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- Written by: Elizabeth Larson
Shortly before 5 p.m. officials were called to Highlands Springs where a male subject had reportedly drowned.
Lakeport Fire and the Lake County Sheriff's Office controlled the scene, while the Northshore Dive Team was called, said dive team leader Capt. John Rodriguez.
Rodriguez said the drowning resulted from a swimming accident.
He and two other dive team members – including Keith Hoyt – responded to the scene.
Hoyt said once the team got in the water, Rodriguez found the victim – whose name and age were not available – after about 10 minutes.
The man's body was found about 75 feet offshore in about 12 to 15 feet of water, said Rodriguez.
“We had about a 5-foot visibility,” Rodriguez explained, noting that the area of the lake where they were searching had a lot of snags and thick weeds.
The team, however, had good information about where the victim had last been seen, which Rodriguez said was the key to the whole operation.
“It led us right to the victim,” he said.
Hoyt said a group of the victim's family members were at the scene, where an event was taking place.
Some good Samaritans who also were at the lake had done repeated dives in an effort to help find the man, but with no luck. Hoyt said they were very close to the location were the body ultimately was found, but the water was a little too deep and the man's body was completely covered by weeds.
Hoyst said the men were extremely upset after being unable to find the man.
He said he thanked them for what they did, which he told them was more than a lot of people would have done.
“They did the right thing,” he said.
E-mail Elizabeth Larson at
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- Written by: Elizabeth Larson
The decision regarding AltaRock Energy's engineered geothermal systems (EGS) project – scheduled to take place on a federal land leaded by the Bureau of Land Management to the Northern California Power Agency (NCPA) – came down earlier this month, as Lake County News has reported.
AltaRock, based in Sausalito and Seattle, plans to drill thousands of feet into the earth and fracture bedrock and inject water, which create steam for geothermal production.
It had already begun drilling into an old well in preparation to start the fracturing – also called “stimulation” – in August.
But a New York Times article late last month and ensuing media coverage in the interim pointed to the similarity between AltaRock's technology and that which was used on a project in Basel, Switzerland, in 2006. In that case, a company – not AltaRock – drilled into a fault and triggered a 3.4-magnitude earthquake and more than 3,500 more over the following year.
Dr. Ernie Majer, a scientist and geophysics department deputy division director for the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, said the decision to halt the project while more study was done came directly from his old boss, Dr. Steven Chu, now head of the Department of Energy.
“It came from the top, it came from Dr. Chu,” Majer told Lake County News.
Chu, Majer said, didn't want to let the project go forward until it was reviewed, and wanted the community fully informed all throughout the process.
Last fall, AltaRock received more than $6 million in funding from the Department of Energy funding for The Geysers project. It also has amassed another $30 million in venture capital.
The project moved very quickly through the approval process with only a month-long public comment process and one community meeting earlier this spring.
On June 8, Rich Burns, a Lake County resident and the field manager for the Ukiah BLM's field office, signed a finding of no significant impact on the project, noting, “the process will induce seismicity that is fully expected to be within the range of present levels (both frequency and magnitude) experienced at Anderson Springs, the closest community to the Project.”
That document also stated, “While it is acknowledged that the proposed project involves some uncertainty regarding seismic impacts, the mitigation and monitoring that will be required by BLM will mitigate these uncertainties to a level of insignificance. Drilling methods and associated activities for this project are typical of existing processes in the Geysers Geothermal Field/Geysers Management Area.”
Officials with the BLM, which needed to approve a federal permit for the company to move forward, stated that AltaRock's didn't disclose to them what happened with the technology in Basel.
In turn, AltaRock's executives have said they withheld no information, and that the Basel project is well known in the industry. They also told Lake County News that the Department of Energy had asked for more information, which the company provided, and they expected to changes to their project schedule, which called for fracturing to begin in August.
Earlier this month, BLM told Lake County News that they and the Department of Energy decided to do more study on the project.
This past week Tiffany Edwards, deputy press secretary for the Department of Energy, provided an agency statement to Lake County News about the decision.
