Media Watch
Menifee's 'microgrid' community offers energy self-sufficiency
CBS News -
"What a microgrid is, is the ability for a battery to operate, separate from a utility, a number of lots," said Scott Hansen, vice president of KB Homes Forward Planning and Land Development. "If you want to think of it like an island of power unto itself." … The idea started two years ago with a federal grant and joint partnership between University of California-Irvine, KB Homes, SoCal Edison and SunPower. "How do we provide reliability to our customers? How do we provide them with a product that we know that no matter what happens, our lights are on, our homes are still fully functional?" said Hansen. And that's how the microgrid was born. Read More
The Climate Crisis Is Making Floods Bigger. Is LA Ready?
LAist -
In the L.A. Basin, a study out of UC Irvine found that nearly a million people live in an area that is at high-risk for flooding in a more likely 100-year storm event. The study found cities along the lower part of the L.A. River — including Bell Gardens, Carson, Paramount City, and Compton — would see some of the most severe impacts, such as water spilling over the top of flood channels and waist-high flooding. “The flood risk facing cities is bigger than what federally defined maps would suggest,” said Brett Sanders, a UC Irvine engineering professor and lead author of the study. Read More
Can OC Cling Onto Its Iconic But Threatened Coastal Rail Line?
Voice of OC -
A publicized train ride last week between a federal rail administrator and Congressman Mike Levin put these issues into focus, with the announcement of requests for federal funding in the coming days for rail relocation studies, as well as a new county task force studying issues like beach sand replenishment. And at a Friday news conference in the rain, wind and cold, officials announced one of its first members: UCI civil engineering professor Brett Sanders, a coastal erosion and flooding expert, who has been sounding the alarm about the coastline’s railroad threats which halted passenger service since September of last year. Read More
Biden Administration Is Building a U.S.-Mexico Border Wall that Could Worsen Flooding in Both Nations
The Voice of San Diego -
The 1980 flood in the Tijuana River Valley was one of its worst. Rains filled nearby reservoirs so much that water had to be released into the already-raging Tijuana River. If a wall stood in the river then, like the one Customs and Border Protection is building right now, it would be met with water speeds and force equivalent to 175 fully-loaded shipping containers hitting the barrier every second, according to Jochen Schubert, [specialist, civil & environmental engineering], a flood risk expert at University of California, Irvine. Read More
Eyewitness Newsmakers: How to harness stormwater and the concerning 100-year flood assessment
KABC -
In this edition of Eyewitness Newsmakers with Marc Brown, Brett Sanders, professor of civil and environmental engineering at UC Irvine, laid out a worrying scenario. He and his team mapped a 100-year flood scenario for our region. They discovered our network of flood control channels may not be up to the task, which could mean water may spill over the channel banks or banks could collapse, sending water into areas where millions of people live. Read More
Federal railroad official tours at-risk rail line in Del Mar, San Clemente. ‘It’s just a matter of time’
The San Diego Union-Tribune -
Federal Railroad Administration Administrator Amit Bose joined Rep. Mike Levin, D-San Juan Capistrano, and a host of local officials for a train ride over the precarious Del Mar bluffs. Levin, Bose and others, including a University of California, Irvine professor, then held news conferences in Solana Beach and San Clemente to publicize the need to protect the tracks and move them to a safer inland location. … “It’s been estimated that this year’s storms have left more than $5 billion in losses across California, and most of that is concentrated along the coast,” said Brett Sanders, a professor of civil and environmental engineering. “Coastal change can be dramatic, dangerous and costly.” Read More
Orange County’s Coastal Train Service is Back; But for How Long?
Voice of OC -
Brett Sanders, a civil and environmental engineering professor at the University of California, Irvine, said the rail line’s woes tie back to beach sand starvation. … Sanders says, the urbanization of Orange County – and the region’s flood control infrastructure – “is designed to hold sediment in place.” “I mean, we go to great lengths and plan new developments to make sure that sand doesn’t move, that soil doesn’t move,” he added. The result? “We have effectively cut off the supply of sand which made our beaches and made us famous.” Read More
Rep. Levin, Officials Discuss Importance of Funding Rail Solutions
San Clemente Times, -
Brett Sanders, a professor of civil and environmental engineering at the University of California, Irvine …. said he has studied the risks along the Southern California coast in varying capacities for more than a decade, including using satellite imagery to chart the changes that Cotton’s Point in San Clemente has experienced. Nearby residents are correct when they say that what used to be a stable beach facing gradual decline took a drastic turn for the worst around 2015, according to Sanders. ... He endorsed sand nourishment projects as the action that will best serve Californians. Read More
Federal officials get up-close look at coastal erosion threats to key rail line
The Orange County Register -
A $4 million request for federal funding has been made to help the Orange County Transportation Authority with a study on relocating coastal sections of a key rail line further inland …. There is also new task force being created that will bring the scientific community together with lawmakers …. The group will be chaired by Brett Sanders, professor of civil and environmental engineering at UC Irvine, to coordinate local, state and federal efforts to plan for long-term solutions. … While he’s optimistic with longer-term solutions being discussed, Sanders said more steps need to be taken sooner rather than later while studies are conducted to protect the coastal resources. [Subscription required, campus-wide access provided by UCI Libraries. Sign-up here: https://guides.lib.uci.edu/news/ocregister] Read More
Leaders warn of coastal erosion as passenger rail services between OC and San Diego resume
KABC -
A scenic and popular passenger train route between Irvine and Oceanside will fully resume service next week after months of emergency work in San Clemente to stabilize a hillside on one side of the railroad track and coastal erosion on the other side. … Brett Sanders, a civil and environmental engineering professor at UC Irvine, said climate change and human activity are starving beaches from sand supply, which is causing the coastal buffers to disappear and could impact railroad tracks along the coast.
"Taking action to restore natural levels of sand is now crucial for the southern Orange County coast," Sanders said. Read More