logo
Wildfire debris washes up on LA beaches after major rainstorm

Wildfire debris washes up on LA beaches after major rainstorm

Yahoo26-02-2025

Los Angeles county beaches are contending with the aftermath of recent wildfires and winter storms as debris from the Palisades fire and urban runoff are carried to the shoreline.
After last week's major rainstorm, beaches in southern California have been littered with timber, twisted metals, construction materials and charred silt and sediment originating from the Palisades fire in January. That blaze, along with the Eaton fire, killed at least 29 people.
The Los Angeles county department of beaches and harbors said last week that officials were monitoring beach conditions and ocean water quality. Maintenance crews were working to remove large pieces of debris from the shore, and the department advised beachgoers to avoid visible fire debris and stay out of the ocean water where advisories were posted.
The department of public health lifted the ocean water quality rain advisory last week for all Los Angeles county beaches except those affected by fire. Beaches from Las Flores beach to Santa Monica state beach were still under advisory warnings.
Just days after the fires began, winds carried ash and charred debris up to 100 miles (161km) offshore. Since then, wind and waves have spread the charred material along the county's coastline.
'The fires burn also through vegetations that normally will help stabilize soil,' said Tania Pineda-Enriquez, water-quality data and policy specialist at Heal the Bay, an environmental advocacy group. 'Without this natural barrier, all the ash and soil will be washed out into the waterways.'
Beachgoers can still hang around the sand areas but should avoid water contact, especially near storm drains, creeks and rivers, since ocean water-quality testing results are still pending, according to the department of public health.
Initial sediment testing at Will Rogers state beach and Topanga Beach shows that the charred silt and sediment are not hazardous to people or the environment, the department of beaches and harbors said.
More testing is being conducted this week. The dark sediment, made up of fine ash mixed with sand, will not be removed to prevent further shoreline erosion and habitat destruction.
'Natural tides and weather will gradually break down and wash away the sediment, allowing the ecosystem to recover naturally,' reads a statement from the department of beaches and harbors.
The concern about debris comes as Angelenos protest against the Environmental Protection Agency's decision to set up a hazardous waste sorting site in lower Topanga near the ocean. The site is meant to process materials like paint, solvents and lithium-ion batteries from wildfire-ravaged homes, but hundreds of protesters thus far have raised concerns over the risks to water quality, wildlife and Indigenous heritage.

Orange background

Try Our AI Features

Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:

Comments

No comments yet...

Related Articles

See stunning images of June's Strawberry Moon
See stunning images of June's Strawberry Moon

Yahoo

time5 hours ago

  • Yahoo

See stunning images of June's Strawberry Moon

You may have noticed the moon looked a little different last night — it was full, low, and in some places glowed with a bright-pink hue. It was June's Strawberry Moon — so named not because of the reddish glow, but because its namesake fruit is ready to be harvested in June. The full moon peaked in illumination at 3:44 a.m. ET early Wednesday, according to the Farmer's Almanac. In some locations, fittingly, the moon radiated a strawberry-like red-and-pink glow due to its low position and light passing through the densest parts of the atmosphere. The phenomenon was visible in New York City, Florida and across the pond in the U.K. and Cyprus. Last night's lunar spectacle marked the lowest full moon visible from the northern hemisphere in decades — the likes of which won't be seen again until 2043. 'Strawberry Moon' has been used by Native American Algonquin tribes in the Northeastern U.S., as well as the Ojibwe, Dakota and Lakota peoples, according to the Farmer's Almanac. Alternative names for the June full moon used by Indigenous cultures include the 'Birth Moon' and the 'Hatching Moon,' referring to a time when animal babies are born. European names for the June full moon include the 'Honey Moon' and 'Mead Month,' as June was traditionally a month for marriage. This article was originally published on

Americans Told To Stay Indoors in 5 States
Americans Told To Stay Indoors in 5 States

