(The Conversation is an independent and nonprofit source of news, analysis and commentary from academic experts.)

(THE CONVERSATION) In today’s electronic age, rechargeable lithium-ion batteries are ubiquitous. Compared with the lead-acid versions that have dominated the battery market for decades, lithium-ion batteries can charge faster and store more energy for the same amount of weight.

These devices make our electronic gadgets and electric cars lighter and longer-lasting – but they also have disadvantages. They contain a lot of energy, and if they catch fire, they burn until all of that stored energy is released. A sudden release of huge amounts of energy can lead to explosions that threaten lives and property.

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As scientists who study energy generation, storage and conversion, and automotive engineering, we have a strong interest in the development of batteries that are energy-dense and safe. And we see encouraging signs that battery manufacturers are making progress toward solving this significant technical problem.

Urban transportation is undergoing a transformative shift toward electrification. As concerns grow in cities around the world about climate change and air quality, electric vehicles have taken center stage.

At the same time, e-bikes and electric scooters are transforming urban transit by providing convenient, low-carbon ways to navigate crowded streets and reduce traffic congestion. From 2010 through 2022, shared e-bikes and e-scooters – those owned by rental networks – accounted for more than half a billion trips in U.S. cities. Privately owned e-bikes add to that total: In 2021, more than 880,000 e-bikes were sold in the U.S., compared with 608,000 electric cars and trucks.

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Battery-powered vehicles account for a small share of car fires, but controlling EV fires is difficult. Typically, an EV fire burns at roughly 5,000 degrees Fahrenheit (2,760 Celsius), while a gasoline-powered vehicle on fire burns at 1,500 F (815 C). It takes about 2,000 gallons of water to extinguish a burning gasoline-powered vehicle; putting out an EV fire can take 10 times more.

This is a major concern in large cities where electric vehicles are popular. Fire departments in New York City and San Francisco report handling more than 660 fires involving lithium-ion batteries since 2019. In New York City, these fires caused 12 deaths and more than 260 injuries from 2021 through early 2023. Clearly, there is a need for safer handling and charging practices, as well as technical improvements to batteries.

To understand lithium-ion battery fires, it’s important to know some basics. A battery holds chemicals that contain energy, with a separator between its positive and negative electrodes. It works by converting this energy into electricity.

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The two electrodes in a battery are surrounded by an electrolyte – a substance that allows an electrical charge to flow between the two terminals. In a lithium-ion battery, for example, lithium ions carry the electric charge. When a device is connected to a battery, chemical reactions take place on the electrodes and create a flow of electrons in the external circuit that powers the device.

Cellphones and digital cameras can operate on a single battery, but an electric car needs much more energy and power. Depending on its design, an EV may contain dozens to thousands of single batteries, which are known as cells. Cells are clustered together in sets called modules, which in turn are assembled together in packs. A standard EV will contain one large battery pack with many cells inside it.

What causes battery fires

Typically, a battery fire starts in a single cell inside a larger battery pack. There are three main reasons for a battery to ignite: mechanical harm, such as crushing or penetration when vehicles collide; electrical harm from an external or internal short circuit; or overheating.

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Battery short circuits may be caused by faulty external handling or unwanted chemical reactions within the battery cell. When lithium-ion batteries are charged too quickly, chemical reactions can produce very sharp lithium needles called dendrites on the battery’s anode – the electrode with a negative charge. Eventually, they penetrate the separator and reach the other electrode, short-circuiting the battery internally.

Such short circuits heat the battery cell to over 212 F (100 C). The battery’s temperature rises slowly at first and then all at once, spiking to its peak temperature in about one second.

Another factor that makes lithium-ion battery fires challenging to handle is oxygen generation. When the metal oxides in a battery’s cathode, or positively charged electrode, are heated, they decompose and release oxygen gas. Fires need oxygen to burn, so a battery that can create oxygen can sustain a fire.

Because of the electrolyte’s nature, a 20% increase in a lithium-ion battery’s temperature causes some unwanted chemical reactions to occur much faster, which releases excessive heat. This excess heat increases the battery temperature, which in turn speeds up the reactions. The increased battery temperature increases the reaction rate, creating a process called thermal runaway. When this happens, the temperature in a battery can rise from 212 F (100 C) to 1,800 F (1000 C) in a second.

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Managing the thermal runaway problem

Methods to ensure battery safety can focus on conditions outside or inside of the battery. External protection typically involves using electronic devices, like temperature sensors and pressure valves, to ensure that the battery isn’t subjected to heat or force that could cause an accident.

However, these mechanisms make the battery larger and heavier, which can reduce the performance of the device it powers. And they may not be reliable under extreme temperatures or pressures, such as those produced in a car crash.

Internal protection strategies focus on using intrinsically safe materials for battery components. This approach offers an opportunity to address potential hazards at their source.

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Another solution is already in use: battery management systems. These are hardware and software packages built into battery packs that can monitor vital battery parameters, such as the state of charge, internal pressure and the temperature of the cells in the battery pack.

