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rdifalco

Water lessons - Local Stories - Feb 21, 2013 - 0 views

www.newsreview.com/...content

BEC water Tuscan Aquifer Butte County California

shared by rdifalco on 22 Feb 13 - No Cached
  • 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.”
ndcarter

Chico News & Review - Asking for influence - News - Local Stories - September 15, 2016 - 1 views

www.newsreview.com/...content

shared by ndcarter on 15 Sep 16 - No Cached
  • Carter, executive director of the Butte Environmental Council, and Cecil, executive director of the Butte County Farm Bureau, had asked the commission to allow their respective constituents a greater voice in governing local water resources.
  • BEC took the lead in a coalition of 15 groups and individuals seeking a water advisory committee representing environmentalists and private pumpers.
  • “I think we’re coming closer to having common ground on this issue and coming together as a county to defend groundwater users that aren’t represented by [an agency] and also those environmental concerns, those beneficial uses of our water in our county,” Carter said after the meeting.
  • ...1 more annotation...
  • Tweet Asking for influence Environmental and ag groups offer input on forthcoming state water regulations
rdifalco

Chico News & Review - State of the ranch - News - Local Stories - May 21, 2015 - 0 views

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shared by rdifalco on 22 May 15 - No Cached
  • rdifalco on 22 May 15
     
    Environmental groups want to see Bidwell Ranch become part of Bidwell Park Seasonal cattle-grazing makes up the bulk of the activity at Bidwell Ranch, an expansive reserve downslope of Upper Bidwell Park. But that could change if the Chico City Council gets behind the request of a coalition of heavy-hitting local environmental groups. As John Merz put it in a recent city meeting, the request is straightforward: that "Bidwell Ranch become a formal part of Bidwell Park." But that plan has hit snags over the past decade, and Merz says local environmental groups-Friends of Bidwell Park, Butte Environmental Council, Altacal Audubon Society, the Sierra Club Yahi Group, the California Native Plant Society's Mount Lassen chapter and the Bidwell Ranch Committee-have come to the conclusion that the best option for the 750-acre property is adding it to the city's largest park.
rdifalco

chicoSol Home - 0 views

www.chicosol.org

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.
ndcarter

Chico News & Review - Compassion above all else - Editorial - Opinions - March 29, 2018 - 0 views

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BEC water cleanup chico news Community

shared by ndcarter on 05 Apr 18 - No Cached
  • Butte Environmental Council, which for decades has organized events to beautify our parks and waterways. During a cleanup in 2008, as the CN&R reported, BEC volunteers collected a whopping 10.5 tons of trash in five hours.
  • ndcarter on 05 Apr 18
     
    Butte Environmental Council (BEC) is a community organization committed to protecting and defending environmental quality throughout Butte County. By regularly removing trash and recyclables that have found their way in to our urban creeks, parks and greenways BEC is helping to keep local water clean and safe, improving wildlife habitat and reducing human impacts on our environmental quality. Chico's urban waterways are heavily impacted by litter, illegal dumping, and creekside camping. BEC is committed to treating all members of our community with dignity and respect. We often remove materials left behind by those living along our creeks. Our non-confrontation policy asks our volunteers to avoid any interactions with those in the cleanup area besides inviting them to join us. In partnership with local law enforcement, we provide notice to camps in an effort to allow time for personal property to be removed. Usable items that are removed from our cleanup efforts are repurposed whenever possible to minimize what we send to the landfill. Our community cleanups have two goals: remove waste from our creeks, and build a community committed to healthy waterways.
rdifalco

California Community Rising Against Fracking tour starts Sunday in Chico - Chico Enterp... - 0 views

www.chicoer.com/...st-fracking-tour-starts-sunday

BEC chico california fracking water

shared by rdifalco on 11 Apr 13 - No Cached
  • CHICO — Music and nationally known speakers will kick off a west coast tour of California Community Rising Against Fracking during a free event Sunday at Arc Pavilion, 2040 Park Ave. Put on by Chico Community Rising Against Fracking and Butte Environmental Council, the event 2-6 p.m., is the start of a state tour that will end up in San Diego on Earth Day, according to Dave Garcia, a member of BEC. Tour locations are communities that are near the largest shale oil regions in the state, including San Francisco, Santa Barbara and San Luis Obispo, he said.
  • Speakers will include: Doug Shields, former member of Pittsburgh, Penn., city council, featured in the film, "The Sky is Pink"; Shannon Biggs, director of Community Rights with Global Exchange, who will talk about community rights initiatives; Andrew Grinberg, Oil and Gas Program Coordinator of Clean Water Action, who will talk about water issues and new proposed state fracking regulations; Speakers from Chico Community Rising Against Fracking and BEC, on concerns of what local fracking for oil operations may cause to the surrounding agricultural economy. Also, there will be a showing of "The Sky is Pink," a film by Josh Fox as a follow-up to his Oscar-nominated "Gasland," about misinformation from the hydralic fracking industry.
  • Music by local band, Los Cabillitos de la Cancion, will start at 5 p.m. Robyn DiFalco, BEC's executive director, said the
  • ...1 more annotation...
  • event will emphasize the impact of fracking at the local level and groups and individuals interested in signing a letter in support may do so at BEC's website. For information, contact Butte Environmental Council at 891-6424 or www.becnet.org.
ndcarter

