Santa Cruz-popular Humble Sea Brewing Co. is making a big move to a new city. The brewery will open its first taproom in San Francisco, taking over a space in the tourist-popular Pier 39 development, SFGATE reports.

The brewery's new location is slated for Pier 39, room N-111-1A, and will open sometime in July, marketing director Lee DeGraw told the outlet. It will be a sprawling 80-seat taproom and plans to partner with a yet-to-be-determined restaurant for the food component. The brewery takes over the former Wines of California Wine Bar, which closed in 2019, and has its own patio.

This move to San Francisco is the latest in a series of expansions for the brewery, which most recently added its fourth taproom location in Alameda Point in May 2023. The brewery also has taprooms in Pacifica and Santa Cruz Wharf, as well as the brewery's flagship location in Santa Cruz. The brewery's Felton location closed in August 2023. The brewery has had its sights set on San Francisco for the past five years, they told SFGATE, and it's an ambitious move for a business that started in owner Nick Pavlina's grandmother's house.

The news comes at a time of turmoil in the San Francisco and Bay Area beer scenes. In July 2023, San Francisco's oldest brewery, Anchor Brewing, ceased production after more than a century of producing its legendary steam beer in the city. New Belgium also closed its massive San Francisco waterfront taproom in February 2023, while popular San Francisco brewery Cellarmaker moved production to the East Bay after acquiring Rare Barrel in 2022.

Sign up for the newsletter

Eater SF

Sign up for our newsletter.

The post Santa Cruz Brewery Humble Sea Is Opening a Taproom at San Francisco’s Pier 39 appeared first on DAILY SAN FRANCISCO BAY NEWS.

SAN FRANCISCO — The Port of San Francisco and the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers are planning on raising the iconic, historic Ferry Building by as much as seven feet.

The daring plan is an attempt to combat the impacts of sea level rise and extreme weather, both triggered by the climate change, and our warming planet.

How the SF Ferry Building will be raised

“We’re already seeing flooding on the Embarcadero. We know that the Bay is rising; we know that it will continue to rise”, explained Port of San Francisco Director Elaine Forbes.

Earlier this year, according to the United Nation-backed International Panel of Climate Change or IPCC for short, the planet is rapidly approaching a catastrophic threshold of heating. NOAA is tracking the melting of glaciers and ice sheets, as well as the rising ocean waters.

“Humanity is on thin ice, and that ice is melting fast,” said Secretary General of the United Nations Antonio Guterres in a recent address.

Port of San Francisco officials have held a series of public meetings with stakeholders along the 7.5 miles of bay coastline under the Port’s control. One neighborhood includes the Ferry Building.

The feedback was clear: those who work and/or live along the Embarcadero waterfront want to see the landmark Ferry Building remain on site and functioning. Currently, it is home to six ferry piers, used by millions of commuters and tourists each year. The Ferry Building also houses 44 different shops and restaurants as well as a world-famous Farmer’s Market.

And less known, it’s 2nd and 3rd floors have 190,000 square feet of offices and meeting spaces.

Port Engineer and member of the Water Resilience Team Steve Reel joined Juliette Goodrich in the CBS News Bay Area Virtual Set and in an exclusive report, demonstrated on how the Port and the U.S. Corps of Engineers are planning on raising the huge landmark.

The project will break ground in about a decade. The U.S. Corps will pick up 65% of the cost.

San Francisco’s Prop A — which was passed by 82.7% of voters in 2018 — authorized $425 million general obligation bonds that will partially fund the Waterfront Resilience Program. That includes funding improvements for earthquake safety of the three-mile long Embarcadero Seawall, near-term flood protection improvements, and planning for other long-term resilience.  

More from CBS News

Juliette Goodrich

Emmy award winning reporter and Bay Area native Juliette Goodrich joined KPIX 5 in 1997 and has performed a variety of anchoring and reporting assignments during her time with the station. She is currently the weekend nighttime anchor.

Read More

The post Port of San Francisco, US Military Corps of Engineers plan to lift landmark Ferry Constructing because of rising sea ranges appeared first on DAILY SAN FRANCISCO BAY NEWS.

Flowers placed at the overlook trail down to Esplanade Beach in Pacifica, Calif., on Friday, Jan. 20, 2023. A San Francisco State University student was swept out to sea Thursday morning while swimming at a beach in Pacifica, according to authorities. (Ray Chavez/Bay Area News Group)

PACIFICA — A San Francisco State University student was swept out to sea Thursday morning while swimming at a beach in Pacifica, according to authorities.

SF State student Hamzah Alsaudi, 22, was reported missing after he went swimming with two friends Jan. 19 at Esplanade Beach in Pacifica. (Courtesy of Pacifica Police) Courtesy of Pacifica Police

Hamzah Alsaudi, 22, a senior who wrestled at the school, had not been found as of Friday afternoon.

The incident was reported around 10:30 a.m. at Esplanade Beach. Alsaudi was swimming with two other people when he was struck by a “large wave and pulled farther away from the shore,” the Pacifica Police Department said in a news release.

Alsaudi’s companions made it back to shore and called 911 for help, police said.

Pacifica police officers and North County Fire Authority firefighters searched the area without success, police said. The U.S. Coast Guard also helped look for the student.

While residents at the nearby Oceanaire Apartment Homes complex said emergency crews were present through the night, there were no search-and-rescue operations visible off the beach around midday Friday and it was not clear if the search would resume. The Coast Guard did not respond to calls for comment.

Pacifica police described Alsaudi, a Santa Monica native, as 6’1” tall, 215 lbs. with brown hair. He was last seen wearing black shorts.

The university issued a statement Friday afternoon:

“Our hearts go out to the family, friends and classmates of beloved student and athlete Hamzah Alsaudi who remains missing following yesterday’s tragic accident. We are grateful to the Coast Guard and the Pacifica Police Department for all they have done. Campus resources are available for the members of our community who need assistance during this difficult time.”

At Manor Beach Friday, a single bouquet of flowers hung from a fence post. Neighbors described an extensive rescue scene the night before, with water, air and ground crews searching the area throughout the night.

Several signs in the vicinity of Manor and Esplanade beaches warned of dangerous rip-current conditions. Surf was high Friday morning, with waves nearly reaching the Manor Beach cliffside.

An ocean-safety page from the California Department of Parks and Recreation warned about swimming in such conditions, saying “large surf, cold water temperatures, backwash, sudden drop-offs, pounding shorebreak, and dangerous rip currents can turn what seem like safe activities such as playing near the surf line, wading, or climbing on rock outcroppings, deadly.”

Swimmers caught in a rip currrent are advised not to fight the current, but to swim out of the current in a direction parallel to the coastline; if they are unable to swim out of the current, they should remain calm and attempt to signal for help.

The post SF State scholar swept out to sea whereas swimming in Pacifica appeared first on DAILY SAN FRANCISCO BAY NEWS.

Walking around Sea Cliff on Halloween night often provided sights such as a family of pumpkins or children dressed as princesses, ninjas, or even ninja princesses.

For years, the bougie neighborhood has drawn in families for Halloween, particularly those with younger kids, thanks to its quiet streets, wide sidewalks and jaw-dropping homes promising full-size candy bars and over-the-top decorations.

“We give out about 1,500 in three hours,” said Gary Bengier, who wore a George Washington costume as he handed out XL Hershey chocolate bars in front of his garage, replete with Halloween decor. “We like to do something fun for the kids.”

But despite the hundreds of kids crowding the sidewalks, the sought-after full-size candy bars from wealthy homeowners appeared in short supply—with many children’s bags surprisingly limp as the night drew to a close. 

Families trick-or-treat in the Sea Cliff neighborhood in San Francisco on Halloween night on Tuesday. | Source: Garrett Leahy/The Standard

Along El Camino Del Mar, one of the more popular Sea Cliff streets with trick-or-treaters, homes decorated for Halloween were sparse, and groups of kids often passed several houses between stops for more candy, rather than going house-to-house in a continuous trick-or-treating spree.

Many homes had no decorations at all, and no lights came on inside them during the three hours The Standard spent in the neighborhood until 7:30 p.m.

“It used to be more decorations,” said 27-year Sea Cliff resident Kayda Ono alongside her 17-year-old son, Aiden, who was dressed as Aladdin. “When he was 5 years old, it was all the houses.”

‘A Robin Williams Effect‘

Multiple homeowners and locals said the Sea Cliff neighborhood’s Halloween celebrations had begun to slowly die down since the death of Robin Williams in 2014.

“There was definitely a Robin Williams effect,” said Andy McLaughlin, who has lived on Sea Cliff Avenue since 2010.

Families trick-or-treat in the Sea Cliff neighborhood in San Francisco on Halloween night on Tuesday. | Source: Garrett Leahy/The Standard

When McLaughlin moved in with his family, he said they would get around 900 kids every Halloween, with children lining up from their door to the sidewalk. This Halloween was different, even with at least six homes on her street giving out candy.

