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17 Key Environmental Bills on the 2021 Agenda in California’s Legislature

/in , /by /Palm Springs Desert Sunby Mark Olalde

California’s legislative session came to a wild ending in 2020 when the clock ran out on major bills. Key pieces of environmental legislation were among those that died on the floor, and conservationists are hoping 2021 brings a different story.

At the time, Mary Creasman, CEO of the California League of Conservation Voters, said, “We only have until 2030 to prevent the most catastrophic impacts of the climate crisis and prepare for what’s happening, and right now there’s no clear vision or agenda from leadership in Sacramento on how to tackle this challenge.”

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California Legislature Votes to Keep Funding for Salton Sea Project in State Budget Proposal

/in , , /by /KESQ Palm Springsby Madison Weil

The California legislature voted Monday to keep the Salton Sea in its budget proposal sent to Governor Gavin Newsom. Assemblymember Eduardo Garcia said he’s pleased the legislature found a way to allocate some funding for the Salton Sea despite the fiscal challenges created by the pandemic.

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Most Major California Dams Lack Emergency Plans. ‘High-Risk Issue,’ State Auditor Says

/in , /by /The Sacramento Beeby Dale Kasler

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.

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EPA Won’t Regulate Pollution That Moves Through Groundwater

/in , /by /E & E News (Washington, D.C.)by Ariel Wittenberg and Ellen M. Gilmer

EPA won’t regulate any pollution to surface waters that passes through groundwater. The Clean Water Act regulates pollution to surface water and requires permits for so-called point-source discharges to them. But questions have remained about whether the law regulates any pollution that ends up in surface waters, or only direct discharges.EPA now says it’s the latter. “The agency concludes that the best, if not the only, reading of the Clean Water Act is that Congress intentionally chose to exclude all releases of pollutants to groundwater from the [point source] program, even where pollutants are conveyed to jurisdictional surface waters via groundwater,” the agency wrote in an interpretive statement posted online last night.

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