he said, it's about environmental racism. i said, environmental racism? he said, yes. now, i didn't know what the environment meant but i sure knew what racism meant. when he explained to me that all the toxins go into the black communities and latino communities. i said wait a minute, you cannot hold no more earth days in chrissy fields. in 1990 was the 20th anniversary for earth day and held in bayview hunters poise -- point. from 1990-1996. i was making sure the mayor of the city, the board of supervisors, we would give tours in bayview hunters points because we had over 500 toxic sites in bayview hunters point. people were sick and dying and we did not know why. that was the reason the environmental committee came up and then it became a commission because of the fact of the mayor of san francisco and the board of supervisors that first started this committee. i just wanted to give you a history. i have been to some of your meetings and i was told that you couldn't do anything about land. i said what? that's what a toxic is? how did that come about? you all need to

they ruminate on the environmental consequences. consumptions of have shaped the lands, but how they have changed our minds. in terms of teaching us without realizing it. i thought i would give you a taste of the book tonight. my book is focused on the center piece of history. interstatenating in 70. i will pull up interstate 70 on this map. the high country is a vaguely defined term. areasit to focus on the west of denver that could have been i did become the interstate corridor. that may be a weird way of putting it. by focusing on the first section of interstate-70 stop that is the four-lane bypass. and around the old mining town of colorado springs. that was something that state highway officials were eager to do all stop by the 1950's, it had become a notorious bopper traffic stop the highways west of denver were forced together in this narrow valley. they were forced to go right through the middle of town. half the cafÉs and the motels. people were going on and off the road will stop it was down to the point where it began kno

fire chief it's more on their future converting haze street from whatever to say is now is an environmental impact from in action why candlelight we take action they want to get action two why do we have to wait for the eir when the eir scope is much broad there's not a ton of impact from the cus. >> this is predating the era and it is not completed until the whole boar advertisement is the cumulative impact so to look at each one individually is not part of the environmental review. >> i have not addressed to the cumulative impact. >> they do addressing add but there's extraneous issues, etc. that's being analyzed in the eir and that's the determination of the ero we do not building they've been implemented open the projects the commission has taken action on lombardy and in 2008, it was denied and not to be complete and the application was denied so since that time the academy has had to maintain the rear portion the property for the retail use. >> okay. and you mentioned number 4 on the list of 13 but didn't give details on what they're not compiling with that's changing the scope of eir

and i see the future of the department, and the environmental issues as being one that will continue to grow and that there is a bigger need than ever for the leadership in this area. and that i feel honored to have been able to play my role in helping to move these issues forward. and i think that the department remains in great hands, and i look really forward to seeing the achievements that will come in the future, and i think that our new director will do a wonderful job and i think that we have a dedicated staff and i think that we have the secure core of funding, and i just, this has been a part of my life for more than 20 years. and it is going to be hard to say good bye. and i am not going far, and i will still be in the city and i will stay pay attention to what is going on. and i will still be available, and meet with the people periodically, to talk about environmental issues and contribute to whatever way that i can. and however, it is time for me to take another phase, and i like to say, i spent many, many decades working for the environment and now i want to go out and

the staff and academy to make sure this process motives i have a question for chelsea now on the environmental document i understand atkins has been doing it and there's problems, in fact, i've been told it on the transportation impact study atkins has submitted it but it's deemed incomplete; is that correct. >> for this type of complex project we go through rounds of reviews this method doing was adapted for aa you this the unusual so there's a higher burden on the transportation study to have it prepared. so we have gone through more drafts than normal but for context projects like this it is the normal course of business not the long delays between jobs >> there are part of things atkins were doing not meeting our standards. >> sorry to interrupt. >> i understand the academy as asked a portion of this be handled by the consulting and i'm not sure staff has agreed but they've agreed to allow them to do that part and fold it into the entire eir. >> yes. we made a recommendation at one point to have someone peer the document that's normal for the document to have others look at your work cu wa

