News

Coast Seafood extension up for review

7/30/17

The California Coastal Commission is set to decide on Aug. 10 whether to renew Coast Seafood Company’s existing shellfish farming operations in Humboldt Bay. The company’s permits are set to expire the following day if not renewed.

Commission staff is recommending to extend the company’s nearly 300 acres of existing oyster and clam farming operations in northern Humboldt Bay through Dec. 31.

The proposed extension comes after the commission voted 6-5 to deny the company’s proposal to renew about 230 of its existing aquaculture operations and to expand by another nearly 260 acres. The commissioners who opposed the project were concerned about the size of the project and the potential impacts to sensitive eelgrass beds in the bay and the wildlife that rely on them.

Coastal Commission senior environmental scientist Cassidy Teufel said Saturday that the time extension is to allow the company to submit a revised expansion plan.

Supes Take Needed Step to Protect Our Coast

7/28/17

The Humboldt County Board of Supervisors has joined other California lawmakers, business leaders, environmental groups and government agencies in rejecting the Trump administration’s attempts to open up the California coast to new offshore oil drilling. At its July 25 meeting, the board unanimously passed a resolution in support of the nearby Greater Farallones and Cordell Bank national marine sanctuaries.

The sanctuaries, the resolution notes, “are home to some of the most diverse coastal ecosystems, which support giant kelp forests, many species of marine mammals, migrating salmon and hundreds of other forms of sea life,” before going on to confirm that, yes, the threat laid out in April’s “America-First Offshore Energy Strategy” presidential order “is of deep concern.”

The Trump administration’s directive calls for a “review” of national marine sanctuaries with the goal of opening these protected areas to new and expanded oil and gas drilling that are currently prohibited within them. As the resolution notes, Humboldt County “has long supported the protection of vital coastal resources, tourism, fishing and mariculture cultivation industries, and stands with other coastal counties in their efforts to protect these very pristine coastal waters.”

Efforts appear to have found some success, generating more than 67,000 comments and resulting in an extended comment period from the initial 30-day one, giving the public until Aug. 14 to weigh in. The North Coast's own Congressman Jared Huffman advocated heavily for the extension and will be holding a public forum in Marin to discuss the federal threat to the coast on Aug. 23.

Two Bay Area counties sue 37 fossil fuel companies over sea-rise

7/17/17

Two Bay Area counties sued 37 oil, gas and coal companies Monday asserting the companies knew their fossil fuel products would cause sea level rise and coastal flooding but failed to reduce their greenhouse gas pollution.

The lawsuit was part of a coordinated litigation attack by Marin, San Mateo County and the city of Imperial Beach.

The lawsuit, filed in Marin County Superior Court, alleges that “major corporate members of the fossil fuel industry, have known for nearly a half century that unrestricted production and use of their fossil fuel products create greenhouse gas pollution that warms the planet and changes our climate.”

State Transportation Commission Asks North Coast Railroad Authority to Prepare ‘Shutdown Plan’

7/3/17

Last week, members of the California Transportation Commission got tough with the North Coast Railroad Authority, the public agency that owns the defunct railroad tracks around Humboldt County, which has been operating in the red and selling off publicly owned property to stay afloat.

After peppering the railroad authority’s executive director with a series of pointed questions at its meeting Thursday morning, the commission asked the NCRA to come back to them in October with a couple of new documents: a business plan and a “shutdown plan.”

Clam Beach Named Most Polluted Beach in California by Watchdog Group

6/15/17

After climbing up the charts for the past four years, Humboldt County’s own Clam Beach has earned the dubious distinction of landing atop Heal the Bay’s annual “Beach Bummer” list, which ranks the 10 nastiest beaches in the state based on bacterial pollution measurements from county health agencies.

According to the Santa Monica-based nonprofit, the pollution problem at Clam Beach may stem from private septic systems along Patricia Creek and Strawberry Creek, which flow down to the beach. “The Humboldt Public Health lab is developing Bacteroides testing to help pinpoint the source,” the group reports.

Luffenholtz Beach, just a few miles north, also landed on the Beach Bummer list, scoring a D grade and coming in as the eighth-most-polluted beach in the state. “Private septic systems in Trinidad are culprits,” says Heal the Bay.

You can read more about Heal the Bay’s 2017 beach report card here and view the complete report, with info on methodology, by downloading the pdf file here.

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