LAKE COUNTY, Calif. — Authorities have identified the two Lake County residents who died in separate traffic crashes on Friday and Saturday.
Alisa Anne Pettey-Torres, 59, of Hidden Valley Lake, died in a head-on crash on Highway 29 just south of Grange Road on Friday, said Lt. Corey Paulich of the Lake County Sheriff’s Office.
Paulich said Walter William Toupal, 53, of Clearlake died in a solo-motorcycle crash on Highway 20 just west of Bruner Drive between Lucerne and Glenhaven on Saturday afternoon.
The California Highway Patrol’s on Pettey-Torres’ wreck said that on Friday at 5:18 p.m., she was driving a 2005 Toyota Corolla southbound on Highway 29, north of the Bar X entrance Road.
David Thurber, 49, of Hidden Valley Lake was driving a 2012 BMW X5 northbound on Highway 29, approaching Pettey-Torres’ Toyota sedan, the CHP said.
For reasons still under investigation, the CHP said Pettey-Torres’ Toyota crossed over the highway’s solid double yellow lines and she collided head-on with the BMW. Both vehicles became disabled on the northbound shoulder.
The CHP said Pettey-Torres was extricated from the vehicle and after life saving measures, she succumbed to her injuries on scene.
Neither drugs nor alcohol are suspected to be factors in this collision, the CHP said. Both drivers were using their safety equipment.
In the case of Toupal’s crash, the CHP said he was riding his 2001 Harley Davidson eastbound on Highway 20, west of Bruner Drive at 2:16 p.m. Saturday when, for reasons still under investigation, he allowed his motorcycle to veer off the south side of the roadway.
Toupal’s motorcycle struck several boulders, impacted the shoreline and went into the lake, the CHP said.
A nearby fishing boat came across the motorcycle and the rider in the lake, pulled the rider to the shore and called 911, authorities said.
Medics who arrived on scene shortly afternoon pronounced Toupal deceased at the scene, the CHP said.
The CHP said alcohol appears to be a factor in this crash.
These two crashes were among four that have resulted in fatalities in less than a week. The other fatal wrecks occurred on Wednesday near Blue Lakes and on Sunday on the Mendocino National Forest near Upper Lake.
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.
LAKE COUNTY, Calif. — A San Rafael man died Sunday as the result of a motorcycle crash on the Mendocino National Forest near Upper Lake.
Rex B. Powell, 68, died in the crash, which the California Highway Patrol’s Clear Lake Area office said occurred on an off-highway vehicle trail on the Mendocino National Forest’s Upper Lake Ranger District Sunday morning.
The CHP said Powell was riding his 2022 Husqvarna motorcycle on the trail at 9:50 a.m. Sunday when he came upon debris blocking the trail and applied the brakes to his motorcycle.
The braking caused Powell to be thrown from the bike and into the brush, the CHP said.
Despite Powell being in full protective gear, the CHP said he was impaled by a broken branch.
Medical aid was attempted at the crash scene before Powell was moved to the Middle Creek Campground staging area, where an individual who wasn’t involved called 911, the CHP said.
The CHP said emergency crews arrived and attempted to render medical aid, however, Powell was pronounced deceased at the scene.
Neither alcohol nor drugs are factors in this crash, the CHP said.
This was the fourth fatal crash in Lake County in less than a week. The other wrecks occurred near Upper Lake on Wednesday, Middletown on Friday and Lucerne on Saturday.
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.
Congressman Mike Thompson will host a virtual town hall this week to discuss community members’ concerns about the economy, inflation and the global market.
The town hall will take place beginning at 7 p.m. Pacific Time on Wednesday, April 13.
Thompson’s special guest on Wednesday will be Ronnie Chatterji, chief economist for the United States Department of Commerce, to discuss and answer questions regarding inflation, gas prices, how we are strengthening supply chains, and effort to increase the country’s competitiveness in the global market by supporting Buy American policies.
Thompson (D-CA-05) represents California’s Fifth Congressional District, which includes all or part of Contra Costa, Lake, Napa, Solano and Sonoma counties.
If you are not able to make the town hall but have any questions about his work, upcoming legislation to tackle high prices, or issues that affect business in the district, call him at one of his district offices in Napa (707-226-9898), Santa Rosa (707-542-7182), and Vallejo (707-645-1888) or email This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it..
LAKE COUNTY, Calif. — With a new program coordinator in place, the Lake County Library’s Adult Literacy Program is working to expand by bringing in new tutors and learners from all around the lake.
The COVID-19 pandemic has exposed the challenges in our community to address low literacy skills.
To increase participation, the program is offering both in-person and virtual options for tutoring and is looking to the community for support to grow the program.
The Adult Literacy Program recruits and trains volunteers from the community to work one-on-one with individuals who need help to improve basic reading, writing, and comprehension skills, offering study sessions that are geared to what the student wants to learn.
