab apocalypse” by Dr. Craig Shuman, marine region manager for the California Department of Fish and Wildlife (CDFW). When he made the remark at a statewide fisheries forum led by Senate Leader Mike McGuire last week, he was likely half joking. After all, following a few years of lower prices the state’s crab fleet last year reached a record price for Dungeness of seven dollars per pound.“We also had the highest number of active permits since the 2019-2020 season,” Shuman said during the forum.Opening day was delayed in the northern zones of the state until January 15 due to meat quality issues and delayed in the rest of the state due to the presence of whales offshore. And when the fisheries did open it was under trap reductions in both zones. Still, by the time the season came to a close, California’s fleet had landed about eight and a half million pounds of crab worth close to $55 million, which is about average for the past 10 years.Read More
The next phase of the cleanup of contamination at the Balloon Track in Eureka is approaching.The former railyard beside Humboldt Bay, which hosts toxin-laden soil and other materials from its time storing fuel and hosting a freight yard for repairing and refueling locomotives, has sat vacant for years. But in 2024, the first phase of a cleanup began with debris removed and defunct train cars booted from where they sat for decades.Now the second phase is being pursued, which involves removal and testing of dirt in drainage ditches for hazardous materials, according to Eureka planning documents.A city staff report on this cleanup notes that six inches on ditch bottoms and banks will be removed, with samples collected and exposed areas stabilized and planted with native plants. This soil will be tested for contaminants.This will impact about 12,000 square feet of wetlands in total, with work occurring during dry weather when water is absent from ditches.According to materials submitted to the city by the engineering firm coordinating the cleanup, NorthPoint Consulting Group, “the majority of the Stage 1 work has been completed,” — which ranges from demolition of slabs, debris sorting, concrete crushing, hazardous material disposal, and removal of metal contaminated soils. According to a staff report, approximately 355 tons of historic bunker sand, about 56 tons of contaminated soil and about 109 tons of solid waste were removed.Removal of rail cars at the property, which involved scrapping engines and moving others off-site, began in 2024. The site is a former tidal marshland filled in the early 1900s and was used as a freight yard for decades.The Union Pacific Railroad Company found everything from Bunker C oil, diesel, gasoline, motor oil, polynuclear aromatic hydrocarbons, arsenic, copper, lead, zinc and chlorinated volatile organic compounds in their various investigations into the materials at the site. Environmentally persistent dioxins have also been identified in testing.“It should have been done years ago, but it’s good that the cleanup is finally going to be done the right way. It will involve shallow excavation followed by more sampling to determine whether more excavation needs to be done,” said Jen Kalt, director of Humboldt Waterkeeper in an email.The environmental organization previously collected soil samples in 2007 finding environmental toxins, and filed lawsuits against the city regarding a planned “Marina Center” previously envisioned at the site.“Humboldt Waterkeeper will continue to follow the remediation plans to make sure the bay and Clark Slough are not further impacted by dioxins and other contaminants when the site is eventually developed,” said Kalt.Keep Reading
