Tag Archive for: The Sacramento Bee

California Says This Chemical Causes Cancer. So Why Is It Being Sprayed Into Drinking Water?

/in , /by /The Sacramento Beeby Ryan Sabalow

A year ago, the active ingredient in Roundup, the nation’s most widely used weed-killing herbicide, was added to California’s official list of chemicals known to cause cancer. The state’s warning about glyphosate followed a similar caution issued by the World Health Organization and coincided with hundreds of lawsuits across the country focused on the herbicide. The first very jury trial to involve Roundup recently started in San Francisco —the plaintiff is a groundskeeper who believes he developed non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma by using the weedkiller on the job.

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OPINION: To Prepare For Climate Change, California Is Making A Huge Investment In Water Storage

/in , /by /The Sacramento Beeby Armando Quintero and Carol Baker

On Tuesday, the California Water Commission completed a groundbreaking process to make the state’s largest investment in water storage in a generation. With the commission’s action, eight diverse projects around the state are in line to receive nearly $2.7 billion from Proposition 1, approved by voters in 2014. These projects – including $816 million for the Sites reservoir north of Sacramento – could add 4.3 million acre-feet of new water storage both above and below ground, better preparing California for climate change and drought.

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Water Still Top Enviro Issue; Motor Voter Registers 250,000 More

/in , /by /The Sacramento Beeby Bryan Anderson

ThePublic Policy Institute of California released a poll Wednesday, examining the public’s attitudes on a range of environmental issues. Findings show water remains the top environmental issue for likely California voters. The poll also reveals a strong partisan divide on the issue of global warming. Here’s what you need to know:

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California’s Largest Reservoir Project In Decades Gets An $800 Million Boost. But Is It Feasible?

/in , /by /The Sacramento Beeby Dale Kasler and Ryan Sabalow

California officials Tuesday awarded $816 million in voter-approved bond money to build Sites Reservoir, an hour north of Sacramento, providing a financial boost for what would become the largest water storage project built in the state since the 1970s. Approved by the State Water Commission, the funds were the most given to any of the eight projects across California under consideration for a part of the $2.7 billion Proposition 1 water bond. Voters passed the bond in 2014 during the state’s historic drought.

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The Valley Floor Is Sinking, And It’s Crippling California’s Ability To Deliver Water

/in , /by /The Sacramento Beeby Dale Kasler and Phillip Reese

Completed during Harry Truman’s presidency, the Friant-Kern Canal has been a workhorse in California’s elaborate man-made water-delivery network. It’s a low-tech concrete marvel that operates purely on gravity, capable of efficiently piping billions of gallons of water to cities and farms on a 152-mile journey along the east side of the fertile San Joaquin Valley. Until now. The Friant-Kern has been crippled by a phenomenon known as subsidence. The canal is sinking as the Valley floor beneath it slowly caves in, brought down by years of groundwater extraction by the region’s farmers.

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Southern California Water Agency Agrees To Spend $11 Billion On Delta Tunnels – Again

/in , /by /The Sacramento Beeby Dale Kasler

Southern California’s powerful water agency reaffirmed its commitment to the Delta tunnels project Tuesday, agreeing for a second time to spend nearly $11 billion on a majority stake in the twin tunnels. The vote by the board of the Metropolitan Water District of Southern California keeps the controversial $16.7 billion project moving forward, although plenty of hurdles remain before construction can begin, including numerous court challenges.

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California Has A New Plan For Allocating Its Water, And It Means Less For Farmers

/in , /by /The Sacramento Beeby Dale Kasler

State regulators proposed sweeping changes in the allocation of California’s water Friday, leaving more water in Northern California’s major rivers to help ailing fish populations — and giving less to farming and human consumption. By limiting water sent to cities and farms and keeping more for fish, the proposal by the State Water Resources Control Board’s staff likely will ignite a round of lawsuits and political squabbles. Critics immediately pounced on the plan, saying it will take some of the nation’s most fertile farmland out of production and harm the Central Valley economy.

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Trump Administration Sends Sacramento $1.8 Billion For Flood Protection

/in , /by /The Sacramento Beeby Dale Kasler

Even after years of drought, Sacramento’s biggest worry over water is flood risk. The city is widely considered the second-most flood-prone major city in America, after New Orleans. Sacramento’s efforts to fight flooding got a major boost Thursday. The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers and Rep. Doris Matsui’s office announced that the region has been allocated nearly $1.8 billion to strengthen levees and raise Folsom Dam. The federal money also will be spent widening the Sacramento Weir, a mechanism north of the city that acts as a safety valve by channeling flood waters into the Yolo Bypass.

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OPINION: Sites Reservoir Is Too Smart An Investment For California To Pass Up

/in , /by /The Sacramento Beeby Jeff Harris

When California voters overwhelmingly approved Proposition 1, they specifically called for new storage to help the environment. The Sites project, a proposed off-stream reservoir north of the Delta meets this need, providing as much as 200,000 acre-feet a year of new flows for fish. Sites is a smart and long overdue investment that the California Water Commission must seize by giving its final approval on Wednesday to as much as $1 billion in Prop. 1 money.

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This One Issue Could Make Splitting California Into Three States Virtually Impossible

/in , /by /The Sacramento Beeby Dale Kasler

Splitting California into three new states would scramble nearly every segment of government that touches residents’ lives, from taxes to Medi-Cal to driver’s licenses. New agencies would have to be created to operate prisons, highways and universities. CalPERS, CalSTRS, Cal Fire and the California Highway Patrol, to name a few, would have to be reconfigured and replaced. But of all the gargantuan tasks facing Californians should they choose to divide themselves by three — a proposal that has qualified for the November ballot — none is arguably more daunting than carving up the state’s water supply.

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