California

Will DOGE Evaporate Crucial Water Data?

Streamflow data gathered by thousands of U.S. Geological Survey gauges helps track the country’s floods and droughts. But it may be lost if the Trump administration follows up on a decision not to renew leases of USGS water science centers that read the gauges and disseminate the measurements. Reporter’s Toolbox on the value of this database and the risk of its loss.

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California’s Yurok Tribe Gets Back Ancestral Lands Taken Over 120 Years Ago

"As a youngster, Barry McCovey Jr. would sneak through metal gates and hide from security guards just to catch a steelhead trout in Blue Creek amid northwestern California redwoods. Since time immemorial, his ancestors from the Yurok Tribe had fished, hunted and gathered in this watershed flanked by coastal forests. But for more than 100 years, these lands were owned and managed by timber companies, severing the tribe’s access to its homelands."

Source: AP, 06/06/2025

Colorado River Is Running Low. Groundwater Looks Even Worse, Study Says.

"The dwindling flow of the Colorado River has alarmed the American West for years, but the water losses happening underground are even worse, according to a new study that uses satellite data to measure groundwater supplies across the Colorado River Basin."

Source: Washington Post, 05/29/2025

"Trump Signs Executive Orders To Boost Nuclear Power, Speed Up Approvals"

"President Donald Trump signed executive orders Friday intended to quadruple domestic production of nuclear power within the next 25 years, a goal experts say the United States is highly unlikely to reach."

Source: AP, 05/27/2025

"Republicans Flout Law and Precedent to Kill California’s Right to Clean Air"

"In a move Democrats warned would have disastrous consequences for the economy, the environment and public health, the Republican-led Senate Thursday voted to block California’s electric-vehicle mandates, revoking the state’s right to implement the nation’s toughest emissions standards."

Source: Inside Climate News, 05/23/2025

Plea Deal Shutters Watts Recycling Plant Accused Of Spewing Toxics At School

"A South L.A. recycling plant that has been accused of spewing toxic waste and metal projectiles onto the grounds of Jordan High School will be permanently shut down, according to a plea deal agreed to by the plant’s owners in court Tuesday."

Source: LA Times, 05/22/2025

Toxic Cleanups in San Francisco Take 4+ Years Longer in Communities of Color

"Toxic site cleanups take longer in parts of San Francisco where fewer residents are white, a new data analysis from the San Francisco Public Press shows. The analysis also shows that a higher proportion of residents who are Black, Indigenous and other people of color in an area correlates directly with longer cleanup durations."

Source: SF Public Press, 05/16/2025

Project To Raise California’s Shasta Dam Could Move Forward Under Trump

"Enlarging the dam would deliver more Sacramento River water to Central Valley farmers but a tribe could lose sacred sites and endangered salmon could lose habitat in wet years."

Source: CalMatters, 05/14/2025

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