You are now in California and the U.S. Home Headline Media Coverage category.

Gov. Cox Declares Drought Emergency For All of Utah

/in , , /by /The Salt Lake Tribune by Taylor Stevens

After a record dry summer and fall — and with winter snowpack currently at 70% of normal levels — Utah Gov. Spencer Cox signed an emergency order Wednesday declaring a state of emergency due to drought conditions.

The move comes after a recommendation from the state’s Drought Review and Reporting Committee and opens the door for drought-affected communities and agricultural producers to potentially access state or federal emergency funds and resources, according to a news release.

Full Story

Opinion: Amid a Drought, Disinformation Runs Rampant on California’s Waterways

/in , , /by /The Sun (Central Valley)by Wayne Western

Welcome to dry California, a place where we have one full reservoir: a reservoir full of hyperbole, propaganda, and political theatre. Long gone are the days of subtle jockeying, messaging, and warnings dressed down to make you aware of a possible, potential, or likely situation. Those messages are now replaced by panic and urgent crisis so radical that they more resemble a thirty-minute sitcom of comedy where credibility and accountability have no place.

Full Story

Understanding the California Water Futures Market

/in , , /by /AgNet Westby Brian German

California has recently established a water futures market that has brought with it some criticism as well as confusion. As the first of its kind in the country, it will function similarly to futures markets for other commodities. The market will allow water users to lock in a particular price they are willing to pay for water. This new futures market is entirely different from water markets that allow the purchasing of water allocations.

Full Story

Aurora and Colorado Springs want More Water. The Proposed Solution — a New Reservoir — Would Have Far-Reaching Impacts

/in , , /by /CPR Newsby Michael Elizabeth Sakas

While most people in Colorado live on the Front Range, most of the state’s water is on the West Slope. That’s where the snowpack melts and makes its way into the Colorado River. Much of that water flows to places like Denver through a series of dams, reservoirs, pumps and pipes. Aurora and Colorado Springs want to bring more of that water to their growing cities, which are the state’s largest after Denver. To do that, they want to dam up Homestake Creek in Eagle County south of Minturn and create a reservoir that could supply water for thousands of new homes.

Full Story

Rising Seas, Worsening Wildfires Endanger California Parks

/in , , /by /CalMattersby Julie Cart

Of all the existential threats California parks face — dwindling budgets, more visitors and costly, long-deferred maintenance — now comes a climate-driven conundrum: When is a park no longer a park? When its namesake trees disappear in a barrage of lightning strikes? When its very land is washed away by ever-rising seas?

Full Story

Once Again, Lake Oroville and Other Reservoirs are at Drought Emergency Levels

/in , /by /SFistby Jay Barmann

If you were around here in 2014 or 2015, you were likely inundated with images of dried up reservoirs that looked like dirt canyons with little ponds in them, when a punishing drought forced the state to institute restrictions on water usage. Well, we’re likely headed for another summer of dried-up lawns (and wildfires) if Mother Nature continues to withhold the rain and snow that we need to make up for a super-dry November, December, and February.

Full Story

California May Regulate ‘Forever’ Chemicals in Water Before EPA

/in , , /by /Bloomberg Lawby Emily C. Dooley

California water suppliers could face state limits on the concentration of two so-called “forever chemicals” before the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency sets national standards. Maximum contaminant levels for perfluorooctanoic acid (PFOA) and perfluorooctanesulfonic acid (PFOS) are on track to be in place in California in 2023, Darrin Polhemus, deputy director for drinking water programs at the State Water Resources Control Board, said during a board meeting Tuesday about agency priorities for the year.

Full Story

8 States are Tweaking the Weather (and it Might Not Work)

/in , , /by /E&E Newsby Chelsea Harvey

The mountaintops rumble to life unnaturally each year as snow clouds darken the sky across the West.

Open flames burst from the throats of metal chimneys, mounted on squat towers nestled among the peaks. With a low hiss, puffs of particles belch from their mouths into the air, where the wind catches them and whisks them away.

Full Story

New Threat To Humboldt County Drinking Water Prompts State Action

/in , /by /Jefferson Public Radioby Daniel Mintz

Of concern is potentially migrating dioxins from pentachlorophenol, a wood preservative that was used at the mill site before being banned in the mid-1980s. In response, the California Department of Toxic Substances Control has hired an engineering firm to do a new round of testing at the site.

Full Story

PG&E Settles Lawsuit Over Century-Old Gas Plant Pollution

/in , /by /Courthouse News Serviceby Nicholas Iovino

Pacific Gas and Electric will pay to remove soil possibly tainted by century-old gas plants and investigate groundwater contamination in a San Francisco shoreline area under the terms of a deal announced Monday.

The agreement represents the third and final settlement reached in a lawsuit filed in 2014 over pollution from manufactured gas plants operated by PG&E in the late 1800s and early 1900s.

Full Story