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At 5:45 p.m. Clearlake Police officers responded to Boyles Avenue near 26th Avenue for a report of a traffic collision involving a vehicle and a pedestrian.
Upon arrival, officers found the collision involved a Toyota Tundra and a bicycle, police said.
The bicyclist, who police said was a male in his late 40s, was pronounced deceased at the scene.
As a result of the investigation and based upon probable cause, officers arrested Johnny Leon-Rojas, 18, of Clearlake for misdemeanor vehicular manslaughter.
Leon-Rojas was booked into the Lake County Jail, where he remained in custody early Wednesday.
He is due to appear in court on Thursday, according to his booking records.
If you witnessed the collision, please contact Sgt. Michael Perreault by email at
All five council members were present for Tuesday’s meeting, with new Councilman Brandon Disney announcing that he and his wife have a brand new, healthy baby daughter.
Among the council’s main items of business on Tuesday was ratifying an emergency declaration made last week in response to the storms.
City Manager Kevin Ingram, who also is the city’s director of emergency services, declared a local state of emergency on Jan. 10 in response to the atmospheric rivers that have been impacting the city — as well as the rest of the county and the region.
Those storms are part of larger series that began at Christmas.
Ingram’s declaration said the atmospheric rivers began impacting the city around Jan. 4. That was the day that the city had to temporarily close Library Park due to fallen tree branches from the heavy rain and high winds.
Emergency Services Act Section 8630(b) and Lakeport Municipal Code requires that such emergency declarations be ratified within seven days to remain in effect.
Ingram told the council that the city has sustained some damage from the storms that will qualify it for federal disaster assistance funding, specifically, a culvert behind the Lakeport Unified School District fields has experienced some erosion.
To be eligible for that federal assistance, Ingram said the city needed to declare an emergency, which is why he took the action last week.
Councilman Michael Froio moved to adopt the resolution confirming the existence of a local emergency, with Councilman Kenny Parlet seconding and Disney, Mayor Stacey Mattina and Councilwoman Kim Costa joining in the unanimous vote.
Later in the meeting, Ingram said that, for the most part, the storms have treated Lakeport well. He said the water has been needed and was welcomed.
On Tuesday morning, Ingram said he walked down to the city’s boat docks and there was water against the sea wall, which hasn’t been the case in some time. Overall, he said the water looked good.
He noted that one more storm is coming in on Wednesday, after which there is forecast to be at least 10 days of clear weather that will allow things to dry out.
On Friday, the Board of Supervisors ratified a separate emergency declaration that Sheriff Rob Howe issued the previous day in response to the atmospheric river storm event, as Lake County News has reported.
In other business at the Tuesday City Council meeting, the council presented a proclamation designating January as Human Trafficking Awareness Month, supported renewing the Lake County Tourism Improvement District’s plans to renew for 10 years, received and filed the fiscal year 2022-23 first quarter financial update, heard the latest on the plans for the Lake County Recreation Task Force and got an update from City Clerk/Administrative Services Director Kelly Buendia on the city’s communications team activity.
Email Elizabeth Larson at
CLEARLAKE OAKS, Calif. — The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency has released its preferred cleanup plan for the Sulphur Bank Mercury Mine Superfund site and is inviting the public to review and comment on the plan.
The plan proposes cleaning up significant portions of the site in Clearlake Oaks, specifically the mine area, the sovereign territory of the Elem Indian Colony Tribe and contaminated soils in the residential area to the southwest of the site.
“This proposed plan is the first step needed to reduce mercury levels in Clear Lake and address contaminated soil. These efforts will enhance public health and environmental safeguards, and advance environmental justice in the area,” said EPA Pacific Southwest Regional Administrator Martha Guzman. “EPA is committed to continuing to work with the Elem Indian Colony, the greater Clear Lake community and the Tribal nations as we develop a plan to clean up the Sulphur Bank site. We look forward to hearing the community’s feedback on our proposed plan.”
An extended public comment period is being provided to ensure that all impacted tribes, communities, and stakeholders have adequate time to review the proposed plan before forming and submitting their comments.
The plan is open for public comment until April 10, 2023, and the EPA Sulphur Bank team will meet with residents in the coming months and host virtual question-and-answer sessions, in-person open houses, and in-person final meetings.
