A series of fierce storms that battered California over the weekend dramatically boosted the state's available water, essentially doubling the snowpack in the Sierra Nevada, officials said Monday. By Monday, the snowpack was at 111 percent of normal, said Elissa Lynn, senior meteorologist with the state Department of Water Resources. CC Times 1/08/08
The powerful storms, which flirted with record territory, delivered the equivalent of 3.5 million acre-feet of water – enough to meet the needs of 7 million average households for a year, according to state figures. But one punch cannot fully replenish the state's reservoirs, which have been drained to dangerously low levels by years of drier-than-normal winters and increasing demands, water officials warned in reissuing pleas for conservation. San Diego Union Tribune 1/08/08
Only 36 states allow wineries to ship directly to residents on orders such as those made over the internet, although those rights are sometimes limited to just a few cases of wine annually or are accorded only to small wineries, said the Wine Institute, the major trade group for the California wine industry. Retailers can ship to just 14 states, and that will drop to 13 this summer when an Illinois law takes effect prohibiting the practice. In California, the state with the least wine sales regulation, the Legislature in 2005 passed a law -- supported by distributors -- that prohibited Californians from purchasing wine from out-of-state retailers. The state attorney general's office has put enforcement of the law on hold until the end of this year to give the Specialty Wine Retailers Assn. a chance to persuade lawmakers to pass legislation that would allow out-of-state retailers to ship into California. LA Times 1/07/08
Researchers at the California Department of Public Health said autism rates in that state have continued to rise despite the removal of the mercury-containing preservative thimerosal from most childhood vaccines. WSJ 1/07/08
After moth spraying, state received hundreds of illness reports: Hundreds of people reported feeling sick last year after the state began spraying communities along the central coast to halt the spread of a crop-eating moth, agriculture authorities said Friday. State and federal officials repeatedly sprayed residential areas in Monterey and Santa Cruz counties last fall to combat the light brown apple moth, which has infested 12 counties stretching from north of San Francisco to Los Angeles. AP 1/07/08
The runoff from storms such as those that hit California last week flows straight to the Delta; it’s not treated first. Officials who are increasingly concerned about runoff from wintertime storms say there’s more that can be done, and everyone — citizens and their government — can play a part. Record Net 1/08/08
Fish populations are crashing, and scientists have been unable to explain why. Water quality is poor. Last summer, state and federal officials throttled back the big Delta pumps, citing an imminent threat to the Delta smelt, a tiny fish protected by the federal Endangered Species Act. Last year's dry winter left reservoirs depleted, with deliveries for 2008 expected at half of maximum. Earlier this month, a federal judge laid out a fish-protection plan likely to trim pumping by an additional 15 percent to 30 percent. Sacramento Bee 1/07/08
Residents in Redwood City are preparing for a fight if the city decides to use recycled water at a proposed school and park on a spot known as Area H, along the northeastern edge of Redwood Shores. So far, the recycled water system approved by the council in 2004 has been used entirely for irrigation at office parks. But even though no decisions have been made about using the treated sewage water in Area H, residents and former members of a recycled water task force are lining up to voice concerns about using it at the park or school. San Mateo Times 1/05/07
With the 2008 growing season fast approaching, farmers are worried about the development of new federal biological opinions that will guide water deliveries and impact the Klamath Basin region's agriculture for the next 10 years. The U.S. Bureau of Reclamation recently released a final biological assessment, which evaluates the potential effects of the proposed operation of the bureau's Klamath Water Project on listed species under the Endangered Species Act. The agency determined that the operation of the project may affect the threatened coho salmon found there and the time frame for the final biological opinion is from April 1, 2008, through March 31, 2018. California Farm Bureau Federation 1/02/07
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