San Francisco Chronicle Archives

OPINION: SF, State Must Compromise On Water Restriction Plan

San Francisco has maintained water rights to the Tuolumne River, a pristine source that originates high in the Sierra Nevada, since the early 1900s. Now, those rights are being threatened by a state proposal to rescue the Sacramento-San Joaquin River Delta. The state’s plan, which was first proposed in October 2016 and released as a final draft last month, would increase water flows to the Tuolumne and other rivers that support the delta.

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Millions to be Spent Protecting SF Bay Shoreline From Sea Level Rise

A decades-old plan to protect Alviso and surrounding South Bay areas from devastating floods has moved closer to reality with $177 million in federal funds to begin work on a 4-mile-long levee and wetlands restoration.

The combination of flood control and environmental improvements will be a model for the rest of the country, Sam Schuchat, executive officer of the state Coastal Conservancy, said Friday at an event celebrating the project at the Don Edwards San Francisco Bay National Wildlife Refuge in Alviso.

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OPINION: California Plays a Leading, Effective Role in Confronting Climate Change

August 9, 2018/in California and the U.S., Media Coverage /by Gayle Falkenthal /Sacrqamento Beeby Carl Guardino

The fires raging across California are causing devastation on an unprecedented scale. Currently, 14,000 firefighters are battling 16 major fires, which have destroyed more than 2,000 homes and killed at least 10 people.

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Big Water Moves Mark Brown’s Final Months

July 28, 2018/in California and the U.S., Media Coverage /by Andrea Mora /San Francisco Chronicleby Dan Walters

Nearly six decades ago, shortly after becoming governor, Pat Brown persuaded the Legislature and voters to approve one of the nation’s largest public works projects, the State Water Plan. New reservoirs in Northern California, including the nation’s highest dam at Oroville on the Feather River, would capture runoff from snowfall in the Sierra, and a miles-long aqueduct would carry water southward to San Joaquin Valley farms and fast-growing Southern California cities.

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California Funds New Dams To Protect Against Future Drought

July 24, 2018/in California and the U.S., Media Coverage /by Andrea Mora /San Francisco Chronicleby Kurtis Alexander

For the first time since California’s dam-building boom ended nearly a half century ago, state officials on Tuesday approved a windfall of cash for new water storage projects, setting the stage for at least a mini-resurgence of reservoir construction. The historic $2.7 billion of voter-approved bond money will go to elevating two Bay Area dams, at Los Vaqueros Reservoir near Livermore and Pacheco Reservoir east of Gilroy, as well as to the development of two much larger dams in the Central Valley. Funds also will go to four less traditional endeavors that store water underground.

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SF Would Face New Limits Under State Water Proposal

July 6, 2018/in California and the U.S., Media Coverage /by Andrea Mora /San Francisco Chronicleby Kurtis Alexander

California water officials announced an ambitious plan Friday to revive some of the state’s biggest rivers, a move that seeks to stave off major devastation to wetlands and fish, but on the back of cities and farms. San Francisco, as well as numerous urban and agricultural water suppliers, under the plan would face new limits on how much water it draws from the San Joaquin River and its tributaries in the Sierra Nevada.

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OPINION: California Water Board Should Adopt Holistic Approach To Management

June 26, 2018/in California and the U.S., Media Coverage /by Andrea Mora /San Francisco Chronicleby Mike Wade

Clean, reliable water supplies are vital to everyone who calls California home. The efforts by California citizens to conserve water during the drought helped stretch limited water supplies during a desperate time. Urban landscapes were parched. Many farms did without any water at all. Another drought could occur at any time and yet the State Water Resources Control Board is about to make a decision that could take billions of gallons of water from our farms and urban communities based only on an outdated premise.

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OPINION: Effect Of Rising Seas Has A Time Line And Cost

June 21, 2018/in California and the U.S., Media Coverage /by Mike Lee /San Francisco Chronicle

California’s fabled beaches are shrinking, with waves and tides eventually expected to slosh over thousands of coastal homes and businesses. That’s the entirely plausible prediction from scientists studying climate change and rising ocean levels linked to hotter temperatures. In less than 30 years, rising waters will flood about 20,000 homes along the state’s shoreline. A warmer ocean is expanding and polar ice sheets are melting, pushing up sea levels here by nearly 2 feet. And it’s coming faster than ever, with lapping water noticeable by 2035 and the serious trouble a decade later.

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Coastal Homes May Be Flooded Out By 2045

June 18, 2018/in California and the U.S., Media Coverage /by Mike Lee /San Francisco Chronicleby Kurtis Alexander

That oceanfront property in Stinson Beach you’ve dreamed about may not be so perfect after all. A report published Monday finds that nearly 4,400 homes in Marin County might not make it beyond a 30-year mortgage because of encroaching seawater. According to the publication by the Union of Concerned Scientists, Marin County leads the state in the number of parcels that could literally be underwater by 2045 because of climate-driven sea level rise. Across California, more than 20,000 homes are at risk.

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May Smashes Temperature Records In U.S.

June 7, 2018/in California and the U.S., Media Coverage /by Andrea Mora /San Francisco Chronicleby Seth Borenstein

Record heat returned to the United States with a vengeance in May. May warmed to a record average 65.4 degrees in the Lower 48 states, breaking the high of 64.7 set in 1934, according to federal weather figures released Wednesday. May was 5.2 degrees above the 20th century’s average for the month. Weather stations in the nation broke or tied nearly 8,600 daily heat records in May, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration reported. It hit 100 in Minneapolis on May 28, the earliest the city has seen triple digits. “The warmth was coast-to-coast,” said climate scientist Jake Crouch at NOAA’s Centers for Environmental Information.

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