The EPA will hold an online whole community question and answer session regarding the Sulphur Bank Superfund Site Proposed Plan from 5:30 to 7:30 p.m. Wednesday, Jan. 25.
During that meeting, the EPA will provide information and updates related to the proposed plan, offer time for questions-and-answers, and an opportunity to submit official written comments.
The meeting will be held via Zoom; the meeting ID is 896 0307 4296. One tap mobile is available at +12532050468,,89603074296# or +12532158782,,89603074296#. Or dial by your location: +1 253 205 0468 US.
If you are unable to attend this session, there will be in-person open houses and official comment meetings held in February and in early March. For details, see the calendar below.
Since 2021, EPA has offered monthly meetings for representatives from six of the Tribal nations that surround the lake and provided independent technical support through the Technical Assistance Serving Communities Program.
Following the release of this proposed plan, EPA can continue close coordination with these tribal governments to ensure awareness of and involvement in cleanup efforts moving forward.
The 160-acre Sulphur Bank Mercury Mine Superfund site sits on the shore of Clear Lake.
Historic mining contaminated the property with unhealthy levels of mercury, arsenic and antimony.
Contamination from the site also impacts the wetland area north of the mine and Clear Lake itself. Since the site was added to the Superfund cleanup program in August 1990, EPA has completed eight early cleanups to protect human health and the environment and reduce contamination in soil, lake water and sediments, fish and wildlife, and tribal and residential properties near the mine.
The cleanup set out in the new proposed plan will protect the community and environment from the 2.5 million tons of mine waste and contaminated soil on the site, and also prevent that contaminated material from entering Clear Lake.
EPA continues to study options for directly cleaning up mercury contamination in Clear Lake and wetlands near the mine site.
The goals for the proposed cleanup are:
• Combining smaller waste piles with larger piles to reduce the area of contamination.
• Putting a liner, clean earth, and clean soil over the contaminated waste and soil to: make residential areas safe for a lifetime of use; make on-mine areas safe for use by Elem Indian Colony residents (hunting, fishing, foraging, transit to nearby lands); and prevent contamination from leaving the site with stormwater or wind.
• Limiting mercury entering Clear Lake to allow mercury levels in sediments and fish to decrease over time, and help EPA determine the cleanup needed for the lake.
This project and progress towards a final cleanup decision is being supported by the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law.
The Bipartisan Infrastructure Law invests an additional $3.5 billion in environmental remediation at Superfund sites, making it one of the largest investments in American history to address the legacy pollution that harms the public health of communities and neighborhoods.
The public can submit comments to EPA on the proposed plan until April 10, 2023, in the following ways:
• Email comments to EPA’s Gavin Pauley and Carter Jessop: Printed comments can be mailed to Gavin Pauley - EPA Community Involvement Coordinator, 75 Hawthorne St. (Mail Code: OPA-2) San Francisco, CA 94105. Mailed comments must be postmarked by April 10.
• Oral comments can be left on EPA’s voicemail box at 800-231-3075.
Once EPA has considered public comments on the proposed cleanup plan, it will respond to them in a “responsiveness summary” and make a formal decision on the cleanup in the “record of decision” that will guide the cleanup of the Sulphur Bank Mercury Mine site.
EPA aims to make the final cleanup decision within a year of the close of public comment period. The proposed plan cleanup could begin as soon as 2025.
Sulphur Bank Timeline - 100031845 by LakeCoNews on Scribd
It’s no secret that the COVID-19 pandemic has taken a heavy toll on the mental health of kids and parents alike.
In a 2020 survey, 71% of parents said they believed the pandemic had hurt their children’s mental health. The American Academy of Pediatrics declared a national emergency in child mental health in October 2021, citing “soaring” rates of child mental health challenges.
In 2022, the Biden administration developed a comprehensive strategy and committed a substantial amount of money, including US$300 million secured through a bipartisan agreement, to a national response to the children’s mental health crisis through multiple sources.
But what is often missing from this national conversation is the importance of recognizing parents’ mental health and the effect that parents’ mental well-being has on that of their children. Decades of research clearly demonstrate that the mental health of parents and their children are inextricably linked.