The program also offers assistance for GED or High School Equivalency preparation, written driving tests, citizenship applications and more.
In addition, the program aims to increase digital literacy for those wanting to improve their skills with computers, cell phones, office computer programs, and more. A grant application is currently in progress to implement an English as a Second Language Program as well.
No experience is necessary to become a literacy tutor. Tutor training, where volunteers learn useful techniques for teaching adults to read, is provided free of cost, and ongoing support and meetings are offered including a monthly meeting with all active tutors and an annual tutor recognition event sponsored by the Lake County Literacy Coalition.
Upon completion of tutor training, tutors will be matched with adult learners in a variety of settings around the county.
Volunteering is flexible for both the tutor and learner, with sessions typically held once per week for one hour. Sessions can take place at library branches, in local park settings, or online via Zoom.
A Family Literacy Program is also available to families of adult learners with young children to help their children become readers and encourage family activities.
As part of the family program, children receive free books from any of our library branch locations and our free monthly newsletter that includes reading recommendations, family activities, and more.
Both programs are available to the public to promote literacy and lifelong learning for all ages.
Becoming a tutor can help someone to a better future. Many adults want to improve their reading and writing skills so they can access better jobs, further their own education, advocate for their children, and overall improve their way of life. Through hard work and perseverance, adult learners can change their own, and their family’s lives, for the better.
The program is supported in part by the California Library Literacy Services and by the Lake County Literacy Coalition.
Since 1986, the Coalition, with the help of literacy volunteers, has conducted the annual fundraising Walk/Run for Literacy and has used funds raised for books, training materials, and tutor support including recognition events.
Survey data from the Program for the International Assessment of Adult Competencies from the first survey cycle (2012/2014/2017), determined that Lake County had a 26% literacy proficiency level of at or below level 1.
According to ProLiteracy, an organization whose mission is to change lives and communities through the power of adult literacy, more than 43 million adults in the United States cannot read, write, or do basic math above a third-grade level.
Workers who have less education than a high school diploma have the lowest median weekly earnings ($592), three times less than the highest level of education.
After the retirement of Virginia “Ginny” DeVries, the program’s dedicated coordinator for over 30 years, the Lake County Library hired local resident and Lake County Poet Laureate Georgina Marie Guardado to fill the position.
She has prioritized recruiting new learners and tutors for this program and revitalizing the program after the COVID-19 pandemic greatly impacted overall retention.
If you are interested in becoming a literacy tutor or know someone who could benefit from our services, please call 707-263-7633 or email This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.. Your volunteerism could help change a life.
Visit the Adult Literacy Program’s page on the Lake County Library website at http://library.lakecountyca.gov.
MENDOCINO NATIONAL FOREST, Calif. — Officials said Monday that a small wildland fire on the Mendocino National Forest has been fully contained.
The Slide fire started on Friday, Aug. 8, at around 5:30 p.m., forest officials reported.
It was located approximately 2.3 miles west of Soda Creek Station and south of Elk Mountain Road on the Upper Lake Ranger District.
Investigators say the fire was human-caused and not related to the nearby Westshore prescribed burn.
Shortly after forest law enforcement identified a column of smoke, resources that were managing the Westshore prescribed burn shifted over to respond to the Slide fire, officials said.
The forest reported that engines from Mendocino National Forest, Lake Pillsbury, Cal Fire’s Sonoma-Lake-Napa Unit and Konocti Crew 2 helped contain the fire.
On Friday at 10 p.m., firefighters reported the Slide fire size was being held at 1.5 acres.
Separately, on Friday at 10:50 a.m., firefighters patrolling the Westshore prescribed fire reported a tree had fallen across the containment line for the prescribed fire.
The Slide fire was contained at 100% as of Monday morning, the forest reported.
A steady, wetting rain fell early Monday morning, and officials said fire behavior was minimal at that time.
Officials said crews will continue to mop up and patrol the fire this week.
Additional updates will be provided when there are significant changes in fire activity or conditions, the forest headquarters said in its Monday report.
LAKE COUNTY, Calif. — The Lakeport Planning Commission is scheduled to consider several applications this week, including more for short-term rentals, and will get an update on the city’s housing element.
The commission will meet at 5:30 p.m. Wednesday, April 13, in the council chambers at Lakeport City Hall, 225 Park St.
The council chambers will be open to the public for the meeting. Masks are highly encouraged where 6-foot distancing cannot be maintained.
To speak on an agenda item, access the meeting remotely here; the meeting ID is 986 6166 5155. To join by phone, dial 1-669-900-9128.
Comments can be submitted by email to This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.. To give the city clerk adequate time to print out comments for consideration at the meeting, please submit written comments before 4:30 p.m. on Wednesday, April 13.
Please indicate in the email subject line "for public comment" and list the item number of the agenda item that is the topic of the comment. Comments that are read to the council will be subject to the three minute time limitation (approximately 350 words). Written comments that are only to be provided to the council and not read at the meeting will be distributed to the council before the meeting.
