GUY KOVNER THE PRESS DEMOCRAT | June 10, 2017 Groundwater: What you need to know For information on the Sonoma County’s Sustainable Groundwater Management program, click here. For a Department of Water Resources tool that will show if your property is in a groundwater basin, click here. Groundwater basins are California’s largest reservoirs, more than 10 times […]
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Redwood City settles sewer suit: Overflows prompt conversation on city’s wastewater plan
June 05, 2017, 05:00 AM By Anna Schuessler Daily Journal Strategies for decreasing the number of Redwood City’s sanitary sewer overflows, developing an accurate reporting process and creating a plan for notifying residents when overflows occur are among the objectives clarified in a settlement agreement reached last month by city officials and the nonprofit California River Watch. Focused […]
Read MoreSave the date: Citizen lawsuit webinar on 6/27!
WHO: Speakers will include Heather Govern from the National Environmental Law Center and Whitey Markle from the Suwannee/St. Johns Sierra Club Group. WHAT: An educational webinar on how to use the Clean Water Act to file and win a citizen lawsuit! WHEN: Tentative date is Tuesday, 6/27. Time will be confirmed at a later date. […]
Read MorePesticides on the Smith River Plain: Is Drinking Water Safe?
March 28, 2017 By Felice Pace, North Group Water Chair Recently I received a notice announcing that the State Water Resources Control Board has proposed establishing a Maximum Contaminant Level (MCL) of 5 parts per trillion (ppt) for the chemical 1,2,3-Trichloropropane (1,2,3-TCP) in drinking water. 1,2,3-TCP is a man-made chemical used as a solvent and […]
Read MoreLA Times Op-Ed: Our wild, wet winter doesn’t change this reality — California will be short of water forever
March 7th, 5am Over the last 18 months, California has experienced one of the driest, wettest and wildest rides in its recorded water history. As the 2015-16 water year opened in October 2015, drought had driven the state’s reservoir and groundwater levels to all-time lows. Entire towns were left without water. Reports of lakes turned […]
Read MoreCourt Affirms Need To Protect Water Quality Even In Drought
February 07, 2017 | Kate Poole During the last three years of California’s drought, the state and federal agencies charged with protecting fishable, swimmable, and drinkable water quality for all Californians have utterly failed to do their job. The results have been disastrous: more toxic algae blooms are infecting California’s waterways than ever before; at […]
Read MoreCalifornia Puts Oil Profits Ahead of Safe Drinking Water
January 25, 2017 Briana Mordick California state agencies last week said they’ll put the interests of Big Oil and Gas before the interests of public health. The California Division of Oil, Gas, and Geothermal Resources’ (DOGGR) and State Water Resources Control Board’s (SWRCB) plan will allow oil and gas companies to violate state regulations, miss agreed-upon deadlines, […]
Read MoreDelta Doozy: Delta Water Won’t Meet CWA Standards Post-Waterfix
25 January 2017 Discussions about California water supplies have too often become fact-free discourses that fail to advance an informed discussion. The State Water Contractors’ “Delta Doozy” series was launched in order to distinguish the facts from the fiction and promote constructive dialogue. Today’s Doozy comes in response to Restore the Delta’s statement regarding Governor […]
Read MoreFertilizer May Be Good for Plants, but Not for Drinking Water
A new study highlights the health risks of consuming water contaminated with nitrates. (Photo: Chesapeake Bay Program/Flickr) Oct 4, 2016 Jason Best is a regular contributor to TakePart who has worked for Gourmet and the Natural Resources Defense Council. When it comes to the chemical free-for-all that generally characterizes industrial agriculture’s approach to modern farming, […]
Read MoreIndigenous Group Sues State Over Recycled Water Management
PRESS RELEASE | FRIDAY, JUL 22, 2016 Wishtoyo Foundation filed a lawsuit Friday in Los Angeles Superior Court against the State Water Resources Control Board over the use and management of recycled water throughout California. Wishtoyo alleges that new regulations issued by the State Board on June 7, 2016, fail to adhere to the requirements […]
Read MoreFinal Report on Injection Wells
Howard Wilshire, October 2016 Programs for disposing of fluid wastes by injection into the ground in wells are regulated by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency under the Safe Drinking Water Act of 1974. Rules for permitting such wells are specified in EPA’s Underground Injection Control (UIC) program; the basic purpose is to prevent contamination of […]
Read MoreTimber Company Tells California Town, Go Find Your Own Water
By THOMAS FULLER OCT. 1, 2016 WEED, Calif. — The water that gurgles from a spring on the edge of this Northern California logging town is so pristine that for more than a century it has been piped directly to the wooden homes spread across hills and gullies. To the residents of Weed, which sits in […]
Read MoreThis Lawsuit Has Put Big Ag On The Defensive In A Major Way
A pending Iowa case could set a new national precedent for water pollution stemming from farms. Aug 02, 2016 Joseph Erbentraut Senior Reporter, The Huffington Post Earlier this month, the Iowa Soybean Association had a big announcement to make. The group, which represents some 11,000 growers of the state’s second-most-lucrative crop, pledged $150,000 in support […]
Read MoreInjection Wells: The Poison Beneath Us
by Abrahm Lustgarten, ProPublica, June 21, 2012, 8:20 a.m. Over the past several decades, U.S. industries have injected more than 30 trillion gallons of toxic liquid deep into the earth, using broad expanses of the nation’s geology as an invisible dumping ground. No company would be allowed to pour such dangerous chemicals into the rivers or […]
Read MoreCalifornia and EPA Poised to Expand Pollution of Potential Drinking Water Reserves
Abrahm Lustgarten, ProPublica, 4 September 2016 California is one of at least 23 states where so-called aquifer exemptions — exceptions to federal environmental law that allow mining or oil and gas companies to dump waste directly into drinking water reserves — have been issued [Photo caption] As the western United States struggles with chronic water […]
Read MoreCalifornia is Failing to Protect Water Quality in the San Francisco Bay-Delta
October 29, 2015 Kate Poole California is not just dragging its feet when it comes to updating and enforcing water quality standards for the beleaguered San Francisco Bay-Delta estuary. Instead, the State appears to be up to its neck in cement, paralyzed in its ability to enforce and update critical water quality standards for the […]
Read More2016 National Monitoring Conference, May 2-6, Tampa FL
Please visit the 2016 National Monitoring Conference Website to view the draft conference agenda. The Conference-at-a-Glance and Concurrent Session Details, including speaker names and presentation titles, are available on the Agenda page for planning and registration purposes. This national forum is designed for all water stakeholders, including federal, state, tribal and local water professionals, non-profits, […]
Read MoreWorld Water Day, March 22, 2016
To All, White House will Host Water Summit on Building a Sustainable Water Future in the United States. On Tuesday, March 22, 2016 – World Water Day – the Administration will host a White House Water Summit to raise awareness of the national importance of water, and to highlight new commitments and announcements that the […]
Read MoreIs everything we think we know about chemical toxicity wrong?
