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February 24, 2014· santaclarita.com · SantaClarita.com (SCVTalk 5.0) · Wayback capture

February 24, 2014 – Daily Brief

By Josh Premako

Another Monday, another Daily Brief. And don't let's bemoan the end of the weekend. We've got five whole days of getting stuff done ahead of us. And now, the news...
  • From Aimless to On-Target: Profile of Sierra Vista English teacher Robert Isquierdo, Jr., who went from being aimless college student to becoming a teacher focused on inspiring youth. The Signal
  • Turning on the Tap: If the Board of Supervisors approves a motion tomorrow to declare a state of emergency in Bouquet Canyon and release water from the Bouquet reservoir, they will be able to bypass time-consuming and expensive environmental permits. The Signal
  • Meanwhile, Get Out Your Umbrella: Forecasters are predicting this week's rains may be the heaviest we've seen in two years, dumping up to 2" on the valleys and coasts. By comparison, we've seen less than 2" total since July. LA Times
  • Checkpoint Somehow Results in Multiple Arrests: The Sheriff's Department's DUI/license checkpoint on Friday night resulted in 14 arrests, which has to be a record for SCV checkpoints, right? The Signal
  • This is a Thing Now: It's always a good day when Valencia winds up on CNN and it has nothing to do with tragedy. On Friday, Food & Wine magazine editor Kate Krader listed House Roots Coffee as one of 5 of the hottest new coffee spots in the U.S. If you haven't yet checked out House Roots, it's a Fri-Sun pop-up on Constellation Drive that excels at both the craft of coffee and the art of not coming across like pretentious coffee snobs. CNN
  • (Not Quite) Polar Plunge Rakes in Dough: Swimmers braved sunny skies and less-than-warm Castaic Lake waters, raising $25,000 for Special Olympics. The Signal
  • "We can't print more water": The Signal editorial board reiterates what most of us should know: we have a water crisis on our hands. The Signal
  • Changes on the Horizon: Allison Pari reports on the upcoming changes to the state's standardized testing methods. “I see this (test) as a step in the right direction when we look at the technology that’s in the business world and the technology that our students will be using in the future,” said Nancy Copely, assistant superintendent of instructional services for the Newhall School District. KHTS
  • Sweet Lord, It's That Time Again: The 16th annual Elks Club Roast is coming up, skewering Bob Kellar and raising funds for the Samuel Dixon Family Health Centers. SCVNews
  • Former SCV Assemblyman Keysor Dead at 86: Leon Worden pens an obituary for former state Assemblyman Jim Keysor, who represented SCV from 1970-1978. SCVNews
  • Music to the Ears of Concerto Lovers: The Santa Clarita Philharmonic had its first public performance this weekend. The Signal
  • Some Really Wild Photos: Great piece on SoCal Wild about photographer Denis Callet and Johanna Turner, who set up trail cameras that have captured some great images of mountain lions, bobcats and other wild animals. SoCal Wild


Comments (16)

