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NEWS
Local leaders discuss environmental justice at Tom Steyer’s Climate Town Hall by David Michael Courtland
Supporters of Democratic presidential candidate Tom Steyer talked about his support of their efforts to deal with climate change at the Climate Warriors’ Town Hall held at the community center of the Oxnard Performing Arts Center (formerly the PACC) on Monday, Feb. 17.
“It’s not often you know a [presidential] candidate; I’ve shaken hands with two or three of the others,” said former State Senator Fran Pavley, who represented parts of Ventura County for 14 years in the state legislature. “I’ve actually known Tom for 10 years.”
Other panelists included 44th District Assemblywoman Jacqui Irwin. Rounding out the panel was Christen Hebrard of the Young Democrats of America. The panel was introduced by Oxnard Mayor Pro Tem Carmen Ramirez.
“Climate change has always been one of my top priorities,” Pavley said, “but he’s the only one I know who over the last 10 years has done something about it.”
Pavley said Steyer’s voter registration drive in 2010 helped defeat Prop. 23, which was designed to undo her landmark Global Warming Solutions Act, also known as AB32. Signed into law in 2006 by Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger, AB32 created a cap-and-trade system to reduce California’s greenhouse gas emissions to 1990 levels by this year.
“Ventura County has benefited from his leadership,” Pavley said. “His NextGen America foundation funds good projects.”
In 2017, Steyer’s green energy advocacy group, NextGen America, released a video opposing plans to replace the Mandalay Generating Station with a gas-fired plant on Oxnard’s coast.
“One thing I can say is that, if he becomes president, he knows where Ventura County is,” Pavley said.
Irwin also noted Steyer’s grassroots activist efforts in Ventura County, recalling that he made “a big investment” in voter registration when she first ran for California State Assembly. Irwin said she is a big supporter of infrastructure projects like the planned Rice Avenue grade separation, which she said would reduce traffic and thus pollution.
Steyer has said that if he is elected president, on his first day in office he will declare that climate change is a national emergency so that he can use special powers to deal with its impact.
“Not only its physical impact but its impact on lower income people,” Pavley noted. “He’s been very strong on reducing air and water pol
lutants regardless of zip code.”
Hebrard also noted the economic and health effects of climate change on people, particularly those with few resources.
“Most Americans don’t have $500 in their savings account,” Hebrard said. “[Steyer] will declare a climate emergency from Day 1. We can actually decarbonize energy and transportation — that’s going to create jobs.”
Ramirez, who said she first met Steyer in 2014, continued the environmental justice discussion.
“Our city is one of the most polluted, particularly South Oxnard,” where farmworkers suffer from asthma and pesticide exposure from doing work nobody else wants to do, Ramirez said.
“I think it’s very irresponsible for our elected leaders to ignore what’s happening,” Ramirez continued.
Pavley and Irwin encouraged people to let their elected officials know the enviornment needs to be made a priority, with emphasis on local investment.
“If we don’t invest in local communities like Oxnard, we’re not going to move forward with our goals,” Irwin said. “The Green New Deal sounds great, but we need to make sure no one is left behind.” ♦ Jacqui Irwin, Fran Pavley, Christen Hebrard and Steyer Campaign Senior Climate Advisor Vien Truong. PHOTO BY KYLE KEYSER
Voters say homelessness, affordable housing top concerns Clinicas survey shows voter dissatisfaction
by Kimberly Rivers kimberly@vcreporter.com
According to results of a survey conducted in January 2020, white and Latinx voters are aligned in several key areas, including a general dissatisfaction with how local elected officials are serving them.
The survey, commissioned by Ventura County-based healthcare provider Clinicas del Camino Real and performed by Strategies 360, contacted 600 registered voters in Ventura County. Interviews were conducted in English and Spanish on landlines, cell phones and online Jan. 10-14.
Only 27 percent of survey respondents overall say city and county elected officials are addressing the important issues, and most say their representatives are more influenced by big corporations and special interests than the needs of the community.
