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Oil wells in L.A. and Residential Health Problems

Source: Oil wells in L.A.: Nearby residents grapple with health problems Magali Sanchez-Hall, a Wilmington resident for over two decades, has struggled with asthma her entire life. She says the health issue stems from her proximity to oil and gas drilling. Emma Newburger | CNBC LOS ANGELES, CALIF. — Stepping out of a coffee shop near Interstate 110 in the Wilmington neighborhood of Los Angeles, you’re immediately hit by a foul odor. Magali Sanchez-Hall, 51, who’s lived here for more than two decades, is used to the smell of rotting eggs wafting from the hundreds of oil wells operating in the neighborhood. She’s used to her neighbors describing chronic coughs, skin rashes and cancer diagnoses, and to the asthma that affects her own family, who live only 1,500 feet from a refinery. “When people are getting sick with cancer or having asthma, they might think it’s normal or blame genetics,” she said. “We don’t often look at the environment we’re in and think — the chemicals we’re breathing are the cause.” Wilmington, a predominantly working-class and Latino immigrant community of more than 50,000 people, has some of the highest rates of asthma and cancer in the state, according to a report by the non-profit Communities for a Better Environment. It’s surrounded by six oil refineries and wedged in by several freeways and the ports of L.A. and Long Beach. California, the seventh-largest oil-producing state in the U.S., has no rule or standard for the distance that active oil wells need to be from communities. For many Californians, especially Black and brown residents, acrid smells, noise and dirt from oil production is part of the neighborhood. Walking around Wilmington, pumpjacks are visible in public parks, next to schoolyards where children play and outside of people’s windows at home. At night, the sky is lit [...]

Can Enzymes Be the Key to Replacing Concrete in the L.A. Basin?

Source: Is L.A. Like a City Built on Jell-O? Can Enzymes Be the Key to Replacing Concrete? Chukwuebuka Nweke May Have the Answers - USC Viterbi | School of Engineering CHUKWUEBUKA NWEKE. Even as a child 8,000 miles away in Nigeria, Chukwuebuka Nweke remembers the 1995 Kobe, Japan earthquake. “It was a massive, devastating event,” Nweke recalled in an interview earlier this year. “That was probably the first earthquake that I got to see (video) footage about.” Now, Nweke, a geotechnical civil engineer, is a new assistant professor in the Sonny Astani Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering. Seismic hazard modeling — how the ground shakes and how that varies from place to place — is one of his key focal areas, with an aim to helping us allocate resources with priority toward the most vulnerable structures. “Some places could have a lot more damage depending on a number of things, including what’s underneath the ground and what kind of buildings are on there,” he said. “That coupled with information like what kind of service the structure provides or the density of the residing population helps determine the risk level.” For example, Nweke said, if an earthquake takes place in the middle of the desert, with a low or null population, even very large shaking wouldn’t be of great concern. However, in the L.A. basin, it’s a different story, Nweke said. “I specialized primarily in seismic site response, where I’m trying to see how much an earthquake is amplified in areas that are softer, like Los Angeles — the entire basin from Westwood to Orange County is very soft compared to the adjacent mountains,” he said. Nweke, whose scientific curiosity initially stemmed from watching various Discovery Channel series on meteors and the impact of dinosaurs, said Los Angeles is of particular interest in [...]

By kk42|October 15th, 2021|Long Beach, Fresno, Sacramento, Oakland, Santa Ana, Anaheim, Geotechnical California, Los Angeles, San Diego, San Jose, San Francisco|0 Comments

