Saturday, 23 November 2024

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A duck makes its way through the thick mats of algae. Photo by Beth-Katherine Kaiman.

 

 

 

Our lake, formally known as “Clear,” has recently gained “celebrity status” attention from Bay Area reporters inspecting our Cyanobacteria pandemic with their refined scope of discernment.

Local residents rant and rave when corporate media moguls exploit a good story at the cost of tarnishing Lake County’s public relation’s image.

Locals do not like headlines from news stations miles and miles away such as “toxic algae blooms” displayed across their computer or television screens.

When a corporate branded reporter hunts down and seeks out a good lead, they don’t usually consider the issue’s ramifications on the general populous.

They see the story as a great gem they found covered in mud.

Once taken back to the “studio” and polished, it’ll be turned into a diamond that’ll impress their bosses and shareholders and allow them to make their next BMW payment.

Don’t bother complaining about the “out-of-county” reporter’s spin on this local story.

If you have to waste the effort and place blame somewhere, try blaming the people interviewed by these vultures who were the ones that tipped them off to the story in the first place.

Those big city suits preyed on us and used our information, spitting us back out with a smug look on their face, knowing our simple minds wouldn’t realize the mess our need for attention had created until it was too late.

First reported on by the Press Democrat on Aug. 9 as a “Stinky mess along Clear Lake’s south shore,” CBS 5 in San Francisco ran with the story and turned it into a typical corporate media news package on Aug. 12, varnished on the surface by a catchy buzz word such as “toxic” to entice and sell the reader.

What else could we expect from a news outlet controlled indirectly by one of the six corporations that owns the rest of the electronic mediums we flock to in order to find our “news”?

Their motive for writing stories is the same as their bottom line: Profit.

The only people their bosses care about and need to impress are the shareholders.

KPIX is a CBS affiliate owned by Westinghouse Inc.

CBS is a publicly traded stock on the NYSE that is currently being traded at $10.55 a share. Their first quarter profit for 2009 was $3.2 billion.

Jeffrey Schaub, CBS 5 Greenbeat reporter, referred to all Lake County residents at the end of his piece as “those people” when attempting to correct his assessment of the situation.

The other clown-faced anchors merely bobbed their heads and said “those poor resort owners.”

Indeed, we should all be upset and feel sympathy for the lake shore business community, especially on the south end of the lake, that have been affected negatively from this ancient environment condition.

But what about the rest of the population that resides in this county of lake that doesn’t own a business? Doesn’t this issue affect them as well?

 

 

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The mats are so thick and smell so bad that they've been mistaken for human waste. Photo by Beth-Katherine Kaiman.
 

 

 

Is the drinking water safe?

The water supply seems to be the most important natural resource that could possibility be impacted by this problem.

Aside from the obvious negative impact to the tourism industry, this problem is making the environment unpleasant to live in for local residents and the water unfit for swimming and other lake related recreational activities.

In a press release published back in June, our government representatives declared the water unsafe to drink. County Health Officer Dr. Karen Tait advised people to stay away from areas with visible algae mats and not drink the water.

However, there was a distinction made between raw water and treated water running out of the pipes.

On face value, the general population that drinks and bathes with this water on a regular basis is supposed to trust our water companies and believe that they are doing the best they can in adhering to state standards.

One would think these companies would want to reassure their customers that their product is safe and healthy for human consumption.

There are three water companies that do business in the Clearlake community: Highlands Water Co., Konocti County Water Co. and Golden State.

None of them wished to speak about the quality of product they were selling to our local constituency.

However one of them, Golden State Water Co., actually scheduled an open house for Tuesday, Aug. 25, to discuss their general operations and “water quality” after being probed on the issue.

What we do know is very little about the treatment process our drinking water undergoes before reaching our lips.

Inside sources at Highlands Water Co., who requested anonymity, attempted to explain the treatment process for the raw water that is pumped out of Clearlake for treatment at their plant.

This source explained that when the pipeline transports the water from Beakbane Island to the Highlands treatment facility, the turbidity level is 11.68 percent.

After being treated, our drinking water’s turbidity level is reduced to 0.07 percent, which is significantly lower than the state’s 0.3 percent standard.

