The majority of bills churning through this legislative session have to pass the Assembly and Senate by midnight Saturday, Aug. 31, or they die. And there are a slew of water bills racing toward that deadline.
While some may make it to Gov. Gavin Newsom’s desk, no one can say with certainty whether he will sign them, veto them, or ignore them.
The World Health Organization notes that only about 73% of the world’s population have access to drinking water that is both nearby and free from contamination, leaving billions of people who aren’t afforded such a basic luxury. Even worse, at least 1.7 billion people have to drink from a water source that’s contaminated by human waste.
And while there are notable exceptions such as the Flint water crisis, those of us living in the United States have few reasons to worry about such the safety of our drinking water. “In relationship to the risk of illness associated with other countries around the world, our drinking water ranks fairly highly as we use advanced testing measures to ensure that drinking water is safe and free from both chemical and microbial contaminants,” says Rachel Noble, a distinguished professor of marine sciences at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.
More than two months after he was placed on leave by the board of California’s largest urban water supplier, embattled General Manager Adel Hagekhalil defended his performance and insisted the accusations against him are unfounded.
The board of the Metropolitan Water District of Southern California met in closed session Tuesday to discuss the status of investigations into multiple complaints and voted to extend Hagekhalil’s leave of absence until Oct. 23 as the investigation continues. The leave had been scheduled to end in September.
Artificial intelligence technology is guzzling water and energy in California and around the globe, yet most tech companies have not been forthcoming about the actual environmental costs of their applications, my colleague Melody Petersen reports.
That’s a huge problem, as their energy and water consumption will undoubtedly strain supplies and drive up demand for climate-warming oil, gas and coal — all while leaving users in the dark about their true contributions.
An unusually cold weather system from the Gulf of Alaska interrupted summer along the West Coast over the weekend, bringing snow to mountains in California and the Pacific Northwest and prompting the closure of part of a highway that runs through a national park.
Parts of Highway 89 through Lassen Volcanic National Park in California were shut down after an estimated 3 inches of snow fell Saturday, according to the National Weather Service.
Gov. Gavin Newsom is making moves to keep control of California’s water — and protect the state’s endangered species from a potential second Trump administration.
With federal and state officials in the midst of renegotiating how they manage a 400-mile system of reservoirs, pumps and canals that moves water out of the San Joaquin-Sacramento River Delta to deliver it to taps and farms across the state, California water officials are taking steps to adopt guidelines from the state’s own wildlife officials rather than federal ones.
For nine out of the last 13 years, California was in a state of drought. The five-year drought from 2012 and 2016 is one of the top five most severe droughts California experienced in the last 120 years. Many wells went dry during this period; farmers fallowed land; some rural communities had no running water; and trees died in mass in the Sierra.
Against this backdrop, Governor Jerry Brown issued a record number of executive orders and emergency proclamations regarding drought and water conservation during this period.
A U.S. government report expected to stir debate concluded that fluoride in drinking water at twice the recommended limit is linked with lower IQ in children.
The report, based on an analysis of previously published research, marks the first time a federal agency has determined — “with moderate confidence” — that there is a link between higher levels of fluoride exposure and lower IQ in kids. While the report was not designed to evaluate the health effects of fluoride in drinking water alone, it is a striking acknowledgment of a potential neurological risk from high levels of fluoride.
In Pakistan, two groups of farmers started arguing in the fields and attacked each other with axes, clubs and bricks in a bloody fight over water. In South Africa, hundreds of people protesting a water shortage blocked roads with burning tires and hurled rocks at police. In Ukraine, Russian attacks on infrastructure left a city of nearly 1 million people without water.
These are some of the 347 water-related conflicts that researchers have documented during 2023, a year that saw violence over water increase dramatically worldwide. The number of incidents reached a new record last year, far surpassing the 231 conflicts recorded in 2022 and continuing a rising trend that has persisted over the last decade.
Extreme weather alerts for dangerous heat, wildfires, storms, flooding and other hazards have affected nearly everyone in the United States over the past few months.
Tracking data from the National Weather Service, the nonprofit Union of Concerned Scientists has found that since the beginning of May, extreme weather alerts have been issued for 99% of the country’s population.
