Power Shortage Statewide May Cause Blackouts, Wheezing Old Hueneme Power Plant Generates 100 Noise Complaints

Rotating power outages “are a possibility but not an inevitability” in California this weekend … as some power plants are making unusual noises … and others are failing outright … 

Up the coast at Port Hueneme … police say they got 100 or so phone calls about unusual loud noice coming out of the old gas-powered electric power plant up there. 

The Port Hueneme generating station is ancient … it was supposed to be retired and disassembled.

But the state has ordered its owners to keep it cranking away.

Yesterday … the statewide power grid experienced some unexpected problems.

Some power plants “unexpectedly failed due to extreme weather,” according to CAL-ISO … the grid managers.

Also . That big brushfire north of Los Angeles also shut down some transmission lines.

The state is minimizing the pumping of water in the State Water Project during the late afternoons and early evenings. 

The worst of the heat is yet to come …. Sunday into Tuesday … and the margin for error diminishes.

The California Independent Systems Operator controls the state’s electric grid.

They say we may set a record level of power consumption this coming week.

Total demand statewide may top the record … of 48 billion watts per day.

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Makes Required Inside 1 Point Dume Classroom for 10 Days, as 1 Person Comes Down With Coronavirus

Masks are now required in at least one classroom at Malibu elementary school on point Dume

At least one case of COVID – a case that the school nurse has determined to be infectious – was on campus this week.

The infectious case was in a fourth grade classroom Tuesday Wednesday and yesterday.

The letter went out last night to parents. It says that any children who are in attendance in one particular classroom or considered to be exposed to the disease. The school district says they are aligned with the guidelines from the Los Angeles county department of public health… And says that all individuals exposed on campus may return to school so long as they do not display symptoms of COVID-19.

Kids in that one 4th Grade Class are REQUIRED to wear a highly protective mask around others indoors, except when eating or drinking, for the next 10 days.

The school will hand out highly protective masks to anyone who needs one.

Although the school district is requiring Covid tests every week… They are to be taken at home … and the district has not released any data about any possible infection rates detected by the tests.

Again … the positive test cropped up ion a fourth grade class at Malibu Elementary School on Point Dume.

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Broken Irrigation Line At Malibu High Sparks Brief Worry (Or Hope) of Closure

A broken water line sent a flood of water from Malibu Middle School onto Morning View Drive this morning.

There was a brief worry that school would have to be cancelled, but officials found plenty of water pressurere inside there bathrooms at the middle and high schools.

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Seven firefighters have been treated for heat related injuries at the Route Fire … which is largely put out this morning.

This … as a baking heat wave is dropping live fuel moisture content dangerously low in the local mountains. 

The fire … on both sides of the 5 Freeway north of Magic Mountain .. burned 52 hundred acres.

30 miles north of Malibu. 

The Route Fire began around noon Wednesday … near Castaic Lake … no cause has been identified. and grew so quickly that a portion of Interstate 5 was shut down in both directions.

Some lanes on I-5 were blocked off heading up the hill towards The grapevine.

But all 8 lanes over the mountain were reopened last night.

As of last night, the fire was about 27% contained.

It is essentially out.

It is also the closest wildfire to Malibu so far this year… as the yearly wildfire calendar appears to be right on schedule. 

The live fuel moisture index is about 65 percent in part of there Santa Monica Mountains… and dropping.

That 65 percent measurement is from near Boney Peak in Ventura County. 

60 is the critical level.

This weekend’s baking temperatures are eopxected to dry out the brush to below that level. 

The National Weather service is now saying that weekend temperatures here in Malibu may hit 90m degrees.

A heat advisory takes effect tomorrow at 10 and will likely extend into the middle of next week.

Another LA County Sheriff’s Scandal: Did Alex Villanueva Really Fire A Deputy Charged With 33 Child Sex Offenses?

Another scandal at the L A County sheriff’s office.

This time … it’s over a sheriff’s deputy who was arrested and charged with several serious sex crimes involving four young girls.

