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The Battle Over Hetch Hetchy Reservoir In Judges’ Hands

/in , /by /San Francisco Chronicleby Kurtis Alexander

The battle to drain the reservoir in Yosemite’s Hetch Hetchy Valley reignited Wednesday as critics of the historic dam told a panel of judges in Fresno that their legal case to raze it should proceed, despite an earlier decision to dismiss the suit. In California’s Fifth District Court of Appeal, attorneys for the group Restore Hetch Hetchy reiterated their longtime argument that San Francisco should not be operating a reservoir in a national park because it violates a provision of the state Constitution requiring reasonable water use.

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Illicit Pot Growers Are Polluting State, Even With New Law

/in , /by /San Francisco Chronicleby Peter Fimrite

The legalization of cannabis in California has done almost nothing to halt illegal marijuana growing by Mexican drug cartels, which are laying bare large swaths of national forest in California, poisoning wildlife, and siphoning precious water out of creeks and rivers, U.S. Attorney McGregor Scott said Tuesday. The situation is so dire that federal, state and local law enforcement officials are using $2.5 million from the Trump administration this year to crack down on illegal growers, who Scott said have been brazenly setting booby traps, confronting hikers and attacking federal drug-sniffing dogs with knives.

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Farrell Wants Agencies To Use Less Water

/in , /by /San Francisco Chronicleby Kurtis Alexander

San Francisco is hoping to better prepare for the next drought. Though the city’s government agencies were good at cutting water use during the recent dry years, easily meeting a self-imposed goal of reducing consumption 10 percent between 2014 and 2017 and often conserving more, Mayor Mark Farrell wants to pick it up a notch. Farrell is asking the Board of Supervisors to approve an ordinance that would require the five city departments that use the most water to develop plans for trimming water use 20 percent.

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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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OPINION: Republicans Seek To Ban Lawsuits On Delta Tunnels

/in , /by /San Francisco Chronicleby John Garamendi

A new threat to the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta and the San Francisco Bay is coming not from the governor’s mansion but from the U.S. House of Representatives. Rep. Ken Calvert, R-Corona (Riverside County), inserted language into the Interior and Environment Appropriations bill that would prohibit legal challenges to anything related to California WaterFix — the governor’s name for the twin tunnels project to move water from the delta to Southern California — not just retroactively but in perpetuity.

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Climate Change’s Alarming Impact

/in , /by /San Francisco Chronicleby Peter Fimrite

Bigger, more intense forest fires, longer droughts, warmer ocean temperatures and an ever shrinking snowpack in the Sierra Nevada are “unequivocal” evidence of the ruinous domino-effects that climate change is having on California, a new California Environmental Protection Agency report states. The 350-page report released Wednesday tracks 36 indicators of climate change, including a comprehensive list of human impacts and the effects on wildlife, the ocean, lakes, rivers and the mountains.

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OPINION: Invest In Watershed Improvements, Not Taller Dams

/in , /by /San Francisco Chronicleby Laurie Wayburn

There is broad consensus that California’s water challenges are only going to get worse as climate change continues. We will have more drought, more major rain events with consequent flooding and more uncertainty. In this era of global warming, we need new approaches to help solve our water problems. The Trump administration proposal to raise the Shasta Dam by 18½ feet, along with the recent vote by the Metropolitan Water District of Southern California to support the delta tunnels, illustrate our complete and outmoded dependence on built infrastructure to provide water.

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Inside The $4.1 Billion California Measure That Thinks Small To Fix Parks, Waterways

/in , /by /San Francisco Chronicleby Kurtis Alexander

A far-reaching measure before California voters in June would authorize the state to borrow $4.1 billion for investments in outdoor recreation, land conservation and water projects. But Proposition 68, which needs a simple majority vote to pass, is not your typical water and parks bond measure. The proposition steers clear of flashy, big-ticket items like new dams and major state park expansions. Instead, it favors upgrading smaller neighborhood parks, protecting local greenways and open space and cleaning up polluted riverbanks and groundwater supplies, largely in urban and suburban areas.

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OPINION: More Water Storage Doesn’t Mean Build More Dams

/in , /by /San Francisco Chronicle

The California Water Commission has been meeting this week to discuss how to invest $2.7 billion in water storage funds approved by voters under Proposition 1. The commission — and all Californians — should bear in mind that water storage doesn’t necessarily mean a dam with water behind it. The commission’s charge is not to fund the biggest new dam but to fund projects with the greatest net benefits to California cities, farms and wildlife.

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