“This is the quietest night we had in 10 years, even with Covid,” Andy’s wife, Kendra McLaughlin, said.

The McLaughlin’s Sea Cliff home was richly decorated for Halloween on Tuesday. | Source: Garrett Leahy/The Standard

Others agreed with the sentiment that Williams’ death coincided with the decline in spookiness around Sea Cliff.

“Really, I think it was his passing that changed things,” Outer Richmond resident Donovan Truong said as his niece, Zoe, clambered into a stroller while clad in a pink tutu and plastic faux-diamond tiara. Truong said he was born and raised in the Richmond District and would trick-or-treat every year in Sea Cliff. “You’d look around and see all these houses without the lights on.”

Williams would give out glowstick necklaces instead of candy for Halloween, multiple residents said. 

Robin Williams’ former Sea Cliff home at 540 El Camino Del Mar is up for sale at a price of $25 million. | Source: Garrett Leahy/The Standard

“One year, he gave out toothbrushes too,” Sea Cliff resident Thatcher Davis said. “We thought it was hilarious, but the kids hated it.”

Williams’ former Sea Cliff home is currently up for sale at an asking price of $25 million.

Aging Owners, ‘Vacant’ Homes

Other Sea Cliff residents seemed to think part of the issue was that many of the longtime neighborhood residents grew older and could no longer physically hand out candy for hours on Halloween.

“It used to be the destination when Robin Williams was around,” said Craig Fong, who has lived on El Camino Del Mar for 22 years. “We’ve seen the residents aging, so they don’t participate anymore.”

Many of Sea Cliff’s homes are vacant or used as vacation homes by the wealthy, neighbors also told The Standard.

Families trick-or-treat in the Sea Cliff neighborhood in San Francisco on Halloween night on Tuesday. | Source: Garrett Leahy/The Standard

“This neighborhood used to be really popular for Halloween,” said Davis, who has lived on El Camino Del Mar for 15 years. “But, unfortunately, a lot of the homes are empty, or you have older people who aren’t comfortable giving out candy.” 

The Standard could not independently corroborate the neighbor’s claims the homes were empty. Locals said they knew which homes were vacant due to their long-standing presence in the neighborhood.

“I know because I live here,” said Michelle Molfino, who has lived in Sea Cliff for 20 years. “If you walk up Sea Cliff Avenue, there’s a bunch of vacant homes.”

Sea Cliff resident Michelle Molfino stands on El Camino Del Mar dressed for Halloween on Tuesday. | Source: Garrett Leahy/The Standard

The city will start a new vacant homes tax in January 2024 after voters approved it in the Nov. 8, 2022, election. The Empty Homes Tax would apply to homeowners with homes containing three or more housing units. 

Those subject to the tax would owe between $2,500 and $5,000 per vacant unit in the first year with the tax rising up to $20,000 by the third year for every unit that has been empty for longer than six months. Units exempted from the tax include single-family homes, duplexes and units under construction, among other exemptions. Filing and payment will begin for most people in 2025. 

But some locals think Sea Cliff is just in a spooky rut. Kendra thinks Sea Cliff Avenue is on the upswing as a Halloween destination.

“We’ve had some younger families moving in,” McLaughlin said. “I think in the next few years, it’ll really pick up more.”

The post San Francisco’s Sea Cliff Halloween Flops, ‘Vacant’ Houses Lack Decorations appeared first on DAILY SAN FRANCISCO BAY NEWS.

Amid dramatic ocean waves and flooding atmospheric flows, a new report uncovers a hidden aspect of sea-level rise that has exacerbated Bay Area flooding.

The report, released on Tuesday, maps areas that could be inundated by groundwater that is just a few feet or even centimeters below the ground. This layer of water is pushed up as denser water from the ocean moves inland due to rising tides. On its way up, before the water breaks the surface, it can seep into basement cracks, infiltrate plumbing, or, even more insidiously, remobilize toxic chemicals buried underground.

Communities that consider themselves “safe” from sea-level rise may need to think differently, said Kris May, lead author of the report and founder of the Pathways Climate Institute, a research-based consultancy in San Francisco that helps cities adapt to climate change .

“I started looking at sea level rise, then I’m exposed to extreme rainfall, and then to groundwater … but it’s all connected,” May said. She noted that hotspots where the ground is already exposed to rising groundwater flooding was among the first to occur when a series of atmospheric flows recently brought record rainfall to California: “These giant storms illustrate the magnitude of the risk.”

The new findings are the result of an unprecedented collaborative effort by May, the San Francisco Estuary Institute (SFEI), UC Berkeley and a broad-based team including regulators, building officials and flood protection agencies to find out where groundwater is located along the bay’s shoreline is close to the surface or is already breaking off. A series of searchable maps available to the public online shows Alameda, Marin, San Francisco and San Mateo counties — the first of many jurisdictions researchers hope will undergo this intense data refinement process.

In this screenshot of the interactive map released Tuesday, the purple areas show where groundwater has already appeared in Marin City and Sausalito. Red and orange indicate where groundwater is within 6 feet of the surface.

(SFEI/Pathways Climate Institute)

The maps are based on a new but growing body of research. In 2020, another study conducted by the US Geological Survey laid the groundwork for this problem along California’s 1,200 miles of coastline, and state toxin control officials have since begun their own mapping efforts to better understand how rising groundwater is affecting contaminated land could.

Similar research into vulnerable communities in Southern California is also currently underway by a team led by Cal State Long Beach and Cal State Northridge.

This emerging risk of flooding raises many difficult questions, but the data to date make it clear that urgent action is needed.

“We really need to focus on where pollutants might be mobilized by rising groundwater because that could have an immediate impact on a six-year-old, a pregnant woman, or someone whose immune system is particularly vulnerable,” said Kristina Hill, a UC Berkeley researcher. who is particularly concerned about underserved communities like Marin City and historically industrial areas like East Oakland, where much of the soil is contaminated. “The [remobilization] could happen now while it’s wet outside.”

When it comes to groundwater, there are two types to consider. One type, which researchers are now concerned about, is the unbound water that collects in the pore spaces of the soil very close to the surface. This is the water that runs off the road and seeps into the ground. The other type, trapped in aquifers hundreds of meters deep, is the water we tap for drinking.

As the tide moves inland, the shallow fresh water tends to float on top of the denser salt water — and is pushed up toward the surface as sea levels rise. Because the shallow groundwater is not consumed, few people have studied this layer of water in California.

(Lorena Iniguez Elebee/Los Angeles Times)

Hill, who directs the Department of Urban and Regional Development at UC Berkeley, first realized nearly a decade ago that this shallow aquifer had been overlooked in talks about sea-level rise. Along with May and Ellen Plane, who is now an environmental scientist at SFEI, she analyzed data from 10,000 wells across the Bay Area and concluded that more than twice that amount of land could be flooded from groundwater if the ocean continues to rise .

Then, in a remarkable move to turn those initial approximation studies into data that government agencies would actually use, the researchers called on officials themselves to help fill in the data gaps. City and county officials searched for geotechnical reports and other potentially useful records that had been archived in different (and often isolated) departments. They went through hundreds of PDFs and spreadsheets to compile all of the underground data that had been collected for building permits and projects.

Public works officials then checked the updated maps against their own observations, such as storm sewers that back up during high tide and roads that tend to flood even when there is no current.

Discover the current groundwater conditions in this interactive map:

Patterns emerged. Many of the communities most exposed to the flooding were built along historic streams or on reclaimed wetlands. If you overlay 5.5 feet of sea level rise on the map, water is expected to flow back into virtually any wetland that has been filled.

Officials in San Francisco are already considering this data when considering new construction projects. Other cities and counties are beginning to reconsider their flood mitigation options—after all, a traditional levee or seawall wouldn’t do anything to stem groundwater as it moves with rising sea levels.

Ultimately, officials need to figure out what to do with all of the contaminated sites along the bay that are still awaiting remediation — or those that need further remediation, said Hill, who has completed another set of maps that will show where and In which direction might rising groundwater remobilize harmful chemicals underground? The commonly used approach of ‘covering’ a toxic waste dump, for example, rather than actually removing the contamination from the ground, may no longer be sufficient.

Regulators at the San Francisco Bay Regional Water Quality Control Board have been following all of this research with keen interest and are already looking at the updated maps, said Lisa Horowitz McCann, deputy executive director. The board recently ordered its long-term flood control plans for 16 bayside landfills to take groundwater rise into account, and caseworkers are now going through hundreds of cases to determine which sites require further action.

“This data gives us the ability to take stronger action — and even legally supports it,” Horowitz McCann said. “We’re looking at a larger universe of cases now.”

Researchers hope to continue this mapping work for the rest of the Bay Area. Next up is Contra Costa County in the East Bay, where a number of historically contaminated sites are being considered for remediation along Richmond’s industrialized coast.

