MTP/SCS 2020 Update – Comments due Nov 7, 2019

Posted September 29, 2019

Do you live in the County of El Dorado, Placer, Sacramento, Sutter, Yolo or Yuba?

Is there some way your daily commute could improve? Wish you could take public transit, walk or bicycle?

There is a plan, and your input is welcome.

The Draft 2020 Update of the Sacramento Region Metropolitan Transportation Plan / Sustainable Communities Strategy was recently issued by the Sacramento Area Council of Governments (SACOG) for a 45-day review period, ending November 7th, 2019.

The ECOS Transportation, Air Quality and Climate Change (TAQCC) Committee is planning to make comments.

The Draft MTP/SCS and the accompanying Draft Environmental Impact Report are available on the SACOG website.

The last comments submitted by ECOS on the plan can be read by clicking here.

Fewer trees, more asthma. How Sacramento can improve its canopy and public health

By the Sacramento Bee Editorial Board
October 15, 2019
The Sacramento Bee

We often plant trees as a symbolic gesture. We plant them on Earth Day in honor of clean air and sustainability. We also plant trees to commemorate people and events.
But trees do more than provide shade and improve landscapes. They are also critical to public health.
In Sacramento, which the American Lung Association named fifth worst U.S. city for air quality and where temperatures increasingly reach triple-digit highs, we must take the importance of trees seriously.
https://www.sacbee.com/opinion/editorials/article236197713.html

Click here to read the full article.

Sacramento Needs Public Bathrooms

Need to go to the bathroom in Sacramento? Good luck! Unless you are close to home or happen to be somewhere where you have just been a customer (but what if you didn’t “have to go” then?) your chances of finding a toilet are slim. Even our parks are lacking. According to the Sacramento Bee, “…the city operates 205 parks, but most either have no bathrooms or have facilities with limited hours. In the central city…only 5 of 22 parks have restroom facilities.” Many times, park bathrooms are locked up without warning or notice of when they may reopen.

Many of the river access points closest to downtown Sacramento completely lack any bathrooms for beach-goers, such as Sutter’s Landing. Imagine taking your family to have a nice day at the beach, only to find that your kids or your aunt have no where to relieve themselves! That’s what Sacramento is like, and it’s time to change that.

Why? Diseases, for one thing! Now the river is full of bacterias that can make people really sick, like E. Coli.

The link to this SacBee article, published September 12, 2019, has been changed or removed and is no longer available.

Sacramento will continue to struggle with sanitation and risk of disease so long as the city refuses to provide an adequate number of public restrooms, on and off the river, for both people who are experiencing homelessness and those who are not.

Alexandra Reagan

Director of Operations, ECOS

Placer County Sustainability Plan Comments

On September 05, 2019, ECOS and 350 Sacramento wrote a comment letter to the Placer County Community Development Resources Agency in regards to the Placer County Sustainability Plan.

Below are a couple of excerpts from the letter, click the link below to read the full letter.

We encourage all efforts to expedite the transition to a carbon-free economy and are gratified by the County’s aspiration to be a leader in reducing greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions. We offer these comments in the hope they will help the County reach that goal.
…
It is evident from the draft Plan’s strong monitoring and update commitments that it is meant to be a “living” document, subject to ongoing community dialogue and further refinement. We look forward to working with the County to advance the Plan’s important role in mitigating climate change.

Click here to view the comment letter in full.

Becoming Arizona

By 2100, Sacramento is expected to feel much like Phoenix. What can we do now to prepare for this hotter future?

Over the remaining months of 2019, the UC Davis Science & Climate Department will examine the extreme heat Sacramento residents are expected to face in future decades. What can Phoenix teach us about dealing with it? As well as efforts needed to build socially just, climate-resilient communities for the changes that lie ahead.

While Sacramento is not likely to become a carbon copy of Phoenix, it will get hotter. The series highlights UC Davis scientists, community leaders, residents and health officials from Sacramento and Phoenix to look at the sorts of solutions we are and could be embracing now to be ready for it.

Click here to view the series website.

Aerojet Superfund Site Community Workshop

June 24, 2019

The Environmental Council of Sacramento has been providing guidance for the cleanup of this Aerojet superfund site for several years now. There is a workshop about the cleanup happening on July 10, 2019 that the public is invited to attend.

EPA Community Workshop Aerojet Area 40 Operable Unit 10 Cleanup (click here for the Fact Sheet) – July 10, 2019 6:00 PM to 8:00 PM – Folsom Community Center – 52 Natoma Street, Folsom, CA 95630

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency invites you to participate in a workshop describing cleanup activities that will occur in August and September this year at Aerojet Area 40 OU-10, located east of and adjacent to Prairie City Road, south of Highway 50 and north of White Rock Road. The purpose of the meeting is to give a brief presentation on the cleanup, discuss the schedule and answer the public’s questions. In addition, there will a poster board session with subject matter expert available. If you have any questions, please contact Jackie Lane, Community Involvement Coordinator, at (415) 972-3236 or by email at lane[dot]jackie[at]epa[dot]gov.

Click here to access the Aerojet Area 40 Operable Unit 10 Remedial Action Plan.

Click here for past posts from us on the clean up of this property.