Democrats are slightly more content, with 34 percent saying the important issues are being addressed, while just 19 percent of Republicans say the right issues are prioritized by local elected officials. When filtered for white and Latinx voters, the satisfaction level is more balanced: 26 percent of white and 31 percent of Latinx respondents report that local officials are working on the most important issues.
The survey also found that 50 percent of Ventura County voters strongly disapprove of President Donald Trump; that number jumps to 71 percent with Latinx voters.
While nearly half of the surveyed voters (48
6 — — February 27, 2020 percent) responded that they view the local economy as “excellent” or “good,” just over a third of Latinx voters shared that view. When looking just at responses from Latina women, that number drops to 26 percent. According to the report, that difference could be due to “recent financial experiences”: Just under a quarter (24 percent) of Latinx voters say that “they are living comfortably, compared to 34 percent of white voters.” The financial insecurity expressed by Latinx voters is borne out in the findings that a strong majority (70 percent) of them name housing costs as a major concern.
More than six in 10 voters responding in the survey expressed that local elected officials should be doing more to solve homelessness and provide more affordable housing, and placed those two issues well in front of economy, jobs, crime, environmental issues and healthcare.
Forty-seven percent of all voters (51 percent of Latinx voters) put more affordable housing as the single top priority that elected officials should be addressing in Ventura County. Improving public education was a second top priority called out in the survey, particularly among Latinx respondents.
Commonalities expressed in the survey include low grades for elected officials serving underserved communities, with less than one third (32 percent) of Latinx voters responding that their representatives are doing a good job supporting policy that serves the Latinx community. ♦
Spotlight on Superior Court VC Bar Association releases ratings for judicial candidates
by Kimberly Rivers kimberly@vcreporter.com
On Feb. 11, the Ventura County Bar Association (VCBA) released its ratings of the four candidates for the two judicial offices (Office 2 and Office 8) open in Ventura County Superior Court on the March 3 ballot.
The VCBA Judicial Evaluations Committee is made up of 11 VCBA members who conduct a review of each candidate that includes confidential questionnaires from attorneys and judges.
The candidates are given an overall rating and rated in the categories of professional ability, professional experience, judicial temperament, professional reputation and work ethic/ resource management.
Judicial Office No. 2
Martin Zaehringer, overall rating of “Exceptionally Well Qualified,” the highest ranking possible. For each of the categories Zaehringer received the highest rating of “Outstanding.” He is the only candidate for judicial office on the ballot to receive the highest overall rating and the highest rating in all categories.
According to the statement released by the VCBA, “A rating of Exceptionally Well Qualified means the candidate’s performance in each rating category is remarkably or extraordinarily superior, so that, without real doubt, the candidate is fit to perform in judicial office with distinction,”
Catherine M. Voelker received the overall rating of “Well Qualified,” and received the highest rating of “Outstanding” in the categories of professional ability and work ethic/ resource management. She received the second highest rating of “Very Good” in the categories of professional experience, judicial temperament and professional reputation.
The rating of “Well Qualified” from the VCBA “means that the candidate’s performance in each rating category is indicative of superior fitness to perform in the judicial office with a high degree of skill and effectiveness.
Judicial Office No. 8
Ventura County Superior Court Commissioner Paul W. Baelly received the second highest overall rating of “Well Qualified,” and received the highest rating of “Outstanding” for the categories of judicial temperament and professional reputation. He received the second highest rating of “Very Good” for professional ability, professional experience and work ethic/resource management.
Steve Pell received the lowest overall ranking of “Not Qualified.” He received the rating of “Satisfactory” for professional experience and judicial temperament, and a rating of “Unsatisfactory” in the categories of professional ability, professional reputation and work ethic/ resource management.
Pell has been endorsed by the Ventura County Democratic Party and has no record of disciplinary action listed with the California State Bar Association.
Receiving “Not Qualified” from the committee means they have determined the candidate lacks “fitness to perform satisfactorily” in one or more of the categories. ♦
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Energy waste versus solid waste: Don’t wait to switch out LED bulbs Eye on the Environment
by David Goldstein
Are you waiting until your incan- descent light bulbs burn out before switching to LED bulbs? Experts agree, from both a financial and an environmental perspective, that it makes sense to throw your perfectly working incandescent bulbs in the trash and replace them with LEDs. Severin Borenstein, a professor at University of California, Berkeley’s Haas School of Business, in his online Berkeley Blog, uses people’s unwillingness to discard working incandescent bulbs as an example of the “sunk cost fallacy,” a common error in judgment resulting from decision-making abilities becoming warped by previous investments.