Just as a physician uses a patient’s symptoms to diagnose and treat their illness, battery management systems can diagnose conditions within the battery pack and make autonomous decisions to shut off batteries with hot spots, or to alter the load distribution so that any individual battery does not get too hot.

Battery chemistries are evolving rapidly, so new designs will require new battery management systems. Many battery producers are forming partnerships that bring together manufacturers with complementary battery expertise to tackle this challenge.

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Users can also take steps to maximize safety. Use manufacturer-recommended charging equipment and outlets, and avoid overcharging or leaving an EV plugged in overnight. Inspect the battery regularly for signs of damage or overheating. Park the vehicle away from extremely hot or cold surroundings – for example, park in shade during heat waves – to prevent thermal stress on the battery.

Finally, in the event of a collision or accident involving an EV, follow the manufacturer’s safety protocols and disconnect the battery if possible to minimize the risk of fire or electrocution.

The post Lithium-ion battery fires are a rising public security concern − this is find out how to cut back the danger appeared first on DAILY SAN FRANCISCO BAY NEWS.

Thursday a Cruise robotaxi drove through a green light in front of an oncoming firetruck “with its forward facing red lights and siren on, the San Francisco Police Department said in a statement to Reuters.” The San Francisco Chronicle adds that the Cruise vehicle’s passenger “passenger was treated on the scene and shared taken in an ambulance to a hospital, though the company said the injuries were ‘non-severe.’ The company added in an email to the Chronicle that the passenger was on the scene walking around and talking to emergency responders before being taken to the hospital.”

By Friday California’s Department of Motor Vehicles said it was investigating the “concerning incidents,” according to TechCrunch. But it adds that the AV-regulating agency also “called for Cruise to reduce its fleet by 50% and have no more than 50 driverless vehicles in operation during the day and 150 driverless vehicles in operation at night until the investigation is complete.

Cruise told TechCrunch it is complying with the request. Cruise also issued a blog post giving the company’s perspective of how and why the crash occurred.
Cruise’s blog post points out the firetruck was unexpectedly in the oncoming lane of traffic that night. But meanwhile, elsewhere in the city…

The same night, a Cruise car collided with another vehicle at 26th and Mission streets. The company said another driverless car, which had no passengers, entered the intersection on a green light when another car ran a red light at high speed. The driverless car detected the other car and braked, according to Cruise, but the two cars still collided…

The collisions came a day after city officials asked state regulators to halt their approval of robotaxi companies’ unrestricted commercial expansion in the city, citing concerns about how the robotaxis’ behavior impacts emergency responders.
Last weekend Cruise was also criticized after “as many as 10 Cruise driverless taxis blocked two narrow streets,” reports the Los Angeles Times:

Human-driven cars sat stuck behind and in between the robotaxis, which might as well have been boulders: no one knew how to move them…. The cars sat motionless with parking lights flashing for 15 minutes, then woke up and moved on, witnesses said.
Cruise “blamed cellphone carriers for the problem,” according to the article — arguing that a music festival overloaded the cellphone network they used to communicate with their vehicles.

Thanks to Slashdot reader jjslash for sharing the story.

The post After Firetruck Crash, California Tells Cruise to Scale back Robotaxi Fleet by 50% in San Francisco appeared first on DAILY SAN FRANCISCO BAY NEWS.

President Biden’s Bipartisan Infrastructure Law expanded the eligibility of WIIN funding to include remediating lead in water that children drink, in addition to testing and compliance monitoring

July 24, 2023

SAN FRANCISCO – Today, at an event in Boston, Massachusetts, U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) Assistant Administrator for Water Radhika Fox and EPA New England Regional Administrator David W. Cash, along with U.S. Senator Elizabeth Warren and U.S. Representative Katherine Clark, announced $58 million in grant funding from President Biden’s Investing in America agenda to protect children from lead in drinking water at schools and childcare facilities across the country, including $5,372,000 for California. Thanks to the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law, activities that remove sources of lead in drinking water are now, for the first time, eligible to receive funding through the Water Infrastructure Improvements for the Nation Act (WIIN). This grant funding, which is provided to states, territories, and Tribes, advances the Biden-Harris Administration’s Lead Pipe and Paint Action Plan and unprecedented commitment to delivering clean water for all communities, especially historically marginalized and low-income communities.       

“Reducing lead in drinking water is a top priority for the Biden-Harris Administration and the EPA. We are taking a holistic approach to tackling this critical public health issue in California,” said EPA Pacific Southwest Regional Administrator Martha Guzman. “By harmonizing regulations with historic infrastructure investments under the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law, while also providing technical assistance to disadvantaged communities, EPA is taking bold action to protect all our children from lead in drinking water.” 

EPA is also releasing a revised grant implementation document that outlines new authority provided by the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law to fund activities that remove sources of lead in drinking water. The Voluntary School and Child Care Lead Testing and Reduction Grant Program funds voluntary lead testing, compliance monitoring, and for the first-time, lead in drinking water remediation projects. Lead remediation actions may include but are not limited to the removal, installation, and replacement of internal plumbing, lead pipes or lead connectors, faucets, water fountains, water filler stations, point-of-use devices, and other lead-free apparatus related to drinking water. 

