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Scorched No. California towns now fear flooding and toxic runoff from cyclone storm

Deer walk through a burn scar from the Dixie fire in the Greenville area. Officials are concerned about debris flows from heavy rainfall in Northern California Thursday evening through Friday morning.
(Mel Melcon / Los Angeles Times)

By ANITA CHABRIA, SUSANNE RUST, LILA SEIDMAN Los Angeles Times

In the burned-out town of Greenville, deep on a Plumas County mountainside, the storms now battering Northern California are another trauma in a year of heartbreak.

“Be careful what you wish for,” Plumas County Supervisor Kevin Goss said Thursday, just off a briefing with state emergency response officials. Torrential rainfall is expected to soften the state’s drought this weekend, but the rain also brings the risk of debris flows and floods in places hit by wildfires.

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“We are going to have some problems,” Goss said. “It was inevitable for this to happen this way. But we will deal with it. We are strong and resilient.”

A large trough of low pressure hovering off the coast of the Pacific Northwest is driving repeated rounds of precipitation in the northern part of California. It ushered in the first major storm of the season Thursday, National Weather Service forecasters said, along with fears that places already hit by the disaster of flames may now be primed for the destruction of downpours.

The storms come after officials announced California’s driest year in a century, but the whipsaw conditions are not totally surprising. Scientists have long warned that climate change could hit the West with quick shifts from dry to wet, and visa versa.

The National Weather Service in Reno has issued a flash-flood watch for a portion of northeast California through Friday morning around the Dixie, Sheep, Walker and Beckwourth burn scars. Another storm expected to move in hours after that is lifted — the worst rains are expected on Sunday, when places like Plumas may see up to 10 inches in a 24-hour period.

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NJ’s creaky old power grid frazzled by solar newcomers

New Jersey looks to improve electrical network and speed steps to get solar online

By Tom Johnson NJ Spotlight

The state Board of Public Utilities is taking an initial step to modernize an aging power grid by trying to speed up the process of connecting new solar-panel systems to distribution systems operated by local utilities.

The current process has been beset by lengthy delays in connecting new solar projects with the power grid. In part that’s because of continuing growth in the sector and also because utilities, particularly in South Jersey, have shut off connections to a large number of their circuits where segments of the system are already at capacity.

Without fixing the problems, the issue could set up barriers to achieving the Murphy administration’s clean-energy goals, advocates say. The state’s Energy Master Plan projects that solar energy will provide 34% of electricity in New Jersey by 2050. It now produces only 4% of electricity used by residents and businesses.

The initiative is the first of many steps to upgrade a power grid that has not been updated for decades at a time when it is being asked to integrate new technologies that could clean the air and reduce global warming and even lower costs to consumers.

Adding connections

“The first place to modernize the grid is to ensure we can connect more clean energy to the grid,’’ said Doug O’Malley, director of Environment New Jersey and a supporter of the process at the BPU. “Right now, in some regions of the state we are already tapped out.’’

Fred DeSanti, executive director of the New Jersey Solar Energy Coalition, said he welcomes the state looking at the problem, but questions why it will take until next May to deal with the issue.

With the state restructuring the solar program this past summer, it gave solar companies 12 months to complete new installations, including solving interconnections issues, or lose financial incentives awarded under the project, DeSanti said. “At the same time, my guys are getting letters from utilities saying it is going to take 14 months,’’ he said.

In a notice from the BPU, the agency said the first three meetings are designed to establish the scope and set the context for relevant interconnection policies and procedures and will culminate in a draft report next March of findings and recommendations.

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Oregon now has the nation’s toughest landfill emissions rules

By Megan Quinn WasteDive

*The image by Bruce Fingerhood is licensed under CC BY 2.0*

New landfill methane emissions standards in Oregon will regulate a larger set of landfills than before, and already-regulated landfills will need to meet additional monitoring and measurement requirements. It is the most stringent standard of its kind in the United States, Department of Environmental Quality officials said.

