In one of the largest sewage spills into San Francisco Bay in recent years, 2.7 million gallons poured into the Bay during Thursday night's storm after a Marin County treatment plant overflowed. A manager with the San Francisco Bay Regional Water Quality Control Board estimated the spill still contained the equivalent of up to 80,000 gallons of raw sewage. The same plant was hit with a $12,000 fine in November from state water quality officials after failing to demonstrate that its treatment plant could handle the capacity required in its permit. CC Times 2/02/08
Local fishers saw doom in a report released Tuesday warning that the Sacramento River's fall chinook salmon population fell by two-thirds in 2007 and is headed for collapse, according to data from the federal government. The sharp drop in chinook, or "king" salmon returning from the Pacific Ocean to spawn in the Sacramento River led the Pacific Fishery Management Council, which released Tuesday's report, to suggest in a memo that it may be necessary to close the salmon season entirely. CC Times 2/03/08
Two major hamburger chains and dozens of school districts around the nation have banned meat from a Chino slaughterhouse after a video showed workers brutalizing sick and crippled cows, officials said Friday. Altogether, more than 150 school districts in California, Arizona, Hawaii, Utah, Montana, Minnesota, Washington and other states have stopped using ground beef from Hallmark Meat Packing Co. and its associated Westland Meat Co. until completion of a federal investigation. CC Times 2/04/08
Ghirardelli grew 37 percent in 2007, the Nielsen marketing research firm reports, and part of the reason is a line of intense dark bars. Along with specialty chocolate, dark chocolate is driving the growth of America's $16 billion chocolate industry, according to the editor-in-chief of Candy Industry magazine. While Ghirardelli's dark chocolate line does well, the company's most popular item is its filled squares, which launched in 1999. CC Times 2/03/08
State water cops over the next few years plan to order Delta farmers to file reports on their farms and runoff - orders which, if ignored, could lead to fines of up to $1,000 per day, according to documents from the Central Valley Regional Water Quality Control Board. Most farmers avoided this scenario by joining coalitions under the state's controversial "ag waiver" program, which started in 2003. The program - currently being challenged in court by environmentalists - allows coalitions to keep tabs on water quality in select locations. Record Net 2/01/08
Despite a state law passed more than a decade ago requiring communities to fluoridate their tap water, Livermore remains the largest city in the East Bay that doesn't use the additive. Livermore weighed in on the matter twice during the 1950s. Both times, voters opted to eschew the treatment. The 1995 law requiring fluoridation stipulates that cities with more than 10,000 water connections -- or about 25,000 people -- add the element if it is financially feasible. CC Times 2/04/08
Scientists from Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory’s Program for Climate Model Diagnosis and Intercomparison in collaboration with Scripps Institution of Oceanography have pinpointed the cause of diminishing water flow in California: humans. By looking at air temperatures, river flow and snowpack over the last 50 years, the team determined that the human-induced increase in greenhouse gases has seriously affected the water supply in the West. Science Daily 2/01/08
Japan on Friday warned China that its reputation was on the line as companies rushed to recall Chinese-made food after hundreds of Japanese said they fell ill from dumplings. AP 2/01/08
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