an environmental engineer and scientist, he's studied mining and its impact on water for decades. he's also a pilot. >> a lot of these mining sites are restricted so we can't get to them on the ground down here, so today we're going to take to the skies to see what they look like from above. coal from west virginia is facing competition from other states and from natural gas. and after extracting the most easily accessible coal over the past few decades, companies have turned to a faster - and more aggressive - process to get what's left: - mountain top removal. the top of a mountain is blasted off to expose the seams of coal. heavy metals that have been locked in rock for millennia are exposed to air and water. >> pretty much anywhere you see cleared areas up here on mountain tops, those are surface mining sites. chemicals like the one that leaked into elk river are used to wash the coal at prep plants like this - to separate the coal from rock and clay. the waste that is left over - known as slurry - is pumped into impoundment lakes. sometimes it's piped into abandoned undergrou

advertisement is the cumulative impact so to look at each one individually is not part of the environmental review. >> i have not addressed to the cumulative impact. >> they do addressing add but there's extraneous issues, etc. that's being analyzed in the eir and that's the determination of the ero we do not building they've been implemented open the projects the commission has taken action on lombardy and in 2008, it was denied and not to be complete and the application was denied so since that time the academy has had to maintain the rear portion the property for the retail use. >> okay. and you mentioned number 4 on the list of 13 but didn't give details on what they're not compiling with that's changing the scope of eir. >> term number 4 they must work deliberating and in gookt to complete the eir. >> so it's not the remainder to change the scope. >> to be fair too there's been progress made in the last year and part of the progress is no additional properties have been acquired to our knowledge and to the eir so the city has issued comments i mean those comments were from the city not

dept of environmental health: whole foods has done everything we have asked them to do.hard lee, the acting director of the department of environmental health says that includes setting up new cleaning procedures including cleaning two floor drains that could be the source of the maggots richard lee/s.f. dept of environmental health: they're going to be doing deep cleaning every week which they weren't doing initially whole foods told the health department they had found only one dead maggot on that monday days later, after kron 4 began its investigation, whole foods admitted there were several live maggots richard lee/s.f. dept of environmental health: it disturbed me that what the story that was first told to our inspector was not what really happened whole foods has maitained that despite the discovery of maggots "the health department confirmed that there was never a public health risk." not exactly says the health department richard lee/s.f. dept of environmental health: we don't know if there was a health hazard of not lee says that's because they inspected three d

>> yes, and the rest of the environmental community. it's a move backward to very carbon intensive fuel. i can't think of a worse way to make petroleum products. in america, thanks to fracking, we have more oil than refining capacity, so when it was originally contemplated, might have been a national security argument, that's no longer the case. >> charlie: so how do you assess president obama's environmental policies and not only what he's actually been able to achieve by executive order? >> well, the president's been a leader on climate change and i think is getting more and more focused on it. in the first term, he was able to double the miles per gallon standard for cars. that's one to have the big sources of greenhouse gases. now he's absolutely committed to issuing e.p.a. regulations on power plants, which is 40% of america's carbon pollution. >> charlie: is there a race between finding alternative sources, being able to extract shale gas in a safe way, and the velocity of global warming? i mean, is there some kind of race between

there is a mattress store, very environmentally friendly.have asia which is at howard and 9th street which has valet parking in the neighborhood because the valets have to put the cars there. it's very, very limited parking. the amount of traffic, it doesn't matter if you are out there at 10 o'clock in the morning or 4 o'clock in the afternoon. they always -- i wonder where these cars have come from, whether scotty has beamed them down or other galaxies have come down. but there always, always, always is this traffic that's going on. i read that this area is adequately serviced by muni, even though i am an mta person and on the mad committee for muni which addresses access and disabled issues. muni doesn't adequately service anyplace and the only bus we have nearby is the 12 which runs when it wants to. otherwise people have to walk down from mission street and take the 14 which run when it wants to and has seats available when it wants to. i agree with this gentleman. we didn't even talk before this meeting that the city really does need to

