San Francisco sues state over bid to restrict its Sierra water supplies
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Houseboats float silently as the sun sets at Don Pedro reservoir as it hovers at 32 percent of its total capacity Aug. 19, 2015 in La Grange, Calif.Leah Millis/The Chronicle
The city of San Francisco is reviving a long-simmering feud with the state over water, filing a lawsuit Friday that charges state regulators with trying to take away the city’s coveted Sierra Nevada water supplies.
The suit claims the state water board is demanding the city forfeit too much water from the Tuolumne River as part of a licensing deal for two dams in the faraway basin. State regulators have said the water is needed to maintain proper river flows and support struggling salmon, but city officials contend the demands would leave Bay Area residents and businesses vulnerable to water shortages.
Justin Sullivan via Getty Images
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New York City Council passes bill restricting plastic straws
Efforts to limit plastic bags in New York City have been hotly contested for years, but the passage of a new bill this week restricting plastic straws
is seen as a sign of growing acceptance for plastics reduction policies.
The bill, Intro. 936, passed the New York City Council 43-4 on Wednesday. If Mayor Bill de Blasio signs it into law as expected, city food establishments must only provide plastic straws upon request effective Nov. 1. Straws made from alternate materials must also be available, and plastic stirrers and splash sticks will be banned entirely.
and is republished here as part of a collaboration, Tapped Out: Power, justice and water in the West, in which eight Institute for Nonprofit News newsrooms California Health Report and High Country News; SJV Water and the Center for Collaborative Investigative Journalism; Circle of Blue; Columbia Insight; Ensia; and New Mexico In Depth spent more than three months reporting on water issues in the Western U.S. The result documents serious concerns including contamination, excessive groundwater pumping and environmental inequity. It was made possible by a grant from The Water Desk, with support from Ensia and INN’s Amplify News Project.
Fears of a massive salmon die-off this summer in Sacramento River water conflict
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An entire run of endangered winter-run chinook salmon, as well as the fall-run salmon that make up the core of the California fishery, are in danger of being wiped out this year if the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation keeps diverting water to farmers at its current rate.
With state water resources constrained by the extreme drought, that’s the alarm that environmental, fishing and tribal groups are sounding after reports show the Sacramento River will reach dangerous temperatures during spawning season, based on federal scientific scenarios that analyze the bureau’s planned water releases. They warn of a massive die-off as bad as during the last drought, when 95% of winter-run chinook salmon eggs and young fish were wiped out in 2014 and 2015.
State Water Agencies, CA Water Data Consortium And EDF Partner On Groundwater Accounting Platform And Data Standards
State water agencies, the California Water Data Consortium (Consortium) and Environmental Defense Fund (EDF) announced a new partnership today to make an open-source groundwater accounting platform freely available to help groundwater sustainability agencies manage the transition to sustainable supplies.
Collaborative efforts are underway among the Department of Water Resources (DWR), the State Water Resources Control Board (Water Board), the Consortium and EDF to adapt and scale the groundwater accounting platform that was co-developed by EDF and Rosedale-Rio Bravo Water Storage District with technical support from Sitka Technology Group, OpenET, WestWater Research, and Olsson Engineering and funding from the Water Foundation, among other supporters. Use of the groundwater accounting platform is entirely voluntary.