Main Article Archive – California River Watch

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.

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 […]

“…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 […]

Blooms of harmful algae, like this "red tide" off the coast of Texas, can cause illness and death in humans and animals.

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 […]

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 […]

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 […]

The bed of the South Fork Eel River with no connecting flow below Highway 101 at Dyverville. Eel River Recovery Project

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 […]

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.

https://vimeo.com/585951016

https://vimeo.com/619095108

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 […]

Mission Bay wetlands. Photo_by Greg Hoxsie

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 […]

The animals, confined at the Point Reyes National Seashore to keep them away from cattle ranches, couldn't reach water, the lawsuit contends.

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 […]

Theresa Harlan, whose Costal Miwok ancestors lived in the seashore, speaks to protesters at a rally about a rally about an expected decision by the Department of the Interior concerning cattle ranching and the management of the Tule Elk in the park lands outside the Point Reyes National Seashore Visitor Center in Point Reyes Station on Sept. 12, 2021. The group wants an end of cattle ranching in the park and the expansion of the lands for the Tule Elk. (Douglas Zimmerman/Special to the Marin Independent Journal)

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 […]

Wine grapes grow near Santa Rosa, Calif.

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 […]

Book - Running Out: In Search of Water on the High Plains, by Lucas Bessier.

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 […]

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 […]

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 […]

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 […]

Russian River from Perkins Street Bridge

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 […]

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 […]

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. […]

Two of over 12,000 spring Chinook salmon that died in Butte Creek before spawning. Photo by Allen Harthorn, Friends of Butte Creek.

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 […]

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 […]

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 […]

Subject: Scoping Study 2022 should update GHG inventory methods to include all significant sources of statewide emissions, including emissions from international aviation, international water borne navigation and interstate aviation. Esteemed ARB Staff, Board Members, and Members of the Public, These comments are submitted on behalf of California River Watch . We appreciate the opportunity to […]

Center pivot irrigation system. Lancaster, CA.

California’s farmers are pumping vast amounts of water from underground aquifers this year to make up for water they can’t get from rivers. It’s unsustainable, and the state is moving to stop it.July 23, 2021
The next time you pick up some California-grown carrots or melons in the grocery store, consider the curious, contested odyssey of the water that fed them. Chances are, farmers pumped that water from underground aquifers […]

June 28, 2021 Written by Communications Intern Sage Bachman As California enters another severe drought, residents are once again being asked to use water more judiciously so as to make it last longer. While it is indeed crucial for all of us to reduce our water usage, is also critical to investigate how California’s limited sources […]

A riparian woodland along the Santa Clara River in Southern California experienced almost 100 percent mortality during the state's historic drought that lasted from 2012 to 2016. Credit: John Stella

The highly engineered rivers that sustain California cities and farms upset streamside woodlands’ relationship with groundwater, a new study finds, jeopardizing their future in a changing climate.

California’s perennially drought-parched Central Valley bears little resemblance to the vibrant landscape of the pre-Gold Rush days, when wild rivers sustained lush woodlands and floodplains teeming with life.

Trees at the center of these biodiversity hotspots evolved in an arid landscape sculpted by finely tuned exchanges […]

MavenBreaking NewsJuly 1, 2021 From the California Coastkeeper Alliance: Today, California Coastkeeper Alliance filed a lawsuit in Superior Court to compel the County of Sonoma to consider and mitigate impacts to public trust resources caused by groundwater extraction in the Russian River watershed. As the Russian River watershed faces a drought emergency, California Coastkeeper Alliance is […]

GLEN MARTINFOR THE PRESS DEMOCRATJune 24, 2021 The drought is intensifying efforts to conserve all of Sonoma County’s water resources, including a supply that has eluded oversight until recently: groundwater. But even as plans for groundwater monitoring and sustainable use proceed, tensions are building over its management. The authority to evaluate and regulate groundwater comes […]

Category: Main Article Archive

This Attorney Took On Chevron. Then Chevron-Linked Judges and Private Prosecutors Had Him Locked Up.

Highest U.N. Human Rights Body Rules U.S. Government Must Release Steven Donziger from “Arbitrary” Detention and Compensate Him for Legal Violations

Nature Publishes Fluoridation Article

NOAA Awards $15.2M for Harmful Algal Bloom Research

Developing tools to model impaired streamflow in streams throughout California

Kafka in America. It Can’t Happen Here?

‘This is historic’: For at least a week, California’s Eel River stopped flowing

This is Nuts!

River Watch Wins Appeal on Hexavalent Chromium Contamination in Vacaville’s Water

We Must Protect and Bring Back California’s Coastal ‘Blue Carbon’ Areas

U.S. Sued After 150 Fenced Tule Elk Die In California Drought

Point Reyes adopts controversial ranch, Elk Plan

Coastal grape growers can use less water during drought

Why we plunder precious resources

As California restricts water use for farmers, low supply levels add to drought’s harsh reality

Lawmakers gearing up to battle ‘toxic coal train’ proposed for North Coast line

Our treasured Farallon islands: Not yet safe from a crazy helicopter poisoning plan

California curtails Russian River water rights as Lake Mendocino level drops

The EPA Has Finally Banned the Toxic Pesticide Chlorpyrifos From Food

EPA Takes Action to Protect Pacific Salmon From Pesticides

California preps for catastrophic summer salmon slaughter

Record spring salmon run on Sacramento River tributary turns into disaster as most fish die before spawning

Water board expands authority to curtail Delta water rights

Editorial: The California salmon wipeout is even worse than you think

River Watch Comments on State’s Methods and Sources of Carbon Emissions

Without Enough Water To Go Around, Farmers In California Are Exhausting Aquifers

Defending California’s Precious Waters from Pollution Grantee Spotlight

Forests of the Living Dead

THIS JUST IN … California Coastkeeper Alliance lawsuit challenges the County of Sonoma to protect public trust resources

How is California’s Landmark Groundwater Law Impacting Sonoma County?

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