Water Weekly 3: there is nothing retireing about this
Here are this week’s top three water stories, as compiled by the media-addicted water wonks at Laer Pearce & Associates. You’ll find the Big Three here every Thursday, or you can follow LPAWater on Twitter for up-to-the-minute news and analysis or subscribe to our e-blasts to receive the Weekly 3 directly.
1. There’s Nothing Retiring About This
Public Records Act requests are hitting water districts like Delta smelt hitting the diversion gates at Tracy. Ever since the LA Times used Robert “the Rat” Rizzo to break the public employ compensation story, reporters are asking how much administrators and board members receive in salaries, benefits and retirement. The big story this week is that the big story is coming soon, and we’ve been helping districts prep for upcoming interviews. Here is a bit of the chum that has the sharks swirling:
Read how pensions color a rate controversy here
Read about OC’s six-figure retirees here
2. Go fish! Listing to Bring More Water Supply Woes
Last Friday, a federal appeals court ruled that Central Valley populations of steelhead trout were, in fact, properly listed as threatened species, rejecting a challenge by five Central Valley water districts. The districts, concerned about the listing’s impact on water deliveries, argued steelhead are the same species as abundant rainbow trout, which is true, but the judge said they behave differently, so the listing is legit. Let’s not try to draw any human comparisons, shall we?
Read the Stockton Record article here
3. When Teeth Go to Pot
Up Watsonville way, it’s easy to buy a hydroponics system to keep your marijuana plants healthy, and it’s not uncommon to catch a whiff of a certain sickly-sweet smoky odor along the funky downtown streets. So THC – the active chemical in marijuana – is hunky dory … but fluoride is not, since Watsonville citizens voted in 2002 to prohibit its use in local water supplies. Now, amidst an epidemic of tooth decay, the state has cited the city for failure to comply with its fluoridation law.
Read the Register Pajaronian story here
Tags: bell, central valley, environmentalist, flouride, pentions, public records, rizzo, steelhead trought
This entry was posted on Thursday, August 26th, 2010 at 2:53 pm and is filed under Environment, Politics, Uncategorized, Water, Weekly 3, communication. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.
