(March 31, 2009, The Mercury News)
Displaying a bowl of minnows and pictures of unemployed farm workers and their families, California congressmen pleaded with their colleagues Tuesday to make an emergency exception to the federal Endangered Species Act.The lawmakers said efforts to protect a 3-inch-long fish, the delta smelt, have led to court-ordered reductions in the [...]
(March 3, 2009, The Mercury News)
A coalition of water districts in California’s Central Valley are suing to stop the federal government from enforcing a new set of rules governing the endangered delta smelt.A lawsuit filed Tuesday in U.S. District Court in Fresno by the Westlands Water District, the San Luis and Delta-Mendota Water Authority says [...]
(Feb. 28, 2009, Kelly Zito, The San Francisco Chronicle)
Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger declared a statewide drought emergency Friday, urging cities to cut their use of water 20 percent and paving the way for projects such as desalination plants and water recycling projects to bypass standard environmental reviews.
Despite heavy rainstorms this month, state officials say California’s water [...]
(Feb. 10, 2009, The Los Angeles Times)
Even with the recent batch of rainstorms, the ongoing drought has grown so severe that Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa on Monday called for increased citywide water restrictions and the adoption of a tiered water rate that would punish Department of Water and Power customers who fail to conserve.
Sprinkler [...]
