Southern California

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.

Break out the sunscreen. The longest day of the year will be even hotter than usual in Southern California’s deserts, weather officials say. An excessive heat warning is in effect Thursday and Friday in the deserts of southwestern San Bernardino through the Coachella Valley and eastern San Diego County, said National Weather Service meteorologist Brandt Maxwell.

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.

In 2010, the Chaffey Joint Union High School District joined a wave of cities and school districts around the country when it spent $1.8 million to install synthetic turf fields at four of its high schools. The benefits over natural turf were a big selling point: more durable, less maintenance and, perhaps most appealing in drought-prone California, no watering required.

Thousands of Golden State Water Company customers in Simi Valley and elsewhere may be getting lower rates. In a filing with the California Public Utilities Commission, the company is asking for permission to lower the rates to pass savings through to customers from a new lower federal corporate income tax requirement.

Three palm trees, part of a remaining cluster planted decades ago by locals at Doheny State Beach, have been knocked down as massive king tides pummeled the beach in recent days. Park officials say they expect to lose at least three more palms by the end of the week as ‘king tides’ — large fluctuations from low to high tides — continue.

Scientists working in the Santa Monica mountains of California recently announced that endangered red-legged frogs are successfully breeding on their own in four streams there, for the first time since the 1970s. It’s a huge success for a reintroduction program that began four years ago – and an important story about water quality.