“The Department is conducting additional analysis of the question of induced seismicity, and specifically comparing induced seismicity at the Geysers to induced seismicity at Basel, Switzerland to determine whether there should be additional safeguards beyond what is already planned for the Geysers site,” the statement said. “No stimulation activity will be funded by the Department until we've completed this additional comparative analysis and provided a final NEPA [National Environmental Policy Act] determination.”
Edwards did not respond to Lake County News' request for an estimate on how long the NEPA determination might take.
The written statement Edwards provided further noted that the geothermal technology in question has “enormous potential to provide renewable baseload energy to heat and power homes and businesses. That's why industry and scientific leaders, with the support of the Department of Energy, are working to develop better technologies that will help reduce the cost of these systems, including the cost of drilling and pipes that can withstand hot, corrosive fluids deep within the earth.”
The statement concluded, “Ultimately, we believe that scientific innovation could resolve those issues, and we can develop better ways to manage the deep reservoir to maximize heat production. The Department's support of enhanced geothermal systems is focused on addressing these obstacles.”
Geothermal isn't the only type of energy production raising concerns about earthquakes. Recent reports from Cleburne, Texas, have linked to a series of small quakes – the first in well over a century – to natural gas drilling.
A USA Today report explains that a process called “fracking” is being used in Texas. Like local geothermal production, it involves injecting water deep into the earth. Fracking is meant to fracture shale layers in an effort to release the natural gas.
Officials want more openness in process
Majer said he and other scientists – US Geological Survey seismologist David Oppenheimer and Mark Zoback, a Stanford University geophysics professor – traveled to Washington, DC earlier this month to meet with Department of Energy officials to discuss the project.
He said they met with Dr. Steven E. Koonin, Chu's under secretary for science, to go over the project. Majer said Koonin indicated he wants real-time seismic monitoring in place for the community.
He also attended the community meeting held by the BLM in Middletown in April to discuss the project. Majer said the community had clear concerns about the project.
Then the articles in the New York Times and elsewhere began coming out, said Majer.
“One of the big concerns was how is this different or is it different from what happened in Basel, Switzerland?” Majer said.
He said the Department of Energy has asked AltaRock to write a document and explain how their project would differ from Basel, and explore if the technology could cause similar seismic issues here. “If so, how are you going to deal with it?”
He said AltaRock – which has approached him at one time to be an advisor, a request he declined due to the inherent conflict of interest – is now in the process of providing that report.
Majer said the Department of Energy will have that report considered by three independent reviewers. If they agree with AltaRock that the risk is minimal, the Department of Energy will let them go forward. If the findings are different, the agency likely will request more study.
Once that review is done, the information will be released to the public, said Majer. “Dr. Chu wants everything open and above board.”
Majer, who did he thesis at The Geysers, is very familiar with the earthquake activity there.
The frequent earthquakes in the area are the result of geothermal production, he said.
For many years industry working in the area denied they were causing the earthquakes, but when study after study showed a direct correlation between geothermal production there, primarily the injection of water into fissures, “They just couldn't deny it any more,” Majer said.
Majer said Basel is geographically different, stress-wise, from The Geysers, so there isn't a reason for comparing the two areas. Europeans have used the EGS technology with some success, he noted.
He said the focus has been on the initial injections planned in AltaRock's project, but Majer suggested the more important question is what will happen in the years ahead as injection continues. That should lead to a closer examination of whether or not there will be an increase in the seismic risk, which exists everywhere.
The assertion that's been made about the project that the biggest quakes it will cause only will be 2.3 in magnitude is “ridiculous,” said Majer.
However, he said creating large fractures, causing major seismicity, actually will defeat AltaRock's purpose, because larger fractures won't heat water for geothermal production as well.
He said AltaRock needs to address the concerns and not just do damage control. The company has claimed some information about its operations is proprietary, he added.
The Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory does seismic monitoring at The Geysers, said Majer, where they currently have a monitoring array for Calpine and NCPA.
That array currently has 23 real-time monitoring stations, and six more stations will be added to cover AltaRock's project, Majer said.
The array is far more sensitive than the US Geological Survey's. In July, it recorded 11 earthquakes measuring 3.0 in magnitude and above, compared to five found in the US Geological Survey's records.