The new regulations, which went into effect Oct. 1, will affect all types of landfills in the state, with requirements that vary and apply differently based on factors such as the tonnage of waste the landfill holds and the amount of methane the landfill already produces based on monitoring data.

The rules include provisions that go beyond existing federal regulations, and officials expect it to become a model for other states hoping to tighten their regulations. Some landfill operators have expressed concerns about the financial impact of installing emission control systems earlier than planned or applying for permits that were previously not required.

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Tennessee approves Ford’s Blue Oval City, largest investment in state history

By Sam Stockard, Tennessee Lookout

With some members calling it a “metamorphic moment” for West Tennessee, the Legislature approved a $900 million incentive package for Ford Motor Co. and, despite criticism, created a board with broad powers to oversee the project.

Wrapping up a special session, the Senate and House passed funding Wednesday for the campus dubbed Blue Oval City at the Memphis Regional Megasite as well as the megasite authority, on 27-3 votes and 90-3 votes respectively with two abstentions per chamber. Both chambers later concurred on the legislation, which will bring a $5.6 billion investment and 5,800 jobs to the state-owned 4,200-acre site in Haywood County, about 45 miles east of downtown Memphis.

Republican Sens. Mark Pody, Kerry Roberts and Janice Bowling and Republican Reps. Tim Rudd, Terri Lynn Weaver and Scott Cepicky voted against the project. Pody cited concerns with the megasite authority, but Roberts and Bowling declined to comment.

It represents a metamorphic moment. This is our crossing the Jordan.

– Sen. Page Walley, R-Bolivar, who carried legislation for creation of a megasite authority

Sen. Page Walley, a Bolivar Republican who carried the megasite authority legislation, pointed out the Ford deal will be the largest and “most environmentally-friendly project in the country” and will benefit people across his district, from Stanton to “Nutbush city limits.”

Lawmakers noted that people in the region have been ignored for too long but will have opportunities for high-paying jobs at Ford or its joint venture with South Korea-based SK Innovation to produce batteries for the F-150 pickup truck called Lightning.

“It represents a metamorphic moment,” said Walley, who later added, “This is our crossing the Jordan.”

The legislation sets aside $725,000 to create an 11-member megasite authority, which includes a chief executive officer and seat for the governor, who will be able to cast a vote.

The primary incentive provides a $500 million grant to Ford, which will be reimbursed when it submits invoices to the state for construction work at the site. In addition, the state will spend $200 million to construct an interchange at roads at the location, $138 million for water and wastewater treatment facilities, including a line to the Mississippi River, $40 million for a college of applied technology, $5 million for consulting for local governments and another $21 million for workforce training.

The $900 million is to be paid with part of the state’s $2.2 billion in surplus funds from the fiscal 2021, and supporters noted it would not cause a tax increase.

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A ‘bomb cyclone’ of rain, wind headed to Seattle

People cross Jackson Street in the Chinatown-International District as rain falls on Seattle on Sept. 30. (Bettina Hansen / The Seattle Times)

By Christine Clarridge Seattle Times staff reporter

An especially strong jet stream over the Pacific Ocean is spinning off a series of five or six weather systems, including a massive “bomb cyclone” that’s expected to arrive to the Seattle area Friday. With it, the system is expected to bring heavy rain and gusty 40 mph winds, according to local weather experts.

“What is remarkable is how big it is in scale, how deep the center is and the speed with which it goes from an open wave to a super intense low pressure system,” said Joe Boomgard-Zagrodnik, an agricultural meteorologist for Washington State University. “Meaning it will seem to explode out of nowhere.”

This incoming “massive system” has the classic comma shape of a cyclone, a very low pressure middle and “frontal bands spiraling out hundreds of miles from the center,” he said.

As with most extreme weather events in the Pacific Northwest, he explained on his blog The Convergence Zone, this series was set off in the tropics. This series began with the relatively benign storm Namtheun that is “helping supercharge what was already an impressive jet stream.”

The cyclones, which have a center of low pressure, spin off from the jet stream, then deepen and eventually decay, he said.

Read the full story here

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