On the agenda is an application from Metro Investment Inc. for a use permit and a categorical exemption to allow for a short-term rental located at 366 Third St.
The commission also will consider an application from Vicki and William Lane for a use permit and a categorical exemption to allow for a short-term rental located at 785 Sixth St.
In other business, the commission will consider Sandra Kacharos’ application for a lot line adjustment to reconfigure lands between two existing lots of record located at 2365 and 2375 Parallel Drive.
Also on Wednesday, the commission will review its goals and those of the city’s planning department and work program for the 2022 calendar year.
The commissioners also will get a report on the housing production and implementation of housing related programs and policies contained in the sixth cycle housing element.
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.
LAKE COUNTY, Calif. — The National Weather Service has issued a hazardous weather outlook for Lake County and other parts of the North Coast due to chances of rain throughout this week as the result of a winterlike storm system.
The agency said Lake County could see rainfall totaling about an inch, with cool and unsettled weather expected to continue through the week as another storm system passes through late Wednesday into Thursday.
The forecast also predicts widespread northwest winds early this week with gusts of up to 45 miles per hour over the county’s ridgetops.
The specific Lake County forecast anticipates rain on Monday, coupled with winds with gusts of nearly 25 miles per hour.
There also are chances of rain from Tuesday through Saturday. Wednesday night and into Thursday morning could see up to half an inch of rainfall.
Conditions are expected to clear by Saturday night, continuing into Sunday.
Daytime temperatures this week will range from the high 40s on Monday to the low 60s by Sunday. Nighttime conditions will drop into the mid 30s early in the week, topping out in the high 40s.
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.
We have a private, single drinking water intake that takes in water from Clear Lake and provides tap water and wash water to our lakeside summer vacation cottage. With the drought and algae concerns this year, what do I need to know about being able to safely drink and use our water?
— Carly at the Cottage
Dear Carly,
Thank you for reaching out about this topic! I am also glad that you are asking this topical question and thinking ahead. Right now is a good time to be preparing for the summer season, with expected low water levels due to drought combined with warm summer temperatures, we can expect a very heavy cyanobacteria season. Heavy cyanobacteria means that drinking water systems, both public and private, will require more attention to operate safely.
Let’s remind ourselves that cyanobacteria are not algae, they are in completely different categories in the “biological kingdoms of living things.” Cyanobacteria, since they are bacteria, are in the monera kingdom with other prokaryotic bacterias. Green algae, or phytoplankton are grouped into the protista kingdom.
In Clear Lake, the green algae does not produce toxins or pose human health concerns when exposed or ingested. Some types of cyanobacteria in Clear Lake, especially in the warm and long days of summer and fall, produce high concentrations of toxins that can pose health concerns to humans and pets when exposed to the skin or ingested.
Not every person responds the same way to a cyanobacteria exposure, it’s comparable to allergies in that everyone is affected differently and has different symptoms. Some people never notice when they swim in water or ingest a small amount of water with cyanobacteria and some people go wading one time and get rashes or flu-like symptoms for a day or more.
These cyanobacterias are the main concern for small, individual drinking water systems on Clear Lake, as high concentrations of cells, and the toxin they produce, can overwhelm smaller systems, making the filtering and chemical treatments uneffective, increasing the potential for exposure through drinking or bathing water.
Understanding what type of drinking water system you have
To reiterate, today’s column will mostly focus on small, or single, private, individual drinking water systems (less than 14 connections or homes). These systems start with an intake pipe, usually on a private, residential property, that takes water directly from Clear Lake, and into a small treatment or filter system on your property or inside your home. Sometimes a few neighbors, cottages, or a small resort or mobile home estate will have private systems with less than 14 connections. These are all considered small, private, individual, or very small drinking water treatment systems.
These types of small, individual systems are not regulated by the State or the County. Safe operation, maintenance, and monitoring of these systems is provided by the homeowner or property manager.
Today’s column will notfocus on large public or private purveyor drinking water systems. If you pay a bill to a company that treats and distributes your drinking water to your home, and your neighbors, through a pipe, then you are on a public, or municipal, or large private company drinking water treatment system. These systems are fully regulated by the State’s Drinking Water Division.
If you do have municipal, public, or large private drinking water that you pay a company every month or every other month, I will refer you to several references where you can find more information about those types of systems and the monitoring that is done.
I wrote about drought and drinking water systems, and cyanobacteria, in my “Distressed about Drought” column on July 25 2021. This column would be a good refresher to drought impacts on larger drinking water systems.
To access your public or large private system monitoring data, as well as other system information, visit the CA Drinking Water Watch website. This website includes information like system details, facilities, monitoring results and schedules, violations or enforcement actions, and copies of consumer confidence reports. This resource is provided by the Drinking Water Division of California and provides information for all state-regulated systems, not just those with intakes on Clear Lake.