The Department of Energy funds various projects to increase energy production, and Majer said he believes AltaRock is out in front of such projects in terms of time schedule. “This is the first project that the Department of Energy wanted to succeed.”
Majer said there is a lot of potential for geothermal production.
“There's so much more heat down there that's to be gotten out,” he said.
E-mail Elizabeth Larson at
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Many of the stories currently causing the tapeworm scare stem from a Chicago man who is suing a restaurant, claiming he was infected with the tapeworm from a raw salmon dish in 2006 that has since grown to be a 9-foot-long tapeworm.
Oddly enough, almost all of the articles on the subject stop just short of revealing the fact that the Chicago Department of Health has cleared the restaurant in its own investigation. Hey, don’t let the facts get in the way of a sensational story!
Sushi and raw fish make great punching bags since they are scary and foreign foods. Nobody wants to mention that you can catch a tapeworm from beef and pork, by playing with your dog, or just shaking the hand of a person who has a tapeworm. Believe it or not, you can even catch a tapeworm from eating your breakfast cereal (if an infected bug is in it). Beef and pork tapeworms are the most common in America, yet we don’t seem to hear about those cases. Evidently the beef industry must have a high-priced assassin on retainer scaring off any reporters.
I was recently in a Sacramento sushi bar and was watching the sushi chef prepare ingredients and put them in the refrigerated case. When you have been in the aquaculture and food industry as long as I have, you develop an eye for spotting things that don’t fit. I watched the chef pull out a tilapia filet and then trim away some of the major red portions of the meat so that the filet now looked like a small red snapper filet.
In a matter of a few moments he had turned an inexpensive freshwater fish into what looked like an expensive saltwater fish. The average tilapia filet sells for $2 a pound while the snapper demands almost $20. In the past, I have found some Lake County restaurants substituting tilapia for red snapper on their menus. Not only do tilapia filets look different than snapper filets but tilapia tastes a lot like an anorexic snapper.
In Japan this type of substitution is a fairly common practice since the Japanese are much more interested in the flavor of the sushi, not the pedigree. Red snapper on Monday’s menu could actually be red snapper, while on Wednesday it might come from a rockfish. This has never been a real problem until tilapia came along. Salt water fish have a very low incidence of parasites while freshwater fish, like the tilapia, have a very high incidence of parasites.
Most (not necessarily all) saltwater parasites come from fish that are infested with marine mammal parasites. These marine mammal parasites don’t find the human body a hospitable place and usually die within a couple of weeks at most.
Freshwater parasites on the other hand, tend to be tapeworms which love the human body and travel though it like tourists on a three day weekend. As I’m sure you already know, tourists sometimes turn into residents and never leave. These tapeworms can live in a body for decades without giving off any symptoms at all. The fact that tapeworms can live in the body for so long without detection makes it very unlikely that the infected person could accurately trace ingestion back to the original source, and so sushi bars tend to get blamed just out of convenience.
Tapeworms can be contracted from any kind of restaurant that uses poor sanitation practices. The fact that sushi is prepared in front of the customer means that sushi bars tend to be cleaner than most other types of cuisine. Sushi chefs are trained to spot parasites in sushi, so only eat sushi prepared by high quality restaurants that know what to look for.
A little information about tilapia. Tilapias are actually several varieties of fish related to the Oscars that you see in aquariums everywhere. They are fast growing and omnivorous, meaning they’ll eat just about everything.
Vegetarian fish food is the least expensive to purchase so most fish farms use it. This keeps costs down and mercury levels almost non-existent, which is the good news. However this diet also adds no omega fatty acids that fish is so valued for, so at best tilapia is a good source of protein but that’s about all.
Tilapia also can be raised in almost any conditions, so a field being used to grow rice can also be used to raise tilapia, making the land more useful but also keeping the price on the fish low. On the other hand, this keeps the tilapia trapped in a small shallow pond to be an easy victim to play host for tapeworms. This is also why you only see saltwater fish on the sushi menu, but freshwater fish such as catfish, largemouth bass and bluegill must be cooked before eating to eliminate (kill) any parasites.
