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    GrokSurf's San Diego by George J. Janczyn is produced under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-Share Alike 3.0 License. Anything on this blog copied and used elsewhere online must include attribution and a link to the original on this blog, or a citation with the URL if reprinted on hard copy.

     

     

Archive for November, 2009

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News websites – appearance makes a difference

Posted by George J. Janczyn on November 12, 2009

The website design of online news services may not be a big deal if you keep up with news via feeds from specific sites or from aggregation services, which I do, but I also like to visit particular news sites. One thing that bothers me about some news sites, though, is their layout. I wish they wouldn’t find it necessary to use glitzy, gimmicky designs. If I want show and sparkle, I’ll visit an entertainment site.

HuffingtonPost

Speaking of entertainment sites, I can’t decide if the Huffington Post is news or entertainment. It opens with a large sensational headline/picture combo. Scrolling down you find a cluttered razzle-dazzle three-column layout (in theory nothing wrong with 3 columns–my blog uses three as well. Anyway, I’m just a hometown blogger using a standard WordPress theme).

Left-hand column headlines for featured blog posts get varied colors; until recently, the right-hand column jumped up or down a line every ten seconds! (click images for larger size).

HuffingtonPost2

The comment links below each story periodically flash yellow (shown in the second shot); I’ve seen the entire page background flash yellow momentarily from time to time. Lots of pictures and video, pictures and video. The chaotic hopscotch multicolor design makes the site not only unappealing for finding news, it makes me want to leave as soon as possible.

SignOnSanDiego

Locally, SignOnSandiego (which just rolled out a major site redesign intended to “rock the town” according to an earlier U-T tweet) doesn’t look very newsy when you first reach the page. It presents a selected main story accompanied by a few additional headlines, followed by a popular (and superfluous) technique of embedding a large picture/headline slideshow looping 4 or 5 stories every 8 seconds. The navigation bar at the top has rollover pulldowns to various topics, a technique which provides reasonable coverage. Still, to me the overall layout and commercial focus feels like a billboard. I hope they phase out the recurring nagging popup window asking for feedback.

SignOnSearch

As an aside, SignOn’s search function is seriously broken; a search for “Sanders budget” pulls up nothing for 2009. A search for “San Diego budget” pulls up listings, but the entries listed show incorrect publication dates unless you click through to the article. When I did the search today (Nov 12), the first page of results included 14 entries all dated Nov 12 but a click through to the articles reveals a wide variety of actual publication dates (the Nov 12 date on the search screen entries appears to come from the date you did the search. Other entries show no date at all.

 

Read the rest of this entry »

Posted in Newspapers | Tagged: , , , , , , , , | Leave a Comment »

Water transfer from Imperial to San Diego faces new legal challenges

Posted by George J. Janczyn on November 10, 2009

LowerOtay1small

Lower Otay reservoir and dam

A Superior Court lawsuit filed yesterday (Monday) in Sacramento adds to the pressure from a legal challenge filed last month in federal court over the San Diego/Imperial water transfer agreement, which already has been controversial and subject to previous lawsuits.

In 2003, the San Diego County Water Authority (CWA) signed a water transfer agreement with the Imperial Irrigation District (IID) in order to bolster supplies in the face of increasing demand and disappearing surplus Colorado River water it had relied on. According to SDCWA’s Fact Sheet the transfer started in 2003 at 10,000 acre-feet of water and was intended to eventually move up to 200,000 acre-feet (AF) of water per year to San Diego County, plus another 77,700 AF per year drawn from conserved water that would result from the lining of the All-American and Coachella canals which were losing water to seepage.

The federal lawsuit filed Oct. 9 by the Imperial County Air Pollution Control District and the county of Imperial seeks to stop water transfers until guarantees to meet air quality laws, among other demands, are satisfied. The second lawsuit filed yesterday challenges the water agencies’ legal authority to enter into the deal and also concerns environmental issues. The Metropolitan Water District (MWD) and Coachella Valley Water Department (CVWD) were also parties to the transfer agreement and would be affected by these lawsuits.

SaltonSea10Small

Salton Sea

The environmental concerns relate to reduced agricultural runoff into the Salton Sea which results in a lower water level exposing polluted shoreline soil that dries out and scatters as dust in the wind, harming air quality in the valley. Salton Sea water quality, effect on wildlife, and other environmental concerns are also at issue.

I don’t know how the lawsuits might address opposition from farmers and other residents who fear the effects less water would have on their economic well-being and quality-of-life.

Filing the lawsuit at the federal level adds the involvement of the U.S. Department of the Interior and Bureau of Reclamation as well.

One thing seems sure: with our increasing demand on limited water resources, transfers between agricultural and urban agencies are increasingly attractive, especially when some 80% of California’s water is used by agriculture, and much of that is invested in high water use crops like alfalfa, rice, and cotton–not necessarily the best economic use for the water–and Colorado River surplus water that we previously had temporary access to is no longer surplus. Indeed, another transfer for San Diego is underway: CWA is aquiring 20,000 AF from Placer County near Sacramento under an existing one-year agreement. Perhaps such transfers will give us needed time to exercise more restraint in urban expansion and population growth without having to resort to more drastic rationing measures. I hope so.

