By County News Center, County of San Diego Communications Office

Image credit:  Shutterstock

December 26, 2018 (San Diego) - We love them, twinkling with holiday lights, adorned with ornaments and loaded with gifts beneath them. But eventually, we all have to say goodbye to our Christmas tree.

And if yours is a real tree, the County of San Diego urges you to recycle it properly. Check with your trash company to find out if they offer curbside pickup—many do. Or go to San Diego County’s recycling and hazardous waste database at WasteFreeSD.org to find Christmas tree drop-off sites. Just type “Christmas tree” and your location information into the search bar.

By Mike Allen

December 23, 2018 (Santee) -- Based on future cost projections that involve multiple agencies and variable prices such as power and labor, the Advanced Water Purification Program still makes sense and is worth pursuing, staffers from Padre Dam Municipal Water District told its board this week.

County denies request for health impacts of turbines, even as more are proposed

By Miriam Raftery

Photo: New proposed turbines would be much taller and produce more energy than these older Kumeyaay Wind turbines, also broadening the areas that could be impacted by noise, vibrations, and electromagnetic interefence with devices such as cell phones

December 6, 2018 (Campo) –Tonight, the Bureau of Indian Affairs will hold a scoping meeting on a notice to prepare n environmental impact statement for a proposal to build 60 wind turbines up to 586 feet tall (taller than the highest skyscraper in San Diego) on the Campo Indian reservation. The meeting will be held at 6 p.m. at the Campo Tribal Hall, 36190 Church Road (BIA 10) at highway 94 in Campo.  Written comments can also be submitted by December 21^st. Find details at www.CampoWind.com.

The new Campo Wind project is proposed for most Campo reservation ridgelines from north of I-8 to the U.S./Mexico border, each 4 megawatts.  Neighbors and the Boulevard Planning Group have raised concerns over the large turbines including noise, sleep disruption, health impacts and lost property values.   View flyer.

Minutes of the Boulevard Planning Group meeting from November 1, 2018 reveal numerous residents’ complaints about problems reportedly associated with similarly large-scale wind turbines recently installed at the Tule Wind project in McCain  Valley as well as turbines at the Kumeyaay Wind facility in Campo. Those complaints range from noise and vibrations to interference with cell phone service, a vital concern in an area prone to wildfires where communication is critical.

By Paul Kruze, Contributing Editor

Miriam Raftery, Editor, also contributed to this report

Initial public comments deadline is Dec. 19

Hear audio of meeting

December 5, 2018 (Rancho San Diego) -- If a large contingent of residents in Rancho San Diego and Jamul have their say, a proposed sand mine in their community won’t get built. Over 200 residents opposed to a sand mining project that would replace Cottonwood Golf Course on Willow Glen Road engulfed the meeting room at the Rancho San Diego Library last week, overflowing into the lobby and onto a patio. 

Public comments and a petition

Initial public comments are being accepted until December 19^th by the County’s Land Use Environmental Planner, Bronwyn Brown, at Bronwyn.Brown@sdcounty.ca.gov as part of the official scoping process.

Barry Jantz, spokesperson for the opposition, told the crowd that a petition to gather signatures against the project is available for printing and circulating at the website www.StopCottonwoodSandMine.com. The group circulated a flyer and asked that petitions be submitted to the Stop Cottonwood Group by December 15th.

East County News Service 

December 4, 2018 (Santee) -- C.W. Driver Companies, a prominent builder serving California since 1919, recently broke ground on County of San Diego’s new Assessor, Recorder, County Clerk (ARCC) office in Santee. The building will be the nation’s first zero net energy archive facility and will maintain strict temperature and humidity conditions to preserve delicate archive materials properly. The single-story, 25,000-square-foot structure will be home to the East County Branch Office and Archives.

“The decision to release this damning report when families are beginning to celebrate the holidays and newsrooms are short-staffed is a brazen attempt to bury the truth.”

By Jake Johnson, staff writer, Common Dreams

November 25, 2018 (San Diego) - In a move environmentalists and journalists denounced as a blatant effort to bury facts that conflict with the president's denialism and pro-fossil fuel agenda, the Trump administration used the Friday after Thanksgiving to quietly release Volume II of the Fourth National Climate Assessment (NCA4), which warned "Earth's climate is now changing faster than at any point in the history of modern civilization" and concluded that "greenhouse gas emissions from human activities are the only factors that can account" for planet-threatening warming.

SDG&E now says it wants to exit power-purchasing business

By Miriam Raftery

November 25, 2018 (San Diego) – Across California, nearly 20 communities are now purchasing their own power through community choice energy programs that aim to lower utility bills and provide energy from clean, green sources. 

The concept is gaining bipartisan support locally, where Republican Mayor Kevin Faulconer announced his intent in October for the city of San Diego to establish acommunity choice option backed by prominent Democrats on the city council. La Mesa’s city council voted unanimously in April to pursue a community choice energy alternative and Solana Beach already has one. There is also talk of some local jurisdictions banding together to form a regional community choice energy program for ratepayers.

