In the annals of California’s wildfire history, so much is happening now that seems unfathomable: The number and size of this year’s fires — and their maddingly erratic behaviors — have created the worst season in the state’s modern history. Nearly 4 million acres have already burned, killing 26 people.
Homes on the eastern edge of Santa Rosa were under assault early Monday morning and residents had been ordered to flee from the flames of a fast-burning fire that broke out Sunday — the largest in the Bay Area and one of the 27 fires currently burning around California. The Glass Fire swelled to 11,000 acres with zero containment by Monday morning, according to CalFire — more than 8,000 new acres burned overnight.
Utah’s proposed Lake Powell pipeline had been on a fast track for approval, but on Thursday state water officials asked the Interior Department to slow down the controversial billion-dollar project’s review.
The Environmental Protection Agency is preparing to overhaul the way communities test their water for lead, a policy change that will be pitched ahead of Election Day as a major environmental achievement for a president not noted for his conservation record.
Climate change is affecting natural resources in California, with water being one of the most important in the state. Water source is critical for municipalities, agriculture, industry, and habitat/environmental purposes. Will future supply meet future demand? How will the economic value of water change over this century?
In 2014, residents of Horsham Township, near Philadelphia, learned that their water had been contaminated with potentially toxic chemicals linked to an array of health problems, including learning delays in children and cancer. Those residents include Frank and Lisa Penna, who allege in a lawsuit that their water was among the contaminated supplies.
Facing opposition from six states that rely on the Colorado River for water for their cities and farms, Utah asked the federal government to delay a fast-track approval process for building an underground pipeline that would transport billions of gallons of water to the southwest part of the state.
California officials pressed Congress yesterday to step up federal efforts to address the rapidly growing public health crisis at the Salton Sea. Located near the Mexico border, the sea is California’s largest lake, covering more than 300 square miles. But the Salton is rapidly drying up due to reduced agricultural runoff, drought, heat and a 2003 water transfer that let San Diego take its water.
It’s been nearly two decades since a controversial deal transferred huge amounts of Colorado River water out of the Imperial Valley and away from the Salton Sea, but still no long-term solution has been found to cover thousands of acres of toxic dust exposed at California’s largest lake.
Hurricanes have the Saffir-Simpson Scale (Category 5), tornadoes have the Enhanced Fujita Scale (EF-3) but now the West Coast has a storm scale of our own with a recent introduction of a new rating system for atmospheric rivers — the causes of a vast majority of our annual autumn and winter flooding damage.
