CSUN On Point

Californians no longer have to think twice about where their new pets come from, now that a new law requires pet stores to sell animals acquired only from shelters and rescue organizations.

Governor Jerry Brown signed AB 485 this month. The bill was written by California State Assembly members Patrick O’Donnell (D – Long Beach) and Matt Dababneh (D – Woodland Hills), and it makes California the first state in the nation to regulate the breeding of pets and their sale to this extent.

“Basically what it will do is create a statewide ban on the sale of puppies, dogs, kittens, cats and rabbits in for-profit pet stores when they’ve been gotten from puppy mills,” Dababneh said. “We’re not going to let animals be sold in our state as pets when they come from inhumane breeding facilities that treat these animals as commodities, and don’t have any regard for the animal’s health or wellbeing.”

This new bill rules out the selling of animals that come from puppy mills or kitten factories, but independent breeders will still be able to sell their animals to pet stores. It primarily applies to the selling of dogs, cats and rabbits.

“This bill is extremely important,” said Charlotte Laws, an animal rights activist. “It will hopefully end the killing in the shelters. Right now, in Los Angeles, I believe we adopt out something like 84 percent of the animals that come into the shelters.”

“I think what the bill will do is promote more responsible pet ownership,” Bunnyluv Rabbit Resource Center representative Jody Springborn said. Springborn said that rabbits are the highest killed animals in shelters because they face a multitude of challenging health issues commonly affecting their teeth and eyes.

The bill’s supporters said that since rescue organizations are ‘no kill’ and require thorough adoption screenings, the placement of rescue animals into pet stores will help prevent the killing of many animals unnecessarily. Many shelters are recognized as being ‘no kill’, but others do have to euthanize animals with in critical health conditions or who have not been adopted within a certain time period.

The bill will go into effect on January 1, 2019.

Moderator: Shannon Ozburn

Producers: Joselynn Castro, Diego Girgado and Tyler Jones

Anchor: Minerva Medrano

Social Media Editors: Joselynn Castro and Diego Girgado

Reporters: Morgan Ball, Joselynn Castro, Diego Girgado, Tyler Jones, Minerva Medrano and Shannon Ozburn

On February 18, SoCal Gas announced that it had permanently sealed the largest methane leak in US history – but not before thousands of Porter Ranch residents had been exposed to the leak for four months.

Some residents were evacuated, while others suffered with nausea, dizziness, nosebleeds and other physical illnesses related to the methane in the air.

“Nobody knew what was going on,” said Porter Ranch Neighborhood Council member Cheri Derohanian. “In fact, my 12-year-old twin girls, who were seventh graders at Porter Ranch Community School, were running the mile daily, and I was wondering why a school would let kids do that when everyone smells gas in the community. It was frustrating, it was frightening.”

One of the most frustrating aspects of the incident for residents was how preventable the leak was from the beginning.

“This well that leaked, had a safety valve on it that was taken off by choice,” said Dr. Loraine Lundquist from the CSUN Institute for Sustainability. “If that safety valve had been in place, it would have stopped the leak within hours.”

The leak has led to a lawsuit by residents, against SoCal Gas, that some experts believe will take years to complete.

“We’re just trying to help [Porter Ranch residents] band together to be able to advocate for themselves and get the compensation they deserve,” Frantz Law Group attorney Regina Bagdasarian said. “We want [SoCal Gas] to be responsible, not just by acknowledging responsibility, but by compensating people for the harms they suffered.”

Although it’s been almost a month since the leak was sealed, the problems for residents are not over. Some residents have started moving back, but a judge recently ordered SoCal Gas to pay expenses until mid-March for those who want more time. This week, crews have begun inspecting and cleaning up Porter Ranch playgrounds after spots of sticky and potentially toxic substances were found.

And some believe, as big of a problem as the gas leak was, it was just a small part of an even bigger issue.

“We are suffering from this incredibly urgent problem of imminent climate change, that literally does threaten to destabilize human civilization within the course of less than a century,” Lundquist said.

There may be an upside to all this, however – as some believe that the Porter Ranch gas leak offers an opportunity for change.

“I think people have to be their own advocate,” Bagdasarian said.

“This is an excellent time for residents of Los Angeles to band together, and demand that our city pledge to go to 100 percent renewable energy,” Lundquist said.

