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T H U R S DAY, AUGUS T 19, 2 0 21
Booster shots recommended Rollout of Pfizer, Moderna shots set for September
By MADISON HIRNEISEN NEWS-PRESS STAFF WRITER
Overcast weather blankets Santa Barbara, as seen Wednesday from Stearns Wharf.
KENNETH SONG/NEWS-PRESS PHOTOS
Summer gets cool Cloudy, cooling trend expected to continue throughout the week By DAVE MASON
NEWS-PRESS MANAGING EDITOR
You might want a light jacket. The National Weather Service is predicting the daily highs to dive as low as 67 over the next few days in Santa Barbara. The weather service said “an unseasonably cool and cloudy weather pattern” will continue, followed by a warming trend around the middle of next week. On Wednesday, the weather service reported highs of 75 at the Santa Barbara City Fire Department, 72 in Goleta, 77 in Santa Ynez, 66 in Lompoc and 65 in Santa Maria. New Cuyama, not surprisingly, was the hottest spot on record with a high of 84. From there, the temperatures fall. The weather service’s forecast for Santa Barbara calls for highs of 73 today, 70 Friday, 67 Saturday and 68 Sunday. Then the highs in Santa Barbara will inch back up, to 70 Monday, 72 Tuesday and 76 on Aug. 25. A
similar trend of highs is predicted for UCSB and Santa Maria, but Lompoc’s highs are forecast to remain in the low 70s through Aug. 25. The other question is all those clouds that blanketed the entire Santa Barbara sky until night fell Wednesday. The National Weather Service predicts partly cloudy skies the rest of this week and most of next in Santa Barbara, UCSB, Santa Maria, Lompoc and Santa Ynez. Not that things won’t be hot in Santa Ynez. The weather service is predicting highs there of 84 today, 79 on Friday and Saturday, 81 on Sunday, 85 on Monday, 87 on Tuesday and 91 on Aug. 25. (You can give away your jacket to the folks in Santa Barbara.) Cuyama will remain hot with highs of 87 today, 90 Friday, 88 Saturday, 89 Sunday, 92 Monday, 95 Tuesday and a sizzling 99 on Aug. 25. email: dmason@newspress.com
Environmental impact report raises concerns over proposal By MADISON HIRNEISEN NEWS-PRESS STAFF WRITER
The blanket of clouds remained through the end of Wednesday afternoon. The National Weather Service predicts partly cloudy skies in Santa Barbara and other parts of Santa Barbara County the rest of this week and most of next.
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ExxonMobil’s proposal to truck oil out of its Las Flores Canyon facility along the Central Coast could face opposition from county officials after this week’s environmental impact report that the project could have “unavoidable” impacts. On Monday, the Santa Barbara County Planning and Development Department released the final Supplemental Environmental Impact Review, which outlined several impacts of ExxonMobil’s proposed project ranging in severity from “significant” to “mitigatable.” The project, as it currently stands, proposes trucking oil from Las Flores Canyon to the Santa Maria Pump Station via Highway 101 and to the Pentland Terminal in Kern County via State Route 166. If approved, up to 70 trucks per day carrying more than 6,700 gallons of oil each would be traveling along the Central Coast to receiving facilities in
Santa Maria and beyond. According to Monday’s report, an accidental oil spill from a truck crash during transport is a Class 1 “unavoidable” impact of the project and has the potential to harm “sensitive resources including biological, cultural and water resources.” The report estimates that if an entire truckload of 160 barrels spilled, the oil would cover about a quarter of an acre and spread about 500 feet from where the spill occured. The risk of these types of spills could be reduced, however, it is not outright avoidable, the report attests. According to historical data outlined in the report, the annual probability of an oil spill of five gallons or more is about once every 52 years for trucks headed to Santa Maria and about once every 17 years for trucks bound for Kern County. Environmental officials, however, say that this number is largely understated. In a news release, the Please see PROPOSAL on A4
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Report: ExxonMobil trucking proposal could leave impacts
The sun is forecast to come from behind the clouds today. Highs, meanwhile, will fall as low as 67 in Santa Barbara over the next few days, according to the National Weather Service.
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U.S. health officials and President Joe Biden unveiled plans Wednesday to offer booster shots of the Pfizer and Moderna vaccines to previously inoculated individuals to provide additional protection against the highly transmissible delta variant. Booster shots are now recommended for all Americans who completed their vaccine series with the Pfizer or Moderna vaccines at least eight months ago, the Department of Health and Human Services said in a statement. Officials said they are prepared to offer booster shots starting Sept. 20 for those eligible. The booster shots will initially be administered to people who received one of the mRNA vaccines in late 2020 and early 2021, focusing largely on healthcare workers, nursing home residents and elderly individuals. Officials from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the Food and Drug Administration, and the National Institutes of Health released a joint statement on Wednesday explaining that recent data shows vaccine protection against COVID-19
wanes over time. With the delta variant circulating and posing the risk for breakthrough infection, officials said they expect protection with a booster shot is needed to provide additional protection. “The available data make very clear that protection against SARS-CoV-2 infection begins to decrease over time following the initial doses of vaccination, and in association with the dominance of the delta variant, we are starting to see evidence of reduced protection against mild and moderate disease,” officials said in a statement. “Based on our latest assessment, the current protection against severe disease, hospitalization, and death could diminish in the months ahead, especially among those who are at higher risk or were vaccinated during the earlier phases of the vaccination rollout.” “For that reason, we conclude that a booster shot will be needed to maximize vaccine-induced protection and prolong its durability.” Health officials anticipate that those who received the Johnson & Johnson vaccine will likely need booster protection as well. Additional data on the J&J booster shot is likely to
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Saturday’s SUPER LOTTO: 2-13-17-19-21 Meganumber: 12
Wednesday’s DAILY 4: 8-2-5-9
Tuesday’s MEGA MILLIONS: 3-6-16-38-56 Meganumber: 24
Wednesday’s FANTASY 5: 1-9-12-14-21
Wednesday’s DAILY DERBY: 06-03-11 Time: 1:49.35
Wednesday’s POWERBALL: N/A Meganumber: N/A
Wednesday’s DAILY 3: 9-6-8 / Wednesday’s Midday 6-3-1