This rain-year has brought an alarmingly dry winter in California so far, according to climate change experts.
Now, there’s a new tool to help Californians navigate your water supply. It’s an online toll that allows a person to see the groundwater levels in their area. The tool then gives a representation of what could be at risk or impacted if a drought hits.
Nonpartisan policy analysts took aim Thursday at Gov. Gavin Newsom’s proposal to use $1 billion in state funds to seed innovative climate change efforts, questioning the state’s ability to even identify the right projects.
The Climate Catalyst Loan Fund, which Newsom called for in his $222.2 budget proposal for next year, would offer low-interest loans to public and private projects that would otherwise struggle to attract venture capital money or bank loans — particularly those intended to combat climate impacts of recycling, transportation, agriculture, and forestry sectors.
A bill that could help disadvantaged Central Valley towns including ones in Tulare County provide safe and affordable drinking passed its first legislative hurdle despite facing opposition by Republican critics, including GOP representatives from California.
Across much of California, fossil fuel companies are leaving thousands of oil and gas wells unplugged and idle, potentially threatening the health of people living nearby and handing taxpayers a multibillion-dollar bill for the environmental cleanup.
From Kern County to Los Angeles, companies haven’t set aside anywhere near enough money to ensure these drilling sites are cleaned up and made safe for future generations, according to a months-long data analysis and investigation by the Los Angeles Times and the Center for Public Integrity.
Hillview Water in Raymond, California will begin delivering clean drinking water with the installment of a Microvi MNE nitrate treatment system by Microvi Biotech. Hillview Water serves a rural community that has been plagued with high levels of nitrate contamination for years.
Nitrate is one of the most widespread contaminants in groundwater globally and can have significant human health impacts.
The Environmental Protection Agency’s top official in California was abruptly removed from office Wednesday.
No reason has yet been given for Mike Stoker’s dismissal.
In an email sent to staff members of the environment agency’s Pacific Southwest regional office, EPA Administrator Andrew Wheeler wrote, “I would like to thank Mike Stoker for his service to the EPA.”
He then added, “I wish him and his family the best in their future endeavors.”
California can hit its goal of going carbon neutral by 2045 if it pulls emissions out of the air and slashes greenhouse gases from farming, landfills and other sources, according to a federal study released yesterday. The nation’s most populous state needs to remove 125 million tons of carbon emissions per year from the atmosphere, roughly equivalent of removing 26 million cars from its roads annually, said an analysis by the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory.
All of those dry January days have taken a toll on California’s snowpack, but officials say it’s too early to worry about drought conditions.
Surveyors with the California Department of Water Resources trekked through a snow-covered field Thursday at the department’s Phillips station, above Lake Tahoe, to take the second seasonal measurement that serves as an important marker for the state’s water supply.
The vast majority of California’s major dams aren’t adequately prepared for an emergency.
Three years after the near-disaster at Oroville Dam, only 22 state-regulated dams have finalized emergency plans — out of 650 major dams that are required by law to have plans in place — according to a report issued Thursday by State Auditor Elaine Howle.
The Trump administration on Thursday revealed an overhaul of the Clean Water Act that could remove federal protections for waterways around the country, including as many as two-thirds of those in California.
The arid West, where intermittent rainfall often flows through arroyos and washes, could be especially impacted by the rollback of federal jurisdiction, as the new “Navigable Waters Protection Rule” will remove federal oversight from ephemeral waterways created by rain or snow.
About 66% of California’s waterways are ephemeral or intermittent, according to the government’s own reports that were used in formulating earlier Clean Water Act rules. That number rises to 81% around the entire Southwest, including 94% of Arizona’s watercourses.