The grant funding announced today is provided to states, territories, and Tribes through the WIIN. The grant program requires the use of guidance from EPA’s 3Ts (Training, Testing, and Taking Action) Program to support schools and childcare facilities in making progress on reducing lead in drinking water. Tools and resources from the 3Ts Program help states, territories, and Tribes provide technical assistance and take action to support the health and safety of children in early care and education settings. The program also helps advance President Biden’s Justice40 Initiative, which is helping address environmental injustice by ensuring that the benefits of federal investments in clean water, clean energy, and other programs reach communities that are marginalized, underserved, and overburdened by pollution. 

Today’s announcement advances the goals of the Biden-Harris Administration’s Lead Pipe and Paint Action Plan and EPA’s Strategy to Reduce Lead Exposures and Disparities in U.S. Communities. Under these initiatives, EPA is developing the Lead and Copper Rule Improvements to strengthen the Agency’s regulatory framework. EPA intends to propose requirements that, along with other actions, would result in the replacement of all lead service lines as quickly as is feasible. EPA is also investing $15 billion in Bipartisan Infrastructure Law funding to remove lead service lines. In addition to the dedicated funding for lead service line removal, the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law provides another $11.7 billion in general funding through the Drinking Water State Revolving Fund that can also be utilized for lead removal projects. 

Learn more about the Biden-Harris Administration’s Lead Pipe and Paint Action Plan and EPA’s Strategy to Reduce Lead Exposures and Disparities in U.S. Communities.

Background 

President Biden’s Bipartisan Infrastructure Law is dedicating an unprecedented $15 billion to removing lead from drinking water. The Voluntary School and Childcare Lead Testing and Reduction Grant Program complements these funds to further reduce lead in drinking water. Under this grant, EPA allocates funds to eligible states and territories based on a formula that includes factors for population, disadvantaged communities, and lead exposure risk. For more information, visit: WIIN Grant: Voluntary School and Child Care Lead Testing and Reduction Grant Program.

Learn more about EPA’s Pacific Southwest Region. Connect with us on Facebook and on Twitter.

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Governor Kathy Hochul and Mayor Eric Adams announced Tuesday that the New York City Housing Authority (NYCHA) will get a planned $70 million initial investment for the development and production of 30,000 new heat pump units throughout their public housing facilities that will bring advanced heating and cooling technologies while reducing greenhouse gas emissions.

The funding is part of the Clean Heat for All Challenge, an initiative spearheaded by the NYCHA, the New York Power Authority (NYPA), and New York State Energy Research and Development Authority (NYSERDA) to develop a new electrification product that can better serve the heating and cooling needs of existing multifamily buildings and hasten the transition to fossil-free heating sources.

The funding was awarded through two seven-year contracts to Midea America and Gradient for the development and delivery of cold climate packaged window heat pump units.

“New York is tackling the climate crisis and the need for affordable housing head on, and today we’re taking additional action through a transformative $70 million investment,” Hochul said. “Prioritizing green investments in public housing ensures the State’s bold climate agenda is equitable – benefiting all New Yorkers now and for decades to come. All NYCHA residents deserve high quality homes and New York will continue to take aggressive measures to help ensure residents have the safe, livable, and quality affordable housing they deserve.”

Mayor Adams said his administration is laser-focused on providing safe, high-quality, affordable housing for all New Yorkers, and the initiative delivers on his commitment through the housing blueprint that he previously released.

“We understand better than ever that our city’s most pressing crises are interconnected, but the solutions can be too. I am so proud to be partnering with Governor Hochul to deliver top-of-the-line technology for NYCHA residents to heat and cool their homes while also reducing our carbon footprint and helping to protect New Yorkers from health issues like asthma,” Adams said .

Over the next year, NYPA will coordinate with Midea America and Gradient to develop the proposed heat pump technology for testing and demonstration. NYPA will then collaborate with NYCHA to install 60 of the developed units in designated public housing to be comprehensively monitored and assessed over the course of a winter season before moving forward with the widespread installation of 30,000 units throughout the following years.

The heat pump units developed to meet the Clean Heat for All Challenge will enable rapid, low-cost electrification of space heating in multifamily buildings by reducing or eliminating many of the cost drivers inherent to installing existing heat pump technologies in resident occupied apartments, including electrical system upgrades, lengthy refrigerant piping and through-wall drilling and penetrations.

“The lack of an efficient and affordable solution for electric heating and cooling remains one of the primary hurdles for meaningfully reducing our carbon emissions footprint, especially for many of the tall residential buildings that comprise our portfolio,” said NYCHA Chair & CEO Greg Russ. “This innovative public-private partnership helps move NYCHA towards a low-carbon future, by bringing the promising technology of beneficial electrification to the largest public housing authority in the United States.”

Midea America, which was awarded a contract for 20,000 units, is a global appliance manufacturer founded in 1968 with headquarters in China and the US, 11 factories around the globe, and annual output of 67 million units. They are a market leader in room air conditioning with a line of Energy Star rated window ACs, dehumidifiers and other packaged ACs.

Founded in 2015, Gradient is a startup based in San Francisco, California that was awarded a contract to manufacture 10,000 units. The proposed unit will be a cold climate heat pump capable of operating at low temperatures based on NYCHA’s specifications. The company intends to manufacture the product domestically in the United States.

The post NYCHA to get superior HVAC system to cut back greenhouse fuel appeared first on DAILY SAN FRANCISCO BAY NEWS.

When the COVID-19 pandemic hit, many hospitals struggled to find negative pressure rooms approved by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) for the sudden influx of COVID-19 patients. However, many hospital systems had a very limited number of negative pressure rooms (Table). One of the main considerations was the recirculation of air. If the air used is not 100% outside air, would the air being recirculated transport viral-containing particles from one patient room to the next?

A recent study, “Requirements to Reduce Viral Pathogen Transmission in Health Care HVAC Systems,” presented at the Society for Healthcare Epidemiology of America (SHEA) Spring conference, held April 12-14 in Colorado Springs, Colorado, explained that the viral-containing Particles can be transported through the HVAC system even with high efficiency particulate air (HEPA) filters. The study was presented by Werner Bischoff, MD, MS, PHD, MS, the medical director of infection prevention and health system epidemiology at the Atrium Health Wake Forest Baptist Hospital System and a professor at Wake Forest School of Medicine.

“CDC sets [a limited] risk of transmission of pathogens that are emitted from one patient inside a patient room that is then transferred through a heating, ventilation, and air conditioning (HVAC) system back to maybe an adjacent patient room or an entire unit,” Bishoff told Infection Control Today ® (ICT®) in an exclusive interview. “What you don’t want is to have a tone of transmissions and in a very closed-up area through the HVAC system.”

For the first time, this study demonstrates that “viral containing particles can be transported via a hospital HVAC system from one patient room to the next,” Bishoff wrote in the study. “Taking into account the loss of virus within the HVAC system, the combination of MERV8+MERV16 filters reduces the virus burden reaching an adjacent room to levels well below the human infectious dosages for influenza and other highly infective viruses. Our findings indicate that MERV8+MERV16 filters provide protection against virus transmission through HVAC systems and are a cost-conscious alternative to HEPA filters.”

Considering future investigations, Bishoff said to ICT®, “I think it would be nice to look at the more novel technologies that are coming out [like] neurons that are highly promoted, especially by industry—that is ionization…Mechanical ventilation isn’t established [with] These newer technologies, we need a lot more data to say that [air filtration systems] are really safe and do what they promised to do.” Previously, ICT® has reported on this topic here, here, and here.

The post HVAC Programs Show Enough to Cut back Viral Pathogen Transmission Inside a Hospital appeared first on DAILY SAN FRANCISCO BAY NEWS.

Governor Kathy Hochul and Mayor Eric Adams announced Tuesday that the New York City Housing Authority (NYCHA) will get a planned $70 million initial investment for the development and production of 30,000 new heat pump units throughout their public housing facilities that will bring advanced heating and cooling technologies while reducing greenhouse gas emissions.

The funding is part of the Clean Heat for All Challenge, an initiative spearheaded by the NYCHA, the New York Power Authority (NYPA), and New York State Energy Research and Development Authority (NYSERDA) to develop a new electrification product that can better serve the heating and cooling needs of existing multifamily buildings and hasten the transition to fossil-free heating sources.

The funding was awarded through two seven-year contracts to Midea America and Gradient for the development and delivery of cold climate packaged window heat pump units.

“New York is tackling the climate crisis and the need for affordable housing head on, and today we’re taking additional action through a transformative $70 million investment,” Hochul said. “Prioritizing green investments in public housing ensures the State’s bold climate agenda is equitable – benefiting all New Yorkers now and for decades to come. All NYCHA residents deserve high quality homes and New York will continue to take aggressive measures to help ensure residents have the safe, livable, and quality affordable housing they deserve.”

Mayor Adams said his administration is laser-focused on providing safe, high-quality, affordable housing for all New Yorkers, and the initiative delivers on his commitment through the housing blueprint that he previously released.

“We understand better than ever that our city’s most pressing crises are interconnected, but the solutions can be too. I am so proud to be partnering with Governor Hochul to deliver top-of-the-line technology for NYCHA residents to heat and cool their homes while also reducing our carbon footprint and helping to protect New Yorkers from health issues like asthma,” Adams said .

Over the next year, NYPA will coordinate with Midea America and Gradient to develop the proposed heat pump technology for testing and demonstration. NYPA will then collaborate with NYCHA to install 60 of the developed units in designated public housing to be comprehensively monitored and assessed over the course of a winter season before moving forward with the widespread installation of 30,000 units throughout the following years.

The heat pump units developed to meet the Clean Heat for All Challenge will enable rapid, low-cost electrification of space heating in multifamily buildings by reducing or eliminating many of the cost drivers inherent to installing existing heat pump technologies in resident occupied apartments, including electrical system upgrades, lengthy refrigerant piping and through-wall drilling and penetrations.

