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- Written by: Lake County News reports
NORTHERN CALIFORNIA – Firefighters on Friday were mopping up a fire of undetermined origin that broke out Thursday morning in the State Water Project’s Ronald B. Robie Thermalito Pumping-Generating plant near Oroville.
There were no injuries in the fire, which will not affect water deliveries.
Fire at the plant, four miles west of Oroville in Butte County, was detected about 7 a.m. Thanksgiving day, and was responded to by Cal Fire and local agency firefighters, who brought the flames under control late this morning.
Firefighters on Thursday were forced out of the burning building by life-threatening dangers from collapsing equipment, zero visibility and other conditions, the Department of Water Resources said. There were no personnel in the plant when the fire started.
On Friday firefighters reported fire and smoke damage to the third and fourth floors of the five-story building, and smoke damage to the top floor. There was no damage to the bottom two floors of the structure. All but the top floor of the building are underground.
Monetary and equipment damage from the fire are not yet known, the Department of Water Resources said. After structural engineers declare the building clear of hazards, Department of Water Resources crews will determine the extent of damage. The plant will resume operation as soon as possible.
The plant is operated in tandem with Hyatt Powerplant beneath Oroville Dam and the nearby Thermalito Diversion Dam power plant to produce electrical power to pump State Water Project (State Water Project) water.
The State Water Project delivers water to more than 25 million Californians and nearly a million acres of irrigated farmland.
The damaged plant normally produces about 5 percent of the State Water Project’s electrical output. If necessary, the Department of Water Resources, which owns and operates the State Water Project, will purchase additional power to compensate for generating loss.
Water released from Lake Oroville behind Oroville Dam can be diverted around the damaged pumping-generating plant, minimizing any impact to water deliveries.
In normal operations, water released from Lake Oroville in excess of what is needed to generate power at the pumping-generating plant is pumped back into storage in the lake to be used again for hydropower generation.
In addition to Cal Fire, the fire at the plant was responded to by crews from the cities of Oroville and Chico, and Butte County.
The Department of Water Resources operates and maintains the State Water Project, provides dam safety and flood control and inspection services, assists local water districts in water management and water conservation planning, and plans for future statewide water needs.
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- Written by: Dr. Tony Phillips
Deep in the heart of the spiral Milky Way galaxy, a hot vortex of matter swirls around a black hole more than a million times as massive as the sun.
Many galaxies, perhaps all, contain such a “monster in the middle.” These supermassive black holes sustain themselves by swallowing stars, planets, asteroids, comets and clouds of gas that wander by the crowded galactic core.
NASA’s NuSTAR spacecraft recently caught the Milky Way’s central black hole in the act of having a snack.
“We got lucky and captured an outburst from the black hole during our [first] observing campaign,” said Fiona Harrison, the mission’s principal investigator at the California Institute of Technology.
NuSTAR is an orbiting observatory designed to take pictures of violent, high-energy phenomena in the universe.
Launched on June 13, 2012, it is the only telescope capable of producing focused images of the highest-energy X-rays produced by dying stars and ravenous black holes.
“It’s like putting on a new pair of glasses and seeing aspects of the world around us clearly for the first time,” said Harrison.
NuSTAR’s first light image of Cygnus X-1, a black hole in our galaxy that is siphoning gas off a giant-star companion, shows what she’s talking about: http://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/nustar/news/nustar20120628.html .
NuSTAR’s sharp vision allowed it to pinpoint a burst of hard X-rays coming from the galactic center during an observing campaign in July.
Lower-energy X-ray observations by NASA’s Chandra X-ray Observatory and infrared data from the Keck telescope in Hawaii confirmed the outburst. The Milky Way’s black hole had just swallowed ... something.
Black hole snacks are a violent process in which the “meal” is ripped apart by powerful tides and heated to millions of degrees as it slides down the gullet of the gravitational singularity.
In this case, NuSTAR picked up X-rays emitted by matter being heated up to about 100 million degrees Celsius.
The observation raises hopes that astronomers will be able to solve a long-standing mystery: Why is the Milky Way’s supermassive black hole such a picky eater?
Compared to giant black holes at the centers of other galaxies, the Milky Way’s is relatively quiet. More active black holes tend to gobble up matter in prodigious quantities. Ours, on the other hand, is thought only to nibble or not eat at all.
Asteroids could be a primary food source. One model holds that trillions of asteroids surround the Milky Way’s core.
Astronomers using the Chandra X-ray Observatory have indeed detected flares consistent with asteroids 10 kilometers wide or larger falling into the black hole.
These space rocks would be about the same size as the asteroid that wiped out the dinosaurs on Earth 65 million years ago. Smaller space rocks might be falling in, too, but their flares would be too weak for Chandra to detect.
