DAILY DIGEST: Sites Reservoir supporters want $1.6 billion from water bond; Billionaire forced to reopen Bay Area beach; Farmers propose novel solution to fight over groundwater in Nevada; Pruitt carrying out his EPA agenda in secret, critics say; and more …

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In California water news today, Sites Reservoir supporters want $1.6 billion from water bond; Should Oroville evacuees get state payment? Suit seeks class-action status; Billionaire forced to reopen Bay Area beach; Farmers propose novel solution to fight over groundwater in Nevada; Dressed to kill: Deep-sea animals eating plastic fibers from clothing; Scott Pruitt is carrying out his EPA agenda in secret, critics say; and more …

In the news today …

Also on Maven’s Notebook today …

Sites Reservoir supporters want $1.6 billion from water bond:  “This week is the application deadline for projects requesting funding from the $7.5 billion Proposition 1 water bond that California voters approved in 2014.  Supporters of Sites Reservoir, which would be located an hour northwest of Sacramento, say they are asking for $1.6 billion from the bond. That’s more than half of the money in the bond that is set aside for water storage projects in California.  At a capacity of 1.8 million acre-feet, it would be the largest reservoir built in California since 1979. An acre foot is about enough water for an average California household for a year. ... ”  Read more from Capital Public Radio here:  Sites Reservoir supporters want $1.6 billion from water bond

Should Oroville evacuees get state payment?  Suit seeks class-action status:  “Could California give a cash payout to the 188,000 residents who frantically evacuated in February’s Oroville Dam crisis?  That’s the end goal of a lawsuit filed Friday in Butte County Superior Court by evacuees Francis Bechtel, Jacob Klein, Chantel Ramirez and Denise Johnson.  Their suit seeking class-action status alleges that the state Department of Water Resources negligently allowed maintenance woes at the nation’s tallest dam to fester, according to their Los Angeles attorney, Patrick McNicholas. … ”  Read more from the Sacramento Bee here:  Should Oroville evacuees get state payment?  Suit seeks class-action status

Billionaire forced to reopen Bay Area beach:  “Siding with surfers and other backers of the public’s access to beaches, a California appeals court is ordering a Silicon Valley billionaire to reopen public access to Martins Beach near Half Moon Bay, south of San Francisco.  Vinod Khosla, a co-founder of Sun Microsystems who has invested in renewable energy, closed the beach to the public in 2009, prompting a legal challenge from the Surfrider Foundation that brought a ruling against Khosla back in 2014. On Thursday, a three-judge panel of the 1st District Court of Appeal rejected Khosla’s appeal. … ”  Read more from KPCC here:  Billionaire forced to reopen Bay Area beach

Farmers propose novel solution to fight over groundwater in Nevada:  “When Jake Tibbitts heard rumors about the two cattle shot at Sadler Ranch, it didn’t occur to him that water could be the potential motive, although the rancher would later make that claim. Water is a contentious topic in Eureka County, a tight-knit community of about 2,000 in rural central Nevada where Tibbitts, who oversees the county’s Natural Resources Department, has been working to prevent a vital water source from running dry.  Like many communities in the West, Eureka County faces a water crisis that stems from over-appropriation. For decades, state regulators have let irrigators in Diamond Valley – a high-desert basin with 25,000 acres of irrigated agriculture, mostly hay fields – pump more groundwater than the basin could replenish. … ”  Read more from Water Deeply here:  Farmers propose novel solution to fight over groundwater in Nevada

Dressed to kill:  Deep-sea animals eating plastic fibers from clothing:  “Far beneath the ocean waves lies the benthic zone – the cold dark region at the bottom of the sea that is home to some of the most important marine organisms, called meiofauna. No larger than a few grains of table salt, the tiny creatures live in and around seabed sediment and play a crucial role breaking down organic matter in the deep ocean and recycling nutrients throughout the marine food chain.  Now scientists have discovered that meiofauna are also consuming microscopic pieces of plastic that have filtered down to the seafloor as plastic trash on the surface disintegrates. Scientists say this microplastic has the potential to change the way meiofauna organisms, and thus the ocean ecosystem, function. … ” Continue reading at Ocean Deeply here:  Dressed to kill:  Deep-sea animals eating plastic fibers from clothing

Scott Pruitt is carrying out his EPA agenda in secret, critics say:  “When career employees of the Environmental Protection Agency are summoned to a meeting with the agency’s administrator, Scott Pruitt, at agency headquarters, they no longer can count on easy access to the floor where his office is, according to interviews with employees of the federal agency.  Doors to the floor are now frequently locked, and employees have to have an escort to gain entrance.  Some employees say they are also told to leave behind their cellphones when they meet with Mr. Pruitt, and are sometimes told not to take notes. … ”  Read more from the New York Times here:  Scott Pruitt is carrying out his EPA agenda in secret, critics say

In commentary today …

State Water Board shouldn’t be judge, jury, and executioner, says Mike Dunbar:  He writes, “The largest circulation newspaper in western America decided to take Adam Gray to task last week. In a 715-word editorial, the Los Angeles Times denigrated Assembly Bill 313, which Gray authored.  When the Merced Assemblyman asked to respond, the Times told him put it in a letter to the editor – 150 words max. (Gray declined, but you can read his original response here.)  Hardly seems fair. But it might explain why the Times editorial writers go to such lengths to defend the State Water Resources Control Board. Fairness isn’t especially important to either of them. … ”  Read more at the Modesto Bee here:  State Water Board shouldn’t be judge, jury, and executioner

Temperance Flat investment will pay off for California, says Dr. Joaquin Arambula:  He writes, “The winter of 2017 was a gift in many ways. Not only did it bring desperately needed water to California and end a statewide drought emergency, it highlighted the need to build more surface water storage projects like Temperance Flat on the San Joaquin River.  California’s investment in water infrastructure has not kept up with the ever-growing demand for water supply. Many aging facilities don’t have the capacity necessary to keep up with our state’s population growth. Friant Dam and Millerton Lake are too small to capture runoff from the massive watershed above it. As a result, millions of acre-feet of water washed out to sea during the spring thaw even though California was still technically in a drought. ... ”  Read more from the Modesto Bee here:  Temperance Flat investment will pay off for California

More news and commentary in the weekend edition …

Also on Maven’s Notebook today …

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About the Daily Digest: The Daily Digest is a collection of selected news articles, commentaries and editorials appearing in the mainstream press. Items are generally selected to follow the focus of the Notebook blog. The Daily Digest is published every weekday with a weekend edition posting on Sundays.

 

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