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Gov. Jerry Brown’s administration is using federal security regulations written to thwart terrorism to deny public access to records that experts say could guide repairs to the Oroville Dam and provide insight into what led to the near catastrophic failure of its emergency spillway. The administration also is blocking public review of records that would show how Brown’s office handled the February crisis at Oroville Dam that led to the two-day evacuation of nearly 200,000 Northern Californians.

**SNIP** Growers often use empty containers like this to store toxic chemicals. In the previous year, every Gatorade bottle Gabriel and his team found at grow sites tested positive for carbofuran, a neurotoxic insecticide that is so nasty it has been banned in the U.S., Canada and the EU. Farmers in Kenya have used it to kill lions. Symptoms of exposure range from nausea and blurred vision to convulsions, spontaneous abortions, and death. “They just leave these sitting around,” Gabriel says as he carefully swabs the bottle.

The rule defines eight categories of waters of the U.S. Six categories include traditional navigable waters, interstate waters, territorial seas (these three are called “jurisdictional waters”), impoundments of jurisdictional waters, “tributaries,” and “adjacent” waters. These are jurisdictional by rule in all cases, requiring no additional analysis in order to be regulated. To be adjacent, the rule uses the rubric of “neighboring,” which can be met by waters in the 100-year floodplain—meaning land which might be wet one out of every 100 days is a water of the U.S. and can be federally controlled. Texas coastal prairie wetlands are another type...

Enhanced single-walled carbon nanotubes offer a more effective and sustainable approach to water treatment and remediation than the standard industry materials—silicon gels and activated carbon—according to a paper published in the March issue of Environmental Science Water: Research and Technology. RIT researchers John-David Rocha and Reginald Rogers, authors of the study, demonstrate the potential of this emerging technology to clean polluted water. Their work applies carbon nanotubes to environmental problems in a specific new way that builds on a nearly two decades of nanomaterial research. Nanotubes are more commonly associated with fuel-cell research. “This aspect is new—taking knowledge of carbon...

When kids learn about the planet’s water cycle, they’re taught a simple concept: our atmosphere is filled with water vapor that has evaporated from the bodies of liquid water we see around us. When the vapor’s temperature gets low enough, it gets turned back into water. The presence of that vapor becomes especially apparent in the summer, when droplets collect on glasses of ice water and air conditioning units drip onto unsuspecting passersby. An Israeli company called Water-Gen does not think of that condensation as a byproduct; instead, it has built machines specifically designed to create and harvest as much...

Under authority granted the agency by the Water Infrastructure Improvements for the Nation Act of 2016, the EPA just issued a $100 million grant to the beleaguered city of Flint, Michigan, to help in the effort at replacing the city’s badly corroded and lead-tainted system of water pipes. Some progressive critics of President Donald Trump have pointed to his proposed budget cuts at the Environmental Protection Agency as proof that he is a terrible president who doesn’t care about ensuring that Americans have clean air and water. However, the recent report from The Daily Caller about Trump’s EPA grant just...

At the Ranch in Arizona, I keep water trickling for a water hole. It is the only reliable water for about three miles in any direction.  I have a game camera there, and sometimes obtain interesting photographs, like the bobcat and coyote interaction above from a couple of months ago.  The water hole is about 15 yards from the backstop of the pistol range.  Some of the water pipe was exposed over the last few years. My bother and I were at the range, shooting 170 grain cast lead .40 caliber projectiles at a half silhouette steel target.   After...

A river in New Zealand has become the first in the world to be granted the same legal rights as a person. The New Zealand parliament passed the bill recognising the Whanganui River, in North Island, as a living entity. Long revered by New Zealand's Maori people, the river's interests will now be represented by two people. The Maori had been fighting for over 160 years to get this recognition for their river, a minister said. "I know the initial inclination of some people will say it's pretty strange to give a natural resource a legal personality," said New Zealand's...

The primary spillway at Lake Oroville as water rushes down it on Feb. 11 and gets diverted into a crevasse in the adjacent hillside where a portion of the spillway has eroded. Photo: California Department of Water Resources Brace yourselves for more potential drama as California's Department of Water Resources once again tests Mother Nature's kindness and begins releasing more massive amounts of water down the Oroville Dam spillway next week. The dam's floodgates have been closed since February 27 in order that work crews could clear debris that had collected around the bottom of the spillway and downstream...

CINCINNATI - U.S. Sen. Sherrod Brown, D-Ohio, will highlight in downtown Cincinnati this morning key infrastruture projects, such as the Brent Spence Bridge, as he outlines a framework to rebuild and repair the country’s infrastructure which will create millions of construction jobs. The northern Ohio Senator will be joined by Cincinnati Mayor John Cranley, Port of Greater Cincinnati Development Authority President and CEO Laura Brunner, and OKI Regional Council of Governments Deputy Executive DirectorRobert Koehler. President Donald Trump previously promised $1 trillion of investment in American infrastructure during his campaign. Brown joined Senate colleagues to release a roadmap for making...

