In California water news today, Oroville Dam: See before-and-after video of construction progress; Delta littered with abandoned boats; Don’t blame wildfires on climate change – it’s environmentalists’ fault, says Zinke; The Bay Area’s Regional Funding Stream for Ecological Restoration; Santa Monica: New law would ban private wells; and more …
On the calendar today …
- Farmers on the Frontlines in Our Fight Against Climate Change at the Commonwealth Club in San Francisco at 7pm. Click here to register.
In the news today …
Also on Maven’s Notebook today …
Oroville Dam: See before-and-after video of construction progress: “Eighteen months after the dramatic failure of the spillways at Oroville Dam in Northern California, a disaster that led to the evacuation of 188,000 people, construction is on schedule to complete the concrete work in the main spillway by Nov. 1. In recent weeks, 805 workers from Kiewit, the Nebraska-based company that was awarded the main construction contract on the project, have continued to rebuild sections of the massive 3,000-foot-long spillway. Earlier this month, the state Department of Water Resources released this video showing before-and-after footage of the project. … ” Read more from the Mercury News here: Oroville Dam: See before-and-after video of construction progress
- SEE ALSO: DWR Goes 360°
Delta littered with abandoned boats: “A move is under way to secure funding for cleaning up about 250 abandoned boats in California’s Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta. State officials estimate that it would cost an average of about $500,000 each to remove the larger commercial vessels. “Some of them are floating, some of them are sunk, and some of them are partially sunk,” Steve Hampton with California Department of Fish & Wildlife told the local Sacramento CBS affiliate. “Responding to abandoned and derelict vessels is about 20 percent of our responses.” … ” Read more from Trade Only Today here: Delta littered with abandoned boats
Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke Says California Fires ‘Have Nothing to Do With Climate Change.’ He’s Wrong: “On Sunday, U.S. Secretary of the Interior Ryan Zinke argued that climate change is not a factor in California’s wildfires. Or at least, if it is, it doesn’t much matter. “I’ve heard the climate change argument back and forth,” Zinke told KCRA 3, in Sacramento. “This has nothing to do with climate change. This has to do with active forest management.” … ” Read more from KQED here: Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke Says California Fires ‘Have Nothing to Do With Climate Change.’ He’s Wrong
Don’t blame wildfires on climate change – it’s environmentalists’ fault, says Zinke: “The US interior secretary, Ryan Zinke, has blamed environmentalists for California’s ferocious wildfires and claimed, contrary to scientific research, that climate change had “nothing to do” with them. Instead, he said the fires were worsened because of limits on logging. “America is better than letting these radical groups control the dialogue about climate change,” Zinke told KCRA, a TV station in northern California, on Sunday. “Extreme environmentalists have shut down public access. They talk about habitat and yet they are willing to burn it up.” … ” Read more from The Guardian here: Don’t blame wildfires on climate change – it’s environmentalists’ fault, says Zinke
In commentary today …
Column: This Trump official used to be a farm industry lobbyist. Now he’s attacking the Endangered Species Act: Michael Hiltzik writes, “When President Trump nominated David Bernhardt for a top-level post at the Interior Department, environmentalists and water experts could see trouble ahead. They feared that Bernhardt would bring to the post of deputy Interior secretary — the No.2-ranking job at the agency — conflicts of interest on a dizzying scale. He would be overseeing an agency that deals with “clients who have paid his law firm millions of dollars in legal and lobbying fees,” as my colleague Bettina Boxall reported. These included Westlands Water District, the nation’s largest irrigation district, and Cadiz Inc., a company that wants to pump Mojave Desert groundwater and sell it to Southern California cities. … ” Read more from the LA Times here: This Trump official used to be a farm industry lobbyist. Now he’s attacking the Endangered Species Act
Keep up the fight against extinction, says Bloomberg News: They write, “Forty-five years ago, Congress passed the U.S. Endangered Species Act — quietly, near-unanimously and with no concern that any American would ever object. Everyone wanted to avoid the extinction of wildlife, to save the likes of the California condor, the Florida panther and the North Atlantic right whale for their “esthetic, ecological, educational, historical, recreational, and scientific value to the Nation and its people.” But the new law proved to be more sweeping than lawmakers realized, protecting as it does every sort and size of plant and animal on public and private lands. It wasn’t many years before small wild creatures (see: snail darter) got in the way of big human plans, and complaints began. … ” Continue reading at Bloomberg here: Keep up the fight against extinction, says Bloomberg News