As an assistant professor of child and family development whose research focuses on parenting and child mental health, I see too often that the mental health of parents – or other caregivers who act in the role of parents, such as grandparents or foster parents – is overlooked when trying to support children’s mental health. Until that gap is addressed, efforts to address the mental health crisis in kids and teens will likely fall short.
The pandemic’s toll on parents
The work of multiple researchers, including my own group, shows that parents reported alarmingly high rates of mental health challenges during the COVID-19 pandemic.
In my own work on the subject, a 2021 study found that 34% of parents reported elevated anxiety symptoms, and approximately 28% of them reported depression symptoms that were at a point of clinical concern.
These rates were similar to other reports, and they suggest that parents had higher levels of mental health needs than before the pandemic. The preponderance of research into the pandemic’s toll on parents’ and children’s mental health took place in 2020 and 2021, so it’s not yet clear whether mental health needs have lessened as the pandemic has waned or not.
Passing on the pain
Parents’ psychological health is important in its own right, since they often experience stress and need support. But research is also clear that the well-being of parents is closely linked to that of their child. Parents who are experiencing mental health challenges often have children with mental health challenges, and vice versa.
This interplay is complex and varied and includes both genetics and environmental factors such as exposure to stress or trauma. Parents’ well-being directly affects the overall structure and functioning of the home environment, such as following daily routines, and the quality of the relationship between parent and child.
For example, when parents experience depression, they often express more negative emotions – such as anger and irritability – with their children. They are also less consistent in discipline and less engaged in the parent-child relationship. As a result of these stresses at home, their children may also develop depression as well as other challenges, such as anxiety or behavioral problems.
Children of parents with high levels of anxiety are at risk for both anxiety and depression, which themselves are associated with attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder. And ADHD is known to be highly hereditary: One study found that approximately 50% of children with ADHD also had a parent with ADHD.
Parents’ mental well-being is influenced by the amount of stress they experience, such as economic difficulties, insufficient child care and competing pressures from work and family. When parents have social support from family, friends, their community or the school system, studies show they are less likely to struggle with anxiety or depression.
Treatment for parents also helps kids
In a recent review on parental depression, researchers reported that children who are receiving mental health care often have parents with depression, and many times the parents’ depression is not being treated. Importantly, the review also found that when parents are treated for depression and see their depressive symptoms improve, their children’s psychiatric symptoms abate and overall functioning improves. It also concluded that the treatment of parent and child mental health challenges is rarely integrated.
There are, however, emerging approaches for bringing the two together, including screening for and treating both parent and child mental health challenges in pediatric primary care. While this approach to identifying and treating psychiatric conditions is new, studies show it is promising for reducing depression symptoms in both parents and children simultaneously.
When parents are not able to receive effective treatment for their psychiatric conditions because of their busy schedules, inability to afford it, stigma against mental health care or the mental health provider shortage, children are put at risk for mental health challenges too. On the flip side, when parents receive evidence-based mental health care, such as cognitive behavioral therapy, children also benefit.
Research also shows that a family-based approach to mental health care that considers parents’ needs, the family context and the parent-child relationship may best support both children and their parents.
Prioritizing parents
So often, parents feel they need to take a back seat to what they perceive as the more important needs of their children. But just as when airline flight attendants instruct adults at the start of every flight to put their own safety mask on first, parents should know the importance of prioritizing their own well-being to promote the health of their children.
One concrete action that parents can take is to seek out family-based treatments. This may be a challenging process, but talking with their child’s pediatrician about specific referrals for this kind of care can be a good place to start. If those options are not available, parents should ensure that they are involved in their child’s mental health care and incorporate what is learned in treatment into their family’s day-to-day life. They should also seek referrals for their own mental health care as needed.
Ultimately, the children’s mental health crisis cannot be solved without also prioritizing parents. The British psychiatrist John Bowlby is widely recognized as the father of attachment theory, the study of the importance of early relationships between infants and their caregivers. Bowlby often expressed the sentiment that “a society that values its children should cherish their parents.”
Lucy (Kathleen) McGoron, Assistant Professor of Child and Family Development, Wayne State University
This article is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons license. Read the original article.
Lisa Katherine McCuan, 40, died in the wreck, according to a Tuesday report from the California Highway Patrol’s Clear Lake Area office.
The CHP said the crash occurred at 6:31 a.m. Sunday on Highway 29 north of Diener Drive near Lower Lake.