NuSTAR brings something new to the problem. With its unprecedented ability to detect and make focused images of X-ray flares, the telescope will almost certainly help astronomers understand what’s happening deep in the core of our galaxy. The monster’s menu might soon be revealed.
For more information about NuSTAR and its focused observations of black holes, visit the mission’s home page at www.nustar.caltech.edu .
Dr. Tony Phillips works for the National Aeronautics and Space Administration.
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- Written by: Elizabeth Larson
CLEARLAKE, Calif. – An early morning house fire on Friday displaced a Clearlake family and did significant damage to the structure.
The home, located at the corner of Cypress and Crawford, was reported to be on fire between 1:30 a.m. and 2 a.m. Friday, according to Lake County Fire Protection District Battalion Chief George Murch.
Murch said the older two-story, wood frame home was 30 to 40 percent involved when firefighters arrived.
Seven people were living in the home, including five adults, a 17-year-old male and a 2-year-old. Everyone but the teen was home at the time the fire was reported, Murch said.
He said the family's 21-year-old daughter suffered smoke inhalation while trying to rescue their pets, and the mother had first- and second-degree burns on her hands from trying to get out of the house. The only two ways out, he added, were through the fire area.
“They just barely got out,” Murch said.
All of the home's occupants got out except for one of the family's dogs, according to Murch.
Murch said three Lake County Fire engines and a water tender responded, along with one engine from Northshore Fire.
He said it took firefighters about 30 minutes to knock the fire down. While the home wasn't destroyed, he said it was badly damaged by the fire, particularly the back of the structure. Smoke damage was throughout.
Firefighters also had trouble isolating the home's electrical source, Murch said. About 30 minutes into the incident Pacific Gas & Electric was able to locate a panel and shut the power off.
The fire displaced the residence's family, Murch said. “They're getting some assistance from Red Cross.”
He said an investigator is expected to be on the scene on Friday. So far, they believe the cause was accidental, with the fire originating in a bedroom.
Murch estimated total damages to be as high as $40,000.
Email Elizabeth Larson at
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- Written by: Elizabeth Larson
LAKE COUNTY, Calif. – Lake Transit Authority is among a number of public transit agencies and projects statewide that have been awarded funding to expand services to low-income residents who use buses to commute to work.
Caltrans said it has awarded approximately $17,465,068 to 105 public transit projects across California under the Job Access & Reverse Commute and New Freedom programs.
The agency said the projects that received the funds are designed to help low-income people and those with disabilities to access employment and employment-related activities such as job training and job interviews more easily. It also includes transporting people to employment opportunities in suburban areas and city centers.
“We want to make it easier for people to get to work,” said Caltrans Director Malcolm Dougherty. “People who rely on transit will have more opportunities, and that’s the point of a good transit system.”
Lake Transit received $250,000 to pay for expanding is service hours to 10 p.m. or after for service to Clearlake, Lakeport, Lower Lake, Clearlake Oaks, Glenhaven, Lucerne, Nice, Upper Lake and Kelseyville.
The total estimated cost of expanding Lake Transit’s services hours is $378,438, according to a Caltrans report.
In addition, Lake Transit received $54,000 to fully cover services for seniors that include nonemergency medical transportation trips, senior center and project partner shuttles, door‐to‐door trips, volunteer driver and pay‐your‐pal programs serving Lakeport, Upper Lake, Nice, Lucerne, Glenhaven, Clearlake Oaks and Clearlake.
Over the past several years Lake Transit has experienced record-breaking ridership as gas prices and the troubled economy have made riding the bus a more economical and reliable option, as Lake County News has reported.
Lake Transit General Manager Mark Wall told Lake County News in a previous interview that passenger fares – which went up at the start of this year – account for only 25 percent of the transit agency’s income, with state funds and federal grants making up the other 75 percent.
The agency has managed to expand its services, rather than make significant cuts as have been seen in other areas, by successfully going after state and federal money.
In June, Lake Transit received $1,366,525 for five replacement buses, which followed an October 2011 state transportation bond fund award of $309,288, also for upgrades to its aging fleet, as Lake County News has reported.
In addition to pursuing grants to expand its routes and purchase new buses, Lake Transit also amassed half a million dollars in grant funding over a several-year period that helped pay for new shelters and benches around the county.
Other projects around the North Coast and among Lake’s neighboring counties that received funds included:
- $174,708 for continuation of the Mendocino Transit Authority’s highly successful evening bus service;
- $100,000 to Yolo County Transportation District for operating assistance to continue service on Route 215, which provides service to low income and rural individuals to access employment;
- $300,000 to to Yolo County Transportation District to continue evening, weekend and holiday service on Route 42, which services Sacramento International Airport;
- $101,000 to Petaluma Transit to begin fixed route and complementary paratransit service on selected routes on Sundays.
For more about Lake Transit, its routes and schedules, visit www.laketransit.org .
Email Elizabeth Larson at