California
Susan Shelley: Why does California continue to waste much needed water?
On Saturday, the Division of Water Sources launched a video on its Twitter account that confirmed water being launched from Lake Oroville to the Feather River on the price of 35,000 cubic ft per second.
The footage was breathtaking. Shot from a drone or helicopter, the video confirmed crystal clear contemporary water gushing down the spillway, exploding into large clouds of water that surged over the panorama towards the ocean, racing behind a fragile rainbow within the mist.
For Californians who’ve lived for years with state and native water officers virtually entering into the bathe with them to lecture about conserving each drop, it was a nauseating sight.
California has greater than 1,400 reservoirs. Lake Oroville is the most important of 17 above-ground water storage amenities managed by the DWR, and it additionally performs a task in stopping floods. So when the extent will get too excessive, federal and state authorities examine climate forecasts, calculate precipitation and snowmelt, and launch sufficient water from the reservoir to make room for incoming water.
California’s local weather has naturally occurring dry years and moist years. Earlier generations constructed reservoirs and water conveyance infrastructure to retailer water in between the time and place it fell from the sky and the time and place it was wanted for agriculture, civilization and human survival usually.
Nevertheless, someday across the Nineties, agriculture, civilization and normal human survival fell out of favor. Small fish lawyered up, and the man-made water infrastructure was throttled down. Environmental activists denounced new water infrastructure and even known as for tearing down dams to revive their imaginative and prescient of nature.
As a result of some individuals have a rival imaginative and prescient of plentiful and inexpensive water, voters in 2014 accepted $2.7 billion to construct new water storage initiatives. This was half of a bigger water bond, $7.5 billion in all. Though the water storage element was opposed by many within the Legislature, it was the value of getting the votes that had been wanted to place it on the poll.
Thus far, not one water storage mission funded by Proposition 1, 9 years in the past, has been constructed.
The issue is within the language of the bond measure itself. Solely initiatives that present public advantages may very well be accepted for funding. Particularly, mission builders searching for the cash must present that their mission restored habitats, improved water high quality, diminished harm from flooding, improved emergency response or enhanced leisure alternatives.
Guess what was not thought-about a “public profit.”
Water storage.
Consequently, the initiatives that obtain cash from the $2.7 billion in Prop. 1 funding should get about half their funding someplace else. The abstract of Prop. 1 within the 2014 voter information acknowledged, “Native governments and different entities that depend on the water storage mission can be chargeable for paying the remaining mission prices,” as a result of these prices “would usually be related to personal advantages (resembling water offered to their prospects).”
In drought or flood, enviros simply wish to make us depressing
Right here’s the issue with that. Nothing ever will get constructed. By the point the mission proponents persuade state water regulators that they’ve met the usual for hen hospitality and jet-ski friendliness, and the possible accomplice entities undergo their very own hoops to get approval for funding, 9 years have passed by and all we’ve received to point out for the hassle is loads of reviews on environmental documentation and allowing necessities.
Possibly these mountains of paper may absorb a number of the rain and maintain it for us till summer season.
This isn’t the way you construct water storage if you need water storage constructed. That is the way you construct it should you’re grumpy that you just needed to embody it within the bond in any respect.
To provide you a way of how a lot water was launched simply from Lake Oroville over the weekend, 35,000 cubic ft per second is almost 2,900 acre-feet per hour, about 943 million gallons. Each hour, water officers dumped sufficient water from Lake Oroville to provide roughly 3,000 to six,000 California households with water, indoors and open air, for a complete 12 months. Each eight hours, a 12 months’s value of water for twenty-four,000 to 48,000 households was sentenced to sleep with the fishes.
The voters have been swindled once more. No matter state bond you see in your 2024 poll, vote no.
Write Susan@SusanShelley.com and comply with her on Twitter @Susan_Shelley
California
What California city has the best weather for you? Take our quiz
California has plenty of options when it comes to finding a place with your preferred weather. If you like cool weather, some cities spend nearly the entire year below 70 degrees. If you hate the rain, there are locations that average just a few inches per year.
The Chronicle gathered data about temperature, precipitation, air quality and extreme weather for 61 places across California, including the 20 most populous cities with data available. In total, 53 of the state’s 58 counties are represented in the analysis.
While there may not be a perfect match with everything you’re looking for, this quiz will help pinpoint a place that gets close.
California
California woman dies from Fresno County's first human case of rabies in more than 30 years
A California woman died of rabies after allegedly being bitten by a bat in her classroom, according to Fresno County health officials.
The woman, later identified as Leah Seneng, 60, marks the first human case of rabies in Fresno County since 1992.
“In general, rabies is a disease that affects the brain, and it is very rare. But when it develops, it can cause very serious consequences,” said Dr. Trnidad Solis, Fresno County Health Department’s deputy health officer. “It’s transmitted through saliva; it is not airborne.”
RABIES PATIENT BECOMES FIRST FATAL CASE IN US AFTER POST-EXPOSURE TREATMENT, REPORT SAYS
Seneng, who was an art teacher at Bryant Middle School in Dos Palos, was bitten by the bat when she was attempting to rescue it in her classroom, local outlet ABC30 reported.
