Latest news with #SanJoaquinValley
Yahoo
7 days ago
- General
- Yahoo
Central Valley town could sink because of farming giant's groundwater pumping
SJV Water is a nonprofit, independent online news publication covering water in the San Joaquin Valley. Lois Henry is the CEO/Editor of SJV Water. She can be reached at The website is While some groundwater managers in the beleaguered Tulare Lake subbasin look for ways to come together on pumping limits in order to comply with state mandates, the giant J.G. Boswell Farming Company has remained silent and intractable. The company, which controls the El Rico Groundwater Sustainability Agency (GSA), still plans to allow so much groundwater pumping within its boundaries that it could sink the old Tulare Lake bed — including the small town of Corcoran — by another 10 feet. That's only a foot less than it planned back in 2021 when the subbasin, which covers most of Kings County, submitted its first management plan required under the Sustainable Groundwater Management Act (SGMA). While El Rico wants 10 more feet of subsidence, other GSAs in the subbasin have agreed to allow less than six extra feet of subsidence, according to multiple presentations by Amer Hussain, the subbasin plan manager and an engineer with Geosyntec. The issue has become pressing as three of the region's five GSAs are looking at conducting a study of the subbasin's 'native yield.' Native yield refers to how much water naturally accumulates through rainfall and runoff that's otherwise unaccounted for, not including imported surface water or river flows that are owned. Setting the region's native yield is crucial to know how much pumping can be allowed without causing negative consequences, such as subsidence. But the group must first agree on a maximum subsidence limit then divide it between themselves, Hussain said. That could be difficult with one member, El Rico, holding out for significantly more subsidence than the rest of the group. Even knowing the current land elevation of each GSA is difficult as El Rico has not shared that information with the rest of the group and its boundaries are blank on satellite maps. Department of Water Resources satellite data from 2015 to 2024 show land elevations for every other GSA in Kings County, except El Rico, which covers most of the old Tulare Lake bottom. 'There's just nothing out there to calibrate,' Hussain said. A representative of El Rico could not be reached. 'Boswell doesn't want to share information. They don't like us to be in their business, but they need to answer to the state,' said Doug Verboon, a Kings County Supervisor and board member of the Mid-Kings River GSA. In 2024, the Water Board put the Tulare Lake subbasin on probation for lacking a coordinated plan that would, among other things, stop pervasive, damaging subsidence. 'I don't know how we haven't coordinated; we're on our 11th year,' Verboon said in reference to SGMA's passage in 2014. 'I don't see this coming together.' It's not just Boswell and the El Rico GSA, several GSAs aren't comfortable with each other, he said. 'One (agency) won't have meetings, we aren't involved in what El Rico does, Mid-Kings is trying to be transparent, South Fork Kings is on its second Proposition 218 election. We aren't there yet.' Verboon referred to the Southwest Kings GSA, which has canceled three of its scheduled meetings in 2025 and seven of its 11 meetings in 2024. Southwest Kings is controlled by the subbasin's other major farming entity, Sandridge Partners, which is helmed by John Vidovich. It's unclear if either El Rico or Southwest Kings will participate in the planned native yield study. Monserrat Solis covers Kings County water issues for SJV Water through the California Local News Fellowship initiative. Solve the daily Crossword
Fast Company
30-06-2025
- Automotive
- Fast Company
Trump's anti-EV rules aren't stopping California's electric truck boom—yet
This story was originally published by Grist. Sign up for Grist's weekly newsletter here. Wes Lowe uses so much Claritin that he started an Amazon subscription to avoid running out. His kids take two asthma medications. This reflects the normalcy of pollution in California's San Joaquin Valley, where residents breathe some of the dirtiest air in the nation. Lowe lives about 20 miles outside of Fresno, in the valley's heart. More than a dozen highways, including Interstate 5, run through the region, carrying almost half of the state's truck traffic. The sky is usually hazy, the air often deemed hazardous, and 1 in 6 children live with asthma. 