An aerial photo shows a cyclist riding through a flooded bike path in Mill Valley during a royal flood in 2022. Many low-lying areas along the San Francisco Bay are at increased risk of flooding, according to a new study.

(JOSH EDELSON/AFP via Getty Images)

Much more work also needs to be done to understand what the actual damage to gas lines, sewage treatment plants, foundations and other buried infrastructure will be, said Patrick Barnard, whose research team at the US Geological Survey has performed extensive flood modeling by officials across the state used.

“We need to start bringing this information together with the world of technology,” he said. “We built everything assuming the ground is dry. What does it mean that he is now constantly full?”

Barnard has also studied what scientists call “composite extremes.” What do we do when seawater enters at high tide, while our rivers and storm sewers try to flush excess rainwater into the sea and the ground cannot absorb anything because the groundwater also floods?

“We looked at this in a case for the Napa River, and basically an average annual winter storm could turn into a 100-year flooding event when the ground is already saturated,” he said. “Add in any amount of rain, even amounts that are not normally catastrophic…and you have catastrophic effects.”

For Chris Choo, Marin County Planning Manager, the support for the recent mapping effort has been eye-opening in a number of ways. She has spent years helping communities prepare for climate change, and the challenges have grown more complicated as one disaster seems to overwhelm the next.

“From drought to drought to drought to a big concern that we don’t have enough water, all of a sudden, within two weeks, we’ve seen the effects of way too much of it,” she said, not just citing the flooded streets who kept their colleagues working around the clock, but also the heavy surf that swept much of California earlier this month and even split a pier in two.

“People still tend to see these things as isolated terrible things and not part of a collective change…in terms of what the future might hold,” she said. “We live in nature and too often think we’re separate from it… but nature still rules.”

The post New Bay Space maps present hidden flood threat from sea degree rise appeared first on DAILY SAN FRANCISCO BAY NEWS.

This is not a cheap endeavor. The development group’s director, Bob Beck, did not return multiple emails and phone calls regarding costs for this work. A 2011 report by the city of San Francisco, which includes Treasure Island, estimated that “geotechnical stabilization” measures would cost $137 million. Storm drains, soil grading and landscape and open-space improvements would add about $120 million.

Dilip Trivedi, the site’s project manager with international engineering firm Moffatt and Nichol, has been touting the consortium’s efforts for more than a decade. He said in a recent interview that the most built-up parts of the island should be safe from sea rise through at least 2070. Fifty years or so is a reasonable planning horizon for new developments, he added, and additional phased seawall construction can help future generations stay a step ahead of ever-higher tides.

“When you put together significant infrastructure, you don’t want to have to maintain it for about that time,” Trivedi said. “It is what we call project life.”

After years of planning, construction has started on residential towers with sweeping views of San Francisco and the Bay Area. At least 20,000 residents are expected to live on the island by 2035. (Yesica Prado/San Francisco Public Press)

Climate scientists, however, commonly try to predict sea rise out at least to the year 2100, a time when some current schoolchildren could be octogenarian residents of the island.

Every contemporary climate model predicts that, even with deep carbon reductions starting this decade, several feet of sea rise are locked in. The debates for climate adaptation strategy are how many feet and how far down the road we should consider.

With ever more sophisticated climate predictions, the outlook for sea level rise has continued to darken, indicating that current trends will likely accelerate through the end of the century. In one pessimistic scenario — which researchers say is among the possibilities in a “business as usual” global greenhouse gas emissions future — much of the island could find itself underwater frequently, and some of the most developed areas could occasionally be threatened with flooding.

To home in on Treasure Island’s future, the San Francisco Public Press asked researchers at the United States Geological Survey’s Pacific Coastal and Marine Science Center, based in Santa Cruz, to create a highly localized model of sea rise conditions under various climate scenarios. They found that bay waters could surge higher than the developers have long been saying publicly.

In that model, by 2100 there is a small but not insignificant chance of 4 feet, 11 inches of sea level rise — slightly more than what the island’s engineers have accounted for. Adding in the effects of tides, weather and other transient events, such as in the kind of extreme storm seen once in a century, that total could be 2 feet, 11 inches higher.

The resulting surge would, at least temporarily, send waves 1 foot, 2 inches higher than the lowest ground floors of some planned housing complexes.

While the project’s engineers never address this possibility in their public narratives, documents they have prepared show they have known about similar scenarios for years.

Their own maps, which superimpose flood conditions on existing land elevations, line up fairly closely to the Geological Survey’s findings. Yet the engineers have chosen to downplay the likelihood of these outcomes as they pursued permits to build, arguing that novel construction technologies could make the development invulnerable to flooding under any reasonable course of events.

In a 2016 sea rise adaptation filing with a regional watershed agency, Moffatt and Nichol included six maps showing potential flood conditions in each construction phase, side by side with maps showing how the planned short- and long-term sea level rise protections would prevent inundation.

One map shows 4 feet of sea rise. Before any land improvements, nearly the entire island would have been inundated — up to 8 feet in places — during flooding calculated by FEMA to have a 1% chance of occurring per year. Another part of that document showed a graph that indicated a 4-foot rise was possible by around 2093. The Geological Survey’s extreme scenario model for 2100 puts sea rise closer to 5 feet.

But Trivedi said that the raising of the land under many of the buildings, plus additional shoreline improvements, would protect key infrastructure. Beside that map, the engineers showed how the existing 3.5-mile perimeter wall could be raised by 1 to 3 feet, depending on location, which they said would keep much of the island dry, although a note appended to the diagram said: “Does not show intentional flooding from managed retreat on northern and eastern shorelines — TBD.”

Within the last year, regulators have started questioning whether the steps developers are taking are sufficient to guarantee that the island remains dry in the long term.

“This is a community that will be around a while,” said Ethan Lavine, chief of permits for shoreline development for the Bay Conservation and Development Commission. “At a certain point in time, they will need levee protection.” Lavine’s office is pressing Trivedi and his colleagues to use a more cautious view of climate change when assessing whether Treasure Island’s flood prevention techniques can handle what nature might throw at them.

When evaluating permit applications, government agencies require developers to reference the “best available science” to assess threats from climate change. In October 2021, the engineers issued an update to the 2016 filing. In it, Trivedi compared his firm’s sea level rise expectations against studies by several scientific bodies, including California’s Ocean Protection Council and the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers. His preferred predictions minimized the effect of the worst-case scenarios. The only needed change, he argued, would be to move up the time frame for planning adaptations by as much as five years.

Yet climate policy experts point out that with significant scientific papers being released each year, guidance for builders has become a moving target. Because they admit a great deal of uncertainty in their predictions, scientists always publish their results in charts that consider an array of environmental assumptions.

That gives developers leeway to choose which predictions to focus on when describing the risks to their capital investments. Treasure Island could be the most expensive local project in the region’s history to take advantage of this ambiguity.

Projecting optimism

All of Trivedi’s recent public statements conclude that the likelihood of the gloomiest climate scenarios is remote, and that the level of risk to property and lives is insignificant given the proposed engineering fixes. But a close examination of the 2021 adaptation plan offers a few reasons for concern:

• It dismisses high-end forecasts, in which global warming accelerates due to uncontrolled carbon emissions.
• It selectively cites climate models that make planned infrastructure appear sufficient to virtually eliminate future flood risk.
• It focuses on relatively short time frames, such as 20 or 50 years, while offering little specificity about expected conditions at the end of the century, which falls within the lifetimes of some children alive today.

Trivedi said in an interview that for planning purposes, he is focused on one recent predicted milestone: 3 feet of sea rise by 2080. In that circumstance, the ground floors of most buildings, to be built upon a now-elevated development pad, would still have a buffer of nearly 4 feet above the average highest tide of today.

He also asserted that the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, a scientific committee organized by the United Nations, recently reported sea rise could be less severe than previously forecasted, based on the track record of recent years. “What has been observed is that sea level rise is not tracking” to the most pessimistic scenarios, he said. But there are reasons to question his conclusion.

The localized scenario for 2100 examined by the Geological Survey — the one resulting in water levels 1 foot, 2 inches above some developed areas — relies on a climate change prediction assessed to have a probability of 0.5%, that is, a 1-in-200 statistical chance of occurring. That prediction was published by the California Ocean Protection Council, a body of experts organized by the state government, in recent guidelines for community planning.

Trivedi said the international group’s current report indicates there’s “low confidence in that scenario happening.” When asked for a citation to back up this claim, Trivedi referenced a “localized model” of the findings from NASA, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration and five other federal agencies.

A report these agencies jointly issued in February 2022 in fact gave a more nuanced view. In a section titled “Future Mean Sea Level,” the authors did exclude one scenario used by the Ocean Protection Council that had been labeled “extreme” and not given a numerical probability. But that is not the scenario Trivedi said the group ruled out. This same report indicates that the West Coast is likely to see 4 to 8 inches of rise over 30 years, accelerating later in the century.

