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County should act where state fails on frackingPlease know that DOGGR is not doggedly watching over your safety.DOGGR stands for the Division of Oil, Gas and Geothermal Resources — part of California’s Conservation Department.

It is a shame that last week’s letter to the editor — about SB 4 assuring the safety of fracking — is incorrect. Instead, analysis of Senate Bill 4, Well Stimulation Treatment Regulations, shows that even the most recent revisions (in October) are inadequate.

The newer SB4 has weaker reporting requirements regarding earthquake activity tested in the vicinity of fracking. DOGGR now states that earthquakes measuring less than 2.7 are irrelevant. Yet available research shows otherwise.Although the Butte County Planning Commission did not have specific recommendations regarding a ban at its Dec. 11 meeting, we are hopeful that the Board of Supervisors will soon ban fracking. Such an ounce of prevention can prevent a mountain of problems affecting our farming, our health, and the quantity and quality of our ground and surface waters — so vital to Butte County’s economic and people’s well-being. — Grace M. Marvin, Chico

In January, dogged tree activist Charles Withuhn continued his effort to replenish the urban forest by offering free trees to the public through his organization, Chico Tree Advocates. “What makes me grateful to live here is not the bushes. It’s these towering giants that have been here since Annie Bidwell, and they’re not being replaced,” he told CN&R.

On March 1, Natalie Carter stepped down from her post as general manager at the Chico Certified Farmers’ Market to take the reins as executive director of Butte Environmental Council.

In the June primary, Butte County voters showed their overwhelming support for banning hydraulic fracturing locally: Measure E, sponsored by local group Frack-Free Butte County, won by 71.5 percent of the vote.

When the White House recently released its third National Climate Assessment, the basic findings didn’t surprise anyone who’s stepped outside on a regular basis. The Southwest portion of the U.S., including California, has been decreed in the report as “the hottest and driest region.” What isn’t so obvious, of course, is exactly what the future will bring. But the outlook is not positive.

Ironically, as officials grapple with storage and shortage issues, they also have to deal with flooding. As Robyn DiFalco, executive director of the Butte Environmental Council, explains, shifts in precipitation patterns throughout the country, but even in California, can mean more intense rain and snow in places not accustomed to such levels, and warmer winters mean greater—and earlier—ice melts in California mountain areas.

Water may be a prime concern, but it’s not the only concern. BEC has a three-pronged approach to environmental advocacy: land, air and water, and the interrelationship between the three. As explained by Chico City Councilwoman Tami Ritter, a member of the county’s Air Quality Management District, dry land breeds a greater risk of wildfires, which breeds greater air pollution. As a result, DiFalco says her organization is pushing all three elements as Chico and Butte County implement climate action plans, and the recent reports haven’t shifted BEC’s priorities.

The Butte County Fish and Game Commission held its quarterly meeting Tuesday in Chico. CDFW biologist Tracy McReynolds reported that only 129 steelhead have returned so far to the Feather River Hatchery. This low number means that there will likely not be any excess eggs to continue the popular steelhead planting project into the Thermalito Afterbay.

The commissioners also finalized the 2017 financial grants: Butte Environmental Council-$1,000;

Posted Nov. 6, 2013 @ 12:01 am Chico, Ca November 14th – The LAND AIR WATER benefit concert series’ third and final show concludes at the Chico Women’s Club on November 14th featuring Funk and Jam group The Bumptet. The Bumptet’s music runs the musical gamete, moving from deep funk grooves to epic rock crescendos in to high energy, improvised jams with jazz caliber execution. Opening up the night will be local music collective Jiving Board with funky horns, rock guitar, and jazz/hip-hop vocals. Plus special guess Brian Rogers will join in the music with an acoustic set. Be sure to join us November 14th at the Chico Women’s Club for a night of funky music to make you move. The Land Air Water concert series is a benefit to support the Butte Environmental Council’s ongoing advocacy efforts to protect the land, air and water of Butte County and the surrounding region. Tickets Available at Chico Natural Foods, Empire Coffee and online at www.becnet.org. Sponsored By KZFR 90.1, The Chico News and Review, Chico Natural Foods Cooperative, and Strange Seed Music.