In regional news and commentary today …
The Bay Area’s Regional Funding Stream for Ecological Restoration: “The delicate ecology of the San Francisco Bay Area is partially in the hands of elementary schoolers. Since the early 1990s, a group called STRAW — Students and Teachers Restoring a Watershed — has been working on projects that improve wetland habitats all around the region. In that time, according to Point Blue, the conservation science group that coordinates the program, STRAW has enlisted 45,000 students in restoring 36 miles of streams in the region, revegetating stream areas with more than 46,000 plants. … ” Read more from Next City here: The Bay Area’s Regional Funding Stream for Ecological Restoration
CPUC ruling orders Cal Am to release confidential regional desal records: “After a protracted legal battle, a California Public Utilities Commission ruling has been issued requiring California American Water to release by this week unredacted county Water Resources Agency invoices for work on the long-defunct regional desalination project at the heart of a $1.9 million settlement agreement between the two. In response, the county water agency has already filed a motion for an emergency stay of the order with the CPUC, arguing that the invoices are privileged attorney-client records and should remain redacted, and Cal Am has indicated it will support that motion. … ” Read more from the Monterey Herald here: CPUC ruling orders Cal Am to release confidential regional desal records
Notice About Toxic Chemical has Residents Worried About Manteca’s Drinking Water: “Some residents in the City of Manteca are concerned about their drinking water after receiving a notice that said the city failed a test earlier this year. “Our water system recently failed a drinking water standard.” Those are the first words of the notice from the city that got Manteca residents talking on social media Sunday. The notice, sent to residents along with their water bill, stated that an elevated level of contaminant 1,2,3-Trichloropropane was found during a test in February. … ” Read more from Fox News here: Notice About Toxic Chemical has Residents Worried About Manteca’s Drinking Water
Mono defies DWP; lawsuit could follow: “Driving past Crowley Lake these days, brown meadows bear witness to the latest fight over water in the Eastern Sierra. What was feared by local ranchers, residents and land managers has, indeed, come to pass; the once-green and lush meadows are drying up, fast. Ranchers can see and feel it, residents see it with their own eyes, land managers are worried that the declining populations of sage grouse and other wildlife will decline even further. Just don’t expect the ones who pulled the plug on the water to acknowledge that doing so has had any negative impacts. … ” Read more from the Mammoth Times here: Mono defies DWP; lawsuit could follow
Santa Monica: New law would ban private wells: “A proposed law to ban new private wells in Santa Monica will go before the City Council Tuesday as part of a statewide attempt to better regulate groundwater. The ordinance aims to protect local aquifers from overdraft, pollution and contamination. At this time, there is only one private residential well in Santa Monica, according to a recent staff report. Once a private well is permitted at the county level, there is no monitoring or reporting of water usage from the well or limitation on the amount of water extracted. … ” Read more from the Santa Monica Daily Press here: New law would ban private wells
Imperial Beach, federal government to face-off in court over Tijuana Sewage pollution: “South Bay cities are preparing to go head-to-head with the federal government this week in a legal battle that could force the Trump administration to plug sewage spilling from Tijuana into San Diego. Local officials filed the lawsuit in March after demanding for more than a year that federal infrastructure along the border be beefed up to ensure that flows from Mexico are captured before they foul San Diego wetlands and beaches. ... ” Read more from the San Diego Union Tribune here: Imperial Beach, federal government to face-off in court over Tijuana Sewage pollution
Also on Maven’s Notebook today …
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About the Daily Digest: The Daily Digest is a collection of selected news articles, commentaries and editorials appearing in the mainstream press. Items are generally selected to follow the focus of the Notebook blog. The Daily Digest is published every weekday with a weekend edition posting on Sundays.