Since tilapia isn’t considered to be a common sushi ingredient it isn’t required to be frozen to sashimi grade standards. If you get a fish wholesaler that wants to make a higher profit he may offer tilapia to sushi bars as “red snapper,” and if the sushi chef doesn’t know better he may just offer this tilapia as snapper. Or it’s possible that, along the lines of what I witnessed, a sushi chef who wants to save some money will actually cut the tilapia to look like snapper. Either way, a knowledgeable and ethical sushi bar can stop Red Snapper from being counterfeited.
Now I don’t want to sound like an alarmist, so let me give you a statistic that might calm you. While it’s possible to catch a tapeworm from ingesting almost anything if it’s not properly or handled in a sanitary fashion, the incidence of tapeworms treated in the United States every year is about one person out of every 100,000. That is less than one person in the entire county here. So the chances of catching a tapeworm are very slim.
To be perfectly honest I have filleted hundreds of fish in my life and I have only actually ever found two live parasites in supermarket-purchased fish. The risk is there, but chances are quite low.
However, since I still buy Super Lotto tickets, this proves I believe in the long shot and I think it’s better to be safe than sorry, so if you want to make sushi at home but also want to avoid being like one of those people on the “Alien” movies with the creature bursting out of your chest, here’s how ...
First and foremost, only use commercially caught fish for sushi. The possibility of a home-caught fish being infected with a parasite is very high and despite what you hear about freezing fish killing parasites, your home freezer cannot reach the temperature needed to kill parasites. I’m sure that more than one fisherman reading this has frozen fish at home and thawed it weeks to even months later only to have the fish come back to life, and if the fish can do it the parasite can certainly do it too.
Secondly, when at the fishmonger’s be sure to ask for sashimi-grade fish. This is a fish that has been nitrogen blast frozen then stored at an incredibly cold temperature regulated by the Food and Drug Administration which has been shown to decisively kill all parasites.
Sashimi-grade fish go through several layers of grading and testing before they make it to the standard, each test making the fish that much safer than before. If you see a fish marked “sushi grade,” it is exactly the same as sashimi grade. The phrase “sashimi grade” is the actual FDA term while “sushi grade” is just the dumbed-down expression.
It’s best that you don’t make sushi at home without some sort of training. Of all of the cases of parasitic infection that are found per year, almost all of them are attributed to fish being served raw in some form by an untrained cook at home.
So take the time to take a sushi making class.Coincidentally I am planning to teach another one soon at Chic Le Chef in Hidden Valley Lake. Contact Julie Hoskins at Chic Le Chef, telephone &07-355-0174, or visit 19024 Redbud Road in Hidden Valley Lake for information on a class.
Ross A. Christensen is an award-winning gardener and gourmet cook. He is the author of "Sushi A to Z, The Ultimate Guide" and is currently working on a new book. He has been a public speaker for many years and enjoys being involved in the community.
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If you're curious about great local food and wine, you can now follow me on Twitter. Log onto www.twitter.com/foodiefreak and see what events I’ll be attending.
Aug. 2
Sunday Brunch in the Garden, Blue Wing Saloon & Cafe, 9520 Main St., Upper Lake. Brunch served 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. Chris Forshay featured on guitar and vocals, 11:30 a.m. to 2 p.m. Information: 707-275-2244 or www.bluewingsaloon.com .
Aug. 5-8
Blue Wing Blues Festival, Blue Wing Saloon & Cafe, 9520 Main St., Upper Lake. Four nights of blues music, two bands each night plus a barbecue dinner. 5:30 p.m. to 9 p.m. Tickets are $45. Information: 707-275-2244 or www.bluewingsaloon.com .
Aug. 8
No Fireworks Pancake Breakfast, Lakeport Fire Department, 445 N. Main St., 8 am. until noon. Hosted by the Lakeport Kiwanis to help support funding deficits for the Channel Cats Swim Team caused by new regulations banning fireworks sales. No Fireworks Pancake Breakfast tickets are available from Channel Cat swimmers, Miss Lake County Pageant participants and supporters, the Lakeport Kiwanis members and the firefighters at the firehouse. The cost is a $10 donation for a single breakfast and $25 for a family ticket. Info: www.kiwanislakeport.org; Arlin Pischke, 707-263-5412, or Jennifer Hanson, 707-263-3131.
