Christopher Abela, a civil engineer with the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers Sacramento District, ascends a climbing rope during an inspection at New Hogan Dam near Valley Springs.

(photo: Courtesy U.S. army corps of engineers)

Engineering Solutions

Flood risk reduction in the real world

Although the United States Army Corps of Engineers is the largest public engineering, design and construction management agency in the world, most Americans identify it with flood protection. This is particularly true in the Sacramento Region, where the Corps is heavily involved in virtually every major flood control system.

Feb 13, 2013 Rich Ehisen
(istockphoto.com)

Energy-Efficient Opportunities

Making lemonade out of greenhouse gas mandates

Late last year, California held the nation’s inaugural cap-and-trade auction, where greenhouse gas emission permits were sold in an effort to monetize and reduce carbon pollution. And just last month, new cap-and-trade regulations on large power and industrial plants officially went into effect.

Feb 13, 2013 John Arensmeyer

Levee Over Troubled Waters

Paying for repairs just got harder

It’s a calm, clear day on West Sacramento’s South River Road, a meandering two-lane route that runs atop a levee buffering houses and farmland from the placid Sacramento River. It’s hard to envision the chaos that would ensue if the great dirt barrier were to burst, pouring millions of gallons of water into adjacent homes and businesses, but that nightmare scenario just got harder to prevent.

Feb 12, 2013 Rich Ehisen

Slim Pickings

A shortage of farm labor impacts food harvests

Coasting through the sweeping fields of California’s Central Valley, it’s not unusual to spot collections of crouching figures diligently tending crops. These primarily Hispanic immigrants prune, thin, harvest and grow much of California’s renowned produce. But over the past decade or so, hundreds of thousands of these indispensable farm workers have vanished.

Nov 1, 2012 Andrea Kennedy
Workers process e-waste at Sims Recycling Solutions in Roseville

Tech Trash

How to dispose your out-of-date computers and e-waste

If your IT room is starting to look like a scene out of “Sanford and Son,” you’re not alone. In 2010, American consumers and businesses unloaded 40 million computers onto recyclers, landfills and the refurbished market, the Golisano Institute for Sustainability in Rochester, N.Y., reports. Some estimates show, however, that millions more are idling in homes and offices because owners simply don’t know what to do with them.

Nov 1, 2012 Stephanie Flores

The Truck Stops Here

18-wheelers sacked by clean air cops

There is a squad of clean air cops in Sacramento with a strong-arm approach that squashes the stereotype that environmentalists are wimps. These officials make up the enforcement branch of the California Air Resources Board, and they face off against truckers still fuming over
emission-control rules they fear will put them out of business.

Oct 1, 2012 Allen Young