[Two links added Nov 12]

Former IID director, Imperial County supervisor clash over QSA suit
http://www.ivpressonline.com/articles/2009/11/12/local_news/news04.txt

A Reader Writes: Wrong lawsuit, wrong valley
http://www.ivpressonline.com/articles/2009/11/12/our_opinion/ed01_11-12-09.txt

—————————————————–
Additional information sources:

Mydesert.com announcement of lawsuit
http://www.mydesert.com/article/20091109/NEWS0701/911090308/1006/news01

Colorado River Water Transfer Agreement
http://www.sdcwa.org/manage/pdf/WaterTransfer.pdf

CWA documentation on the QSA (aka Colorado River Quantification Settlement Agreement)
http://www.sdcwa.org/manage/mwd-QSA.phtml

IID documentation on the QSA
http://www.iid.com/Water/QSAWaterTransfer

CVWD documentation on the QSA
http://www.cvwd.org/search.php?cx=002342321204791076250%3Al4cbqu3ehrk&cof=FORID%3A11&q=qsa&x=0&y=0#1155

Why the county is in court / Antonio Rossman, reader viewpoint, in IVPressOnline
http://www.ivpressonline.com/articles/2009/11/07/our_opinion/ed01_11-07-09.txt

Imperial County, Air Pollution Control District’s federal lawsuit challenges Imperial Irrigation District water transfer / David Steffen in IVPressOnline
http://www.ivpressonline.com/articles/2009/10/17/local_news/news03.txt

More lawsuits, more money / Opinion, IVPressOnline
http://www.ivpressonline.com/articles/2009/10/20/our_opinion/ed02-10-20-09.txt

Bruvold: the professor’s off a bit / VoiceOfSanDiego
http://www.voiceofsandiego.org/articles/2009/10/27/cafesandiego/593bruvoldii102609.txt

UC 2003 report on controversy surrounding the agreement
http://igs.berkeley.edu/library/htImperialWaterTransfer2003.html

Salton Sea Ecosystem Restoration Program Environmental Impact Report
http://www.saltonsea.water.ca.gov/PEIR/

Salton Sea Coalition report
http://saltonseacoalition.org/pages/thesaltonsea.cgi

California Resources Agency report on Salton Sea ecosystem restoration
http://www.saltonsea.water.ca.gov/docs/AQFact.pdf

Posted in Environment, Land use, Politics, Water | Tagged: , , , , | Leave a Comment »

Del Cerro fire mop-up

Posted by George J. Janczyn on November 8, 2009

This morning a fire crew is working on hot spots still smouldering at the location of the fire at Adobe Falls in Del Cerro that started around 4pm yesterday. Adobe Falls is a waterfall on Alvarado Creek running through a rugged canyon in Del Cerro just north of SDSU.

Here’s a link to yesterday’s U-T item on the fire. This morning’s printed edition has an updated story “Fire copters drop gel on canyon blaze” but at the time of my writing it’s not available on their website.

At the nearby Camino Rico fire station, a crew member told me that the cause wasn’t known yet, but said “it’s a good guess it was started by urban campers” possibly cooking up an evening meal. He said this is a common problem in San Diego’s canyons.

Mar 19, 2010: La Mesa man charged with arson in brush fire / San Diego Union-Tribune

A resident who lives on Adobe Falls Pl. told me he felt frightened and sick as the fire burned up the steep slope and came within 50 feet of his home while he washed his roof down with a garden hose and waited almost 20 minutes before he saw firefighters. Fortunately, several large trees on his property which slopes down to the creek did not burn. He told me his neighbor, several doors away, suffered damage to his roof, even though it was fire-resistant Spanish tile, because flying embers worked underneath the tiles.

I’ve written before about Adobe Falls and Alvarado Creek .

I took these pictures from SDSU across the freeway to the south. The resident allowed me to take a picture of the falls from his back yard. Click pictures to enlarge.

FireNov7b

FireNov7

FireNov7c

FireNov7f

FireNov7e

Posted in Environment | Tagged: , , | Leave a Comment »

Friday spot check: Ocean Beach, Point Loma

Posted by George J. Janczyn on November 6, 2009

There was no surf to speak of this morning though they’re predicting it will build later today and tomorrow. So just a little sightseeing. The Army Corps of Engineers is repairing the OB jetty and replacing its light beacon due to storm damage over the years. They’ll also dredge the channel into Mission Bay. The OB Rag wonders whether the surf will be affected – and has an interesting account of the history behind the jetty. I got the close-up of the crane a few weeks ago when they were preparing to move it to its current position. At Point Loma the tidepools weren’t visible because of high tide, and the combination of clouds and haze made for an average view. I did catch a Navy submarine heading out to sea. Click small pics for enlargements.

OBmorning

WaitingForWaves

OBSmallMedium

OBJettyWork

CraneDetail

NearTidePools

PLNazareneBluff

TidePools

Sub

 

CoronadoDowntownCowlesMt

Click here to see the entire Friday Spot Check series.

