Gov. Edmund G. Brown Jr. on Wednesday announced the appointment of Martha Guzman Aceves and Clifford Rechtschaffen to the California Public Utilities Commission, replacing Michael Florio and Catherine Sandoval whose six-year terms expire on Jan. 1.
 
"Martha has the experience, know-how and insight to well serve the people of California at the Public Utilities Commission,” said Gov. Brown. “Cliff’s experience as a lawyer, teacher and specialist in environmental and energy matters equips him to do an outstanding job on the commission. Both have sound judgment and a commitment to protecting ratepayers and ensuring safe, reliable and climate-friendly energy in California."
 
Guzman Aceves, 39, of Sacramento, has been a deputy legislative affairs secretary in the Office of the Governor since 2011, focusing on natural resources, environmental protection, energy and food and agriculture.

She was sustainable communities program director for the California Rural Legal Assistance Foundation from 2005 to 2016. From 2006 to 2008, she worked with Swanton Berry Farm on human resources issues including a new employee-stock ownership program.

She was legislative coordinator for United Farm Workers from 1999 to 2005, working on labor and environmental issues. In 2010 she co-founded Communities for a New California, a charitable organization promoting increased civic engagement of underrepresented communities.

Guzman Aceves earned a Master of Science degree in agricultural and resource economics from the University of California, Davis. Guzman Aceves is a Democrat.
 
Rechtschaffen, 59, of Oakland, has served as a senior advisor in the Office of the Governor since 2011, where he has worked on climate, energy and environmental issues. In 2011, he also served as acting director of the California Department of Conservation.

Rechtschaffen served as special assistant attorney general in the California Department of Justice, Attorney General's Office from 2007 to 2010.

From 1993 to 2007, he taught environmental law, directed the environmental law program and co-founded the Environmental Law and Justice Clinic at Golden Gate University School of Law. In 2005 he was a Fulbright Scholar at the University of Ljubljana in Slovenia.

He is the author of several books and numerous articles on environmental law and policy. He was a deputy attorney general in the Environment Section of the California Department of Justice, Attorney General's Office from 1986 to 1993, Reginald Heber Smith Community Lawyer Fellow at the Marin County Legal Aid Foundation from 1985 to 1986 and a law clerk for the Honorable Thelton Henderson at the U.S. District Court, Northern District of California from 1984 to 1985.

He earned a Juris Doctor degree from Yale Law School. Rechtschaffen is a Democrat.

Guzman Aceves and Rechtschaffen will join Michael Picker, Carla J. Peterman and Liane M. Rudolph on the commission.
 
Public utilities commissioners serve six-year terms, require Senate confirmation and the compensation is $142,095 by statute.

LAKEPORT, Calif. – Join the Friends of the Lake County Museum for a New Year's celebration at the Historic Courthouse Museum from 2 to 4 p.m. Saturday, Jan. 7.

The staff at the Historic Courthouse Museum will be present to answer questions and show off all that they have planned for the museum in 2017.

Many of the great things donated to the museum in 2016 will also be available for viewing by attendees.

Get a sneak peek at the upcoming exhibits and events, too – a great way to mark your 2017 calendars in advance so you don’t miss out on all the activities planned at the museum.

This afternoon event also offers a chance to learn more about what the Friends of the Lake County Museum does and how you could be a part of this great group of people who help support the museum.

There will be hot cider and homemade goodies, and an opportunity to relax after the stressful holiday season.

This event is free and open to the public and will start at 2 p.m. but the cider and treats will be available the whole afternoon.

The museum is wheelchair-accessible.

The Historic Courthouse Museum is located at 255 N. Main St., Lakeport, telephone 707-263-4555.

The California Department of Water Resources will conduct its first media-oriented manual snow survey of Water Year 2017 at 11 a.m. on Jan. 3 at Phillips Station, just off Highway 50 near Sierra-at-Tahoe Road approximately 90 miles east of Sacramento.

Electronic readings of the Sierra Nevada mountain snowpack on Tuesday peg its statewide water content at 10.5 inches, 72 percent of the December 27 average.
 
The Phillips snow course, which has been measured each winter since 1941, is one of dozens that will be traversed during a 10-day period around Jan. 1 to determine the water content of the snowpack, which normally contributes about 30 percent of California’s water when it melts. Manual readings supplement the Department of Water Resources' electronic data.

It’s too soon to know whether this winter’s wet season will deliver enough rain and snow to move California closer to the end of the state’s five-year drought.

The snowpack usually is at its deepest and most water-laden around April 1, so weather watchers won’t know with certainty what kind of wet season it has been until then.

Water Year 2017 began with above-average rainfall in October in all three Sierra Nevada regions monitored continuously by DWR.

Northern California’s wettest Oct. in 30 years sparked optimism for a robust water year. November saw below-average precipitation in all three regions, but wet weather returned in December and produced above-average rainfall in the three regions.

Rainfall measured from Oct. 1 through Dec. 27 at the department's 19 key monitoring stations totaled 150 percent of the stations’ combined historical average during that period.

As the three traditionally wettest months of the year began on Dec. 1, the statewide snowpack’s water content was just 61 percent of average on that date.

Relatively warm temperatures had tended to produce rain rather than snow in the mountains, but the cold storm that arrived last weekend improved the snowpack up to 75 percent of the Christmas Day average.

The snowpack on Tuesday held at 72 percent of the Dec. 27 average water content.

