CP&DR

Catellus, Conservancy Make Big Deal Over Desert Land

Jan 1, 1999

Environment Watch, Larry Sokoloff, Vol. 14 No. 01 Jan 1999

A major land deal to preserve thousands of acres of Southern California desert land is in the works between a land conservation organization and the Catellus Corporation. Acquisition of the land is considered as significant for Southern California as the Headwaters Forest acquisition has been in Northern California. U.S. Senator Dianne Feinstein threw her support behind the proposal in mid-December. Feinstein, a longtime supporter of efforts to create two national parks and a national prese...

Santa Cruz Pushes Lumber Rules

Jan 1, 1999

CP&DR Staff, Environment Watch, Vol. 14 No. 01 Jan 1999

Santa Cruz Lumber Rules Santa Cruz County supervisors are clamping down hard on the logging industry, and have approved "in concept" new ordinances that limit logging near residences, helicopter harvesting, and logging near riparian corridors. The ordinances are expected to be presented to the state Board of Forestry next year as proposed rules that would impact only Santa Cruz County. The county is one of a handful of California coastal counties that have special authority to propose rules to the ni...

Forest Service Sued Over Management of SoCal Forests

Dec 1, 1998

Environment Watch, Larry Sokoloff, Vol. 13 No. 12 Dec 1998

The U.S. Forest Service could be forced to make changes in its land-use planning for four forests it manages in Southern California as a result of a lawsuit that charges the service hasn't properly considered preserving the 40 federally endangered and threatened species of plants and animals that live there. Until the Forest Service takes those species into account, the suit is asking a federal court to stop such activities as livestock grazing, mining, off-road vehicle use, road building, land ...

Riverside County Exempts Builders

Dec 1, 1998

CP&DR Staff, Environment Watch, Vol. 13 No. 12 Dec 1998

In Riverside County, the county supervisors have never been big fans of federal endangered species regulations. So it should be no surprise that the board recently granted individual home builders a exemption basically excusing them from complying with those regulations. But the supervisors were forced to rescind those regulations once a judge ruled against them.. The issue arose in the southwestern part of the county, home to the Quino checkerspot butterfly, which last year was listed as an endangere...

Wetlands Issues Raised Over Lake in Calaveras County

Nov 1, 1998

Environment Watch, Larry Sokoloff, Vol. 13 No. 11 Nov 1998

Lake Tulloch Shores is one of the few large lakes in California where homes can be built on the water's edge, even into the water. While it sounds like a vacation paradise, it's been a planning nightmare. Until recently, the Calaveras County lake was a place where environmental impact reports weren't done and federal wetlands permits weren't required. Now, the Army Corps of Engineers is required that some — but not all — of the lake's property owners retroactively obtain federal wetlands pe...

Revision of CEQA Guidelines Near Completion

Oct 1, 1998

Environment Watch, Larry Sokoloff, Vol. 13 No. 10 Oct 1998

After a long and contentious effort, the Wilson administration has submitted final revisions of the state's California Environmental Quality Act Guidelines to the Office of Administrative Law. OAL will now review them and decide before the end of October which revisions to approve. The final revisions include some of the most controversial guideline changes, which have been strongly opposed by some environmental groups and Democratic legislators. But the final shape of the revisions is far fr...

State Helps MWD, San Diego Make Deal

Sep 1, 1998

Environment Watch, Larry Sokoloff, Vol. 13 No. 09 Sep 1998

A deal permitting the San Diego County Water Authority to move forward with the purchase of 200,000 acre-feet of water per year from the Imperial Valley appears likely to move forward. On August 31, the last day of the session, the legislature appropriated $235 million in state funds to help the Metropolitan Water District of Southern California obtain additional water for itself- a necessary pre-condition that MWD had demanded for the San Diego deal to go through. The $235 million would be used mostl...

Battle Over Dam in Monterey

Aug 1, 1998

Environment Watch, Larry Sokoloff, Vol. 13 No. 08 Aug 1998

For twenty years, water planning on the Monterey Peninsula has been in a stalemate, as local voters have turned down proposals to increase the water supply in the region. Now, a bill moving through the legislature may finally bring resolution to the matter - or complicate things further. The bill, AB 1182, by Assemblyman Fred Keeley, D-Santa Cruz, would require a special election to choose between either building a dam on the Carmel River or moving forward with a plan developed by the Public Util...

Unocal Reaches Deal on Avila Beach

Jul 1, 1998

Environment Watch, Larry Sokoloff, Vol. 13 No. 07 Jul 1998

In a major victory for environmentalists, Unocal has agreed to a settlement that will clean up 400,000 gallons of petroleum contamination in Avila Beach, an unincorporated area south of San Luis Obispo. The June settlement is being called the largest Proposition 65 settlement in state history and is believed to be the first time a company has been forced to remove contamination and rebuild a community. "This is the biggest cleanup since Love Canal," said Richard Drury, legal director of th...

Reinventing Funding for Parks and Open Space

Jun 1, 1998

Environment Watch, Larry Sokoloff, Vol. 13 No. 06 Jun 1998

Proposition 13 and its progency - the most recent being Propositon 218 - didn't just limit California's taxes. They also sent a message that some of California's citizens wanted to rein in government activity of all kinds - and one of the major areas affected has been spending for parks and open space. With the passage of the original initiative in 1978, parks and open space suddenly fell low on the spending list for both state and federal governments - far behind such needs as public safety, edu...

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