'You don't realize how bad it is until you leave,' Lowe said. He understands California's urgent need to clear the air by electrifying the trucking industry and pushing older, more polluting machinery off the road. That would reduce nitrogen oxide emissions by 17.1 tons annually by 2037, significantly reduce the amount of smog-forming ozone,and go a long way toward meeting federal air quality requirements. But as a partner at Kingsburg Truck Center, a dealership in Kingsburg, he's seen how difficult this transition will be. More than 15 percent of medium- and heavy-duty trucks sold statewide in 2023 were zero-emission. But the road has been bumpy amid growing uncertainty about California's regulations and the Trump administration's hostility toward electric vehicles, the clean energy transition, and the state's climate policies. The Golden State started its trucking transition in 2021 when it required manufacturers to produce an increasing number of zero-emission big rigs, known as Advanced Clean Trucks, or ACT. The following year, it mandated that private and public fleets buy only those machines by 2036, establishing what are called Advanced Clean Fleets, or ACF. The Environmental Protection Agency granted the waiver California needed to adopt ACT in 2023. But it had not acted on the exemption required to enforce ACF by the time President Donald Trump took office, prompting the state to rescind its application as a 'strategic move' to keep 'options on the table,' according to the California Air Resources Board. The U.S. Senate threw the fate of the Advanced Clean Trucks rule into question when it revoked the state's EPA waiver on May 22, stripping the state of its ability to mandate the electrification of private fleets, though it can still regulate public ones. Now the one bright side for the state's efforts to clean up trucking is the Clean Trucks Partnership, under which several manufacturers have already agreed to produce zero-emission rigs regardless of any federal challenges. All of this limits California's ability to ease pollution. The Air Resources Board has said the Advanced Clean Fleet rule would eliminate 5.9 tons of nitrogen oxide emissions in the San Joaquin Valley by 2037. Another rule, the In-Use Locomotive regulation, bans internal combustion trucks more than 23 years old by 2030 and would reduce those emissions by another 11.2 tons. Even with those rules in place, the state would have to cut another 6.3 tons to bring air quality in line with EPA rules. With the fate of California's campaign to decarbonize trucking in question, even those who want to see it succeed are wavering. Kingsburg Truck Center started selling battery electric trucks in 2022, but saw customers begin to cancel orders once the state was unable to enforce the Advanced Clean Fleet requirement. Lowe has had to lay off seven people as a result. 'We got heavy into the EV side, and when the mandate goes away, I'm like, 'Shit, am I gonna be stuck with all these trucks?'' Lowe said. 'If I were to do it all again, I'd probably take a lot less risk on the investment that we made into the zero-emission space.' California remains committed to cleaning up trucking. But the transition will require creative policymaking because the Trump administration's hostility to the idea makes it 'extremely difficult' for the state to hit its goal of 100 percent zero-emission truck sales by 2036, said Guillermo Ortiz of the Natural Resources Defense Council. Still, he sees ways the state can make progress. Lawmakers are considering a bill that would give the Air Resources Board authority to regulate ports, rail yards, and warehouses. That would allow regulators to mandate strategies to advance the transition, like requiring facilities to install charging infrastructure. Several state programs underwrite some of the cost of electric trucks, which can cost about $435,000 —about three times the price of a diesel rig. That's not to say California isn't fighting back. It plans to sue the Trump administration to preserve its right to set emissions standards. Losing that will make it 'impossible' to ease the Valley's pollution enough to meet air quality standards, said Craig Segall, a former deputy executive director of the Air Resources Board. 