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Written by: Lake County News reports

Published: 18 January 2024

LAKE COUNTY, Calif. — The California Highway Patrol’s Clear Lake Area office is welcoming a new officer.

Officer Alex Zazueta is a newly promoted officer from the CHP Academy in West Sacramento.

Officer Zazueta was among more than 90 officers who graduated from the academy after 26 weeks of intense training on Jan. 5.

The CHP’s Clear Lake Area office said Officer Zazueta will receive extensive in-field training with experienced officers for approximately four months and later be on his own.

“Lake County is a unique area, different than larger metropolitan areas, with its own unique landscape and rural roadways that will test this officer’s skills. Our ultimate goal is to get all newly promoted officers ready to face the challenges they will encounter on a day-to-day basis so they can provide the highest level of Safety, Service, and Security to the people of California,” the agency said.

The CHP is hiring. For more information visit www.chpmadeformore.com.

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Written by: Lake County News reports

Published: 18 January 2024

The California Water Commission on Wednesday approved a white paper that contains potential strategies to protect communities and fish and wildlife in the event of drought.

The white paper is in support of Water Resilience Portfolio Action 26.3, and will be shared with the Secretaries for Natural Resources, Environmental Protection, and Food and Agriculture, who requested the commission’s engagement on this topic.

California is a drought-prone state. Climate change exacerbates drought conditions in California by creating hotter and drier baseline conditions, leading to more intense droughts.

Additionally, climate change is creating the conditions for “weather whiplash” — a phenomenon California experienced in the 2022-2023 water year, swinging rapidly from severe drought to record-breaking precipitation events and flooding.

To ensure California’s people and environment have sufficient water during times of drought, the State will need to adapt to this new normal of ongoing weather extremes.

“California has experienced two of the worst droughts in our state’s history in the last decade alone,” said Natural Resources Secretary Wade Crowfoot. “While we’ve invested billions across the state to become more drought resilient in light of this new reality, there’s more we need to do to prepare for the next drought, whenever it comes. These thoughtful recommendations by the Water Commission point the way forward and I’m eager to explore how these ideas can be applied in coming years.”

The commission’s work on drought is forward-looking. The strategies proposed by the commission integrate months of conversations with state agencies, experts, tribes, water users, interest groups, interested parties and the public.

The commission has taken the input it received and charted a through-line, developing four key strategies for augmenting California’s communities’ and fish and wildlife species’ drought resilience.

Those strategies are:

• Scale up groundwater recharge. During flood events, when all other water rights and environmental needs are met, channeling excess flows to groundwater recharge can build drought reserves. The State can help scale up groundwater recharge by planning and preparing for recharge during times of high flow, promoting recharge efforts through outreach and financial incentives, efficiently permitting recharge projects, supporting the infrastructure needed to conduct recharge, and continuing to apply lessons learned.

• Conduct watershed-level planning to reduce drought impacts to ecosystems. To enable fish and wildlife to be more resilient to drought, the State must support fish and wildlife during drought and work to recover ecosystem function during non-drought periods, supporting viable populations that can weather the next drought period. The State can help reduce drought impacts to fish and wildlife by improving water availability for species, advancing habitat restoration and conservation projects, integrating forest management into drought planning, and creating a plan to protect species during drought emergencies.

• Better position communities to prepare for and respond to drought emergencies. During drought, communities need resources to ensure that vulnerable community members are safe in times of crisis. In advance of drought, they need support to help abate future vulnerabilities to water scarcity by improving water systems and integrating water use into land use planning. The State can help communities prepare for and respond to drought by offering climate disaster funding, ramping up efforts to improve water system resilience and regional water solutions, and supporting integrated land and water planning.

• Support improved coordination, information, and communication in drought and non-drought years. In California, droughts need to be dealt with as a chronic phenomenon and not an occasional emergency. The State needs to continue to align its staff capacity, improve its data collection, and contextualize its drought communication, moving from a crisis mindset to recognizing drought as a natural and inevitable element of the state’s hydrologic cycle.

“Groundwater recharge to replenish our aquifers is a key water strategy for a hotter, drier future,” said California Department of Food and Agriculture Secretary Karen Ross. “It provides important ecosystem benefits, protects drinking water wells, and supports climate-resilient agriculture for healthy food production and thriving rural communities.”

The strategies and actions outlined in this paper are additive to the important work already underway by state agencies. The commission expects state decision-makers to weigh whether and when to move forward with these suggested strategies.

“Drought impacts all of California’s water users, but some — small, rural communities and fish and wildlife — are particularly vulnerable,” said Commissioner Sandra Matsumoto. “The strategies proposed by the commission will help the state protect these vulnerable water users in the event of drought. To move forward, water sectors, users, and managers must work together to minimize the impacts of drought on all Californians.”

The final white paper can be viewed here.

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Written by: Abieyuwa Aghayere, Drexel University

Published: 18 January 2024

 

Four recent catastrophic building collapses and a near miss are raising concerns about the state of America’s aging buildings and questions about who, if anyone, is checking their safety.

