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What Happens to Water Runoff When It Rains?
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California cities work to capture a much-needed water supply from urban runoff after rain storms.
A wide, top-down view of the Sacramento-San Joaquin River Delta.
A discrimination complaint filed by Native American tribes and environmental justice groups alleges that California State Water Resources Control Board has failed to protect water quality in the Bay-Delta. The EPA is investigating.
Two clear beakers with orange plastic caps sit side to side on a table, one labeled "CLEANED WASTEWATER" and the other "AFTER REVERSE OSMOSIS"
California water officials have proposed a plan to increase the amount of drinking water available by recycling wastewater from the sewage system.
The interior of a home shows damage from a flood, which ripped out drywall several feet above the floor. Buckets, mops, brooms and cords are strewn about in the cleanup process.
Cascading climate disasters and unjust labor and immigration policies leave undocumented Indigenous farmworkers from Mexico without a safety net.
The water level is visibly low in the foothills behind a concrete dam, with some trees and greenery visible in the front and mountains in the distance under a cloud-streaked blue sky.
Hydropower loss during the California drought added 121 million metric tons of carbon emissions over 20 years — about the same as putting 1.3 million more cars on the road.
Tilted solar panels stand at eye level on desert terrain in the middle of a solar array, as radiating heat distorts the air above them.
Utility-scale solar farms spreading rapidly across the California desert are stressing the region’s already overtaxed groundwater—and communities are beginning to push back.
Craggy brown and white deposits rise up from the middle of a glassy lake under a dramatic sky streaked with pink and purple clouds
Advocates are pressuring California state water officials to halt diversions from Mono Lake's tributaries to Los Angeles, which has used a small but significant amount of this clean mountain water for decades.
A white bird with a long neck and yellow feet soars low over a grassy area with a strip of water running through it
As a result of the latest Supreme Court ruling, more than half U.S. wetlands could lose protection under the Clean Water Act.
A man steps onto a Metro bus from a flooded sidewalk and street in the rain
With extreme weather incidents increasing due to climate change, California is now grappling with an atmospheric river that's bringing "bomb cyclone"-level rainfall to our parched landscape — thanks to drought conditions that are several years in the making. And that's a recipe for dangerous flooding.
Workers wearing protective gear are surrounded by pipes at a desalination plant
After rejecting a controversial proposal for a desalination plant in Huntington Beach, the state Coastal Commission has just greenlit another in Dana Point at Doheny State Beach. While environmentalists raised concerns, the commission calls it a well-planned project.
Ocean water enters through an intake on the shores of Agua Hedionda Lagoon in Carlsbad. Seawater is drawn into the pump stations and transported to Poseidon Water’s Claude Lewis Carlsbad Desalination Plant to begin the desalination process.
As Southern California goes through an extreme drought, desalination plants have become a bigger part of the conversation. These facilities, however, are controversial, seen by many as harmful to marine ecosystems, too expensive, and too energy intensive compared to other water conservation approaches.
LA River
Los Angeles county approved an LA River Master Plan that will develop a variety of projects over the next several years, including a land bank to buy affordable housing along the river. The five supervisors backed the River and Land Bank plans despite environmental and community groups pulling their support for it the day before.
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