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Alex Breitler
A native of Benicia, he lives in Stockton with his wife, Ann (a Record copyeditor who fixes all of his mistakes). He has been writing mostly about natural resources since 2003, first in Redding and now in Stockton. He is on the lookout for a giant ... Read FullCategories
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Author Archives: Alex Breitler
Alex Breitler
The real water wars
A while back, On the Public Record complained about widespread use of the term ”water war” to describe what’s going on in California and the San Joaquin Valley.
I agree. Although I cannot claim that I’ve never used the term myself.
In cleverly crafted bureaucratese, OTPR wrote that what’s going on now is “an extended, complicated, multi-party conflict over resource [...]
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Delta counties are not ‘obstructionists,’ supervisor says
Larry Ruhstaller remembers when representatives from the five Delta counties visited U.S. Sen. Dianne Feinstein late last year during a lobbying trip to D.C.
They were pleading their case to the senior senator when she interrupted.
“She said, ‘It’s the law. Get over it and get involved,’” Ruhstaller, a San Joaquin County supervisor, told legislators during a Delta oversight [...]
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LAO: Legislature should audit DWR’s bond spending
While there’s a lot of talk about the $11.1 billion water bond on the November ballot, the general public may not realize that Department of Water Resources has already been on the receiving end of over $15 billion in bond funds over the past decade. Of that sum, several billion are still available, according to a [...]
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‘Save the salamanders’
The Fish and Game Commission listed the California tiger salamander as a threatened species this week.
Watch this parody. Spoiler: Guy in amphibian suit solicits signatures for a ‘Save the Salamanders’ petition outside a FoodMaxx.
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‘Bubble car’ owner was a classic
I was sorry to see a death notice in the paper for Carol Lee Dooley, whom I met on a cold December morning in 2007 at her north Stockton apartment.
Carol drove a way-cool “bubble car” which, as my story pointed out, “measures 99 inches bumper to bumper, tops out at 25 mph and resembles a golf [...]
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Snow surveys already out of date
The snowpack in California is above normal, the Department of Water Resources reported today. Central Sierra Nevada numbers are lagging, but that may be because of the timing of snow surveys in our area.
And of course, it’s dumping today. These numbers were likely ancient history long before they were announced.
As usual, the amount of water stored in [...]
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Snow: Delta council appointments are ‘imminent’
At last week’s Delta Protection Commission meeting, California Secretary for Resources Lester Snow said appointments to the seven-member Delta Stewardship Council should be coming sometime this week.
It’s unclear which day.
We already know one of the members — Sacramento County Supervisor Don Nottoli, who will serve on the Council by virtue of his position as chair [...]
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Where beats collide
Dan Parises, the longtime Delta College trustee who sat at the dais from 1975 until 2008, wants to dive back into public service. This time, it’s water.
Parises, 73, served as a San Joaquin County supervisor from 1971-1975 and was once a member of the county’s Advisory Water Commission. And he’s been growing grapes since he was 15, [...]
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‘They just think it’s too big’
Jonas Minton of the enviro group Planning and Conservation League told the audience at Monday’s UOP water forum that the state and water exporters should consider building one small tunnel, rather than two large ones, to convey water past the Delta.
The plan right now is to focus analysis on two tunnels, each capable of carrying 7,500 [...]
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