Regardless of the pace of the increase, Treasure Island developers say they have contingency plans relying on future residents or taxpayers to fund the construction of progressively higher walls around the urban zone — several feet every few decades. In its latest update, Moffatt and Nichol said sea level rise of 1 foot by 2043 would trigger the plan to elevate the perimeter.

A strategy reliant on levees might seem risky in light of Hurricane Katrina in 2005, when faulty engineering of levees led to catastrophic flooding of parts of New Orleans that sit below the level of the Mississippi River and the Gulf of Mexico. In light of this recent history, Bay Area regulators are starting to ask whether the Treasure Island plan is entirely watertight.

A March 2022 letter from the Bay Conservation and Development Commission, the agency that issued the island’s 2016 permit for waterfront areas, called the update too optimistic and tolerant of long-term flooding potential.

“Public access along a shoreline and a big mixed-use development require using a medium-to-high-risk projection for sea level rise,” said the commission’s planning manager, Erik Buehmann.

Reengineering shaky ground

On an island built by the government generations ago out of rocks, soil and dredged sand, preparing high-and-dry land would be difficult even if it were not in an earthquake and tsunami zone.

In numerous reports and public presentations, Trivedi has said construction workers have elevated land on the 100-acre development pad to 3 feet, 6 inches above the “base flood elevation” — a height calculated by Federal Emergency Management Agency representing a 1% chance of flooding each year. The homes, hotels and businesses there will be set back from the shoreline by 200 to 300 feet on most sides and as much as 1,000 feet from the northern shore because that area is more prone to flooding. Building is planned to roll out in phases through 2035.

Workers have spent years using cranes to repeatedly drop heavy weights to compact the soil. They have driven vibrating probes into the earth, filling the holes with concrete for stabilization. They then piled 1 million cubic yards of soil atop the compacted layer. These measures are intended to prevent the kind of ground liquefaction seen in the Marina District and elsewhere during the devastating 1989 Loma Prieta earthquake. Other geological improvements include inserting vertical wick drains, akin to long drinking straws, to help remove water from the soil as it compresses. These techniques have been used by civil engineers around the world for more than 30 years to develop areas without easy access to bedrock.

Developers have trucked in and compacted 1 million cubic yards of soil to raise the land underneath new buildings in one strategy to mitigate flood risk. (Yesica Prado/San Francisco Public Press)

Trivedi said these measures, together with a jagged, rocky seawall raised to allow for just over 1 foot of sea rise, would help take energy out of large waves, and the setback would use the landscape to dissipate any possible overtopping before it reaches valuable structures.

At the same time, the engineers have recognized that much of the island — particularly the low-lying northern end — are indefensible. Areas that have flooded in the past will eventually be sacrificed to rising waters. That strategy has immediate, concrete consequences: Dozens of existing structures, including homes of about 3,000 people currently living there, are set to be demolished to create open space. Over time these areas could be turned into tidal marshland to protect the newly developed areas from storms.

Regulators balk at a sunny assessment

The Bay Conservation and Development Commission, the agency most empowered to weigh in on new waterfront building, is hamstrung by a legal mandate to regulate only what happens 100 feet inland, regardless of elevation — an artifact of legislation dating from before climate change was a dominant concern.

The 2016 permit the agency issued for improvements on Treasure Island’s margins, including a ferry terminal, required adaptation updates every five years. Moffatt and Nichol’s 2021 update concluded that the original adaptation plans needed few changes, except for possibly needing to accelerate, by five years, the planning process for building higher perimeter levees.

Regulators balked at the assessment. In a March 2022 letter, the commission advised Moffatt and Nichol to plan more conservatively. The agency demanded consideration of a 1-in-200 chance sea rise scenario, in which seas rise 6 feet, 11 inches by 2100. Adding in a 100-year storm surge, waves could plausibly overtop portions of the sea wall along the southeastern side by about 1 to 2 feet, and along the northern end by about 1 foot. That is an even worse outcome than that predicted by Geological Survey’s localized flooding model.

The commission said Moffatt and Nichol seemed too dismissive of chances that things could go wrong.

“The permittees decided to design the project considering very low risk of sea level rise related impacts” the letter said, noting also that engineers seemed too focused on the short time horizon of 2080.

Trivedi counters that the Treasure Island development was never built upon projections of a certain sea level happening by a certain date, because seawalls can, for all practical purposes, be built arbitrarily high, on whatever schedule is needed.

“We adopted an approach where we decided on an allowance we are building into the project,” he said in the interview. “As future projections come out, we will adjust the date of the adaptation.”

Commission staff met with planners from Moffatt and Nichol last summer to work out the requested additions to the 2021 adaptation strategy. Buehmann, who worked on the original permit, said follow-up discussions were to be expected because the Treasure Island permit was the first since the commission began requiring builders to submit sea rise assessments. “We didn’t expect it to be perfect the first time,” he said.

Whatever comes of this process which Trivedi referred to as merely “an internal thing” that was required for the filing — the adaptation plan is unlikely to change significantly, because the development pad is already in place and huge construction cranes are sprouting up on Treasure Island’s skyline. What is left in the playbook is raising future seawalls, ceding the northern open space and the installation of pumps.

Government officials have long acknowledged the inevitability of Treasure Island’s relying on artificial barriers. In 2015, Brad McCrea, regulatory program director at the commission, told the Public Press: “At the end of the day, this will be a levee-protected community — there’s no getting around that.” Since then, agency staff have not changed their view.

Rapidly outdated climate science

To determine how high to raise the building pad, Treasure Island builders consulted several climate studies published as early as 1987 and as recently as 2007. At that point, scientists were predicting that by 2100, oceans could rise as much as 4 feet, 7 inches.

This forecast was echoed by a state panel of scientists and policy experts in 2009, when then-Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger visited Treasure Island to announce its findings and call for better sea level rise mitigation.

When finished, Treasure Island could be a spectacular locale for commuters to San Francisco to settle. But residents will face similar flooding challenges to those in waterfront communities throughout the Bay Area. (Yesica Prado/San Francisco Public Press)

Moffatt and Nichol then relied on these studies to anticipate that the oceans would rise 3 feet by 2075. So the company proposed raising the development pad to 3 feet, 6 inches above the predicted levels for a once-in-a-hundred-year flood.

Moffatt and Nichol did not spell out a rationale for setting the height of the development pad, as the Public Press reported in 2010. The firm did argue that raising it higher could create other problems, such as jeopardizing the island’s stability under the weight of packed soil and adding expense. “At some point it doesn’t become cost-effective — it’s a matter of acceptable levels of risk over your planning horizon,” Trivedi said in an interview then.

To be sure, when Treasure Island plans were drawn up, scientific modeling showed wide uncertainty about how much global temperatures could increase. In 2009, scientists around the world were saying that oceans could rise anywhere from a minimum of 3 feet, 3 inches to a maximum of 4 feet, 11 inches by 2100. At that time, the effects of ice melt from land via glaciers, snowpacks and ice caps were little understood.

Today, European and U.S. scientists using satellite imagery to measure the shape of Greenland’s ice sheets say melting is outstripping gains from snowfall. In a paper published last August, they found that no matter how much countries curb emissions, seas will rise by a minimum of 11 inches from this effect alone.

Focusing locally

The U.S. Geological Survey developed the Coastal Storm Modeling System to help protect waterfront communities. It simulates the forces behind wave and wind data and translates them into local flood projections that include tides, storm surges, waves and seasonal events such as El Niño.

The Public Press requested that the agency simulate a small section of San Francisco Bay, in the vicinity of Treasure Island, relying on probability scenarios for global sea levels in 2100 developed by the California Ocean Protection Council in a 2018 guidance paper (PDF). This report offered up sea rise projections of likelihoods as high as 50% and as low as 0.5%.

The Ocean Protection Council’s examination of a wide array of probabilities heavily influenced the Bay Conservation and Development Commission’s critique of the Treasure Island adaptation update. The commission’s biggest concern was that change might happen faster than the engineers were anticipating.

Explore sea level rise scenarios using Climate Central’s interactive tool. Here we show floodwaters at 7.8 feet above the present-day high tide line.

But Trivedi said the Ocean Protection Council’s past predictions had already failed. “If you look at the year 2022 projections, follow the OPC formulas,” Trivedi said. “We should have seen about 8 inches of sea level rise since 2000. In reality, it has been about 2 inches or less.”

Most forecasts predict increased global temperatures due to persistent carbon pollution. But the emissions projections are still hotly contested.

The Ocean Protection Council examined two emissions scenarios. One assumed that carbon dioxide output doubles through 2050. The other imagined more aggressive greenhouse gas reductions — 70% by 2050 and “net zero” emissions by 2080.

For the purposes of seeing how bad things could plausibly get, the U.S. Geological Survey used a midlevel emissions scenario. This decision was based on detailed simulations into the next century of swell and waves along the Pacific Ocean. What the researchers found was that paradoxically, milder greenhouse gas levels generated worse storms for California’s coast than do extreme ones.