To learn about cyanobacteria monitoring that is done on these public, municipal, or large private systems, you can watch an informative County of Lake Water Quality Wednesday webinar from the Lake County Water Resources, Public Health Department, and Special Districts that was recorded on Sept. 1, 2021.
Recording of Water Quality Wednesday Webinar September 1, 2021. Clear Lake Drinking Water and Cyanobacteria. Presenters included Rachel Kennard (UC Davis and Cal Rural Water Association) and Sarah Ryan (Big Valley EPA).
Unregulated individual drinking water systems
If you have been out on the lake so far this season, you might have noticed that it looks pretty good. Some areas are even blue and very clear. While so far things seem relatively fine, we should prepare for a point in the season when we will see an interaction of quantity (low lake levels) and quality (extremely severe blooms of algae and cyanobacteria) impacting small, individual drinking water systems.
The upcoming low water levels, combined with hot and long summer days might cause trouble for small or individual systems with smaller treatment or filter capacities. These systems are unregulated by any local or state government, and not monitored for effectiveness or performance. Therefore a household may be paying a significant amount of money for a service provider to “be treating” their water that comes directly from Clear Lake, but there is no oversight to these type of systems or laws to protect the consumer, like there are for public, municipal, or professionally large treatment systems and purveyors.
The owner of the system is the responsible party for ensuring these systems are maintained and serviced regularly. Additionally, some small treatment service providers are unfamiliar with the unique and special needs of being a small, individual treatment system on Clear Lake, a unique lake that is enriched with 500,000 years of organic matter and suffers from very frequent and sometimes severe toxic cyanobacteria blooms.
These small, individual systems are usually capable of providing safe drinking water from natural water sources, but during the late summer, when Clear Lake experiences frequent and severe cyanobacteria bloom events, the amount of organic material in the water can overwhelm these private, small systems. Even boiling or chlorinating the water will not remove cyanobacteria cells or the toxins they produce, in fact these methods make the toxins more pronounced and cause more exposure risk.
Public,municipal and large private professional systems on the other hand, are much larger, with multiple layers of treatment and filters in place that adequately remove cyanobacteria cells from the raw water of Clear Lake, before entering the chemical treatment process. In fact, in 2021, the State of California Drinking Water Division of the State Water Resources Control Board, mandated cyanobacteria monitoring of all the 18 public, municipal and large private drinking water systems on Clear Lake. Every system that was monitored at the tap resulted in no exceedances for cyanobacteria microcystis toxins and were safe for drinking.
Be aware of drinking water advisories
Last year the concentrations of toxins produced by some cyanobacteria in Clear Lake were sampled at such high, concerning levels that the Public Health Officer issued an advisory, followed by a news release, urging some households on small, private, individual systems in certain areas of the lake to stop drinking their water.
This release was issued on Sept. 16, 2021, when the summer months and low water levels had created perfect conditions for exceptionally large and severe cyanobacteria blooms to occur. People on private, small individual systems, in mostly the Oaks and Jago Bay area, were warned to not drink the water from their tap, only if they were part of a small system of 14 connections or less, or had a single intake directly from the lake into their home and managed their own drinking water treatment system.
The advisory also recommended homeowners to purchase their drinking water or fill up clean containers from alternative filling stations provided by commercial or public treatment systems. These companies were Konocti Municipal Water Company (Kelseyville) and Golden State Water Company (Clearlake). These two large private, professionally-treated drinking water purveyors were providing treated, potable water for those in areas who had private intakes providing temporarily unsafe water.
It really is amazing how the community and businesses come together in times of crisis to support one another; we are grateful to these companies to step up to provide safe drinking water sources for free during a time of need.
Be prepared and get help monitoring your small or individual drinking water intake
If you or your household is on one of these small, individual systems (less than 14 connections) then you might want to be more vigilant this year about monitoring your drinking water at the tap. Luckily, local tribal organizations and partners have developed a program to monitor and track this information at no cost to the homeowners.
Big Valley Band of Pomo Indians, working with Tracking California, the Institute of Health, and the Drinking Water Division of the California Water Resources Control Board, are currently working on a grant program to monitor cyanobacteria — and other contaminants — in private, small, individual drinking water systems of Clear Lake. This program is called the California Water: Assessment of Toxins for Community Health Project, or Cal-WATCH. Visit the Tracking California Cal-Watch Project website here.
The Cal-Watch program started last year in 2021, and Big Valley EPA Director, Sarah Ryan, and the Cal-Watch team have learned a plethora of information about public health when it comes to private, individual drinking water systems on Clear Lake.
The results from the 2021 Cal-Watch project will be presented this coming Wednesday. April 13th 2022, at 6 p.m. at an online Water Quality Wednesday Public Learning Forum. This webinar is hosted by the County of Lake, Water Resources Department, and Public Health Department.
