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

Hydropower Giant Bonneville Power Is Going Broke

/in , /by /E&E Newsby Jeremy P. Jacobs

Nearly a century ago, America embarked on a great social experiment in the Pacific Northwest, charging up the Columbia River and erecting dams.

It worked. Construction jobs pulled the country out of the Great Depression. Cheap electricity spurred the growth of cities like Seattle, Portland and Boise. And hydropower fueled the military effort to defeat the spread of fascism in World War II.

Now the system is buckling.

The Bonneville Power Administration, the independent federal agency that sells the electricity produced by the dams, is careening toward a financial cliff.

Full Story

Sacramento Had Its 3rd-Hottest Meteorological Summer In 140 Years. Will It Finally Cool Off?

/in , /by /The Sacramento Beeby Michael McGough

The calendar has flipped to September, but Sacramento is still experiencing August heat.

Following a Labor Day high of 98 degrees, the latest National Weather Service forecasts show a slight cool-down on the way. Tuesday and Wednesday are expected to hit 96 and 95 degrees, respectively, before temperatures cool to the low 90s or high 80s by the end of the week.

The Delta breeze will help bring nighttime relief, with low temperatures expected in the low- to mid-60s through Friday.

Full Story

As Salton Sea Shrinks, Experts Fear Far-Reaching Health Consequences

/in , , /by /YubaNet

In the string of small farm towns that stretches south from California’s Salton Sea toward the border with Mexico, pretty much everyone knows someone with asthma.

As many as three of every 10 people report having the disease in places like Brawley, Calipatria and Westmorland — compared with about one of 10 in California as a whole. Bronchitis is also common, and many residents complain about coughing, wheezing and shortness of breath.

Full Story

How To Save The Colorado River From Climate Change And Chronic Overuse

/in , , /by /Timeby Lucas Isakowitz

Paul Kehmeier is a fourth-generation farmer from western Colorado. One hundred and twenty years ago, his great grandfather Wilhelm Kehmeier bought land in Delta County, dug an irrigation ditch to bring water from a nearby stream, and got to work planting. The Kehmeier family has been farming on the same land ever since, growing alfalfa, hay and oats. But a few years ago, Paul Kehmeier did something unusual: he decided not to water about 60% of his fields.

Full Story

Who governs California’s drinking water systems?

/in , /by /California WaterBlog by Kristin Dobbin and Amanda Fencl

A key feature of California’s drinking water system is the large number of individual water systems.

There are approximately 3,000 Community Water Systems (CWSs) in the state, meaning systems that serve a residential population year-round (the remaining 5,000 of the state’s 8,000 Public Water Systems are non-community systems serve places like schools, daycare, hospitals, campgrounds, or businesses that serve at least 25 people but have transient or non-residential populations.

Full Story

Controversial Water Legislation Heads To Calif. Assembly Floor

/in , , /by /The San Jouquin Valley Sun

Senate Bill 1, a highly controversial piece of water legislation, is headed to the floor of the California State Assembly in the coming weeks after clearing the Assembly Appropriations Committee on Friday.

The bill, penned by Senate President Pro Tem Toni Atkins (D–San Diego) would tie California’s air quality and water laws to the Federal standards as of Jan. 19, 2017 – the final day of the Obama administration.

Initially, Senate Bill 1 was placed in the committee’s “suspense file,” or Legislative jargon for setting the bill aside temporarily. During Friday’s committee hearing, the bill was brought on with new amendments included.

 

Full Story

Jury Awards Atwater $63 Million In Groundwater Pollution Suit Against Oil Giant Shell

/in , /by /Merced Sun - Star

A jury has ordered Shell Oil Company to pay the City of Atwater a total of $63 million in damages in a groundwater pollution suit.

The decision, reached Friday after a four-month trial in Merced County Superior Court, awarded Atwater $53 million in compensatory damages and $10 million in punitive damages, according to a news release from the city.

The lawsuit stemmed from the highly toxic chemical 1,2,3-Trichloropropane (TCP), which can pose a risk to public health and can contaminate drinking water.

Full Story

State Of California Proposes Plan For Delta Levees

/in , , /by /The Brentwood Press (Brentwood, Calif.)by Tony Kukulich

Last week, the Delta Stewardship Council (DSC) held a public hearing to review proposed changes to how spending decisions on the maintenance of Delta levees are made, and the plan — known as the Delta Levee Investment Strategy (DLIS) — has drawn criticism from several sources. Among the criticisms leveled at the DLIS is a concern that Delta towns, including Discovery Bay and Rio Vista, were ranked second among the three risk classifications, and heritage towns like Courtland, Hood, Walnut Grove and Locke received the lowest risk classification. Meanwhile, it’s asserted by critics like Deirdre Des Jardins, principal with California Water Research, that islands and tracts related to the export of Delta water via the State Water Project received the highest prioritization.

Full Story

Mexico Facing ‘Water Zero’

/in , , /by /AZ Big Media (Pheonix, Ariz.)by Victoria Harker

Mexico is one of a growing list of countries deemed most at risk of hitting “Day Zero” when they no longer have enough water to meet citizen needs, according to a new report by global research organization, World Resources Institute (WRI). The nonprofit institute categorized countries into five different levels according to their relative risk of consuming all of their water resources, ranging from “Low Baseline Water Stress” to “Extremely High Baseline Water Stress.” Mexico is one of 44 countries – representing one-third of the world’s population – that fall into the second-highest category, “High Baseline Water Stress,” meaning that the nation consumes between 40 and 80 percent of the water supply available in a year.

Full Story

Water Harvester Makes It Easy To Drink Water From Thin Air

/in , /by /University of Californiaby Robert Sanders

In a paper appearing this week in ACS Central Science, a journal of the American Chemical Society, UC Berkeley’s Omar Yaghi and his colleagues describe the latest version of their water harvester, which can pull more than five cups of water (1.3 liters) from low-humidity air per day for each kilogram (2.2 pounds) of water-absorbing material, a very porous substance called a metal-organic framework, or MOF. That is more than the minimum required to stay alive. During field tests over three days in California’s arid Mojave Desert, the harvester reliably produced 0.7 liters per kilogram of absorber per day — nearly three cups of clean, pure H2O. That’s 10 times better than the previous version of the harvester.

Full Story