Chico News & Review - Whom to watch in 2017 - Feature Story - Local Stories - January 5... - 0 views

www.newsreview.com/...content

shared by ndcarter on 05 Jan 17 - No Cached
  • In Chico, that means Goldstein is working with nonprofits like Butte Environmental Council and GRID Alternatives as well as city staff and the Sustainability Task Force to implement the city’s Climate Action Plan. That plan calls for a 25 percent reduction in greenhouse gases over 2005 levels by the year 2020.
  • ndcarter on 05 Jan 17
     
    We are excited to be working with Bryce Goldstein, one of 2017's people to watch! Together we are striving for local climate change awareness and real positive change!
rdifalco

Locals react to Bay Delta Conservation Plan - Oroville Mercury Register - 0 views

www.orovillemr.com/...ct-bay-delta-conservation-plan

BEC delta BDCP

shared by rdifalco on 20 Dec 13 - No Cached
  • Posted:   12/09/2013
  • SACRAMENTO -- The environmental reports for plans for the Bay Delta Conservation Plan were released Monday, beginning a new flurry of debate.
  • Locally, Barbara Vlamis of AquAlliance said her group and a coalition of environmental organizations have been watching the BDCP process closely. "One of the biggest things I have been hearing over and over again is that this thing doesn't look like it can fly," Vlamis said. She said it won't protect the species as indicated, the funding is uncertain and the source for the water is unknown.
  • ...2 more annotations...
  • Paul Gosselin, executive director of the county Department of Water, said the county will push to ensure regional water rights are protected, and to avoid "dead pool" conditions in Lake Oroville. Economic impacts to this area are another strong concern, he said.
  • Nani Teves, of Butte Environmental Council, said the plan to "increasingly export water from the north" will "transfer environmental and economic damage north, but puts the existing water supply for the entire state at risk."
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

Sacramento Valley water transfer idea leaves locals fuming - Chico Enterprise Record - 0 views

www.chicoer.com/...sfer-idea-leaves-locals-fuming

BEC water california Bureau of Reclamation transfer sacramento river

shared by rdifalco on 23 Oct 14 - No Cached
  • There's a plan for water transfers could move up to 511,000 acre-feet of water each year for the next 10 years from the Sacramento Valley to the San Joaquin Valley and the Bay Area.
  • The Bureau of Reclamation received a very clear message Tuesday night that people in the Sacramento Valley don't like that.
  • More than 100 people attended Tuesday's meeting in Chico.
  • ...3 more annotations...
  • The document says that maximum would be allowed in dry and critically dry years, and up to 360,000 acre-feet during other years through 2024.
  • One of the alternatives in the plan is to not farm land in Northern California. "How about some crop idling in the area of (water) demand," Vlamis said.
  • Recent rules by the State Water Resources Control Board require local groups to create sustainable water budgets by 2022. Robyn DiFalco, director of the Butte Environmental Council (www.becnet.org) said it "seems clear the San Joaquin Valley proposes to balance their water budget with Sacramento Valley water."
becnews

Chico News & Review - It's baaaaaack - News - Local Stories - October 8, 2015 - 0 views

www.newsreview.com/...content

BEC Chico Butte County Community Walmart Environment

shared by becnews on 29 Oct 15 - No Cached
  • At the end of 2009, after a long-fought battle with concerned citizens and a divided Chico City Council, Walmart’s plans to expand its Forest Avenue store were denied. The ultimate decision, reached by a liberal-majority council, was that the environmental impacts outweighed any potential benefits of the project. The company was told it must wait at least a year before bringing the idea back to the city. Now, six years later, the plan to expand Chico’s Walmart is back on the table. It appears it’s not the only one, either. Plans for a new 197,000-square-foot Supercenter in Oroville that were first submitted in 2006 are finally making headway. That project could break ground by the end of 2015. And there are rumblings of progress on plans for building a Walmart in Paradise—those also had their beginnings in the middle of the 2000s.
  • “As an organization, we feel there are many aspects of a super Walmart that conflict with the goals of protecting the environment and supporting local economies, overall, in a broad sense,” said Robyn DiFalco, executive director of local eco-advocacy group Butte Environmental Council, adding that the group had not yet taken a position on the expansion.
dkeeley1

Chico News & Review - BEC's new boss - 0 views

www.newsreview.com/...content

chico news review Butte County BEC local

shared by dkeeley1 on 21 Mar 16 - No Cached
  • dkeeley1 on 21 Mar 16
     
    Stemen said the board values the connections Carter has made in the community and local government, particularly during the farmers' market's fight to retain its Saturday morning location at the city-owned parking lot at Second and Wall streets. While she may not have expertise on every issue or contacts in every jurisdiction BEC works, board members do-and the board doesn't expect Carter to chart BEC's course alone. "We're right where we want to be as an organization," Stemen said. "We want to do what we're doing better, and we want to do what we're doing more, but I don't think we really need to change anything-and I think Natalie fits right into that." "I was excessively fortunate that I got my first two weeks [overlapping] with Robyn," Carter said. "That was the perfect introduction to this."
ndcarter