This webinar is free, open to the public, and will be accessible through zoom, County of Lake Facebook Live, and through PegTV (Mediacom Channel 8). The webinar will be recorded and available on the County of Lake YouTube channel and Water Resources Department Cyanobacteria webpage. To access the webinar through zoom, use Webinar ID: 930 6092 7543 and Pass code: 466041.
This webinar will present the data and results from monitoring for contaminants in private, small drinking water systems on Clear Lake, in addition to some well monitoring data. The presenters will talk about their findings from a monitoring during a drought year, which will be applicable for this coming summer during the third year of drought conditions.
What to do?
Now, if you are like Carly and her cottage, and your small, individual private drinking water system is questionable or incapable of effectively treating Clear Lake source water during high bloom events, such as were experienced last year, there really is not an easy fix. There is no magic small treatment system that can handle the conditions Clear Lake sometimes contains.
The absolute best and safest solution would be to try to connect to a municipal, public or large private system that is regulated and mandated by the state to monitor and remove cyanobacteria from their systems. Currently large systems, adjacent to areas with no municipal water sources, are looking at plans for expanding their connections into these areas. If you are concerned or curious, you can call the treatment purveyor closest to you and ask about these plans and feasibility of including your home as a connection. If the company knows that they might have customers in the area, it might increase the rate and speed of expansion of their system to your area.
The next solution, if the first one isn’t possible, is to be prepared for not using your drinking tap water when a significant and severe bloom occurs and a public health advisory is released for your area. This doesn’t happen every year, but is more likely to occur during times of drought and longer, warmer summers. Again, this recommendation is only for small, individual private intake systems that are located in areas identified in a public health advisory notice. This does not apply to large private, public or municipal drinking water systems, as their tap water is regularly monitored and safe to drink.
Being prepared means having extra gallons of drinking water on hand as well as having an alternative source for drinking water. Make sure to have clean containers and reliable transportation to get those containers filled if needed.
If you don’t have access to reliable transportation to get to and from a filling station, contact your neighbors, family, or friends, to see if you can pool resources, or combine efforts, to get clean, safe water to drink.
How do I know if I am close to a large private, public, or municipal drinking water provider?
To find out where the public, municipal, or large drinking water system providers are located around Clear Lake, and the rest of Lake County, you can visit the Tracking California Drinking Water Mapping Tool online.
This tool provides information on the locations of Community Drinking Water sources, that include both groundwater and surface waters, like Clear Lake. This is an interactive mapping tool, using an ESRI-based platform, so it deserves some time exploring to find out the full extent of information and data that the tool can provide. I suggest turning on and off layers and making different selections to see what type of information is available on the map and what it can tell you.
The Tracking California Drinking Water Tool is available at the following website (as of April 5, 2022).
I have taken an excerpt of the mapping tool showing the Community Water Systems layer selected. This shows the companies, public, municipal, and large private systems that are located around Clear Lake. If you live outside these highlighted areas, you may receive your water from a groundwater provider, a private well, or you may be on an unregulated, small, individual system with less than 14 connections.
If the latter is the case, please be prepared for the summer cyanobacteria season especially when it comes to having a safe, drinking water source for you, your family, your pets, and your home.
Sincerely, Lady of the Lake
Angela De Palma-Dow is a limnologist (limnology = study of fresh inland waters) who lives and works in Lake County. Born in Northern California, she has a Master of Science from Michigan State University. She is a Certified Lake Manager from the North American Lake Management Society, or NALMS, and she is the current president/chair of the California chapter of the Society for Freshwater Science. She can be reached at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it..
An outbreak of Highly Pathogenic Avian Influenza in chicken and turkey flocks has spread across 24 U.S. states since it was first detected in Indiana on Feb. 8, 2022. Better known as bird flu, avian influenza is a family of highly contagious viruses that are not harmful to wild birds that transmit it, but are deadly to domesticated birds. As of early April, the outbreak had caused the culling of some 23 million birds from Maine to Wyoming. Yuko Sato, an associate professor of veterinary medicine who works with poultry producers, explains why so many birds are getting sick and whether the outbreak threatens human health.
Why is avian influenza so deadly for domesticated birds but not for wild birds that carry it?
Avian influenza (AI) is a contagious virus that affects all birds. There are two groups of AI viruses that cause disease in chickens: highly pathogenic AI and low pathogenic AI.
HPAI viruses cause high mortality in poultry, and occasionally in some wild birds. LPAI can cause mild to moderate disease in poultry, and usually little to no clinical signs of illness in wild birds.
The primary natural hosts and reservoir of AI viruses are wild waterfowl, such as ducks and geese. This means that the virus is well adapted to them, and these birds do not typically get sick when they are infected with it. But when domesticated poultry, such as chickens and turkeys, come in direct or indirect contact with feces of infected wild birds, they become infected and start to show symptoms, such as depression, coughing and sneezing and sudden death.