Moderator: Jasmin Dalton

Anchor: October Primavera

Producer: Jasmin Dalton

Social Media Editors: Anna Logan and October Primavera

Reporters: Harry Abelson, Jasmin Dalton, Glenna Dixon, Kiara Draper, Anna Logan and October Primavera

In response to worsening drought conditions, California’s State Water Resources Control Board voted this week to impose mandatory reductions in urban residents’ water use. The move is designed to cut cities’ water use by an average of 25 percent in order to meet the goals set by Governor Jerry Brown’s April 1 executive order, and it’s the first time in the state’s history the Board has felt the need to take this step.

Geologists say this certainly isn’t the first time drought has hit the state though, and that this drought wasn’t primarily caused by residents’ use of water.

“We know for the past three years that we have been below average in terms of precipitation in the state, as well as the snowpack in Sierra Nevada,” said Dr. Amalie Orme, a geology professor at Cal State Northridge. “What makes this a little bit different this time, is that it’s impacting an area which has a much larger population than what we’ve experienced in the past.”

“Of course there have been droughts before,” said Dr. Helen Cox, Director of the Institute for Sustainability at CSUN. “But we’re so reliant upon [water] now, in terms of our infrastructure, in terms of our agriculture, in terms of our economy in California, that [drought] has a much much bigger impact now than it might have done in the past.”

Climate change has likely made the drought conditions in California worse. Geologists say droughts are determined by the rate of evaporation compared to the rate of water replenishment.

“In a warmer climate you’re going to have more evaporation,” Cox said, “so therefore, there is going to be less water available. The conditions that are occurring now, that are causing this drought, are a persistent high pressure sitting out in the Pacific Ocean.”

That high pressure system, caused by earth’s changing climate conditions, continuously diverts storms and humid weather away from California.

Some, including recently-announced GOP candidate Carly Fiorina, say the drought is partially man-made, in the sense that liberal environmental policies have prevented the state from building the necessary dams and reservoirs.

“In a sense, [that’s] looking at this upside down,” Orme said, “because people do not cause drought. Droughts are meteorological, hydrological and agricultural. In the bigger picture, this a physical phenomenon that we’re experiencing.”

“It would be very difficult to store the kinds of quantities of water that one would need to store to make up for this kind of event,” Cox said. “We’re looking at a snowpack which is six percent of normal.”

Still most do agree that people will have to contribute to the solution, by drastically cutting their water use. One controversy is over who should sacrifice the most, and many urban residents question the amount of water used in agriculture, which reportedly consumes some 80 percent of California’s water.

California researchers report that the amount of water used to grow various crops is tremendous. For example, one often-quoted report suggested that harvesting one single almond takes 1.1 gallons of water. But some farmers have refuted these claims. They claim the way they use water isn’t the problem, it’s the amount they are allowed to use.

“The farmers are not so much fixated in terms of the precipitation that we get,” said Blake Sanden, a farm advisor and irrigation expert with the University of California Cooperative Extension. “They’re looking at an overall water budget.”

Farmers are certainly feeling the pain of the drought. A UC Davis study showed California is directly losing more than $1.5 billion a year from the drought. These costs included water pumps, livestock, and fields that are going unplanted.

“Basically a farmer is going to define drought by looking at the condition of his crops,” Sanden said.

Environmentalists argue that farmers should get rid of flood irrigation methods to properly conserve water. But other methods of getting water to crops, such as micro irrigation and drip-irrigation, may deny crops their nutrients.

“The problem … is that [drip irrigation] ignores salinity management,” Sanden said. “When we irrigate we bring in as much as a ton and a half of salts per-acre-foot.”

Another alternative is the use of so-called grey water. Grey water is water filtered from things such as washing machines, and recycled for agricultural use.

“With grey water, one has to be quite careful about what is going into the ground,” Cox said. “If there’s any kind of chemicals, soaps, or detergents, any of that can ultimately affect your soils.”

The state has been encouraging residents to conserve water, keeping in mind the possible state of emergency that would arrive if California’s supplies are emptied.

“There have been mega-droughts [lasting 25 years] in the past,” Cox said.  “It’s not clear right now exactly how long this will last. It could be a kind of a one-in-a-thousand year drought, if it’s a really really severe drought.”

Moderator: Kelsey Ducklow

Producer: Brenda Garcia

Anchor: Gloria Star

Reporter: Wahid Lodin

Guest Booker: Teresa Arevalo

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