Turbidity merely refers to the clarity and clearness of the water before and after treatment.

There are several steps involved in the entire treatment process such as filtration through clarifiers with ozone, carbon filters and a final chlorine dose.

Potassium permanganate is also added during the process to aid in treating the algal cells present in the raw water.

This inorganic chemical compound can be purchased at pool supply stores and has historically been used to disinfect drinking water and to remove that “rotten egg” smell from well and wastewater.

Since the other two companies declined comment, we can merely assume that the entire treatment process all our drinking water undergoes is affectively “disinfecting” and killing all algal cells in our drinking water.

Although temporary solutions have already been enacted, such as breaking up the mats with various machinery, the county’s Web site details the most important long-term solution that needs to be addressed:

“Working in cooperation with the State Department of Water Resources and the University of California, Lake County officials completed studies that have shown there is an over-abundance of nutrients (food for the algae) within the lake. Because the lake is so large, spraying algae to reduce nuisance conditions is not a practical long-term solution. Reduction of lake nutrient levels is anticipated to reduce the quantities of nuisance, blue-green algae.”

The county recognizes that excessive nutrient levels in the lake are the main contributing factor causing the excessive algal blooms this season and are "anticipating" that in the future they might attempt to reduce nutrient levels.

How this feat will be carried out and what caused these excessive nutrient levels are questions left unanswered.

Two town hall meetings have already taken place down at Clearlake City Hall within the last two months. Economic and environmental concerns arising from the cyanobacteria problem were subjects of concern.

The next public forum addressing the issue will take place Monday, Aug. 31, at 6 p.m. at the Main Street Bar and Grill.

Joyce Overton, Dian Gibson and 15 residents will dine, discuss and conduct the first of hopefully a series of algae volunteer committee meetings aimed at creating an open dialogue about the problem, as well as encouraging possible long-term solutions.

An anonymous poster on this very site named “Ray” responded to an earlier commentary on the issue stating: “This is the greatest lake west of the Mississippi. Like a wife she’s not consistent, but you have to support her.”

Indeed, we must support our lake and her natural beauty for it makes all of us look good to the outside world.

Instead of blaming the out-of-county press for making us look bad, we should concentrate our efforts on fixing the problem and giving our tourists something to brag about.

Gabby Fellows is a freelance journalist from Humboldt County. She can be reached by e-mail at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it..

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Walking on a path alongside a creek the other day, I came across an old car battery that had been dumped there. Although I realized someone had taken special care and made a deliberate effort to discard a battery this far from civilization, I nevertheless carefully picked it up and put it in the garbage bag I always take when hiking, to legally dispose of it later.

Now don’t get me wrong: the only reason I pick up trash is because it usually clashes with the landscape, not to save the earth … like our conservative brothers and sisters (and aunts, grandfathers, and in-laws …), I ain’t no friend of the earth, no sir!

Like them, I miss the days when government stayed out of our lives and we had the god-given freedom to dump whatever wherever, like used engine oil and coolant in the rivers and lakes along with old tires, televisions and used mattresses … so convenient and so much in sync with industry!

So don’t confuse me for one of those tree-hugging, soil-kissing, limp-wristed eco-freaks who are always asking what they can do to help the earth … what for, haven’t they heard Jesus is coming?

As all good right-wingers know, or should if they were not bad apple moderates, Christians owe it to God to trash the planet as much and as fast as possible to ruin it for those who will be left behind, the non believers, the unrepentant sinners, the devil’s crop.

Anyway, it is patriotic to pollute. When they said “love your country” they meant the flag, darn it, not the land, unless it can generate a buck, unless every square inch can be cultivated or ranched on an industrial scale, drilled, mined, or bought and sold for profit.

Who has ever heard of needing or loving the earth resources for anything else than survival and wealth, of loving the trees, the sky, the mountains? What have we come to? OK, if you insist maybe a photographer or and artist can create a picture of this or that last wilderness for posterity before we blow it up for coal or uranium. Happy?

The earth is like a lemon, to be squeezed and discarded when used up, when the privileged amongst the human race will either find another juicy planet to colonize and squeeze, or else be saved by the second coming.