There are multiple strains of avian influenza. What type is this outbreak, and is it dangerous to humans?
The virus of concern in this outbreak is a Eurasian H5N1 HPAI virus that causes high mortality and severe clinical signs in domesticated poultry. Scientists who monitor wild bird flocks have also detected a reassortant virus that contains genes from both the Eurasian H5 and low pathogenic North American viruses. This happens when multiple strains of the virus circulating in the bird population exchange genes to create a new strain of the virus, much as new strains of COVID-19 like omicron and delta have emerged during the ongoing pandemic.
Should people avoid poultry products until this outbreak ends?
No, that’s not necessary. Infected poultry or eggs do not enter the food supply chain.
To detect AI, the U.S. Department of Agriculture oversees routine testing of flocks done by farmers and carries out federal inspection programs to ensure that eggs and birds are safe and free of virus. When H5N1 is diagnosed on a farm or in a backyard flock, state and federal officials will quarantine the site and cull and dispose of all the birds in the infected flock. Then the site is decontaminated.
After several weeks without new virus detections, the area is required to test negative in order to be deemed free of infection. We call this process the four D’s of outbreak control: diagnosis, depopulation, disposal and decontamination.
Avian influenza is not transmissible by eating properly prepared and cooked poultry, so eggs and poultry are safe to eat. The USDA recommends cooking eggs and poultry to an internal temperature of 165 degrees Fahrenheit (74 Celsius).
Are avian influenza outbreaks happening more frequently around the world, or do we just hear more about them than we did 20 or 30 years ago?
The dynamics of the spread of avian influenza viruses are very complex. HPAI is a transboundary disease, which means it is highly contagious and spreads rapidly across national borders.
Some research indicates that detection of HPAI viruses in wild birds has become more common. Reports are seasonal, with a peak in February and a low point in September. There are ongoing outbreaks of HPAI in wild birds in Asia, Europe and Africa. Many migratory bird species travel thousands of miles between continents, posing a continuing risk of AI virus transmission.
In addition, we have better diagnostic tests for much more rapid and improved detection of avian influenza compared to 20 to 30 years ago, using molecular diagnostics such as polymerase chain reaction (PCR) tests – the same method labs use to detect COVID-19 infections.
What’s the prospect of developing a vaccine for poultry that could reduce the economic harm from outbreaks?
Many factors would have to be weighed before adopting vaccination as a strategy for controlling HPAI. At this time, the Department of Agriculture has not approved the use of vaccination in the U.S. for protecting birds from avian influenza.
One reason for this is that using vaccines would potentially affect international trade and poultry exports. Importers would not be able to distinguish vaccinated birds from infected birds based on the routine testing, so they might ban all U.S. poultry exports.
Vaccination also could delay outbreak detection, since it can potentially hide non-apparent infections in infected birds. And if infections go unnoticed, they could spread to other farms before farmers can put control measures in place.
Avian influenza vaccines can reduce clinical signs, sickness and death rates in domestic poultry, but they would not prevent birds from becoming infected with the virus. Ultimately, the USDA’s goal is to eradicate HPAI quickly after it is detected. However, vaccines could be used to help control an outbreak, and this is an option that the agency is investigating now.
LAKE COUNTY, Calif. — With drought conditions deepening, the Board of Supervisors this week will discuss implementing an urgency ordinance that would place a temporary moratorium on the approval of new agriculture and cannabis cultivation projects in an effort to protect the county’s water supply.
The board will meet beginning at 9 a.m. Tuesday, April 12, in the board chambers on the first floor of the Lake County Courthouse, 255 N. Forbes St., Lakeport.
The meeting ID is 922 6873 1689, pass code 053458. The meeting also can be accessed via one tap mobile at +16699006833,,92268731689#,,,,*053458#.
All interested members of the public that do not have internet access or a Mediacom cable subscription are encouraged to call 669-900-6833, and enter the Zoom meeting ID and pass code information above.
At 3:30 p.m., the board will consider an interim urgency ordinance proposed by Supervisor Bruno Sabatier that would place a temporary, 45-day moratorium on new agricultural and cannabis cultivation projects.
In his written report, Sabatier quotes a recent study that said the current drought “represents the largest Southwestern North American area to experience a top-five 22 year drought-severity ranking in at least 1,200 years.”
He said Lake County Water Resources has reported that the drought conditions may cause Clear Lake’s levels to drop close to the 1976 and 1977 lake levels, “one of our worst documented droughts of our recent past.”
Sabatier noted in his report, “Lake County needs to do a better job of conserving water and not adding any new burden to an already stressed water system any more than it already is.”
On the topic of pausing the permitting of projects, Sabatier wrote, “Adding more agricultural operations and cannabis cultivation projects to a 22 year drought that is currently exhibiting severe drought conditions is not appropriate. We do not know how much longer this drought will continue. We know that all water purveyors struggled last year, and this year is not proving to be any different.”