'Advanced Clean Fleets and Advanced Clean Trucks arise out of some pretty hard math regarding what's true about air pollution in the Central Valley and in California, which is that it's always been largely a car and truck problem,' he said. Even if the state loses the ability to regulate vehicle emissions and require electrification, Segall is confident market forces will push the transition forward. As China continues investing in the technology and developing electric big rigs, he said, companies throughout the rest of the world will need to do the same to stay competitive. He also said that trucking companies will see zero-emission trucks as an opportunity to lower maintenance and fueling costs. The Frito Lay factory in the Central Valley city of Modesto has purchased 15 Tesla electric big rigs. Ultimately, the economic argument for ditching diesels is simply too appealing, said Marissa Campbell, the cofounder of Mitra EV, a Los Angeles company that helps businesses electrify. She said the state's decision to table the Advanced Clean Fleets rule hasn't hurt business. 'No one likes being told what to do,' she said. 'But when you show a plumber or solar installer how they can save 30 to 50 percent on fuel and maintenance—and sometimes even more—they're all ears.' Valerie Thorsen leads the San Joaquin Valley office of CalSTART, a nonprofit that has, since 1992, pushed for cleaner transportation to address pollution and climate change. She sees the Trump administration's recalcitrance as nothing more than a hurdle on the road to an inevitable transition. But any effort to ditch diesels must be accompanied by an aggressive push to build charging infrastructure. 'You don't want to have vehicles you can't charge or fuel,' she said. The San Joaquin Valley Air Pollution Control District won a $56 million federal grant in January 2024, to build two solar-powered EV charging sites along Interstate 5 with 102 chargers specifically for big rigs. About 45 percent of California's truck traffic passes through the region, which has, over the past 25 years, eased nitrogen oxide emission from stationary sources by more than 90 percent. 'A majority of the remaining [nitrogen oxide] emissions and smog-forming emissions in the valley come from heavy duty trucks,' said Todd DeYoung, director of grants and incentives at the district. The Trump administration quickly halted grant programs like the $5 billion National Electric Vehicle Infrastructure program that would have expanded charging infrastructure. But DeYoung remains confident that construction of the truck chargers will proceed because work started almost immediately. Similar projects are underway in Bakersfield and Kettleman City. Not everyone is convinced the infrastructure needs to roll out as quickly as the trucks. Ortiz said emphasizing the adoption of the trucks will pressure the market to ensure chargers come online. 'That sends a signal to charging infrastructure providers, to utilities, saying, 'These vehicles are coming, and we need to make sure that the infrastructure is there to support it,'' he said. That support is crucial. Bill Hall is new to trucking. He spent decades as a marine engineer, but during the pandemic decided to try something new. He runs a one-man operation in Berkeley, California, and as he carried loads around the state he noticed a lot of hydrogen stations. Intrigued, he reached out to truck manufacturer Nikola to ask about its electric hydrogen fuel cell rigs. His engineering background impressed the startup, which thought he'd provide good technical feedback. Hall bought the first truck the company sold in California, augmenting his personal investment of $124,000 with $360,000 he received from a state program in December 2023. Despite a few initial bugs, he enjoyed driving it. As an early adopter, Nikola gave him a deal on hydrogen—$5.50 per kilogram, which let him fill up for about $385 and go about 400 miles. 'I proved that you could actually pretty much take that hydrogen truck to any corner of California with a minimal hydrogen distribution system that they had,' Hall said. But weak sales, poor management, and other woes led Nikola to file for bankruptcy in February. Without its technical support, Hall no longer feels comfortable driving his truck. The company's collapse also meant paying full price for hydrogen, about $33 per kilogram these days. Hall is still paying $1,000 a month for insurance and $225 a month for parking. He says the state shares some of the blame for his predicament because it didn't do enough to support the technology. He would have liked to see it distribute 1,000 hydrogen trucks to establish them and subsidize fuel costs. 'I did the right thing, which ended up being the wrong thing,' he said. Beyond the obvious climate implications of ditching diesel lie many health benefits. In addition to generating a lot of carbon dioxide and nitrogen oxide, the transportation sector is responsible for 80 percent of California's ozone-forming emissions. 