A new analysis from the Pacific Institute finds dramatic potential for California drought relief and longer-term water resilience through the innovative urban water strategies of water efficiency, water reuse, and stormwater capture. Here’s the press release from the Pacific Institute. By Dan Bacher Oakland, California – As California faces its third year of severe drought, […]
Los Angeles, CA – The Board of Directors of the Metropolitan Water District (MWD), the main water wholesaler in Southern California, voted on April 12 to fund the next phase of planning for the controversial Sites Reservoir with $20 million of ratepayer money. By Dan Bacher If built, Sites Reservoir would be located on the west side of the Sacramento Valley, approximately […]
The fall of 2021 was a good season for adult Chinook salmon swimming up Auburn Ravine to spawn in the foothills east of downtown Lincoln, California, according to an update from Friends of Auburn Ravine. By Dan Bacher ”Over 200 large fall-run chinook salmon, some over 43 inches long, made the trip. The thousands of eggs […]
News Release from the California Water Impact Network: A paper that was recently published in the journal Nature Climate Change had a convoluted title: Rapid Intensification of the Emerging Southwestern North American Megadrought in 2020-2021. But what the paper detailed was explicit, easily understood – and terrifying. Using tree-ring data, researchers determined that the decades between 2000-2021 were the driest […]
The threat that climate change poses to human well-being and the health of the planet is “unequivocal”, says the latest report from the United Nations’ Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC). In this in-depth Q&A series, Carbon Brief unpacks the key findings of the report and the developments since the IPCC’s last assessment. (Read previous section here) By […]
As California continues to reel from a record drought, the US Bureau of Reclamation announced its initial 2022 water supply allocations for Central Valley Project contractors this week, pointing to another tough year for salmon and other fish populations in the Central Valley rivers and Sacramento-San Joaquin River Delta. By Dan Bacher A recent scientific […]
State Senators Melissa Hurtado and Dave Cortese are not exactly friends of the Delta. Their audacious new bill SB1219 is a complete assault on the Delta and all the work that Restore the Delta has championed over the years. By Dan Bacher This bill would give the State Water Resources Control Board’s authority to the Department […]
Below is Patrick Porgan’s breaking report on how a U.S. Geological Survey Report affirms the catastrophic consequences of climate change and an ARkSTorm, with $725 billion in flood damages, resulting from the flooding of the entire Central Valley and the Delta, out to San Francisco Bay. By Dan Bacher This report is particularly urgent and timely, […]
Outside of the world’s oceans, groundwater is one of the largest stores of water on Earth. While it might appear that the planet is covered in vast lakes and river systems, they make up only 0.01 per cent of the Earth’s water. In fact, we now know there is 100 times as much groundwater on […]
Just before the California Department of Fish and Wildlife released a New Year’s Eve letter revealing that 2.6 percent of juvenile Chinook salmon had perished in lethally warm water conditions on the Sacramento River, a petition sponsored by Save California Salmon in opposition to the Sites Reservoir reached 50,000 signatures. By Dan Bacher This milestone also came […]
2021 was a very bad year for Delta smelt and other declining fish populations on the Sacramento-San Joaquin River Delta. For the fourth year in a row, the California Department of Fish and Wildlife has caught zero Delta smelt in its Fall Midwater Trawl (FMWT) survey on the Sacramento-San Joaquin River Delta. By Dan Bacher The […]
RedGREENandBlue’s top 10 stories of 2021: Steven Donziger beat Chevron in court, so they crucified him. He just won his appeal Michael Mann on “Don’t Look Up”: DO see this film! Earth’s magnetic field broke down 42,000 years ago and caused massive sudden climate change Sharkfest: 10 solutions to overfishing that could save our oceans […]
As the three latest fish surveys on the Delta reveal that the Delta smelt is virtually extinct in the wild, the California Department of Water Resources (DWR) today announced an initial State Water Project (SWP) allocation of 0 percent for state water contractors in 2022, with the exception of certain health and safety needs. By Dan Bacher DWR also announced several […]
Tribal activists, drinking water advocates and commercial and subsistence fishers are asking the public to stand with them in the fight for both the Trinity and Sacramento River salmon by supporting a California state process to restore flows in California’s largest rivers, and by fighting a proposal for a twenty square mile reservoir, the Sites […]
California water utilities could leave families high and literally dry by refusing to apply for nearly $1 billion in water debt relief for their customers before the December 6 deadline, Capital and Main reports. A quarter of California households were behind on their drinking water bill in August and the state’s shutoff moratorium lifts January […]