The twin smokestacks of the Moss Landing Power Plant tower over Monterey Bay. Visible for miles along this picturesque stretch of the Northern California coast, the 500-foot-tall pillars crown what was once California’s largest electric power station — a behemoth natural gas-fired generator. Today, as California steadily moves to decarbonize its economy, those stacks are idle and the plant is largely mothballed.
If U.S. Rep. Debra Haaland is confirmed as interior secretary, the Native American from New Mexico could make a huge difference to Arizona and the West when her background and outlook are translated into policy. Experts in Native American affairs and Democratic Party congressional leaders including Rep. Raúl Grijalva of Tucson and Sen. Tom Udall of New Mexico offer predictions for how Haaland’s tenure could affect federal lands and waters: Water rights.
The city of Ventura has refinanced most of Ventura Water’s $104 million debt, resulting in nearly $16 million in savings that are expected to lower planned rate hikes for customers, city officials said.
Refinanced was $97.4 million of the debt total, said Michael Coon, the city’s finance and technology director.
The rate on the refinanced debt was lowered from 4.8% to 2.47%, resulting in the $15.95 million savings, he said.
Just a short paddle up the Elkhorn Slough, kayakers can spot Hester Marsh. Degraded by decades of diking and draining, and threatened by rising sea levels, the marsh is now being lifted out of the muck.
Labeled the Tidal Marsh Restoration Project, the restoration will ensure Hester Marsh outlasts the drowning of most other Elkhorn salt marshes, projected to occur within 50 years.
These marshes provide vital natural habitat and play a critical role in fighting climate change, experts say, through their ability to capture and store large amounts of atmospheric carbon.
California’s first snow survey of the 2020-21 season is happening Dec. 30 at the Phillips snow course in the Sierra Nevada.
The Department of Water Resources will conduct five of these surveys through May by plunging a long steel tube into the snow. This will measure the snow’s depth and give an estimate of its water content.
This year brought one of the biggest marine heat waves on record in the Pacific Ocean, and it’s one of several record-setting spikes in ocean water temperatures over the last six years.
The string of warm water events has scientists wondering if this is actually the new normal for the Pacific Ocean.
A series of heat waves started in 2013 with what was nicknamed “the blob,” which brought water temperatures up to nearly 7 degrees Fahrenheit higher than normal across a 1,000-mile stretch of the West Coast.
Water bills would help fix subsidence damage: A package of water bills passed Congress this week that could offer hundreds of millions to improve San Joaquin Valley water deliveries. Folded into the same bill that will be offering COVID relief was the government’s annual spending bill that included funding approval for key local canals and dams. Significantly it includes $206 million to rebuild 33 miles of the Friant Kern Canal and monies for the repair of the westside’s California Aqueduct and Delta Mendota Canal — all facing reduced capacity due to subsidence- the sinking of land caused by vigorous water pumping nearby over the years.
The California Department of Water Resources is calling for increased climate change collaboration. DWR is encouraging more cooperation between federal, state, and local governments in their efforts to address climate change. As part of the underlying effort to mitigate the impact of climate change, DWR released the “Moving to Action” plan last month. The move aligns with Governor Gavin Newsom’s goals of addressing natural resource concerns through his executive order to establish a Water Resilience Portfolio.
For the first time in three decades, the federal government on Tuesday overhauled a rule aimed at reducing lead in drinking water across the country — a long-standing scourge made worse by the nation’s weathered and crumbling infrastructure.
The Environmental Protection Agency’s lead and copper rule, widely criticized as complicated, poorly enforced and too weak to protect the health of many Americans, has not been revised since 1991, when George H.W. Bush was president.
On the Arizona-California border, where the Colorado River pushes against Headgate Rock Dam, churning water pours into a wide canal and runs across the desert, flowing toward the farmlands of the Colorado River Indian Tribes.
This tribal nation is the largest single user of Colorado River water in Arizona, with rights to divert about 662,000 acre-feet per year, more than double the amount of water diverted for the state of Nevada.
