Press "Enter" to skip to content

Posts published by “Will Parrish”

California’s Failed Water System

In a decision bursting with symbolism, the California State Water Resources Control Board recently announced its intention to draw down the main water supply reservoir for a half-million people who live just outside of the state capitol to only 12% of capacity by September 30. Lake Folsom on the American River — the main water source for Roseville, Folsom, and other Sacramento suburbs — will plummet to 120,000 acre-feet by that date, according to a forecast by the water board, which announced the plan at an unusually lively Sacramento workshop on June 24.

California’s Cap-and-Trade Program

California has arguably taken stronger legislative steps to address climate change than any state in the union. Assembly Bill 32 mandates that the state reduce carbon dioxide emissions to 1990 levels by 2020. An executive…

Pot Bad, Wine Good

Let's begin with some Q&A. In the 1990s, runaway cultivation of a mind-altering cash crop led to a spate of illegal surface water diversions from the streams and springs that feed the Russian River, as…

Turning Water Into Wine

The unregulated expansion of California’s wine industry into the state’s coastal regions is depleting groundwater supplies and devastating rivers and fisheries. Along the border of Sonoma and Napa counties, roughly seven miles northeast of Santa…

Too Many Straws In the Russian

On April 21st, officials with the California Department of Fish and Wildlife and the State Water Resources Control Board sent joint letters to property owners in four of the Russian River's largest tributaries imploring them…

-