The Wayback Machine - https://web.archive.org/web/20160324143011/http://xasauantoday.com/posts/
 

More Water Needed in South County Reservoirs

March 15, 2016

IMG_0714

High water doesn’t last long on the volatile Nacimiento River

News of reservoirs reaching capacity has been coming in from around Northern and Central California this week but, for the Salinas Valley, water remains a problem.

As of this morning, the San Antonio Reservoir holds a measly 18,875 acre feet of water. That’s just 6% of capacity and more than 4,000 acre feet less than what’s considered to be its “minimum pool.” Since the lake hit its all-time low of 10,254 acre feet at the beginning of the year, El Niño rains have added less than 9,000 acre feet to storage. And there isn’t a lot of rainy season left. Read the rest of this entry »

4 Comments | Fire, Flood & Apocalypse, Santa Lucias, Water | Tagged: , , , , , | Permalink
Posted by xasauan

The Sorry State of Water Conservation on the Monterey Peninsula

February 5, 2016

For years local officials have waived off suggestions that the Monterey Peninsula could do more to save water by falsely claiming that “residents of the Monterey Peninsula use less water per person per day than anywhere else in the state.” They’ve even gone so far as to publish fraudulent figures purporting to support this claim.

The purpose of this grandiose bragging has been to promote approval of as large and growth-inducing a new water project, whether dam or desal, as possible. That effort appears to have succeeded, but at the cost of undercutting efforts to increase water conservation. Read the rest of this entry »

3 Comments | Carmel River, Fire, Flood & Apocalypse, Fungus, Politics, Water | Permalink
Posted by xasauan

Steelhead Lose Again at Carmel River Mouth

January 11, 2016

IMG_0450

Slowly rising lagoon

A few days ago, everything was working out perfectly for the Carmel River’s remnant steelhead population. With the San Clemente Dam gone, the door was open for more young steelhead smolts to safely reach the lagoon, and eventually the sea, than had been possible for many years. Then, relatively gentle rains put enough flow in the river to provide easy fish passage from the higher elevation tributaries to the lagoon, but not enough to breach the high summer sandbar at the lagoon mouth. Behind the bar, the slowly filling lagoon was becoming an ideal habitat for young steelhead to undergo the rapid growth and physiological changes necessary to survive at sea. Read the rest of this entry »

3 Comments | Carmel River, Coastal Development/Erosion, Fire, Flood & Apocalypse, Politics | Tagged: , | Permalink
Posted by xasauan

November Surf in December

December 11, 2015

IMG_0174

A swell that peaked at 30 feet last night combined with a 6.5 foot high tide to bring ground-shaking waves ashore on Carmel Point this morning. Read the rest of this entry »

1 Comment | Coastal Development/Erosion, Fire, Flood & Apocalypse | Tagged: , , , , , | Permalink
Posted by xasauan

Coastal Commission to Weigh in on Carmel Beach Fires

December 8, 2015

IMG_4121

Carmel Beach

If you’re sitting at a city council meeting and hear the mayor proudly describe how he got the head of a government agency to write a letter threatening to take enforcement action against the city, you’re probably not really in Bizarro World or the Twilight Zone; you’re just in Carmel and the item on the agenda is beach fires. Read the rest of this entry »

6 Comments | Coastal Development/Erosion, Politics | Tagged: , | Permalink
Posted by xasauan

Carmel Prepares to Ban Beach Fires Once and For All

November 30, 2015

DSC06787

A summer evening on the Carmel Beach

If there’s one activity that pretty much defines what it means to be human, it’s sitting around a fire. Your parents did it, their parents did it, and so did everyone else in your family tree going back for as many as 1.7 million or more years – a time long before anyone remotely resembling a modern person even existed. Until quite recently, it was something that nearly everyone did nearly every day. Read the rest of this entry »

1 Comment | Coastal Development/Erosion | Permalink
Posted by xasauan

Saint Serra: Vandalism & Genocide

October 25, 2015

On September 23, the day the Pope declared Junípero Serra a saint, between 20 and 30 people, mostly Native Americans, gathered in the Carmel Mission cemetery to pay respect to Serra’s victims.

The Mission cemetery is small and picturesque; a handful of “Indian Graves” marked by crude wooden crosses and lined with abalone shells. This is all for show.

IMG_4324

In reality, there are no individual graves here. This is a mass grave and the soil under foot is rich with human bone fragments. Read the rest of this entry »

6 Comments | History, Politics, Religion | Tagged: , , , | Permalink
Posted by xasauan

« Previous Entries
Follow

Get every new post delivered to your Inbox.

Join 128 other followers