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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 »


Steelhead Lose Again at Carmel River Mouth

January 11, 2016

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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 »


Coastal Commission to Weigh in on Carmel Beach Fires

December 8, 2015

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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 »


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.

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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 »


More Monterey Peninsula Residential Water Use Data

October 14, 2015

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Throughout the year, we’ve been posting, on a monthly basis, the average number of gallons used per person per day by residents of the Monterey Peninsula’s Cal Am service area, together with how that compares to other cities and water districts throughout the state.

Why? Read the rest of this entry »


Is a Garrapata State Park Trail Being Ceded to a Mexican Drug Cartel?

September 2, 2015

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Yesterday morning, Friends of Garrapata, the volunteers who work tirelessly to keep Garrapata State Park wild and graffiti free, and its trails in usable condition, posted the above graphic to their Facebook page with the following text:

WARNING

Please stay clear of the Peak Trail until October.

While environmentally destructive backcountry marijuana grows are indeed a serious problem – that could be solved overnight by legalization – and it’s certainly worth being cautious while traveling off trail in places that might be attractive to growers, this post stands out as strange for several reasons. Read the rest of this entry »


Car Week

August 19, 2015

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Concours d’Arrogance: America’s premier celebration of the lifestyle that’s destroying the planet.

My great-grandfather, Alec Eells, was a San Francisco attorney in the 1890’s. That is, his office was in San Francisco. His actual business was all over the state. He needed to be in Sacramento one day, Santa Barbara the next, then back to San Francisco for an early court session, etc. I know this because he kept a careful diary. Read the rest of this entry »


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