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10/13/11

“That's a good example of where the commission went to great lengths to strike the right balance,” said Charles Lester, 49, who was named the commission's executive director in September.

He is taking over from Peter Douglas, who headed the commission since 1985 and co-wrote the 1972 ballot initiative that created it. Douglas, whose retirement begins next month, is battling lung cancer.

Sonoma County's Sea Ranch development, where coastal access was a key point of argument, helped spur the movement that led to the commission.

Today, Lester said, the same issues resound.

“The vast majority of us don't live along the immediate shoreline, so therefore we need to make those opportunities available to everyone,” he said.

Defending the environment from population and development pressures remains an equally crucial battle, he said.

At the longtime blue-collar resort of Lawson's Landing, Lester said the task was finding a balance “between preserving shorelines access for a wide range of visitors and across a wide range of classes, but also to protect our vital resources.”

The issues at Lawson's, a 960-acre property that includes environmentally sensitive dunes and wetlands, involved an unpermitted, low-cost recreational area where private trailers were parked year-round on a prized slice of coast.

Commissioners ordered the trailers be removed but gave a five-year grace period to do that. After that, about 200 trailers will be allowed on the property but must be made available to the general public.

Though many of the trailer owners and the property's owners decried the order — saying it was unfair and would put the resort out of business — Lester said it achieved twin objectives.

He defines one as “how to make shoreline access and resources available to those citizens who can't afford five-star hotels” — and the other, as preserving delicate natural habitats.

“That was very much the other side of the equation in Lawson's Landing,” Lester said, “making sure we protect and hopefully enhance environmentally sensitive areas — wetlands and creeks and riparian areas.”

A factor that will play a larger role, he said, is rising sea levels due to climate change; some projections are that the ocean will rise 4½ feet over the next 100 years.

“This is going to exacerbate issues we've struggled with already, particularly in urban areas where there is a conflict between pre-existing development and shoreline levels,” Lester said.

Addressing that threat will require close cooperation with the 76 local governments with which the commission works, especially as they redraw the mandated Local Coastal Program plans that were adopted in the late 1980s and early 1990s.

In Sonoma County, which is updating its coastal program plan now, Gleason Beach and Highway 1 will be among the major issues, Lester said.

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10/8/11

A series of bills designed to ensure the availability of clean drinking water was signed off by Gov. Jerry Brown Friday.

The legislation, sponsored by area senator Lois Wolk, includes planning for basic infrastructure in disadvantaged, unincorporated communities.

"Clean drinking water is a basic human right," said Brown in a statement released by his office on Wolk's bills. "The bills I have signed today will help ensure that every Californian has access to clean and safe sources of water. Protecting the water we drink is an absolutely crucial duty of state government."

Wolk's Senate Bill 244 would ensure that cities and counties review and update the elements of their general plans to include data and analysis, goals, and implementation measures regarding unincorporated island, fringe, or legacy communities. This requirement would apply the next time that local officials revise their general plans.

Additionally, this bill provides authority for local governments to access the Clean Water State

Revolving Fund Loan Program for planning costs to implement infrastructure projects. This would give disadvantaged communities like those targeted in this bill the ability to gain financial assistance for planning costs and level the playing field for various classes of local government.

"This measure addresses a very serious public health and planning problem in California that has for too long been largely hidden from view," said Wolk, D-Davis. "There are hundreds of underserved communities in this state, many of them in my district. They are home to an estimated one million Californians who lack basic necessities such as clean drinking water, adequate sewage disposal and other critical infrastructure. My legislation takes the first step toward ensuring that these neglected communities, some of the state's poorest, are provided with the basic necessities for a safe and healthy living environment. I applaud the Governor's decision to sign this measure into law.

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Read SB 244

1.5 cents increase per barrel of oil will fund prevention and response measures

The California Office of Spill Prevention and Response – part of the Department of Fish and Game – is set to get an increase in funding from oil companies doing business in the state.  AB 1112 was signed by Governor Brown October 8.

California oil spill prevention and response programs had been facing cuts next year, prompting Assemblymember Jared Huffman to author AB 1112 to raise fees by 1.5 cents on the price of a barrel of oil.  Oil companies currently pay one nickel per barrel of oil.  In the twenty year history of the California Office of Spill Prevention and Response (OSPR), the fees to support the program have been increased only once, from four to five cents in 2002, when the agency was facing staffing cuts.

“The tragedy of the Gulf Coast oil spill – the worst environmental disaster in US history – serves as a fresh reminder that preventing oil spills is a huge priority in California,” said Assemblymember Huffman. “This is a critically important bill that will increase oil spill prevention oversight and maintain solvency of the state fund that supports oil spill prevention programs.”

OSPR was facing imminent staffing cuts due to the funding shortfall, says Deb Self, Executive Director of San Francisco Baykeeper, which sponsored the bill after receiving grim financial reports as a member of the agency’s Technical Advisory Committee.  “The need for a robust oil spill program has never been greater.  Now that we’ve seen the results of the BP Gulf oil disaster, we know what the stakes are here on San Francisco Bay.”  In addition to securing the agency’s funding, the bill requires stricter oversight of ships transferring fuel on the open water. The bill was co-sponsored by Pacific Environment.

Baykeeper has been active in improving oil spill response on San Francisco Bay since the 2007 Cosco Busan spill that oiled hundreds of miles of Bay shoreline and killed thousands of birds.  Baykeeper helped pass seven oil spill bills in 2008 that required better prevention efforts, more boom and quicker response times – but came with no increase in funding for OSPR.

“We know that oil spills can have a devastating impact on sea lions, harbor seals, migrating birds, local endangered shorebirds and the struggling herring and leopard shark populations,” added Self.  “We are relieved that the Governor recognized the importance of fully funding California’s programs to prevent and respond to oil spills.”

For more info on environmental bills signed recently by Governor Brown, click HERE.

10/7/11