What we can do - events this weekend

What we can do...

A few environmental events this weekend:

1. "Flow" Coastal-Watershed Council - Free Environmental Film Series -- 6:30 PM Friday Dec. 11 in the Santa Cruz Harbor Community Meeting Room, 365 Lake Ave. (harbor side)
   
   
2. Candle Light Vigil - Sat Dec 12 - 4 pm - Clock Tower
   
   
   
3. Sounds of 350 - Sun Dec 13 - Interlight Service (Soquel)

First Flush - Red Alert, a night of waiting

First came the Red Alert, Monday Oct 12 - Just before 5 pm.
If anyone can remember that far back, it rained in the early evening.   But that wasn't the real thing.

Instead, it stopped and  I got a phone call about 8 pm or so from Nancy at Coastal Watershed who said the storm was coming from the north, and they were in Aptos.   They had no one in Santa Cruz to help them "call" the event, could I help?  "Ok, sure"


THEN, Nancy explained the real storm was expected sometime between midnight and 6 am.  "Hmmm, ok, " I said.  Could I, she asked, check for rain about once each hour.  In the mean time, she said, I could watch the storm on radar.    "Ok, I said - could be fun."


I didn't mind dedicating my night's sleep to science and the environment, but unfortunately I have no internet at home.   So I got a ride to the 24 hour dinner on Ocean and explained to the manager I was hoping to stay through the night for "First Flush."    "Yeah, sure, ok", was the reply.   "We now have wi-fi internet."


So I settled in.   Ordered something expensive on the menu and a lot of coffee.   But when came time for internet and radar, the manager said, "Oh, it's new and some people have problems."  


Well, I had problems.  So, no internet, no radar, but a good meal and I did some reading.   The hours started to tick by.  A little drizzle, but not the real thing.   Nancy was watching the radar and calling me every so often.



By 2 am, it started to rain again and a little wind, but not too serious.  I stayed in touch with Nancy.


But soon after this, the night crew at the diner reminded me that the limit was 2 hours.  I tried to explain the previous manager had ok'd this and I was doing this for science.  The night manager, a small, gentle looking woman but with a no-nosense attitude  who has heard it all before, said she didn't know anything about that.


I suppose I could have stayed, but the rain and wind were just starting to kick up and I made an executive decision:   "go home, before it really rains."  


So after 3 am, I made the slow march across the river, down a very subdued and increasingly wet Pacific Avenue toward home on Beach Hill.  It was kind of nice, actually.



By 4 am, I was home - soaked and cold. But still little wind and not a hard rain, yet. In fact, it seemed to tappering off.  Nancy said it really hadn't started much in Aptos but they could see on radar it was imminent in Aptos.    Then she disappeared.

If she "called" it too early, or worse the rain stopped, then there would a lot of volunteers handing around the watershed without enough runoff to collect meaningful samples.   Call it too late and maybe too much of the gunk has already runoff and we've missed the First Flush.



By 4:15 am or so, like a fool in the rain, which had begun again,  I sent another text message.  "You, ok?"   And got the reply, "we're calling it"


In another minute, I was nearly knocked over by a gust of wind - "Hey, this is getting serious - Mother Nature is angry"  and made haste to get inside the door, and to bed.   


Lucky me because about 50 others were being awakened with a chain of phone calls - "Get up, it's raining, go to your site! This is First Flush." 



The Red Alert follows, and then the note from Nancy after it was all over:

Hello Fabulous First Flush volunteers!

This is a Red Alert: We expect the First Flush to happen tonight – see the latest note from Jason:

Get ready for a big storm, this one may actually live up to the hype.  This morning's data indicate this storm is zeroing straight in on the central coast with very strong winds and heavy rain. 

The radar looks clear so at most a few showers may go through this afternoon but nothing much.  Extrapolating satellite motion puts it in here sometime between midnight and 6am.  I would start watching the radar after midnight though.  The rain front should be pretty obvious with this one.  Importantly, rain could be slow to develop in Monterey because this area tends to be rain shadowed in southeasterly wind regimes.  Keep an eye out the window for this.  Given the strength of the storm, rain will pick up and become moderate to heavy, even in Monterey by mid morning. 

Once again be careful, this is a potentially dangerous storm.

Here are a couple of links to help you watch the weather.

Satellite: Naval Research Lab

http://www.nrlmry.navy.mil/sat_products.html

(click on "west coast & EPAC")

Radar:  National Center for Atmospheric Research

http://www.rap.ucar.edu/weather/radar/

This site also has some satellite and weather model data

National Weather Service

http://www.wrh.noaa.gov/mtr/

Jason Nachamkin

Research Scientist

Naval Research Laboratory

First Flush - Yellow Alert, Gunk in Storm Drains

People from wetter parts of the US may not appreciate just how important water is in California.  After all, Mark Twain wrote that in the west whiskey is for drinking; water is for fighting.    And in Los Angeles, even litigation  is  considered cheaper than the water itself.

Indeed, in Sacramento they're fighting over Central Valley water.