May 30, 2012 at 5:54 pm Yes, if the first comprehensive review of the issue in a decade is correct in concluding that low doses of chemicals can harm health. Although the hypothesis that chemicals can have health effects at doses much lower than those routinely tested in the toxicological evaluation of chemicals is much-discussed, […]
Read MoreCalifornia Water Quality Goals
This searchable database contains an extensive compendium of numeric water quality thresholds from the literature for over 860 chemical constituents and water quality parameters. Included are: California and Federal Drinking Water Standards (MCLs) California Public Health Goals (PHGs) California State Notification and Response Levels for Drinking Water Health Advisories, Water Quality Advisories, and Drinking Water […]
Read MorePublic Meetings on New Water Measurement Law
To All, WOW! This could prove to be beneficial for efforts to improve flows. Chris The purpose of this message is to provide information about a new water measurement law which will affect water right holders and diverters who divert more than 10 acre-feet of water per year. The law includes a new reporting requirement […]
Read MoreWine Industry Impacts: Wine and Water Watch (WWW)
I began sending out my article on the founding of the Wine and Water Watch (WWW) group yesterday. It has already been published in at least the following places, which include India and Virginia. It will likely be published elsewhere in the next few days. If you google the words “wine and water watch” with […]
Read MoreNASA Groundwater Subsidence Report: Drought Causing Valley Land to Sink
August 19, 2015 Maven Maven note: Headline is the one issued with the press release. It should perhaps more properly be: “Groundwater Subsidence Causing Valley Land to Sink” From the Department of Water Resources: As Californians continue pumping groundwater in response to the historic drought, the Department of Water Resources today released a new NASA […]
Read MorePPIC Report: If Drought Continues: Environment and Poor Rural Communities Most Likely to Suffer
August 19, 2015, Maven Urban areas in best shape; Farmers adapting but vulnerable If the California drought continues another two to three years, the state will face increasingly acute challenges in two areas: water supply in some low-income rural communities, where wells are running dry; and ecosystems, where the state’s iconic biodiversity is under severe […]
Read MoreEnvironmental Group Seeks Injunction to stop Fracking in California
By Sandy Mazza, Daily Breeze July 31, 2015 A national environmental organization went to court this week demanding an immediate halt to hydraulic fracturing and other intensive well-stimulation methods until California petroleum industry regulators can consider new scientific findings of troubling health and environmental threats. If a judge agrees with the Center for Biological Diversity, […]
Read MoreSonoma County Well Ordinance Hearing, July 21, 2 pm
To All, There is a public hearing on a Sonoma County well ordinance that has important ramifications on new well development that will impact water availability. Permit and Resource Management (PRMD), 2550 Ventura Avenue, Santa Rosa CA July 21 2:00 p.m. Item 74- Conduct a Public Hearing and Adopt a Resolution – Adopt a Resolution, […]
Read MoreComment on California’s Drought Response
To All, There are many facets that must be considered if were are to find solution(s) to our water supply and drought issues. Of course, bottom line, we all must conserve. That means every person, business, or industry. Agriculture is not living up to their responsibility in the area of conservation. Agriculture, via the California […]
Read MoreSome addresses may be hidden as California well reports become public
By Ryan Sabalow rsabalow@sacbee.com After more than six decades of secrecy, the reports that water well drillers file with the state are set to become public under a bill signed into law this week. But because of privacy concerns, it’s still not clear whether the public will get to see the precise locations of the […]
Read MoreCrystal Geyser to tap Siskiyou County groundwater
By Peter Fimrite May 9, 2015 Updated: May 12, 2015 Shara Fish of Mount Shasta carries bottles filled with spring water from the headwaters of the Sacramento River in Mount Shasta, Calif., on Tues. April 28, 2015. Crystal Geyser is opening a bottling plant nearby without any environmental review or limits at a time when […]
Read MoreVotes Tabulated on HR 1732 for Repealing Clean Water Rule
On May 12th, the House of Representatives voted on H.R. 1732, a bill which would require the EPA to withdraw their proposed clean water rule and essentially start the process over from scratch. With the Republican majority in the House, the bill passed by a vote of 261-155. 24 Democrats voted the wrong way, but […]
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