The deputy was immediately fired by sheriff Alex Villanueva … says the department.

And the sheriff’s office then claimed that the supposed firing was overturned by the Los Angeles County Civil Service Commission.

The Civil Service Commission now says that … not only has it never overruled the firing … but the sheriff never actually fired the alleged sex criminal in the first place.

The head of the civil Service commission wants the office of the inspector general to investigate what it calls “false and defamatory misrepresentations” made by the Sheriff’s Department as it made a series of statements when reporters did stories on the 33 counts of sex crimes filed against the deputy.

Villanueva has had a longstanding feud with the Civil Service Commission … which upheld the firing of a deputy who had served as Villanueva’s campaign driver four years ago.

The Sheriff’s Department said in a Thursday statement it did not intentionally mislead journalists and the public regarding Essex’s employment status.

But the Los Angeles Daily News reports that the series of media advisories issued by the Sheriff’s Department after Essex was indicted contains contradictory statements … m, nay of them apparently incorrect.

Why Is Las Virgenes Out Of Water, And Malibu Isn’t?

Why is Malibu not facing the same draconian water cutback orders that are in effect in Calabasas … Agoura Hills and the Santa Monica Mountains?

Basically … we were here first.

Malibu’s water district was created in the 1950s … and early on … signed up to receive water from the Colorado River.

That was through a complicated system of agreements and contracts with the Metropolitan Water District … which was created in the 1950s to distribute water from the Colorado River via an aqueduct from Lake Havasu.

Fun fact:  when California started construction of the dam on the Colorado River to divert the river and feed the aqueduct in 1934… the governor of Arizona actually called out the Arizona National Guard to try to block the construction of the dam. 

Anyway … the Las Virgenes Water District .,. over the hill … was too late and was not able to squeeze in to the Colorado River supply.

It gets its water from the State Water project … built in the 1960s … which pumps water put of the Sacramento River delta and over two mountain ranges … 400 miles south to our area.

The State water Project has pretty much run dry.

Malibu Waterworks District 29 director Russell Dryden says Malibu gets water from both systems

All of this is about long-term weather supplies.

As of next Tuesday … that critical water pipe from the Colorado Rover will be shut down for emergency repairs near Pomona. 

Malibu can draw a little water from the Sacramento pipeline.

But residents are asked not to water any outdoor plants … starting next Tuesday … and lasting for 2 weeks. 

You might want to give your trees a good soaking this weekend.

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Even Legal Lights In Malibu Need Top Be Shaded, And Must Not Be Bright Blue/White

All this week … KBUU News has been airing news about the Malibu Dark Skies Ordinance … which takes effect in six weeks.

City officials are beating the drums about this … and the major changes that it will bring.

City lighting consultant says nearly every house will have to deal with the issue of shielding … because most houses have at least one outdoor light bulbs that is not shielded.

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“It has to do with its impact on the circadian system of living beings especially humans. And the AMA was very concerned about that and they came out in 2016 and said you shouldn’t use anything above 3000 K. And that’s where we’re going.”

And even lights that are shielded can cause a problem.

Those lights that cause bluish white light are a problem … even if they are shielded.

Benya says those lights have been shown to keep people … and wildlife … awake at a Timothy are supposed too be asleep,

 

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“No shielding means you can see the bulb from everywhere and that’s bad. You can’t do it . You can’t do it. 

“We shouldn’t have been doing it but you certainly can’t be doing it anymore. 

“So you’re going to have to use partial shielded lighting for pretty much everything we do…. “

And it’s not just that lights cannot be visible at the property line. Also… They can’t create a bright bluish-white glare.

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“Glare doesn’t really help but it really does hurt… So let’s eliminate glare.

“So we’re pretty much going to use pretty much fully shielded lighting for everything to keep lighting on your property and the problem you’re trying to eliminate and not send it out into the sky.”

City lighting consultant Jim Benya.

The Malibu outdoor lighting ordinance takes effect in six weeks … October 15th.

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