AquAlliance, a water advocacy group in Butte County, has vowed to file a lawsuit to try and stop Glenn-Colusa Irrigation District's plan to drill five new wells in eastern Glenn County. Speakers at a public forum last week in Ord Bend called GCID's plans to pump more groundwater in times of drought "excessively greedy" and potentially harmful to area groundwater levels already taxed to the point that residential wells are running dry.

"Glenn County needs to enact an emergency ordinance just as Colusa County did," said Orland farmer Sharron Ellis, of Save our Water Resources. "Oversight of our resources is the responsibility of our county to protect the public trust."

The project calls for five additional deep-water wells to be drilled along the Glenn-Colusa canal on sites east of Orland and Artois, which would yield 28,500 acre-feet of water taken over approximately eight months during critically dry years, GCID officials said.

Butte County is working with other water leaders in the county toward the state-mandated Sustainable Groundwater Management planning effort, http://www.water.ca.gov/groundwater/sgm. This involves agencies that manage water creating plans that maintain water supply and water quality.

So far, several water agencies that provide surface water within the county have attended meetings, with a goal of identifying who will govern which areas of the groundwater basins. Mapping out jurisdictions needs to be finished by June of next year.

What will happen with private pumpers in Butte County is still up for discussion. At a recent GSA meeting, Carol Perkins from the Butte Environmental Council, told the Enterprise-Record that her groups hoped private pumpers would be given an active role.

Acknowledging there are unanswered questions, the council agreed to let the 756 acres adjacent to Bidwell Park continue in its mostly off-limit state, waiting for an anticipated Butte Regional Conservation Plan to be completed next year. At that point, the council will look at whether it wants to sell Bidwell Ranch to the conservation plan creators, the Butte County Association of Governments.

Several speakers stressed the biological value of the area, calling it a gem, in part, because of the area’s characteristics and because of Butte County Meadowfoam’s presence. Environmental advocate John Merz said he wasn’t confident that the conservation plan was the answer. “This is not about making money, but about preserving the property,” Merz said.

Butte Environmental Council Executive Director Robyn DiFalco noted her organization has provided docent-led tours of the property, which helps with public access and understanding of the property’s value.

Oroville >> People are wearing raincoats and watching water run down the gutter. However, the recent rains do not mean the end of California’s four-year drought.Butte County’s water resources scientist Christina Buck said the local rainfall is still only at about 89 percent of average for this time of year. That’s based on rain through last week and beginning Oct. 1, which is the start of the “water year.”

Carol Perkins, a water advocate for Butte Environmental Council, told the members of the Water Commission that she hopes when those groundwater jurisdictions are established, they will consider watersheds, rather than existing water use boundaries. Some examples of watersheds are Butte Creek, Big Chico Creek and the Feather River, she said. “This might give groundwater dependent farmers a more prominent voice in this process,” Perkins said.“As it stands right now, our only voice is the county for those areas.”

When it comes to meeting the goals of the city’s Climate Action Plan, Stemen said, “Chico was on target to meet its previous goals, and then came the Camp Fire.”

There is general agreement, however, that around-the-clock restrooms are needed. Gustafson’s agenda report recommends that the city “identify funding for two portable restroom systems” and continue discussions with the Butte County Association of Governments for future grants to obtain a Portland Loo, a more sophisticated outdoor restroom. Again, about a dozen people spoke to this matter. Nearly all agreed with the recommendations, but several felt they were overly focused on downtown when there was a similar need in other places. And two portables simply aren’t enough, they said. One of them was Angel Gomez, of the Butte Environmental Council. More portables are needed, she said, “especially along waterways near homeless camps,” where human feces is getting into the creeks and posing a serious public health threat.

As part of the process, the utility has pledged to plant 64 new trees along the Midway roadway itself. These mostly native species of plants will build and enhance the Midway’s distinctive tree canopy, according to PG&E public affairs manager Joe Wilson.

The utility consulted with the county, the resource district and the Butte Environmental Council on its Midway plan.

A discussion about water issues, including statewide plans for groundwater sustainability, will be presented by the Butte Environmental Council tonight, 6-7:30 p.m. at the Chico Grange.The grange is located at 2775 Old Nord Ave. To get there, take East Avenue west toward the railroad tracks. Before crossing the tracks, take a right at Old Nord Avenue. Speakers include Debbie Davis, community and rural affairs adviser from Gov. Jerry Brown’s Office of Planning and Research. Marty Dunlap is local attorney and water issues mediator. Paul Gosselin in the executive director of the Butte County Department of Water and Resource Conservation.

