High tides are expected to swell to around 9 feet this week, potentially increasing the risk for coastal flooding and sneaker wave impacts along the North Coast.Wood said that coastal communities like the Arcata Bottoms and King Salmon may experience flooding, but he said that northerly winds will most likely abate some potential flooding in waterways off the bay. Nevertheless, Wood said, tides are predicted to be inordinately high.“… Tides are verifying about half a foot higher than what’s being forecast,” Wood said. “It’s a positive anomaly; we calculate that into our estimation for tides we could start seeing with this around a half a foot anomaly, and that’s … with northerly winds. Normally, winds can slightly suppress tides around into the Humboldt Bay, so the title normally may increase slightly with total flooding risk starting as early as Wednesday.”Wood said that the area around Jackson Ranch Road in Arcata would likely see localized flooding, as would coastal communities like King Salmon.The Friends of the Arcata Marsh are hosting their annual “King Tide Tour” this week on Friday, Dec. 5. Participants are encouraged to wear waterproof clothing on the tour as hosts explain what makes the tides so much higher than normal, describe the increases expected as sea level rises and discuss what will happen to Humboldt Bay as the rest of the century brings climate-associated changes. Tour-goers will meet on Dec. 5 at 11 a.m. on South I Street in the first gravel parking lot in from Samoa Boulevard.Read Original Article
The Trump Administration has announced its intention to expand offshore oil and gas development off the coast of California. The Department of the Interior released its “11th National Offshore Leasing Program,” which proposes as many as 34 potential offshore lease sales, covering approximately 1.27 billion acres, including six sales in California. The North Coast of California is home to three offshore oil and gas fields, including the Eel River Basin, Point Arena Basin, and the Bodega Basin. At this time it is unclear the degree to which oil and gas development is a true threat. In 2018, Trump issued a similar call for new offshore fossil fuel development, which resulted in new offshore leases in the Gulf of Mexico, although none in California. But we believe we should approach this threat as if it is serious, as we have seen the consequences of oil spills related to offshore oil and gas development in Santa Barbara in 1969 and 2015, Port Angeles in 1985, Grays Harbor in 1988, Alaska’s Prince William Sound in 1989, Coos Bay in 1999, and the Gulf of Mexico in 2010.Here’s what we can do as a community to minimize the threat to the North Coast.Keep Reading
[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
