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dkeeley1

BEC Head Steps Down - 0 views

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BEC chico Butte County

shared by dkeeley1 on 28 Jan 16 - No Cached
  • dkeeley1 on 28 Jan 16
     
    Butte Environmental Council will soon say goodbye to Robyn DiFalco, who is stepping down after four years as executive director of the environmental nonprofit. DiFalco (pictured) cited personal reasons for leaving, including spending more time with family. DiFalco's last day isn't set in stone, as she'll stick around to ensure her successor's smooth transition. The plan, DiFalco said, is to select a candidate by the end of February and make the change in March. "I care very passionately about BEC, about our work and all the people that I've worked with," DiFalco said. "I will continue to be involved with the organization, I just won't be a director. I'll be a community volunteer and I will continue to be passionate about our issues."
rdifalco

chicoSol Home - 0 views

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BEC Butte County fracking water

shared by rdifalco on 09 Apr 14 - No Cached
  • rdifalco on 09 Apr 14
     
    A majority on the Butte County Board of Supervisors voted Tuesday to draft an ordinance that would ban fracking, a step that could place this county at the vanguard of a grass-roots movement to halt the practice.  In a surprisingly unscripted move, the supervisors voted 4-1 to consider a comprehensive fracking ban after county staffers research how best this can be done. The vote was applauded by dozens of anti-fracking activists, many of whom had spoken in favor of the more moderate measure that was on the agenda - a recommendation the county amend its zoning code to ensure local oversight of fracking projects.  Some speakers at the Tuesday meeting, though, said they weren't confident the state has the resources or will to protect local aquifers and air quality from fracking operations. And Robyn DiFalco, executive director of the Butte Environmental Council, warned that new drilling techniques are making "smaller pockets" of gas - like those in Butte County - "more viable."  "With a price shift there could be a boom here," DiFalco said.
dkeeley1

Change of guard for Butte Environmental Council: DiFalco departs, Carter takes over - 1 views

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BEC chico Butte County Community

shared by dkeeley1 on 25 Feb 16 - No Cached
  • dkeeley1 on 25 Feb 16
     
    She's helped to turn the Butte Environmental Council around, Stemen continued. She's extremely organized, which helped the nonprofit group stay focused and concentrate on improving programs. Recently, DiFalco announced that she was ready to do something else. She wasn't sure what, but she gave BEC the luxury of hiring someone to replace her, even offering to stay around to help the new person get settled on the job. As for the future, BEC made the announcement this week that Natalie Carter will take the helm at BEC. Carter's recent experience includes running the Chico Certified Farmers Market. She is scheduled to begin March 1, with a period of transition.
rdifalco

Chico News & Review - Water fight - Feature Story - Local Stories - August 15, 2013 - 0 views

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BEC water endangered species sacramento river BDCP Bay Delta

shared by rdifalco on 16 Aug 13 - No Cached
  • But in the northern half of the Central Valley, most people want the tunnels stopped. They say it will suck the Delta dry, destroy farming business in the Delta and the Sacramento Valley, devastate the river’s ecosystem and lead to overuse of groundwater supplies. “This is one of the rare times when farmers and environmentalists can agree that a project is going to be devastating for both their interests,” said Robyn DiFalco, executive director of the Butte Environmental Council. DiFalco notes that the tunnels will not only increase Southern California’s dependence on Northern California’s water, but “they will also make it easier for [Southern California] to get it.”
  • Many critics of the BDCP have described the tunnels as a means of transferring away the wealth of Northern California to powerful water agencies to the south, which will be paying for a great deal of their enormous cost.
  • John Merz, executive director of the Chico-based Sacramento River Preservation Trust, says he has little faith in the components of the BDCP intended to restore the Delta’s health. He recognizes that there will be legal limits to how much water the tunnels can remove from the river. “But we don’t think those limits will be enough to protect the river,” Merz said. He added, “Frankly, when it comes to restoring the health of the Sacramento River, we just don’t trust the Brown administration to do the right thing.”
  • ...5 more annotations...
  • Vlamis, of AquAlliance, echoed him. She said that calling the BDCP a “conservation plan” is deceptive. “The way this plan is crafted it will have no benefits for the Sacramento’s ecosystem,” she said.
  • Barbara Vlamis, the executive director of Chico-based water-watchdog group AquAlliance, says groundwater depletion in the northern Sacramento Valley is one of the major potential impacts of the BDCP that its proponents have failed to consider. AquAlliance is among a coalition of environmental, fishing and farming groups suing to stop the BDCP, which it charges violates the California Environmental Quality Act and the Delta Reform Act. She also believes that further development of the river’s water-export system—if carried out recklessly—could spur the extinction of the chinook salmon.
  • DiFalco, at the Butte Environmental Council, says the conscious choices of farmers in the San Joaquin Valley have brought troubles upon themselves and the rest of the state.
  • “They’re planting permanent crops, like fruit orchards, in a desert,” she said. “Annual crops would make sense. That way you can fallow the land—grow when you’re able to and let the land go fallow in dry years. But they’re being foolhardy. They’re setting themselves up to need more water every year, and we shouldn’t sympathize with them for consciously making these decisions. “We need to retire some of that land,” she said.
  • By some opinions, the BDCP and its tunnels are just a scheme of selling away Northern California’s wealth, and losing an ecosystem in the process.
rdifalco

