Emissions:
*Judge orders EPA to hurry on carbon monoxide -- The Bush administration has violated legal deadlines for updating the nation's clean-air standards on carbon monoxide, a federal judge in San Francisco has ruled. U.S. District Judge Jeffrey White told the Environmental Protection Agency on Monday to follow a schedule that would allow a full scientific review, public comment and any proposed changes in the standard to take place by May 2011. The EPA had proposed a timetable that would extend through October 2012. SF Chronicle 5/7/08
Maritime:
Reservoir boating in peril -- With invasive mussels infiltrating California's waterways, proposals are under consideration to temporarily ban boats from Santa Clara County reservoirs or simply inspect each watercraft for the pests that wreak havoc on the environment. Neither the Quagga or Zebra mussels have been found in county reservoirs yet, but local officials don't want to take any chances. SJ Mercury 5/7/08
Air travel:
*California Senate Passes Airport Land Use Bill -- The Aircraft Owners and Pilots Association tells ANN the California state senate passed S.B.1118, a bill aimed at strengthening the state's airport land-use laws. The pilot advocacy group says amendments, inconsistent administration, and rapidly growing pressure for urban development near airports have weakened California laws protecting airports from incompatible development. S.B.1118 would strengthen those laws by requiring all counties with at least one public-use airport to have an airport land-use commission. Aero-news 5/7/08
Infrastructure:
All aboard! A SLO-SF train is on the way -- A new passenger train route connecting San Luis Obispo County with downtown San Francisco—known as the Coast Daylight—is on track for service within a few years, thanks in part to constant lobbying by local transportation officials. Some $25 million has been allocated from Proposition 1B transit funds to cover the costs of the new route’s required signal improvements and sidings, where passenger trains can wait for freight trains to pass on the single track rail line, according to Pete Rodgers of the San Luis Obispo Council of Governments, SLOCOG. New Times 5/7/08
*Professor rips Caltrans over maze rebuild -- Caltrans should have been more concerned about public safety than public relations when it rebuilt the fire-blasted MacArthur Maze a year ago in an unfathomable 17 days, a UC Berkeley civil engineering professor said Wednesday evening. The professor made similar statements during the reconstruction effort, criticizing Caltrans for destroying debris that could help research the collapse, and for not considering a more thorough reconstruction of the damaged portion of the interchange. SF Chronicle 5/8/08
Transportation group wants community input at workshop tonight -- The Metropolitan Transportation Commission, which oversees transportation planning in the Bay Area, is holding a workshop tonight about its Transportation 2035 Change in Motion, Regional Transportation Plan. The purpose of the workshop is to introduce a proposed long-range plan and gather public input on the trade-offs among hundreds of proposed projects that include enhancements to Caltrain. SJ Mercury 5/8/08
*Disabled residents sue Caltrans -- People with disabilities are suing Caltrans over public sidewalks they control and maintain. They say Caltrans has failed to give the disabled "equal access" to the roadways. Caltrans says that access will cost billions. ABC 7 5/7/08
Consumers uninformed about tire efficiency -- Consumers are in the dark about tire efficiency. With no standardized rating available, consumers often unwittingly choose tires that hurt fuel economy. Others who upgrade to oversize rims and low-profile tires - which are known to increase fuel consumption - may not realize the price they're paying. SJ Mercury 5/8/08
Coast Guard:
'Ball was dropped' in Richmond spill response, police say -- Richmond officials learned of the city's 3,600-gallon toluene spill hours after the first report, and only after federal authorities requested a shelter-in-place order for a nearby neighborhood. Hand crews and vacuum trucks supervised by the U.S. Coast Guard cleaned water and soil along the marshy shore of San Pablo Bay on Tuesday. The Coast Guard expects the cleanup to last all week. SJ Mercury 5/6/08
$10 theft cost a $250,000 spill cleanup -- The 3,500-gallon spill of a toxic chemical into San Pablo Bay over the weekend cost an estimated $250,000 to clean up - and it was all for a lousy $10 worth of brass. The thieves who caused the spill of the chemical toluene at Reaction Products in Richmond were after the valves on holding tanks - the latest example of a crime wave involving barely precious metals that yield a few dollars at the recycling yard but can cost taxpayers big bucks. SF Chronicle 5/7/08
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