CHICO, Calif. -

The Butte Environmental Council is giving away a couple small items to help easily tweak water conservation inside your home.First, they are offering a shower hourglass timer that you can suction cup to the side of your bathroom wall.

This times your shower to five minutes. The council said by shaving just four minutes off your shower, you save more than 3,500 gallons of water per year.They are also giving out a sink aerator. This reduces the flow of water, reducing the number of gallons per minute.

he crowd at the Ord Community Hall Wednesday night was decidedly against the idea of five new wells for Glenn-Colusa Irrigation District. The agency provides water to about 1,000 farmers in four counties, and plans the new wells for use when surface water supplies are tight.

Ord Bend >> The consistent and clear message Wednesday night was that people do not like Glenn-Colusa Irrigation District’s plans to drill five new wells. Members of the crowd were also not fans of five existing wells the district drilled previously and is including in the current environmental review.Speakers at a public comment meeting called the plans greedy, unnecessary and potentially harmful to groundwater levels in the area.

Some citizens in Glenn County have started a petition calling for a moratorium on new production wells. Sharron Ellis, who passed a clipboard through the crowds, said a moratorium could stop new wells including those being discussed Wednesday night. So many wells are currently being drilled in the county that a moratorium would only slow down drilling, she said.

Last week, the Concerned Citizens of Glenn County and a number of other individuals, largely from the Hamilton City area, made known their opposition to the Glenn County Solid Waste Conversion Facility project, overseen by KVB Inc. and at a proposed site along Stony Creek.

Becky Holden and Lindsey Wood, both employees of the Butte Environmental Council and Glenn County residents, both expressed their displeasure with the project in its proposed location and cited the Stony Creek waterway and the groundwater table as reasons for concern. "We're following this issue," Holden, a resident of Ord Bend, said. "We believe this project has submitted an inadequate EIR, and I realize that is still being worked on. The KVB project is the wrong project for Glenn County, and it is especially at the wrong site."

This article was published on 02.21.13.

A panel of six local water experts speaking at Chico State Tuesday evening (Feb. 19) discussed everything you ever wanted to know about local groundwater issues. Well, everything but the controversial stuff. Chico State’s Book In Common panel discussion “The Tuscan Aquifer—How It’s Used and What We Know About Our Groundwater Resource” educated the audience on Butte County water sources and practices, but didn’t wade into more controversial matters such as shipping North State water south. That was disappointing to some in attendance because the book in common, Unquenchable: America’s Water Crisis and What to Do About It, by Robert Glennon, examines the issue of piping water from relatively wet regions to drier ones.

John Scott, a local water advocate and board member of the Butte Environmental Council, said he enjoyed the talk overall but felt “it didn’t go deep enough.” He said he wanted more emphasis on the best economic uses of local water, whether that be keeping it local or transferring it south. “In Northern California it takes one unit of water to make one unit of food,” he said. “Whereas south of the Delta, it takes eight units of water to make one unit of food.”

Natalie Carter, executive director of the Butte Environmental Council, also sees benefit from deliberation. Noting that the BRCP’s 50-year term exceeds the general plans of both Butte County and Chico, she says, “it’s smart to be cautious about these kinds of things—thoughtful and evaluative.”

On the BRCP overall, Carter said, “the concept and the core of it is a really strong thing, and wonderful. It’s a remarkable effort that should be appreciated by our community.”

The controversial cogeneration plant in south Oroville that burned biofuel to produce electricity for 30 years before shutting down last October may have some suitors looking to fire up operations again. The Pacific Oroville Power Inc. plant (POPI) is owned by New Jersey-based Covanta Energy and for years was under scrutiny by the Butte County District Attorney’s Office for possible environmental violations. The DA is currently in negotiations with Covanta on the payment for final cleanup of the plant and removal of contaminated ash that was deposited in Butte and Glenn counties. In the meantime, Covanta has maintained its operating permits to keep the plant financially attractive to potential buyers.

One inquiry Ramsey was not aware of is from a local group that contacted the Butte Environmental Council, which has been tracking dioxin levels in chicken eggs and other sources located near the plant.

Robyn DiFalco, executive director of BEC, said the organization had first heard about this proposal a couple of weeks ago.