US West braces for wildfire season as ‘Flying Bucket’ burns in Arizona

by Sharon Udasin - 05/08/24 2:49 PM ET

Sustainability

The Big Story

US West braces for wildfire season as ‘Flying Bucket’ burns in Arizona

A burgeoning blaze dubbed the “Flying Bucket Fire” is raging south of Phoenix, as much of the U.S. West braces for wildfire season.

The fire, which began on Monday, had burned 4,100 acres of unincorporated Maricopa County as of Tuesday night and was 30 percent contained, according to the National Interagency Fire Center.

While no one had been hurt and no infrastructure had been threatened, officials told local media that they believed the fire was started by people who were target shooting in the region.

Meanwhile, the Arizona Department of Forestry and Fire Management warned that “hot, dry and windy conditions” on Wednesday would be of concern to firefighters.

The Arizona blaze was occurring amid Wildfire Awareness Month — a label that many states have adopted for the month of May, at which time warm weather starts drying out the wildland vegetation that serves as fuels for fires.

On Sunday, California Gov. Gavin Newsom (D) declared May 5 through 11 as Wildfire Preparedness Week, stressing that much of the West is “experiencing more challenging wildfire seasons amid intensifying climate impacts.”

The governor called upon Californians to make their neighborhoods safer by implementing various preventative measures and embracing a “collective responsibility” to mitigate risk and increase resilience.

Officials in neighboring Oregon likewise encouraged all residents to create a “defensible space” around their homes, noting that certain households may be eligible for a $250 payment to do so.

“May is a great time to tackle these projects before the heat of summer arrives,” Oregon State Fire Marshal Mariana Ruiz-Temple said in a statement.

The country’s top 15 metropolitan areas for wildfire risk are all located in the U.S. West, according to a recent report from the CoreLogic real estate analytics firm.

Ten hotspots are in California, where Los Angeles, Riverside, San Diego, Sacramento, San Francisco and Oxnard ranked highest. Three are in Colorado — Denver, Colorado Springs and Edwards — while one is Austin, Texas, and another is Bend, Ore.

Although 2023 ended up being “a relatively quiet year in terms of acres burned,” the analysis warned against complacency.

Tom Jeffery, a senior hazard scientist for CoreLogic, acknowledged in a statement that “the number of fires per year is in decline,” but qualified that fact with words of caution.

“The increasing size and intensity of those fires is creating more property damage than ever before,” Jeffery added.

Welcome to The Hill’s Sustainability newsletter, I’m Sharon Udasin — every week we follow the latest moves in the growing battle over sustainability in the U.S. and around the world.

Did someone forward you this newsletter? Subscribe here.

Essential Reads

Latest news impacting sustainability this week and beyond:

Renewables make up the lion’s share of new electric generation, federal agency finds

Rising US demand for electricity is being met almost entirely by renewables, a new federal report has found. The new numbers from the U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA) suggest that the U.S. isn’t moving fast enough to reach the Biden administration’s climate targets. It also cast doubt on a key rationale for a proposed national buildout in gas power plants — and gas exports. The EIA numbers …

Full Story

Legal scholars accuse Utah of failing to curb the Great Salt Lake’s decline

Three dozen law professors from across the country are demanding that a Utah district court hold the Beehive State responsible for the declining water levels in the Great Salt Lake. The professors submitted an amicus brief on Friday in support of a lawsuit — launched by conservation groups in the fall — alleging that Utah has failed to ensure that enough water reaches the Great Salt Lake. The writers also declared …

Full Story

Chemicals in car interiors may cause cancer — and they’re required by US law: Study

Tens of millions of Americans each day breathe in carcinogenic chemicals that are woven into the interiors of their cars, a new study has found. While opening a window can help reduce the risk, only reforms can keep people safe, researchers wrote in a study in Environmental Science and Technology. Approximately 124 million Americans commute each day, spending an average of an hour in their cars. By federal law, the interior …

Full Story

California groundwater levels rose in 2023 for the first time in 4 years

Last winter’s unusual onslaught of rain and snow led to California’s first increase in groundwater levels in four years, state officials reported Monday. The 2023 water year — which spanned from Oct. 1, 2022, through Sept. 30, 2023 — brought a welcome 4.1 million acre-feet of managed groundwater recharge and a total rise in groundwater storage of 8.7 million acre-feet, according to the California Department of Water …

Full Story

Climate Invaders

Climate change increasing invasive oyster density in SoCal

Pacific oyster density has grown up to 32-fold in Southern California waters in the past decade, due to climate-induced surges in summer seawater temperatures, a new study has found.