“The lack of an efficient and affordable solution for electric heating and cooling remains one of the primary hurdles for meaningfully reducing our carbon emissions footprint, especially for many of the tall residential buildings that comprise our portfolio,” said NYCHA Chair & CEO Greg Russ. “This innovative public-private partnership helps move NYCHA towards a low-carbon future, by bringing the promising technology of beneficial electrification to the largest public housing authority in the United States.”

Midea America, which was awarded a contract for 20,000 units, is a global appliance manufacturer founded in 1968 with headquarters in China and the US, 11 factories around the globe, and annual output of 67 million units. They are a market leader in room air conditioning with a line of Energy Star rated window ACs, dehumidifiers and other packaged ACs.

Founded in 2015, Gradient is a startup based in San Francisco, California that was awarded a contract to manufacture 10,000 units. The proposed unit will be a cold climate heat pump capable of operating at low temperatures based on NYCHA’s specifications. The company intends to manufacture the product domestically in the United States.

The post NYCHA to get superior HVAC system to scale back greenhouse gasoline appeared first on DAILY SAN FRANCISCO BAY NEWS.

Friends of the Urban Forest members plant trees along Linden Street in Hayes Valley in 2010.

Friends of the Urban Forest

San Francisco’s urban tree canopy is one of the smallest in the nation — and some fear it’s on the decline. While the reasons for this are myriad and complex, new plantings have struggled to keep pace with removals or mortality rates, reports show, leaving thousands of sidewalk basins barren and treeless.

Trees have also been inequitably distributed across The City, which is all too clear on hot, fogless days when neighborhoods like SoMa and Bayview are degrees warmer than areas with ample canopy cover.

It’s why The City has outlined a goal to plant 30,000 new street trees in the next 20 years as part of a plan to green up underserved communities and reduce The City’s greenhouse gas emissions by using trees to sequester carbon.

But for now, the goal remains just that. Public Works, the agency that manages The City’s street trees, estimates it needs to plant about 4,000 trees a year, including 1,500 new ones and 2,500 replacements, to keep pace. But with limited resources, the agency is struggling to meet these requirements.

“The reality is, we’re not going to meet that goal because of the funding,” said the department’s interim director, Carla Short. “I think we’re sort of trying to still use that as an aspirational goal and still do our best to push for it.”

During the pandemic, Public Works’ tree funding was de-appropriated, and its staff was reassigned to disaster response teams, causing its Bureau of Urban Forestry to cancel equipment orders, freeze hiring and cease maintenance contracts. However, even once that funding was reinstated, the department struggled to get projects back on schedule.

This budget cycle, Mayor London Breed declined to allocate General Fund money to the Department of the Environment, which it requested to fund its climate action plan that includes a chapter on healthy ecosystems. Some say The City’s investment in maintaining the urban forest has also missed the mark.

“We are treading water at best with the funding The City puts toward street tree planting,” said Brian Wiedenmeier, executive director of Friends of the Urban Forest, who expressed disappointment about Breed’s decision to withhold funding from the Department of Environment.

Drought’s great

To complicate matters further, the drought, made more extreme by a warming world, is taking a toll on the city’s trees — and not just those that push their knobby roots into the concrete.

“If you’re talking about street trees, to me, that’s just half the issue,” said Denise Louie, a native plant enthusiast who’s concerned about the fire risk posed by drought-stressed trees in The City’s open spaces, such as the tall stands of Eucalyptus in Glen Canyon near her home.

Warmer, threer conditions mean many more trees require constant watering, another service and investment Public Works and other organizations, like Friends of the Urban Forest, do not have. Short noted that watering alone makes up about three quarters of the cost of a street tree.

“The cost of planting a tree in San Francisco is a lot more expensive than places that have seasonal rains or more consistency in the rains than we do,” she said.

The entire tree population in San Francisco is under increasing pressure from the changing climate at a moment when it’s been enlisted as part of the solution. Because trees suck carbon from the atmosphere, San Francisco’s urban forest is seen as a critical piece of The City’s plan to achieve net-zero emissions by 2040, a goal outlined by the mayor last year.

“Carbon is one of the easiest benefits to see in a tree,” said David Nowak, an emeritus research forester with the US Forest Service. “You can directly see it occurring — as you see a tree grow, it’s sequestering carbon.”

But, he added, “It’s not just about the carbon. By having the forest there, you get multiple other benefits at no cost: You get cooler air temperatures, cleaner air and less flooding because the trees absorb the water … People like the vegetation, and it actually helps improve human health; it reduces noise and (boosts) wildlife.”

While Nowak asserts that both natives like Monterey Cyprus and non-native trees like Blue Gum Eucalyptus can provide such services, Louie argues that the native plants that have adapted to this region over thousands of years are best suited to boost the region’s biodiversity. “We need to appreciate what’s left of our natural heritage,” she said.

Native plant advocates

In general, proponents of native plants want The City to do more to help reestablish the native flora that was here before urbanization.

