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California's Colorado River Reckoning

Expert BlogCaliforniaEd Osann
If you thought the consequences of climate change could be left to your children and grandchildren to deal with, 2023 will bring a different message. The era of the Colorado River as a security blanket for Southern California is over.

Honolulu Benchmarking Will Cut Costs, Save Energy and Water

Expert BlogHonolulu, HawaiiElizabeth Stampe, Olivia Walker

Honolulu’s City Council passes a benchmarking and transparency ordinance to help building owners cut costs by tracking their energy and water use, enabling them to save money and resources while reducing emissions.

Collaborative Junk Science Is the Core of the Delta VA

Expert BlogCaliforniaDoug Obegi

If you wouldn’t trust oil tobacco companies to tell you what’s safe for your health, why would you trust these water agencies to say what’s good for fish and wildlife in the Bay-Delta watershed?

Water Rights, and Wrongs, in California

Expert BlogCaliforniaKate Poole
I’m grateful to the Stanford Environmental Law Clinic, Winnemem Wintu Tribe, Shingle Springs Band of Miwok Indians, Little Manila Rising and Restore the Delta for compiling this clear and compelling history of California water.

Bay-Delta VA: A Sweetheart Deal to Subsidize Agribusiness

Expert BlogCaliforniaDoug Obegi
It’s not surprising, given who was in the room negotiating this backroom deal, that the VAs are a sweetheart deal that would subsidize the mitigation obligations of the state’s largest irrigation districts and industrial agribusinesses, undermining the Public Trust.

Restoring Riverscapes and Beavers in the West

Expert BlogWestAmy McNamara
BLM has a ripe opportunity to dramatically increase the health of its landscapes by managing its riverscapes as a critical piece of natural infrastructure.

Honey, the VAs Shrunk the Delta Flows

Expert BlogCaliforniaDoug Obegi
Since the State Water Resources Control Board began its public process to update the Bay-Delta Water Quality Control Plan in 2008, the amount of water proposed for the Bay-Delta environment has continuously shrunk.

Who (and What) Are Excluded from Backroom Bay-Delta "Deal"

Expert BlogCaliforniaDoug Obegi
The State’s recent announcement of a proposed voluntary agreement for the Bay-Delta watershed is the result of an illegitimate, exclusionary backroom negotiation that fails to protect the health of the estuary, its native fish and wildlife, and the jobs and…

Drought Shows that CA’s Water Rights System Is Bankrupt

Expert BlogCaliforniaDoug Obegi
The only way out of this cycle of destruction—other than praying for rain, which is not a strategy—is to reduce water deliveries and diversions in order to maintain adequate carryover storage in Shasta and upstream reservoirs this year.

Saving California's Salmon Is Now Up to Governor Newsom

Expert BlogCaliforniaKate Poole
Keeping the Trump administration's biological opinions in place would likely drive California’s wild salmon—as well as their habitat in the San Francisco Bay-Delta estuary and all who depend on them—into a death spiral from which they may never recover.

Saving Salmon—from One Generation of Fisherwomen to the Next

DispatchOregon, Washington, WestNicole Greenfield
Keyen Singer, a member of the Confederated Tribes of the Umatilla Indian Reservation, carries on a maternal legacy of conserving salmon and preserving culture. Their efforts could soon pay off.

Senator and WA Governor Join Forces to Tackle Snake Dams

Expert BlogWashington, WestGiulia C.S. Good Stefani

U.S. Senator Patty Murray (D-WA) and Washington Governor Jay Inslee answered advocates’ calls to energize the decades-long push to save our iconic salmon from extinction.