“What’s really changed in the research community is that worst-case scenarios have become more common,” said Patrick Barnard, a research geologist with the agency. “The state is asking communities to prepare for these.”

This approach helps waterfront areas learn to be more risk-averse to protect property and lives.

Avoiding mistakes of the past

Foster City is paying a high price for waterfront sprawl. Like Treasure Island, the mid-Peninsula community 25 miles to the south was built entirely on landfill, not unusual in the Bay Area, where efforts to accommodate population growth stretching back to the Gold Rush consumed most of the wetlands and tidal marshes.

Foster City did have worries about flooding decades ago. It is shot through with artificial waterways, including two sloughs, several small canals and an artificial lagoon. Barely above sea level before being developed, it would not exist if not for its levees and seawalls.

Yet, in 2014 FEMA informed Foster City officials that new studies showed (PDF) the levee system was neither strong nor tall enough to withstand a major storm and the large waves that would result. Update the seawalls and levees, or the entire city would be designated a floodplain, the agency said.

Sixty years ago, developers there hauled in tons of sand to raise the land several feet to construct thousands of homes in what became a 33,000-resident community. That was a time when climate change was not a part of city planning vernacular. Today workers are busy widening and raising levees and adding interlocking steel plates as a bulwark against the storms federal regulators warned of, as well as rising seas.

But Treasure Island, which is slated to add 8,000 units of housing to accommodate more than 20,000 residents, is still more than a decade away from build-out. What the engineers put in place there in the next few years could avoid Foster City’s mistakes — or compound them.

To be sure, some cities are starting to alter blueprints on pace with the evolving science. In October, the Port of San Francisco announced it was collaborating with the Army Corps of Engineers to study how to shore up the city’s seawall along its eastern waterfront (PDF), from Fisherman’s Wharf to the Hunters Point Shipyard, to combat both sea rise and earthquake risk. This area includes attractions like the Chase Center sports arena, a project green-lighted before a city-commissioned study surfaced that predicted flooding from sea level rise in the new Mission Bay neighborhood, as the Public Press reported in 2017.

Port officials now say they anticipate 7 feet of sea level rise by the end of the century. That is 2 feet, 5 inches higher than the level Treasure Island’s developers are planning for in their adaptation strategy.

The Port’s yearlong effort will consider elevating barriers along the Embarcadero, installing a system of locks at Mission Creek and buying back and cleaning up privately owned landfill areas around Islais Creek to return them to the tidal zone.

Not easy to abandon a home

In the grips of a housing affordability crisis, San Francisco needs new construction. But is a flood zone the wisest place to build? That could depend on how long we expect buildings to last.

Barnard, of the U.S. Geological Survey, has traveled to many communities, including Okracoke Island, part of North Carolina’s Outer Banks, to assess how to protect people from storms. In September 2019, Hurricane Dorian shut the island down to visitors. For residents, it was hard to consider leaving a place they have inhabited for seven or eight generations. “You can’t detach people from their place, or their heart,” Barnard said. “They’ll stay until water is up to their nose.”

Before the developers moved in, Treasure Island had roughly 3,000 residents, according to the 2020 Census, many living in homes built for the U.S. Navy in the mid-20th century when it was a military base. Nearly half have a household income less than $50,000, and many do not speak English.

Now these residents are on tenterhooks. Under an agreement with the developer, people who lived on Treasure Island before 2011 are guaranteed new affordable and rent-controlled units. But the wait times and other inconveniences have been tough. Everyone is living in a construction site with an unreliable electrical grid that browns and blacks out frequently.

Most of the existing low-lying homes on the island, built decades ago, will be razed to make room for new condos, as well as open space that developers say could be abandoned to bay waters as seas rise. (Yesica Prado/San Francisco Public Press)

The new units are supposed to be comparable to what they had, but longtime islander Christoph Opperman said they have been offered “interim” units that, for example, might not have enough space for a family, or lack laundry facilities.

“They’re picking us off one neighborhood at a time by making us do two moves,” Opperman said. “We’re not entitled to just anything on the island, but we are entitled to fair treatment.”

Treasure Island’s planners are essentially acknowledging that they must sacrifice part of the island to the bay, even while pursuing a more built-up urban environment just several hundred feet away. This combination of advance and retreat is all part of the plan, the engineers say.

Asked whether he would move to Treasure Island, Trivedi did not hesitate to say yes, observing that no part of the Bay Area was completely free of danger.

“I don’t see why not,” he said. “I mean, should people be moving to San Francisco, because of the seismic risk? Buildings are being designed to codes. And flooding is the same way.”

This reporting is supported by grants from the Solutions Journalism Network’s Business and Sustainability Initiative and by the Fund for Investigative Journalism.

The post Promising to Stop Floods at Treasure Island, Builders Downplay Danger of Sea Rise appeared first on DAILY SAN FRANCISCO BAY NEWS.

Es war eine haarsträubende Wahl, ein Wettbewerb mit hauchdünner Siegesmarge, Wahlverhütung an der Basis und mindestens einem Vorwurf der Hinterlist – und er endete mit einer großen Überraschung.

Die Kandidaten? Seelöwen und wilde Papageien.

Das Rennen? In einer Umfrage des San Francisco Chronicle zum inoffiziellen Stadttier von San Francisco ernannt zu werden.

Die grüngefiederten, rothaarigen Papageien, die wild in der Stadt leben. Ausgelassen und voller Persönlichkeit sind sie Eindringlinge, die San Francisco ab Ende der 1980er Jahre zu ihrer Heimat gemacht haben, als einige davon aus einer Tierhandlung geflohen sein sollen.

Sie sind seit langem ikonische Bewohner von SF, aber diese Woche erzielten die Vögel einen Überraschungssieg, der sie für immer als Symbol der weltberühmten Stadt verankern könnte. Obwohl die Umfrage der Zeitung nur zum Spaß war, haben die städtischen Aufsichtsbehörden Gesetze erlassen, um die Ergebnisse offiziell zu machen.

Der Sieg der wilden Papageien ist eine Underdog-Geschichte, komplett mit Nuancen politischer Intrigen und Kulturgeschichte – aber die Geschichte spricht auch von der Suche der Menschen nach Leichtsinn in der Zeit nach der Pandemie.

Mehr als 27.000 Menschen gaben ihre Stimme in den vier Runden der Chronicle-Umfrage ab, wobei mehr als 8.000 an der Endrunde teilnahmen. Die berühmten Seelöwen der Stadt – die in der Bucht beheimatet sind und Millionen von Touristen anziehen, wenn sie sich auf dem Dock am Pier 39 sonnen – waren die Favoriten auf den Sieg.

Die Papageien kreischten jedoch mit nur 227 Stimmen mehr als die Seelöwen und gewannen mit 51 Prozent, berichtete der Kulturkritiker des Chronicle, Peter Hartlaub, am Montag.

„Die wilden Papageien sind wirklich die perfekte Metapher für die San Franciscos“, sagte Hartlaub der Washington Post. „Ich denke darüber wie einige unserer größten San Franciscos, das heißt [their] Geschichte auch. Robin Williams war ein wilder Papagei, Harvey Milk war ein wilder Papagei.“

Hartlaub und Chronicle-Kolumnistin Heather Knight, die gemeinsam einen Podcast moderieren, starteten das Projekt als von March Madness inspirierten Wettbewerb, nachdem sie feststellten, dass die Stadt kein offizielles Tier hatte.

Die beiden zielen manchmal darauf ab, Geschichten zu behandeln, die als Erinnerung an die Wunder von San Francisco dienen, und Hartlaub, der oft Geschichtskolumnen schreibt, bemerkte, dass die Stadt eine Tradition hat, selbst in schwierigen Zeiten Freude zu finden. Sie waren sich nicht sicher, ob die Umfrage bei den Lesern ankommen würde, aber sie dachten, es würde Spaß machen, über Tiere zu schreiben.

„Die Menschen in San Francisco sind im Moment im Allgemeinen so niedergeschlagen, mit so vielen Krisen – Obdachlosigkeit und die Fentanyl-Epidemie und Erschwinglichkeitsprobleme – und kämpfen immer noch damit, die Innenstadt wieder aufzubauen“, sagte Knight, der viele dieser Probleme behandelt. „Die Leute sind irgendwie begierig auf lustige, fröhliche Geschichten, um sich daran zu erinnern, warum es sich lohnt, in San Francisco zu leben.“

Trotzdem waren die Reporter schockiert, sagten sie der Post am Dienstag, als sich herumsprach, offizielle Gruppen begannen, Partei zu ergreifen und Tausende von Stimmen eingingen. Die Ergebnisse waren auch überraschend – zum Beispiel wurden Möwen früh eliminiert – ebenso wie der Vorstand die rasche Gesetzgebung der Aufsichtsbehörden als Reaktion. Nächste Woche sollen sie abstimmen.

