The Trump administration’s ideas for revamping which agencies are tasked with certain energy and environmental responsibilities – such as managing the nation’s fisheries and flood infrastructure – are part of a broader reorganization plan that calls for sweeping changes such as merging the Labor and Education departments.
The Senate will vote Monday on a minibus spending bill that would fund the Department of Energy into the next fiscal year, a measure that swelled with the addition last night of an assortment of energy and resource bills. Senate leaders had hoped to pass the package — which includes the energy-water, military construction-veterans affairs and legislative branch spending measures — before leaving for the weekend.
More than two years after the 2015-16 Dungeness and rock crab seasons in California was marred by toxic algae blooms, the federal government this week has allocated $25.8M in disaster funds to relieve fishermen and businesses affected by the closure. The Yurok Tribe was also allocated nearly $4M in disaster relief for its 2016 commercial salmon season, which was closed due to low numbers of returning spawners.
To celebrate today’s Summer Solstice, we’re offering a special 20% discount on our beautiful poster-size water maps, Layperson’s Guides and other water education materials. Don’t miss out! This summer sale runs through Friday, June 22. Use the promo code SOLSTICE at checkout to get your discount. … For educators, we have a number of publications available to help you teach about water, including a poster on the water cycle, educator guides and kid-friendly brochures on coastal ecosystems, water recycling, wetlands and drought.
A “use-it-or-lose-it” system of water allocation has historically required growers in California to irrigate their land or lose their water rights, whether market forces compelled them to grow crops or not. Now, in a significant breakthrough for the state’s water economy, a community of farmers near Ventura are about to join a new groundwater market.
All recreational activities have been suspended at Diamond Valley Lake near Hemet because of an algal bloom outbreak. Boating, fishing and hiking won’t be allowed until further notice as officials monitor the water for cyanobacteria — also known as blue-green algae, Metropolitan Water District spokeswoman Rebecca Kimitch said Thursday, June 21.
The general manager of a small public agency under fire for delivering brown, smelly water to parts of Compton and Willowbrook has been placed on administrative leave effective immediately, the water district board’s attorney announced Thursday night.
Who wouldn’t want to pay the same price for tap water for 34 years? Such is the case for 189 homeowners in unincorporated Riverdale Park Tract, nestled in a bend of the Tuolumne River southwest of Modesto.
A new directive from the Trump administration instructs federal scientists with the U.S. Geological Survey to get approval from its parent agency before agreeing to most interview requests from reporters, according to employees and emails from officials with the Department of the Interior and USGS. … The new protocol also permits the Department of the Interior’s communications office to reject interview requests on scientific matters.
Even though the country is growing, U.S. water withdrawals dropped to the lowest level since before 1970 with steep declines for municipal and electric power sectors, according to a U.S. Geological Survey report. Total withdrawals fell 9 percent compared to 2010 as the country’s population increased 4 percent.
The developer trying to build a massive hydroelectric power plant just outside Joshua Tree National Park failed to start construction by a key deadline this week, in what critics of the controversial project are calling a serious setback.
Federal regulators ordered two aerospace companies to complete more than $21 million in cleanup work at a contaminated groundwater site near Los Angeles, according to a report.
It’s high-stakes time in Arizona. The state that is first in line to absorb a shortage on the Colorado River is seeking a unified approach for water supply management to join its Lower Basin neighbors, California and Nevada, in a coordinated plan to preserve water levels in Lake Mead before they run too low.
A four-year pilot program that paid ranchers and farmers in Colorado, Utah, Wyoming and New Mexico about $200 per acre-foot of water saved by fallowing fields in order boost water levels in Lake Powell will be put on hold after 2018. On Wednesday, the five members of the Upper Colorado River Commission unanimously passed a resolution to that effect at a board meeting.
Congressional Republicans and Democrats yesterday took a mostly wait-and-see approach toward the Trump administration’s aggressive proposal to reorganize federal agencies, including those with jurisdiction over energy, water and environmental programs. E&E News talked with several lawmakers on Capitol Hill, many of whom were unfamiliar with the White House plan unveiled late yesterday morning.
Democratic lawmakers called for an investigation Thursday into U.S. Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke’s involvement in a land deal with the chairman of an energy services company that does business with his agency.
The Roberts Lake Eco-Recreation Station is made possible by a $150,000 grant from the American Water Charitable Foundation and the National Recreation and Park Association.
Army Corps of Engineers officials were greeted with dismay and agitation Thursday from activists worried that the agency might abandon plans to remove the Long Beach breakwater. Corps and city officials told the Southern California News Group this month that the federal agency’s three tentative proposals to improve marine habitat in the San Pedro Bay excluded any modification to the breakwater.
The words blasted to cellphones around Salem, Oregon were ominous: “Civil emergency. prepare for action.” Within half an hour, a second official alert clarified the subject wasn’t impending violence, but toxins from an algae bloom, detected in the city’s water supply.
With camping gear, a pair of hiking boots or a kayak, you can claim a piece of paradise at Caples Lake in the high Sierra Nevada. Or you could rent a cabin and a small boat and take in a getaway that feels like an alpine version of “On Golden Pond.” The wild and crazy few might consider cashing out of the city life and buying the Caples Lake Resort, with its cabins, store, marina and boats — for the price of $1.25 million.