Newsweek

time8 hours ago

  • Newsweek

Americans Told To Stay Indoors in 5 States

Based on facts, either observed and verified firsthand by the reporter, or reported and verified from knowledgeable sources. Newsweek AI is in beta. Translations may contain inaccuracies—please refer to the original content. 🎙️ Voice is AI-generated. Inconsistencies may occur. On Wednesday, residents in Montana, the Dakotas, Minnesota, and Kansas contended with potentially hazardous air pollution levels, according to the Environmental Protection Agency's (EPA) real-time air quality map. EPA mapping showed high concentration levels of fine particulates, also known as PM2.5 across a portion of central Kansas, western Minnesota, northwest South Dakota, a large portion of North Dakota, and Northeast Montana. An official map highlights which areas faced the highest levels of air pollution. An official map highlights which areas faced the highest levels of air pollution. EPA The worst affected state was North Dakota, with the EPA map showing a central swath of the state marked under "very unhealthy" air quality levels. This is a developing story and will be updated shortly.

What defunding public media would mean for the West
What defunding public media would mean for the West

Yahoo

time5 days ago

  • Yahoo

What defunding public media would mean for the West

Sage Smiley, KYUK's news director, and Morris Alexie visit the proposed site for the climate-driven relocation of Nunapitchuk, a village of about 600 on the Yukon-Kuskokwim Delta, Alaska. Alexie is the community's relocation manager. (Photo by Katie Baldwin Basile) Late last fall, members of Bethel, Alaska's search and rescue team met at the local public radio station, KYUK, for a program called River Watch. Over an hour and a half, they took calls from listeners around the Yukon-Kuskokwim Delta, comparing notes on the safety of the ice at different points along the Kuskokwim River. 'Happy Thanksgiving to everyone out there,' said a caller from the village of Kalskag, his voice muffled over the phone. He said he'd recently flown over the river to the east and observed lots of holes in the ice. He wanted to warn listeners in other towns: 'There is no trail right now. None of the open water is marked. So it's advised not to be traveling back and forth from Aniak.' KYUK is the only daily news source for this region, which is roughly the size of Oregon, and River Watch is a staple of its programming. In dozens of Southwest Alaska villages — including many Yup'ik, Athabaskan and Cup'ik communities — residents who live far from the U.S. highway system rely on boats and snow machines to get around. 'The Kuskokwim River in this region is like our highway,' said KYUK news director Sage Smiley. During freeze-up and breakup each year, knowing the condition of the ice can be a matter of life and death. And in the Y-K Delta, where Internet access is often limited, public radio plays a crucial role. But if the Trump administration gets its way, programs like River Watch could soon disappear. Last month, the president signed an executive order aimed at preventing congressionally approved federal funding for the Corporation for Public Broadcasting (CPB) from going to National Public Radio (NPR) and the Public Broadcasting Service (PBS). CPB, NPR, PBS and a host of local stations have all filed lawsuits in response. Meanwhile, in its proposed budget, the administration outlined a plan to eliminate funding for CPB entirely — and this week, Trump asked Congress to take back more than a billion dollars that had already been set aside for public broadcasters. Lawmakers have 45 days to make a decision on the request, with a House vote expected as early as next week. Defunding public media would hurt stations across the U.S., but for ones like KYUK, which relies on CPB for nearly 70% of its revenue, it would be 'catastrophic,' Smiley said. The data show that stations serving rural and Indigenous audiences in the West would be the hardest hit. Here's why, by the numbers. CPB is an independent nonprofit created by Congress nearly 60 years ago to distribute federal funds to noncommercial TV and radio stations across the U.S. Today, it funds more than 1,500 stations, many of which buy NPR and PBS content to distribute locally alongside local news, music shows and other programming. Collectively, the stations in the public media network give 99% of the U.S. population access to public broadcasting. Nearly half of CPB grantees are rural, and together they employ close to 6,000 people. As nonprofits, local public media stations rely on a variety of funding sources, including federal funding, state funding, listener donations, grants, and underwriting from local businesses. On average, federal funding accounts for 16% of a local public media station's revenue. But for many stations, that percentage is much higher. Three factors unite the stations most reliant on federal funding: They are located in the West, they are rural, and they are tribal stations. Among stations