In Santa Cruz there is seldom any rain in summer, never a violent afternoon thunderstorm and lightening storm to bring some relief like in the humid east.  (No need: no humidity here.)  But the fire danger is real and grows throughout the summer.  Plus this year is 3rd year of serious California drought.  Water is what makes California lush.  Winter is the wet season.

So the possibility of the first fall rain has been the subject of many overheard conversations.   Apparently, some are so excited they've begun to wash cars, water lawns, hose down sidewalks despite drought conditions in effect.

Late Friday, I got the first email from coastal-watershed.org to prepare for First Flush, the volunteer program to take samples of water emerging from storm drains and flowing into the watershed and then ocean.   Gunk, a precise scientific term, has been accumulating all summer on our roads, sidewalks, parking lots.   It includes oils, paints, pet waste, bacteria, metals from car brakes and anything else that finds its into the storm drains (Right, the drains that often say something like "Don't dump, flows to the Bay.").   So we'll be getting samples of the 'gunk' for lab tests.    More info in a previous post.

I've been assigned to here, near Lighthouse field.

And here's the 'Yellow Alert', we're all watching the weather.

Hello ALL FIRST FLUSH VOLUNTEERS,


We are at this time on YELLOW ALERT and beginning to mobilize for the First Flush. This is the time to get your gear together and by the door!
At this time it looks like the real event may happen sometime between Monday, 10/12 evening and Tuesday, 10/13. Current weather models show the first storm coming through on Monday evening and the second stronger one early on Tuesday. This could be in the wee hours of the morning – but just think of driving through Santa Cruz without traffic! This alert could change to red at any time as the reports are getting more positive as the hours go by. Please check your email frequently over the weekend.
Here is the latest from our weather expert in Monterey:

Flrst Flush, watershed montoring, quality at beaches - data

Despite today's heat, my boots, flashlight, rain gear are ready at the door.   I am waiting for a day or night phone call from Coastal Watershed Council that rain is coming and First Flush is on.

 

Our 12 teams are ready; we've been to an orientation and then did a 'dry run' early this past Saturday morning with buckets, PH strips, water collection bottles, ice chests, conductivity meters and boots (well, except me - I forgot.)  

 

With mother nature's cooperation, sometime in October summer will truly end in Santa Cruz and we'll get our first significant rain.  When that happens, day or night, our band of volunteers, supplemented by a Cabrillo group plus numerous veterans, will report to 3 Hubs and disburse into predefined locations  where urban storm water reaches the watershed, that is our creeks, rivers, streams.  Here we'll measure the first water run offs complete with materials that have been collecting all summer on our dry roads, sidewalks, and parking lots.  [Last week's unanticipated downpour was considered a 'late summer rain', though the exact distinction is a little vague to me.]

 

Why measure things like urea, bacteria, heavy metals?   Bottom line:  city runoff is dirty, filled with toxins, elevated bacteria levels, stuff from leaky sewers, metals from our car's break pads.  We don't exactly know how much or what substances.

 

While drinking water is treated, regulated and closely monitored  (and very good in Santa Cruz), and similarly sewage discharge is treated and regulated, there is scant monitoring or regulation of what comes off city streets and sidewalks and flows into the watershed.  That's why you see "No dumping, flows to the Bay" on storm drains.   Our roads and sidewalks are impermeable to water.   So every fall when the first flush comes, everything collecting from summer - things like bacteria from dog poop, copper, magnesium, lead from cars, detergents, pesticides from your garden - flows in one big blast into the storm drains, into the pipes and directly into the watershed.   

 

During First Flush, we'll be waiting at the other end of these storm drain pipes to catch what comes out. With impermeable streets it can't go too many other places. Yuck!

The non-profit Coastal Watershed Council has been monitoring watersheds since 1996.  They work closely with the EPA, state and central coast cities and counties through grants and contracts to provide local technical advice, monitoring, outreach and stewardship programs and maintain a website data portal.    Here's their Google map.  (Click on the map, find your watershed.)

Watershed management is a relatively new field, and complex, since water of course water is all connected.   With only a total staff of 4,  they now offer First Flush, Urban Watch, Snapshot programs.  Debie Chirco-Macdonald and Nancy Scarborough run the First Flush program.

What can we do?  Think about your 'water footprint.'

• 
  

  Never pour oils, chemicals, liquids or even dog poop down a storm drain.

  Pick up pet waste

  
  
• Before the first rain (like, soon) sweep your driveway and gutters and compost an organic materials.   (Decaying vegetation affects oxygen levels.)
• Think about home runoff:  Can you "Slow it?  Sink it?  Spread it?"  Capture rainwater from the roof?
• Use safer laundry detergents
• Volunteer or contribute to help our watersheds

As to First Flush, we have a betting pool to pick the date and time of first flush rain.  At this moment I'm still dry, drinking cool tap water.

Remember our water is safe, but it is all connected.   Be a good water steward in your home.

First Flush; Coastal Watershed Council ( CWC)

(On the Google Map, find your watershed first)

Background: DanHaifley's Sentinel piece about First Flush

Background: water runoff in Massachusetts

Water Quality: Calif, Waterboards

Water Quality: County, same info, different format

Water Quality: Tests from Surfrider's Santa Cruz

Another Sentinel article about water quality websites