Molly Peterson

Reporter Molly Peterson is haunted by waters and hounded by editors. She enjoys both, to varying degrees.

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Latest Entries
Tom Graff, Water Guy

Nov. 13, 2009|Molly Peterson|0 comments

All this talk this week and last and for all I know the next year or so about the state's water plans. And I'm very saddened to read that Tom Graff has died.

Unless you're somehow involved in California water, you don't know him. But I first heard of him in law school, when I studied the Central Valley Project Improvement Act. His name was all over the place in accounts of it - he helped get it passed. The act, shepherded by George Miller in Congress, required that the federal Bureau of Reclamation do a better job accounting for water in the Delta, so as to protect wildlife and fisheries. It came up with an accounting system for water used there, and Tom Graff explained that to me, patiently.

Maybe you know this feeling: the one where your whole brain is opening up and you can see a whole topic, a place, a something on the horizon that you know will capture your interest for a long time. I had that feeling about California water issues in law school, and I had it again when I was a new reporter at KQED and Tom Graff (and Barry Nelson at NRDC, and Jared Huffman, then at NRDC, and Brian Gray, and Clifford Lee, and the work of Joe Sax, all Bay Area types, but hell, I was in the Bay Area) explained CALFED to me. To the extent anyone can, ever.

Schwarzenegger said, in a release: "Throughout California’s water crisis, Tom fought for conservation, market transfers, water for fish and other important issues that became a crucial part of the historic water package recently passed by the legislature. His has made invaluable contributions to our state and its environment and he will be greatly missed."

I didn't know him personally, other than to verify that he was the kind of guy who walked around with a messy stack of papers rather than a neat one, but he still knew what was in it. But I do know that he was 65, around the age my mom was when she died, and so I think instinctively: that's too soon.

No, wait, for real: South Coast MPAs almost a reality

Nov. 10, 2009|Molly Peterson|0 comments

I'll have more about this later, but in the meantime, I wanted to mention that Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa weighed in at the last minute on this process - I guess that delay by the blue ribbon task force helped him. You can read his letter to the task force here.

They had some shoving and shouting here earlier, but considering the length of time this has been going on, and the differences in opinion, not much. I'll have more after the vote, which is imminent.

Clean water in the 'Bu

Nov. 5, 2009|Molly Peterson|1 comment

Public comment continues here in the Metropolitan Water District's board room, where the LA Regional Water Quality Control Board is holding its meeting because of the overwhelming interest in the topic of a septic tank moratorium in areas affecting the Malibu Creek watershed, Malibu Lagoon and Surfrider Beach.

It's very polite - a byproduct of the impressive upscale serious locale? - but the divide is clear. Since I've been here we've heard from some longtime residents who say:
1 - septic is doing fine, and only may need updating in some places
2 - lots of other sources may be causing pollution & bacteria - relatedly -
3 - the science doesn't presently support tracing the problem to septic tanks
4 - updating to a treatment plant/sewage system would cost a lot and they shouldn't pay for it, especially now that we're in a financial apocalypse.

Surfers, mostly, are on the other side, with some beachgoers and enviros mixed in. They say:
1 - I've gotten pinkeye and, in at least one case, heart problems, from dirty water around Surfrider. The descriptions of the Coxsackie virus in particular were, uh, vivid.
2 - Surfrider's historically important to California culture, beyond that.
3 - Science already tells us that septic tanks cause bad stuff; we don't need to wait.
4 - Beneficial use means protecting the ecosystem in that region.
5 - Just because you haven't switched away from septic before a financially challenging time doesn't mean you shouldn't have to now; this is long overdue.

It'll be interesting to see how this goes.

State Bond Spurs Surface Water Storage

Nov. 4, 2009|Molly Peterson|1 comment

I listened to NRDC's Barry Nelson and others on Larry Mantle's show Wednesday morning - and I almost pulled off the road when I heard Nelson say that he had been working on policy stuff, not the bond stuff, so he didn't know much about some of the bond issues - including Temperance Flat.

One reason I almost pulled off the road is that 6 years ago, when Nelson schooled me, a young reporter at KQED, patiently and in detail, in our state's water policy follies, Temperance Flat was very much a live issue. By which I mean: perchance he knows more than he thinks.

The other is Temperance Flat. I left California for a little while after I covered water issues on the San Joaquin River. When I came back I was gobsmacked to hear Temperance Flat again. How does this project turn up like a bad penny every time?

Oh, right. Because some of us want it to. Including the Governor, who said frequently and loudly he wouldn't sign a bond without surface storage in it.

After much delay, the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation released a study that purported to find Temperance Flat feasible and a good idea. (Don't be fooled by the October 2008 date; it came out in August of 2009.) For those of you familiar with cost-benefit analyses (hello, the two of you), it's basically 1 - which means that even in the best "sell" of the project, it's barely worth it. And the report doesn't account for costs from taking away prime water for kayakers, for costs from destroying Native American archaeological sites, and for costs from changing - dramatically - habitat for at least three kinds of fish (including the trout I used to catch with my dad).

I wonder if all the pieces of the bond puzzle are awesomely news-rich targets like this. Hope so.

Building a green LA for everyone

Nov. 3, 2009|Molly Peterson|0 comments

When I lived in San Francisco I played softball in an architects, builders and contractors league. For a bunch of architects we were pretty good. The experience definitely demystified architects for me - they drank beer and wanted to win just like builders do - but maybe not architecture itself, a topic that few cover well, and not on public radio.

So it's with trepidation and fascination I approached these issues of green building.

Katie Swenson, one of the people I talked to for the story that aired today, actually directs the Rose Fellowship - she used to be a fellow herself. Her work was in Charlottesville. She wrote a book - Growing Urban Habitats - that describes the Urban Habitats 2005 competition, where Charlottesville designers sought plans for multifamily housing that prevent gentrification. The design - or re-design - target is housing court in the Hogwaller-Belmont part of Charlottesville.

Growing Urban Habitats puts together design ideas for urban housing emphasizing affordability, density, compactness, and sustainability. In it she and her co-authors make an argument for "design contributing more meaningfully to an equitable form of community development."

(Charlottesville, incidentally, has been the cradle of a lot of ways for thinking differently about what we build and how we build it.)

The actual story of the Sunshine Housing Court - where the actual people live, for whom the project is designed - is an ongoing one. If all goes well now, Habitat will break ground on Sunshine Court in 2011 - 6 years after the contest. Reasonable, real-world obstacles? Dunno.

When I was in New Orleans, I saw a charrette in progress in Gentilly. It was such a hopeful act, and the act itself held meaning, not only for the people who lived in Gentilly, but also for the city planners - New Urbanists Duany Plater-Zyberk - themselves. But I don't think anything ever came of it. For so many reasons: the way money flowed to the region after the storm, the way the city organized coming back, the different tastes all the different residents expressed.

In Los Angeles we've got plenty of homegrown architectural/city planning talent. I'm very interested in the distance they might see between the design of a building, and the building itself; between a neighborhood, and the neighborhood itself - especially as regards green building, affordable housing, and all the challenges for projects like the new Carver and the Abbey apartments around Skid Row.