'There's no question that the transition away from combustion trucks to zero-emission would save lives, prevent asthma attacks, and generate significant, significant public health benefits all around the state,' said Will Barrett, senior director for nationwide clean air advocacy with the American Lung Association. The state has come a long way in the decades since smog blanketed Los Angeles, and the San Joaquin Valley has enjoyed progressively cleaner air over the past 25 years. But people like Luis Mendez Gomez know there is more work to be done, even if the air no longer smells like burning tires. He has lived alongside a busy highway and not far from a refinery outside of Bakersfield for 40 years. It has taken a toll: His wife was hospitalized for lung disease earlier this year, and he knows 10 people who have died from lung cancer. 'This pollution has been going on for years,' Mendez Gomez said. 'Nobody had cared before, until now. We're pushing the government and pushing companies to help us.' But just when it looks like things might change, the federal government appears willing to undo that progress, he said. 'All the ground they gained is going to go away.' —Benton Graham
CBS News
21-06-2025
- Climate
- CBS News
Part of Northern California under red flag warning
A red flag warning is now in effect for part of Northern California, the National Weather Service said. Winds between 10 to 20 mph, and gusts of up to 30 to 40 mph are contributing to the fire weather conditions, along with low relative humidity, the NWS said. The warning stretches from Redding to Modesto, and the NWS said the areas under the highest threat are the Sacramento Valley along and west of the Interstate 5 corridor, the adjacent coastal range and the northern San Joaquin Valley. A Red Flag Warning goes into effect today at 11am for areas below 3000 ft and continues through 9am Sunday. Expect gusty north winds and low relative humidities. Practice fire weather safety! #CAwx — NWS Sacramento (@NWSSacramento) June 21, 2025 According to the NWS, fires could grow rapidly due to the weather conditions. The red flag warning will be in effect until 9 a.m. Sunday. Due to fire risk, PG&E has issued power shutoff warnings for Saturday in several counties, including San Joaquin, Shasta, Stanislaus, Tehama and Sutter counties. PG&E has a power shutoff warning in effect for Sunday as well.
Yahoo
16-06-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
Nearly half of Fresno residents will flee due to climate risks, report predicts
Reality Check is a Fresno Bee series holding those in power to account and shining a light on their decisions. Have a tip? Email tips@ A new risk report from a private firm predicts a large exodus of residents from Fresno County as the effects of climate change exacerbate the region's issues and costs of living in the next three decades. The risk-assessing firm, First Street, calculated 45.8% of Fresno County residents would abandon the county by 2055 because of rising insurance rates and decreasing land values. The report also projected a nearly 15% impact on costs in the region as home values decrease and the cost to insure them rise. Fresno topped the list of the areas effected most above Sacramento County and a couple of counties in New Jersey. The firm's prediction showed Fresno's hot weather and poor air quality could continue to worsen, driving down the desirability of the homes and pushing up insurance rates. Other parts of California have stronger economic outlooks that could help mitigate those issues, but Fresno's economic health typically struggles, noted Jeremy Porter, the head of climate implications for First Street. 'Fresno has had relatively stagnant economic growth with baseline population forecasts showing a stagnant growth rate into the future,' he said in an email. 'Together these indicators serve to amplify the impact of the climate risk that does exist.' Experts in the San Joaquin Valley who spoke with The Bee expressed skepticism of the report's bold assessment of Fresno County. While climate change would be expected to lead to displacement of residents, predicting the magnitude gets shaky because it includes so many factors, according to Naomi Bick, a Fresno State professor who studies climate change and urban politics. 'It's hard to know exactly how bad that abandonment and people leaving will be, because it depends on how other areas are as well and what they're facing,' she said. 