An archive of articles that where displayed on the River Watch main home page.
With farms, ranches and rural communities facing unprecedented threats, a worrying trend leads to a critical question: Who owns the water? Eli Francovich, Columbia InsightDec. 15, 2021 Ghost cattle — 200,000 made-up heifers. A massive fraud rocking eastern Washington’s arid ranching communities, leading to criminal charges and bankruptcy. The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints and […]
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By Sharon Udasin – 01/10/22 The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) must take immediate action to address a class of endocrine-disrupting compounds, called phthalates, that continue to plague American food packaging, the House Oversight and Reform Committee demanded in a letter on Monday. “FDA is tasked with ensuring the safety of our nation’s food supply, but over multiple administrations the […]
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Wildlife officials and ecologists say urgent and drastic measures are needed to eradicate mice, a threat to island’s endemic speciesMaanvi Singh in San FranciscoFri 17 Dec 2021 A plan to eradicate a “plague-level infestation” of invasive mice on California’s Farallon Islands by dropping poisoned bait from helicopters has been approved by state officials. After hours of impassioned […]
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This study reveals key disinfection byproduct (DBP) toxicity drivers in drinking water across the United States. DBPs, which are ubiquitous in drinking water, form by the reaction of disinfectants, organic matter, bromide, and iodide and are generally present at 100–1000× higher concentrations than other contaminants. DBPs are linked to bladder cancer, miscarriage, and birth defects […]
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A controversial plan to poison rodents on the Farallon Islands is coming up for a key vote after years of debate. The federal government proposes to airdrop poison pellets on the islands to kill tens of thousands of invasive house mice that have wreaked havoc on seabirds and the local ecosystem. The islands are a wildlife refuge with the largest seabird breeding colony in the contiguous United States. In a twist, the plan has […]
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By the time she turned 25, Kimberly Burr had lived in at least ten places. Growing up as an “Air Force brat,” she moved frequently: Alabama to Maine, England to Germany, California to Florida, Colorado to Wyoming. “There were benefits, like learning to make new friends and having opportunities to reinvent yourself, but it was […]
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By Sofia Andrade Aug 12, 20214:11 PM — After spending more than 700 days under house arrest, a human rights and environmental lawyer was found guilty last month of criminal contempt in a legal saga that has demonstrated the deep-rooted conflicts of interest layered throughout the judicial system when it comes to climate justice. In Steven Donziger’s conviction, the initial judge who referred him to trial, the second judge who was asked to lead the trial, and the private prosecutors who tried him all had deep ties to Chevron, the company Donziger had won a landmark multibillion-dollar ruling against.
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Geneva (Sept. 29) – The United Nations High Commissioner on Human Rights – the top human rights legal body in the world — has issued a stunning ruling in favor of U.S. human rights attorney Steven Donziger on the eve of his sentencing on a highly controversial criminal contempt charge filed after he won a $9.5 billion pollution judgement against Chevron on behalf of Amazon […]
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“…toxicologists worry that dental-health gains have come at a cost.” One of the world’s most important scientific journals has published a special news feature on water fluoridation, focusing on the Fluoride Action Network’s federal court case against the U.S. EPA and quoting our legal counsel along with several accomplished neurotoxicity researchers. It’s a well-balanced piece that we […]
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NOAA is announcing $15.2M in funding for harmful algal bloom (HAB) research projects throughout U.S. coastal and Great Lakes waters. HABs can produce toxins or cause other harmful effects that can damage ecosystems, disrupt our seafood supply, impact economies, and threaten human health. Marine and fresh waters of the United States are increasingly impacted by […]
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Posted on September 26, 2021 by andrewrypel by Jeanette Howard, Kirk Klausmeyer, Laura Read, and Julie Zimmerman Droughts are extreme, but not necessarily extreme events — at least not in the way we humans usually experience events as discrete, episodic occurrences. Droughts are continuous and exhausting; they can come out of nowhere and take us on a rollercoaster of waiting […]
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Steven Donziger has spent the last 800 days under house arrest with a government tracking device around his ankle.His crime? Well, Donziger is the lawyer who successfully sued the oil giant Chevron on behalf of the people of Ecuador for deliberately discharging 16 billion gallons of toxic waste in the Ecuadorian Amazon between 1964 and 1992. Donziger and his colleagues succeeded and won a $9.5 billion judgment on behalf of the indigenous and poor […]
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Amy Graff, SFGATE Oct. 5, 2021 Fisheries biologist Pat Higgins said he was shocked when he discovered on Sept. 17 a section of the largest tributary in California’s third-largest watershed was dry. Higgins explained there was no water flowing above ground in the section of the South Fork Eel River where it meets the main stem in Dyerville […]
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While a drought has raged, there have been exceptions to conserving potable water from irrigating trees for nuts that will be largely exported out of the state. See these videos to learn more.