While we are at it, and since America, as reported recently by grassroots Republicans, is under assault from a global socialist conspiracy, let’s fight back and do away with all those terrible liberal policies that have weakened the nation far too long, such as the 40-hour work week and minimum wage, so the American workforce is no longer put in a position of disadvantage with illegal immigrant workers, and can properly compete for sweatshop positions and other opportunities, such as working in the fields picking strawberries without superfluous protection against pesticide sprays. Yes, sir!

As a matter of fact, let’s no longer be shy and stand for what’s right. Golly, let’s go back to true conservatism and undo all that was unfairly imposed on the unsuspecting public and on industry and business in the past 100 years by those overeducated liberal do-gooders, who should have stayed home eating quiche or drinking high tea.

Like the outcome of the Suffragette movement. now every decent follower of a middle-eastern patriarchal religion like Christianity knows God said woman must obey man, ain’t it? Yes, sir!

How about the silly labor law that prevents ambitious children from working and taking part in the American dream, let’s do away with this anti-business, anti-American law, we got mines to dig and coal to haul and petrol to refine!

Now if the Federal Bureau of Investigations had been allowed to do its job, instead of a Martin Luther King day we would have a Jim Crow day, and anti-segregation laws would have never been imposed on the majority population, why if you can’t even oppress, persecute, hate members of a minority group because of skin color, what are you supposed to hate them for, hair color?

And let’s bust unions, gut the clean air and clean water acts, make the Environmental Protection Agency a tool of industry, and lower all environmental protection standards so industry does not have to spend a penny retrofitting its outdated operations, or being made to no longer use the environment as a sewer for arsenic, lead, dioxins, and other poisons the taxpayer pays to clean up.

Oh, I forgot, the Bush Administration and Republican governors already did all that, good for them, that showed them all earth-worshipping eco-geeks what red-blooded America stands for.

Let’s finish the job and annihilate all protected species (especially the ones that look good hanging on the walls of a country estate), outlaw clean air and clean water all together so there is no more whining about such irrelevant matters, clear-cut, mine, drill and bulldoze all national parks and other wasted pristine lands, outlaw all non-chemical and non-GMO foods such as natural and organic products (any individual farmer who cannot compete with a multi-national corporation needs to be eliminated ASAP, I believe Darwin said so), cut off all social programs and close all medical facilities to those socialists who do not have private medical insurance (weaklings cannot expect to get a free ride on the shoulders of the strong and the mighty, that would be unnatural … let’s stick to the fundamentals of conservatism, shall we?).

And why hesitate to do the truly conservative thing and eliminate government completely? Except, of course, for the military, surveillance and intelligence gathering, torture chambers and corporate welfare. Anything else is unnecessary, why would America need a functioning infrastructure when it has the mightiest military in the world, permanent martial law, and the ability to control segments of the population peeved by environmental disasters such as Katrina?

Who are those commie fools who need the government to do everything for them, from the cradle to the grave, like replacing crumbling bridges and paving roads? What’s more important, having the military muscle to impose our will on the entire world or offering a decent education to our children?

It’s no contest, brain is overrated, everybody knows intellectuals are not to be trusted, and let’s be frank, thinking is unpatriotic, in a neo-conservative world of global and permanent war you either submit to conservative military-industrial complex leadership or you are with the enemy.

Raphael Montoliu lives in Lakeport.
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Slow for the cone zone. It’s not just a catchy slogan; it’s a way of life for your highway workers, no matter if they work for Caltrans, the county or the cities. This phrase came about to highlight the numerous highway worker deaths that occur each year.


Think about this: Over a 23-year span 1,800 law enforcement officers nationwide were killed in the line of duty, that’s an average of 78 officers a year.


As terrible of a tragedy as that is, it gets worse. Over a nine-year span 1,090 firefighters nationwide were killed in the line of duty, that’s an average of 121 per year.


And as tragic as this loss is, in a six-year period 841 highway workers nationwide were killed while performing their jobs to make it safe for you and your family to get to work, school or to the grocery store! That’s an average of 140 preventable deaths per year!


