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Securing SoCal Water to Benefit NorCal Salmon

/in , , /by /Hakai Magazineby Jane Braxton Little

Life is perilous for juvenile chinook salmon just starting their journey to the ocean: predatory striped bass lurk in gin-clear pools; low streamflows limit access to the shrimplike amphipods they feed on; downstream sloughs halt at dead ends. As young fish navigate from spawning grounds in California’s Feather River to the Pacific, climate change is further reducing the water available for their celebrated runs. Of the salmon populations struggling to survive along the Pacific Northwest, scientists worry California chinook may be the first to blink out.

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Update: Tahoe Ski Resorts Open More Lifts, Terrain Before Next Snow Dump

/in , , /by /San Francisco Chronicleby Tom Stienstra

Early-season snow is prompting 18 of the 21 major ski areas around Tahoe and the high Sierra to open by this weekend.

On Wednesday, snow was falling lightly on the ridges surrounding the Tahoe Basin, and a storm due to arrive this weekend will allow ski areas across the board to open more chairlifts, ski runs and terrain and position themselves for the blitz that comes with the Christmas-New Year’s holidays.

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California Must Act Now To Prepare For Sea Level Rise, State Lawmakers Say

/in , , /by /Los Angeles Times by Rosanna Xia

The camera zooms in on the majestic sandy bluffs that make this stretch of the San Diego County coast so iconic: a close-up, everyone realizes, of that cliff crumbling in real time — ancient sand and soft, somewhat cemented rocks tumbling onto the beach below.

Moments later, a popular commuter rail rumbles by. Some in the room gasped. Lawmakers watched in sober silence.

“This is a natural phenomenon; it’s feeding the beaches, but it’s happening more and more frequently in part because of sea level rise,” said Merrifield, director of Scripps’ Center for Climate Change Impacts and Adaptation. “So what can do? That’s why we’re here, right?”

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As Climate Change Worsens, A Cascade Of Tipping Points Looms

/in , , /by /Yale Environment 360by Fred Pearce

Some of the most alarming science surrounding climate change is the discovery that it may not happen incrementally — as a steadily rising line on a graph — but in a series of lurches as various “tipping points” are passed. And now comes a new concern: These tipping points can form a cascade, with each one triggering others, creating an irreversible shift to a hotter world. A new study suggests that changes to ocean circulation could be the driver of such a cascade.

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Reclamation Seeks to Restore Sinking California Canal

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

Federal authorities are considering a plan to repair a California canal in the San Joaquin Valley that lost half its capacity to move water because of sinking ground.

Use of groundwater has caused land subsidence, affecting a 33-mile section of the Friant-Kern Canal, which supplies water to 1 million acres of farmland and more than 250,000 residents. The U.S. Bureau of Reclamation Dec. 3 published an environmental assessment detailing plans to repair, raise, and realign the canal, which it began building in 1949.

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Levee Break Shuts Down California Highway, Strands Students Overnight At School

/in , /by /The Weather Channel by Ron Brackett

A broken levee shut down U.S. Highway 101 in Northern California on Wednesday and forced about 30 students and teachers to spend the night in their school’s gym.

Meanwhile, a nursing home in a neighboring county evacuated its residents because of flooding.

The levee near the school in Chualar was partially breached about 2 p.m., KSBW reported. The rain came as an atmospheric river storm drenched the state.

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How Much Damage Do Atmospheric Rivers Cause

/in , /by /The New York Times by Jill Cowan

It rained in Southern California again on Wednesday.

The storm, Marty Ralph told me, was caused by an atmospheric river, a meteorological phenomenon you have been hearing more about lately as climate change drives bigger swings between tinder dry conditions and pounding rain.

And although the rain caused the usual traffic headaches and advisories against swimming at the beach, this particular atmospheric river was actually “primarily beneficial,” according to a scale that Mr. Ralph, the director of the Center for Western Weather and Water Extremes at the Scripps Institution of Oceanography, helped develop.

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Trump Jump-Starts Repairs for Sinking California Canal. But Who Will Pay?

/in , /by /Sacramento Beeby Ryan Sabalow and Dale Kasler

The Trump administration is jump-starting a plan to repair a badly sinking canal in the San Joaquin Valley, a year after California voters rejected a bond measure that would have had them pay for the project.

The U.S. Bureau of Reclamation said Tuesday it will begin studying the environmental impact of fixing a 323-mile stretch of the Friant-Kern Canal — a critical water artery on the Valley’s east side. The federal agency said the repairs are needed to boost water deliveries to 1 million acres of farmland that have been dramatically reduced because of the sagging canal.

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Water Industry Takes Major Step Towards Becoming Carbon Zero

/in , , /by /WWT News (UK)by Alec Peachey

Working with two international consultancies, Ricardo and Mott MacDonald, the sector will develop a comprehensive action plan detailing the measures the industry will deploy to achieve zero carbon emissions over the next decade.

The water industry is the first industrial sector in the UK, and one of the first major sectors in the world, to commit to a carbon zero future by 2030. The goal forms part of the industry’s Public Interest Commitment (PIC) released earlier this year with the carbon zero goal one of five stretching social and environmental ambitions.

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Fishing Groups Sue Federal Agencies Over Latest Water Plan For California

/in , , /by /San Francisco Chronicleby Peter Fimrite

The fracas over California’s scarce water supplies will tumble into a San Francisco courtroom after a lawsuit was filed this week claiming the federal government’s plan to loosen previous restrictions on water deliveries to farmers is a blueprint for wiping out fish.

Environmental and fishing groups sued the the National Marine Fisheries Service and U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service Monday for allegedly failing to protect chinook salmon, steelhead trout and delta smelt.

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