Der Ruhm der Vögel stieg nach dem Dokumentarfilm „The Wild Parrots of Telegraph Hill“ aus dem Jahr 2003, in dem die Filmemacherin Judy Irving die Geschichte der Beziehung der Vögel zu Mark Bittner erzählte, einem ehemals obdachlosen Musiker, der 1993 begann, die Papageien zu bemerken Es gibt Legenden darüber, wie sie in die Stadt gelangten. Es wird als wahrscheinlich angesehen, dass der Schwarm mit Vögeln begann, die aus einer Tierhandlung entkommen waren. Heute findet man sie in der ganzen Stadt, sagte Irving in einem Interview.

„Das ist eine Art große Anerkennung für die Papageien, dass die Stadt sie als die farbenfrohen, lebendigen Einwanderer akzeptiert hat, die sie sind“, sagte Sarah Lemarié, CEO von Mickaboo, einer gemeinnützigen Vogelrettungsorganisation, die mit der Papageienherde arbeitet.

Einige San Franciscaner haben noch nie einen gesehen, hörte Lemarié während des Abstimmungsprozesses – aber „sie sind leicht zu finden. Gehen Sie einfach jeden Morgen in den Park beim Fährgebäude, und sie werden dort sein.“

“Ein klassischer politischer Kampf”

Das Matchup zwischen Vögeln und Säugetieren fand statt, nachdem die Wähler einen nicht hundertjährigen Lungenfisch, eine gefährdete Schlange, einen einheimischen blauen Schmetterling und andere Kandidaten eliminiert hatten. Krabben, die in der San Francisco Bay weit verbreitet sind, und ein Albino-Alligator namens Claude, der an der California Academy of Sciences lebt, waren unter den letzten vier.

Der Papageienschwarm besteht aus etwa 220 in San Francisco geborenen Vögeln, Generationen nachdem der erste Rotmaskensittich, wie der Vogel ornithologisch genannt wird, gegen Ende der 1980er Jahre auftauchte. Die Vögel, die auch als Kirschkopfsittiche bekannt sind, haben sich mit einer anderen Art, dem Gehrungssittich, gepaart, was die Herde einzigartig in San Francisco macht, sagte Lemarié.

Die Stadt verbietet es den Menschen, Papageien zu füttern, und Befürworter wollen nicht, dass San Francisco sie als Haustiere mit nach Hause nimmt. Die Papageien sind nicht bei allen beliebt, räumte Irving ein, einschließlich derjenigen, die die einheimische Fauna bevorzugen.

Seelöwen waren in drei Abstimmungsrunden der klare Spitzenreiter, Papageien belegten einen entfernten zweiten Platz, sagte Hartlaub. Die Meeressäuger hatten einen solchen Vorsprung, dass Hartlaub einmal überprüfte, ob die Online-Wahlurnen nicht geradezu vollgestopft waren.

Seelöwen leben entlang der Westküste; Männchen ziehen im Frühjahr und Herbst in die Bucht von San Francisco. Sie kamen nach dem Erdbeben von Loma Prieta 1989 zum ersten Mal zum Pier 39 und ließen sich auf einem neu fertiggestellten Dock nieder, das nicht von Booten besetzt war, sagte Adam Ratner, stellvertretender Direktor für Naturschutzausbildung beim Marine Mammal Center.

Viele fanden die wilden Papageien symbolisch für San Franciscos Geist und verwandt mit den vielen Menschen, die in die Stadt ziehen. Seelöwen hingegen sind die Wächter der Stadt, die am Wasser stationiert sind, und ihr Botschafter, der mit ihrem freundlichen Bellen Besucher in den Jachthafen lockt.

„Jeder von ihnen symbolisierte San Francisco auf seine eigene Weise, also wurden sie irgendwie zu den perfekten letzten beiden“, sagte Knight. „Seelöwen sind Ureinwohner, und einheimische San Franziskaner sind wirklich stolz darauf, einheimische San Franziskaner zu sein. … [The parrots] sind die Neuankömmlinge in San Francisco, die nicht gebürtig sind, aber sehr lustig und bunt und laut sind.“

Pier 39 und andere Gruppen drängten auf Seelöwen, während Mickaboo, Filmemacher Irving und andere die Papageien förderten.

Im Chronicle beobachteten Knight und Hartlaub letzte Woche an vier spannenden Tagen, wie die endgültigen Abstimmungen eingingen, und sahen, wie die Führung vier- oder fünfmal hin und her schwankte. Nachdem andere Tiere eliminiert worden waren, schlossen sich Menschen, die gegen Seelöwen waren, hinter den wilden Papageien an, theoretisierten die Reporter.

Die Papageien-Anhänger begannen hart zu arbeiten, um Stimmen zu gewinnen, sagte Irving und nannte es einen harten Kampf. Sie waren letzte Woche „rasend“, das Rennen „schaukelte“.

„Es war auch eine Art klassischer politischer Kampf, weil wir das Gefühl hatten, dass wir die mutigen Unabhängigen gegen die, vielleicht könnte man es die Tourismuslobby der Unternehmen nennen“, sagte Irving. “Es hat Spaß gemacht.”

Mickaboo, das Papageien aus der Herde rettet, wenn sie krank oder verletzt sind, hatte letzte Woche einen Freiwilligen, der mit einem Kakadu durch die Straßen der Stadt ging und fast 100 Stimmen errang, sagte Lemarié.

„Wir wussten, dass die Seelöwen starke Unterstützung hatten, und wir wussten, dass die Abstimmungen nur noch wenige Tage vor dem Ende sehr knapp waren“, sagte Lemarié. „Wir sind begeistert, dass wir es geschafft haben, den Sieg zu kratzen.“

Ein dramatischer Moment kam, als der offizielle Twitter-Account der Stadt San Francisco Seelöwen zu unterstützen schien, indem er einen Pier 39-Post retweetete, in dem er um die Stimmen der Menschen bat und hinzufügte: „Ich muss unsere @sfgov Sea Lions lieben.“

Die Stimmen für Seelöwen schossen in die Höhe, aber nachdem Papageien-Anhänger „Fleisch geweint“ hatten, wie Hartlaub auf Twitter schrieb – Stadtaufseher Aaron Peskin sagte der Post, er habe gegen die „Schwindel“ der Stadt bei der möglichen Beeinflussung von Stimmen protestiert – löschte die Stadt den Tweet.

Dennoch war sich Hartlaub irgendwann so sicher, dass die Seelöwen gewinnen würden, dass er seinen Artikel entwarf, in dem er sie als Sieger krönte. Am nächsten Morgen, als die Papageien die Führung übernahmen, musste er die Geschichte umschreiben.

„Das war eine große Überraschung“, sagte Hartlaub. „Und ich hatte die Seelöwen-Geschichte geschrieben, also war es ein ‚Dewey besiegt Truman‘-Moment mit geliebten Tieren aus San Francisco.“

Auf der anderen Seite war sich die Stadtaufseherin Myrna Melgar so sicher, dass die Vögel gewinnen würden, dass die Mitarbeiter die Resolution im Voraus entwarfen, sagte sie dem Chronicle. Melgar, deren Familie vor dem Bürgerkrieg in El Salvador geflohen ist, sagte Knight, sie habe am Freitag Kerzen angezündet, in der Hoffnung auf den Sieg der Papageien, und gesagt, die Vögel seien „tropische Wesen wie ich, die in San Francisco Zuflucht und Freiheit gefunden haben“.

„Ähnlich wie jene Einwanderer, die sich in San Francisco niederließen und dort Familien gründeten, haben Herden von Wildpapageien, die nach San Francisco importiert wurden, seitdem neue Generationen von Herden aus San Francisco gezüchtet“, heißt es in der Resolution. „Die Wild Parrots of San Francisco sind zu einem Symbol für die Vielfalt, Geselligkeit und Widerstandsfähigkeit der Stadt geworden.“

Wenn der Beschluss vom Aufsichtsrat der Stadt angenommen wird, bedarf es der Zustimmung des Bürgermeisters, bevor die Vögel in die Liste der offiziellen Maskottchen der Stadt aufgenommen werden – eine Blume, ein Weihnachtsbaum, eine Musikkapelle und mehr.

Am Dienstag veröffentlichte Salty the Sea Lion, das Maskottchen von Pier 39, eine Konzessionsrede auf Twitter: „Im Namen meiner Seelöwenfreunde hier im K-Dock geben wir den wilden Papageien von Telegraph Hill nach“, sagt der Seelöwe in einem animiertes Video.

„Obwohl dies im Moment eine schwierige Fischgräte zu schlucken ist … halten wir unsere Flossen hoch.“

Obwohl alle Seiten anerkannten, dass der Wettbewerb viel Spaß gemacht hatte, hatte der Sieg Bedeutung für diejenigen, die eng mit den wilden Papageien zu tun hatten. Als Irving mit der Produktion von „The Wild Parrots of Telegraph Hill“ begann, erinnerte sie sich, hoffte Bittner, die Papageien so populär zu machen, dass die Herde niemals aus der Stadt entfernt werden konnte.