These people were not killed by a bank robber, nor were they killed by the walls of a building that were weakened by the fire they were fighting. These men and women were killed by average, law abiding citizens that were inattentive, talking on the cell phone, in a hurry or just plain upset for being delayed in their daily lives. In other words, they were killed by people like you and me.


Why am I bringing this to your attention? On Aug. 6, one of Lake County’s own public works staff had a serious medical emergency, and collapsed while performing traffic control during re-paving operations at the intersection of Soda Bay Road, South Main Street and Highway 175 in Lakeport. This individual was at the far end of the project, away from their coworkers and collapsed in the street.


I’m telling you about this because not a single person cared enough to stop their car and get out to help this worker! Not a single one of our “neighbors” could take the time out of their busy, hectic schedule to help this person and just swerved around them! What if the next car didn’t see you swerve and ran over this person? And yes, I’ve heard all of the jokes: “Well they were probably on break” or “is it so unusual to see a road worker lying down.”


As humorous as these jokes are this could have been a very serious tragedy for Lake County!


I want you to consider this, Lake County: each and every worker on the roads is someone’s son, daughter, father, mother, brother, sister, etc. Let’s not let them be another statistic!


Consider this: What would happen if there were no street, road or highway workers? How would the police get to your home when the bad guy is robbing you? How would the ambulance and fire trucks get to your home when you need them? How will you get to work, school and to the grocery store without them? Who will come out and plow the snow or cut out the tree across the road in the middle of the night? With out your road crew workers … NO ONE!


Highway workers are killed or seriously injured every year close to home. This year a Caltrans worker was seriously injured by a person that was in to much of a hurry to be delayed by road work, and tried to pass cars in a construction zone, lost control of her vehicle and crushed a worker against the guard rail. When asked about the accident, her reply was, “Well he should have gotten out of the way quicker!” The list of workers killed or injured in adjoining counties to us goes on and on.


As your road superintendent, I have the responsibility and duty to safe guard the county’s workers to the best of my abilities. The Department of Public Works has always attempted to do this with the least amount of delay and inconvenience to you the traveling public, but if the danger to our crews becomes too great we will be forced to close roads while repairs and maintenance are being performed.


I am asking – no, I'm imploring – each and every citizen in Lake County to team with your streets, roads and highway workers to keep not only them but you safe!


The Lake County Department of Public Works would like to thank the staff of Rotten Robbie’s gas and mini mart for coming to the aid of our family member.


Steve Stangland is road superintendent for the Lake County Department of Public Works.

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In response to the recent article submitted by the Lake County Public Works Department concerning the quagga and zebra mussels, there were several inaccuracies and expectations that need to be addressed.


Although Tthe California Department of Food and Agriculture (CDFA) assigned these quagga and zebra invasive mussels an “A” rating, however, it doesn’t change the current roles of the CDFA and the Lake County Agricultural Commissioner (LCAC) concerning these pests. The rating simply recognizes that these two mussels are harmful invasive species. The rating is merely a policy statement;, it carries no legal authority to take action. It signifies that an organism is of known economic importance that is not yet known to be established permanently in the state. Because neither species is a direct pest to agriculture, regulatory or other action does not fall under our jurisdictions.


Prohibition of the entry into the state of quagga and zebra mussels is authorized under the California Fish and Game Code and both species are named as prohibited species in its Fish and Game regulations. Accordingly, the California Department of Fish and Game (DFG) Department has been, and continues to be, the lead enforcement agency concerning the quagga and zebra mussels.


The CDFA collaborates with the DFA by enforcing its regulations by inspecting incoming boats at its border protection stations and taking action if either mussel is found to be present still needs to be granted authority by Fish and Game to enforce any regulations beyond the current inspections they perform at the borders. The LCAC would do the same if either mussel was found during its regular inspection activities.


According to Fish and Game regulations, the CDFA will continue to inspect watercraft coming into California at the border stations to prevent infested watercraft from entering the state, and the LCAC will continue to assist Lake County Public Works in issuing boat stickers to resident and non-resident boat owners.


