Tag "groundwater"

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Sinking CA land to cost billions

California’s struggling infrastructure faced the daunting prospect of too little water underground and too much falling from the sky. “Four years of drought and heavy reliance on pumping of groundwater have made the land sink faster than ever up and down

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Water woes bring uneven fines and regulations

California’s ongoing water crisis promised to extend the controversy over fines and regulations well into the next year — if not beyond. While some areas suffer, others flourish, and fines — in some instances aggressively applied — have been meted

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Brown vows tighter groundwater regulations

Laboring to strengthen his aggressive anti-drought policies, Gov. Jerry Brown vowed that the historic groundwater management rules he pushed into law will be ratcheted up in coming years. In an interview on Meet the Press, Brown cautioned that he did not “rule

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CA water cuts hit farmers

As state policymakers turned their eye on reforming groundwater rules, California’s farmers sought a new deal on water rights, voluntarily proposing to slash their own consumption. An unprecedented offer The latest cascade of cuts underscored fears that current rationing rules just

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Protests erupt at Nestlé bottling plants in Sacramento and L.A.

Earlier this week, local California activists and concerned residents led protests against Nestlé at bottling plants located in Los Angeles and Sacramento. A joint press release stated Wednesday: At the protests, in Los Angeles and Sacramento, activists delivered more than 500,000 signatures

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Drought brings centralized groundwater control

  Was it necessary to pass three new bills that increase the California government’s control over groundwater? The numbers tell the story. By now most Californians have heard the shockingly huge number: The state has lost 63 trillion gallons of water due

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Groundwater takeover would prove costly

In 2010, I did some freelance work for Susan Trager, one of California’s top water lawyers. Unfortunately she died in 2011. Even though I had been writing about California since 1987 and had a general idea of state water policy,

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Will CA groundwater regulation bring shortages?

  One area of California that largely has remained free of regulation is groundwater. Although state courts “adjudicate” groundwater rights and disputes, this longstanding system largely respects the private ownership of the water. Even the federal government mostly works within this

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‘Cool roads’ AB 296 threatens Southern California’s groundwater

Sept. 10, 2012 By Wayne Lusvardi More scientific evidence is mounting against California Assembly Bill 296, which would fund pilot projects to eventually mandate Cal-Trans paint roads a lighter color to reduce the so-called “urban heat island effect.” A new study

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