Official release from the Two-Basin Partnership Santa Rosa, Calif. – Today, five diverse entities jointly proposed an ambitious plan to advance restoration of Eel River fisheries while maintaining water security for Russian River basin water users. The Feasibility Study Report (Report) Project Plan was filed with the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) as the next […]
Read MoreCategory: Main Article Archive
An archive of articles that where displayed on the River Watch main home page.
Clean Water Act: Trump’s rewrite is finalized. What happens now?
Apr 22, 2020 The Trump administration today finalized its controversial definition of what marshes, wetlands and streams quality for protections under the Clean Water Act. But don’t expect regulatory certainty anytime soon. EPA published its Navigable Waters Protection Rule in the Federal Register this morning, nearly four months after the administration unveiled the rule. Publication starts a […]
Read MoreGroundwater Rules!: We All Live Downstream
March 27, 2020By Jennifer Clary – Program Manager With all that’s happening right now, it can be difficult to pay attention to anything other than the news of the day. I’m focused on groundwater; how we use it – and use too much; how we protect it from pollution – or don’t; and how we […]
Read MoreNet zero isn’t enough: Congress must fight harder for climate
By Shaye Wolf, opinion contributor — 03/03/20 There’s a new climate buzzword taking hold of Congress: “net zero.” Net zero climate targets purport to remove as much carbon from the atmosphere as is put in typically by 2050. From the CLEAN Future Act to the American Public Lands and Waters Climate Solution Act, it is becoming the defining […]
Read MoreHawai‘i Wildlife Fund v. County of Maui
The US Supreme Court is expected to issue an opinion on this case, and the “Toxic Water Loophole”, this month. The case “centers on a wastewater facility in Maui that violated the law by discharging millions of gallons of treated sewage each day into the Pacific Ocean via the groundwater beneath the facility, devastating a formerly […]
Read MoreIs Covid-19 the Silver Bullet For a Stable Climate?
We always knew that climate change was going to be painful… Brad ZarnettMar 11 The air over China before and after the country went into lockdown in an attempt to contain the Covid-19 Coronavirus.Something changed recently when I saw a map comparing the air over China before and after the country went into lockdown in […]
Read More‘Lost communities’: thousands of wells in rural California may run dry
Years of pumping, drought and a thirsty agriculture industry have taken a heavy toll on the water supply – and new plans are leaving vulnerable residents behind by Susie CagleFri 28 Feb 2020 When Carolina Garcia’s well began pumping sand and air instead of water in 2016, she didn’t know where to turn. The Garcias had […]
Read MoreRecord-high global tree cover loss driven by agriculture
by Liz Kimbrough on 10 March 2020 The new data reveals record-breaking global tree cover loss for 2016 through 2018. In 2018 alone, the area of tree cover loss was larger than the UK. Agriculture continues to drive tree cover loss globally and in the tropics while forestry and wildfires drive forest loss in North America. Across […]
Read MoreForest Unlimited’s 2020 Plants 1400 Redwoods
In January of 2020, Forest Unlimited planted 1400 redwood seedlings on two different properties, one near Occidental and the other near Sebastopol. The plantings that took place over two days and involved the efforts of about 100 volunteers. Forest Unlimited has been doing these large plantings for at least 20 years. We estimate that the […]
Read MoreTrump Removes Pollution Controls on Streams and Wetlands
By Coral DavenportJan. 22, 2020 WASHINGTON — The Trump administration on Thursday finalized a rule to strip away environmental protections for streams, wetlands and groundwater, handing a victory to farmers, fossil fuel producers and real estate developers who said Obama-era rules had shackled them with onerous and unnecessary burdens. From Day 1 of his administration, President […]
Read MoreOne trillion trees – World Economic Forum launches plan to help nature and the climate
22 Jan 2020Robin Pomeroy Journalist, World Economic Forum Global Risks Report 2020 Deforestation causes almost as much greenhouse gas emissions as global road travel. Here`s how we can help halt it. Davos initiative aims to unite and promote reforestation efforts worldwide. Forum hopes to mobilize funds and political support. Even climate sceptic Trump has pledged to […]
Read MoreStudy Finds Not Logging Some Northwest Forests Could Offset Climate Change
by Cassandra Profita Dec. 23, 2019 A new study finds some Northwest forests have a lot of potential to capture carbon and offset climate change. That is, if they’re preserved and not logged. Researchers at Oregon State University and the University of California-Berkeley looked at which forests in the Western United States should be prioritized for preservation under climate […]
Read MoreOne thing you can do: Help to preserve forests
By Jillian Mock When we make a mess in the kitchen, many of us reach for paper towels without sparing a thought for where those crisp white sheets originated. If you’re in North America, some of the fiber in your paper towels (and other tissue products like toilet paper) probably started off as a tree […]
Read MoreWeb Map Showing California’s Fully Appropriated Streams
The State Water Resources Control Board, Division of Water Rights (Division) has released an interactive GIS web map for representing Fully Appropriated Stream Systems (FASS) in California. The web map provides access to FASS and related information, including seasonal limitations, court references, and Board decisions all in one place and within a geospatial context. The […]
Read MoreCALIFORNIA WATER | GROUNDWATER
The Nature Conservancy is pleased to announce the release of the Critical Species LookBook (the LookBook) which may be found on the Groundwater Resource Hub. The LookBook is a compendium of 84 state and federally listed species likely to be affected by groundwater management and merit consideration by Groundwater Sustainability Agencies (GSAs) under the Sustainable Groundwater Management Act […]
