Welcome to Monitor Notes, a weekly roundup of news items, event announcements, and updates on past Bay Area Monitor articles.
Recipe for Averting Disaster
You’ve got until March 19 to comment on a draft hazard mitigation plan developed by the Metropolitan Transportation Commission and eight transit agencies. The plan will help lower the impacts from potential hazards like climate change, dam failure, drought, earthquake, flood, landslide, pandemic, public safety power shutoff (PSPS), tsunami, and wildfire. The work sets the stage for public policies that lessen the potential loss of life, property damage, and environmental degradation from natural hazards in the Bay Area. Policies also aim to spur the region’s economic recovery from the above list of concerns.
Power Planning
Given California’s devastating wildfire history, utilities also are trying to better prepare themselves and the public. So check out a March 29 California Public Utilities Commission workshop in which three utilities will discuss their PSPS execution and performance. Representatives from Pacific Gas and Electric Company, San Diego Gas & Electric, and PacifiCorp will speak about lessons learned from 2020 and planned improvements for the 2021 wildfire season. The event runs from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. Scan the agenda ahead of time for presentation specifics and to find out when public comments begin.
Into the Groundwater
As the state faces a “critically dry water year,” Department of Water Resources (DWR) officials are asking residents to read California’s Groundwater – Update 2020 and provide input, according to a news release. The draft explains the condition of the state’s groundwater, which is important to local water agencies and communities working on solutions for the long-term reliability of groundwater basins. Groundwater accounts for 41 percent of the state’s total annual water supply on an average basis and up to 58 percent of the total annual water supply in drought years. To help people absorb the update, the DWR will present an overview at a public meeting on March 30 at noon. Click here for draft details and to share feedback.
Prescribing Nature
Need a breather after thinking about wildfire, groundwater, and potential hazards? Regional coalition TOGETHER Bay Area is hosting an online discussion on March 26 at 10 a.m. to talk about the role of nature on mental and physical health and what’s known about COVID-19 transmission outside. It’s invited back experts who spoke last year during one of the first events TOGETHER Bay Area held as part of its work toward climate-resilient lands and social equity. Those experts are Dr. Curtis Chan (pictured), deputy health officer for San Mateo County Public Health, and Dr. Nooshin Razani, a University of California, San Francisco professor of epidemiology and biostatistics.
League Day Recording Drops
Did you miss “Equity in Action,” the 2021 League Day event with the League of Women Voters of the Bay Area? Then consider watching a recording of the March 6 gathering. You can draw some inspiration from a range of speakers and plug into the panels for ideas about equity data, tools, and implementation.
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Banner photo by Karl Nielsen.