“San Francisco has taken some strong steps to expand the role of biodiversity in our urban tree selection, but we are still missing the mark,” said Susan Karasoff, a Yerba Buena Plant Society member. “To support our city’s local biodiversity, we need locally appropriate native plants, but fewer than 1% of our current trees are native.”

While Short concedes that most trees going into sidewalks are non-natives, she said she’s proud of the work being done to look for species better suited to hotter, three climates — climates that might become normal for San Francisco.

“I am a big fan of native species. However, they are often not the best choice for the built environment,” said Short, who has a background in conservation ecology. “A Coast Live Oak in a sidewalk is never going to be what it should be. It’s never going to provide the same level of benefits that it could” if planted in an open space.

But native or non-native, trees alone will not be a panacea for a warming world, Nowak said.

“To think that we’re going to plant enough trees in this world to offset all the emissions from the automobiles and fossil fuels we’re burning — I don’t think it’s going to happen. I don’t think it can happen mathematically,” Nowak said. “But I argue this: If I could only plant one tree in the world, I would plant it in an urban area.”

jwolfrom@sfexaminer.com, @jessicawolfrom

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A coalition of more than 30 nonprofit organizations and businesses will launch an effort Wednesday to create housing and shelter projects in San Francisco stocked with drug rehab and other services to help homeless people get off the streets.

The alliance joins a growing number of efforts launched in recent years to reduce homelessness, and comes as the city faces dueling housing and addiction crises and growing frustration over what to do about them.

The coalition, called Urban Vision Alliance, is beginning its push by providing financing and planning support to the Salvation Army as it adds 1,500 beds over the next several years where unhoused people can get stabilized before being routed into permanent housing.

The Salvation Army’s expansion will emphasize transitional housing, particularly for those struggling with substance abuse, so they are clean and sober and employed before moving into homes of their own. This model is geared more toward abstinence from all drugs and medication rather than the more common harm-reduction model used in San Francisco, which aims to quickly place people in permanent supportive housing, where counseling services are on site and residents can undergo drug treatment at their own pace.

This “housing first” approach has long been the accepted standard around the Bay Area.

But with the housing crunch worsening in recent years, there’s been more openness to cheaper transitional housing, which means giving unhoused people temporary places to live while they work on their problems. There’s also been discussion in San Francisco of adding more abstinence-based rehab approaches, despite studies showing they have a greater failure rate than harm reduction, with the idea that all techniques should be available as the city confronts a deadly opioid crisis.

By connecting private, public and nonprofit organizations that might not otherwise team up, the people behind the Urban Vision Alliance coalition think they can generate new strategies to combat all types of homelessness and raise the money to finance a wide range of programs.

“We think we need all approaches including emergency shelter, transitional housing, permanent supportive housing, affordable housing,” said the organization’s CEO Gabriel Baldinucci. “We also think we need different forms of treatment that range from harm reduction for some to abstinence for others. It’s based on the individual needs of a person.

“This all about building a diverse coalition of organizations that can expand different housing types and different program types.”

Baldinucci said the organization has so far assembled $7.8 million in pro bono and discounted services, including architectural help. Most of that is committed to the Salvation Army effort and to another coalition member, DignityMoves, which is developing shelter cabins in San Francisco.

Theo Ellington, director of homeless initiatives at the Salvation Army, said his organization was “proud” to be part of the alliance.

“We definitely need more transitional housing in San Francisco, and I think the tide is turning toward that,” he said. “People are fed up. We need to try different approaches. We can’t let up.”

The Salvation Army’s expansion will be through its year-old Way Out program. And though it emphasizes more of an abstinence form of rehab than the city’s more prevalent harm reduction model — letting people wean off drugs at their own pace, with great flexibility toward relapses — the difference in the program, as with many, is slim.

Steven McCormick, 29, is just finishing a year in the Way Out program that would be expanded with Urban Vision Alliance’s aid, and he said it has given him new life. He is nearly done with suboxone treatment for his fentanyl addiction, working as an attendant at a counseling program for people coming out of incarceration, and planning to go to community college to study graphic design.

One abstinence aspect of the program is the expectation that he is dope-free before he can move into permanent housing. On the other hand, some full-on abstinence rehab programs might not allow medically assisted treatment like the suboxone he’s been taking.

“I’m now looking at housing, and I would have never gotten to this point if I hadn’t gotten clean,” he said. “I think we need more of this kind of program.”

Another member of the coalition is Beyond Homeless, which produced a documentary called “Beyond Homeless: Finding Hope” in 2021 outlining the severity of homelessness in San Francisco and suggesting the wide range of solutions promoted by Urban Vision Alliance.

Mary Theroux, founder of Beyond Homeless and producer of the film, told The Chronicle she wants to get a “groundswell of support” for new approaches, including being more proactive on helping people move out of supportive housing into independence.

“We ought to be helping people in supportive housing to achieve their full potential,” she said. “Some people won’t be able to live without support, but many will. That’s why you need a full range of approaches.”

Urban Vision Alliance will host a panel discussion Wednesday at 5 pm, which can be viewed for free on Zoom, to explain its plans. Among the panelists will be Baldinucci and state Sen. Scott Wiener, D-San Francisco, who is quoted in the Urban Vision Alliance announcement of its push as calling the organization’s approach “exactly the type of community initiative we need to help achieve the important goal of ending street homelessness.”