California is three months into what could become its sixth consecutive year of drought. State Climatologist Michael Anderson said, “October was one of our wettest on record, and December has produced a nice rebound from November’s below-average precipitation. California needs sustained above-average precipitation and a decent snowpack to overcome the previous years of drought.”

Statewide snowpack water content – Jan. 1 average (10.2 inches):
                   
• 2002 – 162 percent;
• 2003 – 162 percent;
• 2004 – 142 percent;
• 2005 – 159 percent;
• 2006 – 117 percent;
• 2007 – 61 percent;
• 2008 – 59 percent;
• 2009 – 78 percent;
• 2010 – 87 percent;
• 2011 – 209 percent;
• 2012 – 20 percent;
• 2013 – 137 percent;
• 2014 – 20 percent;
• 2015 – 47 percent;
• 2016 – 103 percent.

LAKE COUNTY, Calif. – While Lake County didn't have a white Christmas, parts of the county could see both rain and snow just after the start of the new year.

The National Weather Service is predicting chances of snow on Monday, Monday night and into Tuesday in parts of Northern California including Lake County.

The agency said slightly warmer weather is expected across Northern California over the next few days, with clear conditions and daytime temperatures in Lake County ranging in the high 50s and low 30s at night.

On Friday night and Saturday there are chances of rain, with rain also possible on New Year's Day and night, according to the forecast.

Forecasters expect the next push of cold Arctic air to arrive early next week, pushing from western Canada into Northern California and bringing with it the possibility of low elevation snow.

The specific Lake County forecast calls for daytime temperatures to drop into the low 40s beginning on Monday, when there are chances of both rain and snow around the lake.

Nighttime temperatures are expected to dip below freezing, with chances of snow also forecast on Monday night and during the day on Tuesday.

Forecasters said to stay tuned as they get a better idea of what the weather system may bring to Northern California.

Email Elizabeth Larson at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. . Follow her on Twitter, @ERLarson, or Lake County News, @LakeCoNews.

NORTH COAST, Calif. – The North Coast Regional Water Quality Control Board assessed a $37,079 penalty for a Clean Water Act violation against the owners of a Mendocino County property at the Board’s December meeting.

The penalty is for discharges of sediment-laden water into a tributary of the Upper Main Eel River.

The discharge was caused by the failure of a 50,000 gallon fuel bladder being used for water storage allegedly for fire protection.

Polly Franklin, trustee for the property trust, and her son, Daniel Franklin, were named in the violation order.

According to testimony at the enforcement hearing during the Regional Water Board’s December meeting, the storage bladder was overfilled, causing it to burst.

A minimum of 50,000 gallons of water were discharged, flowing over and through an adjacent earthen berm, and entering a small watercourse.

The water traveled 2,000 feet downstream, tearing out riparian vegetation, stripping away instream soil, rocks and boulders, and eventually entering the Upper Main Eel River.

Staff of the California Department of Fish and Wildlife reported seeing increased turbidity for at least a day and a half following the incident, and a high rate of fish outmigration.

The effects were observed more than three miles downstream in the Eel River at the Van Arsdale fish station.

Staff of the Regional Water Board, California Department of Fish and Wildlife, and the California Geologic Survey inspected the site following the event, and documented the damage throughout the segment of the watercourse from the discharge point down to the Upper Main Eel River.

The Regional Water Board adopted the order assessing a penalty of $37,079 against Polly Franklin as trustee of the trust that owns the property, and Daniel Franklin as the person responsible for activities that occurred on the property resulting in the unauthorized discharge. 

The board found that the discharge posed a significant threat of harm to beneficial uses. The board noted that while the bladder failure was not intentional, it was negligent.

Regional Water Board staff note that storage bladders, both new and military surplus, are widely available and often used for water storage throughout the North Coast Region. 

However, many bladders are not specifically designed to hold water, have a limited service life, and are susceptible to failure due to overfilling or puncture by external causes.

Water releases from ruptured storage bladders may cause significant erosion, instream damage and harm to aquatic species and habitat.

Staff encourages those individuals selling or purchasing storage bladders and/or collapsible fabric tanks to make themselves familiar with limitations and cautions associated with their specific bladders, and to take care in siting, installing, operating and maintaining storage bladders to minimize the potential for failure and abrupt release of water into nearby streams.    

For more information about the North Coast Regional Water Quality Control Board’s enforcement efforts, visit http://www.waterboards.ca.gov/northcoast/water_issues/programs/enforcement/ .

A series of moderate-sized earthquakes and powerful aftershocks hit near the California-Nevada border early Wednesday morning.

The United States Geological Survey reported that the series of quakes started at approximately 12:18 a.m. Wednesday with a 5.7-magnitude quake near Hawthorne, Nev., which was followed four minutes later by another quake of the same magnitude a short distance away.

Both of those quakes each received more than 1,000 shake reports as of 3 a.m. from more than 230 zip codes around central and Northern California and Nevada, the survey said.

Those initial quakes were followed over the next hour by a series of aftershocks measuring between 2.8 and 4 magnitude in Nevada and just across the California state border, according to US Geological Survey records.

At 1:13 a.m., a 5.5-magnitude quake was reported near the epicenter of the two larger quakes, and over the next two hours was followed by another series of aftershocks on both sides of the state border that had magnitudes ranging from 2.5 to 3.2, the survey said.

That 5.5-magnitude quake received nearly 900 shake reports from 243 zip codes, according to survey records.

Email Elizabeth Larson at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. . Follow her on Twitter, @ERLarson, or Lake County News, @LakeCoNews.