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East Bay Water District Considers Buying Giant Cattle Ranch That Straddles Four Counties

/in , , /by /East Bay Times by Joseph Geha

The Alameda County Water District is considering shelling out $72 million for a fourth-generation, 50,500-acre cattle ranch — touted as the largest potential land sale in the state — to preserve water quality, officials say.

Much of the property lies in watersheds that feed into critical water supply facilities for millions of Bay Area residents, including Lake Del Valle, Calaveras Reservoir and Alameda Creek.

While no final decisions have been made, district officials and experts say the rare opportunity to buy such a wide swath of undeveloped upstream land — and preclude any future development that could degrade potable water — must be seriously weighed.

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Rare ‘Atmospheric River’ Storms To Soak California This Week

/in , /by /East Bay Times (Walnut Creek, Calif.)by Paul Rogers

Dig out that umbrella, and even the tire chains. It’s mid-May, but a series of rare, winter-like storms will soak the Bay Area and much of California through next week and bring up to 2 feet of new snow to the Sierra Nevada. Two atmospheric rivers are moving in from the Pacific, forecasters say. And although they are weak — expected to be a 1 on a scale of 1 to 5 — they will generate steady rainfall starting Wednesday and continuing through next Tuesday.

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Proposition 68: Will Voters Approve $4.1 Billion For Parks And Water Projects?

/in , /by /East Bay Timesby Paul Rogers

The last time California voters passed a statewide ballot measure to provide funding for parks, beaches, wildlife and forests, it was 2006.  Arnold Schwarzenegger was in his first term as governor, Twitter was a fledgling app, and the iPhone hadn’t been invented yet. Since then, California’s population has grown from 36 million to 39.5 million — the equivalent of adding a new San Francisco, San Jose and San Diego.

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Trump Administration Names Former Oil Spokesman Who Led “Lock Her Up” Chants Against Hillary Clinton As EPA Chief for West Coast

/in , /by /East Bay Timesby Paul Rogers

The Trump administration on Friday named Mike Stoker, a Santa Barbara County attorney and former oil company spokesman who some credit with coining the “lock her up!” chants against Hillary Clinton at the Republican Convention in 2016, as the new West Coast head of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency. Stoker will lead the U.S EPA Region 9 office, which is based in San Francisco. The office oversees a wide variety of subjects, from air pollution fines against oil refineries to drinking water issues and wetlands permits for developers in California, Arizona, Hawaii, Nevada, and the Pacific Islands.

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