An “A” rating signifies an organism of known economic importance which requires serious enforcement action, but it requires no legal action by state and/or local government to establish a quarantine. Under California regulations, Lake County cannot establish a countywide quarantine regardless of the presence of an “A” rated organism.


Fish and Game DFG will continue to monitor the Quagga and zebra mussel situation s’ progress and will determine, if and when, it would be necessary for a state and/or local action is needed quarantine to be imposed.


Steven Hajik is Lake County agricultural commissioner and sealer of weights and measures.

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The unthinkable has happened in America. Joe the Plumber, that picture postcard image of a middle class, predominately Protestant, intensely patriotic Anglo-Saxon American – perceiving himself as moral, responsible, and even righteously destined by God to continue in the footprints of his ancestors as a Soldier for God and for the Nation (vigorously defending all its symbols, prejudices, myths and carryover madness) – is being forced to come to grips with the necessity of his own assimilation.

And boy does that scare him and piss him off!

He is faced with daily evidence that the world of his forefathers has passed. He is now represented by a black president, by a Latino female Supreme Court Justice, by 10 states with medical marijuana laws, by a rapidly changing climate conspiracy, by a depletion of natural resources and reduction in the American standard of living, by an economic refutation of laissez-faire capitalism and the collapse of corporate banking and finance, by a rejection of the American martial spirit and a turn toward revitalizing diplomacy, by the survival of Roe vs. Wade, by an increasing acceptance of gay, lesbian and transgender lifestyles and by a burgeoning legion of non-white immigrants bent on realizing the American Dream.

The American Dream has become his nightmare!

The white canvas on which the nation’s portrait was painted has gained color over time, resulting in a hue that can never again be described as white. The generations of Anglo Americans who reveled in their supremacy, in their power, and in their control of the hurtling roller-coaster of  technology and progress are now facing a period in which their values, ideals, and aspirations seem to be in the minority – and it is causing them to go slightly mad.

Witness the organized efforts of corporate America to capitalize on this loss of stature and control, encouraging conservatives to stymie the public discourse about health care and health insurance reform at town hall meetings.

Even in the Congress, conservatively fundamental white men are forming secret brotherhoods, adopting and encouraging tactics of intimidation and a distortion of facts in the best of the Third Reich Brown Shirt tradition. The Neocons of the last administration never revealed that most of their tactics for influencing public opinion were first engineered by Goebbels and his henchmen.  

Now Republicans have embraced the program wholeheartedly. They seem to believe that just because they can say it publicly and loudly--no matter how far-fetched, how distorted, how fanciful the words are – the untruths are justified and the ends justify the means.

Is that Carl Rove clapping? They are like children imagining that the monsters under their beds have become real. They have co-opted the hysteria of the 1960 – once directed at communists – to stir each other up and convince themselves that this is about freedom and responsibility and not about their loss of control.  

Like a child who has been playing with toys by himself, and who is suddenly asked to share and give up control, they prefer to throw a tantrum and break the toys rather than share. Perhaps they are too dense to realize that the tactics being employed by the Republican Party and corporate giants resembles a conspiracy to move the country toward revolution, insurrection, and rebellion. Talk individually to the legions that adhere to the Limbaugh Litany and you hear those words again and again.

They did it to themselves. They encouraged the discussions of how morally superior the American promise was, how anyone could benefit and how all were eligible. They could have spoken with their real voice – that America, founded by whites for whites, didn’t really mean it when they said “melting pot.” In their hearts they never believed it. It was a useful tool to enhance their moral feelings of superiority and racial supremacy, but they never dreamed it might become a reality in their time.

The core of white America is losing its control and is being forced to assimilate into a society full of values and perceptions utterly at odds and foreign to its long-established world view and self-esteem. They are victims of their own propaganda; the myth-becoming-real that America represents a land of new beginnings, welcoming all-comers; a new haven for all the world. That kind of multi-generational open-arms policy during the previous century achieved its purpose but resulted in the inevitable consequences of unpredictable, uncontrollable change.

Yes, the American Dream is moving toward being realized in the countless bloodlines of immigrating peoples; coming here – just as Anglo founding fathers did – to share in a promise of freedom and equality (seldom realized), but always at the forefront of the conversation. Their sheer numbers and the technological changes in communications and awareness have changed the equation.

