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Winter Storm Batters Northern California, Highway 80 Shut Down At Donner Summit

/in , /by /CBS San Francisco

A winter storm front roared into Northern California Sunday, dumping more than 3 inches of rain in Marin County, triggering flooding along San Francisco’s Great Highway and blizzard conditions in the Sierra Nevada. The National Weather Service issued a flood advisory Sunday afternoon for southeastern Marin County. Forecasters said the storm had dumped 3.32 inches of rain in San Rafael by 4:30 p.m. while 3.86 inches fell in Kentfield. The NWS also posted a flood advisory for southeastern Sonoma County, advising motorists to not drive through flooded roadways.

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OPINION: State Should Use Science To Determine Delta Water Flows

/in , /by /The Mercury News (San Jose)by Jon Rosenfield

How low our expectations of government have sunk. Federal agencies now regularly deny science that explains the warming of our planet and rising seas. Back-room deals and obstruction of the public’s will have become so commonplace that we notice when one of our state government’s agencies takes action to protect the environment, even if it falls well short of the mark.

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Skies Clear After Weekend Storm Drenches San Diego County

/in , /by /The San Diego Union-Tribuneby Lyndsay Winkley

Skies cleared Sunday after a Pacific storm drenched much of San Diego County over the weekend, making way for a drier, but still cool week, forecasters said. The latest system dropped more than an inch of rain at Palomar Mountain and Lake Cuyamaca, and nearly an inch at Lake Henshaw, according to Sunday rainfall totals. San Diego International Airport reported 0.9 of an inch of rain, pushing its seasonal total to 5.3 inches, almost two inches above average.

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Trump Asks Supreme Court To Resolve Groundwater Fight

/in , , /by /E&E News (Washington, D.C.)by Ellen M. Gilmer

The Trump administration is pushing the Supreme Court to review what could be the most consequential environmental case of the term: a broiling Clean Water Act debate. The Justice Department yesterday recommended the high court decide whether the landmark environmental law applies to pollution that travels through groundwater before reaching federally regulated water. Two recent circuit court decisions say yes, but critics think that approach vastly expands the statute.

 

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Statewide Snowpack At 67 Percent Of Average For This Time Of Year

/in , , /by /Mountain View Voice (Palo Alto)

Storms have come to California early this winter, but a survey of the Sierra snowpack on Thursday (Jan. 3) shows it is only at 67 percent of average statewide for this time of year, according to the state’s Department of Water Resources. The snowpack survey was the first of 2019 in California and included a manual survey at Phillips Station just off of U.S. Highway 50 near Sierra-at-Tahoe.

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OPINION: New leaders On Monterey Peninsula Must Finish The Job On Water Project

/in , /by /Monterey Heraldby Bill Kampe, Ralph Rubio and Jerry Edelen

In September of 2018, a busload of local citizens traveled to San Francisco to support approval of our local desalination plant by the California Public Utilities Commission. Included among the supporters were local elected officials, representatives of labor, environmental, housing and business organizations, and people from the community at large. The one thing all these people had in common was the understanding that an adequate and drought-proof water supply is a necessity for a thriving community.

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OPINION: Jerry Brown’s Four Biggest Incompletes

/in , /by /The San Diego Union-Tribune

As Gov. Jerry Brown leaves office amid high praise and some criticism, it’s impossible to give him anything but a grade of incomplete on several major issues. The most prominent of these is criminal justice reform, where Brown has sought huge changes to the overly punitive system he helped create in his first stint as governor. His decision to sign the Uniform Determinate Sentencing Act in 1976 was a major early step in an excessive war on crime that peaked in 1994 when California voters passed the nation’s harshest “three strikes and you’re out” law.

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Leading Women In Water, Colorado River Drought And Promising Solutions — Western Water Year In Review

/in , /by /Water Education Foundation (Sacramento)by Douglas E. Beeman

The growing leadership of women in water. The Colorado River’s persistent drought and efforts to sign off on a plan to avert worse shortfalls of water from the river. And in California’s Central Valley, promising solutions to vexing water resource challenges. These were among the topics that Western Waternews explored in 2018. Western Water, the Foundation’s flagship publication, has provided in-depth coverage of significant water resource issues in California and the Southwest for more than 40 years. In 2018, we took Western Water news entirely online to make it more accessible to a broader range of readers.

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Water: It’s Maybe Being Taxed, And Definitely Being Measured

/in , /by /The Voice of San Diego

A state law meant to document and combat racial profiling by police has produced some unnerving findings: Racial profiling complaints against law enforcement are rarely sustained, and police in California kill black and Latino citizens at a rate higher than those groups’ share of the population, according to a new report released this week by the state’s Racial and Identity Profiling Advisory Board. The 2015 law, written by San Diego Assemblywoman Shirley Weber, is still being implemented in phases, and the latest report is based on data collected from the eight largest law enforcement agencies in the state – including the San Diego Police Department and the San Diego County Sheriff’s Department.

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Water Rate Increase Planned For This Year

/in , /by /Santa Monica Daily Pressby Madeleine Pauker

Water rates will go up nine percent in 2019 as the City of Santa Monica embarks on several projects to wean itself off of imported water. City Council is expected to approve the rate hike at its Tuesday meeting. The average single-family home customer will pay about $4.33 more per month for water to fund the design of a larger, more efficient water treatment plant, the purchase of a new well and the cost of replacing the city’s aging water mains, said chief sustainability officer Dean Kubani. The rate increase will go into effect retroactively on Jan. 1.

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