That increase is raising concerns about how such warming is accelerating the establishment and dominance of non-indigenous species, according to the study, published on Wednesday in PLoS ONE.

The good and the bad: The Pacific oyster, which originates in Japan, is also known as the Miyagi oyster or Magallana gigas, per the National Oceanic and Atmsopheric Administration.

These animals, which grow up to 10 inches in size, are filter feeders and can clean up to 50 gallons of water every day as they eat.
In 2019, the U.S. produced 42.3 million pounds of Pacific and Eastern oysters collectively, valued at $221 million.
While such oysters improve water quality and have a negligible ecological footprint, there is some concern that they could outcompete native oysters.

An unanticipated ‘feral escape’: The global expansion of the Pacific oyster “may have been facilitated by climate change,” according to the study authors.

The species was at first “introduced as an idea aquaculture fishery” animal in more temperate waters, under the assumption that it would not undergo a “feral escape” in colder conditions.
Yet “warming seawater during summer has facilitated” their reproduction.

Oyster outcomes in balmier bays: To evaluate the oyster’s growth and impacts in Southern California, the researchers surveyed conditions at eight sites in Newport Bay and San Diego Bay from 2010 to 2020.

They found that population densities increased by between 2.2 and 32.8 times at seven of those locations.
The growth coincided with surges of 2 to 4 degrees Celsius (3.6 to 7.2 degrees Fahrenheit) in median monthly seawater temperature during summer months.

The point of no return: While the authors acknowledged that the precise effects of this non-indigenous species on Southern California estuaries remains unknown, they cited “significant impacts elsewhere” on native oyster species as cause for concern.

As such, they recommended that resource managers factor these findings into their future decision-making.

“Abundance is among the most significant factors determining the impact of an invader and once a threshold is crossed, the whole structure of a community can be irreparably altered,” they added.

On Our Radar

Upcoming news themes and events we’re watching:

NASA’s Earth Observatory’s detection systems reported multiple feet of snowfall over California’s Sierra Nevada this past weekend — heavy enough to create dangerous driving conditions and shutter highways near Lake Tahoe. While acknowledging that the region’s “snowpack is known for its booms and busts,” NASA scientists noted the storm’s importance in nudging the season’s total precipitation slightly above average. What this will mean for spring and summer runoff downstream remains to be seen.

In Other News

Branch out with different reads from The Hill:

How the US financial system helps shelter profits from environmental organized crime

Environmental organized crime is a massive global enterprise, bringing in hundreds of billions of dollars each year — and the U.S. financial system appears to be helping conceal its profits.

Full Story

Fewer Americans see climate change as very serious problem: Survey

Fewer Americans today see climate change as a “very serious” problem than they did three years ago, according to a new survey released Monday.

Full Story

Around The Nation

Local and state headlines on sustainability issues:

How water pollution is changing how Imperial Beach lifeguards protect people (NBC7 San Diego)
While spending billions on the environment, DeSantis blocks efforts to ease climate change (The Tallahassee Democrat)
Arizona bar offers unique solution to dwindling Colorado River (CBS News)

What We’re Reading

Sustainability news we’ve flagged from other outlets:

Giant Batteries Are Transforming the Way the U.S. Uses Electricity (The New York Times)
Here’s why so many Republicans won’t buy EVs (The Washington Post)
Azerbaijan, Russia discuss cooperation in Climate Change (AzerNews)

What Others are Reading

More stories on The Hill right now:

Southwest must offer $75 travel vouchers for certain flight delays: US DOT

It’s part of a deal reached after Southwest Airlines’ 2022 “holiday meltdown that stranded millions of passengers across the country.” Read more

Nearly 70 percent of girls ages five to 13 experience loneliness

Story at a glance New research from Girl Scouts of the USA shows 64 percent of girls between 5- and 7-years old report feelings of loneliness. That number increases as girls get older, with 73 percent of girls 11 to 13 admitting they feel lonely. As feelings of loneliness increase, girls’ confidence in their ability to tackle … Read more

What People Think

Opinions related to sustainability submitted to The Hill: