"Hundreds of thousands of tiny crabs have been washing up on Southern California beaches, marring the sandy coastline with streaks of red, as warm ocean currents carry them farther north and closer to shore than usual, officials said on Wednesday."

"The West Coast is experiencing the largest bloom of toxic algae in more than a decade, prompting wide-ranging closures of commercial crab and shellfish harvesting."

"For the first time in nearly 40 years, state regulators are telling more than 100 growers and irrigation districts with some of the oldest water rights in California that they have to stop drawing supplies from drought-starved rivers and streams in the Central Valley."

"Clean-up costs associated with a Californian oil pipeline rupture that dumped as much as 2,400 barrels of crude onto a pristine stretch of coastline and into the Pacific Ocean have exceeded $60 million, the Los Angeles Times reported on Wednesday."

"In the largest expansion of national marine sanctuaries in California in 23 years, the Obama administration on Tuesday more than doubled the size of two Northern California marine sanctuaries, extending them by 50 miles up the rugged Sonoma and Mendocino coasts."

"Under canopies of dead angular branches and drooping fronds, UC Riverside ecologist Cameron Barrows made his way across a forest of skeletal Joshua trees that have not reproduced in decades."

"The drought-stricken Colorado River is fueling golf courses and growth across the Coachella Valley."

"An oil pipeline that ruptured and spilled an estimated 383,000 litres (101,000 gallons) of crude near Santa Barbara in May had been allowed to corrode to a tiny fraction of its original thickness, federal regulators have said."

"ALONG THE SALTON SEA, CALIF. — The bone-dry lake bed burned crystalline and white in the midday sun. Ecologist Bruce Wilcox hopped out of his truck and bent down to scoop up a handful of the gleaming, crusty soil."

In a letter to pipeline safety regulators, two California Senators called "insufficient" the response of pipeline operators to a large spill near Santa Barbara.