As Southern California Edison spokesperson Sally Jeun explains, LED bulbs “use about 80 percent less electricity and last up to 10 times longer,” so the small amount of waste created by discarding a functioning incandescent is much less than the amount of waste created by operating an inefficient lightbulb.
Of course, the comparison is not obvious, since the waste of discarding a bulb is solid waste, while the waste of operating an inefficient bulb seems invisible. Solving this environmental puzzle requires looking at the purpose of solid waste prevention. One purpose is keeping material out of landfills, but lightbulb glass is a tiny fraction of a landfill’s contents, so that is not significant. Saving energy and conserving resources are larger environmental goals of waste prevention, whether accomplished through recycling or extending product life. Since discarding an incandescent bulb early and replacing it with an LED saves so much electricity, these factors also favor early replacement.
When compact fluorescent lightbulbs (CFLs) were the major alternative to incandescent bulbs, people had many reasons not to switch. Some CFLs flickered, their light did not look like incandescent light and many were badly made, undermining the claim of longer life. Worse, when CFLs broke, they could spread toxic mercury. When they burned out, they had to be dropped off at special recycling centers.
In contrast, switching to LEDs has no such drawbacks. LEDs gradually dim, rather than burning out, but they usually maintain light levels comparable to similarly rated incandescent bulbs for decades. Also, LEDs have a “range of light color temperatures,” according to YLighting, an online bulb seller. Experiment with LEDs listing various “color coordinated temperature” ratings to find one you like. The YLighting website notes that many people prefer “white” light for ambient use, such as in a kitchen, but prefer bluer, more natural-looking light for fixtures such as bedside reading lamps. Last year, Sunset K-8 Elementary School in the Ventura Unified School District received a $4,400 rebate from a lighting manufacturer, bringing its cost down to just $8,600 for the replacement of 1,500 32-watt, T8 fluorescent lamps with all 10-watt LEDs. The school is now saving nearly $23,000 per year, according to Dave Marshall, the district’s facilities services director.
Currently, Southern California Edison does not provide financial incentives for conversion to LEDs, but its website does provide informational assistance. Go to www.marketplace. sce.com and click “explore all categories,” at the top left, then scroll down to lightbulbs. ♦
David Goldstein is an Environmental Resource Analyst with the Ventura County Public Works Agency.
Planet Bardsdale
White-tailed kites return
by Kimberly Rivers kimberly@vcreporter.com
8 — — February 27, 2020 E arlier this month Ron and Lisa Merkord noticed the return of a pair of white-tailed kites to their property in Bardsdale after a few years of not seeing them.
Ron thinks food supply may have had something to do with their local hiatus. “My guess would be that the six or so years of drought caused them to move elsewhere, where their rodent food was more plentiful,” he said. He doesn’t know if they left the whole county, but it’s been years since he’s seen them on their ranch. “After last year’s rains, this would have brought back more food for them.”
Usually spotted in fields or open marshlands and river valleys, these mid-sized (14-17 inches) hawks hunt small mammals by hovering or “kiting” in place before diving down to snatch prey using their strong talons. The kite’s range is small in the U.S., reaching up along the coastal areas of the West Coast, but then spreading south across Mexico and Central and South America. PHOTO BY RON MERKORD
Black shoulder patches are an easy identifier and juveniles have orangish brown (sometimes called cinnamon) coloring on the chest and top of the head.
