California

"Drinking water contamination is a chronic, insidious threat in California’s rural communities. Some have been waiting for clean water for years."

"At least 19 people contracted valley fever, a fungal infection that in rare cases can be fatal, after attending an outdoor music festival in southern California in May, public health officials have reported."

"In the Mojave Desert, rising temperatures, less rainfall, and more intense wildfires are killing off Joshua trees. California officials are working on a plan to protect the distinctive yucca tree and its desert ecosystem by establishing refuges and controlling development."

"The Biden administration announced Wednesday the addition of a historic Northern California mine to the Superfund National Priorities List — a federal index that ranks hazardous waste site risk and helps in prioritizing cleanup operations."

"San Francisco-based startup Zum wants to turn electric school-bus fleets into grid batteries. This 74-bus depot in Oakland is testing the idea at large scale."

"The charging yard for electric trucks at the Port of Long Beach is bright and sunny and full of semitrailer tractors—the truncated front ends of big rigs without their big-box loads. It’s also quiet. Elsewhere at the port, wherever there are trucks, there’s the near-deafening rumble of diesel engines. But the trucks here aren’t combusting; they’re filling up with electrons to power their next trip to Southern California’s Inland Empire, the constellation of cities to the east with one of the heaviest concentrations of warehouses in the world."

"San Diego Congress members are calling on the U.S. State Department to press Mexico to address unprecedented levels of sewage pollution spilling over from Tijuana, causing unbearable rotten-egg odors for residents in the region."

"California’s latest historic wildfire serves as a stark reminder of the regenerative promise of Indigenous cultural burning, practitioners say."

"Gavin Newsom’s late session proposal to extend deadlines — by more than four years in one case — for oil companies to  comply with a new law fizzled and died late this week."

"The nation’s largest dam removal project is nearly complete after a lengthy campaign by Native tribes to restore the river at the California-Oregon border."