GILLIBRAND, SCHUMER UNVEIL NEW PLAN TO ENSURE SAFER DRINKING WATER ACROSS NY; HARMFUL CONTAMINANTS FOUND IN NEW YORK DRINKING WATER—FROM HOOSICK FALLS TO NEWBURGH TO LONG ISLANDWashington, DC – U.S. Senators Kirsten Gillibrand and Charles Schumer, today announced legislation that would require the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) to develop a maximum contaminant level for perfluorinated compounds (including PFOA and PFOS), 1,4 dioxane, and perchlorate in public water systems. Currently, these chemicals are unregulated under the Safe Water Drinking Act and this legislation would require the EPA to create safety guidelines and determine legally enforceable standards that apply to public water...

“Denial ain’t just a river in Egypt” – Mark Twain “Consider a narrow river valley below a high dam, such that if the dam burst, the resulting flood of water would drown people for a considerable distance downstream. When attitude pollsters ask people downstream of the dam how concerned they are about the dam’s bursting, it’s not surprising that fear of a dam burst is lowest far downstream, and increases among residents increasingly close to the dam. Surprisingly, though … the concern falls off to zero as you approach closer to the dam! That is, the people living immediately under...

President Donald Trump signed an executive order on Tuesday ordering the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) to review and reconsider the “Waters of the United States” (WOTUS) regulation, a radical decree issued by the Obama administration purporting to regulate virtually all water and much of the land across America. While stopping short of quashing the controversial rule altogether, analysts described Trump's executive order as a first step in that process. One prominent activist, Tom Fitton of Judicial Watch, called the decision “the most pro-property rights move out of D.C. in two decades.” But there may be more to come; the...

Aerial photographs taken by The Sacramento Bee’s Randy Pench from a helicopter flying over Lake Oroville, Oroville Dam and its wrecked spillway and the clogged Feather River below the dam show the damage caused by record flows released from the lake as the region was hammered by relentless February storms. The devastation was evident on Wednesday, March 1, 2017.

Curiosity discovered high levels of manganese oxide minerals in rocks investigated at a location called “Windjana” during the spring of 2014. Manganese-oxide minerals require abundant water and strongly oxidizing conditions to form. “Researchers found high levels of manganese oxides by using a laser-firing instrument on the rover. This hint of more oxygen in Mars’ early atmosphere adds to other Curiosity findings — such as evidence about ancient lakes — revealing how Earth-like our neighboring planet once was,” NASA reported. The newly announced results stem from results obtained from the rovers mast mounted ChemCam or Chemistry and Camera laser firing instrument....

The reservoir's water level has been reduced nearly 60 feet since it reached capacity at 901 feet earlier this month, the department saidCalifornia water authorities will stop the outflow from the Oroville Dam's crippled spillway to allow workers to remove debris blocking a hydroelectric plant from working, officials said Sunday. The Department of Water Resources said it will start gradually reducing outflows from the Northern California dam beginning Monday morning and completely halt them by the afternoon. The outflow from behind the 770-foot-tall dam will be stopped for several days to allow workers to clear concrete, silt and other debris...

U.S. President Donald Trump is expected to sign a measure as early as Tuesday aimed at rescinding a major Obama administration water regulation and direct an end to the government's defense of the rule, a Trump official briefed on the plan said late Friday. Trump is expected to direct the Environmental Protection Agency to withdraw the Waters of the United States (WOTUS) rule, which expands the number of waterways that are federally protected under the Clean Water Act. The rule was finalized by the EPA and the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers in May 2015, and was blocked by a...

NBC Bay Area has obtained San Jose city records that show the Santa Clara Valley Water District miscalculated how much water could be safely released from the Anderson Reservoir, which led to the biggest floods in San Jose in 20 years. Mayor Sam Liccardo questioned the water district on Tuesday when the flooding began. E-mail exchanges between Liccardo's office and officials from the Santa Clara Valley Water District show water district officials badly over-estimated how much water they could release through Anderson Dam without flooding the neighborhoods downstream. View the e-mails here. Senior Investigative Reporter Stephen Stock provides more in...

What happened the $7.5 Billion Water Bond Money that voters approved in 2014? Some are asking that question today after Governor Jerry Brown announced he wants to spend $437 million to deal with California's aging water infrastructure that the Governor says is "maxed out." Exhibit "A' would be crumbling infrastructure at Oroville Dam. So, what about that Water Bond Measure? Back in 2014 California voters approved Proposition 1. The $7.5 billion dollar bond measure passed with 67% of the vote. So far, only about $177 million dollars of that has been spent. According to the Public Policy Institute of California...

Authorities have arrested two people accused of carjacking and running over a man preparing to flee when authorities ordered those living downstream from the Oroville Dam to evacuate. Butte County Sheriff’s Office said Saturday that 27-year-old Cody Bowles and 31-year-old Lucia Ripley were arrested Friday in the town of Biggs. The office says the man was loading his vehicle with the engine running when Bowles and Ripley armed with a shotgun jumped in