Mothers who breathe the kind of pollution emitted by vehicles, coal power plants and factories are significantly likelier to give birth to underweight children than mothers living in less polluted areas, according to international findings published Wednesday.
The study is believed to be the largest to examine how newborns’ bodies are affected by air quality, an issue that has raised particular concern in China and other developing nations.
Nearly 30 researchers, including three from the Bay Area, based their conclusions on more than 3 million births at 14 sites in North America, South America, Europe, Asia and Australia…
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Leaders from the West’s largest hazardous waste landfill met with townfolk in nearby Kettleman City last week about plans to renew a state operating permit.
They also met resistance again from Kettleman City opponents who want the landfill to shut down.
The latest state report on dirty drinking water confirms that rural towns in the San Joaquin Valley have some of the most contaminated wells in California.
A University of California study last year showed the Valley has widespread nitrate problems, especially in small towns. Nitrate contamination in the groundwater comes mostly from fertilizers and animal waste, according to the UC Davis study.
In Tulare County, Seville’s drinking water passes through a pipe in an open ditch.
In January, the State Water Resources Control Board released a report that looks at contamination in all of California. It shows small water systems in Kern County alone had 55 violations of standards between 2002 and 2010 — the highest number in the state…
There’s a land rush of sorts going on across the nation’s most productive farming region, but these buyers don’t want to grow crops. They want to plant solar farms.
With California mandating that 33 percent of electricity be generated from renewables by the end of the decade, there are 227 proposed solar projects in the pipeline statewide. Coupled with wind and other renewables they would generate enough electricity to meet 100 percent of California’s power needs on an average summer day, the California Independent System Operator says.
And new applications for projects keep arriving…
Some of the worst drinking-water problems in the county are in the north in a number of small “disadvantaged” communities like Cutler, Orosi, East Orosi, Sultana, Seville and Monson. Water with high nitrates and DBCP contamination, probably most from agricultural applications, has forced schools and communities to buy bottled water. The extent of the problem has caught the attention of the national media in the past few months. A November New York Times story recounted that at one time Tulare County identified 15 “non-viable” communities in the 1970s based on a prediction that mechanical harvesters would soon replace the farm workers who lived in places without public water and sewer services, and the best solution was for folks to move…
The San Joaquin Valley will continue to grow faster than the rest of California as development advances across the wide-open landscapes and a young Hispanic population flourishes.
By 2060, the eight-county region will see its population more than double from about 4 million residents to 8.2 million residents, according to state projections released Thursday.
The Valley’s share of California’s population, the projections suggest, will increase from about 10% to nearly 16% over the half-century, a shift that will position the region to be a much bigger player on the state stage.
Hazardous waste landfill leaders met with folks in nearby Kettleman City this week about plans to renew a state operating permit. Kettleman activists continued to oppose it.
Since 2008, the activists, led by El Pueblo Parra el Aire y Agua Limpio, have slowed the landfill’s efforts, sparking a government investigation of birth defects. Investigators found no link between the landfill and Kettleman health problems.
The Kettleman City meeting this week was required as part of the process to get the permit renewal.
Such a renewal would usually be simple — it was in 2003 — but Waste Management Inc., owner and operator of the landfill, needs to expand. There’s almost no room left now for hazardous waste…
Since The Sentinel published an article on Jan. 19 describing how UPS was unhooking and hooking as many as 26 trailer loads a day on the public streets of Kettleman City’s business district, nothing much has changed in the unincorporated community.
UPS spokesman Dan McMackin said the company is running about the same number of trucks there as before.
The company’s practice has provoked a variety of reactions from business owners and community leaders in Kettleman City, which is strategically located for business at the intersection of Interstate 5 and Highway 41. Truckers like the spot because its almost exactly halfway between Los Angeles and San Francisco.
Switching semi trailers on Kettleman’s public streets is technically legal, but concerns have been raised about road impacts, safety concerns, parking issues, noise and other complaints…
The tug of war over California’s groundwater continues over a 1 million-acre swath of the San Joaquin Valley, north of the Fresno area.
For the last decade, the state has studied and discussed ways to protect groundwater beneath farm fields. The Central Valley Regional Water Quality Control Board late last year issued hard-fought orders for several thousand farmers north of the San Joaquin River.
Activists in early January told the state the orders don’t do the job, and they need to be rewritten…
The San Joaquin Valley’s polluted air is a daily concern for Mario Talavera.
“When I go to the pharmacy, they ask why I need medicine,” said Talavera, of Fresno. “For Mario, Angelica, Tomas, Jose. And for me too, Mario. I have asthma. The only person who doesn’t have asthma is my wife.”
It’s a constant stress for Fresno resident Teresa Vidales, too. Her husband, a construction worker and the family breadwinner, has asthma. One of her four kids does, too…