Monthly Archives: June 2008

Outta here

By Alex Breitler | Published: June 27, 2008 | Comments closed
I’ll be escaping the next couple of days to the one place where the smoke shouldn’t be a problem: tiny Asa Lake, at about 8,500 feet in the Carson Iceberg Wilderness. We planned this trip months ago. What great timing for our first backpacking excursion of the season. Happy trails!  
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More fun with the Peripheral Canal

By Alex Breitler | Published: June 26, 2008 | Comments closed
State bureaucrats came to town tonight to talk water and peripheral canal. Cue the fireworks, nine days early. A panel of mostly government folks took questions for more than two hours from a largely antagonistic audience of about 60-70 farmers, local water authorities and enviros. It was billed as a town hall meeting, a real roll-up-your-sleeves, open government [...]
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This one’s for the dogs

By Alex Breitler | Published: June 25, 2008 | Comments closed
It was searing hot on Saturday for the dedication of Stockton’s newest park — Barkleyville. But there were still a few dozen people and dogs who showed up. If you drive by the park at dusk on a hot day, you’ll see a LOT more going on… frisbee-tossing, ball-catching, tail-chasing, the whole works. Yup, that’s [...]
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Wednesday night smackdown

By Alex Breitler | Published: June 24, 2008 | Comments closed
Anti-peripheral canal advocates are mobilizing for a town hall meeting Wednseday night in Stockton, hosted by state officials who are planning a peripheral canal — or, as they call it, “isolated conveyance” — as one fix for the Delta’s troubles. The anti-canal crowd, obviously, doesn’t see a fix here. Although they’d certainly argue that the process [...]
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Spin and grin

By Alex Breitler | Published: June 21, 2008 | Comments closed
Journos are often accused of spinning stories, accepting some facts while ignoring others. Sometimes it’s true. But how about our sources? They are the real spin experts. The Center for Biological Diversity and Earthjustice, two environmental groups, sent out a letter Thursday criticizing San Joaquin Valley air cops for their plans to address greenhouse gases. Your typical press release. But [...]
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Waste not, want not

By Alex Breitler | Published: June 19, 2008 | Comments closed
Check out this story today from a colleague just up Interstate 5, the Sac Bee’s Matt Weiser. Despite our area’s perpetual opposition to sending water to Southern California, the Sacramento metropolitan region “has so neglected water conservation that it now ranks as one of the world’s most extravagant consumers of water,” the story says. Sac County residents use on average 265 [...]
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Lessons learned?

By Alex Breitler | Published: June 17, 2008 | Comments closed
The Christian Science Monitor reports this morning on the terrible floods in the Midwest, and the likelihood that these disasters will become more frequent in future because of population growth and development in the flood plain. Sound familiar? Levees have given people a false sense of security, the story says, adding that in many cases homeowners don’t [...]
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Dear ol’ Dad

By Alex Breitler | Published: June 16, 2008 | Comments closed
A Father’s Day tribute to a cool dude who got me started on this natural resources kick…. my Dad.   Make a Smilebox free ecard
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Little water, lots of spending

By Alex Breitler | Published: June 13, 2008 | Comments closed
Not much water to go around this summer — not much money in state coffers, either – but the state Department of Water Resources bureaucracy is only getting bigger, according to this story in the Sac Bee. DWR has doubled its rate of hiring this year, the story says, expanding its payroll from 2,368 full-time positions to [...]
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Pollution cops strike

By Alex Breitler | Published: June 12, 2008 | Comments closed
Four of the nation’s largest homebuilders — including LA-based KB Homes, with developments in Stockton and Lathrop — agreed this week to pay a $4.3 million settlement to resolve charges that they violated the Clean Water Act. The companies reportedly did not get the permits they needed to build on land, or violated the conditions of [...]
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