“What’s special is they are a beautiful bird and not in the numbers that you see red-tailed or red-shouldered hawks. When you see one, and sometimes two, they are a treat,” said James Susha with Ventura Audubon. “I checked our Christmas Bird Count data through 2018 and they show up every year, but not in great numbers (9-19) within our 15-mile circle. I’ve seen them at Satwiwa, Carpinteria Salt Marsh, Lake Casitas, Santa Clara River Estuary and Wheeler Canyon Road . . . Climate change will impact this species along with many others. ♦ PHOTO BY RON MERKORD
In Brief
Point Mugu to be coronavirus quarantine area As of Feb. 25, one person — a U.S. citizen travelling through Los Angeles International Airport from an area where they may have been exposed to the novel coronavirus — is in quarantine at Naval Base Ventura County (NBVC) Point Mugu.
On Feb. 23, the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (DHHS) issued a statement that NBVC Point Mugu is being prepared to potentially be used as a quarantine area for travelers coming through Los Angeles International Airport who have been identified for monitoring for “symptoms of COVID-19 [novel coronavirus] based solely on their travel history.”
Anyone held at the base will be monitored, and then transported to healthcare facilities for treatment if they develop symptoms.
Recently Ventura County has tested two individuals that met the Centers for Disease Control criteria for novel coronavirus screening, and both came back negative for the virus.
The DHHS statement included the notice that while there have been some “imported cases” of the virus detected in the U.S., the virus “is not currently spreading” in the country and “the immediate risk of this new virus to the American public is believed to be low at this time.”
Oil company Termo fined for illegal disposal in Ventura County
The Ventura County District Attorney has announced that The Termo Company has agreed to be fined $143,000 for it’s illegal disposal of oil field waste at Anterra Energy Services on Wooley Road in Oxnard.
“This is the resolution of Termo’s responsibility for its past unlawful dumping at Anterra,” said Mitch Disney, senior deputy district attorney with the Ventura County District Attorney’s office.
Termo, based in Long Beach, operates in Los Angeles and Ventura counties. Anterra, currently closed due to issues with pressure problems in its injection disposal well, is the only commercial Class II waste disposal site in Southern California, and last year was fined nearly $500,000 for accepting hazardous waste it was not authorized to accept, including waste from Termo.
Injection disposal wells operate by waste being injected for disposal into a particular geological formation underground.
Research puts microplastics lower in food chain
Research being done at California State University Channel Islands (CSUCI) has shown that microplastics are present in sand crabs along the California coast. “These are the main critters that live on the sand and they’re really important because the fish eat them, the shore birds and otters eat them and on up the food chain,” said Dorothy Horn, CSUCI 2016 graduate, who is conducting the research with Clare Steele, Ph.D., assistant professor of Environmental Science and Resource Management (ESRM). “Every ecosystem is like a Jenga puzzle. You might be able to pull out a few blocks and it looks OK, but you pull out another block and the whole puzzle crumbles.”
Their research examined sand from 51 different beaches along the California coast, finding that all contained microplastics. In addition, about 35 percent of sand crabs dissected between Alaska and San Diego contained microplastics. One experiment conducted by Horn and Steele involved incubating sand crabs and introducing microplastics. Results show that those exposed to polypropylene microfibers die sooner, and there are negative impacts on the crab embryos. Horn says other research has found microplastics in human feces and tiny fibers in human lung tissue.
“The good part is, the more we’re finding out, the more it pushes policy,” Horn said. “There are plastics in bottled drinking water, for example, and California has passed a law that we measure that amount. All of this brings more money into the research field so we can find out.”
Horn and Steele’s research has been published in the journal Limnology and Oceanography Letters. Co-authors included Elise Granek, Ph.D., a professor of environmental science and management at Portland State University in Oregon. https:// aslopubs.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/ doi/full/10.1002/lol2.10137
Oxnard signs deal with
Sterling for management of the PAC The city of Oxnard has entered into a five-year agreement with Sterling Venue Ventures for operation of the Oxnard Performing Arts Center’s (PAC) large auditorium, and a separate five-year agreement to operate meeting rooms in the Community Center working with the Oxnard Performing Arts Center Corporation (OPACC).
While these agreements keep the PAC open for the time being, there appear to be some rifts. OPACC board member Manuel Herrera has resigned, expressing that he is less than satisfied with the agreements the city has made. Sterling is owned by Ventura County residents Lance and Caryn Sterling.
by Kimberly Rivers
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