If you live, work, or engage in recreation in Richmond, you’ve probably gotten close to the West Contra Costa Sanitary Landfill in north Richmond. The Parr Boulevard-based garbage dump opened in 1953. The dump is now closed, but it remains a problem. For close to two decades, the facility owned by a subsidiary of Phoenix-based…

I sometimes tell fishing clubs when I talk to them that CSPA works in long and difficult regulatory processes so the clubs don’t have to. There is so much regulatory and legal work to do to save and restore California’s fish and the communities that depend on them. On many levels, the effort in California’s…

On March 24, 2026, California Governor Gavin Newsom signed a proclamation to end the 2021 Drought Emergency. Gov. Newsom’s action came approximately two weeks after nonprofits CSPA and AquAlliance filed a lawsuit regarding the matter on March 10, 2026 in Alameda County Superior Court. The proclamation can be found in a list of terminations of states of emergency.   The end to the drought emergency is welcome because the emergency had weakened environmental…

On March 20, 2026, the Administrative Hearings Office (AHO) for the State Water Resources Control Board (Board) issued a Draft Decision regarding water rights for the proposed Sites Reservoir.  The Draft Decision followed over a year of evidentiary hearings that ended with reply briefs in June 2025.  The Draft Decision is accompanied by a Draft Water Rights Permit.  The Draft Decision proposes granting the…