'And then also what cities and counties and places do to prepare for climate change.' But, Bick said, the Valley is known to have disadvantaged communities, which could have greater difficulty adapting. Along with the rising temperature from climate change, the Valley could expect to see wider fluctuations in precipitation, according to Crystal Kolden, a professor and director of the UC Merced Fire Resilience Center. The Valley got a taste of those fluctuations in 2023 when unusually heavy rainfall fell on the snowpacked Sierra and resurrected Tulare Lake. Years with record-breaking rainfall could be followed by severe droughts under the weather swings of climate change. Kolden said she was skeptical of the First Street report, particularly as it pertains to wildfires, saying its assessment of Fresno does not delineate between the fire hazards of the flammable foothills and the less serious potential for fire in the Valley. The Valley's air can be affected by the occasional wildfire as it was during the Creek Fire in 2020, but often winds send the smoke east. 'I have not yet seen the types of risk models that have any level of accuracy about wildfire smoke in the future in part because it's so dependent upon low and high pressure systems moving through,' she said. The assessment also does not account for engineering solutions municipalities can develop to compensate for changes. First Street projected out to 2055 assuming no change to modern mitigation. 'In California, we just keep rebuilding and we figure out how to engineer our way out of it,' Kolden said. 'People are not depopulating hot areas. They're figuring out how to develop engineering solutions that allow for cooling.' Scientists are already working on solutions for re-purposing irrigated cropland, which is expected to lead to improvements in the Valley when it comes to the effects of climate change, according to Angel S. Fernandez-Bou of the Union of Concerned Scientists based in Merced. He said the First Street report uses 'coarse' data that can be less accurate. 'The report doesn't consider what we in the (San Joaquin Valley) are already doing to make this a better place,' he said in an email. 'I think we can transform the Valley into a climate resilient region.' The way insurance companies approach the state of California has begun to change due to climate change. State Farm stopped issuing new policies and this year requested fee hikes by an average of 22%. Home buyers seek out homes for their school districts or other desirable characteristics, and are rarely asking about potential hazards, according to Ken Neufeld, a broker with London Properties in Fresno for 45 years. 'Flooding is hardly on the radar,' he said. Brokers provide home buyers with information for homes in natural disaster zones, he said, but flooding only comes into question in areas where a breach of a dam would cause flooding. While buyers aren't asking about climate risks, they're often forced to insure against them, according to Jason Farris, president-elect of the Fresno Association of Realtors. He said he's been asked about flood zones fewer than five times in the last two decades. 'People are getting quotes for insurance premiums before getting into escrow on the property,' he said. 'People are spending a lot of money to get into a home.' But the Valley's climate experts say it'll take political will to adopt mitigating regulations and the participation of the region's residents to lighten the potential climate issues. Kolden said people often return to burned down foothills or flooded lowlands to rebuild and only leave the most undesirable areas behind. 'It is up to the local municipality, whether it's a county or incorporated areas, a town or a city, to actually enforce those codes,' Kolden said. 'When these communities are rebuilding after a fire, there's an enormous amount of political pressure to not hold people to those standards.'
Yahoo
08-06-2025
- Yahoo
Watch crews blow up huge boulder on Hwy. 120 near Yosemite to clear rocky road
The sound of springtime on Highway 120 near Yosemite National Park is boulders being blown to smithereens. 'Every spring in @caltransd9, our maintenance crews encounter large boulders on State Route 120 West near Yosemite that slid onto the road during winter,' Caltrans wrote in an Instagram post on Thursday. The video above shows road crews executing the detonations of RV-sized rocks from the roadway. 'This year we captured part of the extensive blasting process in what is just one of the many required steps to opening the roadway,' a caption with the video says. 'These state employees work tirelessly to ensure the roadway and entire canyon are clear of all unauthorized personnel and are a safe distance away before any detonation.' Tioga Road (Highway 120) reopened for the summer on May 26, according to and sierra mountain The route — which primarily connects the Sierra Nevada and Mono County to San Joaquin Valley and is known as a direct route to Yosemite National Park from the San Francisco Bay Area — was closed for the winter on Nov. 25.