Chico News & Review - Water worries - News - Local Stories - May 31, 2018 - 0 views

www.newsreview.com/...content

shared by ndcarter on 31 May 18 - No Cached
  • To her consternation, Strachan’s colleagues had declined to consider a resolution put forth by the Butte Environmental Council for the county to recognize BEC as a representative of groundwater interests. Supervisors previously passed a comparable resolution for an agricultural group.
  • Natalie Carter, BEC’s executive director, echoed Strachan’s perspective on equal representation. “Farmers say, ‘We represent domestic users—we have domestic wells,’ and they do, and they absolutely have a shared perspective in that,” Carter said. “They don’t want their domestic wells to go dry. “That’s not to say we shouldn’t have a voice for someone who is only a domestic well user and doesn’t have ties to the agricultural interests in this community, which are so valuable, but shouldn’t be the only voice at the table.” In seeking recognition from the county, BEC wants to become a—not the— representative for users of groundwater from shallow depths. That’s the connection BEC sees between advocacy for groundwater-dependent ecosystems and homeowners who depend on wells—and why Carter says it’s important for the county to recognize multiple constituencies. “[SGMA conveys] a 50-year horizon to sustainability,” she added. “The whole design is local control, and our local voices include a wide variety.”
dnbaxter

Chico Considering Fruit Tree Gleaning to Distribute Food to Community - 0 views

www.chicoer.com/...ing-to-distribute-to-community

BEC trees Chico Community

shared by dnbaxter on 26 Oct 20 - No Cached
  • dnbaxter on 26 Oct 20
     
    Local partnerships and collaboration on urban forest health, local food security, and environmental justice between Butte Environmental Council, City of Chico - Parks Division, and Butte County Local Food Network.
rdifalco

CN&R - Water blues - Sustainability - Green - April 11, 2013 - 0 views

www.newsreview.com/...content

BEC water

shared by rdifalco on 17 Apr 13 - No Cached
  • Nani Teves says it’s not too late to do something about Gov. Jerry Brown’s new plan to send North State water south, and she and other local water activists have a plan of their own to inform residents on what’s at stake. Teves, water outreach coordinator for Butte Environmental Council, was referring in a recent interview to BEC’s Code Blue 2013 water outreach campaign, which kicked off on Feb. 5 with a free forum at Chico State called “Ethical Issues and Water: An Interfaith Dialogue.” The Code Blue series of no-cost, water-centric educational events—held “so that people are aware of what’s happening regarding local water, and are given the tools to do something about it”—will run throughout the year.
  • Included on the Code Blue schedule of free events: a talk titled Science and Politics of North State Water (May 1); an educational field trip (June 8) to the Bay Delta, under which two multibillion-dollar, 40-foot-diameter tunnels are planned to be built to send North State water south; and fall workshops on installing water-conserving gray-water and rainwater-catchment systems.
ndcarter

Chico News & Review - A green year - Sustainability - Green - December 29, 2016 - 0 views

www.newsreview.com/...content

shared by ndcarter on 29 Dec 16 - No Cached
  • 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.
  • ...1 more annotation...
  • The November election also resulted in California voting to uphold the plastic bag ban, meaning grocers in other areas of Butte County (Chico had its own bag ban in place already) will have to follow suit.
ndcarter

Local third-graders make papiér-mâché animals for upcoming Endangered Species... - 0 views

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chico news BEC Community event Endangered Species Faire ESF Saturday local animals endangered species faire

shared by ndcarter on 05 May 16 - No Cached
  • The students will get a chance to parade their puppets during the Procession of the Species at this year’s fair on May 7, 11 a.m.-4 p.m. at One-Mile Recreation Area.
rdifalco

Chico News & Review - Burning questions - News - Local Stories - September 12, 2013 - 0 views

www.newsreview.com/...content

BEC Oroville dioxin POPI

shared by rdifalco on 12 Sep 13 - No Cached
  • 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.
rdifalco

Recycling Education Programs in Butte County Are No Longer RARE - 0 views

growingupchico.com/?p=705

shared by rdifalco on 16 Nov 13 - No Cached
  • Published on November 3, 2013 by growingupchico
  • When it comes to waste, “there is no away.” This is an important life lesson that the Butte Environmental Council hopes to impart to local students, teachers and community members with their new recycling education program. RARE, The Recycling and Rubbish Education program, strives to educate through engaging interactive workshops and field trips, which focus on the four R’s – reduce, reuse, recycle and rot.  The program comes directly to the students at their Butte County school and is completely free of charge. “When we give children meaningful, hands-on experiences within their classrooms and show them up close by visiting the local landfill, they feel connected to the bigger picture of where trash ends up,” said Tanya Parish, RARE program coordinator.  “Our hope is that they then take positive steps to create a healthier and more sustainable future.”
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