  1. LVogelMonday, February 24th, 2014 at 9:23 am
    I wonder how much water the newly transplanted vineyard at COC will require? When we are asked to 'all' conserve and do our part, planting a vineyard in a dry, arrid and desert like climate, doesn't make sense, IMO.
  2. ThatJoshPremakoMonday, February 24th, 2014 at 9:31 am
    To those who suggest a vineyard in a desert climate is a completely bad idea, it's worth reading this article. I've been to the Negev, and it is a very similar climate to ours. http://www.smartplanet.com/blog/the-report
  3. LVogelMonday, February 24th, 2014 at 9:47 am
    Very interesting, Josh. It's incredible that this can be achieved in an actual desert! I feel however that the timing for this project is not the best, especially since the residents, and businesses in this valley will be asked to make changes to conserve. This particular paragraph in the article you posted, stood out for me: "Despite the difficult climate of the Negev, which accounts for more than half of Israel's total landmass but is occupied by only eight percent of its population, winemakers there have expressed a desire for Israel to compete on wine's global stage. But they face new headwinds that threaten their very survival." Wonder if the 8 percent of Isreal's population have been asked to do the same?
  4. MikeMonday, February 24th, 2014 at 10:09 am
    We're actually in a Mediterranean climate zone. If you look at worldwide map of of areas in that climate zone, you see a pretty strong overlap with areas famous from growing grapes. http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/comm
  5. IHeartSCVMonday, February 24th, 2014 at 12:20 pm
    We're summer-dry, winter-wet (at least theoretically) like all Mediterranean climates, but Bordeaux's rainy winters dump feet of rain (37" annual average on Wikipedia) instead of the inches California's been getting. That said, I imagine COC's lawns will use more water than their grapes.
  6. Bill ReynoldsMonday, February 24th, 2014 at 3:20 pm
    Wikipedia must be really wet!
  7. Bill ReynoldsMonday, February 24th, 2014 at 3:19 pm
    Yeah but Algores's man-made global warming climate change thingy will ruin wine plants!
  8. philellisMonday, February 24th, 2014 at 10:58 am
    Israel has desalinization facilities.
  9. LynnVMonday, February 24th, 2014 at 11:28 am
    So the question has not been answered: How much water will this vineyard require? It was published on Feb. 1 that this project got the go ahead. COC is a part of our community. Will COC be conserving like the rest of us? If so, how will this effect the vineyards growth? Or, will there be an exception for this project? Are these questions seriously worthy of a thumbs down, btw? "The Signal editorial board reiterates what most of us should know: we have a water crisis on our hands. The Signal"
  10. carolelutnessMonday, February 24th, 2014 at 11:44 am
    "We can't print more water": The Signal editorial board reiterates what most of us should know: we have a water crisis on our hands. The Signal Please, please contact the City Council and Board of Supervisors about putting an immediate moratorium on any new development. With this drought showing no signs of abating and our well-closure issue still not resolved, we are in no position to allow tens of thousands of more homes to be build here. As Bob Kellar would say, "Folks, folks, this is serious!"
  11. SamMonday, February 24th, 2014 at 6:52 pm
    The Keysor article indicated he was considered a friend to the environment but failed to mention the company Keysor Century Corp. http://nepis.epa.gov/Exe/ZyNET.exe/60000LD
  12. Pulchella WineryMonday, February 24th, 2014 at 7:58 pm
    Farmers are well aware that we are in a serious drought, and wine grape growers are taking serious and drastic steps to prepare their vineyards for conservation in many ways to preserve such a precious resource. As these transplanted vines have been farmed in a dry farmed manner for close to 50 years and their root structure is designed to withstand irrigation, we plan to do the same moving forward at the COC vineyard site. We hope private citizens will follow our example of drastic conservation and treat clean, potable water as the precious resource it is. We invite you to visit the link below and educate yourself a bit about wine industry water usage. Which many people are not aware of. Enjoy: https://www.facebook.com/pulchellaWinery/po The stats and facts in the article were pulled directly from the California department of farming and agriculture's 2013 report.
  13. IHeartSCVMonday, February 24th, 2014 at 9:42 pm
    You may want to revise your article, as it contains some factual errors, such as "Your one egg breakfast could have grown 7 cases of wine, and that’s just the egg!" There are a lot of estimates about how much water it takes to make wine, and it varies markedly by region, but to use reputable figures from The Economist ( http://www.economist.com/node/13176056 ) it looks like one liter of wine requires 960 liters of water to be produced. To put that in the terms you use in your article, it takes 190 gallons of water to make 1 bottle of wine. According to the USGS, it takes something like 400 gallons of water to make an egg, so my one egg breakfast could have grown 2 bottles of wine, not 7 cases of it. It would be helpful if you linked the source of your stats. Coffee drinkers, however, should feel worse than wine drinkers. The same article says it takes 1,120 liters of water to make one liter of coffee. In other words, it took just over 100 gallons of water to make someone's tall Starbucks coffee.
  14. LynnVMonday, February 24th, 2014 at 11:40 pm
    Wonder how many coffee growers are here California.
  15. MikeTuesday, February 25th, 2014 at 10:33 am
    Zero
  16. Pulchella WineryMonday, February 24th, 2014 at 9:02 pm
    Farmers are well aware that we are in a serious drought, and wine grape growers are taking serious and drastic steps to prepare their vineyards for conservation in many ways to preserve such a precious resource. As these transplanted vines have been farmed in a dry farmed manner for close to 50 years and their root structure is designed to withstand irrigation, we plan to do the same moving forward at the COC vineyard site. We hope private citizens will follow our example of drastic conservation and treat clean, potable water as the precious resource it is. We invite you to visit the link below and educate yourself a bit about wine industry water usage. Which many people are not aware of. Enjoy: https://www.facebook.com/pulchellaWinery/po The stats and facts in the article were pulled directly from the California department of farming and agriculture's 2013 report.

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