McCuan was driving a 2013 Toyota Highlander northbound on Highway 29 with two passengers, Marrisa Humphries, 16, and Cliff Cutrell, 51, both of Clearlake, the CHP said.
The CHP said Dan Fallis, 51, of Clearlake was driving a 2015 Dodge Ram 1500 southbound.
Fallis drove the Dodge over the solid double yellow lines into the northbound lane, colliding head-on with McCuan’s Toyota, the CHP report said.
The CHP said McCuan was pronounced deceased on scene.
Humphries suffered major injuries and Cutrell suffered moderate injuries. The CHP said Humphries was transported to Adventist Health Clear Lake Hospital and Cutrell was taken to Sutter Lakeside Hospital.
Fallis suffered major injuries and was transported to Adventist Health Clear Lake Hospital, the CHP said.
The report said Cutrell, Fallis and McCuan were all wearing seat belts at the time of the crash, but Humphries was not.
The CHP said driving under the influence is not believed to be a contributing factor in this collision.
Email Elizabeth Larson at
“We’re finally getting through the parade of storms,” State Climatologist Dr. Michael Anderson said in a Monday briefing.
Anderson said there is a change in atmosphere with high pressure building in the Pacific, which will lead to colder air coming into California.
The next storm is expected to arrive on Wednesday and continue to Thursday. It will be the ninth storm since Christmas, but the 10th atmospheric river, as Anderson explained that the eighth storm, which occurred from Friday through the weekend, included two atmospheric rivers.
After the ninth storm takes place, Anderson said the forecast calls for dry conditions through the end of January.
The forecast for this week shows the ninth storm will bring between a quarter of an inch to an inch and a half of rain across Lake County before conditions clear up.
Anderson said this next and last storm “just barely qualifies” as an atmospheric river, explaining that it will only be an atmospheric river for a six-hour window. It will move from the north to the south, and will be fairly limited in how much moisture it brings. There will be no rain south of Santa Maria, he added.
Anderson said there is now a transition from the storms to high pressure that’s building over the Pacific, changing the storm track for the ninth storm forecast for Wednesday and limiting the moisture it will transport.
With a break in the rain over the last few days and drier conditions in the forecast, Anderson said rivers are receding in most locations but will sustain high flows as water works its way through watersheds. At the same time, there are reservoir releases in parts of the state as part of flood control measures.
“Where's starting to see rivers working through their final crests,” he said.
The California Nevada River Forecast Center showed that on Monday night 19 river and water systems were above monitor stage and only one location, on the San Diego River in Southern California, was above flood stage.
As officials had predicted, areas on the Russian River in Hopland and Guerneville, which had been in flood stage last week and into the weekend, were back in normal conditions.
In Lake County, the U.S. Geological Survey’s gauge on Clear Lake shows that the lake’s level began to actively rise late on Dec. 26, at which point it was about -2.34 feet Rumsey, the special measure for Clear Lake.
Since then, Clear Lake has risen about 6 feet, hitting 3.63 feet Rumsey late Monday. However, the increase in lake height has started to slow and level out thanks to the break in rain. Clear Lake is considered full when it reaches 7.56 feet Rumsey.
In eastern Lake County, Indian Valley Reservoir also has shown substantial inflow since Christmas. The U.S. Geological Survey’s report on the reservoir showed that it had risen from 45,180 acre feet on Dec. 26 to 106,600 acre feet on Monday.
Yolo County Flood Control and Water Conservation District’s last report on Indian Valley Reservoir, issued on Jan. 12, showed that at that point it was at 91,452 acre feet, compared to 44,970 acre feet on the same day in 2022.
Anderson said that, climatologically, the state is hitting the second of its winter astrological peak tides, or “king tides,” which are expected this weekend.
The California King Tides Project explained that the first of the two king tides occurred Dec. 23 and 24.
Snowpack at ‘epic levels’
In addition to the rain brought from one storm after another, the Sierras and other mountain regions of the state now have a large amount of snow.
Anderson said the state’s snowpack is at “epic levels.”
The California Data Exchange Center reported on Monday that the statewide snowpack in the Sierras was at 247% of normal, which breaks down to 209% in the north, 246% in the central region and 288% in the south.
Anderson said California’s current pace with snowpack puts it ahead of the 1982-83 snowpack, which holds the record since snowpack levels began to be recorded in 1950.