He’s asking for a 45-day moratorium on new projects relating to agriculture and cannabis due to the drought with possible extensions in the future, during which the county would come up with protection and conservation measures.
Sabatier said agricultural operations converting native land to ag land will be prohibited under this moratorium.
However, he said both cannabis cultivation and agricultural operation projects that have already had their projects sent to the state clearinghouse can continue with their approval process. Other projects would not be able to obtain final approval until the moratorium has been lifted.
He said projects can and will continue the planning process so they can be approved once the moratorium is over.
Sabatier also wants the board to consider a letter to Gov. Gavin Newsom requesting a halt on new cannabis cultivation licensing statewide, while the county pauses in providing more cannabis cultivation licenses “until the state finds itself in a better drought situation.”
As part of that discussion, Sabatier is asking the board to consider directing the Lake County Drought Task Force to come up with new drought guidelines for agriculture and cannabis, along with new standards for hydrology reports as well as review standards.
“By creating these new guidelines and standards, we can continue to approve future ag and cannabis projects with an elevated standard to meet so that their activities will be successful and not have a cumulative impact to neighboring areas whether or not there is a drought,” he wrote.
The board also will discuss other potential actions to respond to the drought, such as taking actions against illegal cannabis grows, regulating commercial water sales and enforcement on drought issues.
In other business, at 9:15 a.m., the board, sitting as the Lake County Housing Authority Board of Commissioners, will consider the first amendment to the 2021 agreement to develop affordable housing by and between the Lake County Housing Authority and the Rural Communities Housing Development Corporation and also discuss a request for an audit.
In an item timed for 11 a.m., the board will discuss cannabis tax reform and consider a resolution amending the county’s cannabis cultivation tax due dates.
At 9:07 a.m., the board will present a proclamation designating the month of April 2022 as Sexual Assault Awareness Month and at 9:10 a.m. they will declare the week of April 10 to 16, 2022, as National Public Safety Dispatchers Week.
The full agenda follows.
CONSENT AGENDA
5.1: Adopt ordinance amending Ordinance 3062, revising Section 2-192.1, Article XXVI, Chapter 2 of the Lake County Code, providing authority to execute leases and licenses.
5.2: Adopt resolution approving Agreement No. 22-73-06-0256-RA with the USDA Animal and Plant Health Inspection Services for period July 1, 2022 through June 30, 2023 for the amount of $118,048.
5.3: Adopt resolution amending Agreement No. 20-0153 with the state of California, Department of Food and Agriculture and authorize the execution of post-consumer certification contract and contractor certification clause and signatures for insect trapping in the amount of $145,115.00 for activities in FY 20-22.
5.4: Sitting as Lake County Air Quality Management District Board of Directors: Authorize the air pollution control officer to sign and submit an application for Carl Moyer Program Year 24 funding and sign all other program documents.
5.5: Approve to waive the 900 hour limit for certain client service assistant positions within the Department of Behavioral Health Services.
5.6: Approve Amendment No. 1 to the agreement between county of Lake — Lake County Behavioral Health Services as lead agency for the Lake County Continuum of Care and Elijah House Foundation for fiscal years 2020-21, 2021-22, and 2022-23 and authorize the board chair to sign.
5.7: Adopt proclamation designating the month of April 2022 as Sexual Assault Awareness Month in Lake County.
5.8: Approve revised Board of Supervisors meeting minutes for Sept. 28, 2021.
5.9: Adopt resolution amending Resolution No. 2021 – 116 Establishing position allocations for recommended FY 2021-2022, Budget Unit 2702.
5.10: Approve addendum to corrected certification of county elections official of results of the official canvass of election returns and the results of the 1% manual tally of randomly selected voting precincts for the Sept. 14, 2021, Statewide Special Election.
5.11: Adopt resolution amending Resolution No. 2021-116 establishing position allocations for fiscal year 2021-2022, Budget Unit No.2302, Probation.
5.12: Adopt proclamation designating the Week of April 10 to 16, 2022, as National Public Safety Dispatchers Week.
5:13: a) Approve purchase of the 34 Dell 5430 Rugged Mobile Data Computer and authorize the sheriff or his designee to issue a purchase order in an amount not to exceed $110,000; and b) authorize the sheriff or his designee to issue a purchase order to Precision Wireless for the removal and installation of the units in each patrol vehicle in an amount not to exceed $30,000; and c) approve the budget transfer into object code 62.74 for the capital asset.
5.14: Approve contract between county of Lake and North Coast Opportunities Inc. for the Housing Support Program, for the term of Dec. 1, 2021, to June 30, 2022, in the amount of $774,816, and authorize the chair to sign.
TIMED ITEMS
9:05 a.m.: Pet of the week.
6.3, 9:07 a.m.: Presentation of proclamation designating the month of April 2022 as Sexual Assault Awareness Month in Lake County.