White America is being forced to follow in the footsteps of the Native Americans they themselves dispossessed; confronting alien attitudes, values, social organization, political policies, even language.

How far will their madness go? For the most part, the majority will respond with restraint – waiting for an opportunity to work within the system for change. But there is a fairly significant fringe being surreptitiously called upon by a few conservative media pundits to heed a covert call intended to stoke desperation and drive them to become a self-proclaimed martyr for traditional America.

Those who know the history of Native peoples in California remember how it was the media, using specific words – much like the words being used today to describe our president and his policies – to enable and encourage the monsters responsible for the most horrific and immoral treatment of human beings possible.

Those words were effective in desensitizing the populace just enough that normal mainstream settlers averted their eyes and allowed a holocaust that normally would have offended their morality, integrity and honor.

Given the American proclivity (even outright glorification) to violence (when adequately rationalized), I fully expect to see this fear and anger at losing their grip on the national reins, resulting in a loss of individual power and racial status, take more overtly racial overtones, and move them further and further toward the fringe belief that only violence, individual or organized, will “save our America.”

Though they perceive the barn burning, the horses have all bolted and there isn’t enough water in the world to put out the fire that is consuming the Anglo Saxon vision of what the United States was, is, and should be.

It is up to their fellow Anglo compatriots to confront them and help them understand that the genie is out of the bottle and will not be put back. As native peoples are told daily – get over it and move on.  

I fear they’ll want to sink the ship rather than row together toward some beautiful, albeit unknown, shore.

James BlueWolf is a poet and author. He lives in Nice.
Posted On

“Brooks Brothers brigade” is cute alliteration, an upgrade on the 2000 “Brooks Brothers riot” somebody used to describe the snarling, screaming Republican out-of-town operatives who shut down the controversial presidential election count in Miami-Dade.


It was clear in the 2000 case that the characterization was intended to emphasize the out-of-town aspect, because Miami is not Brooks Brothers country. It's more Banana Republic and Victoria's Secret, and always has been, even though we had our button-down Brooksie pockets in the buttoned-down '50s. So those rude folks had to come from elsewhere.


Brooksies were calm folks with Ivy League aspirations who wouldn't dream of causing a scene. Probably they still are. Not fashion-forward, you understand, but always tasteful. (OK, call me petty, but I take offense on behalf of the pale pink button-down Oxford cloth shirt.)


Apologies to White House press secretary Robert Gibbs, who seems like a decent guy, but the new Brooks Brothers brigade appellation is just plain wrong.


Today's disruptors of town hall meetings on health care are not strangers. They're our neighbors (or maybe pod people replacing our neighbors?) who come to those meetings to parrot the instructions they've gotten from the public relations consultants for interests which will not benefit from health care reform. Interests like insurance companies which now routinely deny health care to their customers and pharmaceutical companies which won't continue to profit quite so much from widespread preventive care or regulated costs of their pills.


Conservatives for Patients' Rights is a major player in organizing the anti-reform brigades. They work with the conservative PR firm previously known as Creative Response Concepts, the firm "that masterminded the 'Swift boat' attacks against 2004 Democratic presidential candidate John F. Kerry," the Washington Post reported.


Along with other groups friendly to “tea parties” they are advising their sympathizers on how to manufacture apparent grassroots objections (or Astroturf) to health care reform. One memo suggests that tea partiers should "pack the hall ... spread out" to make their numbers seem more significant, and to "rock-the-boat early in the Rep's presentation … to yell out and challenge the Rep's statements early.... to rattle him, get him off his prepared script and agenda ... stand up and shout and sit right back down."


So much for civil discourse or informed dissent.


“Brown shirt brigades” seems more appropriate for these folks, in recognition of their similarity to the 1920s and 1930s pro-Hitler storm troopers who specialized in intimidation and starting fights.


That has pretty nice alliteration also, and doesn't insult a stalwart of American fashion. (Or the beloved shirt.)


Sophie Jensen is a retired journalist. She lives in Lucerne.

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