and air pollution is one of the leading environmental causes of cancer deaths, as recognized recently by a world organization of leading scientists that it is, or carcenogin and more and more research is coming out and almost, daily from scientists and journals that my colleagues that the department of public health pass on to us, and the ordinance that became effective in 2009, applying to the public works projects and the projects that are publicly funded and the construction projects that are longer than 20 days in lengths and live in the environment code and it helps to find the funding mechanisms for the construction contractors. and but it is enforced by the individuals to the departments such as the department of public works, and the public utilities commission, and we have worked with those city agencies over the last year, and insuring that they were, okay, with these updates to the ordinance, and, really the heart of the existing ordinance, was under the standard best management practices, well which talks about the tier two engines or the verified diesel and the mission co

don't need a hearing to schedule another hearing but need for an interim date but the hearing the environmental he team is still working with the pier review consultants to come in more information will help to understand the interim update. we can questioned and put something on the calendar for december and either we make progress or not we can go forward >> commissioner antonini. >> certainly that will be normal procures as zoning administer sanchez said once the eir is finished it will be scheduled automatically sometime in december or the ear it calendar date and if the academy can't complete it there will be a hearing to disapprove absent an eir we can't approve items or maybe informational at this point goodwin the action at that point in time at that time, we don't need another hearing to do this the process is in place and the academy hopefully is hearing what they need to do and staff knows what we should have to do and get the thing finished because it's frustrating because none of the items that were brought up by commissioner hillis some of the items everybody agrees they can't sgo

so her family was exposed to quite a bit of environmental toxicity. uranium will break down to radon, radium. they are classified as carcinogens. i think it would be very interesting to find out exactly what the source of the uranium contamination is, largely because her case was a little severe. i think it's a little unusual. >> now donna has no safe well water coming to her home and must rely on bottled water for everyday needs. >> you can imagine how many i go through and just the, um, you know, not being able to just have the simple convenience of running water in your home that's--that's safe. so it's a-- it's a chore. >> the story isn't much different in one tri-county area of pennsylvania. instead of one coal-fired power plant, there are 6. unlike plant scherer, which burns pure coal, these plants are burning coal waste left over by previous mining. coal waste, also called culm, can now be burned to generate power. but there are some downsides. not only is coal waste less efficient than regular coal, it also has higher concentrations of heavy m

. >> host: you teach contracts and environmental law. when it comes to environmental standards where does the u.s. rank? >> guest: it depends on the issue. the united states has been a leader and pioneer in environmental law. the united states developed the first generation of modern environmental law in the sense of uniform standards across the country that gave citizens the right to enforce the law which was an innovative and aggressive in a sense concept. since then, depending on the particular presence of the administration we have not had a new environmental law since the 1990s and it is a partisan issue and is now caught up in the partisanship we see in washington, d.c. so for instance, you look at climate change. you know, there is a lot going on at the state level. some of the states and some federal level but if you compare that to when you see happening in europe it is hard to see the united states is a leader in that regard. >> host: how important was the safe drinking water act? >> guest: it was important because it provided

an environmental attorney, i represented -- i was the lobbyist for all the environmental groups in maine in the 1970s, helped draft our bottle bill, helped draft our billboard bill that took billboards off our highways. i can say that with some pride because the draftsmanship consisted of joining a young attorney general. he and i took the vermont billboard bill and everywhere it said "vermont," we crossed out out and wrote maine. that was the drafting. i then went to work in the alternative energy field, hydro, biomass. then did work in conservation, started my own business. did 48 major energy conservation projects around maine, each one of which, by the way, required local permits from a building permit, electrical permits. then served as governor for eight years, then did some work in the wind bangor savings bank or any of the other small community banks in maine. did not cause the crash in 2008. and yet they're getting a lot of the burden with from the dodd-frank bill. and i've, every time i see maine bankers, that's all they want to talk about is the mountain of new applications. i

the environmentalism was a crashing halt. would argue an inherent uncertainty and conservatism among many of the environmentally aware themselv themselves. because of the deep way of life is not inclined to seriously challenge the system that had promoted and packaged all of the same recreational landscapes and amenities and activities that they had appreciate their lives around in the first place. i will briefly mention one final controversy in the deviate in the 1970s or 1980s over the state through glenwood canyon. a great many groups in the state's council to the environmental defense fund and others got involved in trying to say they came from the interstate basically. they moved around the can into designing the passage through the canon in a more environmentally responsible way. they acceded to the viewpoint. they dare to propose that neither didn't need to be a superhighway of way for the high country. it was okay. the small minority that raised the possibility that maybe could just stay for the parts of the high coun