6.4, 9:10 a.m.: Presentation of proclamation designating the week of April 10 to 16, 2022, as National Public Safety Dispatchers Week.
6.5, 9:15 a.m.: Sitting as the Lake County Housing Authority Board of Commissioners, a) consideration of first amendment to the 2021 agreement to develop affordable housing by and between the Lake County Housing Authority and the Rural Communities Housing Development Corporation; and b) consideration of request for an audit.
6.6, 9:30 a.m.: Public hearing on account and proposed assessment for 7268 Liberty St., Nice, CA, 95464.
6.7, 10 a.m.: Public hearing, discussion and consideration of appeal (AB 21-05) of Planning Commission approval of Major Use Permit 19-36 and IS/MND 19-56 “Lake Vista Farms, LLC”, Clearlake. APN’s 010-053-01 and 010-053-02.
6.8, 11 a.m.: a) Discussion of cannabis tax reform; and b) consideration of resolution amending cannabis cultivation tax due dates.
6.9, 3:30 p.m.: a) Consideration of interim urgency ordinance placing a moratorium on new agricultural and cannabis cultivation projects; and b) consideration of letter to Gov. Newsom requesting a halt on new cannabis cultivation licensing statewide; and c) consideration of requesting the Lake County Drought Task Force discuss, draft, and provide ag/cannabis guidelines during drought conditions; and d) consideration of discussion of other actions regarding drought.
UNTIMED ITEMS
7.2: Consideration of Community Project Funding Resolution: a) Middle Creek and Community Project Funding Resolution; b) Middle Creek Flood Damage Reduction and Ecosystem Restoration.
7.3: Consideration of the following advisory board appointments: Lucerne Area Town Hall.
CLOSED SESSION
8.1: Public employee appointment pursuant to Gov. Code Section 54957(b)(1): Interview of interim county administrative officer; appointment of interim county administrative officer.
8.2: Employee disciplinary appeal (EDA 22-01) Pursuant to Gov. Code sec. 54957.
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.
March 2022 marked the third month in a row where precipitation was below average across the contiguous U.S., which led to an expanding drought and areas of record dryness throughout the West.
March also brought several rounds of severe weather that pounded parts of the nation.
Below are more takeaways from NOAA’s latest monthly U.S. climate report:
Climate by the numbers: January through March 2022
The average contiguous U.S. temperature for the year to date was 36.3 degrees F (1.2 degrees above average), which ranks in the middle third of the record.
The year-to-date average rainfall was 5.66 inches — 1.30 inches below average — ranking as the seventh-driest January-March period for the U.S. on record.
The current multi-year drought across the western U.S. is the most extensive and intense drought in the 22-year history of the U.S. Drought Monitor. Across some parts of the West, precipitation for the first three months of 2022 was at or near record-low levels.
During March, drought coverage across the contiguous U.S. reached 61% — the largest observed extent of drought since fall of 2012.
With below-average snow cover and critically low reservoirs in some places, concerns are mounting that the western drought will continue to intensify and strain water supplies.
March 2022
The average monthly temperature across the contiguous U.S. was 44.1 degrees F (2.6 degrees above the 20th-century average) and ranked in the warmest third of the 128-year climate record.
Temperatures for the month were warmer than average across much of the West, and from the Midwest to the East Coast. Alaska also saw above-average temperatures across much of the state, with Anchorage and Talkeetna both reporting a top-10 warm March.
The average precipitation in the contiguous U.S. last month was 2.26 inches (0.25 of an inch below average), ranking in the driest third of the climate record.
Precipitation was below average across much of the West, northern and southern Plains, and from the Tennessee Valley to the Mid-Atlantic and parts of the Northeast.
Above-average precipitation fell from the central Plains to the Great Lakes, as well as across parts of the Deep South and Southeast. North Dakota saw its seventh-driest March on record, while Michigan had its eighth wettest.
Other notable climate events in March
• Tornadoes took a toll: Several severe weather outbreaks produced strong and damaging tornadoes last month. On March 5, supercell thunderstorms produced at least 13 confirmed tornadoes across Iowa, including a confirmed EF4 tornado in Winterset. From March 21-22, severe weather and tornadoes were reported from Texas to Alabama, including an EF3 tornado that substantially damaged two schools in Jacksboro, Texas; an EF3 tornado that ripped through the New Orleans metro area; and a severe weather outbreak impacted the Gulf Coast states from March 30-31, with at least 14 tornadoes and two fatalities.
• Billion-dollar disasters update: So far in 2022, no billion-dollar weather and climate disasters have been confirmed, although several events are currently being evaluated. An updated analysis based on a 2022 Consumer Price Index adjustment calculates that the U.S. has sustained 323 separate weather and climate disasters since 1980, where overall damages and costs reached or exceeded $1 billion. The total cost of these 323 events exceeds $2.195 trillion.