Category Archives: Ventura County

Scenes from an explosion/investigation: the felons at Santa Clara Waste Water

As discussed in a number of recent posts here on this journalist’s site, a commercial waste water plant founded by oil companies outside of Santa Paula suffered a massive explosion and fire last November. This led to a cloud of toxic chlorine gas drifting over the county, which sent dozens of people to the hospital, someContinue reading “Scenes from an explosion/investigation: the felons at Santa Clara Waste Water”

From Ojai to The Onion: Area Man tangles with Miley Cyrus

Here’s a story I wrote worth mentioning, for the hard-to-link Ojai Quarterly about thirty-one year-old Dan Mirk, who went from starring in local school musicals in little Ojai to writing for The Onion in New York City. So! Here you go: In 2008, Mirk and his colleagues at Onion News Tonight – the video broadcastContinue reading “From Ojai to The Onion: Area Man tangles with Miley Cyrus”

Scenes from an explosion: “Nothing to worry about — it’s just sewer water.”

After a vacuum truck blew up in the yard of Santa Paula Waste Water last November, the Santa Paula Fire Department arrived at shortly before 4:00 a.m. According to the interview with Captain Milo Bustillos, they were told “You have nothing to worry about it is just treated sewer water.” As Bustillos and two otherContinue reading “Scenes from an explosion: “Nothing to worry about — it’s just sewer water.””

El Niño in charts: August 2015

An Atmospheric El Niño index surges into unprecedented warmth: Today sets the record for our Atmospheric El Nino index with a +4.62 sigma amplitude. Pretty remarkable. pic.twitter.com/4uWi5HZcEw — Michael Ventrice (@MJVentrice) August 30, 2015 //platform.twitter.com/widgets.jsMichael Ventrice, a scientist with the Weather Channel, notes that the amplitude is most comparable to the epochal warming that wentContinue reading “El Niño in charts: August 2015”

Scenes from an explosion/investigation: Fracking radioactivity sent to Oxnard/Pacific

Although it hasn’t been widely reported, the explosion at Santa Clara Waste Water Corporation (SCWWC) near Santa Paula last November came about a month after the Oxnard waste water treatment plant, which processes the waste water sent to it via a 14-mile pipeline from SCWW, noticed high levels of radioactivity in its sampling. Because the waste waterContinue reading “Scenes from an explosion/investigation: Fracking radioactivity sent to Oxnard/Pacific”

Scenes from an explosion: Oilfield waste chemicals shock, puzzle responders

A 120-barrel vacuum truck blew up at about 3:30 a.m. at the Santa Clara Waste Water treatment plant outside of Santa Paula on November 18th, and blasting the intake yard with over 1000 gallons of a toxic soup of chemicals and sewage. Several employees were severely injured, and three first responders had their lungs burnedContinue reading “Scenes from an explosion: Oilfield waste chemicals shock, puzzle responders”

Scenes from an explosion: Santa Clara Waste Water exec admits falsifying records

In the wake of the tanker truck explosion that set the Santa Clara Waste Water plant near Santa Paula on fire last November, causing a multi-million dollar disaster, not to mention many serious injuries, the Ventura County District Attorney presented 67 witnesses to the Grand Jury in building a massive case against SCWW. After theContinue reading “Scenes from an explosion: Santa Clara Waste Water exec admits falsifying records”

An oilfield waste plant blows up in Santa Paula: from the police interviews

On November 18th of last year, a vacuum truck at an oilfield wastewater treatment plant outside Santa Paula blew up. Besides severely injuring several people on site, including three firefighters, the explosion led to an extraordinarily dangerous fire and a cloud of toxic chlorine gas that drifted west over farm fields and sent 46 peopleContinue reading “An oilfield waste plant blows up in Santa Paula: from the police interviews”

Cliff-jumpers vs. condors in SoCal

This past week, as part of its annual outdoor recreation issue, High Country News published my story on the conflict between thrill-seeking cliff-jumpers in Southern California invading the ancestral home of the endangered California Condor. Let me open up the package for you to entice you to take a look; Before he heads out toContinue reading “Cliff-jumpers vs. condors in SoCal”