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California Has Farmers Growing Weeds. Why? To Capture Carbon

/in , , /by /KQED News (Sacramento)by Lauren Sommer

California’s climate change efforts can be spotted all over the Bay Area in the growing number of electric cars and solar panels. But now, California is enlisting people from a more conservative part of the state  even if they don’t think climate change is much of a concern. California’s farmers are receiving millions of dollars to pull carbon out of the atmosphere, something the state says is crucial for meeting its ambitious climate goals.

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Paradise Resident ‘Forced’ To Move Home After Wildfire Without Access To Safe Water

/in , /by /The ABC Newsby Allie Yang

In the wake of the deadliest and most destructive fire in California history, the residents of Paradise are slowly returning and rebuilding. But even though one Paradise resident’s home survived the wildfire, her family’s saga of returning to a normal life is far from over. While the structure of resident Kyla Awalt’s home is still intact, she said it has no access to running water a widespread problem in the area after the historic fire but her insurance company has ruled that the water issue isn’t covered by her home insurance policy.

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Can Sensor Data Save California’s Aquifers?

/in , , /by /Futurityby Josie Garthwaite

In California, the amount of water exiting aquifers under the state’s most productive farming region far surpasses the amount of water trickling back in. That rampant overdraft has caused land across much of the region to sink like a squeezed out sponge, permanently depleting groundwater storage capacity and damaging infrastructure. The trend—and a 2014 mandate for sustainable groundwater management in the state—has ignited interest in replenishing aquifers in California’s Central Valley through managed flooding of the ground above them. But until now there has been no reliable way to know where this type of remedy will be most effective.

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Westlands Officials Disappointed By Water Allocation Announcement

/in , /by /The Sentinelby Julissa Zavala

While all other Central Valley Project contractors’ allocations were previously increased to 100% of their contract totals in recent months, the Bureau of Reclamation announced Wednesday that agricultural districts South-of-Delta will receive only 65% percent of their historic water allocation. South-of-the-delta cities like Avenal that get water from the Central Valley Project were increased to 90 percent of their contract supply, up from an 80 percent allocation announced in March.

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Calif. Cities Devastated By Wildfires Face New Challenge: Benzene In Water

/in , /by /GV Wire (Fresno)by Erin Mundahl

Last year, the Camp Fire tore across California, devouring forests and incinerating entire neighborhoods. Residents fled the flames, returning to find empty streets where their neighborhoods had been. It came only a year after the Tubbs Fire set records as it destroyed thousands of homes outside Santa Rosa. Now that these cities are starting to rebuild, they are discovering that the damage goes even deeper than that. Soaring temperatures from the wildfires melted the PVC water pipes buried underground, causing the plastic to leech chemicals into the water and leaving the cities facing a complicated and expensive repair.

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Will Newsom End Oil Drilling In California? Many Environmentalists Are Betting Yes

/in , /by /The Los Angeles Timesby Phil Willon

California’s legacy of oil drilling should be just that, many environmentalists argue  relegated to the history books. They are urging Gov. Gavin Newsom to ban new oil and gas drilling in California and completely phase out fossil fuel extraction in one of the nation’s top petroleum-producing and gasoline consuming  states.

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Gov. Gavin Newsom Hits Back At Trump In New Fight Over Who Controls California Water

/in , , /by /The Sacramento Beeby Ryan Sabalow

Gov. Gavin Newsom’s administration is taking unprecedented steps to combat President Donald Trump’s efforts to ship more water to his agricultural allies in the San Joaquin Valley. Saying Trump’s water plans are scientifically indefensible and would violate the state’s Endangered Species Act, the state Department of Water Resources on Friday began drawing up new regulations governing how water is pumped from the Sacramento San Joaquin Delta to the southern half of the state.

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A California Town Could Finally Get Clean Water If Its Neighbor Is Willing To Help

/in , /by /The Sacramento Beeby Cresencio Rodriguez -Delgado

The 80 homes that make up Tooleville nestle against the mighty Friant-Kern Canal, thousands of gallons of fresh water flowing each day past the two-street town. But none of that water can help Tooleville’s decades-old problem of contaminated water, chronicled at the start of this decade in a three-part series by The Bee on the San Joaquin Valley water crisis. Nearby Exeter might, though, giving a rise of newfound hope. The last year has proven to be the most productive in the town’s battle.

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Expect To See A Helicopter Towing ‘Large hexagonal Frame’ Over Marina

/in , /by /The KSBW 8 (Salinas, Calif. )by Josh Copitch

Starting Tuesday, people in Marina might spot a low-flying helicopter towing a large hexagonal frame. The Marina Fire Department posted to Facebook saying that the helicopter will be mapping groundwater aquifers and subsurface geology in the area. The frame beneath the helicopter is designed to map geologic structures and groundwater resources down to approximately 900 feet below the land surface

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Climate Change And California’s Crops

/in , , /by /The Capital and Main (Los Angeles)by Larry Buhl

Last month the U.S. Drought Monitor declared California drought-free for the first time since 2011, thanks to a series of winter storms. But the long term prognosis is for more droughts and severe weather, which will profoundly affect state agriculture. While farmers and lawmakers are taking notice, few see an immediate threat. However, a 2018 report published by Agronomy, a peer-reviewed, open access scientific journal, laid out a stark future for California agriculture, predicting it will be vastly different by the end of the century.

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