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States Say Half Of Wetlands Would Lose Protection Under EPA Proposal

/in , , /by /Reuters by Valerie Volcovici

Fourteen states, including New York and California, and the District of Columbia said the Environmental Protection Agency’s proposal to replace an Obama-era water regulation would end federal protection for half of wetlands and 15 percent of streams across the country. The attorneys general issued a joint statement on Monday critical of the EPA’s proposal to narrow the scope of protections in the Waters of the United States (WOTUS) rule that President Barack Obama’s administration expanded in 2015 to cover a wide range of water bodies.

 

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Despite Warnings Of Contaminated Water, Some Paradise Residents Are Moving Back

/in , /by /KQED News (San Francisco)by Kirk Siegler

Six months after the deadliest and most destructive wildfire in California history, the town of Paradise remains a disaster zone. Only 6 percent of the debris from last November’s Camp Fire has been hauled away. Burned-out skeletons of cars, piles of toxic rubble and blackened old-growth pine trees can still be seen everywhere. Before the wildfire, the population of Paradise was about 26,000. Today, it’s in the hundreds. The extent of the latest crisis unfolding in Paradise is yet unknown: The deadly fire may also have contaminated up to 173 miles of pipeline in the town’s water system with cancer-causing benzene and other volatile organic compounds, or VOCs.

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EPA Won’t Regulate Pollution That Moves Through Groundwater

/in , /by /E & E News (Washington, D.C.)by Ariel Wittenberg and Ellen M. Gilmer

EPA won’t regulate any pollution to surface waters that passes through groundwater. The Clean Water Act regulates pollution to surface water and requires permits for so-called point-source discharges to them. But questions have remained about whether the law regulates any pollution that ends up in surface waters, or only direct discharges.EPA now says it’s the latter. “The agency concludes that the best, if not the only, reading of the Clean Water Act is that Congress intentionally chose to exclude all releases of pollutants to groundwater from the [point source] program, even where pollutants are conveyed to jurisdictional surface waters via groundwater,” the agency wrote in an interpretive statement posted online last night.

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Effort To Repair Friant-Kern Canal Passes First Hurdle

/in , /by /AgNet Westby Brian German

A bill moving through the state legislature looks to make repairs and enhancements to the Friant-Kern Canal.  Senate Bill 559 was authored by Senator Melissa Hurtado, representing the 14th Senate District, and was co-authored by several other San Joaquin Valley lawmakers.  The legislation recently advanced through the Senate Committee on Natural Resources and Water with a vote of 7 to 0. The canal moves water south from Friant Dam through 152 miles of canal to the Kern River in Bakersfield.  The canal has been shown to be suffering from subsidence issues as a result of over drafted groundwater basins.

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Attorney General Becerra Tells EPA And Army Corps To Withdraw Proposal Eliminating Water Protections – Rule Would Exclude A Majority Of California’s Waterways From Protection

/in , /by /Sierra Sun Times

Attorney General Becerra on Monday joined a multistate comment letter urging the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and U.S. Army Corps of Engineers (Army Corps) to withdraw a proposed rule that would exclude much of our nation’s waterways from vital federal protections. The proposal is the most recent step in the Trump Administration’s plan to dismantle long-standing pollution control measures in the Clean Water Act. The proposed rule seeks to repeal the Clean Water Rule enacted during the Obama Administration and replace it with a narrow definition of protected waters. This change would eliminate federal protections for many wetlands, rivers, creeks, streams, and tributaries.

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Renewable Procurement Gaps Pose Risk For California’s Climate Goals, But What Solution Is Best?

/in , , /by /Utility Dive (Washington, D.C.)by Herman K. Trabish

Gaps in resource procurement by California’s proliferating load serving entities (LSEs) could prevent the state from achieving its nation-leading renewable energy and climate goals. The state’s massive renewable resource portfolio has gaps in it that threaten the reliable delivery of electricity, according to a March 18 proposed decision in the California Public Utilities Commission (CPUC) integrated resource planning docket. The docket was designed to address reliability in planning by assuring that variable resources are adequately balanced by resources that are available when needed.

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OPINION: Natural Resources Secretary Wade Crowfoot On Challenges Of New Climate Reality

/in , /by /The Planning Report (Los Angeles)

California is leading the world when it comes to climate action and environmental sustainability. The fifth largest economy in the world is already deriving more than half of its energy on a daily basis from renewable energy. In terms of electrification and electrifying transportation, that movement is happening and being led in California. About half of electric vehicle sales in the country are generated here. Last week, the State Water Board adopted a new policy meant to protect wetlands in an appropriate way without unnecessarily inhibiting development. At a time when we see the Trump administration moving away from, or even attacking, environmental protection, this state is doubling down on protecting the environment in a way that grows our economy.

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California Heat Waves Could Be Predicted 2 Weeks In Advance, New UC Davis Research Shows

/in , /by /The Sacramento Beeby Michael McGough

Want to know when the next hot spell is coming? It might help to look at the weather forecasts — a few thousand miles away. Summer heat waves in California’s Central Valley are almost always preceded by heavy rainfall over the tropical Indian and Pacific oceans, scientists at UC Davis and in South Korea determined in a recently published research effort. Researchers identified 24 heat waves that took place in California’s Central Valley during summer months from 1979 to 2010, and compared those heat waves to a weather pattern called the Madden-Julian Oscillation (MJO) that brings heavy rain to the tropical Indian and Pacific oceans.

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The End Of California’s Drought Could Mean Fewer Cases Of West Nile Virus

/in , /by /Los Angeles Timesby Harriet Blair Rowan

Researchers say the end of California’s drought could offer a surprising benefit: reduced transmission of the mosquito-borne West Nile virus. Drought is the most important weather-related factor that affects the rate of West Nile infection, scientists say. Mosquito eggs need water to hatch, but dry conditions tend to spur greater transmission of the virus.

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California Is Slated For An Epic Whitewater Season

/in , , /by /San Francisco Chronicleby Sarah Feldberg

When state surveyors measured the Sierra snowpack on April 2, they found 106.5 inches of snow, with an equivalent of 51 inches of water — meaning that if the area were hit with some sort of cosmic laser beam and everything turned to liquid in a flash, that’s how much water would be left behind. Compared to average measurements for this time of year, those readings represent 200% of normal levels.

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