in the 50 states, those in the Western U.S. are by far the most dependent on federal funding, according to a recent analysis of station financial reports for fiscal year 2023, carried out by former NPR product manager Alex Curley. (Limited data is available for American Samoa, Guam, Puerto Rico and the U.S. Virgin Islands, but according to Curley, the few stations there rely even more heavily on federal funding.) On average, Curley found, Western stations depend on federal money for just over 20% of their revenue — compared with just under 15% for the next highest region, the Midwest. The states with the highest average dependency, in order, are West Virginia, Alaska, New Mexico and Montana. In Alaska, the most dependent Western state, public media stations rely on federal funding for an average of 36% of their revenue. If all the stations with a dependence of at least 20% were forced to close, Alaska would lose 15 stations — half of its total, Curley said. More than 50 stations around the country belong to the Native Public Media network, and they are also particularly vulnerable to funding cuts. All but one of the Native Public Media stations with available data relied on federal funding for at least 20% of their revenue, and the average reliance was more than 50%. Source: CPB defines rural stations as those whose coverage areas have a population density of 40 or fewer residents per square kilometer. The stations defined as rural on this map come from CPB's FY 2024 list of rural station grantees. The funding percentages come from a list of the most vulnerable public radio stations compiled using CPB data from FY 2023, the most recent available. Tribal stations are defined as stations that are 'tribally owned, managed or staffed by tribal members,' according to this map and station websites. (Map design by Luna Anna Archey/High Country News) According to CPB data shared with , 79 radio stations in the U.S. relied on CPB for 30% or more of their funding in FY 2023. More than half of those stations (42) are located in the West. Of the vulnerable Western stations, all but two are rural — and 20 are also tribal stations. Not only would these stations be drastically impacted by losing federal funding, they would also find that money especially hard to replace. Urban stations have large audiences to turn to for help, but rural stations by definition serve sparsely populated areas and often lower-income communities. According to CPB, 40% of the average non-rural station's revenue comes from listener donations, compared with just 28% of the average rural stations. Meanwhile, the average rural station relies on CPB funding nearly twice as much as a non-rural station does. This past fiscal year, KYUK raised just under $20,000 from a total of 413 members, comprising 2% of the radio station's revenue. 'We live in a subsistence region,' Smiley said. 'The way people survive and thrive here does not necessarily follow the traditional Western economic model.' To her, this is part of the beauty of public media: Stations like KYUK allow people to get thoughtful, nuanced coverage of the place they live, whether or not they can afford to pay for it. In Bethel, that includes public safety alerts and emergency coverage on shows like River Watch — but also, local news accessible to everyone in the region. The oldest Indigenous-owned and operated bilingual radio station in the U.S., KYUK broadcasts local news in both English and Yugtun, the Yup'ik language, three times a day. The station also airs several other Yup'ik public affairs and culture shows throughout the week, sharing traditional knowledge and conversations between elders. Villages in the Y-K Delta — like many rural and Indigenous communities — tend to receive a flattened portrayal in the national media, when they're covered at all. Outside reporters often miss the good news: The Bethel student robotics team bringing Yup'ik dance to an international stage, say, or a Cup'ik artist using traditional carving techniques to tell the evolving story of hunting and fishing in his community. Celebrations of berry picking and high school graduation — the everyday activities and special events that make headlines at a local publication run by the same people who coach youth sports and act in community plays. These are stories at stake in the fight over federal funding, Smiley said: 'This idea that a region that has been historically underserved by the state and by the country could lose a public media organization that is focused on providing what people here need, which is public safety information and a reflection of a life that is multifaceted and beautiful — that really, really tears my heart out.' This article first appeared on High Country News and is republished here under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License.

DOWNLOAD THE APP

Get Started Now: Download the App

Ready to dive into the world of global news and events? Download our app today from your preferred app store and start exploring.
app-storeplay-store