i am with the rest of the environmental community on this.is a move backward to very carbon intensive fuel. i can't think of a worse way to make petroleum products. the fact of the matter is in america, thanks to fracking, we have more oil than we have refining capacity. when it was originally contemplated, that is no longer the basis. >> how do you assess president obama's environmental policies and what he has been able to achieve? >> the president has been a leader on climate change and i think he is getting more focused on it. in the first term, he was able to double the miles per gallon standard for cars. that is one of the big sources of greenhouse gases. now, he is absolutely committed to issuing epa regulations on power plants which is 40% of america's carbon pollution. >> is there a race between finding solutions, being able to extract shale gas in a safeway and the velocity of global warming? the race between being able to find that before global warming exercises a serious impact beyond now. >> there is a race against time to deplo

you are creating an environmental impact. >> it's going to be an environmental positive. >> reporter: he says this claim is wrong on its face. there's no way you can take thousands of individual drivers off 101 and other bay area highways, condense them to buses and not see pollution improvement. >> the study that is have been done suggest that half of the people riding these shuttles would drive their own cars if they weren't riding the shuttles. the direct emission is a factor of three, four, five worse for people driving individually. >> it doesn't show the shuttle riders would be taking their own individual cars. >> reporter: le's look at what the study, singular from cal berkeley does say what happened if the shuttles disappeared tomorrow. 48% said they would drive alone to work. 15% said they would car pool, meaning roughly two-thirds would be back on the road with roughly a fifth saying they would find a form of public transit. and in the end, this argument was not strong enough to persuade san francisco's supervisors. we reached out to google and asking for more information. t

said heeral in colorado did it by saying that environmental the -- environmental defense fund, i wantedsit down with the energy producers and figure out a way to clean up the air. >> were they willing to do that? >> they were. they understood that they want to operate in a responsible way and win back public support and confidence. together, we crafted a real breakthrough. the toughest regulations in the country. >> they said we could live with this? >> they all said that and it turns out these regulations will tons of,000 conventional air pollutants and methane, about 100,000 air. out of the the brown cloud the denver had been doing such a good job minimizing has been glittering androwing with the drilling now will shrink again thanks to the new regulation. the methane emissions will be reduced by somewhere between a third and 40%. that is how you do it. it turns out that methane emissions, one of the biggest global warming pollutants, could be produced by 40%. at a cost of just a penny per thousand cubic feet of produced gas. committee --e a were chew on a committee to recommend how t

> i think i understand this is kind of strange to me i think you mentioned with respect to the environmental report the any impact evaluation of an impact will use the existing use as the baseline; is that correct because the academy of art has changed the uses illegal from an apartment building to constituting student housing so student housing is the base from which the eir takes off; is that correct? >> yes. unless the aa u has established and has records of the building force the transportation for cultural resources we've established the baseline of when to look at the impacts. >> and then in terms of reaching the november 1st deadline is that going to be the will the department both environmental and otherwise be preparing or have a schedule for the aa u to meet in terms of the transportation study, the incorporation of the strategy study into definitely and when those are due. >> yeah. we'll have a schedules lots of schedules in the past to meet the deadline but as we said it's a reasonable timeline. >> okay. and with respect to that date that will be the publication date of the diffe

clearly, no significant environmental impact. if we do not build the pipeline, that is 1400 rail cars a day to move that oil. you want to talk about safety, you need the right mix of infrastructure. keystone alone will take 500 trucks a day off some of our western highways. that is an infrastructure issue and a safety issue. >> when you talk about infrastructure, and you mentioned the schools and the airport upgrades needed to deal with the expanding population you have a north dakota, how much of that is done at the state level and the local level versus how much federal investment is needed for some of those projects? >> it used to be it was more federal investment. the ratio was higher with federal dollars coming in. it is now much more state investment because of the growth of our state and because, with the growing economy we have, even though we reduced taxes, we have more revenue because we have a much larger and growing economy. >> let me go back to the chairman of the committee. you were smiling when i asked you about he