Kevin Fagan is a San Francisco Chronicle staff writer. Email: kfagan@sfchronicle.com Twitter: @KevinChron

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For bartenders and bouncers in San Francisco nightlife, keeping people safe often means more than just a quick check of ID and vaccination card. It can also mean saving someone from a fatal overdose.

“I was a bartender the other day and our bouncer came over and said he’d saved someone’s life,” said James Shane, who works at Emperor Norton’s BoozeLand in Tenderloin, pointing to a box of naloxone, a drug that prevents opioid overdoses turning back.

Shane was one of eight other bartenders and restaurant owners who recently attended a free naloxone administration training course, also known as narcan, while on the Mission. The 30-minute workshop was led by the Drug Overdose Prevention and Education (DOPE) Project, a program run by the Harm Reduction Coalition that distributes naloxone across the city and is funded by the Department of Public Health (SFDPH).

San Francisco has funded efforts to bring naloxone into the hands of drug users since 2003. However, as the number of overdose deaths has continued to rise since the pandemic, the city has also noted an increased need for life-saving drugs, according to Eileen Loughran, a health program coordinator for the SFDPH.

However, with overdose deaths still at historic highs, city guides are now pushing bold and controversial plans to crack down on drug trafficking and use outdoors. They hope to address parts of the opioid crisis that Narcan cannot alone, including behavioral therapy, housing, community, and more.

Kristen Marshall of Drug Overdose Prevention Education leads a class on how to use Narcan for bartenders and restaurant owners at Mission Bowling Club. (Craig Lee / The Examiner)

More than 6,000 overdoses were reversed in San Francisco in 2021 with naloxone alone, compared to 4,300 the previous year, according to data from the DOPE project and SFDPH. Both years mark a huge leap from 2019, when 2,605 reversals of overdose were reported.

At the same time, overdose deaths reached 545 between January and October, which is close to the 711 total overdose deaths reported in 2020, according to the chief coroner.

“Everything is increasing and it was all very predictable,” says Kristen Marshall, who oversees the DOPE project in San Francisco. “Stronger drugs only increase the existing risk. Add to this COVID and the isolation and chaos of a global pandemic, and it hits the same community that is experiencing these problems the hardest. “

In addition to bars and restaurants that choose to wear it, naloxone is also offered at places like the Community Behavioral Health Services Pharmacy at 1380 Howard St. It is also often worn by first responders in San Francisco, including some law enforcement officers.

Ali Heller (right) of FentCheck speaks to Wine Director Christopher Potter (left) and bartender Alex Duke at Patio Wine Bar in the Marina District about wearing Narcan in their bar. (Craig Lee / The Examiner)

Many places are plagued by the same challenges that San Francisco faces, contributing to addictions and overdose deaths, including unstable housing, food insecurity, and massive economic inequality. But few cities invest in overdose prevention and reversal as much as San Francisco, which operates the largest single-city naloxone distribution program in the country.

San Francisco harm reduction strategies go beyond overdose reversal kits and range from clean syringe access and disposal points to community behavioral health services pharmacy to the city’s newly formed Street Overdose Response Team.

Studies have shown that providing Narcan does not increase drug use or make drug use more risky, and it is not possible to overdose or overdose the drug on your own.

Rather, overdose reversals are often painful and traumatic for those affected. Individuals can wake up confused, disoriented, and angry. Withdrawal can also make you feel sick.

“Coming back from the brink of death isn’t a fun thing. The added stigma of an overdose compounded the negative impact of the experience, ”said Juliana DePietro, assistant program director for Glide, a nonprofit that offers a range of homeless services including harm control, mobile vaccination, medical care, food and social activities.

Still, from a public health perspective, flooding communities with the drug is a critical step simply to save lives. Given the right time and circumstances, it can be a step towards treatment. “A person can only change his life if he lives,” said Loughran.

Reversal to recovery

What happens to those who survive an overdose is now a real-time experiment by city guides who recently announced a plan to tackle drug trafficking and possibly also drug use.

“We are a city that is proud of its second chance,” said Mayor of London Breed at a recent press conference. But “our compassion should not be confused with weakness or indifference”.

On Friday, Breed declared a 90-day state of emergency in the Tenderloin and compared the crisis level with that of the COVID-19 pandemic. The move dispenses with contracting and planning rules so the city can launch a website that aims to connect people to behavioral health services and housing programs.

The announcement follows a plan released last week that will increase the police presence in the tenderloin, requiring users on the street to seek assistance or face jail terms.

“The situation at the tenderloin is an emergency and requires an emergency response,” said Breed. “We will use this focus and coordination to stop the illegal activities in the neighborhood, to give people the treatment and support they need, and to make the Tenderloin a safer and more livable place for families and children who call the neighborhood their home. “

The mayor’s more recent rhetoric contrasts with Breed’s stance in 2020. Last year, she redirected law enforcement funds to support the African American community and launched programs like the Street Crisis Response Team, which began in November 2020 as an alternative to police to respond to mental health and drug use crises on the streets.

