California's drought crept in slowly, but it could end with a torrent of winter storms that stream across the Pacific, dumping much of the year's rain and snow in a few fast-moving and potentially catastrophic downpours. Powerful storms known as atmospheric rivers, ribbons of water vapor that extend for thousands of miles, pulling moisture from
Oversight of genetically modified crops in Hawaii remains the state’s kuleana, a federal judge ruled Wednesday when invalidating Hawaii County’s law restricting the use of transgenic plants. The ruling by U.S. Magistrate Judge Barry Kurren was in line with another decision he made in August overturning Kauai County’s law on pesticides and modified crops. In
More than two-thirds of California voters authorized the state to borrow more than $7 billion to improve a water system strained by more than three years of drought. Now the difficult job of smartly targeting problems and effectively implementing projects is beginning. With that huge amount of money on the table, many government and non-governmental
They are building the Carlsbad Desalination Project, which will convert as much as 56 million gallons of seawater each day into drinking water for San Diego County residents. The project, with a price tag of $1 billion, is emerging from the sand like an industrial miracle. In California’s highly regulated coastal zone, it took nearly
When overworked Silicon Valley innovators retreated to the Nevada desert a week ago for the annual Burning Man festival, some met an unexpected reveler. There, among the drug-infused performance art, stood a buttoned-down policy wonk from Washington preaching small government to the Bay Area creative class. Grover Norquist, president of Americans for Tax Reform, challenged left-coasters
The Poseidon desalination plant in Carlsbad is set to deliver a new source of water for San Diego County when it’s completed late next year, but it will be a limited portion of the region’s water menu for years to come. The facility is one of three local projects that are scheduled to provide desalinated
This is a desalination plant -- a pilot project, started up this summer and doing what no similar plant has been able to do yet on the Valley's west side. It's filtering crop drainage water laden with enough contamination to sterilize the ground or foul a river. Underwritten by the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation, the
On life support just a few months ago, California's bullet train has been resuscitated. Last week, demolition began in Fresno to clear the way for the first stretch of track. More significantly, private investors across the country and abroad are expressing new interest in bankrolling part of the $68 billion project. The lawsuits that have
Mainstream companies are carefully — and much more quietly — calibrating their non-GMO strategies. General Mills' original plain Cheerios are now GMO-free, but the only announcement was in a company blog post in January. And you won't see any label on the box highlighting the change. Grape Nuts, another cereal aisle staple, made by Post, is
California agricultural catastrophe could start with a single handkerchief. In the hands of a clever terrorist, the handkerchief could be contaminated with the foot-and-mouth disease virus, then dropped in a pen of livestock. Cattle, which are curious by nature, would soon start sniffing the handkerchief, potentially creating a ground zero for one of the most feared