Read MoreMaui is urged to withdraw its high-court wastewater appeal
Readers: This is a situation where there is an attempt to continue polluting groundwater and therefore the beaches and ocean where fresh water ends up. You can help by boycotting traveling there and opting to go somewhere else where environmental laws are respected and followed. Or you can send a letter out of outrage using […]
Read MoreTop 10 Solutions to Reverse Climate Change
Adapted with permission from Drawdown: The Most Comprehensive Plan Ever Proposed to Reverse Global Warming (Penguin Books, 2017), edited by Paul Hawken Paul Hawken and the Project Drawdown experts thought they knew what to expect when they modeled and ranked 80 solutions that could reverse global warming. But the data had some surprises in store. […]
Read MoreThe Fifteen-Year-Old Climate Activist Who Is Demanding a New Kind of Politics
By Masha Gessen October 2, 2019 Sometimes the world makes so little sense that the only thing to do is engage in civil disobedience—even in a country as attached to its rules and regulations as Sweden is. Fifteen-year-old Greta Thunberg has been protesting for more than a month. Before the country’s parliamentary election on September 9th, […]
Read MoreCLIMATE CHANGE
The crisis is upon us. What do we do now? Shonagh Rae For The LA Times The world is drifting steadily toward a climate catastrophe. For many of us, that’s been clear for a few years or maybe a decade or even a few decades. But others have known that a reckoning was coming for […]
Read MoreThe Russian River: Managing at the Watershed Level
Gokce SencanSeptember 10, 2019 This is part of a series on issues facing California’s rivers. Water managers across the state face new and more extreme challenges as the climate warms—from balancing the sometimes conflicting needs of urban, agricultural, and environmental water users to reducing risks from fires, floods, and droughts. We talked to Grant Davis, general […]
Read MoreEPA Proposes to Narrow Water Quality Certification Authority Under the Clean Water Act
Carbon dioxide emissions may trigger a reflex in the carbon cycle, with devastating consequences, study finds. August 2019 The Environmental Protection Agency issued a lengthy proposed rule on August 9, 2019 to clarify the substantive and procedural requirements for water quality certifications under Section 401 of the Clean Water Act. According to EPA Administrator Andrew Wheeler, the changes […]
Read MoreLetter to the Editor Published in the Press Democrat, Santa Rosa CA
State forest management policy is a major factor in the loss of salmon populations and the potential recovery of salmon populations. And – as it turn out forest management is a large part of the long term problem or long term solution of the climate change issue. I think the voting population is ready for change. […]
Read MoreBreaching a “carbon threshold” could lead to mass extinction
Carbon dioxide emissions may trigger a reflex in the carbon cycle, with devastating consequences, study finds. Jennifer Chu | MIT News Office July 8, 2019 In the brain, when neurons fire off electrical signals to their neighbors, this happens through an “all-or-none” response. The signal only happens once conditions in the cell breach a certain threshold. […]
Read MoreWhat Does Climate Change Really Mean to California’s Water Resources?
August 6, 2019 Robert Shibatani Guest blogger By Robert Shibatani Whether you are a water utility manager, elected official, or homeowner, future water availability is a concern. There are several factors fostering that concern and one of them is climate change. In fact, these days, climate change is a rapidly growing global hot topic (no […]
Read MoreThe Environmental Downside of Cannabis Cultivation
Wide-scale cannabis cultivation is causing environmental damage. Federal regulations could change this. By Jodi Helmer Thanks to the legalization of recreational cannabis in 10 states and the District of Columbia, sparking up a joint in these areas is as easy as ordering a glass of wine. Spending on legal cannabis, which includes 33 states and the […]
Read MoreState puts up a roadblock for desert water project
Law requires new environmental review of Cadiz plan to pump from Mojave aquifer. By Phil Willon SACRAMENTO — Gov. Gavin Newsom has thrown another roadblock in front of a long-fought venture to pump and market groundwater from the Mojave Desert, leaving the Cadiz Inc. project facing a new set of state environmental reviews. Newsom signed […]
Read MoreAttorney General Becerra to Supreme Court: The Clean Water Act Regulates Indirect Discharges of Pollutants into Our Nation’s Waters
From the Office of California Attorney General: California Attorney General Xavier Becerra today, as part of a 14-state coalition, submitted an amicus brief to the U.S. Supreme Court in Hawai’i Wildlife Fund, et al., v. County of Maui. In the brief, the coalition supports the environmental groups’ position that the indirect discharge of wastewater into the […]
Read MoreNature: the next big thing in climate adaptation technology?
Jul 18, 2019 A unique levee in the Bay Area combines flood protection with wastewater treatment and wetlands restoration. The term infrastructure might conjures roads, pipes and walls — pretty much the antithesis of nature. But some scientists and engineers want to reverse that impression by harnessing nature as infrastructure. The idea that plants and soil can prevent flooding […]
Read MoreWho owns groundwater? Lawsuit seeks to answer the question
June 21, 2019By Christina Coxchristina@theacorn.com A case making its way through Santa Barbara County Superior Court is challenging the amount of water farm owners can pump from a groundwater basin that sits below Moorpark. The lawsuit was filed more than a year ago, in March 2018, by a group of Ventura County landowners and agricultural […]
Read MorePolluted Gravel Pit Breached in Flood
From Russianriver Keeper (www.russianriverkeeper.org) Our worst fears were realized in the Feb 28th flood event. The largest gravel pit mine, Syar’s Basalt Pit, had a complete levee failure on a section that had failed in previous floods. The image at left shows the breach in center of picture, with river on the left and Syar […]
Read More