It remains to be seen how the different approaches work together. Proponents of harm reduction warn that many struggling with addiction and homelessness have had negative and sometimes violent experiences with social services and hospitals.

But even those who disagree on solutions can often find common ground in the growing need to connect those struggling with addiction to treatment. DePietro says The City’s safe place of consumption can be critical at this point in providing a safe place for drug use as well as immediate connections to medical, social, and rehabilitation services. The idea is to create a controlled space where people can use drugs under the supervision of healthcare professionals, which can reverse overdoses, and connect people to other services that may need them.

“This (safe consumption site) could tackle so many stigma, criminalization and safety issues and just make sure people aren’t punished for their use so that they don’t have to consume in isolation, which is incredibly dangerous. Said DePietro.

Overdose deaths have tragically impacted communities across the city, but the majority in San Francisco are still extremely low-income and unhoused drug users. Poverty initiatives according to Marshall and DePietro.

“The work that is being done to address the overdose crisis is important on so many levels,” DePietro said. “A big part of this is reducing isolation and stigma around drug use, building a community with people who use drugs and providing a safe place to talk to vendors and case managers about anything they are concerned about, and Behavior changes.

Nevertheless, neither the mayor’s lightning bolt in the Tenderloin nor the safe place of consumption will be a panacea for the city’s longstanding tensions over police drug use and homelessness.

“Changes in behavior have to be driven by where a person is,” DePietro said. “This not only relates to the number of treatment beds available, but also to how they have experienced the treatment in the past.”

City of “second chance”

Meanwhile, more and more bars and venues are stocking their emergency kits and bathrooms with naloxone, especially before holidays like New Years Eve.

Mission Bowling Club owner Molly Bradshaw hosted the recent Narcan training workshop in her shop on Monday after someone recently walked in looking for Narcan during an overdose crisis. But the venue was running out of supplies it had before the pandemic.

“I want people to feel comfortable and safe here, or just feel good about asking for help when they need it. We have a wonderful community here and we want to be there for our uninhabited neighbors too, ”said Bradshaw, who has an academic background in public health. “We can’t do everything, but I wanted to know more about it and I feel empowered by it.”

Other efforts, such as a program called FentCheck, have sprung up to offer bars and venues free naloxone and fentanyl test strips that can be used to determine if the opioid is present in a drug supply. Oakland residents Alison Heller and Dean Shold founded the nonprofit after losing friends and loved ones to a drug overdose and are now distributing supplies to dozens of facilities in Oakland, San Francisco and New York City.

“Every day I go to venues and knock on doors and give them a chance to have Narcan,” Heller said recently while walking around the marina, where she asked bar workers if they wanted free supplies. “Bartenders tell me there’s no rule, rhyme or reason for who’s going to get this. Some venues that you might not suspect have that kind of engagement. “

sjohnson@sfexaminer.com

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SAN FRANCISCO (BCN) – In light of arid weather conditions across California, the San Francisco Public Utilities Commission on Thursday urged irrigation customers and city departments to voluntarily reduce their water use by 10 percent.

According to the agency, the SFPUC’s water reservoirs are currently filled to 76.8 percent of their maximum storage capacity – slightly less than the historical average of 81 percent at this time of year.

SFPUC’s water comes from a variety of sources, including Hetch Hetchy Reservoir near Yosemite and five other reservoirs in the Bay Area. It serves around 2.7 million customers across the Bay Area.

“This is the second dry year in a row for the state of California and we must do all we can to get the most out of our water supplies if this trend continues,” Mayor London Breed said in a statement. “San Francisco is a leader in water conservation thanks to our innovative water policy and strong management, but we need to look ahead. The steps we are now taking to use our water wisely will help us become more resilient and weather future dry years. “

According to SFPUC, Franciscans use an average of 42 gallons of water every day, one of the lowest rates in California.

Even so, the SFPUC’s request to its 1,600 irrigation customers, who rely on SFPUC to irrigate their landscapes to reduce their consumption by 10 percent, is to ensure that water in the agency’s reservoirs and aquifers will last during the prolonged dry spell.

“We are fortunate to have multiple sources of water supply, which makes our system more resilient in dry years,” said Michael Carlin, acting general manager of SFPUC. “However, we don’t know how long this dry weather will last. We also want to support our communities as we recover from the devastating effects of this pandemic. Because of this, we are calling for small changes for irrigation customers that can make a big difference in the expansion of our water supply. “

To further encourage customers to use water efficiently, the SFPUC offers free irrigation studies and landscape assessments on site. Grants; and a program that informs customers about possible leaks.

In addition, the agency offers indoor water conversation assistance, including free replacement of old toilets. Discounts for water-saving washing machines and other devices; and individual home and business consultations.

SFPUC customers who pay their bills online can also track their water usage daily or even hourly at www.myaccount.sfwater.org.

For more information about the programs and services offered by SFPUC, residents can visit www.sfpuc.org/savewater.

Copyright © 2021 Bay City News, Inc.

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