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

360,000 Californians Have Unsafe Drinking Water. Are You One Of Them?

/in , /by /The Sacramento Beeby Dale Kasler, Phillip Reese, and Ryan Sabalow

At the Shiloh elementary school near Modesto, drinking fountains sit abandoned, covered in clear plastic. At Mom and Pop’s Diner, a fixture in the Merced County town of Dos Palos, regulars ask for bottled water because they know better than to consume what comes out of the tap. And in rural Alpaugh, a few miles west of Highway 99 in Tulare County, residents such as Sandra Meraz have spent more than four decades worrying about what flows from their faucets. “You drink the water at your own risk,” said Meraz, 77. “And that shouldn’t be. We have families here with young children.”

Full Story

New Device Produces Water From Thin Air – No Electricity Required

/in , /by /Water Deeply (New York)by Matt Weiser

Water is all around us. The only problem is that it remains trapped in the atmosphere until the right conditions release it as rain or snow. Now Omar Yaghi, a chemistry professor at the University of California, Berkeley, has helped find a way to grab that water anytime we need it.

Full Story

Drought Or No Drought: Jerry Brown Sets Permanent Water Conservation Rules For Californians

/in , /by /The Mercury News (San Jose)by Paul Rogers Mentioned: San Diego County Water Authority

Although he declared an end to California’s historic five-year drought last year, Gov. Jerry Brown on Thursday signed two new laws that will require cities and water districts across the state to set permanent water conservation rules, even in non-drought years. “In preparation for the next drought and our changing environment, we must use our precious resources wisely,” Brown said in a statement. “We have efficiency goals for energy and cars – and now we have them for water.”

Full Story

Get Ready To Save Water: Permanent California Restrictions Approved By Gov. Jerry Brown

/in , /by /The Sacramento Beeby Taryn Luna and Alexi Koseff

The drought may be over, but California residents should prepare themselves for new and more permanent restrictions on water use. Gov. Jerry Brown signed a pair of bills Thursday to set permanent overall targets for indoor and outdoor water consumption. Assembly Bill 1668 by Assemblywoman Laura Friedman, D-Glendale, and Senate Bill 606 from state Sen. Bob Hertzberg, D-Los Angeles, give water districts more flexibility than the strict cuts mandated under Brown’s emergency drought order and will eventually allow state regulators to assess thousands of dollars in fines against jurisdictions that do not meet the goals.

Full Story

Parks And Politics: What You Need To Know About Propositions 68 And 70

/in , /by /CALmatters (Sacramento)by Julie Cart

What to make of the propositions on California’s June 5 ballot? As ever, the issues span the political spectrum. But two address the environment, one asking voters to shell out billions to improve it and another that could make it more difficult for the state to spend billions on helpful projects. Taken together, these measures would provide money to shore up crumbling levees, give kids more places to play and help clean the air—albeit at a price—and affect how the state spends proceeds of the cap-and-trade system that California uses to reduce greenhouse gases. Let’s unpack.

Full Story

NASA Study Says Freshwater Shortages Will Be Biggest Challenge Of This Century

/in , /by /Clean Technicaby Steve Hanley

Researchers have examined data collected by NASA’s Gravity Recovery and Climate Experiment (GRACE)  satellite mission during the period 2002 to 2016 to track freshwater trends worldwide. In a new report, they claim that data shows access to freshwater will be the biggest challenge to humanity in the 21st century. The GRACE data made it possible for the researchers to track changes in freshwater resources around the world even in areas where local data has been scarce or unavailable, according to a report in The Guardian.

Full Story

We All Want Water Storage, Here Is An Innovative Pitch That’s Succeeding

/in , /by /ABC 10 (Sacramento)by Rob Carlmark

In the heart of the drought, reservoirs were getting sucked dry and the immediate concern was that we would not have enough water for everybody. These were stressful, dramatic days and in 2014, California residents voted to spend billions of dollars to fend off the next drought. The Prop 1 Water Bond was passed by 66 percent of voters and the long road to build water storage, and conservation, were underway.

Full Story

The Battle Over Hetch Hetchy Reservoir In Judges’ Hands

/in , /by /San Francisco Chronicleby Kurtis Alexander

The battle to drain the reservoir in Yosemite’s Hetch Hetchy Valley reignited Wednesday as critics of the historic dam told a panel of judges in Fresno that their legal case to raze it should proceed, despite an earlier decision to dismiss the suit. In California’s Fifth District Court of Appeal, attorneys for the group Restore Hetch Hetchy reiterated their longtime argument that San Francisco should not be operating a reservoir in a national park because it violates a provision of the state Constitution requiring reasonable water use.

Full Story

Price Of Water 2018: Utilities Revise Household Water Rate Formulas

/in , /by /Circle of Blue (Traverse City, Mich.)by Brett Walton

In contrast to the federal government’s chronic underinvestment in the pipes, pumps, and plants that supply and treat the nation’s drinking water, America’s large cities are forging ahead with fresh spending to modernize their systems. One result is that all the work to repair municipal water systems is raising the cost of service. In its latest annual survey of water price trends in 30 large U.S. cities Circle of Blue found that the average price of residential drinking water for a family of four using 100 gallons per person per day rose 3.3 percent last year.

Full Story

Illicit Pot Growers Are Polluting State, Even With New Law

/in , /by /San Francisco Chronicleby Peter Fimrite

The legalization of cannabis in California has done almost nothing to halt illegal marijuana growing by Mexican drug cartels, which are laying bare large swaths of national forest in California, poisoning wildlife, and siphoning precious water out of creeks and rivers, U.S. Attorney McGregor Scott said Tuesday. The situation is so dire that federal, state and local law enforcement officials are using $2.5 million from the Trump administration this year to crack down on illegal growers, who Scott said have been brazenly setting booby traps, confronting hikers and attacking federal drug-sniffing dogs with knives.

Full Story