There’s something unusual in the mix in Southern California this weekend, along with the usual rain-caused traffic gridlock and airport delays, according to one climatologist — a sense of optimism. The storm that moved though the region on Wednesday and Thursday provided a good 24 hours of mostly steady rain, dropping more than an inch in some parts of Southern California.
Rain was falling in Sacramento and snow was causing travel troubles in the Sierra Nevada on Friday as a fairly cold winter storm swept into Northern California. By Christmas Eve, snowfall will become insignificant in the mountains, according to the National Weather Service. And in Sacramento, the rain will clear the night before Christmas. But before then, travel to the high country will be challenging with car chains most likely to be as common as ugly Christmas sweaters. The snow level is expected to be around 4,000 feet during the daylight hours, dropping to 2,500 feet Friday night.
The new leader of the region’s leading watchdog group for water quality is putting elected officials on notice that pollution from businesses could land local governments in court. “We get screwed because the cities are not doing enough to control the industrial pollution,” said Matt O’Malley, executive director of San Diego Coastkeeper, referring to the intractable problem of stormwater runoff contaminating the region’s streams, beaches and other waterways.
It’s gone. The so-called Ridiculously Resilient Ridge, also known as The Blob, once perched off the Northwest coast blocking all storms like a football team’s defensive line, has dissipated, said Bill Patzert, climatologist with NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in La Cañada Flintridge. Many climatologists believed this was the main reason for the lack of rainfall in Southern California, making the past five years the driest in Southern California history as measured from downtown Los Angeles.
The new leader of the region’s leading watchdog group for water quality is putting elected officials on notice that pollution from businesses could land local governments in court. “We get screwed because the cities are not doing enough to control the industrial pollution,” said Matt O’Malley, executive director of San Diego Coastkeeper, referring to the intractable problem of stormwater runoff contaminating the region’s streams, beaches and other waterways.
After years of planning, officials have finalized all 97,000 pages of environmental documents to support Gov. Jerry Brown’s controversial plan to build two massive tunnels through the heart of the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta. In spite of a recent call for a scaled-down version of the project from a prominent nonpartisan California water think-tank, state officials are moving forward with the original plan for what they call California WaterFix. The $15.5 billion project would tunnel two pipes 40 feet in diameter for 35 miles under the fragile ecosystem that serves as the hub of the state’s water-delivery network.
You can stop dreaming about a white Christmas. We’re going to have one. The second storm of the week will arrive in San Diego County Friday night and will drop 4’’ to 6’’ of snow above the 4,500-foot level by noon on Saturday — Christmas Eve. The National Weather Service says lower regions — including Julian — will get an inch or two of snow. Most of the white stuff should still be on the ground on Sunday — Christmas Day. The system will push ashore from the northwest and deposit an inch or more of rain along the coast, and 1.5’’ to 2’’ across the eastern foothills.
Gov. Jerry Brown’s plan to build two giant tunnels to send Northern California water southward moved a step closer Thursday to final state and federal decisions, with the state’s release of a 90,000-page environmental review supporting the $15.7 billion project. Brown’s administration is pushing for final federal and state approval of the 35-mile-long, 40-foot-wide tunnels, touted to ensure more reliable water deliveries to city and farm water agencies in Central and Southern California.
The Bay Delta Conservation Plan/California WaterFix Final Environmental Impact Report/Environmental Impact Statement (EIR/EIS) is now available. This Final EIR/EIS was prepared jointly by Lead Agencies: the California Department of Water Resources (DWR) and the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation (Reclamation).The Final EIR/EIS describes the alternatives, discusses potential environmental impacts, and identifies mitigation measures that would help avoid or minimize impacts. It also provides responses to all substantive comments received on the 2013 Draft EIR/EIS and 2015 Partially Recirculated Draft EIR/Supplemental Draft EIS (RDEIR/SDEIS).
We’ve made no secret of our objections to Gov. Jerry Brown’s plumbing project — drilling two enormous tunnels, each one 40 feet in diameter and 35 miles long, to divert water to Southern California cities and Central Valley growers. Brown’s plan looks even worse with President Barack Obama’s acquiescence to congressional legislation guaranteeing more water for irrigation at the expense of endangered salmon and the environmentally fragile Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta.