kelly and thank you josh for your advocacy and environmental justice and local hire. and thank you to mr. courtney for your work on the commission and also your support of the labor unions and creating local jobs. when you invested in asian neighborhood design and invested in go solar sf you've invested in me and it worked (clapping) >> so i'd like to thank everyone for coit and enjoying this project that it dear and special to the puc and we wanted to thank you for coming out and thank you. >> i am going to call this meeting to order good morning and welcome to the may 15, 2014 meeting of the board of supervisors neighborhood services and services committee my name is david campos and i am the chair and we are joined by supervisor norman yee. eric mar will be here shortly, the clerk is derek evans and i would like to thank sfgtv staff who are covering this meeting. we have one item on the agenda today. let's begin, mr. clerk,. >> please be sure to silence all cell phones and electronic devices completed speaker cards should be submitted to the clerk. >> thank you rkt

this is an environmental issue.his is something that all of us face whether a democrat or republican. you are going to have to deal with climate change and i think the important thing is and what i push at the racetrack is i just try and do everything i can personally to reduce my darbon foot print so every time i sit in a race car, i have been adopting an acre of rain forest to offset the carbon footprint of that fuel since 2007, i have been doing that and personally when i am not at the racetrack, i drive an electric car with solar panels on my roof. when i am not at the race car, i am driving off of "the sun" shine. i have not been to a gas station since september. >> lalani, you mentioned when you were at the racetrack and when you are at the racetrack, you are in front of perhaps the widest cross section of americans. how important is it in terms of innovation to just normalize it for average americans? >> i mean that's one of the most important things that we need to do. i actually feel like i have been an env

the unmanned aircraft is for military use in remote environmentals. >>> up next - the dire warning abouthange and its impact on your day to day . >>> you heard about climate change studies, but tonight the one you need to know about - the reality that goes beyond the warnings. >> this is not some distant problem of the future. this is a problem that is affecting americans right now. >> pollution linked to depression. rising food prices. and business bearing the cost. tonight our special report - climate change and you. >>> i'm john seigenthaler in new york. the new white house report on climate change is not the first, but could have the greatest impact on you. this time it includes a blunt warning to minister. cut carbon emissions now or your homes, healthnd jobs will be at risk. richelle carey is here with more. >> everyone wants to know how will this effect you. depend where you live. we've broken it down. 64 million people in the densely populated north-east - they'll see the seasons get more extreme. heavier rain and snow, coastal flooding as sea levels rise. talk about the south. a

we have from the environmental protection agency and public health. we have 1 billion kilowatt hours each year on average. our sewer system is a combined sewer system. we take in both our storm water and our sanitary sewage into same system. we are only two cities in the state of california that has a combined system and the other is in sacramento. you will find most of the older cities in the united states has a combined sewer system. new york, philadelphia and others, chicago. we do have a system that's own 100 years old. the city has been around since the gold rush. we have about 1,000 miles in the city. what are our core priorities: there are three, deliver high quality and reliable services. that's what our people do 24/7. we need to maintain our critical infrastructure. we'll talk about that and last but not least, we have to be afford avenlt ---ible. we don't want people to leave town. >> what have we done? it's the water improvement program. we are going to spend $4.6 billion to you -- upgrade our water system and we should be very proud of th

kelly and thank you josh for your advocacy and environmental justice and local hire. and thank you to mr. courtney for your work on the commission and also your support of the labor unions and creating local jobs. when you invested in asian neighborhood design and invested in go solar sf you've invested in me and it worked (clapping) >> so i'd like to thank everyone for coit and enjoying this project that it dear and special to the puc and we wanted to thank you for coming out and thank you. good afternoon. wel the san francisco full board of supervisors of tuesday, may 6, 2014. madam clerk, call the roll >> supervisor avalos. supervisor breed. supervisor campos. prede

