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Ample Water Supply Expected This Summer After Snowpack Survey

Just in time for summer, when water demand is at its highest, water officials are predicting an ample amount of water supply to people and farms this year based on Sierra Nevada snowpack levels. “2019 has been an extremely good year in terms of snowpack,” said Jon Ericson, chief of the Division of Flood Management for the California Department of Water Resources (DWR). “Based on our surveys, we are seeing a very dense, cold snowpack that will continue to produce run-off into late summer.” Thursday, the DWR conducted the fifth and final snow survey of 2019 at Phillips Station in the Sierra Nevada, just off Highway 50 near Sierra-at-Tahoe.

Gavin Newsom’s $209 Billion Budget Calls For New Taxes. Can He Get Them Passed?

Gov. Gavin Newsom has proposed new taxes and fees to fund health care subsidies, clean drinking water and tax credits for low-income families. But state revenue outpacing even his most optimistic predictions could present a challenge for him as he attempts to raise taxes. Last month, corporate taxes came in at $3.4 billion, much higher than the Newsom administration’s estimated $2.6 billion. Income taxes also came in ahead of projections, making up for a shortfall earlier in the year, according to the Legislative Analyst’s Office.

In Trump VS. California, The State Is Winning Nearly All Its Environmental Cases

California’s lawsuits have targeted the administration’s policies on immigration, healthcare and education. But nowhere has the legal battle had a greater impact than on Trump’s agenda of dismantling Obama-era environmental and public health regulations. In its rush to delay, repeal and rewrite rules it considers unduly burdensome to industry, the administration has experienced significant setbacks in court. Federal judges have sided with California and environmental groups in cases concerning air pollution, pesticides and the royalties that the government receives from companies that extract oil, gas and coal from public land.

San Lorenzo Valley Water District Criticized Over Proposed Environmental Budget Cuts

As budget season approaches, a valley water district’s board has come under fire for its proposed cost-cutting measures. Felton resident Larry Ford on Thursday asked San Lorenzo Valley Water District board leaders for some “smart innovation” in cost effective operational budgeting, as an alternative to cutting funding to several of its standing environmental programs in the coming year’s budget. “The challenge to us it to take the cost management goal, which I think is admirable if not heroic, and turn it into one that can support all of these community cot this time.”

Many Large Northern California Reservoirs Nearly Full

We’ve made it through most of the prime water season and have had a few blockbuster winter storms. For many large reservoirs in California the mission for reservoirs switches from flood control to water storage and there isn’t much room left for storage. All major Northern California Reservoirs are more than 90 percent full and many will reach capacity in a month or so.

Hundreds Of California Species At Risk Of Extinction, United Nations Report Says In Addition To Millions Globally

More than a million species are at risk of extinction globally, including hundreds in California. That’s what the United Nations revealed on Monday.“The rate of global change in nature during the past 50 years is unprecedented in human history,” the authors wrote in a summary of the report, which compiled of thousands of scientific papers. In California, there are around 300 species at risk and 346 species in California, Nevada and Southern Oregon combined. A handful of plants and animals have already disappeared from the state, such as the Santa Barbara song sparrow and the the California subspecies of the Grizzly Bear.

Gov. Gavin Newsom Faces A Big Political Test As He Shapes His First California Budget

Even in the best of California’s economic glory days, no governor has entered office with the kind of fiscal tail wind that Gov. Gavin Newsom now enjoys. The government’s coffers are full of taxpayer cash, its reserve accounts are stocked to weather an economic slowdown and there’s general consensus on new help for the state’s youngest and most vulnerable residents. A major political victory would seem all but assured as he prepares to unveil a revised state budget this week. And yet, Newsom’s very real challenge is a quandary of quantity: more tax revenue, yes, but also more Democrats in the Legislature after last year’s election landslide and more demands to raise spending.

OPINION: To Prevent Water Shortages, California Must Embrace Desalination

California has long been at the forefront of worldwide environmental leadership. Under our landmark law, Assembly Bill 32, we are slashing greenhouse gas emissions to 1990 levels by 2020. We lead the way in recycling, with some of the strictest requirements on earth. Our solar industry is thriving. Silicon Valley is creating the most innovative zero-emissions vehicles ever imagined. And Gov. Gavin Newsom is committed to taking our environmental leadership to the next level. However, in one key respect, California is lagging behind many other parts of the world. Climate change is causing drought and water shortages everywhere, but California has been slow to adopt a solution that over 120 countries are using: desalination.

OPINION: Editorial: Governor Sets Welcome New Course On Delta Water Issues

Gov. Gavin Newsom set a welcome new course on California water issues Thursday when he officially killed the $19 billion Delta twin tunnels project. What a relief. One of the state’s biggest long-term challenge is securing a reliable source of water for residents, businesses and farmers without destroying the environment. The problem is further exacerbated by the anticipated impacts of climate change. We never understood former Gov. Jerry Brown’s stubborn support of the twin-tunnels effort, which involved digging the equivalent of a 10-lane freeway, 150 feet underground. Nor could we fathom why the Santa Clara Valley Water District board voted to support the project, knowing that the governor had essentially turned the boondoggle over to Southern California’s Metropolitan Water District to run.

Toxic Water In California Prisons: Sickening Inmates And Costing Taxpayers Millions

An inmate’s death in Stockton from Legionnaires’ disease marks the third time in four years the rare form of pneumonia has struck California’s state prisons – and has laid bare a history of contamination and other problems plaguing water supplies in the corrections system. Incidents of tainted water have spawned inmate lawsuits, expensive repairs, hefty bills for bottled water and fines, putting a multimillion-dollar burden on the taxpayer-funded corrections system, according to documents and court records reviewed by McClatchy. Now the state Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation, which oversees a network of 76 prisons, youth lockups and inmate firefighter camps, is dealing with a death.