Chico News & Review - Thanksgiving giving - The GreenHouse - Green - November 21, 2013 - 1 views

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BEC chico trees forest

shared by rdifalco on 22 Nov 13 - No Cached
  • DiFalco weighs in In last week’s column, I devoted a considerable amount of space to the plight of the huge historic valley oak tree
  • growing in the vacant lot at the corner of Salem and West Eighth streets. Thanks to the recent actions of the city’s Architectural Review & Historic Preservation Board, the grand, towering tree is slated to be axed to make way for a couple of duplexes. However, the Butte Environmental Council has (thankfully) filed an appeal, scheduled to be heard next month. Robyn DiFalco, BEC’s executive director (who penned the appeal), sent me a few words by email recently, expressing her thoughts about the situation of this valley oak, as well as that of other heritage trees still standing in Chico. “The mature street trees of Chico are one of the things I love most about this city—and I’m concerned that they’re vulnerable these days,” DiFalco said. “At present, the city has no urban forester or tree crew on staff, the Tree Committee isn’t meeting for lack of city staff, and consequently, the Urban Forest Management Plan is still just a draft. “This is not just about one small project and a few trees—it’s partly a concern about the future of Chico’s urban forest.”
rdifalco

Chico News & Review - Constant cleanup - Feature Story - Local Stories - April 17, 2014 - 0 views

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BEC chico cleanup water parks creeks

shared by rdifalco on 17 Apr 14 - No Cached
  • The byproducts of homeless encampments—mattresses, tents, sleeping bags, food packaging, empty bottles, clothing and human waste—are increasingly common along Chico’s creeks, and the mess is more than unsightly. Many items at these makeshift homes have the potential to pollute the local waterways and habitats downstream.
  • Members of volunteer cleanup crews, park officials and environmental advocates agree that the problem is worse than ever. They also acknowledge that, in light of the city’s ongoing financial difficulties, the ability to clean up the camps in a timely manner has diminished significantly.
  • Robyn DiFalco, executive director of the Butte Environmental Council, said that in the months leading up to the Bidwell Park and Chico Creeks Cleanup last September, there was a dramatic increase in homeless encampments throughout Chico, and despite a lower than expected volunteer turnout, the cleanup removed about twice as much trash from the creeks as the year before.
  • ...5 more annotations...
  • “Things reached a level that no one could remember,” she said. “It was worse than it had ever been. We saw so many more mattresses, so many more tires, so many of those big, bulky items.”
  • Since last fall’s cleanup, DiFalco said, she has been encouraged by ongoing discussions between city and county organizations about how to stay on top of the issue. Some locals, including a group of neighbors along Lindo Channel, have organized cleanup efforts of their own, while student volunteers from Chico State and Butte College have also proved helpful.
  • Volunteers also described certain areas with such high concentrations of fecal matter and urine that “they required a hazmat cleanup,” DiFalco said. “When humans use our waterways as a bathroom, it has an impact on water quality; it has an effect on aquatic wildlife as well as terrestrial and amphibian wildlife.”
  • Mark Gailey, a Chicoan who has volunteered for BEC’s cleanup efforts for nearly 25 years, said in an email that the amount of trash in Chico’s waterways “has seemed to grow exponentially—especially in the last few years. The vast majority of this trash … appears to be from abandoned homeless and transient encampments.”
  • “You’re never going to solve it, but you do need to keep responding to it so it doesn’t get out of control,” she said. “The city shouldn’t be expected to do it on their own, nor should volunteers or nonprofits.”
  • rdifalco on 17 Apr 14
     
    The community's efforts to keep waterways unpolluted is more important than ever
rdifalco