„Ich habe das Gefühl, dass wir 20 Jahre später den Deal über die Popularität der Papageien wirklich besiegelt haben“, sagte Irving, der gerade dabei ist, den Film für den Vertrieb an Streaming-Dienste zu remastern. „Wir haben es im Grunde so gemacht, dass Marks ursprünglicher Wunsch jetzt in Erfüllung geht.“

Es war auch in anderer Hinsicht ein Moment, in dem sich der Kreis schloss: Nach dem Dreh des Dokumentarfilms heirateten Irving und Bittner. Ihre Hochzeit wurde von Peskin zelebriert – der jetzt der Präsident des Aufsichtsrats der Stadt ist. Am Dienstag unterstützte er Melgars Beschluss, Papageien zum offiziellen Tier der Stadt zu machen.

Peskin lebt seit Jahrzehnten auf Telegraph Hill, wo er die Papageien von seinem Haus aus beobachtet. Obwohl er Seelöwen lobte, gab er zu, dass er bei dem Wettbewerb Partei ergriffen hatte: „Letztendlich habe ich mich für die Papageien entschieden“, sagte der Aufseher, der bei seiner Kandidatur ein „Papageien für Peskin“-Plakat hatte.

„Wenn Sie sehen, wie diese Vögel gemeinsam fliegen oder sich kopfüber in einem Baum versammeln“, sagte Peskin der Post, „ist es nur ein kleiner Moment, der Ihren Tag verändert und Sie daran erinnert, dass Sie in einer wunderschönen Welt leben.“

Sowohl Seelöwen- als auch Wildpapageienliebhaber sagten, der Wettbewerb habe dazu beigetragen, das Bewusstsein für die Kreaturen zu schärfen. Seelöwen können durch Plastikverschmutzung und alles andere, was die Ozeane schädigt, bedroht werden, während eine bestimmte Anzahl wilder Papageien jedes Jahr durch Rattengift krank wird, das von Anwohnern verwendet wird.

Mickaboo, das jedes Jahr Tausende für die Rettung der Vögel ausgibt, bittet die Bewohner, Rattengift nicht freizügig zu verstreuen, insbesondere nicht auf Dächern.

Im Marine Mammal Center, das das weltweit größte Krankenhaus für solche Tiere hat, forderte Ratner die Menschen, die sich für den Wettbewerb begeistern, auf, andere Schutzmaßnahmen zu unterstützen. „Wir werden Team Sea Lion bleiben, aber … ob es die Papageien sind, ob es das Meer ist Löwen, es gibt so viel, was wir tun können, um diese Tiere zu unterstützen.“

Obwohl Salty einräumte und Ratner sagte, sein Kontingent habe keine Pläne, den Aufsichtsrat zu einer erneuten Entscheidung zu bewegen, ist es nicht vorbei, bis es vorbei ist: Im Chronicle werden Knight und Hartlaub nächste Woche über die Abstimmung des Aufsichtsrats berichten.

„Politik in San Francisco kann wirklich animiert sein, wäre eine nette Art, es auszudrücken“, sagte Knight. „Ich wäre also nicht überrascht, wenn etwas Verrücktes passiert.“

The post Parrots edge sea lions to grow to be San Francisco’s official mascot appeared first on DAILY SAN FRANCISCO BAY NEWS.

Written by

Heather Erwin

M/V Sea Change has docked at Pier 9 in San Francisco (Credit: San Francisco Bay Ferry)

The much-anticipated zero-emission ferry M/V Sea Change, powered by hydrogen fuel cell technology, arrived in San Francisco over the weekend, where it will prepare to begin carrying passengers later this year.

Launched in August 2021 at All American Marine in Bellingham, Washington, the Sea Change is a 70-foot catamaran ferry designed by Incat Crowther and equipped with a Zero Emissions Industries (ZEI) hydrogen fuel cell system that includes 360 kW Fuel cells from Cummins and 242 kg hydrogen storage tanks from Hexagon Purus and a 600 kW electric propulsion system from BAE Systems that includes 100 kWh lithium-ion battery storage from XALT. The Hornblower Group was responsible for the construction management.

The ferry is operated by San Francisco Bay Ferry, which operates 16 ships to California cities such as Oakland, Richmond and Vallejo. The operator is working with U.S. Coast Guard officials in the Bay Area to obtain the necessary inspections and certifications needed to operate the vessel.

“We are finalizing plans for a demonstration pilot operation of M/V Sea Change, the world’s first hydrogen-electric passenger ferry, in the Bay Area,” said Thomas Hall, spokesman for San Francisco Bay Ferry. “San Francisco Bay Ferry has the cleanest, high-speed, high-capacity ferry fleet in the United States, but we are committed to moving toward a zero-emissions future. We plan to deliver our first zero-emission battery-powered electric ferries in the next few years and we are very excited to learn more about the potential of hydrogen fuel cells through this demonstration pilot. We look forward to announcing more in the coming months, including a date when the public can ride this state-of-the-art ferry.”

Peculiarities of the ferry

The 75-passenger ferry received gaseous hydrogen in its 500 lb (242 kg) tanks on the upper deck. It uses this hydrogen in fuel cells, which generate electricity to power electric motors for distances of up to 300 nautical miles, and can reach speeds of up to 20 knots – similar capabilities to diesel-powered vessels – with the added benefits of no exhaust smoke or other emissions and very little are emitted vibrations and noises.

The Sea Change project is managed and funded by SWITCH Maritime, an impact investment firm building the first fleet of solely zero-carbon seagoing vessels for takeover by existing vessel owners and operators.

The Sea Change was the first ship in the larger zero-carbon ferry fleet that SWITCH planned to build in 2022 in partnership with local authorities and shipowners looking to transition to zero-carbon ships. In the transition, they were able to leverage state grant funds related to transportation decarbonization activities targeted by the landmark US Infrastructure Act.

While the Sea Change isn’t the world’s first hydrogen-powered ferry, it is the first to use gaseous hydrogen in a fuel cell, rather than burning liquid hydrogen in an internal combustion engine. Among the advantages of using gaseous hydrogen is its availability. This is underscored by the fact that the fuel loaded into Sea Change’s tanks contains green hydrogen, produced in California by an electrolyser powered by renewable solar energy, so there is no CO2 in the production of the fuel -Emissions occur.

ZEI, formerly Golden Gate Zero Emission Marine, is responsible for the design and development of the first-of-its-kind marine hydrogen and fuel cell system on the Sea Change, as well as the ship’s unique refueling system that allows for direct refueling of hydrogen trucks and was responsible for the successful regulatory approval of all hydrogen-related aspects on board.

ZEI is a hydrogen technology company that develops and sells turnkey hydrogen power systems, advanced fuel cell balancing of plant subsystems, refueling systems and proprietary safety systems for a range of applications.

Categories: Ferries, News, Passenger, Uncategorized
tags: All American Marine, Ferry, Hornblower Group, Incat Crowther, San Francisco Bay Ferry, Sea Change, Shipyard, ZEI

The post Sea Change ferry arrives in San Francisco appeared first on DAILY SAN FRANCISCO BAY NEWS.

The signs were unmistakable as sick sea lions turned up one by one on the California coastline.

Some appeared to be unusually sluggish, weak and disoriented. Others displayed what is known as head-weaving behavior, with their snouts upturned as their necks tilted precariously to one side in a seemingly drunken sway. Many of the animals were foaming at the mouth; some were even convulsing from seizures.

Last month, the Marine Mammal Center’s 24-hour rescue hotline was flooded with hundreds of calls reporting sightings of the animals in distress, at one point receiving 144 calls in a single day, Giancarlo Rulli, a spokesperson for the Sausalito center, told SFGATE.

Rulli said that 75% to 80% of those calls were regarding individual sea lions in San Luis Obispo County alone, where the center’s team rescued 25 of the animals that they later determined had been sickened by an outbreak of domoic acid poisoning. Marine mammals can contract the naturally occurring neurotoxin through eating fish such as herring, anchovies and sardines, and once the toxin is in their bloodstream, it can lead to significant heart or brain damage, or even death.

Rulli told SFGATE the Marine Mammal Center was the first to diagnose a case of domoic acid poisoning in a sea lion because of a large outbreak in 1998, and since then has dealt with other outbreaks and mass stranding events on a much larger scale.

“That said, the logistics of transporting these mostly 150-200 pound subadult and adult marine mammals from our field office in Morro Bay to Sausalito — on an expedited timeframe due to their serious health condition — can still be challenging,” he said in an e-mail.

Torple, an adult female California sea lion rescued for domoic acid poisoning in San Luis Obispo County on Sept. 5, 2022, exhibits a common behavioral sign of the disease — head weaving — during rehabilitation at the Marine Mammal Center’s hospital and visitor center in Sausalito. The animal was successfully released back to the wild at Chimney Rock in Point Reyes National Seashore on Sept. 30, 2022.

