Land Use

By Dan Aiello
California Progress Report

While water bond proponents like Republican Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger and Democrat Senate Pro Tem, Darrell Steinberg, scrambled for the two-thirds vote necessary to snatch Proposition 18 from the jaws of almost certain defeat at the hands of deficit and economy weary voters in November - the measure's environmental and conservationist opponents - having joined forces with good governance, education and taxpayer rights advocates - lost their bid to keep the initiative alive. Not to pass it, but to present it as a sacrificial lamb for voters to slaughter as a warning to future legislative attempts to govern by favoring special interests over the best interests of the state's economic and natural resources.

By Elanor Starmer
Food&Water Watch

The legislature reconvened on Monday with a hefty set of tasks ahead of it. Passing a budget will clearly be the most painful, but let’s not underestimate the intensity of the battle over the fate of Proposition 18, the massive water bond currently on this November’s ballot. The legislature’s decision – widely believed to be forthcoming before August 20th – on whether to postpone, scrap or leave untouched this controversial measure is actually a referendum on who should control water in California. Legislators have an opportunity to weigh in in favor of the public by voting to permanently remove the bond from the ballot.

By Traci Sheehan
Planning and Conservation League

A new report by the consulting firm Tetra Tech reveals the impact climate change will have on water supply reliability in the United States and clearly demonstrates that urgent action is needed to move California toward more sustainable water supplies.

As part of its analysis, Tetra Tech used an index to assess risks to water supply reliability on a county-by-county basis. Fully one-third of all counties in the lower 48 states will face high risks of water shortage by 2050, and nearly half of those will face extremely high risks of water shortage. Water use in some of these high-risk areas like the Great Plains and the Southwest is already unsustainable. As climate change affects temperature and precipitation levels, the number of counties facing high water shortage risks will increase, and areas like the Great Plains and the Southwest may not have any available precipitation at all.

By Dan Bacher

The Eel River Prayer Ceremony and Summit, a historic 2-day event was held on the banks of the Eel River near Willits, California on July 17-18.

“We will not sit idly by," was the central message of the event, hosted by the Round Valley Tribes of Covelo and Friends of the Eel River (FOER), which drew concerned Eel River supporters from San Francisco to the Oregon border, including biologists, hydrologists, fishermen and leading environmental groups. It was the first time in 100 years, since traditional spiritual ceremonies were banned among tribal governments, where members of the Round Valley Tribes of Covelo; and their spiritual leaders and tribal dancers, guided a sacred prayer ceremony for the relief of the long-suffering Eel River.

By Traci Sheehan
Planning and Conservation League

This week the California Air Resources Board (CARB) launched the first of a series of public workshops to discuss their proposed greenhouse gas emissions reduction targets mandated by Senate Bill 375 (Steinberg).

SB 375, known as the Sustainable Communities and Climate Protection Act of 2008, directs CARB to set regional reduction targets for most areas of the state by this September. In addition, the law calls on California's Metropolitan Planning Organizations to prepare a "sustainable communities strategy" that will dictate how land use, housing and transportation planning will be integrated to meet the emission reduction targets.

By Elanor Starmer
Food&Water Watch

A Field poll released last week on California’s November ballot measures turned up an interesting finding: Proposition 18, the $11 billion water bond, is backed by Democrats and self-identified liberals by a margin of greater than two to one.

Guess these voters hadn’t checked the endorsement list. Backers of the bond include major agribusiness industry associations, Southern California developers, and Meg Whitman. In contrast, opponents of the bond include the Sierra Club, Clean Water Action, Food&Water Watch, California Teachers Association and many others. State legislators Tom Ammiano, Mark Leno and Leland Yee also oppose it.

By Dan Bacher

The environmental review process has begun for the South Coast Study Region Marine Protected Areas (MPAs) developed under Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger’s fast-track Marine Life Protection (MLPA) Initiative, a privatized process overseen by an oil industry lobbyist who has praised the industry's "safety record" as the BP Deepwater Horizon oil gusher continues to devastate marine life and fishing communities in the Gulf of Mexico.

On June 29, the California Fish and Game Commission and Department of Fish and Game (DFG) together issued a Notice of Preparation (NOP) for the project, according to a DFG news release. This initiates the “scoping phase,” during which interested members of the public are invited to help identify the range of issues and type of information to be considered in the Draft Environmental Impact Report (DEIR), required under the California Environmental Quality Act (CEQA), that will be prepared in the coming months.

Scott Morrison
The Nature Conservancy

Back when the line was drawn to separate California from Baja California, I bet few imagined how significant that border would become for wildlife. Today, the contrasts in conservation status across the U.S. – Mexico border are pretty stark.

North of the border is an extensive – albeit incomplete—network of public and private conservation lands that offers some protection for an extraordinary diversity of coastal, montane and desert species. South of the border there are only a few, isolated protected areas.

But unlike on the more intensively developed California side, there are still vast regions of northwest Baja California that are remarkably intact. The Sierra Juarez mountain range, for example, just south of San Diego County, is one of the few true wilderness areas remaining in the globally imperiled mediterranean biome of North America.

By Traci Sheehan
Planning and Conservation League

The environmental community started the month of July with great optimism. During the past few weeks, the majority of the environmental and public health bills we were supporting received the votes necessary to move forward. This week marked the deadline for these bills to pass their respective policy committees.

Here's a round up of the environmental bills that will move forward just as soon as the Legislature reconvenes after July recess. These bills would advance the protection of our ecosystem, promote conservation of our natural resources and reduce waste in landfills.

By Ngoc Nguyen
New America Media Investigation

After Rebecca Quintana takes a shower, she shakes the sand out of her hair.

The pipes that deliver water to her house in Seville, a town of about 400 people southeast of Fresno, Calif., are over a century old. They’re corroded and leaky, and the water pressure is poor, so dirt and sediment get into the pipes and come out of the showerhead and tap.

The community of Seville the sand is an inconvenience, but because the town’s water system runs through an irrigation ditch, more harmful substances seep into the pipes. Quintana’s water tests for unsafe levels of nitrate – a man-made and industrial chemical that leaches from commercial fertilizers, manure, and septic tanks.