Water group vows to file lawsuit to stop well drilling - Appeal-Democrat: Glenn County ... - 0 views

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BEC water GCID groundwater

shared by rdifalco on 13 Aug 15 - No Cached
  • 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.
  • ...5 more annotations...
  • "In a drought like this, do we really need 10 production wells to pull down more water?" asked Robyn DiFalco, director of the Butte Environmental Council. "I don't think so."
  • DiFalco said the biggest concern with the project's environmental impact report is that it assumes the area's groundwater levels would largely recover during the next wet period.
  • "Based on what?" she said. "Data shows that the groundwater has not recovered in recent years. It's has recovered a little bit, but it is, overall, declining steadily."
  • Water advocates said it is hard to trust GCID given its long history of promoting and endorsing conjunctive use of water, which means groundwater substitution, and that there is no reason to doubt that intent has changed. DiFalco said since GCID had enough "surplus" water this year to sell 70,000 acre-feet of commingled water, of which 45,000 acre-feet flowed south this year to the Delta, she doubts that an emergency exists.
  • "If you have surplus water, where is the emergency for you to pump this water during a drought?" she said. "How do you claim to have surplus and also claim to have a deficit at the same time?"
becnews

Butte County Planning Commission discusses buffers between houses, land used for agricu... - 1 views

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BEC Chico Butte County Oroville Community agriculture

shared by becnews on 29 Oct 15 - No Cached
  • Oroville >> The Butte County Planning Commission has delayed making a recommendation on altering how a 300-foot agricultural buffer applies in residential areas.
  • The county’s current rules call for the agricultural buffer to apply next to properties with agricultural use, which may include properties zoned as residential. The proposal would limit this buffer to development next to agriculturally zoned properties, although an amendment would allow people to use their residential, commercial and industrial properties an acre or larger for farming and grazing.
  • John Scott said the proposal was a violation of the public’s trust as eliminating the buffer could expose residents to sprayed pesticides that drift onto their properties. He said the Development Services Department was working to bring in money from development at the risk of others. “Inappropriate development should not drive this ordinance,” Scott said.
  • ...1 more annotation...
  • Robin DiFalco of the Butte Environmental Council said the changes don’t alter the green line, but increases the potential of development on the farming side. “It is in fact directly contrary to the goals of the General Plan and the green line,” DiFalco said.
becnews

Chico News & Review - On top of trash - Downstroke - Local Stories - September 24, 2015 - 1 views

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BEC Chico Butte County Bidwell Chico Creeks Cleanup volunteers trash

shared by becnews on 29 Oct 15 - No Cached
  • About 500 volunteers—a record number—helped pull trash out of waterways during Butte Environmental Council's annual Bidwell Park & Chico Creeks Cleanup on Saturday (Sept. 19). The volunteers collected an estimated 21,547 pounds of trash and recycling, said BEC Executive Director Robyn DiFalco. That figure is down from last year's record total of about 30 tons of material, but DiFalco said that's likely because “the community has been chipping away at this leading up to the big event” with smaller cleanups. “We also didn't get everything that's out there,” she added. “We never do.” BEC's cleanup also kicked off six weeks of smaller, neighborhood-based stewardship events called Block Parties With a Purpose. Go to becnet.org/events for updates.
rdifalco

Plastic bag ban redux: Restrictions on single-use bags gain committee approval - Chico ... - 0 views

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chico plastic bag ban BEC

shared by rdifalco on 26 Jun 12 - No Cached
  • Committee members voted 2-1 Tuesday to recommend that the Chico City Council develop restrictions on "single-use" plastic bags.
  • Robyn DiFalco of the Butte Environmental Council and Sustainability Task Force said she thinks plastic bag bans represent a shift in society moving away from disposables. "We will look back and say I can't believe we used to do it that way because it doesn't make sense to give out that many single-use bags," DiFalco said.
  • Tammy Wichman of the task force said to get more community input on the ban, and she thinks the council should move forward with the proposal.
rdifalco

Code Blue water series hosted by BEC kicks off tonight - Chico Enterprise Record - 0 views