She first came into contact with the bat in October, but did not display symptoms until approximately a month later, according to Fresno County health officials. She was admitted to the hospital and died four days later.
PEANUT THE SQUIRREL EARMARKED FOR EUTHANASIA BEFORE BEING CONFISCATED AND WAS RABIES-FREE: REPORT
“The most frequent route of transmission is through the bite of an animal that has rabies. With rabies, unfortunately, there is no cure. So, when symptoms develop, there is no treatment, and often when it develops, it is often fatal. So we want the public to know that prevention is key to preventing rabies infection,” Solis said.
Fresno County officials do not believe there is a threat to public health at this time, but are working with the Merced County Health Department to identify any other possible exposures and administer vaccines.
CLICK HERE TO GET THE FOX NEWS APP
Seneng’s coworkers have set up a GoFundMe account to assist her family during this time.
California
Another batch of raw milk from a trendy California brand just tested positive for bird flu
- Two batches of raw milk from a trendy California brand have tested positive for bird flu this week.
- Bird flu has been spreading rapidly among cattle in the US.
- Experts say drinking raw milk is dangerous, and can cause food poisoning.
Another batch of raw milk just tested positive for bird flu in California.
Last Sunday, Fresno-based Raw Farm voluntarily recalled a first batch of cream top whole raw milk with a “best by” date of November 27. By Wednesday, the California Department of Public Health announced that a second batch of Raw Farm cream top, with a “best by” date of December 7 had also tested positive for bird flu, based on retail sampling.
“We’re not making a big deal about it, because it’s not a big deal,” Kaleigh Stanziani, Raw Farm’s vice president of marketing, said in a short video posted on YouTube after the farm’s first voluntary recall was announced earlier this week.
She said there had only been an indication that there might be a “trace element of something possible,” emphasizing that there had been no reported illnesses of Raw Farms cows or positive tests from the cattle.
Raw Farm owner Mark McAfee later told the LA Times that the California Department of Food and Agriculture had requested that his company “hold delivery of further products” until Friday, after conducting thorough testing of two Raw Farms and one creamery on Wednesday. (McAfee could not immediately be reached for comment by Business Insider during the Thanksgiving holiday.)
Raw milk may be helping bird flu spread — but not in the way you might think
Scientists suspect that cross-contamination of raw milk between animals may be one reason the H5N1 virus is spreading rapidly among cows in the US — and could even contribute to the human spread of the virus. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention cautions that dairy workers might be able to contract bird flu by infected raw milk splashed into their eyes.
There is no definitive evidence yet that humans can get bird flu from drinking contaminated raw milk. Instead, health authorities generally recommend avoiding raw milk because of other serious health risks, including food poisoning with bacteria like Salmonella, E.coli, or Listeria.
There are no known health benefits of drinking raw milk. Instead, all evidence suggests that pasteurized milk is just as nutritious, and is safer to consume.
Still, raw milk has become a trendy product among some influencers. Gwenyth Paltrow says she has it in her coffee in the morning.
Robert F. Kennedy Jr., President-elect Trump’s pick for Health and Human Services secretary, says he wants the US Food and Drug Administration to stop its “war” against raw milk.
Over the summer, “Carnivore MD” Paul Saladino released a raw milk smoothie in partnership with the elite Los Angeles health foods store Erewhon featuring unpasteurized (raw) kefir from Raw Farms, and powdered beef organs.
California has some of the loosest rules around raw milk in the country; it’s generally fine for California retailers like health foods stores and grocers to sell it, raw milk products just can’t be transported across state lines, per FDA rules.
Michael Payne, a researcher at the Western Institute of Food Safety and Security, told The Guardian that people consuming Dr. Paul’s $19 smoothie were “playing Russian roulette with their health,” and ignoring pasteurization, “the single most important food safety firewall in history.”
California dairy farms have been seeing an uptick in bird flu cases since August. The state has reported 29 confirmed human cases of bird flu, and all but one of those was sourced back to cows.
Last week, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reported the first confirmed case of bird flu in a California child from Alameda County. The child had no known contact with infected farm animals, but may have been exposed to wild birds, the California health department said in a statement.
The child had mild symptoms and is recovering well after receiving antiviral drugs.
-
Science1 week ago
Trump nominates Dr. Oz to head Medicare and Medicaid and help take on 'illness industrial complex'
-
Health6 days ago
Holiday gatherings can lead to stress eating: Try these 5 tips to control it
-
Science3 days ago
Despite warnings from bird flu experts, it's business as usual in California dairy country
-
Health4 days ago
CheekyMD Offers Needle-Free GLP-1s | Woman's World
-
Science1 week ago
Alameda County child believed to be latest case of bird flu; source unknown
-
Technology3 days ago
Lost access? Here’s how to reclaim your Facebook account
-
Sports1 week ago
Behind Comcast's big TV deal: a bleak picture for once mighty cable industry
-
Entertainment2 days ago
Review: A tense household becomes a metaphor for Iran's divisions in 'The Seed of the Sacred Fig'