Many cities have buildings showing signs of aging and in need of repair. In New York City, where a seven-story apartment building partially collapsed in December 2023, the median building age is about 90 years, and many neighborhoods were built before 1900.

As a civil engineer, I study building failures, and I have seen how crucial structural inspections and careful maintenance are – and how often the signs of trouble are ignored in the U.S. until a problem becomes a crisis. Too often, it is up to residents to call attention to the risks.

Many disasters had clear warning signs

There were two common threads prior to many of the recent building collapses: visible signs of the defects that eventually led to the building’s demise and a history of documents submitted to city building departments clearly showing deteriorating conditions.

For example:

• In June 2021, the sudden collapse of the Champlain Towers South condominium in Surfside, Florida, killed 98 people and stunned the nation. Three years earlier, an engineers report had raised concerns about the structural integrity of concrete in the pool deck area that later collapsed, but the strength of the pool deck slab was not thoroughly investigated. Federal investigators in a 2023 preliminary report found that the original design of the pool deck did not follow building standards.

• In May 2023, three people died when part of a 116-year-old apartment building in Davenport, Iowa, collapsed. Inspectors pointed to a history of improper maintenance, and photos show clear signs of trouble, such as walls that were bowed.

• In April 2023, one person was killed when a New York City parking garage collapsed. The nearly-100-year-old building had several past violations, and its collapse triggered a swift check of similar garages that turned up more potential hazards.

In a near-miss, in November 2023, a large hole opened in the base of another New York City parking garage, offering a view to the Amtrak rail line below. It forced the closure of the line while the building was repaired.

What cities and states can do

Many buildings today are designed to last from as little as 50 years to over 100 years, depending on the materials used and assuming periodic maintenance and repairs.

Just as human beings need to see their physicians on a more regular basis as they age, older buildings also require more care and attention. That is even more important when they are exposed to adverse environmental conditions, such as corrosive de-icing salts in the Northeast and saltwater and salt air moisture in coastal regions.

Yet, inspections of buildings primarily happen only as they are being built, resold or remodeled. Policies vary by state, but there are currently few widespread mandated rules for structural inspections of entire existing buildings. Some exceptions are in Florida, where structural inspections are required for condominium and co-op buildings statewide at age 25 to 30 years, and every 10 years thereafter, and Jersey City, New Jersey, where periodic structural inspections are required every 10 years for all buildings. Several Florida cities and counties have extended the state-mandated periodic inspections to commercial buildings.

Some cities have enacted ordinances governing periodic inspections of specific structural elements, such as balconies and facades. And a few require periodic inspections or condition assessments for parking garages. After the Surfside condo tower collapse, the International Code Council initiated efforts to develop condition-assessment guidelines for existing buildings that local governments could choose to adopt.

Cities need to prioritize inspections

In each of the recent collapses, there were signs of the problems that, had they been addressed, might have prevented the tragedy.

In the New York City apartment building, a visible, vertical crack in the corner column, which should have been a glaring red flag, was ignored. The NYC Buildings Department commissioner recently said that “The Department of Buildings does not have enough of its own staff to inspect every building in New York City.”

This problem is not unique to New York. Building departments across the country are understaffed and have oversight challenges.

If increasing budgets for municipal inspection departments is not an option, another route is to contract with structural engineering firms to review submitted documents. While this comes at a cost, so do legal settlements after building disasters.

If cities and states enact periodic structural condition assessment rules for existing buildings within their jurisdiction, problems could also be spotted by expert inspectors before they develop into failures.

Insurance companies could also be a partner in this effort by requiring periodic inspection and maintenance by licensed design professionals as a condition of continuing coverage.

If you see something, say something

Residents also must adopt a more vigilant and proactive approach to identify and prevent structural problems.

Anyone can learn to identify the telltale signs of building deterioration and defects, though there may be some hidden structural deterioration behind architectural finishes that may not be visible. If these problems are spotted and addressed in a timely manner, that could help reduce the likelihood of structural failures and more costly repairs in the future.

If you see any of the following problems, report them to your landlord or the city building department – they could be signs of structural trouble:

• Water intrusion, ponding, leaks, water stains, rust stains and peeling paint on floors or ceilings.

• Sagging floors, roofs and ceilings and bulging or bowed walls.

• Cracks that are expanding in elevated floors or roof slabs, walls, beams and columns.

• Cracks on a floor slab that create a trip hazard, or wall cracks, which may be the result of the foundation settling.

• Chunks of concrete falling from slabs, beams, walls and columns; and exposed rusted steel reinforcement.

• Rusting or corroded steel beams and columns.

• Balconies where the rainwater drains toward the interior of the building, rather than away from it.

• Rotted wood structural parts, such as floor joists or wall studs.

Everyone needs to understand the warning signs and be willing to speak up so officials and building owners take the necessary steps to stem this scary tide and protect residents.

Our buildings are talking to us, and in some cases crying out for help – it’s time everyone listened.

Abieyuwa Aghayere, Professor of Structural Engineering, Drexel University

This article is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons license. Read the original article.