Articles

The Long saga of Owens Valley Gets Another Chapter
The Long saga of Owens Valley Gets Another Chapter

Sep 1, 2000

Environment Watch, John Krist, Vol. 15 No. 09 Sep 2000

If you had traveled north through the Owens Valley before 1924, just past the hamlet of Olancha, you would have come upon an amazing site: a large blue lake in the middle of a high desert landscape. Wedged between the snowcapped escarpment of the Sierra Nevada on the west and the equally imposing mass of the Inyo Mountains to the east, Owens Lake was 15 miles long, 10 miles wide and 30 feet deep. Its saline waters contrasted strikingly with the rugged peaks and arid hills, and supp...
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Litigation Likely Regarding New Federal Fish Regulations
Litigation Likely Regarding New Federal Fish Regulations

Aug 1, 2000

Environment Watch, John Krist, Vol. 15 No. 08 Aug 2000

A day before his agency issued sweeping regulations to protect threatened salmon and steelhead in California, Oregon, Idaho and Washington, Will Stelle was matter-of-fact about the likely reaction: litigation. As northwest regional administrator for the National Marine Fisheries Service, he's been in the hot seat for years as the region has struggled to reverse the devastation visited upon native fish species by dams, farming, urban development, road construction, logging, water diversions, and co...
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Sludge War Pits Rural Kern County Against South State Cities
Sludge War Pits Rural Kern County Against South State Cities

Jul 1, 2000

Environment Watch, John Krist, Vol. 15 No. 07 Jul 2000

Each day, a parade of trucks heads north out of the Southern California metropolis, grinding over the Tehachapis and descending into Kern County, one of the state's premier agricultural regions. The convoy is nearly a mirror image of the truck traffic heading the other way laden with commodities grown in the fertile Central Valley. There is an important difference, however. Whereas the southbound trucks, bearing oranges, tomatoes, almonds, carrots, cotton and other valued products, are we...
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Consumers Gag on L.A.'s Toilet-to-Tap Program
Consumers Gag on L.A.'s Toilet-to-Tap Program

Jun 1, 2000

Environment Watch, John Krist, Vol. 15 No. 06 Jun 2000

For the past decade, the Los Angeles Department of Water and Power has been preparing to tap a significant new supply of water to help meet demand in its growing service area. Yet, after investing $55 million in a pipeline and related facilities, the DWP put the project on hold in late April, just days before it was to begin operation. The reason was a loud, albeit belated, public outcry about the source of that new water: the Donald C. Tillman Water Reclamation Plant, which treats munic...
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