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A coalition of environmental groups Monday announced plans to sue a regional water treatment authority and the cities of San Bernardino and Colton over the repeated stranding and killing of Santa Ana suckers, a fish on the federal threatened species list.

Roughly once a month, a water treatment plant that is jointly owned by the cities halts its outflows, quickly reducing a drought-stricken stretch of the Santa Ana River to a ribbon of dry gravel and stranding thousands of suckers.

The Metropolitan Water District of Southern California was constructing its Colorado River Aqueduct when Hoover Dam was completed in 1935. The 1928 legislation authorizing the construction of what has been called both Hoover Dam and Boulder Dam included hydroelectric power contracts to help fund the cost of the dam. MWD received a power contract which provides energy to pump Colorado River water through MWD’s Colorado River Aqueduct and subsequently constructed a 230 kilovolt transmission system which delivers the Hoover Dam electricity to MWD’s pumping plants along the Colorado River Aqueduct.

As a series of marine heat waves linked to climate change has thrown ocean ecosystems out of whack from Australia to the coast of California, a cooling trend called La Niña has given scientists hope that water temperatures could come back into balance.

But so far, the cooling weather pattern — predicted to follow as a result of last winter’s El Niño — remains squeezed by warmer ocean temperatures along a narrow stretch of Earth’s equator.

The City Council gave the go ahead to develop an agritourism vision plan at a workshop on Wednesday. Prior to approval more than a half-dozen farmers voiced their passion for farming and support for agritourism opportunities. Among them was popular singer and songwriter Jason Mraz who grows fruit trees and coffee in Oceanside. “Our family has 300 acres, I want to keep my father’s dream alive,” one Oceanside farmer said. There are 3,700 acres of farmland in the South Morro Hills region. Individual farms range from 25 acres to 450 acres. Crops include avocados, citrus trees, flowers, wine grapes and coffee.

Sen. Barbara Boxer called for urgent steps to fix the problems of the deteriorating Salton Sea, saying state and federal agencies need to speed up efforts to control dust and protect habitat as California’s largest lake declines. Boxer visited an expanse of dry, dusty lakebed on the south shore Thursday and talked with federal wildlife officials about their plans to build 500 acres of wetlands along the receding shoreline. “The sea is drying up at an alarming rate, and we better deal with it. It is our job,”