when he can, he helps out with the environmental protection project.the poles are designed to stop nets being cast. it's an ideal spawning area for fish. birds and bats find a refuge here. this evening, nasima akram has arranged a meeting for all the women in the village. the project has allowed her to learn new skills. she wants to get things moving. as a woman, that takes courage. >> the biggest change for me personally is that i never used to go out. now i address other women, speak about the environment and think about how we can preserve the flora and fauna of the wetlands. i also occupy myself with women's rights. i didn't know anything about all that before. but not everyone can afford to take part in sustainable farming. many people have simply moved away from rural areas to work in the bangladeshi capital, dhaka. some former fishermen now make a living pulling rickshaws. overpopulation and a battle for resources are not the only issues which present a problem to the german project co-ordinator, ottilie mooshofer,. >> the dilemma we're facing i

further environmental review would not change the results.arding environmental effect nor provide additional information for review topics. the planning commission upheld the planning department's [speaker not understood] of the october 24, 2013 hearing. for these reasons, the department, therefore, recommends the board uphold the fmmd and deny the appeal. that concludes our presentation. thank you. >> colleagues, any questions to the planning department? okay. at this time why don't we hear from the project sponsor. >> good afternoon [speaker not understood] consulting. we started the design of this building a couple years ago, 2-1/2 years ago and we have gone through extensive environmental study, whether it was historical or [speaker not understood] residence and design of the building. we work with the planning department to come up with what you see before you. the issue of parking, you know, we looked into it and how we felt was that with the two exits required,edth lobby it take, the residential lobby and the parking entrance, furthera

i attend a lot of environmental events. when i am at environmental choir.t's nice to be around people who agree with you but you are not moving the needle at all if you don't go out there and talk to people who don't believe yet and so, when i am at the nascar track, that's when i really feel like i am reaching a large section of mainstream america that might not be sold on some of these ideas and driving a race car kind of gives me the ability to talk to these people. so, you know, my motto is really, if you just go around talking to the people who believe in the same things that you do, who is going to change the minds of those who don't? so, for me, the racetrack is where i am making the most environmentalist. >> lisa, some of the places in the country that are the most advanced are places that you wouldn't think of it, like iowa, for example, and south dakota both get more than one quarter of their electricity from wind power and they are not exactly crunchy granola birkenstock people there. >> not that there is anything wrong with those people? >> i am

i'll be chatting with billionaire businessman turned environmental activist tom steyer. tom steyer was born and raised in the financial capital of the u.s., new york city, but chose to open his investment firm, farallon capital management, in san francisco. he founded farallon in 1986 with $8 million, and by the time he stepped down he turned the initial investment into $30 billion, making it the fourth-largest hedge fund in the world. steyer's personal fortune is an estimated $2.6 billion. not satisfied with retiring on the golf course, steyer reinvented himself as an environmental activist, funding and starring in a series of public service announcements. >> i'm tom styer. each week, we take a look at the keystone xl pipeline proposal. >> he believes the pipeline will escalate the production of the controversial canadian oil sands. >> so, the question here in my mind was, is this a chance to change our trajectory in terms of energy? is this a chance to change the way people think about it and the way the policies are shaped around energy? >> we caught up with steyer in

kelly and thank you josh for your advocacy and environmental justice and local hire. and thank you to mr. courtney for your work on the commission and also your support of the labor unions and creating local jobs. when you invested in asian neighborhood design and invested in go solar sf you've invested in me and it worked (clapping) >> so i'd like to thank everyone for coit and enjoying this project that it dear and special to the puc and we wanted to thank you for coming out and thank you. ♪ ♪ ♪ >> the san francisco playground's hitsvery dates back to 1927 when the area where the present playground and center is today was purchased by the city for $27,000. in the 1950s, the sen consider was expanded by then mayor robinson and the old gym was built. thanks to the passage of the 2008 clean and safe neighborhood parks bond, the sunset playground has undergone extensive renovation to its four acres of fields, courts, play grounds, community rooms, and historic gymnasium. >> here we are. 60 years and $14 million later, and we have got this beautiful, brand-new rec center