Northern California

Several people who say they were contaminated by E. coli while swimming in Lake Wildwood have sued, claiming the community association and government should have known the dangers. Children and adults swimming last July in the western Nevada County lake have sued the Lake Wildwood Association, Nevada County Sanitation District No. 1, Nevada County and the Nevada Irrigation District.

Amid accelerating sea level rise from climate change, Marin County has the highest number of households in California vulnerable to coastal flooding, according to a report released Monday. In the worst case scenario, there are a possible 4,377 Marin homes at risk of being inundated with chronic flooding by 2045, the Union of Concerned Scientists reported.

Rep. Jared Huffman, D-San Rafael, got the Coyote Valley Dam project — in one 13-word sentence — on a list of feasibility studies for some 30 Corps projects from Alabama to Alaska to be expedited by the Secretary of the Army. Tucked into the 122-page Water Resources Development Act of 2018, the list was approved two weeks ago on a lopsided 408-2 vote in the House and was forwarded to the Senate.

The West Sacramento City Council voted 4-1 last month to begin a process that would convert an independent district in charge of levee management into a subsidiary of West Sacramento, and allow the council to replace the district’s board of directors with appointees or the council members themselves. Reclamation District 900 has operated independently since 1911, managing 13.6 miles of levees that provide flood protection along the Sacramento River.

Sonoma County is poised to benefit from millions of dollars in parks, water and land conservation funding from the new $4.1 billion state bond measure approved by California voters last week. Proposition 68 will generate at least $400,000 for the county’s Regional Parks system and half that amount for each municipal park district in the county.

The Army Corps of Engineers announced Monday that the additional money would be available to the Hamilton City Flood Damage Reduction and Ecosystem Restoration Project in the current fiscal year. … It is the first in the nation being constructed under the Corps’ guidelines to develop projects that include both flood risk reduction and ecosystem restoration.

Silicon Valley billionaire Vinod Khosla knew California’s laws when he bought property on the San Mateo County coastline 10 years ago, and he shouldn’t be allowed to block public access to the beach now, after families have visited it for nearly 100 years. That’s the core argument that surfers are making in a brief to the U.S. Supreme Court this week as part of a case that could potentially rewrite California’s laws guaranteeing public access to beaches if the Supreme Court takes up the case this fall and rules in Khosla’s favor. 

A lawsuit filed by Butte County District Attorney Mike Ramsey against the state Department of Water Resources over environmental damages resulting from the Oroville Dam spillway crisis is moving forward in court. Butte County Superior Court Judge Stephen Benson overruled DWR’s demurrer, which is essentially a plea to have a case dismissed, through a written ruling filed on May 31.

In a few years, Marysville might become the impromptu destination when flood waters start to rise in Yuba-Sutter rivers. Despite the fact the city is shaped like a bowl, work on the Marysville Ring Levee will make the city one of the safest throughout the valley once improvements are completed, experts say.