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Californians Approve Measure To Fund Parks, Conservation

/in , /by /Associated Pressby Amy Taxin

California voters have approved a ballot measure allowing the state borrow $4 billion for parks and conservation projects that proponents say will help ensure access to clean drinking water. Proposition 68 — one of five statewide measures on the ballot — passed Tuesday with 56 percent of the vote. The measure lets California issue general obligation bonds to fund parks in underserved neighborhoods and provide money for flood-prevention and clean drinking water projects. It also includes $200 million to help preserve the state’s largest lake, the Salton Sea, which has been evaporating since San Diego’s regional water agency stopped sending it water.

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Environmentalists’ Lawsuit To Drain Hetch Hetchy Reservoir Heads Back To Court

/in , /by /The Mercury News (San Jose)by Paul Rogers

Two years after losing in court and six years after being rejected by voters, a Berkeley environmental group is continuing its long-running battle to drain Hetch Hetchy Reservoir, a linchpin of the water supply for 2.6 million Bay Area residents from San Francisco to San Jose to southern Alameda County. The reservoir in Yosemite National Park, built in 1923, violates California’s constitution, according to a lawsuit from the nonprofit group, Restore Hetch Hetchy, because the constitution requires water to be diverted in a “reasonable” way, and there are other places to store Hetch Hetchy’s water that aren’t in a national park.

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New EPA Administrator In San Francisco Says He’s Prioritizing Superfund Site Clean Up

/in , /by /San Francisco Chronicleby Peter Fimrite

The new head of the Environmental Protection Agency’s San Francisco headquarters vowed Friday to work diligently on environmental issues, including the clean up of toxic Superfund sites, a slate of work that he claims will keep him so busy it won’t matter that he still lives in Southern California. Mike Stoker, the 62-year-old Santa Barbara County attorney named last week as administrator of the EPA’s Pacific Southwest Region, was criticized by Sen. Dianne Feinstein, for what she said was his plan to oversee 702 San Francisco employees from a Los Angeles satellite office.

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Environment Report: San Diego Searching For New Solar Sites

/in , /by /Voice Of San Diegoby Ry Rivard Mentioned: San Diego County Water Authority

As it tries to find ways to get more green energy, San Diego is studying spots to install new solar arrays across the city. Clean Coalition, a Menlo Park-based nonprofit, is spending the next year and a half looking for places that can host “meaningfully-sized” solar projects. The effort is paid for by a federal grant meant to help the city reach its goal of receiving only clean energy by 2035. Environmentalists have argued that smaller, local solar projects can help the city wean itself off power from big companies with big projects, like San Diego Gas & Electric.

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Owens Lake: Former Toxic Dust Bowl Transformed Into Environmental Success

/in , /by /Los Angeles Timesby Louis Sahagan

Fearsome gusts of desert wind routinely kicked up swirling clouds of choking dust over Owens Lake on the east side of the Sierra Nevada after 1913, when its treasured snowmelt and spring water was first diverted into the Los Angeles Aqueduct. It was not until 2001, and under a court order, that the Los Angeles Department of Water and Power began transforming the lake’s grim heritage, flooding portions where toxic, powder-fine dust exceeded federal pollution standards. In what is now hailed as an astonishing environmental success, nature quickly responded.

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