A $70,000 grant-funded study is urging the Butte County Board of Supervisors to launch a $28.4 million project to bring a sewer system to the Palermo area. Studies done in 2007 and earlier have all said the existing sewage disposal system in the Palermo area south of Oroville, dependent on individual septic tank-leach field operations, is often unhealthy and ineffective.
»A former Bush administration official whose tenure was marked by systematic attempts to weaken endangered species protections has gone to work for a powerful California farm district that has the same aim in the Delta. Craig Manson, assistant Interior Secretary for Fish and Wildlife and Parks from 2001 through 2005, now serves as general counsel for the Westlands Water District, the nation's largest irrigation district.
»On Monday, the California Department of Fish and Game released 2 million baby salmon, raised at Nimbus Hatchery near Rancho Cordova, into the American River instead of trucking them to Vallejo.
»Rains weren't steady this April, but they were enough to cause a series of delays for rice farmers who would prefer to get seed into their fields by mid- to late April. More than an inch of rain fell in the area April 11, and another half an inch the next day.
»The challenge for all California stakeholders working to improve salmon and steelhead habitat is to accelerate these measures while also enriching the lives of those in our communities. The Yuba Accord, like many other fisheries agreements, is a terrific step forward.
»Federal officials want public input on a proposal to revise policies for managing urban water shortages in the Central Valley.
»The wells that supply more than 2 million Californians with drinking water have been found to contain harmful levels of nitrates over the past 15 years — a time marked by lax regulatory efforts to control the colorless and odorless contaminant. Nitrates, a byproduct of farm fertilizer and some wastewater treatment systems, are now the most common groundwater contaminant in California and across the country.
»Although Rep. Grace Napolitano supports an $11 billion bond intended to remedy the state's water woes, she doesn't think a majority of Californians agree with her.
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