Aug. 9
Sunday Brunch in the Garden, Blue Wing Saloon & Cafe, 9520 Main St., Upper Lake. Brunch served 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. Vocal group Ear Reverence will perform, 11:30 a.m. to 2 p.m. Information: 707-275-2244 or www.bluewingsaloon.com .
Aug. 16
Sunday Brunch in the Garden, Blue Wing Saloon & Cafe, 9520 Main St., Upper Lake. Brunch served 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. Patrick Fitzgerald and Shelly Mascari will perform, 11:30 a.m. to 2 p.m. Information: 707-275-2244 or www.bluewingsaloon.com .
Aug. 21
Taste of Lakeport, Main Street. Lakeport. 5 p.m. to 10 p.m. Twelfth-annual wine tasting event featuring food, wine tasting, live music, and dancing. Businesses in downtown Lakeport stay open late for the event, which is a benefit for the revitalization of downtown Lakeport. Presented by Lakeport Main Street Association. Information: 707-263-8843, www.lakeportmainstreet.com .
Aug. 22
Concert in the Vineyard Series, Moore Family Winery, 11990 Bottle Rock Road, Kelseyville. Doors open at 5 p.m., show starts at 6 p.m. Bill Noteman and The Rockets, West Coast blues style music. Cheeseburgers cost $8; corn dog meal, $5. Information: 707-279-9279, http://moorefamilywinery.com/ or
Aug. 23
Sunday Brunch in the Garden, Blue Wing Saloon & Cafe, 9520 Main St., Upper Lake. Brunch served 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. Chris Forshay featured on guitar and vocals, 11:30 a.m. to 2 p.m. Information: 707-275-2244 or www.bluewingsaloon.com .
Ongoing activities
The New Cool at Konocti Harbor featuring David Neft. Konocti Harbor hosts “The Piano Man” David Neft, playing the grand piano from 6 p.m. to 9 p.m., every Friday and Saturday in the relaunched dining room. 8727 Soda Bay Road, Kelseyville. Information: 800-660-LAKE or www.konoctiharbor.com .
Certified Farmers Market, Steele Winery, 4350 Thomas Dr. at Highway 29, Kelseyville. Saturdays, 8:30 a.m. until noon, May through October. A variety of produce grown in the area as well as flowers, coffee, pastries and bread, arts and crafts, and live entertainment. Information: 707-279-9475.
Langtry Estate and Vineyard Tours, 21000 Butts Canyon Road, Middletown. Langtry Estate and Vineyard is offering exciting and innovative tour programs. Guests ride in battery-operated Global Electric Motorcars. Tours are offered Tuesday through Saturday. The Tephra Vineyard Lunch Tours are offered at 11 a.m. and 1 p.m. $40 per person includes lunch and wine tasting. Reservations required 24 hours in advance. Info: 707-987-2385
Tuscan Village Friday Concert Series, Main Street, Lower Lake. Live music, food, wine tasting. Presented by 2Goombas and Terrill Cellars. 5:30 p.m. to 8:30 p.m. Information: 707-994-3354.
A Taste of Lake County Wine Tours, countywide. Spend the day sipping fine wine, enjoying a gourmet picnic amongst the vines, taking in the rustic beauty of Lake County. Tour includes picnic lunch and tasting fees. Perfect for small groups. Tours of Napa also available. Information: 707-987-1920 or www.aeroshuttleservice.com .
Beer Master Dinner Series, Molly Brennan’s, 175 N. Main St., Lakeport. Second Tuesday of each month, 6:30 p.m. to 9:30 p.m. Different brewery featured each month, with beers paired with each course of a five-course meal including dessert. Advance reservations required. Information: 707-262-1600.
Lake County Wine Tours, countywide. Experience the “Undiscovered Wine Country” that is Lake County. Taste award winning premier wines at friendly tasting rooms and in stunning vineyards. Knowledgeable guide, all tasting fees and a gourmet picnic lunch included. Information: 707-998-4471 or www.lakecountywinetours.com .
If you have a food or wine related event and would like to have it listed in the coming months, call Ross at 707-998-9550.