Alex Darocy Photography

Today on Earth Day, April 22, members of San Benito Rising will submit nearly 4,000 petition signatures to the San Benito County elections office in order to qualify a local initiative to ban fracking and other extreme oil extraction methods for the November 2014 ballot. Since March 21, San Benito residents have been collecting signatures to ban fracking in their county, and volunteers secured twice the number required to qualify the initiative in less than two weeks. The five original proponents of the initiative will deliver the signatures this afternoon in Hollister using Native American baskets. This will be preceded by a short Earth Day ceremony lead by Ann Marie Sayers, a local Ohlone tribal leader, and one of the original proponents of the initiative. San Benito Rising has organized the local ban on fracking in order to "protect local groundwater, residents’ health, agriculture and tourism," the group stated in a press release. The initiative, if approved by vote...

Community members involved with the group San Lorenzo Valley Watchdogs have been recording their water board's meetings and posting them to their website because the district's recordings are of such low quality. Audio of San Lorenzo Valley Water District meetings going back to September are available on the Watchdogs' website on the 'Recordings' page, along with this statement: "After Watchdog Dana Weigand ruefully discovered the District's elaborate looking 1980's era audio recording equipment, complete with microphones and mixer, was defective and apparently has never in recent years resulted in a useable audio cassette tape (she asked for her $10 "tape duplication fee" back for the 8.15.2013 BOD high drama meeting), the Watchdog's decided to make their own recordings. One of our members has professional audio experience and set us up with a professional portable 4-channel directional 5-microphone digital device configured to recor...

Several community members held signs and distributed petition forms at the corner of Highway 9 and Graham Hill Road in Felton today to protest the impending SLV Water District rate increases which would fund various infrastructure projects, including a new multi-million dollar administration facility. Individuals with the group San Lorenzo Valley Watchdogs want to get the word out that the deadline for receiving the petitions is on October 24th, before the end of the prop 218 public hearing with the water board. Just over half of the district's homeowners must sign the petition to stop the rate increase from being enacted. Those protesting distributed fliers that stated the cumulative water rate increase spread out over five years would amount to 65%, making a bill that is currently $90 increase to $190 or more in five years. They say the community cannot afford a new water district campus that would cost over $9 million, and they have proposed ways to scale it down, also st...

Paul Gratz recently declared in a press release that Santa Cruz is the, "First US city to vote on seawater desal." In this video, Gratz, and Jacquy Griffith speak at the Santa Cruz City Hall, just before community members turned in 2,003 petitions with the signatures of 8,717 Santa Cruz water citizens to the City Clerk in May. After the petitions are verified, citizens will have a chance to decide if construction of the proposed water desalination plant will proceed in Santa Cruz. To view photos and read more about the rally, see: Supporters of Right to Vote on Desal Turn in Petitions at Santa Cruz City Hall http://www.indybay.org/newsitems/2012/05/29/18714351.php