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water BEC code blue

shared by rdifalco on 19 Sep 13 - No Cached
  • CHICO — The next round of the Code Blue water series, hosted by the Butte Environmental Council, begins tonight with a one-hour "action" meeting about the Bay Delta Conservation Plan. The Code Blue series kicked off in February, and six events remain after its summer break. Several additional events are planned through November, including a rain barrel workshop and delta tour.
  • Better alternatives exist, DiFalco said, than the concept to use tunnels to transfer water from the Sacramento River to the Southern Central Valley. "Let's not let Gov. Brown's tunnels be the only things being considered," she said.
  • The Oct. 17 discussion will feature fracking, which is fracturing of rock to extract gas and oil. "We are gathering details about fracking in Butte County, and citizens are getting ready for a (statewide ballot provision) for 2014," DiFalco said. Sutter and Glenn counties have the largest amount of fracking activity in the area, primarily natural gas, she said.
  • ...2 more annotations...
  • People who are "inspired and want to learn more can keep coming to workshops. Those people can grow in their level of experience and understanding," she said. Other events include an eye-level tour of the delta, a gray water demonstration by homeowner Tim Elliott showcasing a washing-machine-to-garden system, and Nani Teves explaining a rain barrel water catchment system. To watch for these events, bookmark: http://www.becnet.org/code-blue-2013-water-outreach-campaign.
  • Music to help BEC To fundraise for its advocacy efforts, BEC is hosting a Land Air Water benefit concert series. The series starts at 7:30 p.m. Sept. 27 at the GRUB Cooperative, 1525 Dayton Road. The show starts with John Craigie, Pat Hull and Scott Itamura. Wiskerman and Low Flying Birds will play at the Chico Women's Club on Oct. 24, and Bumpet also will play at the club Nov. 14. Cost is $15 per show at Chico Natural Foods, Empire Coffee, the BEC office and www.becnet.org, and $17 at the door.
rdifalco

Chico News & Review - Another historic tree on the chopping block - The GreenHouse - Gr... - 0 views

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BEC chico tree

shared by rdifalco on 15 Nov 13 - No Cached
  • Butte Environmental Council appealing anti-tree decision by Architectural Review & Historic Preservation Board
  • This article was published on 11.14.13.
  • Tearing down another beautiful historic tree CN&R photo contributor Karen Laslo first gave me the heads-up on this one, followed by Butte Environmental Council board president Mark Stemen. It seems that the very huge—what some would term “heritage”—valley oak tree that lives in the vacant lot on the corner of Salem and West Eighth streets is slated for removal so that a couple of single-story duplexes can be built there.
  • ...1 more annotation...
  • “We believe that the project has not had adequate review by the public to date,” wrote BEC Executive Director Robyn DiFalco in the appeal, before pointing out that the Oct. 30 meeting was scheduled outside of the normal ARHPB meeting schedule: the first and third Wednesdays of the month. “The approval in question was made at a special meeting of the ARHPB held to suit the schedule of the applicant,” wrote DiFalco.
rdifalco

Chico News & Review - Hit the road, frack - News - Local Stories - April 10, 2014 - 0 views

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BEC fracking water Butte County

shared by rdifalco on 11 Apr 14 - No Cached
  • County supervisors move to ban controversial gas extraction method
  • This article was published on 04.10.14.
  • The controversial practice of hydraulic fracturing to extract underground oil and gas reserves is well on the way to getting banned in Butte County. On Tuesday (April 8), the Board of Supervisors voted in favor of moving forward on crafting a zoning ordinance, as recommended by the county water commission, that would require a use permit for the practice that is more commonly known as fracking.
  • ...5 more annotations...
  • Robyn DiFalco, executive director of the Butte Environmental Council. “A year ago many of us did not know fracking was taking place so extensively in California and we started to wonder about the concern here locally,” she said. “The point I’d like to make today is that there is an imminent threat from fracking in our region and Butte County.”
  • She said many of the 200 inactive wells have the potential to be stimulated for production via fracking. When the supervisors took up the discussion, Lambert mentioned the environmental disaster that had taken place in the tiny Mojave Desert town of Hinkley, which led to a total of $628 million in settlements from Pacific Gas & Electric and the basis of the movie Erin Brockovich.
  • Lambert said his cousin had died as a result of exposure to hexavalent chromium, which was used in PG&E cooling towers that the company employed in the transmission of natural gas beginning in 1952 and ending in 1966.
  • After the meeting, DiFalco said she was happy with the outcome.
  • “We are very excited and a little bit surprised,” she said. “When we began the effort, it seemed like for the supervisors a ban would not be politically acceptable. We had met with the supervisors over the past year to help them understand the practice.” She said Gosselin had asked her to head up the effort to draft the language of the proposed ordinance.
rdifalco

Butte County supervisors postpone zoning decision along Chico's green line - 0 views

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BEC Butte County Greenline Chico

shared by rdifalco on 02 Sep 15 - No Cached
  • Oroville >> The Butte County Board of Supervisors has postponed action on possibly rezoning residential property in Chico’s Bell-Muir neighborhood.The board was considering whether to keep the 33 parcels north of Bell Road and west of Muir Avenue at very low density residential with a 2½-acre minimum lots or revert it back to 5-acre rural residential. The properties lie on the agricultural side of the green line, the 33-year-old boundary between urban development and farm use in the Chico area. The neighborhood may be viewed as a buffer because it is between ag land and residential properties with a 1-acre minimum size.
  • Robyn DiFalco of the Butte Environmental Council said very low density residential zoning is a development zoning. “It’s a direct contradiction of the principles of the green line,” DiFalco said. She raised concerns about water quality in the area and indicated smaller lots increases the probability of the land being annexed into Chico.
rdifalco

Chico News & Review - Climate on the front burner - Sustainability - Green - May 22, 2014 - 0 views

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BEC Butte County chico climate change climate action plan

shared by rdifalco on 22 May 14 - No Cached
  • 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.
  • ...3 more annotations...
  • “We do have a problem that’s human-caused that we need to respond to,” she said. “The question is whether or not we can modify our human behaviors and reduce our carbon emissions—as the [IPCC] report puts it, mitigate—effectively, in time, enough to make a difference.
  • “The studies continue to show: probably we can, [at least] some of what’s needed.”
  • Mitigation has been a longstanding local priority. The city started climate action planning a decade ago, while Butte County and Chico State CAPs have been years in the making.
rdifalco

PG&E uses site tour to demonstrate need for pipeline tree removals - 0 views

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BEC chico tree removals pipeline

shared by rdifalco on 23 Mar 15 - No Cached
  • Nestled underground, below a mix of trees and brush, lies a 10-inch natural gas pipeline, installed in 1954. Little has been done to maintain it in recent decades, but Pacific Gas & Electric is trying to remedy that with an aggressive plan to remove trees and vegetation around the line and others throughout the state, said spokesperson Shaun Maccoun.
  • “You look at this little valley oak right now and it doesn’t look like much, but it’s very ominous,” said Joey Perez, senior land consultant. “And it’s going to get bigger ... When I consider the safety risk, these trees were doomed from the start.”
  • Robyn Difalco, executive director of Butte Environmental Council, said being able to see the actual project gave her perspective and context, and she retains hope for saving some of the larger trees.
  • ...3 more annotations...
  • “It’s a really beautiful area with thriving oaks of all ages and I was left with a sense that this is a place that can continue to thrive, but it’s a shame for so many oaks to be affected,” she said. “I also felt that PG&E seems willing to work with the community and put together some decent plans to remediate and mitigate for the impact that their project will have.”
  • PG&E doubts most people will be affected by the removed vegetation and it will be replanting in other appropriate areas, with one or perhaps two new trees for every one removed, Perez said.
  • PG&E’s focus on the visual impact of the trees is not enough, DiFalco said. Carbon sequestration, habitat and other factors are also critical, especially in an area where oaks are naturally regenerating.“It’s not surprising that PG&E as a corporation doesn’t entirely recognize the full ecological value of these trees,” she said. “That is what concerns us.”
rdifalco

On the chopping block - 0 views

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BEC Chico trees Community PG&E

shared by rdifalco on 27 Oct 15 - No Cached
  • rdifalco on 27 Oct 15
     
    PG&E meets the public, offers to replace trees slated for removal along pipeline Last February, tree advocates' attempts to save several century-old sycamores from PG&E chainsaws ended in a tense, days-long standoff, police intervention and the eventual removal of the stately giants from where they stood outside of the Oroville Cemetery. It also caused a public relations nightmare for PG&E and its Pipeline Pathways project, the energy company's effort to remove trees, vegetation and structures along 6,750 miles of natural gas pipelines throughout the state for safety, maintenance and access purposes. With similar work planned to remove 33 trees from a mile-long swath in south Chico near Comanche Creek, PG&E is hoping to avoid troubles like those in Oroville, and sent a representative to the city's Bidwell Park and Playground Commission meeting on Monday (Aug. 31) to hear public comment and make an offer to mitigate the loss of the trees. BEC Executive Director Robyn DiFalco was the first person to speak during the public comment portion of the meeting. She lauded the power company for reaching out and offering to plant replacements, but also urged caution as the city moves forward.
rdifalco

Row on the creek - 0 views

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BEC Chico Glenn County Butte County water Stony Creek creeks waste recycling landfill toxics

shared by rdifalco on 28 Jan 16 - No Cached
  • rdifalco on 28 Jan 16
     
    Critics blast environmental review of proposed waste conversion facility along Glenn County waterway The watchdogs at Butte Environmental Council usually keep guard close to home, but occasionally they'll look beyond Chico's backyard. "Environmental issues don't stop at the county line," said Executive Director Robyn DiFalco. "We tend to look beyond our borders at least a little bit to see if our community will be affected." She believes that's the case with the proposed Glenn County Solid Waste Conversion Facility about 3 miles west of Hamilton City, which would sort and recycle up to 200 tons of material a day and convert biodegradable substances into biogas. According to the project's Draft Environmental Impact Report (EIR), the goal is to divert and recycle up to 70 percent of the county's municipal solid waste from the landfill. And that's been a problem; the county's landfill near Artois has been pushing capacity for years and is set to close in December. What's caught BEC's attention? It's mostly a matter of location. The facility would be constructed along the northern bank of Stony Creek, which feeds into the Sacramento River and the Tuscan Aquifer, the vast underground reservoir that provides drinking water for residents in Glenn County and nearby communities-including Chico.
becnews

Chico News & Review - Creekside crackdown - News - Local Stories - September 10, 2015 - 0 views

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BEC Chico Butte County Community Chico Creeks Cleanup

shared by becnews on 29 Oct 15 - No Cached
  • Cynthia Gailey identifies herself first and foremost as an environmentalist, and she’s fully aware that homeless encampments have contributed heavily to the trashing of Chico’s waterways. The degradation, she says, is appalling.
  • Still, it’s not as if the camps’ inhabitants have access to household comforts such as toilets, showers, laundry machines or garbage pick-up, Gailey says. As the coordinator for Safe Space, the seasonal, cold-weather homeless shelter hosted at rotating locations, she argues that the solution is providing unsheltered people with adequate facilities and services, not creating new laws that only “further criminalize homelessness.”
  • The environmental impacts are serious. Last year, Butte Environmental Council’s annual Bidwell Park & Chico Creeks Cleanup—which aims to remove litter from the waterways before rain washes it downstream—pulled an estimated 30 tons of garbage from the creeks. It was a record amount of trash, far surpassing the previous high of 23,000 pounds in 2002. (BEC has tracked the trash haul since 1987.)
  • ...1 more annotation...
  • This year is shaping up about the same, based on accounts of volunteers who have worked in the waterways ahead of the cleanup, which is taking place on Saturday (Sept. 19), said BEC Executive Director Robyn DiFalco. “We’re hearing the conditions are really similar to last year,” she said. “We’re expecting to collect just as much material so long as the same number of volunteers come out again.” The volunteers pick up plenty of “typical everyday litter,” DiFalco said, but the vast majority of trash, by both weight and volume, comes from homeless encampments. However, she doesn’t want people blaming homeless people alone for the waste in the waterways. “This is all part of the bigger situation in our community and society,” she said. “Our role at BEC is to facilitate the community having a positive impact and getting out there for the cleanup.”
becnews

Chico News & Review - Map quest - Sustainability - Green - September 3, 2015 - 0 views

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BEC Chico Butte County Oroville Community

shared by becnews on 29 Oct 15 - No Cached
  • In spots around Butte County, particularly in south Chico and south Oroville, ecological hazards threaten health and safety. Some residents know; some don’t. Polluters tend not to advertise when they’re breaking the law, and residual toxins from decades past represent some of the biggest risks.
  • According to Robyn DiFalco, executive director of the Butte Environmental Council, “a clean and healthy environment versus dirty, unhealthy, polluted environments really have a lot connected with geography.” Wealthy neighborhoods don’t have to deal with these problems because residents there tend to “squawk very loud if dirty industrial sites were in their backyard—and they would prevent them from going in, and choose not to live near those sites.” Lower-income individuals don’t always “have those opportunities to speak out and prevent those sites from going in,” she continued, and neighborhoods with less expensive housing often are located “near these sites that are visually less attractive and have these health problems that their families may be affected by. “So, to be able to see a geographic dispersion of contamination sites, environmental and public health issues, is very telling,” DiFalco continued. “That’s why it’s so important to give visibility to that—that’s why it’s so important to have the EJSCREEN tool and the one that California does … otherwise, a lot of these communities are out of sight, out of mind.”
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