Republican lawmakers, after refusing to back legislation last year embraced by Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger to curb greenhouse-gas emissions, now cite global warming as a reason to support the governor's plan to spend nearly $4 billion in bond funds on new water projects, including two new reservoirs.  »

Sacramento on Wednesday marked its driest January in 158 years of record keeping. »

With the driest winter in 17 years and no storms on the horizon, a weather-inducing technique may be what is needed to save the Sierra snowpack this season. »

You hear it almost everyday now. Sea levels are rising, snowpacks are diminishing most scientists agree global warming poses a very real threat to the planet. A summit for the nation's major water utility leaders is taking place in San Francisco this week to address the problem and to plan for the future impact. »

Collaborative water efforts in the Sacramento region are the focus of a 30-minute public television program set to air at 7 p.m. February 6 on KVIE. 'Sacramento Valley: Working Together Pays Off,' sponsored by the Regional Water Authority (RWA), is the latest segment in the 'California’s Water' series produced and hosted by Huell Howser. »

The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers released a new list of California levees that could fail from poor maintenance. Most of the problems were found in rural parts of the Central Valley, near Chico, Marysville, Fairfield and Merced, and around the Delta. »

The California Supreme Court on Thursday threw a wrench into Sacramento's growth machinery that could halt the 18,000-home Sunrise Douglas development under construction in Rancho Cordova. »

To help stop the spread of quagga mussels, a destructive nonnative shellfish discovered last month in Lake Mead, Lake Havasu and a state aqueduct, state Department of Fish and Game officials have established a toll-free hot line, (866) 440-9530.  »

Fish tested from more than 600 rivers and streams around the West, including some in the north state, were all found to be tainted with mercury. Fortunately, most of the fish had low levels of the toxic metal. »

Five billion dollars sounds impressive, but if you were to stuff this cash into every hole of every eroding flood control levee in the Central Valley, your money would vanish quickly, with little left to show for it. »

From trail signs to tree trimming to water flow, the citizens committee updating the plan governing the American River Parkway came to consensus on more than 200 issues. But as its work moves to center stage today, the focus will be on areas of contention. »

This season's scant rainfall doesn't yet mean we're in a drought -- but it's starting to feel that way. San Francisco is on track to post its fifth-driest January since 1850. »

Federal wildlife officials have halted review of a $110 million water project in the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta, effectively sending planners back to the drafting table on a project they considered vital to water quality. »

A report released this past week by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers found that 27 states and the District of Columbia and Puerto Rico have substandard levees. The assessment identified 122 poorly maintained levees. California, the country's most populous state, had nearly a quarter of the problem levees - 37 segments. »

Chico and Mud creeks at Sandy Gulch had been added to the list released Thursday, but since then they've been reinspected and removed from the list, said Meegan Nagy, emergency manager for the Army Corps of Engineers. »

A dry January in the northern Sierra contributed to a statewide snowpack that is only about 43 percent of normal, water officials announced Friday. That is the lowest snowpack measurement for this time of year since 1991. »

The Public Works Department says the water and wastewater projects it has been designing for the city’s systems are the right combination for a cleaner, more reliable water source and better processes. The city plans to partner with UC Davis and Woodland to draw water from the Sacramento River and use it as the water supply much of the year. »

It's about six hours into a nine-hour inspection of water supply facilities for the Yolo County Flood Control and Water Conservation District when General Manager Tim O'Halloran looks over the Clear Lake Dam, watches water trickling from slats near its base and casually notes this is the spot that keeps Woodland from flooding. »

The Veterans Memorial Hall is the new location of a public workshop to discuss the Department of Fish and Game's (DFG) pike eradication project. The meeting is scheduled for 6 to 9 p.m. on Thursday, Feb. 8 at the Hall, 442 West Sierra in Portola (Highway 70 on the west end of town). »

The Three Rivers Levee Improvement Authority Board of Directors board will consider certifying the final environmental impact report for the Feather River Phase 4 levee repair project. »

A revised proposal requiring Yuba County foothill property owners to prove they have a safe and adequate water supply before they can get a building permit will go back to county supervisors. »

After spending more than $100 million on fixing levees in the south county, Three Rivers Levee Improvement Authority directors certified an environmental impact report that outlines an additional $188 million to fix the Feather River levee. »

Spending billions of dollars to shore up California's levee system will do little to safeguard the state's water supply and protect homes from flooding if the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta is threatened by a huge earthquake, flooding or rising sea levels, a report said Wednesday. »

California’s Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta is widely perceived to be in crisis today: its levee system is fragile, many of its native species are declining rapidly, and it lacks strong governing institutions to deal with its problems. In its current state, the Delta is unsustainable for almost all stakeholders. This report provides a comprehensive, scientifically up-to-date analysis and outlines several alternative management strategies for the Delta. »

