San Diego Free Press

Grassroots News & Progressive Views

You are here: Home / Archives for Activism / Environment

City Attorney Launches Lawsuit Against Water Board, Owners of Tank Farm

by

Toxic plume of gasoline has contaminated Qualcomm Stadium property for 27 years.

by Andy Cohen

San Diego City Attorney Jan Goldsmith announced yesterday that the City of San Diego has filed a lawsuit against the San Diego Regional Water Quality Control Board and Kinder Morgan Energy Partners of Houston, Texas, the owner of the massive gasoline tank farm adjacent to the Qualcomm Stadium property, over contamination of Murphy Canyon Creek, the San Diego River, and ultimately, San Diego beaches.

It’s a suit nearly 27 years in the making, since the first plumes of gasoline began leaking from the tank farm in 1986.

“The City of San Diego is the victim here,” said Goldsmith in making the announcement. “Justice has not been done for this victim.”

Goldsmith was joined by City Council Members Sherri Lightner, Kevin Faulconer, Marti Emerald, and Scott Sherman. “We’re here today unanimous in support of the city to say ‘enough is enough!” said Faulconer.   [Read more…]

Where Are All the Strawberry Fields Going?

by

By Judi Curry

During my trip to Carlsbad last weekend with members of my support group, we stopped in at a delightful shoe shop, “Coolest Shoes in California” and had an interesting discussion with Christine Davis, the owner of the store.  Somehow we started talking about the Carlsbad Strawberry Fields and making jam, and she commented to me “better hurry.  They won’t be here long.”

At first, I thought she was telling me that the season was just about over, but in discussing it further, it turns out that a Los Angeles developer has agreed to purchase 48 acres of the fields that are along Interstate 5. They purchased the fields from SDG&E and, at the present time, do not have any plans for the fields, except to destroy them.   [Read more…]

The Starting Line – Can You Say Congressman DeMaio? And Other Republican Wet Dreams

by

By Doug Porter

I read the Daily Fishwrap(s) so you don’t have to… is the tag line for this daily column. Some days I think it might be more appropriate to say ‘because you wouldn’t want to’.

So hold on to your blood pressure cuffs because today, we’ll be exploring the land of the absurd as portrayed in various news outlets around the country…

Washington’s Roll Call reported yesterday on a GOP polling effort right here in San Diego County’s 52 Congressional District. It’s well known that incumbent Brian Bilbray’s defeat by Democrat Scott Peters was a bitter pill for Republicans to swallow.

And local GOP leaders have made it perfectly clear that they’ll be back in the game, mounting a serious effort to retake that seat in 2014.

The latest Republican polling effort involved testing voter reaction to ‘new generation Republican’ Carl DeMaio.

INSIDE: Sarah Palin, Ted Cruz, Mark Sanford, GOP Light Bulb Screwing, and the Plague of Student Bombers Who Dance Dirty   [Read more…]

Join U-T Poll On Whether San Onofre Should Be Shut Down

by

San Onofre nuke plant

The UT-San Diego has a poll for its readers going right now on whether you think the San Onofre Nuclear Power Plant should be shut down.

Yesterday, May 1, “Yes” was winning but as of today, it has swung the other way.

C’mon San Diegans. Vote to shut it down. We have the link right here so you can vote.

Here’s the link to vote   [Read more…]

The Starting Line – Hell Froze Over: UT-San Diego Endorsed Labor Leader Lorena Gonzalez

by

By Doug Porter 

I checked the calendar to make sure it wasn’t April Fools Day this morning after reading an editorial in UT-San Diego endorsing Lorena Gonzalez in the race for the 80th District Assembly seat.

There are, after all, only two Democrats, officially in the race and I fully expected the paper would pass up the opportunity to say anything encouraging about either of them. (There is, I’m told, also a write-in campaign by a Republican.)

Their endorsement was apparently triggered by Gonzalez’s positions on ‘job creation’.  Rather than play into the conservative meme that ‘jobs’ and ‘the environment’ are mutually exclusive propositions, she told them during an extensive interview that policies  respecting both are possible.

As much as I hate to do this, I’m going to agree with the UT-San Diego’s choice of candidates in this race, although for different reasons.  Lorena Gonzalez has done a terrific job of actually ‘leading’ labor in this town into areas way outside their traditional comfort zone.

I don’t know how the UT-SD missed this, but her efforts to get out the vote and involvement with grassroots organizing outside the walls of the Labor Council offices are a major reason why Democrats are an ascendant force in this town.

If she was smart enough to fool them, just think how good she’ll be with those dumbasses up in Sacramento.

INSIDE: Fighting Test to the Test, Junior Seau’s Brain, and the GOP’s Rube Goldberg Immigration plan.   [Read more…]

Extreme Weather Watch: Records Set as Flooding in Midwest Takes Its Toll

by

By John Lawrence

There was definitely a lot of extreme weather in the Month of April as records were set for rainfall, snowfall, flooding and low temperatures and the month is not even over yet! However, none of it occurred in sunny San Diego so we should appreciate how lucky we are.