Bill Hunnewell © The Marine Mammal Center

There is no known cure for domoic acid poisoning, though it can be eliminated through urinary excretion. Once the animals arrived at the Bay Area hospital, the Marine Mammal Center’s veterinary team administered a combination of fluids and non-contaminated fish to help flush the toxin from their systems. Some of the more severe cases also required anti-seizure medications.

“Thanks to the quick action of our teams in responding expeditiously to the sick sea lions and beginning immediate treatment, more than half of the sea lions have already been released back to the wild,” Rulli said, noting that the sea lions were still in rehabilitation at the hospital are on target to be returned to their habitat in the near future.

Experience the heartwarming moment of #MarineMammals returning to the wild wherever you are We launched a webcam that shares livestream video from @PointReyesNPS so you can see your support in action Text RELEASE to 65179 to be notified when patient releases are visible! pic.twitter.com/Qr7Ch5IZoX

— The Marine Mammal Center (@TMMC) September 29, 2022

Outbreaks of this nature in San Luis Obispo County aren’t considered unusual, especially during this time of year. The Marine Mammal Center has seen mass stranding events of a similar scale in the region three out of the past five years, and rescues anywhere between 60 and 80 sea lions sickened by domoic acid poisoning across its 600-mile response range on any given year.

“Although concerning to see these cases, it did follow a typical pattern of a late-summer spike in domoic acid cases in the region,” Rulli said. “One thing we do know is that the algae (Pseudo-nitzschia) thrives in unusually warm waters off the West Coast — ocean conditions that have become more frequent in recent years as we see the impacts of climate change increase.”

This event was not related to the algal bloom that spread across the San Francisco bay in late August. Sue Pemberton, a curatorial assistant who is also on the marine mammal response team at the California Academy of Sciences, said she had not observed high numbers of animals impacted by domoic acid toxicosis in the Bay Area.

But the bloom of pseudo-nitzschia in San Luis Obispo County did sicken sea lions in Southern California. And while the Marine Mammal Center said the event was not considered unusual in San Luis Obispo County, the Channel Islands Marine and Wildlife Institute called the outbreak “a crisis situation” in Santa Barbara and Ventura counties. A spokesperson for the rescue organization told SFGATE that volunteers came to the aid of more than 262 marine mammals sickened by domoic acid since Aug. 15, some of which required multiple field responses. Most of the affected animals were adult female sea lions, but they also encountered nine male sea lions, two Northern fur seals and one long-beaked common dolphin exhibiting the telltale symptoms of domoic acid toxicosis.

“This was a very difficult time for CIMWI’s all-volunteer team,” the spokesperson said in an email, noting that the organization was fielding 50-100 calls a day. “This strain was potent and much stronger than CIMWI has ever experienced. CIMWI saw more acute symptoms and higher rates of mortality on the beaches and with animals receiving treatment and supportive care.”

California sea lion needle (right) rests in a rehabilitation pool pen during treatment for domoic acid poisoning at the Marine Mammal Center’s hospital and visitor center in Sausalito. The adult female sea lion was successfully released back to the wild at Chimney Rock in Point Reyes National Seashore on Sept. 29, 2022.

Bill Hunnewell © The Marine Mammal Center

Sea lions can be the first animals to be affected by a toxic algal bloom, Rulli said. Because domoic acid can also sicken humans who eat contaminated fish and lead to amnesic shellfish poisoning, a life-threatening condition, the Marine Mammal Center provides data to the state’s public health department so it can closely monitor and issue warnings on seafood.

In the meantime, Rulli said, the center’s scientists are working to investigate the toxic algal bloom’s links with climate change and other environmental factors.

“The past experience of dealing with mass stranding events, including due to domoic acid poisoning, is invaluable and allows us to perform the logistics of the rescue, transport and animal care seamlessly,” said Aliah Meza, operations manager at The Marine Mammal Center’s Morro Bay field office. “Thanks to our dedicated response volunteers in coordination with our veterinary staff, we’re heartened to know that these sick animals are receiving a second chance to return to their ocean home.”

The post Tons of of sea lions sickened alongside Calif. shoreline appeared first on DAILY SAN FRANCISCO BAY NEWS.

• The Department of Defense’s mad scientist division is looking to develop a plane that can also harness the “wing-in-ground” effect.
• Nicknamed “Liberty Lifter,” the aircraft would skim the surface of the ocean for tremendous distances.
• The goal is an aircraft that can deliver heavy transport cargoes to remote islands and naval bases.

Last week, the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) announced a new project, one that should be familiar to aircraft—and ship—geeks. The Liberty Lifter seaplane transport will harness the “wing-in-ground effect” (WIG) that Soviet-era aircraft, including the infamous “Caspian Sea Monster,” utilized to carry cargo thousands of miles, across distances such as the Indian and Pacific oceans Although the technology has been tried and abandoned, DARPA seems to think it deserves a second look.

︎ You love badass plans. So there we go. Let’s nerd out over them together, join Pop Mech Pro.

Liberty Lifter “will combine fast and flexible strategic lift of very large, heavy loads with the ability to take off/land in water,” DARPA says in a May 18 press release. “Its structure will enable both highly controlled flight close to turbulent water surfaces and sustained flight at mid-altitudes,” the statement continues. The agency points out that traditional sealift using cargo ships is very efficient, but slow and reliable on the use of ports. Airlift is fast, but relies on airfields that in wartime would need to be captured first.

This content is imported from YouTube. You may be able to find the same content in another format, or you may be able to find more information, at their web site.

Liberty Lifter will utilize the WIG effect to travel, creating a craft that can carry transport ship-sized loads, flying much faster than a ship all while being able to take off and land from the water. WIG refers to the phenomenon where lift increases as a craft flies closer to the surface of Earth, while drag decreases; the zone is generally about as wide as the airplane’s wings. A craft operating in this very narrow zone is considerably more fuel efficient, using the same amount of fuel as a regular aircraft.

WIG craft are technically aircraft, using wings to generate lift, and travel at low aircraft speeds (350 miles an hour), but have boat-shaped hulls to take off and land in water. The aircraft look a little like conventional seaplanes, but traditionally cannot fly outside the WIG zone.

The Soviet Union developed several types of WIG craft during the Cold War, including the famous “Caspian Sea Monster.” Soviet WIG craft included variants that carried anti-ship missiles and others that could carry Soviet marines. One of the most famous examples was the Lun, colloquially known as the “Flying Sea Monster.” It was 240 feet long, 63 feet tall, and had a wingspan of 144 feet. It could carry 100 tons of troops and equipment at a top speed of 342 miles per hour to a range of up to 1,080 miles. It was also heavily armed, with six P-270 Moskit anti-ship missiles and four 23-millimeter automatic cannons. The largest Soviet WIG craft, the KM, was 301 feet long and had a top speed of 279 miles per hour.

TIGs had a couple of problems, though. One, they were limited to flying/sailing in relatively good weather and calm seas, as a tall wave could rise up to swat the aircraft in midair. Another problem was that the craft, like all aircraft, turned by banking, which raises one wing and lowers the opposite … potentially into the ocean. The problem was exacerbated by the fact that if a WIG tried to gain altitude to allow one wing to clear the surface, the craft would travel outside the ground-effect zone and lose altitude. As a result, WIG aircraft must turn very slowly—and carefully.

This content is imported from YouTube. You may be able to find the same content in another format, or you may be able to find more information, at their web site.

Mastery of ground-effect flight is so tricky that no country has conducted research and development on WIG craft since the end of the Cold War. Russia has shown off concepts and models for WIGs, but the actual crafts are vaporware. In 2002, Boeing announced it was studying a new concept aircraft, the Pelican, which could carry 1,400 tons of cargo up to 10,000 miles over water. Nothing came of that, either.

DARPA seems to have two solutions to the hazards of WIG flight. One is that the aircraft will be stout enough to take hits from the waves, using “innovative design solutions to absorb wave forces.” Second, if a Liberty Lifter encounters turbulent waters, it could simply fly over them: unlike other WIG craft, Liberty Lifter will be able to fly to a maximum of 10,000 feet.

A Liberty Lifter could simply approach a beach, lower a ramp, and disgorge armored vehicles and anti-ship missiles directly on the shore. Liberty Lifter would be particularly useful against China’s militarized islands in the South China Sea, which the US Marines have focused on like a laser in the event of a war. If DARPA can pull it off, a new generation of wing-in-ground effect could rewrite the rules on wartime logistics.

Kyle Mizokami
Writer on Defense and Security issues, lives in San Francisco.

This content is created and maintained by a third party, and imported onto this page to help users provide their email addresses. You may be able to find more information about this and similar content at piano.io

The post DARPA Is Transferring Ahead With a ‘Flying Sea Monster’ Craft appeared first on DAILY SAN FRANCISCO BAY NEWS.

]]> https://dailysanfranciscobaynews.com/darpa-is-transferring-ahead-with-a-flying-sea-monster-craft/feed/ 0