“Big difference is, we’re going to hit a two-week stretch of dry weather,” Anderson said.
He said the last really good snowpack was in 2019. That year, the snowpack was the fifth largest recorded.
Anderson said the abundance of snow sets the stage for potentially dealing with flood issues as snowmelt season arrives in some water basins. He said many areas have pivoted from drought to dealing with flood releases from reservoirs.
Peak snowmelt depends on how the spring plays out, how quickly things heat up and how many clear, sunny days there are. “It’s that direct solar radiation that really changes snow and makes it ready to melt,” Anderson said.
Peak melt in the Sierra typically runs from April to early July, he said.
At the start of winter, Anderson said a La Niña — which tends to bring drier conditions — was in place. By Christmas, the strength of the La Niña event had started breaking down.
What began then, Anderson said, was a transition into “neutral conditions.”
The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration explains that neutral conditions are when sea surface temperatures are generally close to average and between El Niño, which is a warming of the ocean surface, and La Niña, which is when the ocean surface is cooling.
Anderson said neutral conditions are expected in the coming months. “As you move into neutral conditions, you lose the reinforcement of that high pressure ridge which had been in place before Christmas,” he said.
That will lead to a fluctuation between that high pressure ridge and the jet stream, which will determine whether storms make it into California, Anderson said.
He said there is much less predictability when in a transition state rather than when it’s in one state or another — El Niño or La Niña.
Reservoirs continue filling up
The storms have had another major impact — they’ve been helping to fill up California’s network of 154 reservoirs.
On Monday, Molly White, State Water Project water operations manager, said the total statewide storage was at 91% of the historical average, an improvement of about 10% since last week.
Lake Shasta surpassed 2.3 million acre feet of water on Sunday, putting it at 51% of capacity and 81% of its historical average, White said.
White said Lake Oroville on Monday was just shy of 2 million acre feet, which also puts it at 51% capacity but at 101% of its historical average, and surpasses the lake’s 2021 and 2022 peak storage.
Lake Oroville has roughly 600,000 acre feet of storage available before a release of water will be necessary for flood control, White said.
In neighboring Mendocino County, Lake Mendocino’s level has risen to 148% of its historical average, according to the California Department of Water Resources. The lake has 122,400 acre feet of storage and was at 95,839 acre feet on Monday.
The United States Army Corps of Engineers San Francisco District reported that Lake Mendocino has increased almost 40 feet in depth over the past month.
As a result, the U.S. Army Corps began a series of high-flow releases from Coyote Valley Dam at Lake Mendocino starting midday on Monday in response to reservoir levels and improving downstream conditions on the Russian River.
The releases are meant to make room for additional rainfall this season.
“This approach will safely accommodate additional storm inflows, and sustain lake levels for boating and other recreation,” the agency said on the Facebook page it manages for Lake Mendocino.
The Army Corps said the release was timed “to allow downstream river levels to recede while still allowing for as much time as possible to evacuate water from the dam prior to the next storm.”
INFORMATIONAL LINKS:
U.S. Geological Survey gage on Clear Lake:
https://waterdata.usgs.gov/monitoring-location/11450000/#parameterCode=00065&period=P30D
U.S. Geological Survey gage on Indian Valley Reservoir:
https://waterdata.usgs.gov/monitoring-location/11451290/#parameterCode=00054&period=P7D
Yolo County Flood Control and Water Conservation District report on Indian Valley Reservoir:
https://www.ycfcwcd.org/waterinfo.html
California Nevada River Forecast Center
https://www.cnrfc.noaa.gov/
California Data Exchange Center Snow Water Equivalents page:
https://cdec.water.ca.gov/snowapp/sweq.action
California King Tides Project link:
https://www.coastal.ca.gov/kingtides/
Information on El Niño and La Niña:
https://www.weather.gov/mhx/ensowhat#:~:text=Neutral%3A%20Neither%20El%20Ni%C3%B1o%20or,along%20(or%20vice%20versa)
California Department of Water Resources Daily Reservoir Storage Summary page:
https://cdec.water.ca.gov/reportapp/javareports?name=RES
Lake Mendocino Facebook page:
https://www.facebook.com/LakeMendocino
Email Elizabeth Larson at