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Summary The panel vacated the district court’s summary judgment in favor of the City of Vacaville and remanded for further proceedings in a citizen suit brought by California River Watch under the Resource Conservation and Recovery Act. River Watch claimed that the City’s water wells were contaminated by a carcinogen called hexavalent chromium, which in […]
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September 19, 2021 California is famous for beaches and craggy shorelines that draw visitors from around the world and fuel local economies. The coastal wetlands, seagrass meadows and kelp forests that also dot our coastline are perhaps less famous but are equally vital to our state. These aquatic gardens provide food and shelter for fish […]
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By Mary Papenfuss06/25/2021 The tule elk, endemic to California, died over the last two years, confined inside an eight-foot fence to a 2,200-acre portion of the 71,000-acre public seashore. The elk are fenced to stop them from competing for forage with commercial beef and dairy operations allowed on the public land. The elk are dying […]
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Will Houston | whouston@marinij.comSeptember 13, 2021 Fifty-nine years to the date since President John F. Kennedy signed the legislation establishing the Point Reyes National Seashore, the Biden administration approved a controversial plan on Monday to allow the park to kill some of its tule elk and to extend how long commercial cattle ranchers can rent […]
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Study finds using less doesn’t compromise quality Emily C. Dooley | Sep 08, 2021 California grape growers in coastal areas can use less water during times of drought and cut irrigation levels without affecting crop yields or quality, according to a new study out of the University of California, Davis. The findings, published today (Sept. 1) in […]
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Why do people keep acting in s they know will ruin them? That question, so central to climate change, is at the heart of a new book about the emptying of the Ogallala Aquifer by farming in the American West, with potentially catastrophic consequences.
In “Running Out: In Search of Water on the High Plains,” Lucas Bessire writes that the aquifer, which runs from South Dakota […]
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Sep 3, 2021 California’s re-emerging drought is placing unprecedented strain on the state’s intricate water system, threatening mass agricultural production and basic drinking water in a way experts say is more severe than in years past. Federal officials on Aug. 16 declared a first-ever water shortage from the Colorado River — which supplies drinking and irrigation water […]
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Secretive plan seeks approval to ship coal from Wyoming and Montana to Humboldt Bay on SMART tracks and abandoned North Coast rail line. MARY CALLAHAN AND ANDREW GRAHAM THE PRESS DEMOCRAT September 3, 2021 North Coast lawmakers and environmental groups are bracing for a battle to block a secretive plan to restore an abandoned stretch of North […]
Read More THE MOTHER OF ALL GROUPS August 24, 2021, 11:03AM The misguided proposal by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (USFWS) to scatter a ton-and-a-half of cereal bait laced with the deadly Brodifacoum anticoagulant blood thinner from helicopters, right in the midst of our Greater Farallones National Marine Sanctuary, is unfortunately not dead yet. This controversial […]
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In the hopes of having at least 20,000 acre-feet of water remaining in Lake Mendocino by Oct. 1, the California State Water Resources Board this week ordered about 1,500 water rights holders to stop diverting water from the Russian River.
However, if the current rate of outflow from the reservoir continues, the lake could reach 20,000 acre-feet by Aug. 23, said Elizabeth Salomone, general manager of the Russian River Flood Control […]
August 18, 2021 The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency just took a huge step toward protecting kids and farmworkers from a toxic pesticide linked to lifelong intellectual disabilities. On August 18, the agency announced that it will ban chlorpyrifos from all food crops. Earthjustice represented health, labor, and learning disability organizations in a successful legal battle […]
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Olivia Rosane Aug. 25, 2021 Extreme heat waves have made this a devastating summer for the endangered salmon species of the U.S. West Coast. In mid July, California wildlife officials warned that almost all of the young Chinook salmon in the Sacramento River would likely die because of lower water levels and higher water temperatures. Weeks later, a conservation group further north shared disturbing footage of […]
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Warming temperatures threaten an entire run of Chinook salmon, which California officials blame on drought, climate change and a Trump-era water policy. SACRAMENTO, Calif. (CN) — Facing another summer of catastrophic fish kills, California lawmakers and fisheries managers on Tuesday blamed a Trump-era water policy and climate change for the sizzling water temperatures threatening to erase an entire run of Chinook salmon. “We’re witnessing the collapse of this iconic species right in front of our eyes,” said state Senator Mike McGuire, a Democrat from Santa Rosa. […]
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By: SN&R Staff August 5, 2021 By Dan Bacher In an extreme drought year where nearly all juvenile Sacramento River winter run Chinook salmon are expected to die before spawning due to alleged water mismanagement by the state and federal governments, the return of a record run of adult spring run Chinook salmon on Butte Creek this […]
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08/04/21 By Brad Hooker The State Water Resources Control Board on Tuesday approved a regulation granting it new authority to curtail senior water rights and ramp up enforcement for illegal diverters. The action is in response to one of the driest periods on record for California and the entire western U.S. The order targets more than 5,000 water right […]
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By The Times Editorial BoardJuly 26, 2021 The news reports about the California salmon wipeout got a good chunk of the story right: Record-breaking heat waves made Northern California rivers too warm to sustain migrating chinook salmon, and virtually all of the salmon in the Sacramento River this summer have died, or will die, before reproducing. Any eggs that were […]
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