Weekend Wrap-Up: Rim Fire; Legislation
Welcome back! Here’s the weekend wrap-up:
At the top of the scroll: Gov. Jerry Brown issued an emergency proclamation for the City and County of San Francisco due to the effects of the Rim Fire in Tuolumne County. Throughout the weekend, the news media provided updates on the state’s wildland fires, including the Rim Fire. In a news release Sunday, the San Francisco Public Utilities Commission (SFPUC) reported, “There continues to be no change or impact to water quality or delivery from the Hetch Hetchy Reservoir.” SFPUC also provided a Q&A about the Rim Fire and potential impacts on the Hetch Hetchy Water and Power System.
A commentary on the water bond, “State’s Water Funding Habit Must Change,” was in The Sacramento Bee Sunday. Columns about CEQA legislation were written by Dan Walters, “Steinberg’s Bills Show His Visions,” in The Sacramento Bee and George Skelton, “Reform of CEQA Requires Compromise,” in the Los Angeles Times.
Mono Lake made headlines in the Los Angeles Times with the article, “Los Angeles, Conservationists Reach Agreement to Repair Mono Lake Damage.” Follow-up from last week’s Lake Tahoe Summit continued into the weekend with The Sacramento Bee Sunday editorial, “Regional Pact, However Imperfect, is Best Chance to Keep Tahoe Blue.”
Articles also ranged from “Imperial Valley Farmers Put Water Conservation to Work” in the Imperial Valley Press to “Critics Jump All Over Federal Sierra Nevada Frog-Protection Proposal” in the Los Angeles Times. An editorial in the San Francisco Chronicle was “A Federal Judge Opens the Spigot.” In the Contra Costa Times was the article, “Late Reporter Mike Taugher was What a Journalist Should Be — Smart and Tough.”
Water Word of the Week: Aquafornia’s Water Word of the Week from sister site Aquapedia is Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta, a topic very much in the news and one of the more comprehensively covered in the Water Education Foundation’s new interactive online water encyclopedia. To learn more, read the post, “Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta: Aquafornia Water Word of the Week.”
Last Week’s Top Stories: The most viewed story was “Gov. Brown Interviewed About Top Legislative Priorities” from Capital Public Radio. The most viewed editorial was “Wanted – Water District Watchdogs” in the Los Angeles Times. Last week also marked the release of the July/August Western Water Magazine on the topic of “Adjusting to the New Reality: Climate Change in the West.”
What’s on the Calendar? This week’s events include “The New Aquatic Weed Permit: An Interactive Workshop” on Thursday, August 29, the first of three workshops by ACWA and the State Water Resources Control Board. Join the Water Education Foundation and The Coalition to Support Near-Term Delta Projects for a special one-day tour of the Delta on Wednesday, Sept. 25.
Look for Weekend Wrap-up again next Tuesday following the Labor Day Weekend.