California and the U.S.

The latest news and analysis covering water issues in Caliornia and the rest of the United States.

City Links Golf Course To Recycled Water

As the deadline for groundwater sustainability approaches in California, one Tulare County city has taken another step toward eliminating its need for landscape irrigation. At its Aug. 19 meeting, the Visalia City Council approved a notice of completion to replumb the waterlines used to irrigate the Valley Oaks Golf Course to carry recycled water instead […]

How California Wildfires Can Impact Water Availability

In recent years, wildfires in the western United States have occurred with increasing frequency and scale. Climate change scenarios in California predict prolonged periods of drought with potential for conditions even more amenable to wildfires. The Sierra Nevada Mountains provide up to 70% of the state’s water resources, yet there is little known on how […]

Crystalline Nets Harvest Water From Desert Air, Turn Carbon Dioxide Into Liquid Fuel

When Omar Yaghi was growing up in Jordan, outside of Amman, his neighborhood received water for only about 5 hours once every 2 weeks. If Yaghi wasn’t up at dawn to turn on the spigots to store water, his family, their cow, and their garden had to go without. At a meeting last week here, […]

Senate Bill 1 Continues To Move Through The California Legislature

Last week California Senate Bill 1 (SB 1) continued with its forward momentum, advancing from the California Assembly Appropriations Committee by a vote of 13 to five.  The legislation that some environmental groups are referring to as ‘Trump insurance’ is now headed to the California Assembly floor.  The California Environmental, Public Health, and Workers Defense […]

Proposed EPA Rules Could Limit State And Tribal Power To Block Infrastructure Projects

The Trump administration is proposing new rules that would limit state and tribal power to block projects that they deem harmful to water quality. The rules specifically would restrict these non-federal governments’ authority to review the water quality impacts of projects that require a federal permit or license. These projects range from pipelines to hydropower facilities to […]

Hydropower Giant Bonneville Power Is Going Broke

Nearly a century ago, America embarked on a great social experiment in the Pacific Northwest, charging up the Columbia River and erecting dams. It worked. Construction jobs pulled the country out of the Great Depression. Cheap electricity spurred the growth of cities like Seattle, Portland and Boise. And hydropower fueled the military effort to defeat […]