 

Posted in Environment, Friday spot check, Surfing, Water | Tagged: , | 1 Comment »

Getting our values around copyright right

Posted by George J. Janczyn on November 5, 2009

I think everyone would benefit from and enjoy watching this presentation that Lawrence Lessig gave this morning at the Educause 2009 conference. He illustrates how the extreme application of copyright to all aspects of our lives corrupts the rule of law in a democratic society, and promotes the Creative Commons approach to a legal infrastructure for avoiding the damage to science, education, and culture inflicted by copyright.

LessigCopyrightTalk

Click the picture above to see the video. Lessig’s talk begins at minute 35 26, just use the time slide control to bypass earlier talks.

Lessig is the Director, Edward J. Safra Foundation Center for Ethics, and Professor of Law at Harvard University

Posted in Internet, Politics, Technology | Tagged: , , | Leave a Comment »

Changes at North County Times

Posted by George J. Janczyn on November 5, 2009

I’m a little wary now about the North County Times.

On Tuesday, after the workshop held by the California Department of Water Resources which wrapped up at 1pm, I took the trolley home, wrote down some highlights, and posted them here at about 4:45pm.

After posting, I decided to check if any reports from local media had appeared. Nothing so far…except one, from the North County Times. I took a look at it and as far as it went, it certainly appeared consistent with what I heard. What caught my eye was the timestamp on the post: 12:20pm, forty minutes before the workshop had concluded.

Well, that was enough to make me pause. Normally, I like to make links to local media reports on topics I’m writing about but I did not do so this time. My reason was that it would have to be a progress report and not an account of the entire event, unless it was actually published later and something is screwy with their server’s time. I even tweeted about the curious timestamp.

Well, today I checked back and the original story is gone; in its place is a new story (and I’m pretty sure a different headline, but I didn’t think to make a copy for comparison) with a new timestamp of 8:20pm. And further, in the first paragraph, an error was introduced: the workshop is now said to have occurred on Monday! This time I grabbed a screenshot.

NCTimesWater

So, I’m still not going to link to it. But it sure brings home to me an issue that has been widely discussed already, that being the (quiet or not) revision of online news stories. While that’s a topic well-covered already elsewhere, I will say here that I believe when changes to stories must be made, they should either be done via a separate new story (with links between the two stories) or else it should be explicitly clear in the revised story where the changes were made. I don’t think it’s enough just to generically write “updated” at the bottom of the story.

Posted in Newspapers | Tagged: | Leave a Comment »

California’s new water legislation passes

Posted by George J. Janczyn on November 4, 2009

The California Legislature approved today a package of legislation that aims to make long-term improvements in statewide water management and water supply reliability.

If you’re interested in learning more about it, Aquafornia is the place to go for comprehensive California water news.

For the San Diego angle on the legislation, Rob Davis is on top of things with a good summary posted in the Voice of San Diego.

Other local coverage: the U-T has an AP wire report, KPBS has a short blurb, and the San Diego County Water Authority has a press release.

Posted in Environment, Politics, Water | Tagged: | Leave a Comment »

Desalination plant in Carlsbad

Posted by George J. Janczyn on November 4, 2009

Construction to begin at the Poseidon desalination plant in Carlsbad:

But despite initially saying it will pay all costs, Poseidon wants public funding for the project:

Updates added after posting

Posted in Environment, Water | Tagged: , , | Leave a Comment »

Winter precipitation outlook for San Diego and California

Posted by George J. Janczyn on November 3, 2009

I attended a California Department of Water Resources workshop in downtown San Diego this morning to hear a report on the outlook for water supply conditions for the 2010 rainy season. I’m sure there will be more detailed reports by media water analysts by tomorrow, but here are a few highlights:

  • Latest data on El Nino show it may be dramatically strengthening. If the new trend continues, it could translate into wetter weather for San Diego

  • The big October rain event was not related to El Nino, but rather was due to a moisture plume (“river”) that was injected into the atmosphere by a typhoon in the western Pacific and carried towards California via jet stream and pressure systems (a “pineapple express” effect)

  • The October rain event has probably recharged ground moisture enough that if we get good precipitation from here on, it won’t be absorbed as much and stream runoff will be much better, which translates into more water for reservoirs.

  • Winter snow is preferable to spring rains as snow provides more predictable stream runoff in the spring which can be more readily managed

  • Unusually cold weather recently in the midwest does not support a conclusion that climate warming is not occurring

  • Preparations must continue for protecting areas damaged by wildfires with increased possibility of flash flooding and debris flows

  • Looking at the long historical record, effects from El Ninos are becoming less predictable

  • It is becoming more popular in the media to blame precipitation events (or non-events) on climate change rather than El Nino (brings this caution to mind)

  • Overall consensus: guarded optimism that we’ll have reasonably good precipitation over the coming rainy season

 

[Nov 4: updated with breaking news reports]

 

Posted in Environment, Water | Tagged: | Leave a Comment »

Good morning in San Diego…

Posted by George J. Janczyn on November 2, 2009

Downtown2 Downtown

 

The large building complex is SDSU (click photos above to enlarge)

…and a nice evening too

Sunset

Posted in Miscellaneous | Tagged: | Leave a Comment »

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