By Miriam Raftery

November 18, 2018 (Lakeside) – Lakeside activist Barry  A.Treahy and his wife, Jackie, have submitted a letter and petition to County Supervisors opposing a sand mining project in El Monte Valley. Treahy says the petition has been signed by a majority of property owners deemed by the County to be within the “sphere of influence” of the El Monte Nature Preserve LLC project, the ironically named sand mining endeavor.  Barry Treahy has also filed a complaint with the County Grand Jury (see attachments 1, 2, 3, 4)

Treahy contends that adding sand mining in the 1970s as an allowable land use bypassed critical notification to neighbors.  He further contends that the county’s Planning and Development Services program, which is funded entirely by developer fees without tax revenues, “opens the door to salary abuse, overcharging clients, outside influence, extortion and corruption. The obligation of a Government entity is collect taxes to fund necessary activities. The correct method to avoid those pitfalls,” Treahy’s Grand Jury complaint states.

By Miriam Raftery

November 15, 2018 (San Diego) -- On Tuesday, San Diego County announced that several proposed General Plan Amendments to allow construction of massive development projects will not be heard by the Board of Supervisors in 2018 due to litigation over the County’s climate action plan and a court injunction.  Projects with hearings postponed include Lilac Hills Ranch, Otay Village 14, Planning Areas 16 and 19, Warner Ranch, and Property Specific Requests.

By Miriam Raftery

Photo: Lakeside Planning Group members unanimously cast votes to reject EIR on sand mine

November 1, 2018 (Lakeside) --The Lakeside Community Planning Group has voted unanimously to oppose the Environmental Impact Report (EIR) for a massive sand mining project proposed by El Monte Nature Preserve LLC, the deceptively named company that wants to mine sand on the 479 acre site for the next 12 years in Lakeside’s El Monte Valley. The decision drew applause, cheers and hugs from the large crowd present.  View video of the LPCG meeting by Billy Ortiz.

Meanwhile, opposition to the project is growing – and serious questions over the property owner’s ethics are being raised.

By Cheryl A. Reiff, rancher and business owner

October 26, 2018 (San Diego’s East County) -- I am greatly concerned by The Administration's attempts to weaken the Endangered Species Act (ESA) thru nine currently proposed regulatory changes.  The proposed changes to the ESA, presented by Secretary Zinke and his Deputy Secretary Bernhardt, will make it very difficult to protect the wild animals that are already threatened with extinction (This is why they are listed as “endangered”). 

East County News Service

October 22, 2018 (Lakeside) – The Lakeside Community Planning Group will hold a public hearing this Thursday on an environmental impact report on a controversial sand mining project proposed in the El Monte Valley. After public comments and discussion, planning group members are expected to vote on the project’s EIR.

By Suzanne Potter, Public News Service

Photo:  A new rule from the California Public Utilities Commission will require more inspections of gas distribution systems in order to reduce leaks. (Wikimedia Commons)

October 15, 2018 (San Francisco) - The state's gas utility companies are going to have to spend about $300 million over the next three years to find, fix and prevent leaks of methane gas in their distribution systems – the result of a decision made by the California Public Utilities Commission on Thursday.

By Miriam Raftery

October 8, 2018 (Incheon, South Korea) – California must get 60 percent of its energy from renewable resources by 2030 and 100 percent clean energy sources by 2045, under the landmark Senate Bill 100 signed into law by Jerry Brown as one of his final acts as Governor. Days later, the United Nations Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change issued a new report for policy makers, written by over 90 scientists and supported by more than 6,000 peer reviews. The report, delivered at a meeting in South Korea, warns that the earth is on track to warm 1.5 degrees Celsius as early as 2030, just 18 years from now.

By Miriam Raftery

Photos: Simple Construct

Hear our interview on KNSJ radio with homeowners Brian and Susan Fallgren, Simple Construct builder Rebeca Tasker, and SDG&E communications manager Helen Gao.

 View video on the home’s construction and view tour of the finished residence. 

July 14, 2018 (Campo) – Inspired by historical California adobe homes,  Brian and Susan Fallgren in Campo teamed up with Simple Construct to create a straw bale and adobe home that is beautiful, comfortable even in extreme heat, fire resistant and energy efficient—producing more power than it uses. 

The home has also won numerous honors.  It’s the first residence in Southern California to receive net zero certification through the Living Building Challenge, one of only 27 homes in the world to win this recognition.  A participant in the California Advanced Homes Program, it was also a winner in  the San Diego Gas & Electric (SDG&E) 13^th annual  Energy Showcase Awards and will be featured on the San Diego Green Building Council’s Green Homes Tour on Sunday, October 21.

“It’s an incredibly functional, comfortable home to live in, not only from an environmental standpoint, but from an every day livability standpoint,” Susan Fallgren says.