A new study of the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta concludes that restoring its natural saltwater ebb and flow could save dwindling fish species and ensure statewide water security. These goals, long considered incompatible, have stymied water managers for decades. A new study asserts both are achievable, but not without hard choices. »

With surface water largely exhausted, the primary conflicts today involve water deposited hundreds, thousands, even millions of years ago in underground reservoirs known as aquifers. These hold finite, often indeterminable, water supplies that feed rivers, streams, wetlands, lakes, ponds and estuaries, while sustaining them during droughts. But groundwater is being pumped out faster than rainwater can replenish it, thus producing a plummeting water table across the globe. »

An erosion repair originally planned to cover about 600 feet of riverbank was expanded at the last minute to take in an additional 3,000 feet. That extra frontage, it turns out, was protected habitat for bank swallows, listed as threatened under the state Endangered Species Act. The entire stretch of riverbank ended up covered in deep rock. »

Up to 50,000 gallons of untreated sewage spilled out of a holding pond at a Yuba County foothills subdivision over the weekend, prompting county officials on Monday to warn downhill residents to test their water. »

The Sacramento Area Flood Control Agency on Thursday will decide whether to conduct an election for a new property tax assessment to raise $326 million for flood control projects.  »

A kinder, gentler peripheral canal that would siphon water from Northern California to Southern California through the Tracy pumps is being discussed quietly within the halls of the state Department of Water Resources and among outside experts, a handful of lawmakers and even some environmentalists. »

The Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta touches the life of every Californian every day. It supports vital energy, transportation, communications and water facilities and important agricultural, recreational and cultural resources. It's also in peril. »

An exhaustive study by the private Public Policy Institute of California irrefutably demonstrates that changes must be made now in how water flows from where it occurs naturally in Northern California to where it is needed in the Central Valley and Southern California. »

Nature has the trump card, and it could be played at any time, whether we're ready on not. A peripheral canal might be the fix, or some other option might be the fix, but there has to be a fix. »

The report, invoking post-Hurricane Katrina fears about fragile levees, provides three sets of long-term alternatives. The authors favor what they call the "fluctuating Delta," which includes consideration of a peripheral canal. That's where agricultural, environmental and political opposition will focus, all but neutralizing some of the report's more intriguing conclusions. »

With as many as 19 water systems that could fail to meet new federal standards, according to state Department of Health Services figures, Sutter County is behind only Kern, San Bernardino and Los Angeles in the extent of its arsenic problems. »

San Mateo County's plan to get old medicines out of people's homes and keep them from washing into the watershed has taken off. »

Property owners in south Sutter County will soon vote on a proposed assessment to pay for strengthening levees around the region. »

In recent years, scientists have documented that dams and hydropower -- long considered a "clean" energy source -- may actually pump greenhouse gases into the atmosphere in surprising ways. »

An environmental crisis could disrupt water supplies throughout California for the first time since the early 1990s, threatening to end the long cease-fire in the state's water wars. »

The state Attorney General's Office has sued the River Highlands Community Services District, demanding repairs at its Gold Village wastewater treatment plant or the state will shut it down. »

Something is getting into French Gulch Creek that's occasionally making it run a milky grayish-brown and state water officials told concerned neighbors Thursday that they're going to figure out what it is. The Regional Water Quality Control Board collected water samples this week along the creek and sent them to a Sacramento lab.  »

The top-dog for the state's Department of Water Resources chimed in Friday on some big shifts in water policy that have been talked about in Northern California for years — more storage and regional planning. »

Sutter County will have to come up with millions of dollars if it hopes to secure some of the more than $4 billion in Proposition 1E flood protection money. »

It may be hard to think about a drought right now, but if it does happen, Roseville says it's ready. On Monday, city leaders showed off their newest water well at Leonard Davis Park on Northpark drive. It's the first of its kind in Northern California.  »

Concerned about the passage of fish through the Iron Canyon ladder, Bidwell Park and Playground Commission members talked Monday about the possibilities of mending the ladder, but one commissioner wasn't sure the benefit would be worth it. »

On Tuesday, for the first time, legislators and the state's top flood officials gathered at the Capitol to start the process of hashing out how they'll spend money from Propositions 1E and 84, which target a range of flood control improvements. »

Yuba County supervisors adamantly defended the county's levee repair efforts Tuesday, saying critics don't understand the work or how it's funded. »

The federal government last week threatened a local excavator and demolition hauler with fines that theoretically could cost him up to $32,500 a day for dumping construction debris into the Sacramento River. Thomas Carpenter, who runs Carpenter Excavation, was ordered by the EPA to clean up a large pile of rubble he allegedly dumped on his property, about 10 miles west of Chico, last March. »