California agency finds significant liquefaction

Source: State agency finds ‘significant liquefaction’ | Local News Stories | hmbreview.com The green in this map indicates areas on the coast that may be prone to liquefication, according to the California Geological Survey. Illustration courtesy California Geological Survey The California Geological Survey last week released new hazard maps for San Mateo and Contra Costa counties that detailed where landslides and soil liquefaction could likely occur in the event of a significant earthquake. The CGS’s Seismic Hazard Zone maps found “significant” liquefaction zones in parts of San Mateo County, particularly in Half Moon Bay, Miramar and San Bruno. The state has already mapped most of the Peninsula, including Montara Mountain, Woodside and San Mateo. But La Honda and San Gregorio are two notable rural areas that don’t have data accessible yet. Each map, a roughly 60-mile zone called a “quadrangle,” accounts for three types of geologic issues caused by earthquakes: a fault rupture, landslide and liquefaction, which describes the process when seismic tremors cause soil to mix with groundwater and behave like quicksand. The state agency identifies most of the city of Half Moon Bay as inside a liquefaction zone. Its quadrangle is 74 square miles, and the liquefaction zone spans the city’s entire coastline and more, including most of the neighborhoods up to Pilarcitos Creek, including El Granada, Miramar and rural areas like Purisima Creek Redwoods Preserve. The map also identifies fault zones on both the east and west sides of the Half Moon Bay Airport, and more than half of Montara Mountain’s quadrangle is at risk of earthquake-induced landslides. The CGS maps were drafted in February but became official on Sept. 23. Land management agencies and cities use hazard maps to identify properties that require site-specific studies before breaking ground on new development. [...]

By kk42|October 11th, 2021|Sacramento, Oakland, Santa Ana, Anaheim, Geotechnical California, Earthquakes, Los Angeles, San Diego, San Jose, San Francisco, Long Beach, Fresno|0 Comments

Why did Morro Bay officials select the site of the water recycling plant?

Source: Why did Morro Bay officials select the site of the water recycling plant? Have you wondered why the Morro Bay City Council in California chose the South Bay Boulevard site for the Water Reclamation Facility? Why this site when it did not provide any public benefit that other sites didn’t offer? The council members knew that it added at least $26,000,000 to the lowest cost option and that it required digging up Quintana Road. And they knew it would mean decades of pumping all of Morro Bay’s raw sewage almost three miles inland and uphill. In 2017, the city council convened a peer review panel of wastewater professionals who informed council members that the best way to reduce project costs was to not use the South Bay Boulevard site. The panel said that “the biggest contributor to cost at the South Bay Boulevard site is the site itself. Pipeline and earthwork costs there are very high.” But why this site when the entire project site is designated by San Luis Obispo County as a Geologic Study Area (GSA)? According to the county’s Estero Area Plan and land use ordinance GSA means that the ground is subject to high landslide risk. The Geologic Hazard Map in the project Environment Impact Report (EIR) also shows that the whole project site is designated a “landslide risk”. The city’s own geotechnical report describes the soil at the project site as including “… landslide deposits …” and as “…commonly associated with … slope instability and landsliding,” And — especially in light of these known hazardous conditions — why this site when it is on the bank of a stream that flows directly within about a mile into the Morro Bay National Estuary? Stormwater carrying soil from a landslide could cause catastrophic harms to the estuary. Then there are the facts that there is [...]

By kk42|October 4th, 2021|Fresno, Geotechnical California, Los Angeles, San Jose, San Francisco|0 Comments

Monsoon Claims 432 Lives In HP Landslides

Source: Monsoon Claims 432 Lives In HP; Landslides, Accidents Increasing Due To Widespread Rain & Snowfall Monsoon death toll in Himachal Pradesh climbs to 432 which is considered as the highest in last five years while twelve people have died in last 24 hours, according to the Disaster Management Authority. Widespread rains and snowfall at high altitude passes resulting in a series of landslides, disruption of major roads and National Highways threw life completely out of gear in Himachal Pradesh, even as temperature dropped significantly in Shimla—the capital city, and Lahaul-Spiti district. Wintry conditions prevailed all over the state on Thursday as result of the rains and snowfall in Lahaul-Spiti valleys. Thick fog engulfing the hills for the past 24 hours created havoc trouble for the travelers which also resulted in several road accidents. Few of these were fatal, others left many people injured due to skidding of the vehicles and mid-way collusions . (Photo Credit- Sanjay Sood) Superintendent of Police Lahaul Spiti Manav Verma told Outlook that it has been raining incessantly. A travel advisory has been issued for the people asking them to avoid journey during next 24 hours . There has been a road disruption near Nehru Kund on Manali Leh road (National Highway no 3) due to landslides. It has been continuously raining at Baralacha La Pass ( 15,922 feet) affecting the mobility of the vehicles on Manali Leh road . Only those vehicles used for essential supplies to Leh are allowed to move as the pass has been very slippery for normal mobility of the vehicles. Tourists are not allowed to take-up their journeys . “There is two to three cms of snow at the Pass” said SP Manav Verma, adding that Lahaul may experience snow much before the normal timing. The biggest advantage, however, remains Rohtang Tunnel [...]