In Rapid City, S.D. April 2013 is the snowiest month on record with 39.5 inches. This beats the previous April and all-time monthly snow record of 38.5 inches set in April 1927. For Duluth, Minn. April 2013 is the snowiest month on record with 50.8 inches. This breaks the previous all-time monthly snow record of 50.1 inches set in November 1991. April’s snow total is more than Duluth saw all of last winter!   [Read more…]

San Diego’s Favorite Bicycle Rides #1 – Ocean Beach to National City

by

By John P. Anderson

A few weeks ago I wrote up one of my favorite bicycle routes, from North Park to Ocean Beach.  I got some good feedback and suggestions in response and decided to continue this idea.  However, I’m still a relatively new to cycling in San Diego and there are many areas of the city and county that I haven’t ridden.

To address my lack of personal knowledge I’ll be reaching out to cyclists across the county to profile some of their favorite rides and hopefully connect readers with some new places and routes to check out and enjoy.  I hope this series will be on a monthly basis, but we’ll see where things go.

The inaugural installment of this series features a ride from Jamie Ortiz.  Jamie recently won the 2013 Commuter of the Year Diamond Award from SANDAG for her earth-friendly cycling habit.   [Read more…]

Darrell Steinberg Says CEQA Reform Not Dead Yet

by

by Robert Cruickshank/California High Speed Rail Blog

Last week Governor Jerry Brown proclaimed efforts to reform the California Environmental Quality Act to be dead for this legislative session. But Senate President Pro Tem Darrell Steinberg disagreed, declaring CEQA reform not dead yet and that it is in fact moving forward in this session:

A day after Gov. Jerry Brown said overhauling California’s environmental laws was unlikely this year, the leader of the state Senate said Wednesday the effort is very much alive in the Legislature and he thinks it can be accomplished by year’s end.

Senate President Pro Tem Darrell Steinberg (D-Sacramento) said his bill to streamline the California Environmental Quality Act (CEQA) is moving forward and he looks forward to talking to Brown now that the governor has returned from a trade mission in China.

“The Legislature is hard at work on CEQA reform,” Steinberg told reporters. “As soon as the governor gets back, I’m going to sit down with him and go over specific provisions of the bill.”

  [Read more…]

Barrio Logan Community Plan Update: Will It Address Community Environmental Challenges?

by

By Joy Williams

It’s official: Barrio Logan is an environmental justice hot spot.

According to CalEnviroScreen, the State’s environmental justice screening model, the Barrio Logan area ranks among the most vulnerable areas of the entire state.

Currently, 92113, the Barrio Logan zip code ranks in the top 5% in the state for environmental justice risks to the community and highest in San Diego County.

Developed by the California Office of Environmental Health Hazard Assessment, CalEnviroScreen ranks California zip codes by their cumulative impacts of economic, environmental, health, and social disadvantage indicators. The model is in final draft mode and has had extensive input from community groups, academics, and others. With those particular indicators, it shouldn’t come as a surprise to anyone who’s been in Barrio Logan anytime in the last several decades that we’re at the top of that not-so-majestic list.

A strikingly obvious feature of Barrio Logan is that land uses are mixed together in a way not seen in any other community in San Diego.   [Read more…]

The Starting Line – No More Tax Dollars for Strip Clubs; End the Corporate Gravy Train!

by

By Doug Porter

Labor unions and their supporters rallied in Sacramento yesterday surrounded by symbolic containers of gravy in support of Senate Bill 434, legislation introduced by Sen. Jerry Hill (D – San Mateo) that would bring about reforms in the Enterprise Zone tax (EZ) credit system in California.

I’m not so sure that reform is even a good idea, given just how outrageously this law has been used by large corporations. California taxpayers gave up $700 million in tax credits last year that were intended to create small business jobs in economically distressed areas.

Who are these businesses? Glad you asked, because much of that information is not available to the public. We do know that Walmart, Hyatt, Wells Fargo and the Déjà Vu Showgirls Club are among those enjoying this taxpayer largess.   [Read more…]

The Starting Line – Coronado Oil Pipeline Conference Target of Protests

by

By Doug Porter

Local environmental advocacy groups are bravely planning a public protest where protests rarely go: Coronado.

The American Petroleum Industry (API), the largest advocacy and lobbying group for the oil and gas industry, just happens to holding its 2013 Pipeline Conference at the Loews Coronado Bay Resort.  API is made up of nearly 400 members, including ExxonMobil, BP, Chevron, ConocoPhillips, Dow Chemical Company, Halliburton, and Shell Oil. These companies provide funding for API, which in turn champions the industry’s interests in the government and through public outreach

Led by SanDiego350.org, with the support of Women Occupy San Diego, Tar Sands Action – Southern California, and the Sierra Club San Diego, local activists are readying to denounce API for ‘being the climate misinformation machine of the carbon industry and for migrating the science of climate change into a divisive, political conflict.’
  [Read more…]

The Starting Line – Republicans Reject ‘Civil Rights Issue of Our Time’, Affirm Anti-Gay Marriage Stance

by

By Doug Porter

At least nobody’s been arrested with hookers yet.

That’s the good news coming out of the national GOP quarterly confab going on in Hollywood, Taxifornia this weekend.

The bad news is that it appears as though the Party faithful are going to reaffirm the party’s official position that marriage should be solely between one man and one woman.

It is expected to pass overwhelmingly, proving that evangelicals and social conservatives are still a force to be reckoned with, despite pleas from establishment leaders to focus on party mechanics and stay away from social issues likely to generate negative impressions for the party.

INSIDE: More GOP #Fail, UT-SD Gets National Shout Out, Rhee Gets Unwanted Exposure, GITMO Hunger Strike, Anti-Exxon Video   [Read more…]

©2010-2017 SanDiegoFreePress.org

Code is Poetry