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Author Pulls Special Legislative Deal for State Water Project
A funny thing happened on the way to the Capitol. On July 1, 2026, the author pulled Assembly Bill 2215, against which I was about to testify in a state Senate committee. If enacted, AB 2215 would have given the California Department of Water Resources (DWR) a special deal. It would have given DWR’s State
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Klamath irrigators remain subject to Endangered Species Act protections
This summer, the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals denied the Trump Administration’s attempt to subordinate the needs of keystone species to private water contracts. The Court issued a summary judgment on June 17, 2026. Its opinion, authored by Justice Ronald M. Gould, stated that the Klamath Project operator, the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation (BOR), must enforce the
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Political Pressure on Sites Reservoir Doesn’t Change the Facts
https://mavensnotebook.com/2026/06/23/press-release-political-pressure-on-sites-reservoir-doesnt-change-the-facts From the San Francisco Baykeeper and the California Sportfishing Protection Alliance: In an overt act of political meddling, Governor Newsom and his deputies are pressuring a judge to retract her evidence-based findings on the Sites Reservoir Project The evidence shows the multi-billion-dollar Sites Reservoir project cannot operate as proposed without unreasonable harm to rivers, fish, and ecosystems.
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Slowing the spread of golden mussels in California: Part 1 of CSPA’s Golden Mussel Coverage
You may have seen golden mussels mentioned on your local news or on the website of a state agency. Wherever you heard of them first, you are now aware that California is at the beginning of a long fight. The objective is to protect waterways and water infrastructure from a takeover by golden mussels. The
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Marin Water’s Atmospheric River Capture (ARC) Project Unlikely to Live up to its Name
The Marin Municipal Water District (Marin Water) is a public utility that provides water to 190,000 residents in central and south Marin County. Marin Water is proposing what it terms an “Atmospheric River Capture (ARC) Project” to divert rainwater from atmospheric river events (rainstorms) during the North Bay’s rainy season. The publicity for the Project
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