By kk42|September 24th, 2021|Geotechnical New York, New York, Geotechnical Texas, Landslides, Houston, Geotechnical Illinois, Dallas, Chicago, Geotechnical California, Los Angeles, San Jose, San Francisco|Comments Off

California Issues Maps of Earthquake Faults to Avoid ‘Potentially Devastating’ Damage to New Buildings

Source: State Issues Maps of Earthquake Faults to Avoid 'Potentially Devastating' Damage to New Buildings - Times of San Diego The Rose Canyon Fault system. Courtesy County News Center Maps released Thursday of earthquake-prone areas are intended to ensure new construction in San Diego does not take place atop dangerous quake faults. Developed by the California Geological Survey, the regulatory Alquist-Priolo Earthquake Fault Zone maps detail where local governments must require site-specific geologic and engineering studies for proposed developments to ensure this hazard is identified and avoided. Generally, new construction for human occupancy must be set back 50 feet from the active surface trace to avoid faults that may break the surface. “Surface fault rupture is the easiest earthquake-related hazard to avoid because you can see the evidence of where it has occurred,” said Steve Bohlen, acting state geologist and head of CGS. “Surface fault rupture means that one side of a fault is moving either vertically or horizontally in relation to the other side. The deformation that movement causes is potentially devastating to buildings and infrastructure.” Two maps of revised Earthquake Fault Zones have been prepared for the Rose Canyon Fault where it comes onshore in Coronado, traversing the San Diego area to the northwest and going back offshore near La Jolla. Each of the maps covers a roughly 60-square-mile quadrangle of territory. The Alquist-Priolo Act was passed into law following the 1971 magnitude 6.6 San Fernando earthquake, which caused extensive surface ruptures that damaged buildings. Not every large earthquake, though, causes surface fault rupture. For example: the Loma Prieta Earthquake of 1989 devastated the Bay Area without breaking the surface. However, the 1992 Landers Earthquake in San Bernardino County caused surface ruptures along 50 miles, with displacements ranging from one inch to 20 feet. “Since the [...]

University of Nevada, Reno scientists and engineers collaborating on seismic survey for earthquakes

Source: University of Nevada, Reno scientists and engineers collaborating on seismic survey for earthquakes | University of Nevada, Reno University of Nevada, Reno scientists and engineers install equipment at Reno Fire Department's Station 5 on Mayberry Drive as part of a seismic study using fiber-optic cable that runs six miles from downtown Reno to west of Reno. A team of scientists and engineers from the University of Nevada, Reno are installing earthquake sensors above ground along a six-mile stretch of an existing fiber-optic telecommunication cable buried under Reno to develop a rigorous and efficient system for subsurface imaging at the large scale, and detecting earthquakes using laser and fiber-optic technology. "We'll be recording seismic signals generated by passing planes, trains and automobiles along the six-mile stretch of currently unused, buried optical fiber that runs west from Virginia Street along California Avenue and on to Mayberry Drive," Scott Tyler, professor of geological sciences and a leading expert in fiber-optic/laser sensing systems, said. "As the vibrations from the transportation system pass through the underlying geology, it causes a very small change in the optical fiber’s length, which can be recorded from the start of the fiber on South Virginia Street, using a laser-based system called Distributed Acoustic Sensing or DAS." The team, led by Elnaz Seylabi, an assistant professor in the civil and environmental engineering department, is also installing three-component high-resolution seismometers along the cable in the study area to compare traditional methods with the new DAS technology that sends a pulse of laser light through the cable and measures the perturbations in the backscattered light from every point along the cable. The fiber optic system is sensitive enough to detect footsteps as well as jet airplanes that fly by. "Instead of using thousands of geophones to measure ground vibration [...]

By kk42|September 23rd, 2021|Fresno, Carson City, Fairbanks, Sacramento, Elko, Badger, Oakland, Boulder City, Knik-Fairview, Santa Ana, Mesquite, College, Anaheim, Fallon, Geotechnical California, Wasilla, Geotechnical Nevada, Geotechnical Virginia, Los Angeles, Tanaina, Las Vegas, Earthquakes, San Diego, Lakes, Reno, San Jose, Kalifornsky, Henderson, Geotechnical Alaska, San Francisco, North Las Vegas, Anchorage, Long Beach, Sparks, Juneau|0 Comments