Santa Clara County Environment Digest

Salmon populations in the Scott and Shasta rivers have crashed, so state officials are about to restrict irrigation again. And the controversial rules may even become permanent.

Officials in Kern County are proposing to build a carbon management facility that would be twice the size of Manhattan. By doing this, they would leverage federal tax credits to reduce greenhouse gas emissions.

Birds are affected by the mass use of fireworks on New Year’s Eve up to a distance of 10 km away, reports an international team of researchers.

Judson Jones, a meteorologist and reporter for The New York Times, gave a Q&A about California’s year of intense weather. This included the state’s largest snowpack in 40 years and a “pretty astonishing” amount of precipitation.

An estimated 100,000 pizza boxes have been removed from Yosemite’s waste stream. This is because the famed park now serves pizza on trays and puts to-go portions in compostable bags, part of a move to reduce food-related waste.

A Cal Poly Humboldt professor is partnering with USDA researchers to study biochar, which results from heating dry plant-based materials at high temperatures without oxygen. The CO2 in the charcoal then stays in the soil for hundreds of years, rather than in the atmosphere.

The California Department of Water Resources released an environmental impact report for a tunnel that the state would like to build through the Sacramento-San Joaquin River Delta. The report identifies potential impacts to farmland, tribal remains and endangered species of fish.

Conservationists intend to shoot all of the deer on Santa Catalina Island by helicopter. Some people are opposed, either for not wanting to eliminate the deer or for missing out on future chances to hunt them.

Santa Clara is planning a major facelift of its 5-acre downtown after years of neglect, thanks to a determined group of residents.

Staff at the state’s air regulatory agency have been restricted from communicating with Jim Duffy, a scientist who retired from the agency in 2022. Duffy had criticized gas lobbyists and an agency director.

A beaver that was recolonizing the Matadero Creek in Palo Alto was taken to the Wildlife Center of Silicon Valley after being spotted immobile in a pile of leaves, officials said.

California energy regulators are considering requiring homeowners to replace broken air-conditioning systems with heat pumps or HVAC systems that are more energy efficient. The change would go into effect in 2026.

Private company Brightline secured a $3 billion grant through the U.S. Department of Transportation toward a 218-mile high-speed rail line from Rancho Cucamonga to Las Vegas. The line would allow people to make the trip to Sin City in a little over two hours.

An Alameda County judge ruled on Nov. 22 that the city of Oakland thwarted a proposed coal export terminal. The judge will rule if the developer who sued is entitled to $159 million in damages or moving forward with the project.

Environmentalists are urging San Jose leaders to reconsider plans for a new cemetery in Coyote Valley, claiming it will harm large swaths of natural habitats. 

A new study by Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory has found that approximately 3,400 kilotons of lithium are located below Imperial County in Southern California. This could produce more than $7 billion in lithium carbonate annually, helping power significant numbers of electric vehicles.

The world is heating up at an unprecedented pace, new climate data shows, and leaders gathered for the COP28 conference in Dubai must get us out of “deep trouble,” UN chief António Guterres said.

Joby Bernstein is not a seasoned politician, but the Palo Alto resident believes his energy, enthusiasm and passion for investing and tackling climate change will serve him well in his next venture: running for Congress.

Two miles of public beach were closed in Laguna Beach following a spill of 94,500 gallons of sewage. Orange County is testing water to determine when the beach will be safe to reopen.

An analysis by the U.S. Department of Energy found that with expected technology advances, the Salton Sea region’s total lithium resources could produce more than 3,400 kilotons of lithium, enough to support over 375 million batteries for electric vehicles—more than the total number currently on U.S. roads.

Unlike a year ago, water storage is above average. Whether the year is wet or dry, though, remains uncertain despite El Niño conditions.

More than 4,000 state scientists have worked under an expired contract for three years. Average wages in 2020 were $83,586, 27% less than state engineers’ pay. The state filed an unfair labor practice charge to stop the strike.

Setting a precedent for future projects, the Mountain View City Council approved a new hotel and office development in East Whisman, with a request that staff do more to protect the city’s heritage trees long before it comes to a vote.

Millions of people across the state struggle to pay electric bills as California regulators decide on proposed rate increases. PG&E wants a rate hike to bolster the safety and reliability of its services.

A 2021 fire has helped bring wolves back to Southern California for the first time since the 19th century. A rancher is worried about how to keep wolves, which are federally protected, from harming cattle.

BeautifySJ, the city’s program tasked with tackling blight from illegal dumping, graffiti, trash and homeless encampments, saw a rise in blight eradication and volunteer participation in 2022-23, according to a report coming before the San Jose City Council.

An environmental watchdog is pressing forward with lawsuits against the cities of Mountain View and Sunnyvale in an effort to get them to clean up local creeks.

When Palo Alto leaders enacted a new tree-protection ordinance last year, their goal was to protect and expand a treasured city asset: its canopy. However, members of the city Planning and Transportation Commission supported trimming the ordinance to give homeowners more flexibility to remove trees that are in poor shape or whose presence would compromise development plans.

A shrubby Palmer oak tree in Riverside County is around 13,000 years old, making it California’s oldest tree and one of the longest-lived organisms on earth. Some people are concerned that a proposed development could threaten the tree.

The Environmental Planning Commission deliberated on a slew of zoning amendments that covered a wide breadth of changes to city rules and regulations, from small textual edits to more substantial revisions.

The grant comes after the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency issued a determination that said leaded aviation gas posed environmental and health risks and should be regulated under the federal Clean Air Act.

A UCLA climate scientist says California’s redwoods might not last in their current groves for another 100 years. An effort is afoot to plant redwoods elsewhere in more potentially hospitable climates, such as the Pacific Northwest.